Preserves & Premonitions

by Bella Falls

  He held his hand out to me. “Maybe we should be touching each other for the spell to work?”

  Cameron snorted and then coughed to cover it up. She turned her back on us to look down the hill at the big house to try and give us a little privacy.

  I placed my left hand in his right and then smacked him upside his head for good measure before grabbing his other one. “Let’s try it again.” I closed my eyes in concentration, but the brush of his thumb against my skin distracted me. “Are you gonna take this seriously or not?”

  “Sorry.” His response held too much mirth for him to really mean it. But he stilled until I could focus again.

  I drew in a long breath and exhaled, centering myself. Gathering my intent, I repeated the spell again. A flood of energy flowed through my veins and down my arms.

  “Whoa, I definitely felt that,” said Dash.

  I could hear the rustling of the wind through the trees as if we stood in the middle of the forest. And yet, I knew we were standing in a field not too far away from the big house. Several different scents hit my nose, and I couldn’t discern the difference between each of them. The hoot of an owl distracted me from trying to figure out each smell.

  After what seemed like long minutes, the wave of power emptied out of me and left a tingling across the surface of my skin. “That was—”

  “Intense,” he finished.

  I let go of him. “Don’t be finishing my sentences like that. It’ll freak me out even more. Do you feel any—”

  “Different?”

  I reached my hand out to smack him again, and he dodged my advance.

  “Ooh, that was…I mean, it’s like I knew where you were going to aim,” he said, his eyes widening. “I felt this tingle of energy, and then my instincts kicked in.”

  I lifted my nose in the air, catching the scent of something that smelled good. Something I could sink my teeth into and tear off, devouring it.

  “Is your mother barbecuing dinner tonight?” I asked Cameron.

  She scented the air. “Smells like she’s got her famous chicken on the grill for supper.”

  Dash lifted an eyebrow at me. “Got your super senses back again?”

  “No, I’ve got your shifter senses back. At least a little, although I don’t think having super smelling abilities will keep Silas from hurting me.” It occurred to me that I wanted to inflict a little pain of my own to the sniveling weasel.

  “Cam, I want you to attack Charli,” Dash commanded.

  “What, now?” She glanced between the two of us.

  “No time like the present,” he said. Turning to me, his lips turned up at the corners. “Think you can take her?”

  For the first time in my life, I didn’t question a potential physical confrontation. I relished it. “Bring. It. On,” I challenged, matching his grin.

  Cameron shrugged her shoulders and squared off with me in a fighter stance. She threw a punch, and I dodged it with ease. Another obvious attempt had me ducking out of the way again. We circled each other, both bouncing with adrenaline.

  “Come on, let’s stop dancing and get to brawling,” I teased.

  She lowered her head and drew back her lip to reveal her teeth. “Okay.”

  Cameron stopped holding back and really went after me. She tried to tackle me to the ground, but I jumped out of her way and elbowed her in her ribs as she passed by. Stopping my inertia, I turned on a dime and threw a one-two-punch combo, barely grazing her chin but landing a solid strike into her gut.

  She grunted and doubled over, laughing in between gasps. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “Neither did I.” I couldn’t help but beam at Dash. “I wasn’t even aware I could do that.”

  He nodded in approval but said nothing else. I didn’t need words from him to feel his delight and amusement. The lack of a barrier between us was both exhilarating and terrifying.

  I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Go ahead.”

  “Go ahead what?” he asked.

  “Go ahead and do your I told you so dance,” I joked.

  Cameron chuckled next to me and offered her fist to bump. “I’d like to see that. The last time I saw you dancing was that time we took our dates up to Thunder Hill Lookout. You were with that girl who always wore too much perfume.”

  Dash wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. Caralee Myers. I had to make an excuse to get out of the car and get some fresh air.”

  “Was it a slow dance or a fast one?” I asked.

