Hunter's Moon (The Witch Who Sang with Wolves Book 1)

by Kat Bostick

  Mari risked another look his way and saw his fiery eyes boring into her. He had to unlock his jaw before he could answer her claim. “Oh, I know you, Mari. I know you well enough to recognize I’ve just become an unwilling participant in some ridiculous test. You’ve convinced yourself that you’re unlovable because you were surrounded by people unworthy of your power and presence. You think that you’re safer if you run from me because then I can’t see the whole of you.”

  His long legs ate up the space between them and before she could react, he was gripping the side of her jaw, his thumb digging into her chin and forcing it up to meet his face. “You’re wrong, Mari. I’ve seen every part of you. I know what’s inside of you. You can’t hide from me.”

  “I’m not—“

  “You can’t hide from me.”

  She spluttered, completely stunned by how accurately he spoke her insecurities aloud. Even more stunning was her own behavior, her tongue acting with a mind of it’s own to prove him right. “You only see what I am, not who I am. You want me because I fixed you.”

  Jasper whirled, releasing her when she was facing the door. “Go take your trip to town, Mari.”

  “You don’t have to deny it.”

  His features were etched with such intense fury that Mari actually felt a tinge of fear when he stalked toward her. He laid no hand on her though, only pointed toward the door and repeated “go to town.”

  “Jasper—“

  “Get out.” He demanded through clenched teeth.

  Mari scrambled for the door, yanking it open and quickly closing it behind her. She opened and shut her door in the same manner, her heart pulsing painfully. If her hands weren’t shaking so hard she might raise them to her face and slap herself. Why did she do that? Why did she always make herself impossible to love? She was giving Jasper a reason to hate her.

  Just days earlier she was waking up to his smile, to words of love, to whispered secrets, Jasper sharing parts of himself that he gave to no one else. That beautiful, perfect daydream of what their life could look like was shattered now. Mari made sure of that.

  A throbbing ache of rejection filled the cavity of her chest but she wasn’t entirely sure if it was hers alone. Jasper’s emotions were clearest to her when he was upset. He was resenting her, furious with her, experiencing all of the feelings she knew he would. However wrong she was for provoking him, she knew that it was only a matter of time before this happened.

  Sure, she was testing him and maybe that was unfair. But he failed. Everyone always failed. No one was going to keep her around forever, mate or not. What was a passionate romance right now would grow stale as the appealing newness of affection and lust wore off. The remaining parts of herself that Mari had left to offer were not enough. She knew that. She always knew that but she hadn’t been willing to accept it because she was terrified of leaving.

  To be alone again would be misery. If she left the pack without joining a coven, Mari wouldn’t have any purpose.

  ✽✽✽

  The door to the barn slammed behind her and she winced. Mari had no interested in advertising her fight with Jasper but she was still too wound up.

  “Someone’s in a good mood.” Teal said sarcastically from somewhere between the cars.

  “I’m ready.” Mari called to him, ignoring his comment.

  Cash came around the side of his SUV and draped an arm across her shoulders. “You been sucking on a lemon, little witch, or are you just sour that we’ll have a third wheel?”

  She shrugged his arm off. “Don’t you think this flirting is getting old? He’s not even here to witness it.” Mari couldn’t bring herself to actually say Jasper’s name.

  “Damn, you are in a bad mood. Maybe we ought to stop for ice cream first to sweeten you up.” Cash pinched her cheek.

  Without responding, Mari jerked open the door to Cash’s SUV and climbed into the backseat. She spent the entire drive silently staring out the window, trying to feel anger and not despair. No amount of manufactured indignation at anything Jasper said to her held steady. It only made her realize how hard she was trying to find some wrongdoing on his end.

  When they arrived in central Humble Springs, Mari did her best to engage with Teal, politely listening to his cheery stories about summer events in town and making note when he explained what parts they needed to find for her car. In the grocery store she was a busy drone, retrieving every item Cash sent her for with programmed efficiency. All the while, her mind was racing as she played through her next move.

