The Gifted 1: Passions Awakening (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  The Gifted 1: Passions Awakening

  The first moment they lay eyes on her on the deck of the cruise ship Max Tanner and Tony Delvecchio are inexorably drawn to Cheri Ambrose. Born of The Gifted, humans possessed of incredible magic, Cheri was sent to New York to fulfill an ancient prophecy, to meet her two destined mates.

  Cheri doesn’t have much hope that Max and Tony will fall in love with her. She’s already seen how a lot of people treat plus-sized women, but she can’t help feeling stung when they think she's put a spell on them to compel their attraction—nevermind that it would be in violation of one of two sacred laws.

  Two things make Max and Tony rethink their suspicions: they discover they have magic inside of them, too. And there are two other men of power on the ship—men who are determined to do whatever it takes to prevent the prophecy from coming true.

  Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal

  Length: 47,130 words

  THE GIFTED 1:

  PASSIONS AWAKENING

  Cara Covington

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  THE GIFTED 1: PASSIONS AWAKENING

  Copyright © 2016 by Cara Covington

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-000-5

  First E-book Publication: January 2016

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of The Gifted 1: Passions Awakening by Cara Covington from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Cara Covington’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Cara Covington’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To my husband of 43 years and counting, David. Thank you for your endless encouragement, and love.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I am grateful to my readers for encouraging me to spread my wings, for trusting me to bring them something new. I am especially grateful to my street team, The Lusty Ladies. Y’all are so generous in your love and friendship. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

  Huge thanks go to my wonderful beta reader, Angie Buchanan Jones, for her insights and her attention to detail. World building is fun, but an author needs to communicate that world in a way the reader can easily envision. Angie, you really gave me confidence as I wandered into new and fascinating territory.

  Thank you to my VPA, Bea, from A Better Way To Write. Bea, you do all the things I should do but seriously can’t. Thanks for helping me look so good!

  Last but certainly not least, thank you to all the very talented and professional people at Siren-BookStrand. Y’all are a dream to work with. And huge thanks to my publisher, Amanda Hilton, for letting me try something new!

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  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

  About the Author

  THE GIFTED 1:

  PASSIONS AWAKENING

  CARA COVINGTON

  Copyright © 2016

  Prologue

  As Cheri Ambrose entered into the outer chamber of the Concilium from the north door, a tingling awareness shot through her. She looked up and gasped. Her best friends, who also happened to be her cousins and the sisters of her heart, had each also entered the building, each from a different point on the compass. Diana Reynolds had come in the south entrance, and even now, though clearly surprised to see she wasn’t alone, her confident stride never faltered.

  Meghan Clark, who’d entered from the east, stopped mid step, and looked from Cheri to Diana, confusion written across her so-easy-to-read face.

  “I know we’re pledged as sisters of the spirit, but you didn’t have to come and support me.” Diana chuckled. “Whatever it is the Concilium wants, I have no problem facing them on my own.”

  “Diana, you were summoned, too? And you, Cheri?” Megan shook her head. “Wow, I can barely fathom why I would have been called here, let alone all three of us together!”

  Cheri felt a ripple run down her spine. Precognition wasn’t one of her talents, but just then, she had to wonder. She looked at Diana and then focused on her other friend, Meghan.

  Meghan looked really worried. Cheri’s first instinct was to reassure her friend—her sister. “Well, we’ve always told our parents that are of the three,” Cheri said. Three was one of the most sacred of numbers in their society. In make-believe games, when they’d been children, they’d proclaimed themselves to be “of the three”—special, chosen for the great accomplishments of their generation.

  We were only children playing childhood games.

  Cheri put her focus back on the moment. Being called to appear before the Concilium was an unusual occurrence. She’d heard of only a few
cases of it ever happening. That she, along with the two women she called sister, would be called at the same time? She couldn’t begin to calculate the probability factor, even if she was inclined to do so.

  In the next heartbeat, fear seized her, and she reached out, tiny shafts of power sent from her core, seeking each member of her family. Had something happened to them? To all of them? Relief flooded her when the knowledge came that all who were close to her heart—her own family and those of her friends—were safe and sound. A sense of reassurance from all three of her own parents returned to her and settled over her.

  That’s strange. The dads and mom know whatever this is about. Encouragement, pride, and love, so much love, blanketed her, sent to her from them. And faith. They all believed in her, absolutely.

  “Something is definitely up.” Diana sounded just a bit unsure, a first for her.

  Cheri nodded and met Diana’s gaze and then Meghan’s. They, too, would have sought family, needing the assurance that their loved ones were all safe and unharmed. They, too, had likely received the same gift of love and confidence in return as she.

  “We didn’t know about each other being summoned until just now, but our parents all knew. That has to have been deliberate. I say, whatever has brought us here, whatever our fate is to be, we face it together.” Diana’s renewed confidence bolstered her own.

  “Agreed.” She looked at Meghan.

  “I’ll feel a whole lot better walking in, hand in hand, with the two of you.”

  Life-long best friends, they’d done everything together. Opening her senses, Cheri felt the power—so very much power she nearly became drunk on it. This moment fairly shimmered with tension and excitement. There had never been a moment like it in her entire life before.

  This moment felt like…destiny.

  Equal parts eager and cautious, she held out her left hand. Meghan curled her fingers around it, just as Diana, on the other side of Meghan, gave their mutual friend her right hand to hold.

  Yes, they were three. But in so many ways, they were one. Together, as one, they turned toward the door to the inner chamber. Cheri didn’t know what would happen next. Would there be a fanfare? An honor guard? She nearly snickered as her imagination, for just a minute, flew away with her.

  And then, quietly, the doors opened. Inside, a black maw revealed nothing of what awaited them. And then a sense of comfort washed over her.

  Enter, my children, and welcome. We have been expecting you.

