by Jayne Hawke
Sniffing the air again, I realised I hadn’t caught Cole’s scent at all. Not even a hint of it. Baring my teeth, I turned my attention to the fae that were backed against the stove and adjacent cupboards while Sky closed in on them.
“This isn’t right,” I growled.
Sky paused.
“I hate when you’re right.”
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Amy commanded.
“We’re arranging the uprising to give fae the land they are owed,” the smallest of the group said.
None of them were much past 5’6”; each had delicate bone structure with sharp edges and startling blue eyes. My guess was they were pixies, which meant they had needle-sharp teeth and were downright vicious in a fight. Nothing was quite as bad as elves, but pixies certainly came close.
“And the Apophis witch?” Amy pushed.
The pixies all looked at each other before giving Amy a puzzled look.
“We don’t have time to deal with a fae uprising,” Sky huffed.
“Let the council handle it,” I said.
Amy pursed her lips. Her eyes went glassy for a moment before she nodded.
“The council can deal with it. Our priorities are clear.”
The fae were always trying to take patches of the earth plane for themselves. That little group was nothing new. There was a chance that the council would call me in to put them down once we’d gotten Cole back, but I’d deal with it then.
9
“So, what now?” Briar asked.
“We keep looking,” I said.
“Where? How?” she pushed.
“I’ll try my guardian magic again. I have the shadow bond to Cole, too.”
“No,” Sky and Amy said in unison.
“You cannot headbutt your way through the witch’s magic,” Amy said gently.
I wanted to glare at her and argue. That was my Cole. He was out there and who knew how much pain and suffering he was going through. If headbutting my way through that awful dark magic was what it took, then that was what I would do.
“Someone must have seen something,” Adam said.
“We can dig into Natasha’s past. There might be a clue there,” Amy said.
I didn’t want to waste time chasing shadows, but I could see on everyone’s faces that I was outvoted. They weren’t entirely wrong. Looking into the bitch’s past was a good move and would give us some insight into how she thought, who she was connected to. That didn’t really make me feel any better. I wanted to be moving, fighting.
I pulled out my phone and opened up the Grim. Throwing myself into the new task, I did what I could to focus. The longer Cole was trapped wherever he was, the harder I had to work to be calm and rational.
I put Natasha’s name into the search bar on the site and found her profile immediately. Her profile picture practically screamed pack princess with the heavy filters and smug smile on her face. My lip curled and a snarl bubbled up unbidden. Briar pulled away a little.
I calmed myself, not wanting to upset the younger garou. She had done nothing wrong, quite the opposite. Alphas were supposed to be in control of themselves and look out for their pack.
Looking down through Natasha’s obnoxious posts only irritated me further. She had been in my home. She had run her hands over my Cole. She had taken him from me.
After a few posts about how amazing her life was, and something about expensive shoes, I noticed that two people commented on every post. A Cleo, and an Ellie. I clicked on Cleo’s profile and saw a mousy garou with desperation in her eyes. Her profile showed she was the bottom rung of her pack, and I bet that Natasha offered her something more. She could be my in.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I tried to decide if it was a good idea to contact her via my profile. Would Natasha have talked about me?
Putting all of that aside, I sent her a quick PM saying I was worried about Natasha. She’d just disappeared.
It probably didn’t sound very sincere, but I’d tried. It was difficult to pretend to be worried about the bitch who kidnapped your life-bond.
“Briar, can you hold Rosalyn down? She’s vibrating and it’s really distracting,” Sky said.
“We’re almost home,” Adam said.
“And if Rosalyn doesn’t calm down, we’re going to crash before we get there.”
I glared at the witch. I was on edge, but I wasn’t that bad. The Grim hadn’t offered up much. Natasha’s profile had been too locked down, and her friends’ were even worse. I kept refreshing and waiting for a PM notification that never came. It had been a slim chance, I knew that when I tried. Still, it meant that I had nothing productive to focus on, and that left me with a lot of nervous energy.
“Why don’t you guys go for a run?” Amy asked.
Ever the diplomat. I appreciated her role in the pack. She knew how to smooth things out and bring a little light to the darkness.
I slowed my breathing and tried to focus on happy positive things. Amy was right. A run would do us good. We hadn’t really spent much time together in our wolf forms.
“Don’t worry. We’ll keep digging into Natasha and what we can find about this Apophis witch,” Amy said with a warm smile.
I ignored the feeling that I was being sent away. That was just my anxiety talking. Amy was being a good friend, and I needed to stop being a dick and let her help us. She was pack, too, now.
Sky’s phone rang for the third time in five minutes. The witch rolled her eyes.
“My coven is trying to get hold of me. If they’re this determined, I’m probably in trouble.”
“Why don’t you answer?” Amy asked.
“I’m driving,” Sky said with a grin.
“So, you’re avoiding them,” Briar said with a laugh.
Sky shrugged.
“We don’t always agree on the best way to approach things.”
I looked pointedly at Briar.
