Consort - Part One: Willow Cove Shifters - The Pack, #7

By Margeaux Nix

Imagine the connection you would have if you were present when your fated mate be born. That's exactly what happened to me.

 

Everly - Raised as a human I didn't learn that i was anything else until my parents tossed me out of their lives like trash. I spent the next half-century learning my magic. That's when things started to get wierd, or more precisely, my dreams started to get wierd. I started dreaming of a woman in labor. Everytime I had the dream, something major happened in my life. And then, I realized that they aren't dreams. This place, this family, this child...everything exists! The moment Axel is born, the connection between us is unlike anything I've ever felt. Oh yeah. He's the only one that can see or talk to me. What's a witch to do?

 

Axel- I've known Everly my enitre life. Literally, every second of my life has been filled with her warmth, love and friendship. She attended the birth of every one of my parents' children - myself included. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I started to suspect that there was something more to our freaky connection. And the first time our lips touched? I knew. I knew in the depths of my soul what my wolf had been hinting at for years. Everly was meant to be mine. Too bad we can only see each other in our dreams. 

 

Will the goddess finally bring Axel and Everly together? Or will they be doomed to lives separated by time, distance, and dreams?

 

Willow Cove Shifters is a serial following the four Burke siblings in the quest to find and claim their fated mates, with a new part releasing each month of 2022.

Intended for mature audiences 18+ for language and sex.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Margeaux Nix
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201460464

Margeaux Nix

Margeaux Nix is a pen name for my paranormal books. I also write contemporary/erotic romance under the pen name J. Silence.  I never thought I'd like 'shifter' books and then I read one and quickly devoured the entire 10 book series. I was hooked! It didn't take long for me to fall in love with fated mates, alpha heroes and the women that love them.  When I started writing shifters, my intention was 'just one' while another series marinated. A dozen books later, and I can't seem to stop myself! I am a Navy son mom, a teenage girl mom, and a doggo mom to my two rescued writing companions - a lab mix and a border collie mix. I'm also a soon-to-be GG (gorgeous grandma)!

Book preview

Chapter 1

Thirty years ago

Everly

W hat’s wrong with you ? You look like you hardly slept last night? My friend Maya greets me as I join her for our usual sunrise yoga before breakfast with the coven. I need the time to get myself centered and ready for the day. Maya is just an early riser and is one of those strange people that likes to exercise. I’ll never understand that about her. I lay out my mat and slide off my sandals. But Maya doesn’t let me get away with hiding from her. She knows something isn’t right.

She’s not wrong. I’m exhausted. Every time I fell asleep last night, I was inundated with dreams of a woman in labor. I felt her pain, writhed in my sheets as she did. I heard her screams as clear as my own, and when the child was finally born, it was more than just the mother’s relief I felt. There was a connection, a protectiveness for the child that consumed me. It still does. I long to go back to bed and reconnect with him in my dreams so that I can watch over him and make sure that nothing happens. He is important, though can’t begin to fathom why. Rather than confess what happened to my friend, I simply shrug and say, Weird dreams.

I should have known better. Instead of dissuading her from further conversation and allowing us to get on with our days, all it does is catch her attention further. Maya is obsessed with dreams and their meanings. She is sure that every dream has specific meanings and is either a premonition of things to come or memories of events past. I’d chalk it up as just mumbo jumbo, but she’s been right more than she’s been wrong. And by that, I mean she’s never been wrong. Every single person she’s worked with – human or supernatural being – has had similar things to say. I don’t need my friend’s input to know that what happened last night is not just unusual, but significant too.

Talk to me, Ev. You know I can help.

I know and I appreciate that you want to, but I’m just too tired right now. And I have a meeting with Selene later this morning. I need to focus on that.