  “Fast,” he replied. “I didn’t want to have her any closer than she had to be. So, I imagine I looked like a fool.”

  “Pretty much,” Cameron teased.

  Dash flipped her the bird, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

  Grabbing onto a level of bravado I’d never experienced before, I took on a fighter stance, outstretched my right arm, turned my palm over, and waved the fingers of my right hand at him Kill Bill style. “Well, how about you fight me and see how we tango together?”

  His lips curled into a wide grin. “You think you can handle this wolf?”

  I stood a little straighter. “Hey, I call skins only.”

  “Good girl,” he complimented. “You remembered. I swear I won’t shift into my animal. But I can’t promise I won’t use my other skills to try and win.”

  “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” I antagonized. “Let’s go, wolf boy.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sleep eluded me all night as my nerves got the better of me. Sure, the spell I’d used to break down the barriers and allow the binding to work to its fullest had been more effective than I’d expected. And yes, I’d managed to learn a few good fighting moves from Dash. But unlike him, I didn’t heal like a shifter. The small cuts and bruises on my hands would take longer to heal. After all the adrenaline wore off, I was left alone, knowing I was completely out of my depth.

  Many times, I almost broke down and called Mason to confess the whole situation I found myself in. But each time I almost dialed his number, I thought about what he would do and how things would get even more complicated. If I could just get through whatever happened with Silas’s challenge, then things would get better. Plus, I possessed a strong sense of wanting to fix my own problems rather than rely on my boyfriend or to make him feel like he had to fix things for me.

  Now that I lay in bed by myself, I began to loathe the new sensitivities to my senses. Some kind of animal rustled and rooted around the perimeter of my cabin. The faucet in the bathroom had a slow drip, and with each bloop of water into the sink, I thought my head might explode.

  Thudding footsteps crunched on the ground outside, and I bolted out of bed, searching for anything I could use as a weapon. Still being unfamiliar with the place, I grabbed the easiest thing I could find, and held up the spatula in front of me as I approached the door.

  My instincts didn’t fire off or warn me that something bad was about to happen, so I stood right in front of the locked barrier, confused and scared. I gripped the plastic handle of the spatula and prepared to attack.

  A knock on the door startled me, and I shrieked.

  “Charli, it’s me,” Dash said from the other side. “Are you okay in there?”

  I groaned in half relief and half annoyance. It took a second to unlock the bolt before I opened the door to let him inside. “What are you doing here?”

  He glanced down at my chosen weapon. “I think the more important question is, what did you think you were going to do with that?”

  I waved it in front of me like a short sword. “I grabbed the nearest thing to me when I thought my virtue was at stake. Plus, my behind is very familiar with how much a smack from one of these can sting thanks to Nana.”

  Dash closed the door behind him. “Did you do a lot to earn a swat from her?”

  “Not as much as Matt,” I admitted, tossing the utensil on the counter. “Why are you here?”

  My question earned a frown. “Honestly, I’m not happy with what’s coming up. Sure, you de
finitely showed some progress in being able to fight a little today. But I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the whole thing go away.”

  I blinked a couple of times, trying to process his words with my anxious and tired brain. “But I thought Cam and Elodie said you can’t.”

  “They said I shouldn’t, not that I can’t. I’m the alpha of the pack. If I make a declaration, then it has to be followed no matter what.”

  “But there would be consequences if you did that, right?” It occurred to me that I was standing in front of him in my pajamas. Before we continued our conversation, I rushed over to my suitcase and dug through it to find a sweater to throw on.

  Dash smirked in amusement at my attempt to cover myself up but waited until I finished to answer. “If Max is right, there might be more than a few who would see it as a weakness in my leadership.”

  “You’re just rebuilding your pack into something stronger. You can’t destroy all of your hard work just for me.” The panic in my stomach for my own safety waned in comparison to my worry for him.

  “I appreciate that more than you could know,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I made a promise to you and to Mason to keep you safe. And I don’t know how to keep that promise and maintain my stature as alpha at the same time.”

