Panther Curse: Shifters Bewitched #3 Read online

  Panther Curse

  Shifters Bewitched #3

  Tasha Black

  13th Story Press

  Copyright © 2021 by 13th Story Press

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  13th Story Press

  PO Box 506

  Swarthmore, PA 19081

  [email protected]

  Cover by Natasha Snow of Natasha Snow Designs.

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!

  Get your FREE books now at tashablack.com!

  About Panther Curse

  My name is Kendall, and I’m living three lives.

  The first is as a legacy, a card-carrying member of an elite group of witches whose families have attended Primrose Academy for generations. The legacies pretty much rule the school, and we have fun doing it.

  The second is with a scrappy gang of lesser witches, trying to prevent evil from infiltrating the school. They’re anything but legacies, but Bella, Cori and Anya are amazing women, and they’re starting to feel like the supportive friends I always secretly wished for.

  My third life happens late at night, when I sneak out of the castle to meet my boyfriend in the woods. He’s got dreamy eyes, copper hair, and an endless capacity to listen to my problems.

  But it’s getting harder and harder to keep up my three separate lives. And things are already getting out of hand by the time I realize I’ve inadvertently ruined everything.

  Before I know it, I’m caught in a trap. Now I have nothing to rely on but my wits, and the friends I betrayed, to save me from a fate worse than death.

  And then I meet Jared.

  The beautiful, shattered shifter has been imprisoned for years. His body is scarred and his heart is broken, but he’s willing to weave it all back together all for me.

  He tells me I’m his mate, and I believe him. Together, we can both learn to be whole again.

  But it’s going to take a miracle to get us back to our friends.

  Shifters Bewitched is a brand-new Paranormal Romance series from USA Bestselling Author Tasha Black. Be sure to read them all:

  Wolf Spell

  Bear Charm

  Panther Curse

  Raven Song

  Contents

  Panther Curse

  1. Kendall

  2. Kendall

  3. Jared

  4. Kendall

  5. Kendall

  6. Kendall

  7. Kendall

  8. Jared

  9. Kendall

  10. Kendall

  11. Kendall

  12. Jared

  13. Kendall

  14. Kendall

  15. Jared

  16. Kendall

  17. Jared

  18. Kendall

  19. Jared

  20. Kendall

  21. Jared

  22. Kendall

  23. Jared

  24. Jared

  25. Kendall

  26. Jared

  27. Jared

  28. Kendall

  29. Jared

  30. Kendall

  31. Kendall

  32. Jared

  33. Kendall

  34. Kendall

  35. Jared

  36. Kendall

  37. Kendall

  38. Jared

  39. Kendall

  40. Kendall

  Raven Song (Sample)

  1. Anya

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About the Author

  One Percent Club

  Panther Curse

  1

  Kendall

  I slept soundly in my bed, tucked away in the Bellwether wing of Primrose Academy.

  And at the same time, I stood outside in the courtyard as the fall breeze sliced through my robes, sending my still-wet body into a fit of shivers.

  I was dreaming about my first Choosing Ceremony again. I knew it was all just a dream, but it felt so real.

  The scent of soap hung heavy in the frigid air. Each month, on the night of the full moon, every young woman at Primrose Academy completed a cleansing purification, and then donned her ceremonial robes. This ritual in the courtyard was an offering of the women to the shifters who guarded the school.

  But it wasn’t just for show.

  If a shifter emerged from the woods and chose a woman, she had to spend three nights in his bed. At the end of that time, she could choose whether to accept his mate bond and stay with him forever, or just walk away.

  No one ever walked away.

  This was the price of protection for the castle, the witches, and the ancient and powerful library.

  The witches protect the library.

  The shifters protect the castle.

  Every first-year Primrose student knew those words. And the unspoken ones that went with them: The shifters never actually come to claim a mate.

  Not since my mother’s time at the school, and maybe longer than that.

  We gathered into a circle, and the headmistress began speaking the words of the summoning ceremony in her deep contralto. The girls called back the responses as one, voices ringing out on the cold cobblestones of the courtyard.

  I moved my mouth, but no sound came out.

  It was already happening, an awareness that made my skin tingle.

  He’s coming for me.

  I was sure of it.

  My eyes fixed on the boxwood labyrinth on the other side of the courtyard, and the trees beyond. I could practically taste him, feel the sleek sheen of sweat on his muscular form. His need for me was palpable.

  I sucked in a breath as if I might not get another, my eyes watering from staring at the motionless forest.

