by Layla Nash
Evershaw growled, his wolf starting to get agitated, and backed her into the corner with his body, looming as tall and broad as he could manage to intimidate her. “Don’t. Do. That. Again.”
“Who’s going to stop me?” Her head had to tilt waaaaaaay back so she could still meet his gaze, and the challenge in her eyes set his hackles up even more as she shoved the tangled dark hair out of her face. “Your ass hit the floor pretty hard, slick.”
She challenged him. She challenged him. His fists clenched so he wouldn’t grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her. “Look, witch,” he started.
A cleared throat from the doorway made him pause and glance back, and the witch ducked to try and slide around him. He caught her arm and shoved her back under the stream of cold water, scowling at the medic who’d appeared with Henry. “Sweep up the broken glass. Find her new clothes. Get Mercy.”
The witch gurgled something that might have been an objection, and he dragged her out of the water so she could catch her breath. When she started to hiss threats at him again, he put her back under the water and waited for his pack to carry out his orders.
Luckily everyone knew his temper and didn’t delay, so the medic had swept up the broken glass and dragged in his bag of supplies by the time Henry reappeared with towels and clean clothes and Mercy. The female wolf still looked half-asleep, and it was the quietest she’d ever been that Evershaw had seen, since she didn’t immediately start talking.
He still had a tight grip on the witch’s bicep as he turned off the water and gave her a second to splutter and shake her head and blink the water from her eyes. She immediately started cursing and spitting and coming up with some pretty vile accusations about his preferences for fuck buddies, enough that even Henry blinked in surprise. The medic smirked but tried to hide it as he fussed with the supplies.
Evershaw ignored it and instead hauled her out of the shower to stand her up on the cushy mat in front of the vanity, then took the towel from Henry and wrapped it around her so it covered her from mid-thigh up. He didn’t want anyone else looking at her in the T-shirt that clung to her like a second skin. Or the panties that clung to her ass in the most appealing...
Mercy cleared her throat and gave him a raised-eyebrow look, and Evershaw rethought the wisdom of having the young wolf look after the witch. She was too observant by half. He hadn’t been staring at the witch’s ass for that long.
He didn’t let the witch get far, and instead kept her arms swaddled in the towel as he gestured for the medic to approach. “She somehow managed to dump boiling water on herself. Treat it.”
The medic, a low-key wolf with a touch of gray at his temples that made him a little older than Evershaw, yawned a bit and opened up his bag to fish out some kind of ointment. “Burns, huh? Normally boiling water doesn’t spread like that, boss.”
The witch made a pained noise as the medic rested his fingertips against one of the angry red marks on her calf, and she tried to twist away despite Evershaw’s iron grip. “Stop. It’s fine. It’s not…a real burn. It’s just magic.”
“Just magic?” Mercy perked up immediately and leaned forward to peer at the burns over the medic’s shoulder. “Magic boiled the water or magic made the burns?”
It was way too late at night—or too early in the morning—for that bullshit. Evershaw cleared his throat before either the witch or Mercy could get a word in edgewise. “Worry about that later. Put something on the burns, then the witch goes to bed and Mercy sleeps on the couch to keep an eye on her. Henry, outside the door. Tom, deal with the burns and come back to check on them at ten.”
The witch scowled so fiercely she looked like a cat who’d gotten caught in the rain and was pissed off at the world because of it, and he laughed in sheer surprise.
His pack members froze, looking at each other, but the witch’s expression darkened considerably and she ground out the words from between her teeth. “Let. Me. Go. Now.”
He sure as fuck didn’t take orders from her, especially in front of his pack. “No. You woke me up with this bullshit, so I’m going to deal with it so you don’t do it again. Got it?”
Her eyes narrowed and flashed an enchanting green, dark as emeralds and just as rare. “Don’t be ridiculous. I wasn’t yelling anywhere near—“
“I woke up to having my legs on fire, witch.” He turned his attention to what the medic was doing, smoothing some kind of medicinal-smelling lotions on the girl’s legs, because he didn’t want to acknowledge the shock in the witch’s face. Maybe she hadn’t meant to wake him up after all.
