Moona narrowed her gaze on Harkin as he pushed his angry, nearly spitting daughter back and behind him. He turned to Jared and her hackles rose at Harkin’s smirk.
Jared was the picture of calm, but Moona knew on the inside he was seething… and waiting. Her mate was very, very good at waiting.
Harkin was already dead. He just didn’t know it. Jared would not show him mercy this time.
“As you can see, Jared, there are quite a few of us who think you aren’t doing a good job of leading the pack. But we’re not unreasonable. We’re willing to let you and your fake-wolf mate leave of your own accord. Moona’s father once offered me mercy. I’m offering it now to you.”
“Not interested.” Jared looked around at the people watching and then swung a glare to Harkin. “Where would you lead our people, Harkin? The answer is nowhere. Following you is to follow a path of needless death and destruction. Werewolves need to move into peace on their own before the dragons decide to make us do so. The apex predators of our world are dedicated to peace now and they will have it one way or the other. We would be fools to challenge their example. Even a baby dragon could fry any pack’s whole village.”
Harkin laughed “You have a wolf mate who isn’t a real wolf. You make deals with a Dragon Witch who isn’t a real dragon. Wolves should not forget that they are predators as well. All you can speak of is cowardice and letting others dictate how we live.”
“Peace leads to happy safe children and productive packs. All you speak of is destruction and senseless war with others of our kind,” Jared said. He shook his head but his gaze was fixed on Harkin. “I can’t let you keep doing it. If you came to fight, let’s fight. Just know that I seek your death this time.”
“And I seek yours,” Harkin said, giving a nod to someone.
Moona turned just as a human Jared was dragged down by a dozen wolves before he could even shift. They’d been so busy looking in front of them at Harkin and his waiting posse that they hadn’t heard any of them moving behind them.
It was despicable behavior. It was unfair and it was wrong. The sneak-attack wolves were purposely keeping Jared too busy to shift.
This fight was turning out to be everything she’d feared it would be. Their supporters stood watching in fear. Jared’s beta was nowhere in sight. She turned to Harkin and growled in warning.
“You have no honor.”
“I have strength in numbers. That’s better than honor,” Harkin said coldly, smiling at Jared fighting alone.
Moona felt her wolf take over. As she was changing, she heard Harkin laugh. Silencing him was all she could think of doing. Beth’s wolf hit her from the side, knocked her down, and kept her from going for his throat.
She bounded back up and rounded to face the she-wolf. Enough, Moona thought. They’d gotten by with enough already. She bared her canines and lunged. She ripped off an ear and then bit hard into Beth’s shoulder. The she-wolf whined in pain.
With teeth still embedded in Beth, she picked up the smaller wolf and threw her over the heads of those watching. The crowd of wolves still in their human forms had to dodge the flying body. When the crowd parted to see where Beth landed, Moona saw that the she-wolf lay still where she’d been tossed.
Moona morphed back to her human form and met Harkin eye-to-eye. He hadn’t even looked at where his daughter fell. He was too busy watching his followers take down Jared. “You don’t love her, do you? Beth was just a pawn.”
“She was my child—my best tool. But no tool is irreplaceable. Once I am alpha, I will make more children with whatever she-wolves I want. Beth got me here to this point. I will always revere her for that.”
Moona felt a red haze drop over her eyes. Words of power rose in her mind. She let them take her over as she returned to wolf once more. From the reactions of the spectators, she was guessing her wolf had changed some in the last shift. She wished she could see herself.
“Do you think I fear witch magic and false werewolves?” Harkin asked.
“You should, but you’re too big of a fool to do so,” said a hard voice behind him.
Harkin turned to face an angry Willa and glared at her. “What options do you think you have here as a human? Be gone, Healer, or die along with them.”
“Or I can fight to free the pack like the rest of my family is doing,” Willa said. “Let’s go with option number three.”
