A Dangerous Legacy Pt. 05

The door to the basement opened and Julian emerged, cheek smudged by paint. "You're alive," he said with a smile.

Weak as I was, my body still heated at the sight of him, remembering his words that morning. Gods, I hoped he'd be gentle. I felt raw, pleasantly, but I knew in the morning I'd really feel the wear and tear of three men with voracious sexual needs.

"Barely."

He frowned at my food. "You need iron. Trust me, iron and protein are the only way to survive three horny werewolves."

"I'm too tired to cook."

He gave me an oddly guilty look. "Let me make you something, and then I must make a confession."

Julian took my poor food choices save the drink and put them away, pulling out a raw steak, bacon, mushrooms, and some leftovers from the night before. I watched him cut and chop then set the steak to cook as he loaded a plate and set inside the microwave.

"Confession?"

He nodded, ducking beneath his long bangs. "We didn't tell you everything we could this week." He took a deep breath and leaned back against the counter. "We are your servants, that is the agreement between our people. You could treat us as slaves if you wish."

"What?" I had no such wish. Well, maybe for a night it would be nice to have them in loincloths hand-feeding me grapes...hmm- but not all the time.

"For five hundred years we have lived in Alessandra's house. She teats her pack like servants, the way in America's dark days of slavery a house slave might have been treated. Us, she treated like field slaves. Every generation we come for the week trial and every woman figures it out and treats us the same. You never did, and so we didn't want to tell you."

"Wait...did you...all that we..." I couldn't think how to ask it.

He caught my meaning and his green eyes fixed on the yard outside the window. "Not by choice. Always we came as servants to fix and clean and make things. But eventually...what we have done in the past was never our choice, we had no voice in the matter."

I was horrified. Slaves. They were little more than slaves, and now, by some evil intent, they were mine. "I know what it's like...somewhat. To be chained to someone, serving them, to have no life of your own. I escaped that and so long as I live I will never force another person into that fate." He stared at me so long I felt my nerves rise. "What?"

"Since we couldn't discuss the past I didn't know. I assumed- I don't know what I assumed, but every woman of your line lives a life of comfort. All witches do."

I snorted at that, I was no witch. "I was an accident when my mother was barely eighteen, my father was twenty-six and married. She dumped me on his doorstep. It...wasn't good. I never learned about my birth mother until I was thirty. We've barely traded more than forty words between us. And she died before I could forgive her."

He said nothing but walked to me, stood behind my chair and hugged me. "You'll never have to be alone, we will keep you safe. Each and every one of us would give his life for you."

Uncomfortable with the pity I pulled away to kiss his cheek. "Let's not get melodramatic."

He returned to cooking the steak, sensing my mood, I thought. "You'll learn. There are those who wield magic in the name of good and those in the name of evil. We are at war, albeit a cold one. The world requires balance. There are also other things out there who want good to die off. Vowing to protect one another is a very real thing."

"How do you know I'm good?" I asked jokingly.

He smiled in profile. "You passed the tests, you're good. And this week you have made us feel loved, treasured, and more comfortable than we have ever been since...well, ever. No matter what, Anna, you are good."

I hoped so. A war was on and I'd been drafted, I realized at his words. If I had been raised in my mother's house and known Alessandra, perhaps I would have known more. But raised as I'd been I was a survivor, a warrior all my own. This was the first taste of the easy life I'd ever known and it was strange still, not fully comfortable by any means. It was all happening so fast and none of it made sense, but whatever came down the pipe I was going to be prepared, I vowed.

He set down a plate of steak with bacon and mushrooms in wine sauce, a slice of ham, and corn casserole and spinach soufflé. "Thank you, Julian. You are an amazing cook."

"Thank you. Eat up, I'm going to drain you some more. At least we'll have dinner after, before Alessandra returns."

I swallowed a bite of heavenly steak. "What will happen?"

He sat at the kitchen table across from me and snatched a mushroom for himself. He looked like he was all of twenty-three and he was at least a thousand years old. My mind reeled.

"At dusk you will feel the call to change. Andre is an alpha, he'll stop it. Alessandra will perform a ceremony and transfer the magic of your line to you."

I swallowed some spinach and paused. "Will it hurt?"

"At first it will a little. Then...quite the opposite." His eyes glittered, making me curious. I raised an eyebrow but he shook his head. "You'll have to wait and see. Now, when you're ready to submit to my lustful advances, I'll be in my studio."

He left and watching him move, slowly, made me burn anew, though my muscles protested I could not handle much more. Poor baby, I thought of myself suddenly and laughed. If being exhausted from the best sex of my life on constant demand was a hardship, well, I'd take it happily.

I finished my food, played tug with Diego, used the bathroom, and still I felt a little sluggish. But I wanted Julian with my entire being, just as I had wanted the other men, and wanted them still. If I wasn't careful, I could lose myself to this desire, I realized, but another thought came; was that so bad? An eternity of love and pleasure...there were worse fates. And I'd lived them all.