by Bella Falls
I pointed at the trapped man. “We can’t leave him here.”
The wolf nudged me toward the front door again with a grunt.
I placed my hands on either side of its face and gazed into its gleaming eyes. “We can choose to leave him here to die, knowing we could have helped. But that would make us no better than him.”
The screams of pain dissipated as Max passed out. Dash panted and grunted in opposition to me.
I addressed the animal one more time. “Please don’t make me live with his death.”
With a resolved whine, Dash turned around and paced in front of Max. He looked for a way to procure the body but couldn’t find one.
I raised my hands in front of me and willed magic into them until they glowed. “I’ll raise the beam enough so you can drag him out. You’ll have to move fast.” My instincts blared enough warning that I knew we were running out of time. “Three. Two. One.”
With a last blast of power and as much effort as I could give, I lifted the burning beam a few inches off of Max’s leg. Dash buried his teeth into the man’s shoulder area until he had a firm grip. With a few tugs, he pulled him free, and I let the log crash to the floor, cinders flying into the air.
The wolf released the flesh, and Dash shifted back into his human form. “Help me drag him out,” he commanded, grabbing onto the injured arm.
I grabbed the other one and pulled on it, fighting to drag our enemy to safety while struggling to breathe. When we got far enough outside, I let go and drew in as many breaths of clean air I could. With my enhanced senses through our binding, I could hear the shouts of the others coming our way. The honk and siren of a fire truck blared and echoed through the hills as it came to rescue us.
Dash’s voice sounded from behind me. “Don’t turn around just yet. I’m going to shift back into my wolf to guard Max and make sure he’s not just faking it so he can make another stupid move. The others will be here shortly, and you can tell them what happened.”
I waited an appropriate time before checking on Max’s status. Dash’s wolf stood over him, watching with caution. The former second of the Red Ridge pack had a broken leg and severe burns over parts of his body. The physical suffering he’d wake up to wouldn’t compare to the anguish he’d caused.
But I would no longer be involved in the outcome of his life. Let the pack get its justice. It was time for me to focus on breaking the binding that tied Dash and me together.
The wolf beside me whined again and leaned against me. I placed my arm around the animal’s broad neck and gave in to the inevitable sadness fueled by the whole tragedy that had brought us here. Dash allowed my tears to soak his fur, standing steadfast by my side.
Chapter Twenty
Nana stabbed the last bit of jam cake with her fork and swirled it around in the remnants of the blackberry preserves. “Willie, I don’t know what it’s gonna take, but I’m gonna need this recipe to take back with me to Honeysuckle.”
Willamena chuckled with glee. “Well, how about we make it a fair trade and you tell me the secret to your chess pie? I’ve been baking all my life, and I’ve never tasted better.”
“Hey, you said my chess pie was the best,” Elodie complained to her friend.
Willie put down her fork. “You gonna sit there chewin’ on her masterpiece and tell me I’m lyin’?”
Elodie’s expression turned thoughtful while she finished her mouthful. After she swallowed, she said, “I guess it’s pretty good.”
Willie balled up her napkin and tossed it at her friend. Nana cackled along with the two other women, and the three of them got into a deeper discussion about their favorite recipes.
I sat down next to Mason on the couch. “I’m so glad you drove Nana up here. I’ll be honest, I’m getting kind of homesick.”
He put his arm around my shoulders and encouraged me to snuggle into him. “Things just aren’t the same when you’re not there. They’re more…peaceful?”
I tickled his ribs for his joke. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That, like we all say, trouble seems to find you no matter where you go. And with you here and not in Honeysuckle Hollow, our little town was mighty quiet,” he explained with a chuckle. He planted his lips on the top of my head.
“Ow,” I faked, making him think he was hurting my head injury.
He startled away from me. “I’m so sorry.”
I snorted. “I’m just kidding. The bumps are on the back of my head, not the top.”
Mason pulled me in closer. “I hate that you got yourself hurt.”
“I’ll take responsibility for answering Silas’s challenge, but Max was the one who hit me the second time.”
My boyfriend linked his fingers through mine and lifted them to his lips to kiss. “Normally, I would encourage Dash to involve law enforcement and the legal system to prosecute that criminal. But this time, I think I don’t mind that Max will have to deal with pack justice.”
“Actually, Dash and Cameron are planning on changing up pack rules and such so that things are above board a little more,” I said. “They both think that Max got away with so much for so long because the pack is so insular and not accountable to the outside world as much as they should be. And there are other shifter packs around the country who’ve been changing and evolving with the times, so they’re not reinventing the wheel.”
Mason placed his socked feet on the coffee table in front of us and sighed as he focused on the scenery through the picture windows. While he attempted to feign relaxation, his tense body told a different story.
“A part of me hates that you and Dash saved that man,” he admitted after a long, quiet moment. “He deserved to suffer greater consequences for what he did.”
“But it was the right thing to do. Vengeance would have created bigger wounds that would never have healed no matter how much time passed,” I uttered in a low voice.
