Claiming His Witch (20 page)

“I have responsibilities.” I swung wide around a large puddle, slipping in the soft mud.

Amber glanced my way, smirking when she saw how my shoes were covered in muck. “Right, you have them; you just have no clue how to honor them. You prefer to leave everything for other people to handle so you can run off with your latest toy.”

“Ladies.” Rebel’s voice was darker, his frustration showing. Something Amber must have noticed as well.

“You know, you can shut it anytime now, wolf.” Amber looked over her shoulder, glaring at the shifter as he directed Charlotte over a fallen branch. “And hey, how about you tell whichever of your friends has been hanging around outside the lighthouse to stay away. I don’t need your kind of protection.”

Rebel frowned, looking confused. “What are you talking about?”

“The footprints, the wolf sightings, the howls.” Amber shook her head and scoffed as Rebel just stared back at her, silent. “What, are you going to try and deny it was one of your guys? Like I’m supposed to believe there’s another group of wolves in the woods.”

“Maybe not group,” Rebel said, his voice deepening into a slight growl. Charlotte looked up at him, worry clear in her expression. “It wasn’t us.”

She huffed. “By the Goddess, now Zuri’s attracting a whole pack to us.”

“Amber.” Rebel moved a step closer, reaching for her as if to keep her from running. But then he stopped and turned…slowly.

“What?” My sister didn’t look at him, just continued walking along the trail on the way to the lighthouse.

“Amber, I think you should—”

“Amber.”

We all spun at the unfamiliar voice coming from behind us. A man stood on the trail, looking at Amber with an expression of joy unlike any I’d seen before. He was tall and muscular, wearing a leather jacket and jeans much like Rebel. But unlike Rebel, this man appeared almost sickly, with his pale skin, eyes of an indeterminate watery color, and an overall air of neglect. He seemed…disturbed, dirty, and wrong.

“Spook?” Rebel took a step toward the man as he questioned him. “What are you doing out here?”

Spook’s smile fell as he tried to focus on Rebel, but his eyes kept returning to Amber. Small movements, tics almost, as if he couldn’t stop himself from watching her. “Crash sent me. Said there was some trouble up this way and y’all needed help.”

Rebel hummed and stepped toward the man. He moved slowly, deliberately, like an animal stalking prey. As he edged along the path, he directed Charlotte back to where I stood behind him. Placing himself solidly between us and the threat on the trail. Scarlett stepped closer as well, and Amber walked over to join us.

“Did you talk to Pup?” Rebel’s voice came out calm, showing no sign of the wariness I knew he had to be feeling. “I sent him down to Kalamazoo to see you.”

The man seemed nervous, eyes bouncing from Rebel to Amber to the woods at my left and back to Rebel. “Yeah. Sure did. He’ll be back in a few hours. Cybil was down at the den today, so Pup was a little preoccupied. That’s why Crash sent me. You know how those young bucks get around the shewolves.”

My heart stopped for a beat as my mind flashed to the guilt on Pup’s face before he left. But there was no way he’d do something that would hurt me like spending time with another woman, wolf or no.
 

I’m yours and yours alone, my mate.

I trusted him, implicitly.

Rebel chuckled, the sound completely wrong. “There’s no way that’s what happened, man. Pup’s found his mate.”

Spook looked surprised for a moment before dropping his gaze to the ground. “Sure, yeah. Maybe I misunderstood. But Crash did tell me to come here.”

“Of course he did; we were looking for help.” Rebel took another step forward, his shoulders tight and his body angled as if on defense. “What’d Crash say to do? Is there a plan?”

Spook suddenly looked excited, eyes blinking multiple times as he looked us over.
 

“Of course…of course there’s a plan. I’m supposed to take the girls back to the lighthouse. The old one’s sick; she needs them home.” He caught me in his gaze, his glare blistering even from where he stood. “Scar and Zuri shouldn’t have left the way they did. It was too much for Amber to handle on her own.”

A chill of dread went up my spine, something so wrong about the fact that this stranger knew who I was. That he knew my nickname. That he knew what the three of us had been doing. Yet I’d never seen him before.