  It wasn’t until they stepped into the gas station that her plan took solid form. Cash held the door for her, surprisingly chivalrous for such a rakish man, so her face was the first one that Rob saw. His features lit up with a friendly smile and he started calling out to her when Cash and Teal walked in after her. Rob’s shock twisted into curiosity then dissolved into slight dismay all in the matter of a few seconds. The warm greeting that was halfway out of his mouth trailed off into a mumbled mess of words.

  “Hi Rob. It’s nice to see you.” Mari said softly.

  “Mornin’, ma’am.” Rob dipped his head. Cash and Teal were already making their way to the back of the store, where the auto parts were sold, so she didn’t think Rob realized they would hear when he said “I guess you went and got yourself into trouble after all.”

  “Trouble is my middle name.” The joke lacked any good humor and the moment quickly became awkward so she hurried off to find Teal.

  Though Mari handed him her credit card when they reached the register with a collection of car parts and motor oil, she was fairly sure Teal wouldn’t use it. Jasper wasn’t the only one that kept trying to buy things for her. Charlie had no qualms about spending money and gave it to the pack freely. She would let it pass just this once because it gave her the chance to step outside alone.

  With a muttered excuse about calling her dad while there was better cell service, Mari disappeared out the glass door and walked as far as she dared through the parking lot. This time there was no hesitation when she thumbed through her recent calls and selected the number she wanted to dial.

  “How are you, Mariella?” Lyses’ rich voice purred on the line.

  “I’m ready to take you up on your offer for a meeting. Just to talk. I’m not agreeing to anything.”

  “Of course.”

  “You can’t come here.” Mari quickly added. “I’ll have to find somewhere to meet you.”

  “We will come to you.”

  “No! I’m not telling you where I am.” She shouted, noticing too late that Teal had stepped out of gas station and was heading her way with a concerned frown. “You can’t come here.” She repeated in a hiss.

  “I look forward to seeing you, sister.” Lyse said.

  “What do you mean? You don’t even know where I am.” Mari didn’t know if Lyse could hear her with how quietly she was talking to avoid being overhead by Teal.

  “I will see you under the stars.” Was the cryptic response the luminary offered before ending the call.

  “Wait! Hello?” It didn’t matter anyway, Teal was already too close for Mari to continue the conversation. She had to hope that Lyse was bluffing and didn’t actually know where Mari was. Otherwise Jasper and the entire pack might be at risk. Was that her doing? Did she somehow give something away in her scattered calls with Henrick and Lyse?

  “You okay out here, darlin’?” Teal put a large hand on her shoulder. “You look paler than a vanilla milkshake.”

  “Yes.” Mari forced a smile but it flopped under Teal’s gentle gaze. “No.”

  “You wanna talk about it?”

  If she hadn’t felt guilty before, she certainly did now. Not only had she possibly put the pack in danger by communicating with Lyse and her coven, she was also considering them over the pack for one simple, stupid, insecure reason; Mari would be useful in a coven. The pack liked her, would maybe even grow to love her, but those kinds of feelings could evaporate under the right conditions.
With Lyse, as long as Mari had power they would keep her around regardless of how they felt about her. It might not be the happiest of lives but she’d be far less likely to end up exiled from a place that felt like home with people she wanted to call family.

  Besides, she was protecting the pack by doing this. She was protecting Jasper. If Mari joined Lyse, it would be under the condition that she stop using despicable forms of magic like curses and charming spells. That was a deal breaker. Lyses’ coven could have her as a sister so long as they were willing to break the cycle of useless hatred between witches and werewolves. Mari’s intention was to call for peace. Was she not following in her foremother’s footsteps in doing so?

  “No.” She finally answered Teal with a defeated sigh.

