Chapter 10

MEGAN PACED BACK and forth in front of her sisters, ranting. “I just don’t understand what happened. How could he see me? It’s not that he didn’t believe me this time. It’s that he literally could see me, but how could he when even I couldn’t see myself? I mean I could, but I could also see the spell lying on top of my skin and clothes, making me invisible. How did this happen? Now he really thinks I’m crazy!” 

Lara grinned. “So now you care what he thinks?”  

“Of course I care, especially if you’re right and he’s my true mate.” 

“So you’re admitting to the possibility?” Jessica asked. 

Megan rolled her eyes. “It’s not likely, but I’m not ruling it out yet. Though maybe I should since he’s now convinced I’m completely off my rocker.” 

“Well, we’ll just have to keep trying,” Jessica said. 

“Keep trying what?” 

“To convince them we’re witches, of course,” Lara exclaimed. 

“And how are we going to do that?” 

“Stick to the plan,” Jessica ordered. “We’re going to convince those stubborn wolves and cougars that witches exist and we’re three of the best.”

* * *

It wasn’t a bad plan, in theory, Megan later conceded. In practice, though, it was one hundred percent flawed. 

Cole showed up at their store every day to spend time with Megan. Sometimes they went to breakfast at the diner where Phoenix also worked and sometimes he brought a picnic lunch and they hiked to their waterfall to eat there. During those times, he deliberately didn’t ask questions about her magic and she didn’t offer any more demonstrations. 

Instead, they focused on getting to know each other, though Megan fretted their entire romance was a doomed experiment since she was deliberately leaving out anything to do with magic and spell-casting, both of which represented the majority of who she was. Even worse, the more time she spent with Cole, the more she wanted him to be her true mate.

Megan tried desperately not to think about the spell her sisters had cast and how all of this – his feelings for her, his desire to be with her and to get to know her and even his willingness to ignore, at least during the day, what he considered to be her crazy, witchy ways – might be doomed to die as soon as the spell wore off. 

They lived in a bubble during the day, pursuing their romance as if the worries that plagued them both didn’t exist. 

And they didn’t.

Especially not when Cole spent hours kissing her breathless and making her entire body ache with desire.

Nor when he held her hand as they wandered through the woods.

Nor when he kissed her so sweetly behind the waterfall’s curtain, the droplets of water sizzling against her hot and aching flesh.

And certainly not when he trusted her enough to show her his cougar for the first time and they played in the shallows of the river, chasing and splashing each other for hours before collapsing on the banks to nap together, her head cushioned on the soft pelt of his side.

Day after day, she became more and more enamored of him, more convinced than ever that he truly was meant for her. That everything would work out because there was no way it couldn’t, not when his every breath, every touch, every kiss made her feel as if she might burst into flames at any moment. Not when his sweet, playful, caring nature had her heart aching with love.

This was what she knew during those endless, beautiful days – they were meant for each other. 

But then evening always came and with it the quest to convince the bullheaded wolves and cougars that magic was real.

Megan was starting to dread the evenings at Shenanigans, for every time they failed, she worried she was wrong about her romance with Cole. She worried it was nothing but a false construct, held in place only by the power of her sisters’ spell.

Though Cole never said anything, just let his buddies do the talking, Megan could sense his disappointment. She couldn’t decide if he was disappointed because of her sisters’ failure to convince his friends or because of his friends’ failure to convince them. She was afraid it was the latter. 

Then Lara noticed the shifters’ betting board and things got a lot more intense. Suddenly, her sisters were tossing spells around like magic was going out of style and things were getting seriously out of hand.

First, Travis discovered all his bottles of scotch were filled with water. He’d stomped over and lectured the women about messing with his livelihood. Lara had laughed, but Jessica had apologized and solemnly waved a hand, restoring the scotch. 

Of course, all his bottles were open at that point, which meant he refused to sell any other drinks but scotch for five nights in a row, which got all the wolves and cougars riled up. And of course, they blamed the sisters. 

The weirdest part, though, was the wolves’ and cougars’ refusal to believe the sisters had used magic to switch out the liquids.