  The conversation was heading into deeper territory than a quick talk. I invited him in and offered him something to drink. When he brushed off my offer, I made my way to one of the comfy chairs by the fireplace and settled into it. Dash busied himself stacking wood and building a fire to keep himself busy.

  The logs crackled to life and added a warm glow to the cabin. The scent of burning wood filled my nostrils, but I did my best not to let it overwhelm me.

  “I don’t know how you shifters can live in this world when you can hear and smell everything,” I complained. “By the way, the sink in the bathroom has a slow leak.”

  He shot me a tired grin. “It’s funny, I’ve often wondered how you could exist in the world with your inferior senses.” With a sigh, he took the chair opposite from me and sat on its edge. “I’ve learned over time what is and what isn’t important to pay attention to.”

  “Well, it’s all a bit too much.” I left my statement wide open to cover a multitude of meanings.

  Dash hung his head. “I don’t want you to face Silas tomorrow.”

  “Today. The challenge is later today,” I reminded him.

  “Whatever. No matter what, you’re going to get hurt, and I won’t be able to stand that.” He didn’t need to look in my direction for me to feel his sincerity. It rolled off of him like a tidal wave.

  “But the alternative is for you to jeopardize your position in the pack, and I wouldn’t be able to stand that,” I countered.

  He lifted his head, his eyes gleaming at me. The emotions coming off of him were too strong and too specific for me to handle. I did my best to block them, and when that didn’t work, I chose to ignore them for the moment.

  “I guess we’re at a standstill,” he grunted. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Ah, Charli, I don’t know what to do.”

  His vulnerability cut me to my core. I wanted to jump out of my chair and go over to offer him solace and comfort. But I needed to keep a little distance to maintain my clarity in the moment.

  “Then let’s look at the situation from a more objective point of view and see if we can figure things out.” I ticked off the points I could see. “One, I have to face Silas no matter what. We’re not going to mess with your role as leader.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but I held up a second finger to stop him.

  “Two, I need to make sure to set the conditions that he doesn’t shift into his animal. And three, I’ll use our connection to try and fight him as best I can.” Even though my words came out with determination, my insides shook with doubt.

  “Nothing you just said makes anything better. I should have never brought you up here,” he complained.

  “That’s not helpful and not going to solve our problems,” I replied. “Now, if we can’t stop the challenge from happening, then maybe there’s a way to get it to end faster. How is a winner decided?”

  He focused on the flames dancing in the fireplace. “Whoever’s standing at the end.”

  I couldn’t suppress the chill that ran through my body. “That doesn’t sound good. And there’s nothing that can happen to stop the fight? I mean, can’t I forfeit at some point?”

  “If you do that, then—”

  “It will mean Silas gets away with things and is not held accountable for what happened to Zach,” I finished.

  “Hey, I thought we weren’t supposed to complete each other’s sentences like that,” Dash teased.

  He got up from his seat and came over to kneel in front of me. Taking my hands in his, he inspected the damage from our practice. “You’re taking a huge risk, and I don’t know what to do.” His thumb brushed over a cut on one of my knuckles.

  I withdrew from his touch and sat back in the chair. “It’s ultimately my choice, and you have too important of a job to risk your role as alpha. I think the two of us need to get as much rest as we possibly can and then do what needs to be done tomorrow.

  “Today,” he corrected in a teasing tone.

  “Jerk.” I half punched his arm.

  He rubbed it like I had hurt him. “Save that aggression for later.”

  Standing up, he nodded once at me and headed toward the door. Before he opened it, he turned his head to the side so I could hear him. “No matter what, you will be safe in the long run, Charli.”

  Before I could reply, he opened the door and disappeared into the cold night. After a quick trip to the bathroom and an effort to tighten the handle on the faucet, I stripped out of the sweater and climbed back into bed. Sometime before dawn, I managed to fall asleep, although dreams of being chased by wolves haunted me until I lost myself to rest.