  “That’s fine too.” He said, engulfing her with his thick arms. It was a comforting hug, warm and filling her nostrils with the spicy smell of cloves and cinnamon.

  Mari’s sentence was muffled by his shoulder when she said “You smell like a snickerdoodle, Teal.”

  He released her with a hearty laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  She really did like Teal. He was a good person and a good friend. He was also one more good thing Mari would lose whether she chose to leave now or had to leave later.

  The time for grief will come later. She reminded herself, tucking all dismay and disappointment in the box where it belonged in her mind.

  Better to let Cash and Teal think she was upset over her fight with Jasper this morning. Mari needed to spend the rest of the day figuring out what she would do if Lyse showed up in Humble Springs and she couldn’t do that if they were hounding her.

  Jasper wasn’t in the house when Mari and his brothers returned later that afternoon. She successfully suppressed the desire to seek him out until evening only to be disappointed when she found his room empty. To distract herself, she made her way into the kitchen and offered to help Charlie with dinner. The alpha gave a sympathetic smile and put her to work peeling potatoes.

  No distraction was good enough to keep her—and the rest of the pack—from noticing Jasper’s absence at dinner. Charlie was clear about his desire for the family to enjoy meals together every night so to have a pack mate unaccounted for made everyone uneasy. More than once Mari caught the wolves looking at her askance.

  She’d be looking at herself like that too if she were them. It was her fault that he was gone and they probably knew it.

  When dinner was finished she rushed up the stairs to hide in her room, unable to bear any more scrutiny. She went through her normal bedtime routine but ended up lying awake with her head cocked toward the hallway to listen for Jasper’s return. Finally, just before midnight, she heard the relieving sound of his bedroom door clicking shut. Only then could she fall asleep.

  “It’s better this way.” Mari whispered into the darkness.

  Chapter 41

  Lyse

  The Blue Goddess was smiling down upon them at last. The harvest moon was more than a week away and the brilliant silver globe hadn’t reached her full girth, yet her power was present in the air, mingling in shimmering waves with the magic of her sister, the Mother Below. Tonight was the equinox, a time of great change, of shifting seasons. How fitting that tonight was also the night she would change the life of her future apprentice by welcoming her into the loving embrace of the coven.

  Lyse didn’t expect that the young witch would take her hand and skip away like a naïve little girl. She’d already proven herself much wiser than that. Tonight, the luminary’s only intention was to plant a seed in Mariella’s heart. That was, after all, the purpose behind this sacred day. It was a day for witches to plant seeds deep in the soil so that they might stratify and burst from the earth when the warmth of the sun came for them in spring.

  Lyse didn’t want to manipulate her sister but after chasing Mari across the state and losing the wolf for a second time, she was growing impatient. The luminary could hardly be mad at the girl though. She led Lyse to quite a prize, one that she herself had not been able to locate; the wolf’s pack. Seven was more than she’d ever controlled but with bright Mari at her side, she could easily hold that many wolves.

  Especially if she could determine what spell the young witch was using on the red wolf. The enchantment was a work of art, many intricate pieces woven together in a thin but sturdy net. It dominated her own magic with relative ease.

  Even now Lyse could feel it warring with the spell she’d cast to hold the red wolf. That was no simple spell, either. It required years of practice with ample failure and without drawing on her coven, it nearly drained Lyse of all the power she had. Which begged the question, how was the Sowka witch using such magic on the wolf if she was never trained in the ways of their kind, or at all for that matter?

  It was gradual magic, snaking it’s way around the wolf’s soul, burying deep in his psyche and his heart. Perhaps the girl had no idea she was casting, which would mean she was even more potent than Lyse was told. The luminary would simply have to find out for herself.

  “Ready the circle.” She ordered her coven. “It’s time to begin.”

  In unison her growing coven, made up of two wizards and six witches, joined hands in a circle around her. Lyse took the open space between Henrick and Patricia, linking her fingers with theirs and reveling in the sparks of magic that ignited from their union. This was the purpose of sisterhood and sacred circles. This power, the power of the Blue Goddess above, was made possible by the unification of magic folk.