“Yeah, it’s been a rough couple of days,” Rebel said as he glanced over his shoulder at us. He caught my eye, looking meaningfully at Charlotte before coming back to me. It was subtle and fast, but I understood what he meant. Get his mate out of the way. Keep her safe. Because he was about to do something dangerous.

“Well, Spook,” Rebel said, turning to face the shifter. “I was just taking the girls to the lighthouse myself, so I don’t think you’re going to be needed.”

“What? No.”

“Sorry, man. But I’ve got this covered. I think you should be on your way back to the denhouse.”

As Spook began to shake and growl, I crept closer to Charlotte, nudging her toward a giant tree just off the path. It was big enough to hide her behind, should we need to. As we moved, Rebel was also making minor adjustments. Unzipping his coat, cracking his neck, moving his feet to keep himself between Spook and us.
 

“I want to take them.” Spook looked nervous at that point, twitching and shaking and staring at Amber, who was cowering with Scarlett on the other side of Charlotte.

Rebel shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “That’s not going to happen, man.”

“Rebel, I need them.” Spook stopped, took a deep breath, and then looked our way. “Her. I need her, been waiting for her. Just the one. Give me Amber.”

Rebel snarled as he edged closer to Spook. “That’s not happening either.”

Spook’s face went slack as he stared at my sister. No emotion, no movement. Just a flat, dread-inducing blankness that made him ten times more frightening than he’d been as he twitched and argued.
 

Then he shrugged.

“Then I’ll have to kill you all.”

Spook shifted into wolf form, clothing falling to the ground as light gray fur appeared where there had been only skin. Rebel shifted just as fast, already running toward the man as his jeans fell to the ground. Similarly colored, too difficult to tell apart, they streaked in a blur of gray and white fur to the center of the path. The two met in a collision of fur and teeth, snarling in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Two predators, fighting to the death only a few yards away.

Charlotte yelped when I pushed her against the tree. I faced out, blocking her, keeping her tucked behind me. Scarlett stood at my left, Amber at my right, the three of us using the tree to completely box poor Charlotte in.

“I’ve got this.” Scarlett’s fingers glowed as she lifted her hand.

“No.” I grabbed her wrist, keeping my eyes on the two wolves fighting. “You could hurt Rebel.”

We watched the fighting, feeling helpless. I could have called the rain or pulled the water from their skin, but whatever I did to Spook would probably affect Rebel. There was no way to isolate them. No way for my magick to focus on the correct wolf when I wasn’t sure who was who.

“We should run,” Amber said, her voice a little shaky.
 

“Absolutely not.” I gripped her elbow and pulled her closer as the growling increased. “We have to keep Charlotte safe for Rebel. Besides, if we run, Spook will chase us. He’s a wolf, remember? He’s got instincts and shit.”

“But what about—”

Her question was cut off as one of the wolves squealed in pain. The two were so close in color, so fast as they jumped and clawed, it was nearly impossible to tell who was who. The only obvious difference was that one was suddenly bleeding from a wound in its throat.

“Rebel!” Charlotte cried as she tried to push past us.

“No.” I turned and plastered my body against hers. “You have to stay here; you’ll distract him too much if he thinks you’re in danger.”

She peered at me, tears in her eyes and fear plain on her face. “I don’t want to lose him.”

“I know. But we can’t—”

“Fuck, there’s more of them,” Amber yelled. I spun, my mouth falling open as Pup in his wolf form raced into the field. Tall, strong, and dark enough to easily distinguish from Rebel and Spook, he demanded attention. It was something in the way he ran, the way his body moved, how he focused so completely on the fighting wolves. He was an impressive man, but in his animal form, he was positively captivating.

Pup ran straight for the other two wolves with a larger black wolf racing alongside him—Beast. Growling and snarling, Pup leapt over the last few feet between him and Spook. He slammed into the injured wolf, knocking him to the ground and biting his neck with a viciousness that made my stomach turn. Charlotte screamed as the gray wolf fell, landing in a heap of fur and blood with Pup standing over him.
 

“Abraham.”

I shook my head, about to tell her about Pup and how there was no way he’d have attacked Rebel, until...
 

