Chapter Two
“Have you picked one yet?”
Autumn rolled her eyes at her mother’s question. Ire boiled in her blood.
She looked around the coven’s house and wondered where she could hide. The humungous couch she sat on was comfy enough, but perhaps she could escape to one of the bedrooms on the second floor? Maybe excuse herself to the giant kitchen the coven used on special occasions? Frankly, any room in this enormous house the coven used as a base would be better than in the very room her mother occupied. Not that she wasn’t strong enough or ballsy enough to go head-to-head with her mother. It was just that she really didn’t want to right now.
After a day of overseeing coven business, all she wanted to do was take a bubble bath and drink a glass of wine.
“No, because this isn’t like picking new bed sheets at the store, Mother. It’s picking out a husband. There’s no return policy if I accidentally choose one I end up not liking.”
“You have to pick a warlock husband before you can take over the coven. Stop dallying and choose someone already!”
Autumn shook her head at her mother’s antics. “It’s not as easy as you make it seem. Whoever I pick, I’m stuck with for the rest of my life.”
Witches and warlocks didn’t believe in divorce. In fact, when they took their oaths on their wedding day, it was a binding spell. Death was the only way out. If she married a man who she later came to realize was an asshole … God, that would be a miserable life.
Her anxiety rose at the thought of that sort of future. It felt like invisible hands were wrapped around her throat, squeezing the life out of her.
She looked around the coven’s living room, desperate for an answer to her problems. Or a distraction. Hell, even something she could throw at her mother’s head to shut her the hell up would work. Anything so she didn’t have to have this conversation! Not that she didn’t love her mom, but she was in a situation she didn’t want to be in. Not just the marriage for convenience part, but the reason she had to get married at all—head witch in charge.
Every generation, a new head witch in charge was chosen to lead the Gray Coven. Upon Autumn’s birth, the elders had bestowed the title on her. She had known her entire life that one day she would lead. That didn’t mean she wanted to.
She wanted to run the coven about as much as she wanted to turn herself into a big fat toad. Not that anyone would listen to her. In fact, she didn’t have a bone in her body that wanted to lead this coven, although she was already doing it in many ways.
Since their current head witch in charge was always in and out of a coma, Autumn had been forced to step up and run the coven at age nineteen. It had been a hard, grueling two years, and she was worn out. Especially since she hadn’t had all the proper training to run the coven yet. It just made doing her job that much more frustrating.
What she really wanted was a family.
Some might say she was too young to think that way. However, at twenty-one, Autumn didn’t think herself too young.
When she was a child, while other witches were pretending evil cackles and battle spells, she had been playing house with her dolls and a frog prince. Of course, her frog prince wasn’t really a prince, but Autumn had been a dreamer. Happy ever afters were her thing.
She wanted the love of her life, not a marriage of convenience.
She couldn’t even imagine having children with a virtual stranger. How awkward was that? Hey, honey, I know we got married for our covens, but let’s have lots of babies!
With her luck, the warlock she married wouldn’t want children at all.
That dismal thought dropped her mood even further, and suddenly, Autumn felt the need to get the hell out of there.
Standing up from the couch, she looked her mother in the eye and did something she had never done—told her exactly what she was thinking.
“I love you with every bone in my body, Mother, but this is the last thing I want. I don’t care what you say, or what the elders have deemed, I don’t want to marry some random warlock to make everyone else happy.”
“And if you don’t fulfill your destiny, then who will? Besides, we don’t know how much longer Fiona will hang on.”
Fiona was the current head witch in charge and pushing eighty years old. Most witches didn’t live that long. The coven’s doctors didn’t think she had much more time on this earth and stressed the importance of Autumn getting ready to take over. That didn’t mean Autumn was ready for all the terms of her taking over the coven. Or the fact that her mother had seemed to go a wee bit crazy about it all, such as now, as she stood glaring at Autumn, as if she could personally will her to pick a warlock husband that very second.
Autumn ran frustrated hands through her hair. “Someone who doesn’t care about marrying a perfect stranger just because the coven told them they had to! Did it ever occur to you that I want more than that, Mother? That I want love and a family?”
Her mother pointed an accusing finger at her. “You were raised to take over this coven, young lady. Born to lead! This coven will depend on your decisions to take us into the future.”
It was Autumn’s turn to point an accusing finger. “And what if I want love more than I want to lead? I don’t see why the two have to be mutually exclusive. I can run this coven, do the finances, and manage all its members just fine without having a warlock husband picked out.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, her mother gave her a determined glare. “You have responsibilities to this coven, Autumn.”
Knowing her mother was right, yet still hating every word she had uttered, Autumn brushed past her and headed toward the front door. “And they can wait until morning. I’m going out for a drink. See you later.” With that, she shut the door behind her, muffling her mother’s protests, and headed off into the night.
Autumn needed to get away from there before she said or did something she would regret. Like tell the coven to fuck off.