Moona saw Willa run to Harkin and slap something to his chest. She spoke words of power and magic shot from her fingers into whatever it was. Harkin yelled when his body jerked in pain. He backhanded Willa in retaliation. The blow sent her flying into a nearby tree.
Moona watched as Willa’s body fell to the ground and didn’t move. Willa. Panic swept through her. Moona’s breath became short, choppy, and her howl was tortured as she mourned her sister’s pain. She walked toward Harkin with a different intent now. He would die. He would die for hurting the people she loved.
Glancing at Jared, she could see him tiring. He wasn’t going to be able to hold off the first twelve alone, much less the twelve who were standing by Harkin and watching.
I am here.
Moona, even as a wolf, heard Sha calling out to her. She wasn’t used to thinking as a human in her wolf form yet, but she needed only one word to make her intentions clear to Sha.
Liger.
In seconds, Sha’s liger roar had all the spectators running to escape her. Sha didn’t even look at Moona. She went straight for the wolves a still human Jared fought alone. She lifted one in her jaws and crushed him while he screamed. She spit what was left of him in the direction of three others who fell away as their broken comrade knocked them down.
Sha roared again—a clear warning. Some of the wolves heeded it and scrambled to regroup.
Sha stood by Jared and guarded him while he caught his breath. Moona saw him finally, finally shift to his wolf. He would heal the damage the wolves had inflicted to his human form now. Shifting always helped.
Then she stopped worrying about her mate and put her attention back on the source of all their problems.
End this, Sha advised.
Moona was in perfect agreement.
15
“What the hell is that monster?” Harkin yelled. “Stop staring and kill it, you idiots.”
The men standing with Harkin reluctantly shifted to wolves and headed for Sha as a unified group. Moona growled in warning.
They cannot hurt me much, Moona. Don’t concern yourself with me. End this senseless fight.
Sha’s urging left Moona no choice but to hope Sha and Jared could handle two dozen wolves together.
Moona turned red eyes to Harkin who was now standing alone. Again, she advanced on the instigator of this fight.
Harkin made a face, looked at his arms, and then looked down at his chest. He clawed at what Willa had put there, but whatever it was, it had been embedded. Finally, he managed to yank it free, but blood covered him as he sank to the ground.
Moona watched the amulet her mother had given all those years ago roll across the dirt. It slowly turned to black. Moments later, it turned to dust.
“If that healer bitch was still alive, I’d kill her all over again,” Harkin screamed. “My wolf. What the hell did she do to my wolf?”
Moona growled at his words. And then she dove on the man who was the cause of all the pack’s pain.
Harkin squirmed and screamed when her teeth clamped around his throat. She was blocking his airway. Soon he’d pass out, but he wouldn’t die. She didn’t want him to die. She wanted him to suffer, to hurt, to feel the loss of all hope. That’s what Harkin deserved.
All fighting stopped as she dragged the squirming, still human Harkin over to Jared’s wolf. She slung him at her mate’s legs. Jared was breathing hard and drooling with every snarl as he looked down at Harkin. Her mate was the most vicious, ferocious alpha in the world. If he wanted peaceful werewolves, she had no doubt Jared would find a way to achieve that goal, even if he had to kick every pack member’
s contrary ass.
Moona sat and sent up an ear-splitting howl of triumph. It was the only way she could think of to give Jared time to think.
What she heard back in answer to her call weren’t wolves in agreement, but rather dragons calling out, along with the yells of many other creatures.
Startled, Moona looked up and up, as did Sha, Jared, and all the wolves. Above their heads, dragons circled and breathed fire.
Moona was smiling when she morphed back to her human self. The magic charm swung against her naked breasts. She’d forgotten about it as a wolf. Her animal side didn’t want human thoughts influencing it, but it would have to adapt to her—just as she would to adapt to being wolf.
Pack spectators had tried to escape the fight—or rather they had tried to escape from Sha—but they’d been pushed back toward the fight instead. Pushing them back was every manner of creature she’d ever known or helped or visited. Beyond them, dragons guarded the perimeter of the village.