“You have to stop sneaking into this bar and causing problems,” Dan lectured Jessica.

Jessica glared at him and snapped, “I’ve never sneaked anywhere in my life, you snake.”

She then tried to cast a spell on him, but something happened to the magic and it ping-ponged around the room, knocking over beer bottles and collapsing chairs before zipping back to Jessica and leaving her silent for the rest of the night. 

“I don’t know what happened,” she admitted to Megan later. “I cast a simple silencing spell on him. It should have made him unable to speak for an hour at most. Instead my magic just created some havoc and then silenced me for more than four hours!”

“Something weird’s definitely going on,” Lara agreed. 

“Maybe we should stop using our magic until we figure it out,” Megan said.

“No way,” Jessica said. “I’m going to convince that stupid cougar if it’s the last thing I do.”

Of course, Megan was starting to worry that might actually be a possibility. She was beginning to see that her sisters were as stubborn as those cougars and wolves.

The next night, Lara’s simple levitation spell, something they’d all mastered around the age of three, collapsed the table they were sitting at, something she told her sisters happened against the will of her magic. She wasn’t even upset at the men’s insistence the collapse was caused by a loose bolt because she was so unnerved by the feel of her magic’s rebellion.

This was becoming the most disturbing thing about their inability to prove their casting skills to the men. Their magic just wasn’t acting as it should.

Even worse, on the few occasions their castings (or the castings of others) worked perfectly – the never-ending bottle of Witches’ Brew, the unexpected snowstorm in the middle of summer, the bar’s spray nozzle that went crazy and sprayed everyone sitting at the bar – the men refused to believe magic was the cause. Instead, they had a logical explanation for all of it – illusion, climate change, a malfunctioning trigger. 

“I’m starting to think it’s that place,” Lara said sullenly. 

“It can’t be Shenanigans,” Megan said. “We’ve been able to cast there.”

“Badly!” Lara exclaimed.

“Yes, but sometimes our casting works just fine, and that’s not the point anyway. Magic does work inside the bar. It’s just–”

“Warped?” Lara asked.

Megan growled. “It doesn’t matter that the magic warps sometimes. It’s still magic! The problem’s that–”

“The cougars and wolves are too damn stubborn to recognize magic when they see it?” Jessica asked.

Megan pointed her way. “Exactly.” Bad enough their magic went a little crazy inside the bar – and Megan had a theory about that – but for the men to not even believe what they were seeing was magic, even after everything they’d witnessed, was entirely too frustrating. 

“We need a new plan,” Lara said.

“Yeah,” Jessica agreed. “Our current one sucks.”

* * *

“Our current plan’s not working,” Cole announced to his friends. “The more you guys point out all the logical reasons for why something’s happened, the more Megan’s sisters dig in their heels and insist it’s their magic. And even though Megan doesn’t say a word, I can tell she agrees with them.”

Pete chuckled. “Yeah, they’re all pretty stubborn.”

“I just don’t understand why they’re so insistent. It’s like they’ve been brainwashed.” Cole was at his wit’s end. “And my cougar no longer cares. He’s just impatient to claim his mate. As far as he’s concerned, she can be as crazy as she wants as long as she accepts us.”

Karl snorted. “That sounds about right.”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “I don’t know a single shifter who’s reasonable about his or her mate.”

“What are you talking about?” Travis called from the bar. “I’m perfectly reasonable about Phoenix. And so’s my bear.”

Phoenix, who happened to be walking by at the moment, stopped, turned and stared at Travis, then looked at the wolves and cougars at the table. 

As one, they all burst into laughter.

Travis scowled.

With a huge grin, Dan reached out, grabbed Phoenix’s hand and with a jerk sent her tumbling into his lap. 

Phoenix shrieked on the way down and then froze and stared at Dan, horrified.

A huge roar echoed through the building and Travis lunged over the bar, claws and fur sprouting as he raced toward them.

Dan hastily set Phoenix back onto her feet and scrambled around the table so that it was between him and a raging Travis.

Phoenix leapt toward Travis and wrapped her arms around his neck, which Cole couldn’t help but notice was suddenly much thicker than usual, and her legs around his waist. 

