Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
That was definitely Declan. He must be home for the holidays.
“I just sensed some serious magic wards,” Silas mutters from the passenger seat since Everett is now driving. “Should we be concerned, or do they know we’re coming?”
“My caster dad, Ivan, set those up forever ago so no one with hostile intentions can pass into our territory. It alerts him, too, so he’s probably telling the others about our arrival right now,” I mutter, glancing into the back of the car.
Maven is catching up on more sleep, leaning against Crypt as he gently traces one of her hands. She looks so fucking peaceful when she’s resting near him.
Gotta admit, I’m grateful for that.
It’s still weird as fuck to see the incubus look anything besides apathetic or murderous. That’s all any of us saw from him until Maven arrived.
But now? He’s not as hateable as I used to think. Not that we are or ever will be “best mates,” as he puts it.
When Crypt sees me looking, his eyes narrow. “If they’re at all impolite to our girl?—“
“They won’t be.”
The other three remain tense, thinking my family will have a problem with who and what Maven is.
But I know my family. They’re loud, proud, and fucking ridiculous but never judgmental or blindly prejudiced. If anything, I’m worried they’ll be a little too happy to meet Maven and tease the hell out of me about having a mate while they’re at it.
Come to think of it, out of the entire quintet, I definitely had the luckiest upbringing. Silas was raised by an eccentric sexist who made him fend for himself, Crypt was a literal monster’s son brought up by the Immortal Quintet even though they hated him, and Everett’s family is a swarm of emotionally abusive manipulators dressed in designer clothes that cost more than most people’s cars.
Meanwhile, Maven grew up in a fucking brutal environment. The little my mate has told us about her past makes me physically sick to my stomach if I think about it.
I’m pretty sure this is going to be her first glimpse of what an actual family is like.
Gods, I hope she likes them.
Finally, we round the base of a massive mountain and turn down the long road leading into the valley where my family’s huge house, the barn, and several other buildings sit proudly in the vibrant morning light. Snow coats the ground and trees as we pull into the big circular driveway.
I’ve missed these mountains. Being back here makes me want to go flying with my mom and Declan.
And I would love it if Maven rode on my back. I bet my mate would love flying.
Except maybe not yet—not when shifting risks me being lost for gods know how long to my inner dragon.
He’s such an unmanageable dickhead. He’s been quiet during the ride, but I can feel him stirring. The scaly fucker will be causing more problems for me soon.
I scent the pine trees and something cooking in the kitchen, and I’m not surprised to see one of the curtains move in my family’s massive living room. About six or seven familiar faces peer out at us, a couple of them waving.
Yep. They’re going to swarm us the second we get out.
Everett parks, his pale blue gaze sweeping over the house mistrustfully.
“Relax. You’ve been here plenty of times, Ice Prick,” I remind him.
All three of these legacies were here all the time when I was little—that, or I was being taken to their houses. Until I was about nine years old, our parents constantly made us hang out. Mostly because my mom is very social, despite how catty Silas’s moms were and how snobby the Frosts always acted.
And for some weird reason, my mom has always liked Crypt. She invited him here at every chance. Looking back now, I wonder if she knew how shitty his home life was and wanted him to have somewhere to go to get away from the Immortal Quintet.
It sounds like something she’d do.
Maven’s eyelashes flutter open. She sits up, stretching as she checks out the window. “Fuck. We’re here.”
I pick up on the edge in her voice. “Nervous, Boo? Don’t be—they’ll love you.”
“Though not nearly as much as we love you,” Everett tacks on with a sly smirk.
“Cut it out,” my mate grumbles. “Just say you’ll burn the world for me or some shit like that.”
“We absolutely will, sangfluir,” Silas agrees, turning in the passenger seat to level her with a heated crimson look. “But if you would like to know the reason why, then it’s truly because?—“
“Stop,” Maven huffs crankily, unbuckling like she wants to get out of here as soon as fucking possible. “You’re just going to drop the stupid
L-word again to watch me squirm.”
Gods, my mate is so fucking adorable.
We all laugh at how flustered our keeper is as we get out and approach the wrap-around front porch. Just as I expected, the front door flies open, and my lion shifter birth father, Oscar, beams at us.
“You made it!”
He’s followed by Declan, who clearly just shifted back and hasn’t grabbed a shirt yet. He’s grinning ear to ear as he walks up and smacks me on the shoulder. He’s my oldest sibling, in his mid-thirties, but he’s always worked hard to build a relationship with me despite our fourteen-year age gap.
It helps that he’s the only one of my four brothers who is also a dragon shifter.
“Holy shit! Look at you, all grown up and matched and running from the law.” He spots Maven behind me and grins. “Here she is! Hi there, sis. Welcome to chaos, also known as our family.”
As if to underline his point, two of my other brothers, Cace and Aidan, also come outside with big smiles. A couple of legacies from each of their quintets follow suit. My seven-year-old niece, Quinn, and three-year-old nephew, Bran, skip outside to shout hellos.
It’s a barrage of bright smiles and greetings, and I almost want to laugh at how round Maven’s eyes have gotten. She’s not used to big, warm welcomes, but that’s just the Decimus way.
“
Baelfire Finbar Decimus.
Tell me it’s not true.”
My mother’s raised voice makes everyone quiet. They part for her as she marches toward us with her head held high, her one golden eye blazing angrily.
She lost her other eye years before I was born while leading a defensive strike against a surge at the Divide. I’ve never not seen her with a brown leather eye patch firmly in place. I’ve been told I look like a mix of her and Oscar—her draconic amber eyes and smile, his dirty blond hair and tall, brawny stature.
I mean, clearly I didn’t get my stature from her. My intimidatingly strong, confident, outspoken commander of a mother is all of five feet tall if she gets on her tiptoes.
Still, I feel like a tiny kid again when she folds her arms, pissed off as she looks up at me expectantly. I look at Declan to nonverbally ask what she’s upset about. He shrugs and glances at Maven as if he thinks she might be the reason.
Oh, fuck. No way.
“If this is about my mate—” I start to warn in a growl.
My mother sputters and waves my words away like that’s the stupidest possible suggestion.
“Is what I heard from Keith Erikson’s mother about what happened at Everbound true? Did that scaly-assed Del Mar actually put a collar on you? On a godsdamned dragon?”
I grimace. That had been beyond humiliating, but I’d almost forgotten by now. Honestly, Maven made it so that when we were alone, I ended up loving wearing the collar—just for her.
In public, I still loathed the damn thing.
“Thanks a fucking lot for bringing that up right off the bat,” I grumble. “I’m glad I’m home, too. Doing peachy, thanks for asking.”
My mother snorts. “Please. You know I’m glad my baby is home,” she says, wrapping me in a warm hug that feels like my childhood. Then she pulls back and beams. “And anyway,
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.