“Packs work differently,” I said.
Briar held up her hands.
“I’ll behave.”
“A coven isn’t so different from a pack. We all have our place, and we’re supposed to listen to the leaders,” Sky said.
Amy snorted.
“And how many times to do you actually listen to them?”
“One in five?” Sky said with a grin.
10
“Is that the Blackthornes?” Briar said in a whisper.
I looked out the window, and sure enough, the Blackthornes were standing on our porch. No good came from this. They were supposed to be away for a few more weeks. I’d been hoping they never came back.
I got out of the car and kept the rest of my pack behind me as I ran my hand over the knife on my hip.
“And what brings you here today?” I asked.
“We seem to have been having some trouble getting in touch with our son,” the woman said.
“That is a shame. We don’t have him hidden in a closet anywhere. So, if you’d kindly get out of my territory,” I said.
“The funny thing is, the last we heard from him, he was setting out to make you our pet,” the woman said.
“He clearly didn’t make it. Perhaps he got side-tracked by a pretty face.”
“Logan was devoted to his work.”
I unsheathed my knife.
“Get out of my territory.”
“Who killed him?”
“How am I supposed to know?” I growled.
Of course, I knew, but if I admitted to it then there was potential for trouble with the council.
Footsteps came from the woods around us.
I snorted.
“You’re so weak you had to bring goons with you.”
“You killed my son! We are here to slaughter you like the feral beasts that you are,” the woman spat.
“Now that’s just not very nice,” I said.
I felt the magic swell where Sky summoned her swords and began weaving something. Briar and Adam were just behind me, their wolves barely below the sur
face. My pack was ready.
“You will pay for what you did,” the man said.
I couldn’t remember their names. I knew they were dangerous hunters, and that was all the information my mind had held onto.
“You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Sky said.
“This is none of your business, witch,” the woman hissed.
“You’re threatening my friends.”
The woman made a small hand gesture, and the rest of the hunters began moving out of the woods to circle around us. I allowed my wolf side far enough forward to lean on its strength, speed, and fighting instincts. This was going to get bloody.
I could hear Cole’s voice in my mind telling me that this would have long-term repercussions, how I should be thinking more politically. He wasn’t here to hold me back or to think like the councilman and alpha he was.
The woman went straight for me. Rage was clouding her judgement and adding a fierce glow to her eyes. I wondered if she was using some form of magic. Her first blow was far harder than I had expected. It had appeared clumsy and slow. I went to sidestep it, but suddenly her fist was breaking my ribs. The pain sharpened my mind and made something click within me. They were a threat to my pack and all of garou kind. It was time to remove them from existence.
My knife was in my hand, a familiar extension of myself, as the calm certainty of battle descended over me. There was an eerie distance between me and the fight raging around me. Pain blossomed and faded again, but it was fuzzy and irrelevant. There was nothing but the need to protect my garou and ensure the safety of my pack for the future.
Blood dripped from my hands as I watched the Blackthorne woman’s eyes go wide and heard her heart stutter within her chest. Surprise tugged at her mouth, making it pull into an unpleasant O shape as her body collapsed. It took a few moments for the spark to leave her eyes as her heart sputtered within her broken chest. There was nothing left but a bag of bones and puddle of blood. She would never hurt one of my kind again.
Briar and Adam were holding their own in their wolf forms. The hunters were experienced, but nothing could have prepared for them for a wrathful guardian and a pair of witches.
Sky wasted no time in cutting them down with her pitch-black swords. The blades sliced through the warm flesh of the hunters, leaving clean lines in their wake. The stench of death filled the space, wiping away the soft hints of Cole’s scent. I snarled, feeling the anger flare at the hunters and all that they had done. This was far more than trying to hurt us. They had caused countless deaths over the decades and centuries.
I raced through the woods after the last hunter and jumped on his back. I sank my clawed fingertips deep into his neck and pulled lumps of flesh free before he dropped with a gurgle. Never again would they harm a garou.
11
Briar was cleaning the kitchen while the rest of us sat quietly, lost in our thoughts. The rage and clarity that came with my guardian side had slipped away, leaving me with the reality of what we’d done. Unlike the fae who vanished with a puff of glitter, the hunters were human. They left behind messy bodies that needed to be disposed of.
It had been an unpleasant job, but a necessary one. Amy was weaving some magic to keep the human police from looking around for those hunters. How many garou lives had they taken over the years? How many had we saved by removing them from the world?
“The council will not be happy,” Sky finally said.
Her phone rang again, and she ignored it again.
Her face was growing tighter with every ignored call. She glared at her phone as though contemplating setting it on fire. The sound of her ringtone was beginning to set my teeth on edge.
I squeezed my eyes closed. I hadn’t thought about the council and their thoughts. The hunters were something of a grey area. We could fight them in self-defence, but there was supposedly some sort of truce between us. That meant that the hunters didn’t come after us unless we started trouble, and we didn’t go after them. I’d screwed that up. Now there could be a small war between hunters and the other supernatural beings.