“You want some aloe, too?” Tom asked laconically, looking at Evershaw with one eyebrow arched.
Smug motherfucker. And Mercy giggled. Giggled. At him. He scowled, just as irritated at that damn witch, and snapped his fingers at the younger wolves. “That’s it. Out.”
“Don’t be so sensitive,” Mercy said. She practically bounced to her feet and out to the main room, and Henry followed, shaking his head.
Which left Evershaw standing there with the speechless witch and the taciturn medic. Tom straightened and pulled a few more packets of ointment out of his medic bag, and handed them to the witch. “This is aloe with a mild numbing agent in it. If the burns don’t, uh, magically disappear by the time you wake up, reapply a bit of this and it should get you through. No bandages on it, though—let the burns breathe for a while. Unless they blister and any of those blisters break. Then I’ll fix you up with something else.”
The witch shivered and shook but tried to unwrap the towel enough so she could take the packets of ointment, but Evershaw didn’t release her enough. He jerked his chin at the door behind Tom. “Give them to Mercy. She’ll deal with it.”
The witch’s teeth chattered as she tried to scowl at him. “Y-Y-Y-You’re an ass-ass-asshole.”
Tom snorted and beat a hasty retreat, but Evershaw didn’t dignify it with a response. He marched her into the main room and stood her up in front of Mercy, then finally released his grip on her arm and the towel. “Make sure she sleeps.”
The wolves nodded, ready to obey orders, and the witch was the only one who snarled about it. He ignored her and walked out of the room, ready to put on dry clothes and go the fuck back to sleep.
But when he was finally back in his bed, staring at the darkness, he couldn’t sleep. The witch’s expression when he said he’d felt the fire, same as her, troubled him. Everything about her troubled him. Even that fine ass of hers.
Chapter 12
Deirdre
Every part of me shook and shivered from the cold. The shock of icy water left my head aching and my body freezing, particularly since Evershaw tried to drown me under the shower. I ground my teeth until bright spots danced in front of my eyes and it didn’t help alleviate my rage. That insufferable ass. He’d stormed in there and manhandled me like I was one of his wolves, like I was someone to just order around—and when that didn’t work, he shoved me. Shoved me.
Henry looked uncomfortable, lingering near the door, while Mercy bounced on her toes as she searched for fresh sweats and underwear in the dresser. The medic studied the burns on my legs with an odd expression. “I’ve never seen anything like that, young lady.”
“My name is Deirdre,” I muttered. “And it’s never happened to me before, so your guess is as good as mine on what caused it.”
“You were doing magic,” Mercy said, breathing the words reverently.
I shivered and hugged the towel more tightly around me. I just wanted the men to leave so I could strip off the sodden clothes and get the dry ones on, then I could try to sleep at least a little bit before... Well, before I had to sit in that room and think about how to save the complete asshole who dumped me in the shower.
At least I’d knocked him down. I took a great deal of satisfaction in remembering the stupid look on his face when his ass hit the tile.
Henry scratched at his jaw and yawned as the medic finished evaluating the burns, and the older man ret
reated with a nod in my direction and the general acknowledgment that he’d be back in five or so hours to make sure everything still looked like it was healing okay. Which left me with Mercy and Henry, both of them staring at me expectantly.
And my teeth kept chattering.
Mercy’s head tilted as she held out dry sweats. “You should change. Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m f-f-freezing,” I muttered. I frowned in Henry’s direction. “But I’m not about to strip down in front of... everyone.”
A slow flush climbed Henry’s face and he grumbled a bit as he turned his back. “I wouldn’t have looked. I’m not stupid and I don’t fancy getting my ass kicked.”
“What does that mean?” I dropped the towel, stripped off the T-shirt and underwear that still clung to me, and reached for the dry clothes. I wasn’t jazzed about dropping trou in front of Mercy, but it was at least a small victory that the guy wasn’t going to see me altogether. “I hardly think I could kick your ass, not half-drowned and maybe a quarter of your size.”
