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The Brew came into view soon. The sound of music and laughter penetrating through the music over the radio in my car.
Witches laughed and tumbled about the grounds, their magic hiccupping with amusing mishaps. I chuckled as one of the witches tried to convince her friends she could ride a broom. The humans had made up a funny little rumor about our kind, yet she was convinced she just had to use the right spell to get it off the ground.
“Hey now,” I chuckled as I approached them. “Might want to be careful doing that. Don’t want you ladies getting a DUI tonight.”
They stared at me for a moment before dissolving into giggles as they let the broom fall to the ground.
“Anything for you, Brady!” a brunette girl purred as she stepped ahead of her friends.
I could smell the liquor in her breath as she leaned closer to me. “We didn’t know you were going to be here tonight. Why didn’t someone tell us?”
She pressed her chest out, doing her best to draw my eyes to her exposed cleavage. A year ago, I might have accepted her clear advances. A year ago, she would have only had to brush a finger along my arm for me to open my bed for her and any of the others who might want to join.
But not anymore.
“No one knew I was coming, and I’m not in the market for any company, ladies. You all just be safe and no flying while intoxicated.” I laughed as I walked away, ignoring their disappointed faces as I made my way into the bar.
Stepping inside the bar, the air was immediately filled with the familiar sounds of laughter and conversation. The witches who lived outside of the city often boarded here, while those who lived within the city limits would come out for weekends. It was the only place within the pack and coven that was granted witches only, with the exception of myself, since I was the future leader of the coven. The only reason they got away with the exclusion of shifters was due to the way the wolves had patrolled the bar during Chios’ reign. So, the coven members who still held resentment to the wolves who had wronged them adopted it as a safe haven. It was only the alpha family that they respected, and for my parents, that was all they would ask of the witches.
“They have every right to be angry,” Dad had once explained to Liberty and me. “If all they ask is that the pack stay away from the bar, then that’s fine. The bar had been a haven for me when I needed it. Let it be for them now.”
I breathed in deeply the scent of the old wood and homebrewed beer. A special gift from the owner of the bar who had already spotted me from the moment I walked through the door.
“Brady!” my aunt Betsy cried out. “Come here and let me get a good look at you! Did Miles forget to tell me you were coming for a visit?”
The crowd all parted for me to make my way to Betsy, all nodding respectfully to me as I passed. A few still cast looks at me with uncertainty, but most accepted me as more witch than wolf. It was only those who had been truly brutalized by the Chios pack who still feared the side of me that was a shifter. The side that they could never overlook, even as the pack seemed to dismiss the fact due to my stronger witch side.
“No, this is a complete spur-of-the-moment visit,” I answered as I reached the barstool in front of her.
She smiled, a twinkle in her old eyes. “Ah, I see. You’re having girl problems then.”
I chuckled. “I didn’t know you were psychic, Aunt Betsy.”
“I’m not,” she chuckled. “But that’s a fresh mate mark on your shoulder, and you’re sitting here in my bar without the girl who gave you that mark. So, it must be girl problems that bring you to my barstool.”
My hand moved to my mark, sighed as I found the mark completely exposed. I fixed the collar of my shirt and tapped the bar top in defeat.
“When you’re right, you’re right. Mind if I get a drink before I spill my guts to you?”
Betsy smiled as she poured me a beer, and the scent of elderberry and mint wafted from the frothy brew. I took a sip and sighed at the taste, the mint leaving a fresh after taste as I breathed out the sigh.
“Your uncle will be down any moment now. I’m sure he already has an idea of how to help you. The Fates would have known you’d come to us at some point, I’m sure.” Betsy winked at me as she went on to pour another pint and sat it beside me.
As if summoned by the pouring of the beer alone, my uncle plopped down on the stool beside me and drank the beer as if it were water in the middle of the desert. He smiled brightly at his wife, who shook her head before moving farther down the bar to tend to some patrons whose cups were now empty.
“So,” my uncle said, his green eyes sparkling as he turned to look at me. Gray streaks blended into his red hair, the look often reminding me of a candy cane as I looked at him, and yet still he seemed to hold some youthful glow about his face. “You certainly have a way with words.”
I nearly choked on my ale. I couldn’t help but notice the mischievous glint in my uncle’s eyes as a wide smile spread across his face.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I demanded.
“Who in their right mind reads a spell from a grimoire out loud? Much less a fertility spell while their mate, who has yet to accept them, is sitting right beside them?” Miles let out a hearty laugh, the sound overpowering all the others in the bar and drawing everyone’s attention to the two of us.
I covered my face with my hand, willing the eyes to turn away as I mumbled curses to The Fates for what they had clearly done.
“Please, for the love of Zeus, tell me that’s as far as you saw,” I prayed aloud.
Uncle Miles continued to laugh; his head thrown back as his fists banged against the bar top. “Oh boy, you wish. Don’t worry, I closed my eyes through most of it all. It was the important stuff that I had to see, though.”
