Pack Witch (Captured Souls Book 1)

by Brenna Clarke

  “Are you a…a hunter?”

  She smiled wide. “Tell me why my kind’s searched for you for nearly twenty-one years and now, all of a sudden, we see you. That can’t be an accident.” She tipped her head to the side and studied me.

  “Why would you search for me?”

  “You have your father’s blood. They caught a glimpse of him—or a version of him—about twenty-one years ago. We could only assume that meant he’d had a child. And then before they could find the both of you, you disappeared.”

  “They?”

  “People like me,” she said.

  “He cast a spell to hide himself, and then I guess he hid me too.”

  “But you removed it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Interesting.” She scrunched her face up in confusion. “Why would you do that?”

  “I don’t know. Until yesterday, I didn’t know the spell had been cast.”

  “So you also didn’t know why?”

  I shook my head. “Tell me. Please.”

  “Where is your father?”

  The question took me off guard. I guessed it made sense that if they couldn’t see him or track him that they couldn’t know he was dead. I almost told this woman that, but then I thought better of it. I was a young girl without a lot of training, but my father was—or had been—strong and definitely well-trained. I wanted them to believe I had more support than the werewolf who’d laid next to me in bed.

  “Not far.” Not a lie, so I told it convincingly. His body was buried about a hundred miles from here, in the same town I’d grown up in.

  “Hmm. Well, clearly you wanted us to find you, how about telling me why?”

  “My friend is marked.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  “And he was also burned by a golden bullet that damned him, and I want to save him. I don’t want him to go to hell or for him to die. I want him to live a long and happy life.”

  The woman’s face blurred, like there was static in the air, then she came clearly in focus again.

  “And you think we can ‘un-damn’ him?”

  “Didn’t you—or people like you—curse him in the first place? You’re a hunter, right?”

  “I am.”

  “So can you?”

  She considered it for a long moment. I held my breath, worried she wouldn’t bite. And also worried about what I might have to give in return.

  “I need to see you in person. You and your father.”

  “And then?” I asked.

  “And then we’ll discuss what comes next.”

  “You can’t just help my friend because it’s the right thing to do?”

  She fought a smirk before she slowly shook her head. I had my answer.

  “Where do I meet you?”

  “Gravewood City. Midnight. There are trails by the pier. Trail One leads to a clearing in the woods. I need to see both you and your father.”

  Shit. My father. “What if my dad doesn’t want to help? What if he can’t?”

  “I find that hard to believe. He protected you all this time. He must love you. I can’t see why he’d stop protecting you now.” She smiled sweetly and then said, “Until later, Maisie. I’m looking forward to seeing you. It’s been a really, really long time.”

  She made a face that I could only describe as sad. I didn’t understand it. She wasn’t old enough to know me or my father, even.

  “You’re asking me to trust you when my father clearly didn’t.”

  She raised an eyebrow, and I worried I’d given myself away.

  “I mean doesn’t,” I said quickly. “He clearly doesn’t.”

  “Well, I guess you have a decision to make. Is your friend’s soul worth meeting someone who wants nothing more than to meet with you in person? It hardly seems like a sacrifice, does it?”

  “You won’t come for Noah before I see you?”

  “You have my word.”

  Whatever that was worth.

  She started to fade, and I reached out to touch the mirror. The image blurred before clearing. When my fingers met the glass, I touched my own hand. My true reflection. And she was gone.

  “I don’t even know your name,” I said though she couldn’t hear me.

  Yet she still managed to whisper in my ear. “Amira.”

  I inhaled deeply and stepped away from the mirror. On the bed, Noah still lay sleeping, completely unaware of what had happened. He would never let me meet Amira if he knew. If he did, he wouldn’t let me go alone. I couldn’t tell him that this night with him might be my last. So I crawled back into bed with him, kissed his shoulder, and held him tight.

  And I waited for morning.

  Twenty

  I didn’t remember succumbing to sleep. When I woke, the cabin was lit with natural light streaming in through the large window in the sitting area. I yawned, stretched, and heard footfalls behind me.

  “Coffee,” Noah said. His voice took on an even deeper tone first thing in the morning.

  “Yes, please.”

  “I swear I had the best sleep of my life. With everything going on, it’s a little surprising,” he said.

  You slept well because you were under a spell. Of course, I didn’t tell him that. I couldn’t tell him anything about last night. As I thought about the hunter that appeared, I half wondered if it had happened. If it was all in my mind.

  I chewed on my nails as I debated going to meet her, though there was no question I would go. Did it have to be all on her terms, though? I scoffed at that. We both knew I needed her more than she needed me. They could have simply come and got me against my will if they wanted to. At least, she gave me some semblance of a choice in the matter. Was I walking into a trap? Possibly. But it didn’t matter one bit. As for bringing my father? Well, I prayed my lie wouldn’t prevent me from getting what I needed.

  Noah walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge, right by my stomach. I turned on my side to face him and propped my upper body up with an elbow. I took the mug and gently blew on it. The warm liquid went down smooth, and it satisfied my caffeine itch even though the coffee wasn’t the finest.

