Kiss & Tell at the Wishing Well

By Shiloh Walker

Grace

Six months ago, I was bitten by my ex-boyfriend and turned over to his Alpha to cover gambling debts. I survived and escaped. After a mentor took me in and showed me how to live as a werewolf, I sought sanctuary in a small coastal town in Massachusetts.

I wasn't looking for a lover or a new boyfriend. I certainly wasn't looking for them, two beautiful, dangerous males who definitely weren't human, nor anything I'd consider part of the safe and somewhat normal life I'd told myself I wanted.

But I found them...and I'm keeping them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shiloh Walker
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215542224

Shiloh Walker

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more...ah...serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes paranormal and contemporary romance, as well as romantic suspense.

Book preview

Chapter One

Grace

It had been six months since that night.

Six months since Vince Markham, my then-boyfriend, had turned me over to his Alpha to cover his gambling debts. At the time, I hadn’t known jackshit about Vince’s gambling problem—or his I-turn-furry-on-full-moons problem, either.

Vince had shifted, bitten me, then thrown me at the Alpha’s feet. "There. She’s yours. Happy?"

If she lives...yes.

Kenneth had thrown me in a cage, locked me up and I’d spent the next few weeks hoping I was going crazy, then wishing for death, all while praying it was a nightmare and I’d soon wake up.

I hadn’t died...and I still sometimes prayed to wake up.

Over the course of three weeks, I slept through fevers, woken to atrocities, and every time I closed my eyes, I prayed I’d wake up.

It hadn’t happened yet.

I’d given up hoping it was all a bad dream, or that hoping maybe I was in some weird waystation after death.

No. This was all real, and it sucked, even though there were days when I felt like nothing more than a shadow of myself.

But as I drove past the tall dunes and long, tall grasses that whipped in the wind on the small spit of land that jutted out into the waters of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, I told myself that would change.

Maybe I wasn’t who I once was, but that didn’t mean I had to stay a shadow.

I’d escaped—I’d gotten out of that cage, away from the pack that wanted to make me into a thing. I was free...and alive.

I could figure out this new me.

And I’d do it here.

My mentor at the Society, a solemn-eyed woman who told me to call her Willow, had helped me learn the basics of my new life after I’d managed to escape Kenneth and his crazy pack. She’d guided me through the first painful changes after the virus that causes lycanthropy was done wreaking havoc on my DNA. And she’d told me where I could go to find safety from the Alpha who might still try to claim me for his pack.

All I had to do was find a safe haven, people willing to give me sanctuary. If I did that, I’d be safe from him. Kenneth might rule his small section of Missouri, but that was a far cry from Provincetown, Massachusetts.

This was listed as one of the places where others could be safe, according to the Society and when I’d looked at the list of places where I might try to go, everything in me told me to come here.

So, here I was.

In a couple of weeks, I started my new job as a community engagement director for a local youth center—twenty hours a week, decent pay and thanks to an inheritance from my mother I’d kept out of Vince’s greedy hands, I had money to put down on a house, once I found one.

All I had to do was find whoever the local ‘power’ was and hope they’d grant approval for me to stay.

There was no werewolf pack here, but that made it ideal.

I didn’t want a wolf pack.

I didn’t want to ever see another werewolf again.

Mentally, I shuddered, my shoulder hitching up in response to the sensory memory of teeth sinking into my neck, skin tearing, and blood spilling. The pain.

Stop it, Grace, I muttered. You escaped and you’re free.

And as long as I could avoid Kenneth Boggs and find whoever was effectively in charge here and claim sanctuary, I’d stay that way. Provincetown was a haven for those of us more than human, as well as a mecca for artists and marginalized communities, such as LGBTQ individuals, refugees, religions outside the normal and people of color.

I could be safe here.

That was all I wanted.

Just to be...safe.

Chapter Two

Sebastian

Oof... I lifted my head, sitting up and staring off to the east, following the direction of the light breeze, tasting the wish even as it faded into the air. Hello, pet...and just who might you be?

My lover and partner, Finn, combed a hand through my hair. What do you feel, Sebastian?

