Broken Bonds (Valerian's Cove Book 2) Read online

  Broken Bonds

  Valerian’s Cove Book 2

  H.C. de Cossy

  Copyright © 2020 by H.C. de Cossy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious sense. Any resemblance to any person living or dead, any place or event is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by H.C. de Cossy

  1

  Marissa Casey tucked a wayward curl blowing across her face behind her left ear. She had pinned her mess of hair up this morning before heading to the clinic. Now, after her workday, the wind was doing its best to bring it down. Rissa had left the clinic at four, after finishing the patient logs from her last client. It had been an exhausting day. She had seen four clients, one a child having trouble with bullying at school, one an older woman, a bear shifter, needing help to survive the grief of the passing of her mate. And two women from the Valerian’s Cove werewolf Pack, recovering from years of abuse at the hands of their ‘mates’ and Alphas. The women of the Pack had been treated like chattel, the Alphas doing with them as they pleased, then given out as ‘mates’ to the male wolves that pleased the Alpha in some way. Once ‘mated’, the women had been forced to meet their men’s every need, at the cost of their own. Very few of them had married for love. None were actually mated to their fated mates that the Goddess had chosen for them. And all of them suffered PTSD from the emotional and physical trauma they had been exposed to over the course of their lives. The new Alpha, Tony Gianetti, was doing his best to help the pack heal from the atrocities that his father and uncle had subjected it to. That included getting help for the survivors in any way they needed. Hence, the two women that Marissa had seen today.

  It was so hard to hold space for the women to process all they had been through, when what Marissa really wanted to do was burn the Pack lands to the ground, punish the guilty and start over. Which was what Tony was trying to do, helped by his cousin, Remy, and his mother’s brother Ralph. So far it seemed to working out well. Several of the older Gianetti’s cohorts had left the pack when Tony took over. Tony had given the Pack members the option to either stay or go, knowing that if they stayed they would be expected to abide by the new rules, and help in the process of turning the Pack into the healthy, respectful, protective family it should be. Most of the wolves had stayed. Some were too tired to change, some really wanted to help. Tony made sure that those who were victims of the past Alpha’s cruelties were given the help they needed to heal. With regard to the women of the Pack, any that were unhappy and not actually mated by Fate were given the option to leave their spouses, no questions asked. The spouses were being held accountable for spousal abuse-Tony was also an officer of the law in Valerian’s Cove. The offenders were being brought before both the Supernatural Oversight Council and the judicial system of the country in which they lived. Assuming the women were willing to testify. Some just wanted to get gone. Those who chose to leave were given what they needed to start a new life-assistance finding a healthy pack to join, finding lawyers and therapists they could trust. Those that stayed in town were being helped to find jobs and rooms or apartments to rent. A fundraiser dinner was planned to raise the money to buy an older Victorian house that had come up for sale, its owners choosing to return to the Old Country. They had agreed to sell it to the town for whatever money was raised at the fundraiser-they were Vampires and didn’t really need the money. They had also seen too much cruelty in their long lives and were glad to be giving something back to the town that had welcomed them in for so long. In fact, they had tried to donate the house outright, but Tony had insisted on the fundraiser, and insisted the Pack run it, in an effort to build community spirit and pride of owner ship in the Pack and in the Town. The house would be a safe starting point for the women and children that wanted to leave their spouses and start somewhere fresh, yet stay in the area. Mrs. Gianetti, Tony’s mother, would help to run it.

  Marissa tucked another errant curl behind her right ear. After leaving work, she had made her way up to the headland on the cliffs just outside Valerian’s Cove. It was her favorite place to sit and think. The headland was reached by taking Maguire, the street that ran along the top of the left-hand arm of the harbor, to the end, then hiking up a path and over the headland. There was a space where the trees gave way to an outcropping that looked over the Pacific Ocean in all its glory. This had always been Marissa’s special place. As a teenager she had come here alone when she wanted space. She had come here with friends when they wanted to get away from parents. As an adult, she continued to come here to think.

  It had been over a month since Marissa’s twin sister, Malia, had come home with her two children and began making a life for themselves with their family in Valerian’s Cove. Since Ralph Merrit, Betsy Gianetti’s brother had turned up and decided to stay, along with his son, Josh, Rissa’s new sister Shari-Beth, and Theo, the Healer. The father of Marissa’s twins, whom she hadn’t seen for eleven years, since college graduation, before she even knew she was pregnant.

  Sitting on a rock, gazing out at the steel grey, white capped ocean, Marissa acknowledged that Theo’s leaving hadn’t been entirely his fault. He had owed a debt to the corrupt Witch’s Council of the time. That Council had since undergone a complete overhaul, and all debts forgiven, all geases, or binding spells, lifted. Theo was left free to search her out. Which is what Marissa would have done right away, because for her, he was the one. She would have done anything to get back to him, to apologize for leaving, to make sure that he was ok. Theo hadn’t. He had continued to work for the new Witch’s Council, the Supernatural Oversight Council, as a Healer and an undercover agent in the investigation into the organization responsible for a new drug targeting shifters that was being tested on unwilling shifter youth in the foster care system.