  Back in my very real bed, I tossed and turned, trying to escape the humiliation of the dream.

  That night, of course, no shifter had come for me. I had stood there, trembling in my robes, weak with lust for a guardian who didn’t exist.

  I had been terrified that the others all knew my shame. But as we filed back into the academy, it became clear that no one had even noticed.

  Now that I was refining my magic, I knew that lust was my price. Had I inadvertently done some magic that first evening that caused the wild sensations?

  But the lust price I paid for my magic was amorphous, a general state of hunger that had no certain craving.

  The desire I felt in the courtyard was specific, laser focused on the shifter with the green eyes, whose body strained for mine, just out of sight.

  As I resigned myself to seeing the dream through again, the trees on the other side of the boxwood labyrinth began to shake.

  My heart pounded, and I willed him to come to me.

  The trees shivered again. This time, an inky black shape poured out from between them, disappearing into the labyrinth before I could identify what it was.

  But I knew. I always knew.

  My feet began to move. Before I had time to hesitate, I was sprinting for the labyrinth, my bare feet first slapping on the hard cobblestones, and then sinking into the lush grass.

  “Kendall,” the headmistress called out.

  But I ran on, hitting the first turn in the labyrinth too tightly and catching my robes on the branches.

  I stumbled but managed to stay upright, launching myself further into the dark pathways.
r />   His heartbeat throbbed in my ears. I was close.

  The earth seemed to reverberate with his footsteps.

  Suddenly, green eyes pierced the darkness.

  My mouth dropped open.

  This wasn’t a guardian, at least not the way I had pictured them - the tall lanky men who prowled the perimeters of the castle.

  It was one thing to know the guardians could shift into animal forms. It was another to be standing face to face with an actual panther.

  I froze in place.

  The massive cat blinked slowly, his body perfectly still, potential energy barely contained in a wall of contracted muscle. Only the tip of his tail danced and swayed in the darkness behind him.

  He blinked again, but when he opened his eyes this time, he was in human form.

  I gasped, but didn’t move.

  The guardian loomed over me, still fixing me with that emerald stare. He was tall, with a muscular form like a professional athlete. But the masculine beauty of his face gave him a sort of feral grace, in spite of the wildness of those eyes and the clench in his jaw.

  He reached out his hand slowly, as if afraid that I would startle and run.

  But I could never run. I was transfixed by those eyes.

  When his hand grazed my cheek, I leaned into his touch.

  A shockwave of need shot through me, and I moaned lightly. His hand was so warm.

  “Mine,” he growled.

  The world faded away at the edges. There was no grass under my feet, no sky above. There was only the guardian, bending to press his lips to mine.

  When his mouth met mine, I nearly swooned.

  He grabbed me, his big hands clenching my arms, pulling me close to his hot, hard body.

  I closed my eyes and he swept me up in his arms, cradling me like I was nothing more than a small child. The breeze lifted my hair as he ran with me.

  Tears threatened to burst free, and I struggled to speak. I didn’t want him to run away with me. I needed him now. I didn’t care if every woman at that school came dashing through the labyrinth and saw it.

  “Soon,” he murmured into my hair, as if he could hear my unspoken words. “Patience.”

  The trees flashed past, and I clung to him. But his warm arms were cooling, and the pounding of his footsteps on the uneven forest ground faded out.

  I opened my eyes to find myself alone, standing at the edge of a clearing, still lost in the dream world that so closely resembled my own.

  Huge trees still formed a canopy above me, but just ahead they broke at the bank of a creek.

  On the other side of the creek, against a towering cliffside, an ancient, crumbling mill lurked between two huge sycamores. Its sepia-toned, Pennsylvania fieldstone walls bristled with vines. Saplings grew out of the chimney and the cedar shake roofing was swollen and silvery with age, half-frosted with moss, as if someone had stopped in the middle of decorating a birthday cake.

  It was clearly abandoned.

  No.

  The wooden water wheel still plunged into the creek, turning flawlessly and sending droplets of water shimmering into the air like diamonds.

  A shiver went down my spine.

  I spun around, looking for my guardian. But he was nowhere to be seen.

  I closed my eyes, and I could feel him running for me, hear him calling my name.

  Kendall…

  And then a guttural cry rang out, like the wail of a wounded animal - the sound of pure, heart-wrenching anguish that chilled me to the bone.

  He was still out there somewhere. And he needed my help. But I could barely hear him.

  He was so far away.

  2

  Kendall

  “Kendall.”

  Anya’s voice roused me from my dream.