A wish. I grimaced, my throat tightening with the weight of emotion that had carried the wish so far. Being a sylph, a fae who could taste wishes left lingering in the air wasn’t a bad lot in life—but I was under compulsion, thanks to a curse left on me by an angry Fae queen because I’d chosen to live in the mortal world...with Finn, with mortals, happy to use the power of the wish as I chose, not as she chose. Now, unless I granted wishes, I sickened, weakened...aged.

Sadly for that evil chit who’d taken the throne by force and planned to do the same with me, the mortal world was lousy with people who needed wishes granted, even if it was just a poor babe crying because she was tired and her ear hurt, or an older sister, sad because mum had no money for a toy from the souvenir stand, and mum wishing she had the money, even if only for a few minutes of peace. It was an easy thing to soothe an earache; to suggest, silently, that mum might have another twenty in the bottom of her wallet that she’d forgotten about. And all was well—I was myself for another few days and whatever mortal wish I’d granted had a bit of pleasure or a bit of peace.

I didn’t mind using my magic in such a way, something Ardanis hadn’t realized when she’d cast her curse. In a way, she’d granted me complete freedom. As long as I had a steady supply of mortals around me, there was always a wish to grant.

This woman, though...I hadn’t even heard the wish itself. She was too far away, her presence unknown. But I had a command over the air and it had whispered to me of her presence, sung to me of her pain. And it wrecked me.

She carries grief in her, I said.

Finn gripped my neck and squeezed lightly. If you’re meant to help, you will. She’ll find her way here.

Then he leaned in and bit my neck. In the meantime... we’ve three hours before the crew start showing up. I’ve a wish or two of my own you can grant.

Really? Amused, I looked at him. Need me to run to the market? Did you forget to bring strawberries for dessert?

No. His lips twitched but before he could make good on the promise gleaming in the deep brown velvet of his eyes, the phone between us rang.

Fuck me, Finn muttered and the Irish in the words came out strong as he snatched it up. If it’s Regan again, I’ll throttle the girl.

I slumped back on the small deck behind the restaurant and lifted my face to the sun. Yeah, sure you will, darlin’.

Like he could. Finn adored women. Even annoying little brats like Regan who fell in love every other weekend and called in sick, claiming a headache or her monthlies just so she could have another afternoon with her current sweetheart.

The nagging headache at the back of my school was incessant. I needed a fucking wish—

A phone plunked down next to me on speaker and Finn slid his hand up my thigh as he said, What was that, luv? I didn’t catch you.

"I’m sorry, Finn...really, I know I’m a pain and I wish I felt better...I hate leaving you guys in a bind...again." She gave a pitiful sniff.

But damn my ears, I heard truth as easily as I heard lies and cell phones made no difference. In my hundreds of years of existence, technology hadn’t changed any of that—I could even sense a lie if it was written rather than spoken.

She felt fine.

"I really do wish I could come into work," she continued.

The nagging headache and lassitude over the past few days nudged me on more than anything else, even the hard-as-iron glint in Finn’s eyes. Fuck me. He’d seen the pain I’d been trying to hide.

I hitched a shoulder and looked at the phone.

Granted, I murmured.

Regan stopped speaking mid-sentence, the words caught in her throat. Sorry, cutie, I thought. I really could use her help at the pub tonight. It was Saturday and even though it was two weeks before the busy season was over for the year, it was a perfect fall day and that meant we’d be slammed. I didn’t want to be working both the bar and the tables she should be covering so she could shag the last of the year’s thirty-one flavors.

Thirty-one flavors? Finn asked as he put the phone down next to me and then moved fluidly to hover over me.

It fits. Hitching up a shoulder in a shrug, I pointed out, During the summer, she finds a new crush every four or five days. Reaching out, I hooked a hand in the front of his jeans and pulled him close. Jealous?

Not in a million years. He gripped my chin. Stop going so long. I hate seeing the pain in your eyes.

I caught his wrist. It was just a headache. I’m not giving wishes out to assholes and prima donnas who already have everything they need in life—and more than they deserve.

We glared at each other, the sculpted line of his jaw unyielding.

Fine, he muttered.