  Bidden, comforted, and together, they stepped into their futures.

  Chapter 1

  Six Years Later

  The entire classroom full of second graders fairly vibrated with excitement. Cheri Ambrose took in this moment, a tiny snapshot in time, and stored it in her heart. Today, the last day of the school year, was always bittersweet for her.

  “Boys and girls, you may now open your end-of-year gifts.”

  Cheri stood at the head of the classroom, her gaze encompassing all thirty of her second grade pupils. She loved these kids, as she’d loved each and every one of the young ones who’d come through her classroom door since she’d been hired six years before to teach in this slightly rundown public school in the heart of New York City.

  Six years already. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the pace of life here in New York. Cheri’s attention was drawn back to her kids, to the gasps and squeals of delight as each child opened a gift chosen by her, especially for them.

  “Miss Ambrose! How did you know? This is the very book I’ve wanted for so long!” Cheri looked down at seven-year-old Melody. She was a sweet child who’d had very few gifts in her young life. She laid her hand on the girl’s head. “It must be magic,” Cheri said. “I saw that book and knew it was yours.”

  “Yes, it must be magic! Thank you! Black Beauty is big enough for me to read all summer long!”

  “You’re very welcome. In September, you’ll have to come visit me and tell me about your adventures with that story.”

  “I will, Miss Ambrose! I promise!”

  For the next ten minutes, Cheri was swamped by the eager seven and eight year olds, each one wanting, she knew, just one minute more of her time and attention. Her throat ached with the promise of tears as it always did on this day, and she didn’t know if she’d ever get used to that, either.

  Next year these precious children would move on to Tanya Ridgeway’s third grade class. Tanya was a good teacher, one who genuinely loved the kids, and knew how to put joy into her lessons.

  And she, Cheri, would have a brand-new class of children to fall in love with.

  Cheri had been shocked by many things since leaving the security of her homeland and coming here to this realm, but nothing shocked her more than the certain knowledge that some teachers not only hated their jobs they also abused their positions of trust by taking their own life frustrations out on their innocent little charges.

  Life here sure is a lot different than what I saw of their television programs back home. If she could have one wish, it would be to go back to her homeland, back to that moment six years before when she and her best friends stepped through the door into the inner sanctum of the Concilium.

  Would you really say no to the Sylph? Would you really say no to your destiny?

  Cheri frowned because it hadn’t been her own inner voice that had asked that question. No, it had sounded very much like her mother’s voice.

  For just an instant, her heart filled with homesickness. She missed her dads and her mom, missed them so keenly. Rare were the times when she felt their presence or heard their voices in her heart or in her mind.

  At least I get to see Diana and Meghan on a regular basis. They’d not been forbidden to be in touch or even visit one another whenever they needed to. However, they had been urged to settle in different places and to take up different lives.

  Whenever the isolation became too much for any of them, being together was done at the snap of a finger or the blink of an eye.

  The three of them hadn’t been forbidden to use their magic in this realm either—except for one very special circumstance. The one stipulation the Concilium had put on them made perfect sense.

  They had, however, been counseled to be very careful of displaying their power in a world that had grown suspicious and fearful of such displays. The one thing they’d learned before actually coming here, which had nearly brought her to tears, was also the one thing she really couldn’t accept completely.

  This realm doesn’t believe in magic anymore. What she and her friends had known of how life was lived, of the culture here in what was called western society, had all come from American modern media. There’d been so many programs and movies about werewolves, vampires, and witches that she and her cousins had been expecting a far different world than the one they’d come into.

  No, people really didn’t believe in magic anymore. Except for the children. Young children, babies, and even some animals knew the truth of things.

  Cheri was very much aware that was why she’d chosen to be a teacher and chosen to teach younger children. Most of these children were still capable of wonder, and excitement, and the pure, unadulterated joy of believing in a wealth of possibilities.

  The sound of a bell cut through her musings, and she was drawn back into the moment. Some of these kids would spend too much time alone over the next couple of months. Reality was harsh sometimes. She did what she could, where she could, to comfort and bolster them.

  One of the hardest lessons Cheri had ever had to learn was that, in this realm, a world so much more vast than her own, she had limitations. She couldn’t be all things to all children, no matter how her heart wished she could. It simply wasn’t possible, but even more so, it wasn’t wise.

  She clapped her hands together twice. Immediately the children calmed their chatter and turned their eyes to her.

  “Congratulations, each and every one of you, on a fantastic year! Play safe and smart and have a wonderful summer
. Class dismissed.”

  She’d positioned herself by the door and happily, if a little teary-eyed, received and returned the hugs her pupils gave her as they left, taking the next steps into their futures.

  The silence, when they were gone, was nearly deafening.

  It didn’t take her long to gather up the discarded wrapping paper from the year-end gifts she’d given the kids and to set the room to rights. They’d played a tidying game before she’d handed out her tokens to them.

  Finally she went to her desk and turned to face the empty room. The staff would gather for a brief meeting in just a few minutes, and then they, too, would be on summer vacation.

  Cheri planned to spend some time with each of her best friends. Otherwise, she had no definite plans. She never did.

  She’d been sent here for a reason—more than just to do what she could to uplift the lives that crossed her path. She really was of the three, in a way she’d never imagined in all the time they’d played their childhood games of make believe. She and her sisters had a destiny to fulfill.

  Sometimes, late at night, the loneliness would be fierce. In those nights, in the darkness, she reached out with her power, trying to see her tomorrows, wondering about the men who were out there, somewhere, in the night and in her future. She hungered for the sense of togetherness, like her parents had. She hungered to hold and be held, to love and be loved. She’d just turned twenty-seven. At home, this would have been a banner birthday. Twenty-seven was divisible by three, and three was the most sacred and magical of their numbers.