  Only together would they survive this changing world.

  The incantation started in a single voice but was quickly joined by others, rising in volume to call out their devotion to the goddesses above and below, to the father that watched over them all. By now even the newest two members of her coven knew every word of this ancient conjuration by heart. They practiced it under each full moon as they worshiped, ceding their power to the luminary so that she could strengthen them.

  Without their humble surrender to her none of this would be possible. Lyse nearly died the first night that she captured the red wolf, becoming too weak to defend herself from the creature. Now there was no risk. She had too much power, enough magic flowing in her veins to take the wolf at her leisure, even from this distance.

  He wasn’t what mattered tonight, however. The wolf would come to her in time, loyally following at Mariella’s heel. Win one and Lyse would win the other. All she had to do was create a distraction so the young witch could safely free herself from the den of wolves she’d foolishly walked into.

  Lyse was so eager to meet her new sister.

  Chapter 42

  Mari

  Mari woke in a fit of rage. Her eyes snapped open, lips curled back in a snarl, blood so hot it boiled in her veins. Rage and panic, sheer panic. Both of them whirled inside her, twisting her stomach into knots. Then it was as if a great wall slammed down between her and those emotions. Numbness took place of anger. Somewhere in the back of her mind, so distantly that she could barely register it, that fear and loathing still lived like a stuttering second pulse within her.

  With the blackout curtains drawn the room was impossibly dark. Confused and more than a little unsettled, she instinctively rolled over and felt for Jasper. Perhaps this was some bizarre nightmare and the comfort of his arms would soothe it away. He wasn’t there in bed beside her, of course. She was back in her room and he was in his.

  Some instinct urged her to find him. Even if she had a nightmare, it could very well be Jasper’s nightmare and she was simply a witness to it.

  She untangled from the bedding and threw herself out the door. The hallway was as black as her room and it felt like an eternity of darkness passed before her fingers fumbled the knob on Jasper’s door. Dim moonlight pooled in the center of his room, pouring in from the open window. Jasper was hunched awkwardly in that light, his shoulders rising and falling far too rapidly. At the sound of her in the doorway he whirled, revealing green eyes
ablaze with the change, elongating teeth displayed in a snarl.

  “Jasper?” She took one cautious step, hand outstretched.

  When their gazes met, Mari saw what she could only describe as pure hatred on his features. “Get out, Mari.”

  “I can fix this.” She knew she could. She’d done it before. But now, facing him mid change and seeing his obvious contempt for her, she froze. It wasn’t really Mari that stopped him last time. The song was guided from her lungs by ancestors. They were pointedly quiet now, happy to play with her when it was all a game but abandoning her when she truly needed them.

  “Get out.” For one breath his eyes softened and the words sounded more a plea than a demand.

  Suddenly the change halted in a horrifying halfway point. Jasper went too still, his face completely devoid of emotion. Her chest squeezed when he fixed the stony look on her. This felt worse than the self-loathing and rejection from their fight earlier. It was as if the threads between them were being strained to the point of snapping, Jasper was ripped away from her, replaced by this cold, twisted horror.

  She wanted to touch him. If Mari could just put her hands on his skin, soothe him with her magic, his face would soften. Jasper would smile at her again. Or even be angry with her for taking so long to help him. That was okay too as long as he showed some kind of regard for her. For some reason this emptiness clawed at her soul as if he’d spoken brutally heartbreaking words.

  “J-Jas?” She stuttered.

  Jasper turned with muscles and bones still on display and jumped through the open window. The mental glue that held Mari’s feet in the doorway finally unstuck and she raced across the room in time to see him land painfully on all fours and take off in a disturbing lope.

  A big hand landed on the windowsill beside her, followed by Cash’s deep voice muttering “Lord have mercy on us all.”