Chapter 16

SWYN

I wake up slowly, the sunlight slicing through the curtains and nudging me awake. My head's still a little foggy from last night—too much mind blowing sex, not enough sleep—but I'm warm, cocooned in the blankets, and the bed feels…oddly cosy.

I smile, stretching my legs beneath the sheets. Kel should be here next to me. The last thing I remember is curling up against him, his arm pulling me closer after?—

My hand reaches out and hits fur. Not skin— fur.

My eyes snap open. I jerk upright, heart pounding as I look down. There, sprawled lazily across the bed, taking up way too much room is a dog . Not just any dog. The dog.

The same damn mutt that's been following me around for days. His scruffy face is resting on Kel's pillow, tail thumping like he's thrilled about this whole situation.

I scream.

It's an instant, gut-wrenching reaction. I scramble backward, almost falling out of the bed, hands flying to my chest to make sure I'm at least still dressed—I'm not.

The dog startles, but before I can fully process it, something fucking weird happens.

The fur ripples, muscles shift, and the dog starts to... morph . Bones snap and crack into place, fur shrinking into skin. What was once the scruffy brown dog is now... a man.

And not just any man.

"Kel?" I gasp, choking on my own breath. Kel is sitting on my bed, blinking at me like this is no big deal.

I scream again, louder this time. "What the actual fuck in frostbite is this?!"

He lifts his hands in front of him, palms up, as if that's supposed to calm me down. "Swyn, wait?—"

"No! No, no, no!" I'm off the bed in a heartbeat, grabbing my dress from the floor, yanking it and my boots on as fast as possible. My fingers are trembling, making it almost impossible to function. I don't care. My heart is in my throat, racing, pounding, hurting.

He's still trying to talk, to explain , but I'm not listening. Not a single word. A dog. A man. He was a dog, and now he's Kel? What in the?—

I barely get my boots on before I bolt for the door. He calls after me, but I slam it shut behind me and fly down the hallway toward the motel reception. My mind's spinning.

Kel…dog-Kel…none of this makes sense.

Am I dreaming? Is this some kind of twisted joke? I'm no stranger to magic, but I've never known anyone wake up in bed beside a dog that turns into a man before!

I push through the door into the lobby and skid to a stop. My eyes land on Kel, who's leaning casually against the counter, flipping through some pamphlets about local hiking trails like everything is totally normal.

"What—?" I start, breathless and disoriented. "Kel?"

He looks up, a smile breaking across his face as a bold, leather scent envelopes me in its normally comforting embrace. It's not working today though.

"Morning, Swyn. You alright?"

I blink at him. Shake my head. Take a step backwards.

What the hell is going on ?

"But you—" My mind struggles to piece together what I just saw. "You were in bed with me last night, and then?—"

Before I can finish, the front door bursts open. Kel comes charging in, completely naked except for a towel that's barely covering him. Okay. That's clearly the Kel from my bedroom, dog-Kel, so who the hell is this guy in the corner who looks and smells like Kel?

Dog-Kel's eyes are wild with panic as they land on me. "Swyn, wait, I can explain?—"

"Kel?!" I shout, whipping my head between the two of them. One Kel, fully dressed and calm; another Kel, completely fucking naked, clutching a towel like his life depends on it.

My brain short-circuits.

And then the door creaks again.

Another fucking Kel walks in, this one wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, looking just as confused as I feel. He freezes when he sees me, towel-Kel, and pamphlet-Kel standing in the room.

"Oh, for God's sake, really ?" he mutters, running a hand through his hair.

"What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?" My voice comes out as a snarl. My hands are trembling, but I refuse to back down. I've seen too much weird crap in the last five minutes to pretend this is remotely normal.

"How are there three of you?!"

Towel-Kel sighs, stepping forward like he's ready to defend himself. As soon as he gets closer, I smell the vetiver.

Oh god. The three of them all smell different. They're different people. Fuck. How did I not notice?

"Okay, okay, just calm down?—"

" Calm down ?!" I snap, my voice rising an octave. "I just woke up next to a dog that turned into you, and now there are three of you standing here like it's just another Tuesday! Two of you are practically naked! I slept with one of you! What the hell am I supposed to do?!"

My heart is thundering in my chest, rage and panic flooding every corner of my mind.

Pamphlet-Kel, leather-scent guy, steps towards me now, hands up in a placating gesture. "It's not what you think. We can explain?—"

"Can you? Because I'm pretty sure nothing you say will make sense right now!" I look between the three identical faces—one calm, one nervous, and one just plain annoyed — wondering if I'm overreacting, especially because I've not exactly been forthcoming about telling Kel that I'm a witch invading his hometown in an attempt to break a centuries-old curse.

But the sneer on boxers-Kel's face riles me up.

"One of you is a freakin' dog?"

"Uh…" Naked-Kel glances at the others, awkward. "Yeah. About that…"

Boxers-Kel sighs heavily. "It's complicated, Swyn." He crosses his arms, clearly the more serious of the three. "We can explain everything, but you have to promise to hear us out."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, you better explain, because I am five seconds away from losing my goddamn mind. Have we all met before? You know I thought there was only one of you, right?"

A horrible thought hits me. Have I kissed more than one of these brothers? "Oh god," I groan.

Naked-Kel steps forward again, this time with an almost pleading look.

"We didn't want to lie to you, Swyn. Not about who we are. Not about me... shifting into the dog. It's just... complicated. But it's us. It's still me. The same guy you met."