Mason withdrew his arm from around me and turned on the couch to face me. “I must warn you, Miss Goodwin,” he said in his more authoritative warden tone, “that I have to kiss you now.”
He fulfilled his promise, sweeping his thumb over my lips before following that soft touch with his mouth. I closed my eyes and lost myself to the intimate moment that was over far too soon.
“I missed you,” he murmured against my lips before pecking them again.
I warmed at his honesty. “Me, too.”
A slight pressure inside my body alerted me to Dash’s presence. With a sigh, I broke away from my boyfriend to catch the shifter waiting for us to finish before entering the living room area.
“Mason,” the alpha acknowledged with respect.
“Any updates?” I asked.
Dash stood behind one of the nearby chairs. “We’ve been able to root out at least five more conspirators who were helping Max spread discord. It’s going to be tough figuring out who had a bigger role in things, but we’ll handle it in the long run.”
The shifter’s discomfort when he saw me and Mason together pushed me to ask, “Have you heard anything from Georgia?”
“She met me and Cameron earlier today, and the three of us went searching for Silas’s spirit. While I know he did a lot of things wrong, I think he was way more innocent in all this.” Dash’s scowl softened with sympathy.
“Did Georgia find him?” I asked.
“Yes, back at his place,” the alpha confirmed. “His girlfriend’s parents are going to take her in and help her out through the pregnancy. I’ll make sure the pack supports her financially so she and Silas’s kid won’t suffer.”
As much as I’d questioned and criticized Dash’s life, I couldn’t help but admire how, when things worked right, pack life could be so supportive and caring. If he could continue working on improving things, I’d bet that the Red Ridge pack would soon become stronger than ever.
“Giving Silas some peace wasn’t the only reason Georgia met up with me today,” Dash continued. “She told me it’s time.”
I sat up and leaned forward on the couch. “You mean, she’s made contact with Maybelline?”
He nodded once. “She asked for a day to recover from her efforts with Silas.”
“So…tomorrow then?” I clarified.
Dash cleared his throat. “I’ll leave the two of you to keep catching up.” He bowed his head at us and turned to leave.
“Wait,” Mason requested. He stood and approached the shifter with his arm outstretched. “Thank you for everything you did. I know it couldn’t have been easy. And I appreciate you keeping me in the loop.”
Dash shook hands with him. “Well, somebody had to.” He flashed me some side-eye.
“I said I was sorry,” I repeated.
“But seriously,” Mason said after we finished joking around. “Thanks.”
Dash clapped him on his shoulder and left the room. With our barriers still down, I couldn’t block out his real emotions, and what I felt tugged on my heart.
I got up from the couch with the intent to go after him, but as soon as I was standing, I didn’t quite know what to do.
Mason tilted his head to indicate I should follow Dash. “Go talk to him.”
I rushed over to give him a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.” With quick feet, I followed the sounds of Dash leaving Elodie’s house.
Once I got outside, I called out to him. “Hey, wait up!”
He stopped and gazed back at me. “You should be wearing a coat.”
In my rush, I hadn’t grabbed mine, but I feared if I went back inside to get it, Dash would make a quick getaway.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied, crossing my arms.
The shifter sighed and shrugged out of his worn denim jacket, handing it to me. “Here.”
I could refuse it, but I really did regret not getting a coat with the chillier temperatures. Once I slid my arms through the prewarmed jacket, I fell silent, unsure of what to say next.
He began to stroll up the driveway, his steps crunching on the gravel. “They managed to save more trees than they lost in the fire.”
I jogged to catch up to him. “Good. I’m glad that Max didn’t do as much damage as he planned.”
“Oh, my cabin is completely gone. It’ll be a complete demo project.”
I stopped moving. “Wait, you lost all of your stuff? How did I not know that?”
Dash shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
I punched his arm. “It is a huge deal. What about all your personal things?”
“To be honest, most of what I care about is back at my place in Honeysuckle.” He strolled again. “I’ll help Elodie rebuild the cabin, but I’m not sure where I’ll end up living.”
“So, you’re homeless?” I asked with great concern.
“Nah.” He bent down and picked up a big rock, examined it for a second, and then tossed it into the grass. “Home is where I lay my head at night, and that’s good enough for me.”
He hadn’t said anything about moving back to Honeysuckle Hollow, and my feelings about that confused me. We walked a little ways in companionable silence until I pulled up my big-girl panties and spoke the words we’d been avoiding.
“Listen, Dash. We need to talk about the big, fat elephant that’s practically sitting on top of both of us,” I started.
“Do we really need words?” he asked, stopping his progress. “Ever since we steered into our binding, I figured that was enough.”
When he shifted his position to face me, I lost a little of my nerve. “I don’t know what to say.”
Dash rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a long breath. “Then I’ll do all the talkin’. You have to know by now that I love you. I think I have since the moment we met.”
“No, you hated me at first,” I reminded him.
“I didn’t like that you made me feel. You made my dead heart start pumping again, and that pissed me off,” he countered.
I remembered our first days together, my ride on the back of his motorcycle, and my sorrow when he’d left our small Southern supernatural town the first time. And the second time. If he hadn’t gone, maybe my future would have been different?