I groaned and buried my head in my arms on the table. This was going from bad to worse.
“How am I supposed to handle them?”
Sky shrugged.
“No idea. My coven usually deals with them.”
That wasn’t in the slightest bit helpful. I glanced over and saw that Sky was beginning to retreat into her head. I needed her there with me.
The council put people who broke the laws in a deep dark pit.
I sighed.
“Does my being a guardian give me a loop-hole or something?”
It was a bit of a long shot, but I had to ask. We had lost Cole; I couldn’t leave the siblings to fend for themselves again. They were just starting to get their feet under them.
“Probably,” Sky said with a shrug.
She was staring at her phone and poking at it with firm jabbing gestures. Her gaze was distant, and her mouth was pressed into a thin line. Gone was the usual vibrant witch.
“Found something good?”
“No. Trying to decide if I want Chinese or pizza,” Sky said distractedly.
There was no way that she was just thinking about her stomach. Everything about her was tight with tension and preparation for something far bloodier than a delivery guy.
“Why are you avoiding your coven?” I asked.
This needed to be resolved. I needed her head in the game.
“It’s complicated.”
She didn’t look up from her phone. I wasn’t going to let this go.
“Simplify it.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
I resisted the urge to growl at her.
“Stop making excuses.”
“I’m just having a bit of trouble with the coven and my place in it. It’s normal.”
It didn’t sound normal, but I knew when to stop pushing.
Sky had disappeared with muttered reasons into town somewhere. Briar and Adam had settled on pizza, and I didn’t care much. Amy sat on the couch with me while I trawled through the Grim looking for anything that could be used to figure out what we needed.
The pieces of our little pack weren’t sitting together correctly, and it ate at me. I knew that I was supposed to pull everyone together, but I didn’t know how. Sky refused to open up and talk to me, but she wasn’t pack so I couldn’t just alpha-glare her into talking. The siblings were doing their best, but I saw through their brave faces. They were terrified they’d be without a pack again.
I’d found that Natasha had once been someone, and she blamed Cole for the fall of her pack. The Bellefleurs, Loxwoods, Canagans, and O’Connells had once been the four primary packs in the north. They owned and maintained the largest territories and had the dominant members on the garou councils. The Bellefleurs had begun running into trouble, but that looked as though it was rectified by the engagement between Natasha and Cole.
I couldn’t help but smirk when I saw the look of dismay on Cole’s face in the photo where they were officially engaged. It wasn’t a pairing of love, but a political one. There were notes about how they grew to care for each other, but I skimmed over those. It was far easier to revel in my delight at Cole’s displeasure at being stuck with her than to consider he did have feelings for her.
When the Loxwood pack was slaughtered by the blood witches, the Bellefleurs were starting to lose their grip on everything. The Loxwoods had kept them afloat both politically and financially, but then they were gone. The final straw was when Cole cancelled the engagement to Natasha. Her pack was pulled apart and lost everything.
It was hard to see exactly what happened after that. I got the impression that Natasha managed to keep hold of a small sliver of their former territory, but the rest of the pack moved far away to join other packs. Natasha’s parents were ashamed and blamed her before they were killed by hunters. I suspected that she had killed them herself, but there was no evidence of that.
That ex
plained why Natasha wanted to sacrifice Cole, but it didn’t help me see why or how she got close to the Apophis witch. I groaned and looked around the room, needing a break from the laptop screen.
“She’s torn between two gods.”
I frowned at Amy.
“What, now?”
She gave me a sad smile.
“Sky. She’s torn between two gods.”
I couldn’t imagine how that must have felt. As far as I understood it, the god a witch was tied to had their claws in the witch’s very soul.
“That sounds really painful.”
Amy’s smile widened a touch. She relaxed and shifted the laptop.
“She was handed to the Morrigan when she was born, as is normal in covens. Then when she started coming into her magic, I’d guess around nine given her talent, the Morrigan officially chose and claimed her. However, another god, and my money’s on Set, is trying to claim her. They’re vying for her attention, and that’s a very difficult thing.”
The consequences seemed huge, and the pressure of making that decision must have been unbearable. Yet I couldn’t help but think that must also have been an honour. To have not one, but two, gods choose you.
I went back and forth on it in my mind. I didn’t know much about either of the gods, but witches seemed to bow and scrape to their gods. The gods controlled their magic. I thought that I was far better off staying off of their radar.
“What happens if she chooses Set? I don’t know much about him.”
Amy shrugged.
“She’ll be kicked out of her coven and have to become a solitary witch. Her magic will transition over to Set’s. He’s a complicated deity. A lot of people consider him to be something akin to the devil; however, that is similar to the way Christianity turned a lot of pagan things into demons and the like. Set was originally a god of chaos and storms, but he was also a protector. He protected Ra from Apophis every night, and many people turned to him for protection of their homes. He was viewed in a very positive light, originally.”