  My spell phone buzzed more than once and woke me up. Bright light streamed through the window above the kitchen sink in the cabin, and I checked the time on the clock by the bed.

  “Pixie poop,” I uttered, sitting up. “I overslept.”

  I’d missed the last training session I’d arranged with Cameron for first thing this morning. Feeling discombobulated, I scrambled out from under the covers and checked my phone for missed texts.

  I paused and scented the air. Something delectable enticed me to check out my kitchen counters. I found a plate with tinfoil over it sitting there with a scribbled note from Elodie.

  “Charli - I know this isn’t your typical breakfast, but you’ll want to be as fueled up as possible for today. Thank you for staying here and seeing this through. E”

  I pulled back the tinfoil and found a protein-packed meal waiting for me. Normally, I didn’t like regular food for breakfast unless it was cold pizza. But my stomach growled, and I tore into the leftover chicken legs from last night’s barbecue. It took me only a few minutes to devour the whole pile of meat.

  A strange whining noise from outside caught my attention. I balanced on my tiptoes at the kitchen sink and peeked out. A large furry form paced in front of my cabin. One that I had seen before.

  I hustled to the door and opened it to find Dash in wolf form guarding it. “How long have you been out here?”

  The wolf huffed a couple of times. In this form, I couldn’t sense his emotions the same way I could when he was just…Dash. And yet, when he cocked his head to the side, I still recognized a little bit of his normal attitude, and I could hear him saying, “Who else would it be?”

  “I’m going to go back inside and give you a second to change back. I hope you brought some clothes with you because you’re not coming in if you’re nekkid.” I left him to do what he needed to do and rushed to change out of my pajamas and into a pair of leggings and a sweater.

  The door creaked open, and Dash walked in while zipping up his pants. He shook out the balled-up shirt in his hands
and prepared to pull it over his head. I busied myself with refolding the clothes scattered around my suitcase.

  “How long were you out there like that?” I asked.

  “All night.” His low voice resounded from the other side of my bed.

  When I turned to face him, I found him straightening the sheets and pulling up the covers. “Nice. I didn’t know this place came with its own housekeeping service.”

  “All part of the package, ma’am,” he joked as he fluffed up the two pillows and placed them at the head of the bed. “Did you manage to get any sleep?”

  “Did you?” I countered, knowing the answer without him giving one. “I fell asleep pretty late.”

  “I heard you snoring about an hour before the sun came up,” he said with a hint of a smile.

  “I do not snore!”

  “Yeah, you do. But not really that loud. It would either take someone with special senses to hear it at a distance or someone right up next to you.” He shrugged. “But I wanted to let you sleep as late as possible.”

  I yawned and stretched. “I think I missed my last chance to practice, although my muscles don’t mind.”

  “You don’t need to practice more. You’ll do fine today.” When he said the last part, he refused to look me in the eyes.

  “Yeah, you realize with the barriers down between us, I can tell you’re lying.” I placed a hand on my hip. “But it wouldn’t take a magical binding between us for me to detect that in the first place.”

  He sat on the edge of the bed. “I can’t help it. I hate that you’re going through this. I thought I could protect you, but all I’ve done is gotten you further into trouble.”

  I held up my hand. “Stop. Let’s not go down that road again and repeat all the reasons why today has to happen. I need…” I trailed off, unsure of what to ask for.

  “What? Tell me, and I will try to give it to you,” he said, finally meeting my gaze.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe I need the lie. Maybe I need you to tell me that I have half a chance to kick a little butt today.”

  “If I didn’t heal so fast, I could show you proof that you have that ability from the few jabs you landed yesterday.” The mattress bounced under him as he pushed himself up from it. “Come on. Cameron’s waiting for us back at her place. She’s gonna help you choose the right clothes to wear. And then we’ve got to head to where the gathering will be.”