Hardly as if they were spitting at me in the streets.
Yet … there could be no doubt about that look from that elder male as he went. Burn the witch.
Watching Zacharias go, I knew what it was—more than my challenging him over Jed. But I still didn’t know why.
Jed and Andrew stood one to each side, close enough to touch my legs, with Zar at my back, hand on my shoulder.
“Zar?” I spoke in a whisper. “Why did it upset the pack so much on Friday morning when you all did the vow to me?”
“What? They’re not upset with you.”
Bullshit.
But Andrew looked up at me.
I met the amber-gold eyes in the red and white masked face.
“You know?” I asked Andrew. “Would both of you please change? I want to talk to you all. We’re going to Yorkshire.”
Jed looked up sharply as well.
“We’re what?” Zar asked.
“That’s where the mage is who can help us. Gavin. I think he can translate the Blood Tome. Even if he can’t, I’m sure he can help. Worst case … Goddess … we just need some advice.”
“When?” Zar asked.
“I’ll scry again. We should all…” My voice almost broke and I had to catch my breath, looking at the hedge and not the pack around the bodies, lying out flowers, kissing the blankets covering their faces, or hugging their family members. “We should all take a moment, talk, I’ll send him an email. Then … get out of here. Today. Every day we haven’t tracked them down, someone else could die.”
We dispersed.
I scried with the stakes. I got exactly as much as before: nothing.
I looked for Kage and Jason. They weren’t out, weren’t home, but I finally found them at his parents’ place. The door was open. Kage was in there pacing and snapping at Jason about the things the pack should be doing—more guards, more tracking, more hunting, less hunted. Jason stood against the wall inside the door, out of his way, saying nothing.
I walked to what had clearly been Rebecca’s room. The decor was a mix of total wolf and wilderness images and books, heavy metal posters and CD cases, and butterflies. There were butterfly garden lights draped all around the ceiling, butterflies on the bedspread, glass butterflies dangling in the window, catching the morning sun and reflecting a pattern of rainbow light across the room, and butterflies painted over the walls in whimsical, abstract pastels.
I plugged in the cord that connected the lights all together and gazed around the room, at the jewel-bright world of a vibrant young person just starting her life.
Kage made his way in there as he paced. He clenched his fist in his own hair, chest rising and falling on breaths that were a combination of exertion and panic. He looked bewildered. Like he didn’t understand where he was or couldn’t grasp the language someone was speaking to him. Jason followed to the doorway.
Kage started to turn, his eyes wide, scared, confused—a trapped animal. I hugged him. Then Jason. And we sank to the floor, Kage between us, leaning against Rebecca’s bed, smelling of meadow clover, while her brother finally wept.
Chapter 42
I told him he couldn’t go: we didn’t need seven of us to take a book across the country. He needed to be with his family. He and Jason could stay behind for this one.
Kage, with Jason anxiously in tow, had already followed me to meet with Isaac, Andrew, Jed, and Zar in the latter two’s home. Though we had not invited him.
It was noon. It was still Sunday. We were all still shaking—at least emotionally, some physically.
And he wouldn’t back down.
“Stay with your parents, Kage, they need you. This is not the time or place.” Facing him in their kitchen, Isaac by me, Zar hovering at the table, nervous, Jed and Andrew in skin and dressed. “You should be here looking after them.”
“No—” Kage slammed his palm on the counter. “They should be out also! We’re the only ones doing anything. What is the point in one more wolf staying here to hide in a bloody den?”
“I don’t think this is a good time for you to be out doing something like—”
“I’m fine!” He moved, spinning away, throwing up his hands.
It wasn’t as if he was trying to hit me, but it did look a bit like that, I’m sure. Either way, it must have seemed threatening because everyone else moved, tensing, stepping forward. Isaac, though, was right there. The only reason I could stop him at all was myself already being between the two of them.
I caught Isaac’s wrist in both hands. “That’s enough. Get out of the room. Leave him alone.” I waved Isaac—who, though Kage had done nothing more than make a violent gesture around me, had apparently been about to punch him—out of the kitchen.
Isaac only retreated a couple of steps.
“Kage, we’re going today. We’ll probably just be gone overnight, or two if we can’t meet him until Monday. I’m waiting to hear. Take those couple days and we’ll be back.”