Cole shook his head, amazed at Dan’s idiocy. Stupid cougar almost made the bartender go full-on bear. 

They couldn’t hear what Phoenix was saying to Travis, but whatever it was, he slowly relaxed and his claws retracted, though his eyes still shone with a predator’s light and were intently fixed on Dan’s crazy face. 

Travis growled at Dan, then turned and stalked away, taking Phoenix with him behind the bar where he continued making drinks, carrying her plastered to him from bottle to bottle.

Dan cleared his throat and slowly walked back around the table to his seat. 

Pete laughed nervously. “Yes, he’s perfectly reasonable about his mate.”

“You’re an idiot,” Cole said to Dan. 

“I know,” Dan said. “I thought it’d be funny, but really it was quite terrifying.”

Cole grinned and then chuckled a little. “Well, it was kind of funny. I mean I’ve never seen that bear move so fast.”

“Or Dan,” Max said dryly.

Everyone laughed.

“Yes, yes, quite funny.” Glory stopped at their table and glared at them, hands on hips. “Because it’s always a good idea to rile up our black bear bartender.”

Dan held his hands up in surrender. “Learned my lesson. Won’t be doing that again.”

“None of this is helping Cole,” Karl said. “What do you think he should do, Glory?”

Cole glared at Karl. He didn’t need Glory’s insane input. She actually believed his mate was a witch. Or at least she was pretending to. He wasn’t sure which it was.

“What’s the problem now?” Glory asked.

“The humans still insist they’re witches, even though they have yet to prove they can cast spells,” Karl said.

“Or wield magic,” Dan said.

“Or whatever else witches are supposed to be able to do,” Pete said.

Glory just stared at them. “Maybe you should let the women know exactly what you would accept as proof of magic since it seems to me they’ve managed to show you quite a few things already.”

“Like what?” Cole asked.

“How about Karl’s hair?”

Everyone turned and stared at Karl whose hair had been purple since Tuesday.

Karl huffed. “That wasn’t magic!”

“Yeah, a bucket of paint spilled all over him,” Pete said. 

“And where exactly did that paint come from?” Glory asked. “Because I’ve been asking around and literally no one remembers bringing purple paint into the bar.”

“That’s my point,” Cole said. “It’s almost like they’re running a scam.”

Dan’s eyes flared. “That’s it! Like they sneaked in and loosened the bolts on a bunch of chairs and tables and now they’re just randomly collapsing. We should probably all check our chairs before sitting from now on. Or even better, we should switch chairs with the women when they’re not looking.”

Cole growled. “They might get hurt. They’re only human.”

“So it’s okay for them to do it to us, but not the other way around?” Dan glared at Cole.

Cole bared his fangs.

“Fine,” Dan huffed. “But it makes sense! I bet they also set up the paint and it was just bad luck that Karl was the one who got it in the face.”

“And where’d the can go?” Glory asked.

“Huh?” Cole asked. “What can?”

“The one the paint came from. The paint appeared out of thin air, dumped all over Karl, then nothing. No container or can or bucket could be found. Just paint.”

“They sneaked it back out again, I guess,” Dan said.

“How do you explain the floor?” Glory asked.

“What floor?” Max said.

“Paint comes spilling out of thin air, coats Karl and only Karl and not a drop falls on the floor?”

Everyone turned and stared at the spot where Karl had been painted purple. 

“They must have cleaned it all up,” Dan said stubbornly.

Glory shook her head. “It’s really hard to convince people who refuse to see the truth. What you’re going to have to decide, Cole, is whether or not your own perception of reality is more important than your relationship with your mate.” And with that, she walked away, leaving silence in her wake.

Shit, was she right? Was he just being stubborn, refusing to admit even the possibility that his mate was magic?

“I think this pretty much proves my conclusion,” Dan said. “We need a new plan.”

* * *

“I’m thinking it’s not the bar,” Megan said. “It’s the shifters.”

“Yes, their attitude,” Jessica agreed.

“Not just that. My magic tingles all the time when I’m around them.” Megan raised an eyebrow at her sisters and they both nodded.