  “I have to leave soon,” he said. “Are you still coming?”

  I smiled and nodded. Who knew what would happen when I met her? I only knew that there was nothing I could do right then except live my life and wait. I wanted to wait with Noah. “Are you going to tell me now?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  “Why all the suspense?”

  He grinned. “Because you really want to know, and I like frustrating you.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  “It used to be one of my favorite past-times.”

  If I didn’t have a mug in my hand, I would have punched him. He was lucky.

  After getting dressed, we walked back to his car. As we drove, I watched the passing trees and stray homes, waiting to see where he was taking me. To my surprise he drove outside of town to a small gray building with metal siding and pallets of wood outside. The building had few windows, just one long one off to the left. Beside the glass door, was a thick trunk of a tree. An image of a wolf, a bear and a moose was carved into it. Above the images, the words Country Carvings.

  “You work here?”

  He shrugged.

  If I’d had a million guesses about where he worked, I would never have guessed this. “Is this where you got most of your furniture? And the carvings and the furniture in Laird’s home? It’s from here too?”

  He turned off the engine. “Yep. Come on inside. I’ll show you around.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  He removed his seat belt and opened his door. “I bought the building maybe a year after you left. I had to fill some time.”

  He got out of the car. I stay rooted in my seat. “What?” I got out and hurried after him. “You own this?”

  He slid a key in the lock on the front door. “Yep.”

  “Who else works here?”

  He looked arou
nd at the empty parking lot. “Just me.”

  “Where did you learn to do all this?”

  He opened the door and waved a hand for me to go first. I stepped inside, and he flicked on the light to help the natural light coming in through the window. The entire room was open. There was no cash register, just tools and a few benches and shelves. Lot and lots of shelves with carved animals on them: owls, rabbits, birds, squirrels. Almost all wildlife you could find in the woods around here. Although there were also a few penguins. I fought a smile.

  “I had no idea you were so talented.” I picked up a small wolf the size of a cat. There was no paint on it. All of the details were realistic and smoothed over. I ran a hand over it and felt nothing, not a lick of sawdust. “How did I never know you could do this?”

  “I used to mess around with wood and a knife when I was a kid. I didn’t think I was very good. After…uh…after Seth died, I saw an advertisement for a woodworking class. I used to go on Sunday nights. I’d tell everyone I was going for a run in the woods. But I’d go to that class. That’s where I got to know Shawn.”

  “Deputy MacGregor?”

  He nodded.

  Huh. Well, I guess that solved that mystery.

  He walked to the biggest desk and picked up a wolf. This one was painted a pale brown. It had the darkest brown eyes and a streak of white down its back. The same coloring and stripe that Seth had when he turned. “I made this one first.”

  “This is what you made first?” It was every bit as polished as the others. He was a natural. He’d never talked about Seth, though I knew he hurt. I’d worried he wasn’t dealing with it, but he was. In his own way. I was sad he hadn’t shared this with me, but relieved, at least, that he found a way to channel his grief.

  He handed me the wolf, and I set the other down. I hugged it to my chest.

  “You can have it. I thought I’d give it to you one day. Might as well be now.”

  “Thank you. This means a lot.”

  I thought back to the days after Seth’s death. How Noah would leave on Sundays. I’d never asked him where he went for hours at a time. He’d never volunteered. “Is MacGregor as talented as you?” I said with a sad smile.

  “God, no.” He let out a laugh. “Sometimes he’ll come by and I’ll let him use my tools and the space. He likes to get away too.”

  “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

  “I don’t know why I didn’t before.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. I set the wolf down on the bench and touched his upper arm. He stared at my hand, and then he met my eyes.

  “Laird supports this?” I said, my tone clearly showing my disbelief. He had some of his furniture so he had to know.

  He nodded. “We all got to work and support ourselves somehow. And when the pack needs me, I’m always there.”

  “So you sell this stuff?”

  “Yeah. Pays good.”

  “Because it’s amazing.”

  His cheeks flushed. For the first time ever, Noah was embarrassed, and it made my heart full to the point where I thought it might explode.

  “You’re going to hug me now, aren’t—”

  I wrapped my arms around his middle and crushed myself into him. He let out a chuckle. I stayed in his arms for a long time, enjoying the feel of him next to me. It helped me forget everything else.

  When he finally tipped his head back to look down at me, I looked up at him and tried hard to make him think everything was okay. That I was okay. “Will you show me how to make something?”

  “I’m not sure I trust you with power tools.”

  “Ha ha,” I said. I pulled away from him and slapped him on his hard chest. “What are you working on now?”

  He walked up to the other end of the bench and there was the outline of a basic horse. I ran my hand over the carved eye.

  “Rocking horse.”

  “Oh, nice.” I picked up one of the curved pieces of wood next to it that must have been part of the base.

  “It’s for Kelly Major.”

  “Kelly Major?” I said with a touch of disbelief. I remembered her from high school. She’d always had a thing for Noah, but Noah didn’t pay much attention to her. They might have messed around once or twice. I didn’t want to think about that.