Kage turned to me again, hunching over the counter, his elbows on it, hands dragging down his face. He grabbed my hand, breathing hard, as if stealing himself for a leap out of a plane. He looked up into my eyes.
“Please, let me come with you.” He didn’t sound angry anymore. He sounded scared.
I looked at Jason by the table, who shifted his gaze from Kage to me, miserable.
“You can’t … lash out at everyone,” I told Kage quietly. “Every part of this pack needs to start working as a whole…”
He said no more, his plea simply dangling in the air between us, chest still heaving as he leaned over the counter, clutching my hand, his eyes shut.
“You’ll stay with Jason on his bike?” I didn’t want Kage driving. Even though it crossed my mind we’d be better off taking his Jeep and the trailer up there. Not this trip.
Kage nodded.
“Okay. We can stay together if you’re absolutely sure you want to do this.”
More nodding, gripping my hand with both of his.
I let him keep it, turning to the others. “Pack for overnight. By the time we leave Gavin, it could lead us to something more. Maybe we won’t be back right away, so prepare for that as well. Jason, Isaac, arrangements you need to make for work? That’s also only if you’re sure you want to come. No one has to do this. I hope it’s a simple trip: up, night in Yorkshire, back, but … who knows?”
Five watched me. Kage focused on my hand in his.
“Will you look after him?” I asked Jason.
He nodded.
Then to each of the others:
“Zar, please bring any book or research papers that you think could help in communicating with the kindred.
“Andrew, we’ll do this on a tight budget, of course, but will you go to Diana about more funding? We’ll need bed and breakfast rooms since we’re not taking the caravan.
“Isaac, I’m sorry about your work. Can you bring your laptop? We’ll have downtime. We may have to wait on him to puzzle over the book. Who knows? I hope you’re able to keep up some long-distance.
“Jed, wilderness areas like the Yorkshire Dales should be better places than the South of England to liaison with kindred. Since you’ve seen them in fur, maybe you can again. Finding them is starting to feel like an emergency, along with everything else around here. I want to respect your people’s laws and for you to honor your lockdown when you’re out with us. Unless there’s an ‘emergency.’ In which case … screw them.”
Jed smiled—faint, but unmistakable.
“Okay—” I stopped, looking once more to each of them. I wanted to continue. I wanted to mention Gabriel. Or Friday—ask Andrew, or any of them, to come clean about what had happened on Friday morning when they’d offered the vow and the pack had changed toward me.
Far more than that, I wanted to say, Thank you, and tell them how sorry I was that I’d let fear for the future stifle my own heart in this Moon. I wanted to make them promises that I couldn’t keep.
I said, “Get r
eady and talk to your families. Have lunch if you want it. It’ll be a long day. We’ll meet at the bikes in an hour.” Again I paused, looked at Isaac, at Kage.
He flew down at night from his cave to gobble up wolves in fur if they didn’t stay together in a pack.
I remembered their words and my own lessons in dreams and life. And this morning. I swallowed, squeezing Kage’s hand very tight, and once more understood that I was wrong: wrong to hold back.
I looked to each of them. “I’m sorry for the past few days. I made a mistake, looking with fear to the future instead of being right here and now with you. And … the mistake of assuming that tomorrow is some sort of right or guarantee, rather than only a possibility. I was wrong. Who can say if we will live to see the next Moon? Much less live to regret it? You all have had the wisdom to know that all along—and been right all along. That’s wolf magic. Thank you…” I glanced to Kage again. “For being my teachers.” Then, looking around, “I love you all. I am grateful—blessed—for each of you being a part of this pack.”
They did the vow to me. Even Kage while his right hand remained clamped on mine. I could not tell who started it—all acting in harmony for the first time.
An hour later, the seven of us roared away from the park on five motorcycles, heading north, outrunning dragons. Together.
Happy Reading
Thank you for running with The Witch and the Wolf Pack! But wait…
As you’ve noticed, this series is episodic, being long enough to support a novel to focus on each of the pack. We’ve had Isaac’s and Zar’s episodes, now Moonlight Heart brought us to Kage and Jason. Sharing as they are, they’re needing two books. Jump right into Book Five, Moonlight Betrayal, here for the second part of this arc!
Then track down Jed’s and Andrew’s episodes with Book Six and Book Seven, followed by the rest of the series.
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Until our next hunt,
Moonlight Heart: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 4) Page 27
