She landed an open palm against his cheek, and like with Donovan, it hurt her more than it had hurt him. She pulled her hand back to her chest and frowned. “No, I did not like it. You pushed me. What if you wouldn’t have stopped me in time? I’d be dead right now, and it would be all your fault. You’re such an ass.”
Jeremy chuckled as he unhooked the metal clasp from his harness. “Come now, stop being so dramatic. You’re fine. You didn’t have to jump . . .”
“I didn’t jump!” Lily screeched.
He held his fist to his mouth, pretending to cough to cover his smirk. “Sorry,” he chortled.
He didn’t sound sorry at all. Lily looked up at the waterfall which seemed to disappear behind the rocks that surrounded the bottom of it. The roar was relaxing, or it would have been if she hadn’t had a near death experience.
“Come on it’s time to go see if I’ve been spell jacked.”
“Is that a thing?”
“I just made it up,” Jeremy said.
Lily shook her head. “Lead the way.”
As they made their way past the rock walls, she noticed they were covered with intricate patterns of greenery. Everything was damp with the mist from the waterfall which was somewhat refreshing. Lily ran her hand over them, careful to watch where she was stepping. The sandals she’d worn with her dress for the day were ruined. They were dirty and wet from running and sadly weren’t made for the kind of work she’d already put them through.
“I need new shoes.”
“Maybe the witch can conjure some for you,” Jeremy said sarcastically.
“Could she?” Lily’s eyes rounded and she bounced excitedly. The idea of magical shoes thrilled her causing the incident at the waterfall to take a back seat.
“Maybe, just watch your step for now, okay.”
They continued into a thickly-vined part of the forest and Lily tripped right into Jeremy who caught her. She found herself looking into his eyes and quickly backed away.
“That’s why I said . . .” Jeremy started to say.
“Yeah, yeah I know.” Lily waved him off not wanting to hear I told you so.
“First thing we need to do before we see the witch is to visit my alpha, Walter. He will know what I would need to do to clear my name. Plus, I don’t want him to go to war with your clan because he doesn’t know the whole truth.”
“The witch and the alpha live in the same place?”
“They neighbors of a sort. It’s my understanding her mother worked for the previous alpha, and they built her a house to live in near the property. The witch resides there. No more questions, please.”
Lily followed him, stumbling under her cloak. She thought of four more questions she wanted to ask but really didn’t want to make him too mad.
“Can’t I take it off now? There isn’t anyone in these woods, and I promise to put it back on when we get to the alpha’s house.”
“No can do, we’re already here.”
Lily looked to where Jeremy pointed and saw a large house that would put her home in Cedar Falls to shame. There were columns on the porch and giant windows in the front overlooking a huge garden.
The garden was divided by a long walkway lined on either side by lilies. Lily was named after the flower which her father used to give her mother every day when they were dating. Her mother loved to tell the story of how she didn’t like lilies at all but didn’t have the heart to tell him she preferred roses. Eventually, she started to love them and then Lily was given her name. The memory made her miss her mother very much. The feeling of Jeremy touching her shoulder brought her back to reality.
“We have to tread lightly. We don’t know how fast word has traveled from your clan to mine about this incident. Perhaps you can just hang back, and allow me to go talk to the head guard. I’ll make sure the alpha is here. If it seems they mean to arrest me, you should probably run, okay.”
Lily nodded although she wasn’t too keen on being left alone.
She watched with large eyes as he walked up to the front door and greeted the two guards that waited for him there.
"He's not here." The first guard said in a deep voice.
The guard didn't move or make any indication he was going to let Jeremy into the house.
"Where is he?" Jeremy asked.
The other guard seemed to be a little more laid back since he was twirling a stick around in front of him. "He's not been here in four nights. No one knows where he is."
"Reagan, can't you keep your mouth shut for two seconds?"
"They didn't say it was a secret he was gone." The guard named Reagan snapped back.
"Why do you think we're keeping up appearances by guarding the door and and allowing the patrols to still do their jobs?"
"Oh, so the alpha is resting," Reagan said, stupidly trying to cover his tracks though it was too late. Lily hid a chuckle at the whole exchange and wondered what was going through Jeremy's head.
"Since my idiot comrade doesn’t know how to hold his tongue.” The first guard said. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. The alpha went somewhere four nights ago. He told us he would be back when all was clear and said he couldn't tell us anything more."
"That's strange behavior for the alpha, isn't it?" Jeremy asked, arching his brow.
"Who is that in the woods?" The one called Reagan pointed at her. She knelt down beneath her cloak.
"That's just my grandma,” Jeremy said impatiently, waving a hand in her direction as though he were wiping away a spot. “Pay her no mind." "Your grandma is just hanging out in the woods?" Reagan was now the curious one. He was staring right at Lily.
"Let's get back to what's important here.” Jeremy snapped, drawing Reagan’s attention back to him. “The alpha, did he say anything that might lead you to believe he was planning a war?"
"What? We thought he just went to his summer home with the wife!" The first guard was now on full alert.
Way to go, Jeremy, Lily thought with an eye roll.
"Okay, maybe he did," Jeremy said, backing away. “I don’t know, I was just asking dumb questions. Sorry to bug you two fine gentlemen.”
The guards were starting to get suspicious Lily noticed. Even Reagan who'd been twirling his stick and wandering around straightened his back and returned to his post by the other guard.
Jeremy was moving quickly back towards her.
"Let's go granny, get it into gear."
Lily didn't even take the time to argue with him about being called granny and booked it to get out of sight. Once they’d ran far enough to know no one was chasing them, they stopped to catch their breath.
“The alpha never leaves,” Jeremy said. “There’s something very strange going on. I don’t know how your husband was, but Walter rarely leaves his house.
“What exactly do you do for him, Jeremy?”
“I’m a woodworker. I craft things from wood and provide wood to the village. I have a little shop in town. Well okay, it’s a huge shop, but that’s what I do for him.”
“So, it’s safe to say you would see him regularly?” Lily was a little more wary of her partner as they fled. The thought crossed her mind once again that she didn’t really know him, and she’d been fooled in the past by nice people hiding their true intentions.
“Yes, I did. However, I didn’t do anything with him, nor am I involved in his disappearance.”
“Okay,” Lily said, eyeing him thoughtfully. “I believe you. I think the best way to make this partnership work is for us to stop putting the blame on one another. It’s become quite clear that we’ve more than likely been set up. If you can set aside your suspicions of me and my credibility, I’ll do the same for you.”
“Okay, if you can bring yourself to stop being equally suspicious,” Jeremy said smartly.
“I’m serious about this.” Lily spat in the palm of her hand and held it out for him to shake. “From now on, we have to depend on one another. No more blaming.
He reached over and shook her hand firmly. “Yo
u’ve got a deal.”
PREVIEW END
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