Page 8 of The Witch’s Daughter

He grabbed the bag with his teeth, not bothering to slow his pace. We need to have a serious talk with that witch.

3

Trish

“Was there any particular reason you felt like baking this morning?” Meg asked as we walked downtown, sticking to the sidewalk along the cobblestone Main Street to the heart of Cerberus territory. All square-mile wide of it.

I hugged the basket of cupcakes my mom had whipped up after my disaster, hating myself for her having to save me yet again.

At least you won’t be empty-handed.

“No reason,” I said.

“Not buying it.” Alec walked on my other side. The two of them squished me in, always needling and prodding and generally being pains in the ass. Being a triplet was fun until the logistics played out and you didn’t get any personal space.

“I think you’re up to something,” Alec mused as she caught a lock of my teal hair and held it to the light. “An Alpha-male shaped something.”

“It’s not what you think.” I jerked my head back, freeing my hair from her grasp, and bumped into Meg, who had to step into the street to avoid being knocked over.

Like I said: Love my sisters.

Hated sharing all our space.

It’s probably why Alec insisted on moving to the old haunted Alpha’s mansion, leaving Meg and me to live in the small cabin in our parents’ front yard—the one without a working stove.

And I’d just been forever banned from using Mom’s stove too.

Good thing I can hunt.

“Sure it isn’t…” Alec continued to poke at me. Meg normally would’ve stopped her, but I could tell she was just as interested.

Knowing I had to throw them a bone, I lowered my voice, “It was a spell.”

“What did you say?” Alec cupped her hand over her ear. We all had wolf shifter hearing and could pick up most sounds within a few miles if we really tuned in. She just wanted to make me suffer.

“I was trying to work a spell,” I growled, loud enough for everyone on Main Street to hear, especially the shifters.

“Trish,” Meg warned.

Alec laughed just as old Mrs. Kathryn crossed herself and stepped off the sidewalk into the street, getting far away from me.

“Come on,” I cried as she refused to look my way. “You’re not even religious.”

We weren’t like Amarok pack to the north or any of the more traditional wolf packs that held monthly Luna celebrations and spoke of the old ways. Cerberus was more modern. Probably because Aunt Kera had been younger when she took over the pack, years before we were born, and she’d mated with Alpha Jareth of Anubis, who loved all things ancient technology reborn, like indoor plumbing and solar power.

Or maybe it was because we lived so close to the human city of Ethica where the braver humans left to play tourist, coming to visit the Wild.

That’s where Mom and Aunt Coral had come from, also many years ago. But they weren’t tourists and life was a lot crueler back then. The women in our family were badasses. And they’d passed those traits onto my sisters. Too bad I was the magic black sheep the whole town ran away from.

“It’s the universal sign to ward off bad luck,” Meg explained, like it was any consolation. “Don’t take it personally.”

Joke was on her.

I took it all personally.

But that didn’t mean I let them know it. “We should hurry.” I picked up the pace. “Don’t want to be late for work.”

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