But then he went to work on my jeans.

I lifted my head and glanced around. The small privacy fence technically kept people from looking into the small yard as they walked by—and there were three more hours before anybody was due in.

But the building behind us was a rental and two ladies were renting one unit. They kept peeking out whenever we came outside—they’d been doing it ever since Finn had cheerfully told them, Oh, aye, I fuckin’ love dick—enjoy pussy, too, but I’ve been with Sebastian for years and we’re both lacking in that department.

One of them is watching, you freak, I muttered as he dragged my zipper down.

I know. His mouth brushed over the bare skin of my belly. Your headache is getting better...and I’m fucking starving.

When your boyfriend carries the essence of an incubus trapped inside, sometimes, you had to make sacrifices.

Although having his mouth close around my cock with the blue sky stretching over us as the final days of fall spun away didn’t seem like much of a sacrifice. It wasn’t like I cared if some nosy, voyeuristic woman watched, either.

Shoving a fist into his hair, I wrapped the other around my dick and arched into the wet, skillful heat of his mouth.

With a shudder, I closed my eyes. Feed, then.

Chapter Three

Finn

Feeding on sexual energy did have its perks, especially when a man lucked out and had a lover like mine—Sebastian was six centuries old but still as greedy for sex—with the right partner—as I’d been the day I woke up chained to this existence.

It had felt like a curse at the time, and for a solid century and then some after.

Then I’d found him.

It hadn’t changed overnight.

He’d been as calm the day we met as he was now. And he’d seen just as deeply then as he did now.

He’d also been too fucking smart for own my liking, and yes, that was still the same, too.

Growing up in Dublin in the late 1790s, I’d been a dirt poor street rat and I’d clung to every damn thing I had with greedy fists. Sebastian’s easy generosity...with everything had grated, even the fact that he’d been educated.

I’d barely been into my third decade as incubus when we’d met, and I’d perpetually lived ready for a good brawl, angry at the world and everything that had happened, everything that had been stolen from me.

In a tavern, ready to drink away some funds I’d stolen from the woman I’d most recently bedded, I’d seen him for the first time. Sitting at a table alone, eating a fine meal, cleaner than anybody I’d ever seen, dressed in finer clothes than I’d even known existed, he’d been big, beautiful and brazen with his smiles.

I’d known he wasn’t human, although I hadn’t known just what he was. I’d only known he wasn’t somebody I’d kill if I lost my temper. Plus...he’d pissed me off when he’d caught me looking at him and winked back at me. So I’d followed him when he left and once we were alone, I’d taken a swing.

And missed.

Sylphs are just another form of faeries and you don’t want to go toe to toe with a faerie—especially not one an air elemental, like Sebastian.

He’d offered a hand to help me up. I’d let him, knocked his leg out from under him, which had made him laugh. He’d kicked me in the stomach and sent me flying twenty feet. By the time he’d come to offer his hand—again—I’d been ready to gut him.

It took a few more rounds before I’d finally given up and told him, You’re fast as the bloody wind, you are. What th’ fuck are you?

The wind, he’d said with a wink. But then he’d moved into my space—I’d felt the attraction, the same as he had, but I hadn’t been comfortable with it—ever. He hadn’t been the first male I’d found attractive, nor had he been the first I’d pretended not to find attractive—but it was with him that I learned to stop being ashamed of those needs.

Dirt poor, from a small village in a dirt poor section of dirt poor Ireland during the worst famine the country had seen, I’d only ever known what I’d been told, what I’d seen.

Sebastian had been alive centuries longer and with his heritage, he wasn’t as...hemmed in by human peculiarities as I’d been—plus, he’d sensed things I’d tried hard to ignore, things I’d buried for years.

All those desires had come exploding out when he kissed me. I’d gone to strike him and he caught the blow in one fist and stared at me with impossibly dark eyes of midnight blue, touched by flecks of gold.

Why do you still pretend to be what you’re not?

Everything started to change for me when I met him. Not overnight, no. But it had started then.

He’d helped me learn how to not hide...and how to trust.

The years would have been long and lonely without him.

I don’t know if I’d even still be alive—I certainly wouldn’t have anything close to human left in me.