  “Yeah, she’s got a couple of toddlers. Twins.”

  “Oh.”

  He grinned. “She’s married. Long over me. She knows I sell this kind of stuff and she had one as a kid, so she thought she’d have me make a couple for her girls.”

  I smiled sheepishly.

  “Were you jealous?”

  I waved off his accusation. “No.”

  He licked his lips and smiled. “Yeah. You were.”

  “Would it be okay if I was?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I can hardly point a finger, since I debated ripping off your boyfriend’s arms before dragging you here.”

  I opened my mouth and snapped it shut.

  He held up his hands. “I resisted.”

  “Noah, you wouldn’t have. Would you?”

  He made a face as he wobbled his head. He leaned over the bench and grinned. “You want the truth?”

  I nodded.

  “No.” But he nodded his head at the exact same time he said no.

  I rolled my eyes. I should have been mad at him for that, but he didn’t actually do it, so… I couldn’t judge him for that. I’d had an awful lot of bad thoughts in my head over the years. What mattered was what we did about them.

  He straightened and waved me forward. He took my hand and led me over to a machine with a circular piece standing up. “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s a spindle sander.” He grabbed one of the pieces from the rocking horse and turned the machine on.

  “It looks expensive.”

  “It is. Don’t break it.”

  “Oh, my God. The pressure,” I teased.

  He stood behind me, guiding me as we sanded most of the pieces. I felt safe with him at my back and loved having him this close to me with his hands lightly touching mine. When we got to the last piece, he took a step back.

  “The training wheels are off,” he told me. He grabbed the other pieces and took them back to the bench. I finished off the last piece, which I thought was the tail, and then I joined him.

  “Feel this. Like a baby’s butt.”

  He laughed and shot me a wink. “It’s perfect.”

  Perfect. It was the best way to describe my day with him. We spent hours at his shop, working on that horse. By the time the horse was done, it was almost suppertime, and my stomach was growling. We sat across the bench from each other, each of us on tall stools. He’d had some sandwiches in a fridge over in the far corner of the room. I wasn’t sure if I could trust if they were safe or not, but since they had expiry dates on them, I figured we were safe. He had tuna, and I had egg. It was bland, but it might have been the best I’d ever had. Mostly because of the company.

  “What’s next?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. Ideas?”

  I tapped my chin while I thought about it. “Um…I honestly don’t know.”

  “How about I surprise you?”

  “I like that.”

  His cheeks flushed and the color travelled to his neck. Twice in one day.

  His phone rang from the back pocket of his jeans. He pulled it out and sighed.

  “Laird?”

  He nodded.

  “You better take it.”

  “Yep?” he said as he answered the phone. “Mmhmm.” He paused for a beat.

  I picked at the crust of my sandwich. It was all I had left in the plastic container it came in.

  “Maisie’s with me,” he said as his eyes met mine. “I understand.” He pressed a button to put Laird on speaker and put his phone on the table. I saw a tic in his jaw and his cheeks flushed again, but this time it wasn’t from embarrassment. He was annoyed. At his pack master.

  “Any news?” Laird asked me.

/>   “No,” I said. I wouldn’t tell Noah about my encounter with Amira, so I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him.

  “I hate waiting,” Laird said.

  That made three of us.

  “Noah is marked,” Laird snapped. “He’s to keep his distance. I thought I told you that.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I said defiantly.

  “I certainly told you,” he said to Noah.

  Noah squared his shoulders as he sat up straighter.

  “The hunters could be looking for me,” I said. “I figured we’re both a threat to the pack, so we might as well wait it out together.”

  “Drop Maisie at home, and meet me at the old camp,” Laird said. His voice sounded like a growl. Would he get in trouble for being with me? I didn’t want him to. “I need you for something.”

  “I thought you were all avoiding him,” I said in a saucy voice before thinking better of it.

  Noah frowned at me and released a quiet sigh. I was trying to help him, even if he didn’t realize it.

  Laird ignored me, as he often did. “Be quick about it.”

  “Is there something wrong?” I asked.

  “If I wanted you to know, I’d already have told you.”

  Noah bristled. “Easy, Laird. She’s risking her life to help this pack. You wanted her in it, and she’s playing her role well. She deserves respect.”

  “You talk to me about respect when you talk back to me? Your leader?”

  “How about we talk about this when we see each other?” Noah said, his voice somehow calm.

  “You can count on it.” With that, Laird hung up the phone.

  I sighed and shook my head at Noah. “It’s not worth it.”

  “It is worth it. You’re worth it. You’ve done everything he asked. He forces you to be one of us but keeps you on the sidelines. He wants your power, but not you. No. I’m loyal to my pack. And that means sometimes speaking up when things aren’t right.”

  I laid a hand on his forearm and squeezed. He stood up to Laird for me. He didn’t have to. It went against who he was and the laws of their group, but he did it anyway. For me. Which is why I couldn’t let him. Because I cared for him as much as he seemed to care for me.

  “Let it go. This isn’t a battle worth fighting. You need them. I know you do. And that’s okay.”