She looks me over critically but doesn’t argue. She knows I’m already stressed about this meeting and that I’ll just dismiss my dreams as stress. Finally, she relents on a deep sigh, though I suspect that is only a temporary truce on her part. I fully anticipate that she will broach this again when I least expect it. I’ll be thrown so off guard by the topic that I’ll spill every detail to her, whether I’d ever intended to do so or not. But I already know what she’ll say. I’ve heard her interpret dreams often enough to know how to interpret my dreams without her help.

She’ll tell me that the birth I witnessed in my dreams symbolizes a new beginning and that something major is going to happen. The fact that I felt every twinge of pain the mother experienced means whatever is going to happen will require a lot of me to make it happen. The ‘labor pains’ being what is needed to see it through. That I feel so protective of the baby probably symbolizes either a long-held desire coming to fruition or a personal connection to whatever event is about to transpire. Perhaps I’ll finally be used within the coven as more than a newbie witch. Practicing my magic every day with Maya and Sera has helped my magic develop more than I ever thought possible. Just the thought has me almost excited for my meeting. But let’s be honest. It’s still a meeting with the principal – er, coven leader.

As the sun begins to rise over the tops of the trees that line the shore, I feel my body still and my mind begin to clear. I take several deep breaths to center myself, inhaling the rich scents of wet earth from an overnight storm, the salt of the sea air, and the sweetness of flowers and fruits that are native to this part of the world. The light wind sweeps across the water, ruffling my long blonde hair that I’d neglected to pull up this morning. I was just too tired to even bother.

I hate that you are gorgeous even when you’ve slept for shit, Maya murmurs as we start our practice in mountain pose. "I’d look like sasquatch’s homely cousin if I slept as poorly as you did – and that would be after I spent hours primping."

I try to ignore her words but the imagery she described is just too much. I look over at her and bust out laughing. Her eyes peek open and the edges of her lips tip into a smirk. Mission accomplished.

Thank you. I needed that, I confess. But for the record, you’d be sasquatch’s hot cousin.

Bitch, Maya murmurs with zero heat to her rebuke.

Love you, Maya. I smile, even though I know she doesn’t see it. I take another deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing the tension to flow from my body as I focus on drawing the energy from around me and using it to center myself for the day ahead.

We move through the poses easily, breathing deeply and stretching and relaxing tired muscles with each new pose. My breathing becomes synchronized with the waves below us, my mind focused on the tasks ahead of me today.

Breakfast with the coven. Meeting with Selene. Lunch with the coven. Practicing my magic with Maya and Sera. Dinner in my hut. Meditation. Bed. It sounds like a lovely day. Well, lovely except for meeting with Selene. She’s perfectly nice. But getting called to meet with her is a bit like being called to the principal’s office in school. She could be giving you an award for something, and you’d still worry that you did something wrong.

With each successive pose, my dream begins to replay in my mind, though clearer even than last night. I watch not with trepidation or angst, but with fascination. A detached curiosity - as if from above myself rather than within the dream as it had been last night. I watch the labor and birth and take in every detail I missed last night. The doctor’s words, the husband’s encouragement to his wife, and the cry of the infant as he makes his way into the world – strong and boisterous. He will be a force to be reckoned with, I am sure.

When I open my eyes again, I am alone on the hilltop, Maya has left me deep in meditation. The sun is high in the sky and the gong is ringing to call the coveners to a meal. I quickly roll up my mat and slip into my sandals. I bound down the hill with tree branches slapping my body as I navigate the narrow path. When I arrive back at the coven house, I inhale not the sweet aroma of breakfast, but the pungent odors of lunch.

I’ve missed my meeting with Selene!

Racing through the halls, I make my way to her office door while doing my best to avoid the judgmental glares of the other coveners. Pausing for a moment outside to gather myself, I knock and wait to be granted entry. I wait for several long moments, knowing that this is just the start of my punishment for missing my meeting. Finally, the door slides open, and Selene’s voice rings out like a chime, granting me access to her inner sanctum. She is seated on the couch in the corner of her office. There is a tray with food