Saffie smirked.“That’s good to know.Because you look like trouble.”
“Only the good kind,” Hunter said easily, and the witches laughed.
The warmth between them grew quickly as Brielle led the conversation, though Hunter’s teasing tone carried a thread of honesty.“So, you dragged them up here because you wanted your friends to interrogate us, huh?”he said with a smirk.
Brielle tilted her head.“Pretty much.If I’m bringing two bear shifters into my circle, the coven gets a vote.”
Lennox leaned back, grin easy but his words were serious.“We wanted to meet them, too.They matter to you, which means they matter to us.And we’re not hiding what we want.”
Saffie arched an eyebrow, her tone wickedly playful.“And what exactly do you want, bear boy?Because we’ve seen this movie before—minus the fur.”
Ursula chuckled under her breath.“Careful, Saff.They look like they could bench-press a pickup truck.”
Hunter smirked.“You can relax.What we want isn’t complicated—we want her safe, and we want her happy.And, yeah, we want her with us.”
“Preferably between us,” Lennox added, and Brielle felt a sweep of heat rise in her face.
Saffie whistled low.“Damn, direct.I like that.”
Ursula crossed her arms, assessing.“Bold move, announcing that to a circle of witches.You sure you know what you’re getting into?”
Lennox grinned, unbothered.“Pretty sure we can handle it.We’ve wrestled worse things than fate.”
Hunter nodded, eyes steady on her.“We’re here because we’re not walking away.Bond or not, that’s the truth.”
Brielle blinked, caught off guard by the certainty in their voices.“You’re sure about that?Even without the mating bond connecting?”
“Yeah,” Lennox said simply.“You think we need some mystical lightning bolt to tell us what we already know?We knew you were ours the second we met you at the Boutique.Did we like the fact that you were hurt, and we were meeting you professionally, fuck no.But we knew, even then, that you were and are important to us.”
Hunter’s lips curved into a slow smile.“The human part of us figured it out before we were bears.After we shifted and scented you, it simply confirmed it for us.”
That drew a laugh from Willow.“Guess instincts work even without magic.”
Hunter tipped his head toward the coven.“And that’s why we needed to meet them—to understand the world that built you.”
The sincerity of it softened something in Brielle’s chest, and she gestured for everyone to sit.“All right then.Since you’ve met them, we’ve got a lot to catch them up on.”She gestured for everyone to sit, then asked Saffie to explain.
“It started generations ago, with the Council’s curse.”Saffie said.“Each of us carried it differently.The curse was meant to strip shifters of their animals, and it worked to a point.We got involved to lessen its impact.”
Saffie leaned forward, her tone firm but gentle.“Ursula and I have lived these 200 years on a path to save shifters and bring balance to the world.Willow and Brielle are our coven sisters whom we lost in that first battle, but reincarnated, over and over, each time fighting to break one more link in the chain.Willow faced Marcus—the bastard who started all of this—and ended him.I used the Druid Stone to undo the next layer.It nearly killed me, but it worked.”
Ursula nodded slowly.“She’s being modest.It actually did kill her.She made the ultimate sacrifice for all shifters.It is because of what she did that you have your bears.”
Brielle watched the look that passed between Lennox and Hunter.Amazement edged with gratitude.“Thank you,” Lennox said in a low voice that rang with sincerity.
“Yeah,” Hunter added, with the same tone.“We had no idea we were living a half-life until we united with our animals, and knowing what you had to sacrifice for that to happen?” He shook his head.“There is nothing we could ever do that would repay you for that.”
Saffie, being Saffie, waved it way, literally.“You owe me nothing.Witches and Warlocks have been fighting for generations, shifters just got caught in the middle, and it is on us to ensure we do everything we can to ensure that balance in the world is maintained.”
Hunter’s expression darkened, his jaw tightening.“You’ve been living through this for generations?”he asked quietly.“No wonder you’re all so damn powerful.”
Lennox swore softly under his breath.“And no wonder we felt it the second we walked in.You’ve all been through hell.”
Saffie smiled faintly, glancing toward Brielle.“Which is why you need to be careful now.The curse might be broken, but echoes of it still ripple through the world.The Council may be broken, but some of them still live.Not all of them vanished.”
Hunter glanced at Lennox, a silent understanding passing between them.“Then it’s a good thing you’ve got a couple of bears hanging around,” he said with a grin.“We’re hard to kill.”
Lennox added, smirking, “And we give great hugs.Seems like you could use both.”