Even the new fairy king and queen stood off to the side, watching and waiting to see what was going to happen. Moona nodded to them once. It was hard to offer proper royal protocol when you were stark naked. Fortunately, Queen Leelu and King Nathaniel weren’t nearly as stuffy as Queen Arraign had been.
Fully human again, the bloodlust receded and her mind recalled what it had painfully set aside as wolf.
“Willa,” Moona whispered, turning to run to her sister—a sister she hadn’t even been able to confront.
Moona stooped to the ground and felt for a pulse. It was faint but there. Willa lived but her body was old and fragile. Hitting that tree so hard would have given her internal injuries. She probably wouldn’t last for long.
“No, no, no, no,” Moona chanted. She put her hand around the charm. “Give me access to whatever level of witch power will help me fix my sister.”
Her hand left the charm as lightning flashed through her. A thousand voices chanting strange words filled her already jumbled mind.
Moona gasped and turned at the vicious snarl behind her.
Her hand flew up in self-defense of the lunging wolf headed for her throat. “Bi cloch!” Moona yelled without even knowing what she said.
Beth in wolf form turned immediately to stone and fell to the ground.
Moona glanced at the downed wolf. Her hand went to her charm. One wish. She had one wish left. She had to use it on Willa since her wish for herself hadn’t worked.
She stood and looked for Jared. He was human once more and dragging a mostly unconscious human Harkin around by the throat. He was walking an alpha circle of victory with the man. He would do a lot to Harkin’s body before he killed him. Harkin would die as an example of how much trouble a bad wolf could bring down on himself.
Moona stood and gently lifted Willa in her arms. The crowd parted for her. Some in reverence. Some in fear.
What they felt didn’t matter at the moment. Only saving Willa mattered.
She stopped by Jared.
“Who killed her?” he asked, his gaze scanning the crowd.
“Willa’s not dead yet, but she’s not far from it. Harkin gave it his best shot, but she got to him first. I think she used the amulet my parents gave me to stop Harkin from shifting.”
Jared looked down. “It hardly seems fair to kill him if he’s never going to be a wolf again.”
Moona looked down at Harkin and then back at her mate. “I appreciate your efforts to be as fair as possible, but Harkin stood by while two dozen wolves attacked you. He wouldn’t let you shift to fight. He ignored his daughter getting hurt. He was going to make more of her by forcing the females in the pack to have his children. Do you honestly think there’s anything redeemable in his character? My father made that mistake already. We don’t have to.”
“Right. We’re done with him.” Jared brought the man up and twisted his neck until it broke. He threw Harkin’s now completely dead body down. “What can I do to help Willa?”
“Lock us in the house together. Put Sha to stand guard. Find your beta if he still lives and round up any others who supported Harkin. Take care of pack business today. Tomorrow…” Moona drew in a deep breath. “Hopefully, tomorrow we can start our new life.”
“What are you going to do about Willa?” Jared asked.
Moona swallowed hard. “Whatever I have to do to save her.” She fought back tears. “I know she’s old. I know she may die. But I have to try.”
“Of course, you do.” Jared reached out both of his bloody hands and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. He was careful not to lean against Willa as he got close. “Where’s Beth’s body? I want to put her on display next to Harkin.”
Moona stared into her mate’s patient eyes. “There’s no human body for you to display, but Beth’s wolf can be the centerpiece of your new peace memorial. Her resistance to peace, and what it cost her, will become a legend in our pack.”
“What does that mean?” Jared asked as he watched his mate walk off.
“That Wolf Witches get really crazy when people try to kill them,” Moona said over her shoulder.
Sha’s bobcat howl of support brought a satisfied smile to her face.
16
She put Willa in a small bedroom next to the one she and Jared would hopefully get to share.
Sha in liger form had shown up moments after she got to the house with Willa’s medicine bag clenched in her teeth. The liger dropped it at the door and changed to bobcat to drag it inside to her.
