Half-Blood Curse

4 - Sonia's Coven

Lucas woke up with a start. He scrambled on his bed, looking around frantically, but there was no one in the room with him. A part of him had expected to see Gabriel there.

Gabriel.

"Fuck me," Lucas groaned miserably, flopping face-first onto his bed. Maestro yowled in protest, jumped onto his back to show his anger, and then hopped off the bed to go wait for food in the kitchen.

Mates. Fucking mates.

"It isn't possible."

Lucas patted around his messy bed until he felt his phone and pulled it out from under the covers. He realized distantly that it was past noon and he must have been much more tired than he thought. Lucas dialed his mom's number and waited with baited breath. He needed to speak to a shifter, and she was the only one he could trust.

After a few rings, the phone clicked.

"Why are you calling?" She got straight to the point as she always did, uncomfortable being on the phone with him any longer than necessary. He was honestly surprised she answered, but maybe she was feeling charitable after he had saved her alpha.

"Are you alone?" Lucas asked immediately.

"I am right now, what is it?"

"I dream-shared with Gabriel last night."

Dead silence. Lucas felt it like a knife against his throat. If his mom had no way out, then he didn't know what he would do.

"Mom, I don't know what to do."

"Do you still wear those charms? The ones that hide your shifter side?"

"Yes."

"Make new ones. Ones that do the opposite, that enhance your shifter energy and stifle your wizard powers. From now on, you must be a shifter and a shifter alone. You have to come here, and you have to support him. He can't have distractions right now. Your council is trying to murder him-"

"They aren't my council!" he hissed at her, angry she would say something like that. "I have nothing to do with them."

She waited to see if he would say anything else, but he was done.

"You will come here and live as one of us. They won't respect a quarter shifter much, but you are Gabriel's mate, that will account for something."

"Mom, you're being crazy. That will never happen."

"It must happen, Lucas. This is the only way. You will never escape the mating. It isn't done. Mates are fated to be together."

"Why haven't I ever heard of them before, then?"

"There are almost three billion shifters world-wide, and only one of them will be your fated mate. Very few of us ever find them. I can't believe you have enough shifter blood to be anyone's mate, but if you dream-shared, there is no denying it."

"What if my magic did this?" Lucas asked. "What if this is all some misunderstanding and it will fade? Just a remnant of the healing spell I used?"

"Is it your magic?" she asked sharply.

"How am I supposed to know? I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I make up all my runes myself, now, mom. I design them on my own and most of the time they do shit they aren't meant to do. I can't study the real ones."

"Calm down," she ordered. "If it might be your magic, then stay away for now. But you need to be prepared to join us here in Chicago. You'll need pack status to protect you as a quarter shifter. And Gabriel will need you close to keep the mating bond from distracting him. It will get worse soon enough."