“Mine too,” Lara said.

“And mine,” Jessica agreed.

“That’s what I figured. I’m thinking maybe our magic doesn’t work on shifters, at least not the way we expect it to. Think about  it. When you made the hose go haywire, you had no trouble controlling your magic, right, Jessica?”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“And Lara, when you made the paint explode all over Karl’s head–”

“He deserved it,” Lara said hotly. “The way he kept mocking us, saying our little illusion tricks weren’t fooling anyone.”

“I know,” Megan said. “I’m not saying he didn’t. What I’m saying is, you were able to pull a paint can from the shop and manifest it into the bar without any trouble at all.”

“Yeah, but that’s simple magic, barely takes any energy at all,” Lara said.

“Sure, but you weren’t directly casting a spell at a shifter. Instead, you were casting it at the air right above his head.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What spell were you casting when the table collapsed?”

Lara blushed. “I told you. I was just trying to levitate it.”

“I know that’s what you said you were doing, but that doesn’t make any sense. Not with what I’ve figured out. So come on. What was the real spell you were casting?”

“I just figured the easiest way to convince them was to take control of one of them.”

“Oh, Lara, you didn’t.” Megan sighed.

“It was only going to be a tiny bit of control and nothing he didn’t want to do already.”

“Who’d you try to control?” Jessica asked.

“Cole.”

Megan’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t believe her sister had tried to control her mate! 

Great. 

Now she was getting possessive of a man who refused to accept that magic was real.

“I don’t get it,” Jessica said. “How did taking control of Cole make the table collapse?”

“I don’t know,” Lara wailed. “It shouldn’t have been that difficult since I was trying to make him do something he already wanted to do.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “And what exactly was that? And how would you know what he wants to do?”

“He’s your true mate, isn’t he? I mean, of course he wants to kiss you. Probably all the time.”

“And everywhere,” Jessica said dryly.

Megan blushed, then realized what Lara had just admitted. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you tried to force Cole to kiss me?”

“It wouldn’t have been force, Megan. Not when he wants to kiss you anyway.”

“You tried to take away his free will, Lara. That’s not cool.” 

“I know. I just get tired of them acting like we’re crazy. It’s time for them to admit we’re powerful even if we are human.”

“I get it, I really do.” Megan sighed. “The problem is we’re not that powerful when it comes to casting spells on them.”

“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.

“Before you made the paint appear, Lara, what spell did you originally cast?” 

Lara shrugged. “I tried to turn Karl’s hair purple. You know, with a simple color cast, but it’s almost like the spell bounced off him and–”

“Turned on you?” Megan asked.

Lara nodded and fingered a strand of purple hair. “Yeah, which just made me angrier, especially when he laughed and sneered at me. So I pulled the paint from the house instead.”

“And there you go.”

“Wait. So you’re saying I was able to color his hair by casting a paint can into the air above his head, but I couldn’t actually cast his head itself.” 

“Exactly. I’m thinking the buzz we feel when we’re around them is some kind of shifter defense mechanism against our magic.”

“Then how was Cole able to see you when you were invisible?” Jessica asked. “You didn’t cast blindness on him, but invisibility on yourself.”

“Damn.” Megan had completely forgotten about that spell. “I don’t know.”

“I do,” Lara exclaimed. “It’s because he’s your true mate! I’ve been researching the bond, especially when it happens between a witch and a shifter, and it turns out shifters can see past any glamour their true mates cast on themselves. That’s all an invisibility spell is – a glamour that lays on the skin.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “I suppose you think this is more evidence he’s my true mate.”

Lara and Jessica glanced at each other, then nodded.

“You know it could be your stupid spell,” Megan said, “making him think he’s my mate.”

“Yes,” Jessica said dryly. “Because just thinking that would help him see past your veil of invisibility.”

“It could!” Megan said defensively. 

“Whatever,” Jessica said. “Regardless, I think you’re onto something here. And now that I understand what’s been really going on, I have a brilliant plan to prove magic is real once and for all. This time they won’t be able to ignore the evidence.”