  Marissa knew this was important work, and she was glad that Theo had helped to bring the North American branch of the organization down. Still, he hadn’t tried to contact her. Not once. He claimed he was too embarrassed at the way things had happened, that he had thought she was sure to have moved on by now, thinking he was dead. He apparently had tried to send her a message when he was first shipped out, without notice, by the old Council, the day after college graduation, the day he was going to propose. That message had never reached her. Nor had any others he might have tried to send. She didn’t know if he had. They hadn’t really talked much, beyond about the children, since he�
�d been back. Theo hadn’t known she was pregnant when he left. Marissa herself hadn’t found out until a week later. It came as a great shock to Theo, arriving in Valerian’s Cove, to find that Ralph’s ‘safe-haven’ he was bringing himself, Shari-Beth and Theo to was the home of the woman he’d left behind. And then, that she was there, with her entire family, and that he had children. That was the biggest shock of all.

  Marissa had given the children the choice of getting to know Theo or not. After delivering an ultimatum to their father about staying around and not hurting their mother again, the children had agreed to allow him into their lives. Theo had taken a position as one of two resident Healers in the Valerian’s Cove clinic. One of the founding Healers had decided to retire and was quite happy to have a Healer of Theo’s caliber to replace her. Tony had helped Theo find a cottage close to town to rent. He could ride his bike to the clinic every day, or to the Casey property where Marissa lived with the children and her family. The children had been seeing Theo a couple of times a week. So far it seemed to be going well.

  Marissa was happy that the children had the opportunity to get to know their father. She just wasn’t sure how she felt about having Theo around in terms of herself. When he wasn’t around, it was easier to forget, to pretend that he wasn’t here, in town, a part of her life again, but not. Seeing him at the clinic, or in town, or at her family’s house, caused her heart to constrict as if multiple sharp shards of obsidian were being thrust through it, on fire. Her head would pound, heat would climb her face, leaving her cheeks flushed and her eyes hard and bright. Marissa felt hurt, and extremely angry. There never could be an explanation good enough to heal this.

  Feeling her eyes stinging, Rissa rubbed them, then stood. Being in her thinking place was not working to bring her the solace she needed this evening. The sun was still fairly high, as it was summer, but it had to be getting on for dinner time. Rissa turned and headed back towards town. She had left her bicycle at the base of the path. It was time to ride home, see her children, and help her mother with dinner.

  “I’m home!” Marissa called as she opened the door to casa Casey. A warm breeze brought the comforting smell of roasting chicken and potatoes straight to her nose. Her mother, Celine, was cooking Rissa’s favorite. She allowed the breeze, a hint from Celine, to lead her into the kitchen. Celine was putting rolls into the second oven to warm. The chicken, in its serving dish, was sitting on a trivet surrounded by potatoes and carrots. A pot of gravy was stirring itself on the stove. Waiting to go out to the table were dishes of homemade cranberry sauce, butter, corn, and an enormous bowl of salad. Rissa took the salad dressings out of the fridge, then went to hug her mother.

  “To what do I owe this amazingly wonderful dinner?” Rissa inquired.

  Celine smiled up into her daughter’s eyes. Her daughter was several inches taller than she was. “I thought you could use a bit of comfort food. I know you’ve been seeing those wolves from Tony’s Pack. I figured you would need it.” She kissed Rissa’s forehead, standing on her toes to reach it.

  “Thank you,” Marissa replied. “I feel so sorry for those women-for the whole Pack, really. How did we not know how bad it had gotten? How could we, as a community, not have done more for them?”

  “You know that by treaty and Pack law we could not interfere,” Celine reminded her.

  “I know, it’s just so stupid, how absolute the hold an Alpha has over his Pack, especially when the Alpha is bad and destructive to the Pack like the senior Gianettis were.”

  “There is always the right of Challenge,” Celine replied. “We cannot make someone Challenge if they are not ready to.”

  “But maybe we should have showed more support for someone who would have. We could have let them know that the town of Valerian’s Cove would not stand for an Alpha that was ready to brutalize his Pack, let alone two of them.”

