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DARKNESS BEGAN TO ENCROACH on the forest as the two groups met up. From their excited gestures, they seemed pretty sure their quarry’s lair was to the north. The fear spell that had been pushing me away all day began to fade. It dissipated completely once the sun went down. I figured the ancient witch didn’t have enough strength to keep the enchantment going indefinitely. I hoped she hadn’t been using forbidden spells to keep herself alive for over a century. Maybe she belonged to a coven who’d been living here for several generations. I would find out the truth once the hunters located her home.
It was a relief when the oppressive blanket of terror lifted. I hadn’t had any alcohol to give me false courage, but the spell hadn’t been anywhere near as strong this time. My hunch that it wasn’t as overwhelming when there were several male hikers together seemed to be correct. The enchantment worked better on one or two men at a time.
The hunters set up a camp, clearing a space to build a fire. I kept my distance from them, but was glad to see they were taking precautions. At least I didn’t have to worry that they would set the woods on fire now that they’d mostly sobered up during their trek. The spell had faded, so they wouldn’t need to stay drunk all night long.
I listened to them planning what they were going to do to the witch when they found her. They assumed she was an old hag and they were right. It almost seemed like she was a stereotype of what humans expected a witch to look like.
Remembering the hint of amber I’d seen in her eyes, I wondered if she was somehow related to Raina. Maybe that was why the shifter had sought refuge here. One of her parents might have been human and could have been related to the witch. Speculation ran rampant through my mind, but hunger distracted me. There was no use watching the men now that they’d hunkered down for the night. None of them were brave enough to hunt the witch after nightfall.
I hadn’t had a chance to return to where the bear had been trapped to try to follow the witch’s scent to her home. There was little point now that the hunters were closing in on her. Still, there was something I needed to do and I asked Delta to take me back there. “Can you get rid of that beartrap?” I asked and put her down. She obediently made the trap sink deep beneath the ground before returning to the surface. I picked her up and put her back in my pocket, then took a deep whiff of air.
I wasn’t surprised when I caught Raina’s scent. She must have heard the bear roaring earlier and had come to investigate. After I’d been chased away by the bear, she must have escorted the witch back to her house. Their scents were so similar that I couldn’t tell them apart, confirming my hunch that they were related.
My stomach growled loudly and I was in desperate need of coffee. “Take me back to the base, girl,” I requested. Delta returned us to the compound and the deer came to check in with us again. “Have they noticed anything strange?” I asked. The mouse’s whiskers didn’t twitch, so I figured it had been quiet here. They went back to their patrol and I headed inside.
Sweaty and itchy from being in the forest all day, I took a shower before cooking dinner. I called Alex to check in with the team when I was done.
“Hey, Liam,” she said cheerfully. “It’s good that you called me rather than Nick. He’s in his bedroom with Freya again.”
“We can almost feel the floor vibrating from all of the mates going at it like horny rabbits,” Yas said from the background.
“It’s like an epidemic,” Crowmon added.
“Are all of the couples upstairs?” I asked, not particularly surprised. Newly mated couples needed to spend time alone and we were on vacation, after all.
“Yep,” Alex confirmed. “It’s kind of nice to get a break from seeing them hanging all over each other all the time.”
“Has anything happened that I need to be aware of?” I asked with a grin. It was good to hear they were having fun in my absence. Strangely, my sorrow that my little brother had replaced me with someone more important didn’t sting as much now. I was too preoccupied with my mission to think about it. My wolf gave a snort of amusement, but I stoically ignored him.
“Nope,” Yas said. “It’s getting boring. When are you going to bring your mate here so we can meet her?”
“I don’t have a mate,” I said in annoyance.
“You’ll meet her soon, if you haven’t already,” Alex predicted. “Has the curse gotten you yet?”
“Not so far,” I replied. Nothing bad had happened to me, so I hoped the curse was going to leave me alone.
“We’ll let you know if anything happens that you need to know about,” Alex promised, then we hung up.
I turned the TV on, but couldn’t focus on the movie that was playing. My thoughts kept returning to Raina. How could I convince her to leave the woods if the witch was her relative? Would I need to bring both of them home with me?
Realizing what I was thinking, I pushed myself to my feet and headed to the kitchen for more coffee. “Raina isn’t my true mate,” I said. “She can’t be.”
Why not, my wolf asked.
I didn’t have an answer for that question and chose to ignore it. She could still be my mate even if she was half human. Stranger things had happened, after all. Just look at Nick and Freya. She’d been a master vampire before he’d bitten her and their bond had brought her back to life.
My resistance to the idea of having a partner was slowly melting away. I couldn’t deny that Raina was the most stunning woman I’d ever seen. We’d only spoken in a dream so far, but it had been startlingly real. Every detail about her was etched into my memory. I could picture her face clearly every time I closed my eyes.
Delta scurried into her shoebox when I went to bed. I tossed and turned, worrying about what was going to happen tomorrow. I came to the realization that I couldn’t let the hunters find the crone’s house. How could Raina ever forgive me when she found out that Delta could have removed the men from the woods? She would hate me if the witch was injured and she knew I could have prevented it.
I finally fell asleep about an hour before dawn and overslept. Snapping awake, a sense of alarm was rising inside me. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was.
Our mate is in danger, my wolf said and that was enough to spur me into action.
I pulled on some clean clothes, then grabbed Delta and my backpack. Racing downstairs, I prayed I wasn’t too late as I exited from the building. Delta took us into the ground and we surfaced near the campsite the hunters had made last night. Dread spread through me when I saw their campfire was cold and their scents were already faded. A couple of empty bottles of whiskey lay near the remains of their fire. They were liquored up and were eager to hunt down the old woman and kill her.
Raina wouldn’t run and hide if she really was related to the witch. She would protect her as best she could. As a shifter, she couldn’t hurt the men who were determined to rid the forest of her kin. I didn’t even want to think about what they would do to her if they captured her.
A different type of fear licked at my heels as I took off running. It was far easier to ignore the enchantment that was trying to drive me away. I hadn’t even spoken a word to Raina except in a dream, but I felt an imperative need to protect her.