Moona smiled at the bobcat. She was sorry now for every awful thought she’d ever had about her familiar.
“Thanks for bringing my medicine bag, Sha, but she’s too far gone. I don’t think anything in there is going to help Willa. This is going to require a whole lot more than an herbal potion.”
Moona, I walked to the village with Willa. She said there would be a price to pay if you used the charm to heal anyone.
“It’s okay. Come here for a minute.” Moona sat on the floor by the bed and motioned Sha over for a scratch behind her ears. She said nothing until the bobcat purred in gratitude. “Thanks for all your help today. I won’t ever forget you saved Jared’s life. You’re my hero, Sha.”
I was sent to help you. I was doing my job. Your mate is absolutely necessary to your happiness and success.
“He certainly is,” Moona agreed. “Look, I have to do this, but you don’t want to be here when I use my last wish. My magic isn’t predictable. I made you a liger accidentally. I was trying to save Willa when I ended up turning Beth into a statue. Why don’t you go sit outside the front door? Keep everyone out except for Jared and the Jezibaba.”
Elenora the Dragoness, you mean, Sha corrected. Elenora is her Dragon Witch name.
“Right. I need to work on that, don’t I? Remind me again later. Scoot now. Willa’s fading and I need to do this before it’s too late.”
After Sha had left, Moona got to her knees and knelt by the bed. She took Willa’s limp, fragile hand in hers.
“I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but in case I screw up what I’m about to do, there are a couple things we need to get straight. It starts with me saying I’m going to kick your ugly old witch ass if you ever lie to me or keep anything important from me again. I spent over forty years of my life trying to fix what you did to me. If you’d just told me, maybe you wouldn’t be dying right now.”
She sighed loudly at her desire to rant. Being angry wasn’t going to help.
“I’m sorry. I know you had reasons. I know you were doing what Mom and Dad wanted. But damn it, Willa. They were gone and you should have trusted me. All I have left of my family is you.”
Moona fought off a sob and rubbed her eyes with her free hand.
“The other thing I need to say is that I love you. I should have told you that a hundred times before things got this bad, but I guess I figured you knew. You’ve been my teacher, my substitute mother, and my best friend. You were the home I always returned to. I have a lot of shit I have
to do, Willa. If I have to do it as a witch as well as a wolf, then I’m going to need some mean ass old crone to show me how. I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention when you offered to teach me before. Just please don’t leave me yet. I need you.”
Moona let go of Willa’s hands and stretched out her arms around her sister’s unmoving body. She wrapped her own body around Willa’s and held her close.
“In my head, some crazy voice is reciting a spell over and over. I have no idea what it is but I’m going to use it, Willa. It’s pretty dry and it won’t solve everything I want so I have to put my own spin on the magic. If this doesn’t work out well, please forgive me wherever you end up going in the afterlife. I hope you get to see Mom and Dad again.”
Moona straightened and rubbed the moisture from her eyes one final time. She took one of Willa’s hands in one of hers and pulled the charm from her shirt with the other.
She held the charm tight and felt the lightning surge through her once more. She loved that feeling. It felt like it was meant for her. Gaia willing, she would find it again on her own.
She understood that it all fit together—everything she’d done in her life did. Though it had taken a lot of time and a lot of journeys, she’d gotten everything she wanted and more.
But she’d lost so much—so very, very much.
Whatever this magical wish cost her, it couldn’t be any more than what Willa had paid. If anyone deserved to continue to walk this earth, it was her selfless, healing witch sister. Healing Willa was worth any cost.
Moona took a deep breath. “Thank you for the charm, Gaia… and for the advice from the Baba Yaga. I hope you’re hearing this,” she whispered.
And then she began…
I call to the North, the South, the West, the East.
I call to those of our lineage from greatest to least.
Send Willa the energy you left behind in the end.
Let her body be healed with it. Let a new life begin.
From the bondage of death, help me set Willa free.
Howl About It Page 8