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a small motion. A tiny flicker that made my stomach plummet as time slowed almost to the point of standing still. The next second dragged, giving me plenty of time to realize that Amber thought Pup was our enemy. She’d seen him kill a gray wolf; indistinguishable from the one supposed to be protecting us. She thought she’d seen Pup kill Rebel, and she was going to use her magick to stop him. Arms out, fingers extended, reaching toward where my mate stood. And even though I couldn’t hear the words she chanted, I knew the spell she’d choose. Knew exactly what was about to happen with a surety that reeked of divination.
 

Terror built within me as her fingers curled, her hands cupping. I yelled, the sound hindered and distorted in the slower reality, taking far too long to travel from my mouth to Amber’s ears. Too slow to help my Pup, to give him a heads up. Far too slow.
 

And as her thumb met her fingertips and the magick exploded out of her, time sped back to normal.
 

My scream shattered the near-silence around me, but it was too late. The spell hit Pup with enough force to knock him over. His wolf lay on his side, feet paddling and claws extended as his tongue lolled. He gasped—once, twice, fighting to breathe, air-starved and suffering—before his body morphed from fur to skin, wolf to human.
 

Naked and still gasping for air, he met my eyes, his mouth open as he tried to inhale. But he couldn’t, not with the spell Amber used. She’d practiced it defensively for years, perfected it when the other air witches had failed. It was a magickal depressurization, sucking the air from his lungs and collapsing them in the process. The rapid evacuation of air led to a suction power within the lungs, making it impossible to reinflate by the one attacked. Effective, fast, and deadly, it was the only spell I’d never seen her be able to reverse.

Noses to the ground, we followed the scents left by the girls. And Rebel. His presence had made me feel calmer about Zuri being in the woods. But as we hurried down the trail, snarls reached our ears. Hearing the vicious sound of a wolf battle stole that calm. I pushed myself harder, faster, desperate to get to Zuri. I needed to find her, to protect her.
 

Turning a final bend, we came upon a scene that made my hackles rise. Rebel, in wolf form, fighting a second gray wolf. One I didn’t recognize except by scent. Spook: the missing Breed member, thief, and collector of pictures of my mate and her sisters.
 

Rebel had the upper hand in the fight, attacking the smaller wolf aggressively while Spook ducked and tried to avoid our leader’s jaws. Zuri and her sisters stood farther down the path, the three Weaver sisters forming a protective arc in front of a terrified looking Charlotte, Relief flooded me as I saw my mate unharmed.

Knowing my mate was safe, I rushed toward the fighting wolves just as Rebel’s teeth sliced through part of Spook’s throat. It wasn’t a death bite, but it was enough to stun and confuse the wolf. His inattention was my chance, my opportunity, and I took it. Leaping, I landed with my teeth in his neck and twisted, ripping out his throat with a single move. Blood poured from the wound, painting me in his death, but I didn’t care. Knowing I’d eliminated a threat to my mate and her family made me puff up with pride.

But just as fast, fear gripped my heart and my chest tightened to the point of pain. I whimpered as the pressure increased, making it impossible to breathe. Dizzy and off-balance, I gasped and fell to the ground. Black spots edged into my vision, growing larger with every second that passed without air reaching my lungs.

Struggling to stay conscious, I shifted to my human form, still unable to breathe. There was nothing I could do. Nothing that would relieve the pressure on my chest. As the spots grew to nearly cover my field of vision, I looked over to my Zuri. The pain and fear on her face gutted me. I tried to crawl to her but I fell to the dirt. Chest tight. No room. Not enough energy to gasp.
 

As I mentally fell into a pool of light, filled with water the same color as Zuri’s eyes, I thought about how much I loved her. How much I desired her. How I wanted to drown in her.

So I did.

Pup, my sweet, charming boy, struggled on the ground. Tremors wracking his body. Eyes wide and filled with fear. One look—that was all we shared before I watched the light fade around him. His aura dimming. His life-force ebbing.
 

He collapsed. Head hitting the ground, body still.
 

My knees met grass and dirt.

“No.” The word left me on a whisper—soft, dissipating as the waves of sound met the air around us. Slowly at first, terrified to be right, I crawled toward Pup. My eyes refusing to leave his body.
 

Not when Scarlett’s quiet words brushed against my ears.