  “Maybe we should have. What’s done is done. We can show support for Tony now, and for those that choose to live in town and become more a part of the larger community. The community is doing the best we can to help them heal and learn to be a part of a healthy town and society. We will help Tony to recreate the Pack in a healthy way, in whatever way he needs us to, and whatever way we can. You help them to heal their mental and emotional wounds. Theo and Healer Marjorie will help them to heal any lasting physical harm, though as Shifters, there should be none of that. Still, you never know. Tony, Ralph and Remy will help to rebuild the Pack structure and the Pack home and lands. We will help them to be the strong, healthy leaders that we know they can be so the Pack can become the strong, healthy family it was meant to be.” She smiled at Rissa. “Now, help me set the table, please, Sweetheart, and call everyone in. I think Lia is in her studio, the children are at the treehouse, and your father is in the greenhouse. Shari-Beth is out with Joshua, I think. If you will get your father and Lia, I will take care of the children.”

  Rissa kissed her mother’s cheek, then picked up the chicken and carried it into the dining room. After helping to bring out the rest of the food, she headed out the front door to find her father and sister. As she stepped outside, she saw them coming towards the house arm-in-arm. They were laughing about something, and Rissa saw Lia briefly rest her head on her father’s arm. Rissa smiled. It was so good to have her twin home. The fourteen years she had been gone were torture. Now she was back, getting reacquainted with her family, friends and the town of Valerian’s Cove. Already the shadows were gone from under her eyes and she had lost the gaunt, hunched over posture and exhaustion from her face. Lia fairly glowed with newfound happiness. Getting reacquainted with the new Alpha might have had something to do with that, too.

  Rissa waved from the tops of the steps. “Mom just sent me to come get you two! Dinner’s on the table,” she informed the duo. They picked up the pace, climbing the steps. Brendan Casey stepped between his daughters, giving them both a squeeze and a kiss on the top of their heads. He was extremely happy to have both of his girls, and their children, home again, for as long as they were willing to stay. Brendan opened the front door and bowed the girls through. They laughed, curtseying in reply. Stamping feet from the kitchen accompanied by loud voices announced the arrival of the children. Everyone was talking as they sat down to the dinner table. Once seated, they were all quiet for a moment, with heads bowed, as Brendan said Thanks for the food, and to Celine for cooking. Then noise erupted again as dishes were passed and food was served.

  “Mom, school starts next week!” Milena told Rissa. “We need to make sure that Allie and Ian and Shari-Beth have all their things! It’s so exciting that they changed the rules and we can start the Academy in sixth grade now! I can’t wait!” Lena was bouncing in her seat.

  It was true-the academy had lowered the age of admittance this year. Previously, children had begun school at Valerian’s Cove Academy at thirteen. The Regents had recently decided that it would be better to start around eleven, especially since that was when young witches magic started manifesting itself. Usually. There were cases where it came in later, or, as in the case of Marissa and Malia, at a very young age. Still, the Regents had decided that, especially with more Shifters in town needing to learn to interact with other magical beings in a healthy, respectful way, magical training should begin at a younger age. This meant that the two younger Casey sets of twins would be starting the Academy this year. Shari-Beth, Marissa and Malia’s newly adopted sister, would be starting as well. Fall term did indeed start the following Monday, the last Monday in August. Both sets of younger twins would turn eleven in October, just making the cut-off for starting the Academy this year.

  “We can go shopping this weekend,” Lia told the children, “If that works for you, Rissa?” She turned to her own twin. Rissa nodded. “That should fine. Grandmama bought you all the clothes you could possibly wear when she was here this summer, and shoes to match, but you will all need basic spell components, notebooks, pens and that kind of stuff. Mariellen has all of that at Curiosi
ty.”

  Rissa’s school friend, Mariellen McCormick, owned the local apothecary in town. She carried a special line of supplies catering to the Academy students. Her parents had owned the store before her. They were off traveling the world now, enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

  “What kind of spell stuff do we need?” Allie asked. The children jumped in to a lively conversation, interspersed with references to popular young adult literature featuring magical characters. Soon the entire table was laughing at their enthusiasm. Marissa and Malia told stories about their time at the Academy, with Brendan, a history professor there, joining in. Shari-Beth, a Falcon Shifter, asked about the Shifter classes.

  After dinner everyone helped clear, then Marissa and Malia cleaned up. The children dried the dished and put them away before rushing up the stairs to their rooms. Lia came up beside Rissa and gave her a hug. “How was your day?” she asked.

  “It was hard,” Rissa replied. “Those poor women. Tony will have a lot of work to do, to make that Pack healthy again. If it ever was in the first place.”

  Lia nodded. “I know. He’s working really hard on it. Ralph and Remy are an immense help. There is just so much to do.” She frowned, her forehead wrinkling. Rissa hugged her back. It was hard on her twin, having finally gotten together with Tony, only to have to share him with all of this additional responsibility almost immediately. Still, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Lia understood about responsibility to those you love, and to your family. She would help in any way she could, listen when he needed to talk about it, and hang in there. She really wanted this new relationship to work, even if it had to take a back burner to the Pack for a while.