  I sat up quickly, hoping my roommate couldn’t tell what I was dreaming about. Had I been moaning out loud?

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I told her quickly. “Weird dream.”

  “You were tossing and turning,” she said, her soft voice concerned.

  “I’m gonna hit the shower before breakfast,” I said as I hopped out of bed.

  “Cool,” she said, turning back to the book she held. “I’ll wait for you.”

  “No need,” I told her. “Go see everyone. Save me a seat.”

  I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed to the showers, glad to have a quick exit strategy.

  Pushing aside the shower curtain, I placed my caddy on the rack and turned the lever all the way to hot.

  Once I was under the pounding hot water, the real world started to settle into my bones again.

  It was just a dream, Kendall.

  But it had felt so real.

  The dream about my first ceremony came back to me often, but I had never actually seen the guardian before. That part was new.

  Maybe he’ll come for me this time.

  I had told myself that more than once in my first year, but I knew better now.

  Dressing quickly and pulling my hair into its usual ponytail, I willed myself to think of something else, anything else on the way down to breakfast.

  I reached for the silver bangle on my dresser and smiled.

  Declan.

  I was going to be meeting up with Declan tonight.

  The student witches of Primrose Academy weren’t supposed to date anyone. Staying celibate allegedly focused our powers.

  But I had met Declan in town one afternoon, and we hit it off enough that I was willing to bend the rules.

  There was a time when having a hot townie boyfriend was enough to make me a bit of a legend at Primrose.

  But now that two of my friends had paired up with actual guardians, my deal with Declan didn’t seem all that impressive.

  Still, he was a nice guy and an excellent listener, two things I was learning to value a lot more than I used to.

  The line for breakfast was shorter than usual, probably because I was late. I grabbed juice and a giant plate of scrambled eggs and scanned the room.

  Front and center were my older friends, the legacies. Each of us was a second-generation Primrose student, at the least.

  The legacies ruled the academy. We knew the ins and outs beyond the brochure, from our mothers’ and grandmothers’ time here. We felt a sense of ownership and belonging from our first step into the massive old castle.

  I used to think being a legacy was a big deal, that somehow our pedigree made our magic better than the spells of the other students. That it made us better.

  But a lot had happened recently to change my mind.

  And it was pretty clear that my old friends obviously still felt the same as before.

  “Hey, Kendall,” Dozie called out to me, half-heartedly.

  Esme didn’t even look over, she just rolled her eyes, like she knew what I was going to do next.

  “Hey,” I said, tilting my chin up at Dozie as I walked past.

  In the back corner of the lunchroom, my newer set of friends sat around a table. Although maybe friends was pushing it. I wasn’t sure if I was quite at that level yet. But at least they let me sit with them, and that was good enough for now.

  My mother would probably be pretty bummed to find out that instead of sitting with the legacies like she always did, I was headed back to sit with a bunch of newbies. And first-year witches, too.

  I had been disgusted to get assigned to Bellwether when the other legacies all seemed to end up in the more prestigious houses.

  But after spending the fall with Anya, Bella, Cori, Nina and Lark, I actually felt more myself than I ever had with the legs.

  These women worked with strength and purpose. When the shit hit the fan, they’d had each other’s backs in a very real way.

  And I wanted in on that.

  So even though it was clear they didn’t really trust me yet, and even though I felt like shit every time I remembered something awful the legacies had said or done to them, I kept showing up.

  Before coming to Pr
imrose, I’d been into softball. My favorite coach used to tell me, Showing up is half the battle, Kendall.

  Hopefully, that advice would pay off and one day I would fit in. I was trying hard to deserve it.

  For now though, I felt adrift, like I was floating between worlds.

  I arrived in the corner and noticed too late that there were no empty chairs.

  “Are you guys having a party without inviting me?” I joked weakly.

  No one laughed.

  “Hey, Kendall,” Anya said, standing as I approached. “Take my seat.”

  “You don’t have to move,” I told her.

  “No, no, go on,” she said. “I have an early meet up with Professor Sora.”

  “Thanks,” I said, sliding into her seat as she headed to class.

  That left me alone with the two couples.

  On one side, Bella sat with Luke. Bella had been the first witch to be claimed by a guardian in decades. Her claiming on her very first night at Primrose had turned the school upside down. And the age-old rule that a claiming meant the witch had to leave the school forever with her shifter mate was overturned, all for her.

  The infamous Bella was scarfing down pancakes, while Luke gazed down at her like he couldn’t believe she was real.