Stroking my hand through his hair as he lay with his head on my thigh, I soaked in the ebb and flow of the life around us.

A couple of hours had passed since we’d sensed that wild new magic and we were stretched outside on the porch of the bar across from our restaurant on Masonic Place. Neither was open yet, but we liked being in the rush of things, enjoyed the very life of the small town.

Plus, we were waiting for her...neither of us had said as much out loud but we both knew what we were doing.

Sebastian reached up and absently stroked my thigh, the tension in him far less since he’d granted a silly wish a girl hadn’t meant to make. Regan would be in later and she’d do her job—do it well, leave with a pocket full of tips because she was a damn fine server and loved to flirt, with both the ladies and the gents. Tomorrow, her current sweetheart would leave and she’d cry. Within a few days, she’d have a new crush and the cycle would start all over again.

But Sebastian wasn’t hurting and that was what mattered the most. He drew in a slow breath, far more sensitive to magic but through the bond we shared, I could feel the echo of his awareness.

She’s getting closer? I asked softly when his hand flexed.

Yes. He blew out a breath, body flexing as if in pleasure and I wondered what he sensed that made him react so. She’s got power to spare, luv.

He made no other remark, but I knew he was already keyed in. Being an air elemental, he was tuned into the very nature of the world around us. When you’re a creature of magic, you can’t pass through the world without leaving ripples.

Sebastian sat up and I eased away from him, reaching for the threads I’d picked up earlier, tracking them the way a dog would chase after the trail of a rabbit.

Something inside me stirred and I let out a low noise.

What is it? Sebastian asked.

Now that she was closer, I could hone in on her if I tried and the scent teased me, called to me.

I’m not sure yet, I said. But her scent...

When I didn’t elaborate, Sebastian just waited.

It was wild. Delicious...and possibly dangerous. Very dangerous. What was she...?

We’ll know soon. Sebastian’s voice throbbed.

Several more minutes passed, ticking away until it was fifteen, then thirty. Now I could all but taste the sweetness of her on my tongue.

She’s almost on us, I said thickly.

Sebastian was more tuned in than most magical creatures out there, but there were some I’d pick up on better—anything with a highly sexual nature would call to me. Whatever she was, she needed sex about as much as I did—and she hadn’t been fulfilling those needs, either.

Stars and saints, Finn... Sebastian grimaced. She’s all but starving.

I know. The need cut under my shields, almost impossible to block out because her own power was brutal and her need, vicious.

Sebastian grabbed my neck, squeezing and I felt him shove inside, forcing a wedge between me and the unexpected wave of pained need from the female.

Panting, I used the space he’d given and slammed up stronger walls.

Damn it, I muttered as hunger beat inside me, a throbbing pulse.

Sebastian’s hand tightened on my neck.

Breathe, he told me, not wasting time on questions as my gaze flew to the mouth of the alley. He watched, too, and with the prick of her magic now hovering in the air, I knew he’d feel her, as easily as I could.

She strode into view, shooting a look over her shoulder, although looking away from us—of course—as she did so. Vibrant energy flared around her, shimmering the air around her for a flash of a second, but long enough for me to read what she was.

Beyond that, I only got a flash of an impression. Long hair, woven into a braid that went almost down to her plump round arse, long-legged, too, moving at a quick clip and with the movements of somebody who wanted to be elsewhere.

She ducked into the store at the head of the alley and I blew out a breath as she disappeared from sight.

That was her, Sebastian murmured, his voice rough.

Aye. She moved like a woman on the run, carrying magic and menace inside her.

I inhaled again, tasting the air, scenting it...a tangled thread of magic hit the back of my throat and I breathed out a curse.

Fuck me... I muttered again. No wonder the scent of her was so potent in the air, the pull of her so wild and lush. My dick strained against the front of my jeans and I ground my teeth together as I struggled for control.

The arousal wouldn’t go away but I managed to breathe in, calm the beast trying to tear out of me.

Next to me, Sebastian had risen to a crouch, aware of how on edge I’d gotten, ready to react if he had to. Seeing that I’d gotten control, he