He snorted and Mercy giggled again, and she searched for some big fluffy socks to cover my feet. I eased the panties and shorts on gingerly, not wanting to drag the ointment all over, and wrapped my hair up in the towel after pulling on shirt and sweatshirt for a few extra layers.
Henry sighed. “I’m not worried about you, witch.”
“Then what’s the problem? If I don’t kick your ass, who would?” I sat on the couch to pull on the socks, not looking at him. “And you can turn around. Thank you for being a gentleman.”
Mercy practically beamed, going up on her toes. “Well, since you brought it up, it’s very interesting that the—“
“Stop.” Henry’s voice cracked into the quiet like a whip, and Mercy jumped like she’d been goosed.
I looked between them, trying to read into the laden looks they traded, and felt like I was missing something important. Mercy scowled and turned down the bed, ignoring Henry. “It seems kind of strange that the alpha knew about you being burned, though. How do you suppose that happened?”
My stomach unbalanced. I didn’t want to think about that. The implications... I shivered again. “I don’t know.”
“Really?” She glanced at me sideways, her tone turning wheedling instead of straightforward. “Are you sure? Seems kind of odd that Evershaw, out of everyone here, would realize you were in trouble.”
“It’s probably nothing,” Henry said. He scowled at Mercy and made a shooing gesture. “Go. Finish up.”
“We’re finished,” she said. My eyes narrowed as I studied them both. Mercy grinned brightly and pointed me to the bed. “Time to get some rest, witchy witch.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Hold on. What the hell is going on?”
Henry took a pillow from the couch and tossed it onto the floor near the door. “Nothing is going on. Everyone is getting some sleep. Mercy, shut your trap and lie down. Deirdre, it’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Something certainly wasn’t fine. But I didn’t want to think too hard about why Evershaw felt the burning on his legs at the same time that I did. He hadn’t shown any evidence of it, though, at least where I could see. I rather spitefully wished he got covered in boils and blisters, since the man was a complete tool.
I shuffled toward the bed as my legs dragged like lead weights, and pulled the towel from my hair so I could lay it on the sheets to protect them from the ointment. Mercy and Henry continued to argue in voices too low for me to overhear, so I put a pillow over my face and tried to think my way through the mess I’d made of my life.
Maybe the geas Smith used to bind me to Evershaw’s life had not been only a one-way connection. What if Smith created instead a two-way bond, where Evershaw felt what I did and I suffered as he did? It seemed like I got the short end of the stick there, since there was a whole city of people who wanted Evershaw dead. I hadn’t thought of any enemies recently other than Smith, so Evershaw was in the clear for people trying to kill me.
I wanted to roll over and sleep on my stomach, but my legs ached and tingled as the numbing agent wore off. I’d never had a scrying go so badly wrong; I’d never even heard of such a thing, where the water and the flame combined to burn the caster. And it wasn’t as though I had a lot of witches I could turn to for support or advice.
The thought made me feel very alone. I missed my mother desperately with a sharp pain, and my eyes burned with tears as I squeezed them shut even under the pillow. What the hell was going on? The coven drained me dry as often as they could, and I’d made a deal with the ErlKing that not only backfired but got me linked to a shapeshifter, and my scrying had gone completely wonky and there wasn’t anyone else to ask.
I shook with the effort it took not to collapse into a puddle of tears; only the presence of the two wolves in the room kept me from falling apart completely. They’d fallen silent, though I didn’t know if that was because they wanted to sleep or because they’d heard me start to lose my shit. I didn’t look the gift wolf in the mouth and instead just accepted the peace and quiet. My thoughts swirled and scattered, but the urge to cry only strengthened.
Maybe I could hide in the bathroom and muffle the sobs in another towel, since the pillow didn’t feel dense enough to do a good job of stifling my grief. It made me miss my cat even more, since he always knew when I was sad and would have curled up on my head and the pillow, regardless of my wet hair, to push his paws against my scalp.
