Page 6 of Loched in Love

I set the folded pants to the side and tug a soft, but obviously expensive white shirt over my head, smirking at how the new couples seem to gravitate toward one another like magnets snapping in place across the room.

Whitley and Connor sit opposite Vlad and Aubrey, each of them seated in a large wingback chair adjacent to the large green couch where my mate still hasn’t stirred.

After pulling my pants over my trunks, I raise a brow at Vlad. “Call Odette for me would ya? I think she’s been bespelled to sleep.”

“Only a fool or someone really fucking desperate would trust Odette with their mate,” Frank Stein’s familiar voice growls at my back. He’s dressed in his typical business suit, a wide frown marring his face, while his new mate, Bernadette stands behind him just inside the library double doors.

“What’s wrong with Odette?” I ask.

Odette is known as the most powerful magical witch for the last millennium, and is a friend to boot. I’ve no reason not to call her, especially when it was her magic that helped lift some of the Lady of the Lake’s curse so long ago.

“Her magic is volatile, and can’t be trusted,” Frank says, folding his arms over his chest.

I frown at the behemoth of a male, sensing he has more to say about the witch, but his attention moves squarely on the woman at his side.

“Is she dead?” Bernadette suddenly asks, pointing at the couch with her free hand as she clutches at Frank’s suit with the other, her gaze wide with apprehension.

Panic has me moving to block her view and searching for the words to put them at ease about the state of things. “No, she’s just been cursed a bit is all. She’ll be right as rain soon.”

“Well, she’s definitely not breathing,” Aubrey murmurs loud enough for everyone to hear, and the room explodes into female chatter.

Chapter 2

LACHLAN MACBETH

Itune out the ladies and sigh as I look down at my new mate, remorse and something not unlike sorrow forming in my insides.

She could be cursed for years, and the idea that it’s my fault for even wishing for her makes it that much worse, because if I’d not wished for my mate, she’d at least be breathing.

Her round cheeks are pink and flushed, even obviously cursed as she is, and I realize I’ll do whatever it takes to get her awake. If only to see what her bonnie eyes look like when she laughs. Tears shimmer in the corners of my gaze until my vision blurs at the sight of her unmoving form, and my fists curl at my sides as the sounds of shouting increase.

I’ll move the heavens and the earth to bring her back to me.

My gaze swivels back to Frank, Odette’s one-time lackey, and my agitation rises. Maybe I don’t have to move the heavens after all.

I’ve been trapped in Vlad’s moat for longer than he’s been breathing, and whether Frank Stein likes it or not, I could chain the lot of them to the ocean floor and call Odette myself if that’s what it takes to free my mate. I’m now stronger than they are by half, and they wouldn’t be able to stop me.

I may hate to see the womenfolk cry because of it, but I’ve no doubt the men would do the same to me if I were all that stood between them and theirs. Besides, they’d learn to get free, eventually.

I startle at the light touch on my arm, and glance down into Whitley’s familiar face, her brows pinched with worry.

“If we can’t call Odette, then someone needs to find another witch to wake up Lachlan’s mate. This is almost cruel,” she says loudly, her voice somehow rising above the cacophony.

“Whitley’s right. I’ve more right than most to bitch about Odette’s magic since she turned me into a bloody puppy. But Lachlan just broke free, and it’s wrong that he has to wait now to meet his mate,” Connor says, his gaze locked squarely on Frank who stands idly by the door.

I’m humbled by them both, and reluctantly realize Whitley’d never forgive me if I chained her mate. I grab her hand in mine, and her warm palm squeezes mine back. Everything will turn out as it should.

“You’re lucky she was able to change you back at all. You’re all lucky. I can’t believe you didn’t call me the second Odette arrived here, ” Frank says, glaring at Connor, his face twisted in disgust and betrayal.

Connor frowns from where he sits by the empty fireplace and slowly meets my gaze, as if remembering just how exactly his curse was broken. The last time Odette visited the castle, she’d turned Connor into a puppy for some offense.

He was changed back to human after a swift dunking in the moat, saving her from being forced to change him back.

“I was a bit preoccupied, and your last visit didn’t go so well either. But while she was here, she mentioned a true mate curse. Well, warned us really,” Connor says.

“I suppose now is as good a time as any to share notes. I know that the witch queen’s magic was once known as the most powerful in the supernatural world, but I swear to you, she can’t be trusted. Her magic is collapsing and it’s making whatever spells she attempts chaotic at best. She’s been the cause of as many issues as she fixes,” Frank intones.

That doesn’t sound like the Odette I know. This bunch are far too young to remember, but given who the witch queen is mated to, she should never have a problem with magic. “What did she do?” I ask.