I stare at him. "The same guy... except sometimes you're a dog . And I thought you were him!" I cry pointing to pamphlet-Kel. Leather-scent guy was definitely the first one I met. And the guy I kissed.

I slept with Vetiver Kel, which means the guy in his boxers, scowling at me was the asshole who smelt like tobacco.

Fuck. My. Life.

"Yeah," he admits, sheepish. "My brothers can shift too."

"You're all dogs?"

"Hellhounds actually."

What. The. Fuck.

This has to be some kind of joke, right?

I glance around waiting for the camera crews to jump out and yell ‘gotcha' but my gaze lands back on the three guys before me, they're all wearing deadly-serious expressions.

Matching deadly-serious expressions.

"Who the hell are you, and why?—"

"We're triplets," Boxers-Kel interrupts with a scowl, as if that's supposed to make this all better. "Identical triplets in case you didn't notice."

I blink at him, then at the other two. "You're... identical triplets? All of you are Kel?"

Obviously not, Swyn, they're three different people. What mother would name triplets the same thing? Get a grip!

Towel-Kel winces. "Sort of. I'm Sol. He's Kel," he points to Pamphlet-Kel. "And that's Ri," he gestures to Boxers-Kel. "We didn't... mean for you to find out like this."

I stare at him, my brain completely fried at this point. "Sol, Kel, and Ri?"

Pamphlet-Kel— actual Kel—shrugs. "Technically, I'm Celio Kelani, but I mostly go by Kel. Sol is Elio Solis, and Ri is Adria Kallan."

My mouth opens, but no words come out. I look around at the three of them, my mind trying to grasp the insanity of it all. The only thing that comes out is, "You all have different last names?"

Kel shakes his head. "No, we're the Accardis."

"Full names? How formal," I snort, verging on hysteria and looking to rely on humour to keep me from losing my shit.

"Figured you should know who you're sleeping around with," Ri deadpans, with a disapproving curl to his lip.

"I am not sleeping around!" I bark, before whirling on Sol. "You've got to be kidding me. You slept with me knowing that I thought you were your brother, and now your freaking triplet is trying to turn this situation against me and slut shame me? When I was a freaking virgin until you came along!"

Ri's eyes narrow, his arms crossing over his chest as he glares at me, his jaw clenched tight.

"Oh, please," he spits out. "Don't act all innocent now. You're the one who couldn't tell the difference between us."

My blood boils. "I was a little distracted with the whole ‘waking up next to a dog that turned into a person' thing, Ri! Excuse me if I wasn't ready for a pop quiz on who's who among the magical triplets!"

Kel steps forward, raising his hands between us like he's trying to mediate.

"Swyn, listen, we didn't mean for this to happen. Sol wasn't supposed to?—"

"I wasn't supposed to, what?" Sol interrupts, his voice tight. "I didn't plan for this either, alright? It just... happened. She's mine."

"That's rich," I snap, turning to Sol now. "You let me think you were him . You didn't say anything. Not one word. I'm not yours. I'm not anyone's. Just because we spent one night together doesn't give you some right to claim me. And now, this asshole is acting like I'm some kind of—" I fling my hand toward Ri, whose expression sours even more.

Ri cuts in sharply. "I'm just saying, maybe you shouldn't have jumped into bed with a guy you barely know. Especially when that guy wasn't even who you thought he was. And you kissed his brother."

The venom in his voice makes my chest tighten, and before I can stop myself, I take a step closer to him.

"You don't get to judge me. You don't know me. You don't know what I've been through." My voice shakes, but I stand firm, glaring up at him. "I didn't ask for this... mess . I didn't ask for any of you to barrel into my life."

Ri scoffs, his gaze hardening as he steps closer, looming over me. Rich, smoky, sophisticated tobacco invades my senses. I'm sure I didn't kiss this guy. I'm certain it was Kel, not him. Please don't let it be him. Please.

"You're right. I don't know you. But what I do know is that people like you —people who just stumble into things they don't understand—end up making everything worse for everyone else."

"People like me?" I hiss, my hands balling into fists. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He smirks, leaning in just a little, his voice dropping dangerously low.

"You know exactly what I mean, witch."

The word hits me like a slap. My heart skips a beat as the room seems to tilt around me. He knows. How the hell does he know?

I open my mouth to argue, but no sound comes out. My mind is spinning, scrambling for a defence, but all I can do is stare at him, wide-eyed and exposed.

Kel's voice cuts through the tension. "Ri, enough."

Ri doesn't move. His eyes are still locked on mine, sharp and unyielding. "No, Kel, I think she needs to hear this. She's been hiding something from all of us. Haven't you, Swyn?"

The air is thick, suffocating. My pulse races as panic grips my chest. I want to deny it, to tell him he's wrong, but the truth is clawing its way to the surface, and I know—deep down—I can't keep this up much longer.

I take a shaky breath, but before I can answer, Ri speaks again, his voice a cold, unforgiving edge. "Tell him. Tell him why you're really here."

The buzzing in my ears is so loud, the room is spinning and the ground feels like I'm on deck in a stormy sea.

"Back off, Ri." Sol demands. "She's freaking out."

"I don't care," he snaps back.

"I can't take this," I mumble as another wave of nausea washes over me and the room starts to spin. The blood rushes to my head, my heart is racing so fast I swear it might explode.

Triplets. Dogs. Frickin' Hellhounds?!

"What the actual fuck have I gotten myself into?" I murmur before the world turns black and I crash to the floor.