And when I thought I would burn to death, the one thing on earth I’d miss the most was my cat.
I dragged my knees up to press the pillow even harder against my face, wrapping my arms around both, and shook with sobs. The coven wouldn’t care. The coven would only notice when they tried a complicated spell and it didn’t work. No one else would show up at the house to check on me or figure out where I’d gone. No one cared if I disappeared or not. No one would even notice.
I didn’t often let myself feel sorry about everything that had disappeared out of my life, and I never took much time to mourn what I’d lost. It felt too indulgent. Especially when there wasn’t anyone else to do the work, I couldn’t afford to sit around and wallow. I had bills to pay. The electric bill came the same time every month whether I’d dragged myself to work enough to pay it or not. So I put my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
And look where I ended up. Kidnapped and detained, compelled by the ErlKing, alone and burned and without any real options. There wasn’t a way to keep putting one foot in front of the other while under Evershaw’s thumb. I couldn’t push down my fear and anger in order to keep working on something else. All the misery of the past year stared right back at me inside my eyelids.
It welled up and threatened to drown me, but there wasn’t any way to keep it back. I wailed into the pillow and burrowed under the blankets and sheets to try and suffer in silence despite the sobs. I prayed the wolves were asleep and not just sitting there listening to me suffer. It would have been less humiliating if I’d been alone.
I wished the medic had something to numb the pain in my heart, since my legs seemed to be doing just fine.
Chapter 13
Evershaw
Evershaw didn’t sleep well and ended up staying in bed longer than normal. He couldn’t get his thoughts moving in the right direction. Conspiracies and intrigue rolled around in his brain until he wanted to tear his hair out, staring up at the ceiling and watching the shadows move across the room.
He finally dragged himself out of bed after eleven and stomped into his kitchen to sit at the table and sulk. It wasn’t long until Mercy popped into the room with a carafe of hot coffee, and she got to work making sandwiches without a word. She was a distant cousin who’d grown up without much family or pack support, and wandered around until she found Evershaw. He liked her, even though she was a goddamn morning person, and didn’t mind that she’d taken to mothering him a bit since her arrival. Todd found it funny as hell.
Eversh
aw didn’t look up from the coffee, glad Mercy at least knew how to brew it strong enough and didn’t put bullshit like cream or sugar in it. He rubbed the back of his neck as he muddled through the list of things he needed to get done.
Todd had sent a message about the meeting with the RedCloud pack about the same time that Edgar Chase wanted to meet about the coyotes. Evershaw didn’t know which would be worse. His stomach remained unsettled from the poison, and his balance was definitely not what it needed to be to face a fight with the coyotes.
At least the rash on his arms had disappeared and his legs didn’t show any evidence of being burned by the witch’s weird fit. The witch.
He grunted to himself and drank more of the coffee, ignoring Mercy’s attention as she handed him a plate stacked with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. She be-bopped over to the fridge and got a bunch of cut fruit out, ignoring his dark look, and pulled out a chair to sit next to him.
At least she waited to eat until he’d started, since he was still the fucking alpha. He took a bite out of a sandwich and set it back down again, chewing grudgingly as he kept wallowing in his own bad mood, and ignored when she spooned a bunch of fruit onto his plate, too.
Evershaw couldn’t pull out of his funk even as Todd shuffled in, frowning at his phone, and got his own plate and sandwich from the counter. They were his family and there was comfort in having them around, particularly when everything else seemed like bullshit.
As Todd and Mercy talked quietly about something to do with the main kitchen and the common pantry, Evershaw’s thoughts drifted back to the witch and the crazy incident with her legs. There was no telling what she’d been doing when the burns happened, even if she claimed she’d been looking for who poisoned him, because he couldn’t expect her to be upfront. She’d lie about it, no doubt, and not just because she was held at the packhouse until she saved his life. He didn’t trust any woman to tell the truth.