“Don’t waste time thinking about what might have been. I did enough of that, and it can be poison. Regret only holds us back, and I want you to run toward your bright future.” Dash reached his hand out to take mine.
I didn’t pull away but squeezed his hand with conviction. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know. And the fact that we’re still bound to each other is more my fault than yours. I think a part of me didn’t want to give you up, and that prevented us from breaking the binding,” he explained. “But I won’t tether you to my life here any longer. It’s a tougher existence, although one that you handled pretty well in your short time in the Red Ridge Mountains.”
“Hey, I kicked butt. Don’t forget that,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood a little.
He chuckled. “You did, and it was something to behold. For a second, I thought about keeping you for always. But you’ve got a good thing going with the detective. I felt that.”
A butterfly fluttered around his head, distracting both of us. It landed on his beard for a moment, its wings pulsing a few times before it took off again.
I watched it take off. “I wish…” I began.
“I know,” he finished.
So that he wouldn’t see the tears forming in my eyes, I turned away and gazed at the beauty of the piece of property and the gorgeous mountain vista surrounding it. “It’s so beautiful here.”
“You’re welcome to visit whenever you want. I’ll be here,” he said.
With those words, I knew his time in Honeysuckle was coming to an end. Sadness engulfed me, and a stray tear made its way down my cheek. I sniffed a couple of times, closing my eyes and lifting my head to warm my face with the sun’s bright rays.
“There’s really only one thing left to do,” Dash said. He took my right hand in his and knelt down on the gravel.
My heart stopped. “What are you doing?” I shrieked.
He smiled up at me. “Charli Goodwin, you wild and wonderful witch. Will you go to Mystic Mountain with me and get unbound?”
I rolled my eyes and laughed through my tears. “Crazy boy.”
“Wait, is unbound right? Maybe it should be unbinded?” he teased.
With an annoyed groan, I pulled him upright. “Whatever the term should be, I accept your proposal.”
Epilogue
To any outsider to my life, it might seem a tad bit too weird. Because we had to go where Maybelline’s spirit was, we ended up going through our little unbinding outside of what used to be the communal toilets at the now defunct campground by Mystic Lake. Nobody had the guts to ask the older lady’s ghost why she chose that place to stick around.
I hoped it didn’t tick Mason off how similar the proceedings were to a wedding ceremony. Although I didn’t know Maybelline when she was alive, I didn’t doubt that she had been a pistol. She cackled at her own joke when she asked each of us to repeat vows of letting the other go. I thought her forcing us to say “I do” when she asked if we accepted was a bit much.
“I don’t know why the two of you ever thought this match would work out,” she complained as she concentrated to untie the magical bonds that kept us together. “Anybody with eyes can see that you aren’t in sync with each other.”
“That’s not for us to say, Maybelle,” chastised Georgia. “Stop horsing around and get it done.”
“I’m trying,” the ghost reiterated, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth while she worked. “Y’all did a mighty job putting this spell together. It’s not like I can just bibbity-bobbity-boo it away. You young folks and your impatience just grind my nerves.”
Dash and I exchanged amused looks while we continued to hold hands, facing each other.
“I hope she hurries up,” I mock whispered to him. “I didn’t go to the bathroom beforehand, and I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”
“Then I picked the right spot to be in,” Maybelline responded without missing a beat. “I always say, when you gotta go, you gotta go.”
“Do ghosts even have to use the facilities?” Dash teased.
The spirit stopped and placed her hands on her hips. “Now, listen here. You might be tall, strong, and strapping, and quite frankly, a hot piece of meat. But that don’t mean I gotta take any guff from you.”
Dash cleared his throat. “Yes, ma’am.”
Maybelline winked at me. “See, now he needs a woman who can keep him in line.”
I looked up at Dash, staring into his eyes. “I know he’ll find someone when it’s right.”
The emotions we’d been sharing between us lessened as Maybelline worked. It took a little longer than we’d anticipated, and the crowd gathered around us grew restless.
Georgia claimed she didn’t have to exhaust her powers since we were in Mystic. According to her, the place had its own fuel of power, and she could draw on that rather than rely on the rest of our energy. But I was glad we had the backup that we did of those who cared the most about us.
“Almost there,” Maybelline said, bending closer to examine our hands.
Dash squeezed my hands to get my attention. I felt one last wave of gratitude and friendship. It flowed over me and then ebbed away, leaving my chest feeling a little hollow.
“Ta-da!” the ghost sang, holding up her hands. “I now pronounce you free from each other. Now, go out there and live full lives. That way, you won’t have any regrets when you pass over, just like me.”
Dash lifted his arms and encircled them about me, giving me a big, long hug. “Promise me you’ll do just that,” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded into his shoulder. “I promise.”
He let me go and took a step away. Nana approached first and gave her thanks to Maybelline before pulling me into her arms. Davis stuck close by his older brother, slapping him on his back and offering him comfort.
“You want any help leaving?” Georgia asked the spirit.
