by Kat Bostick
“The moon is high and the wolves are sated. It’s time.”
Mari nodded and followed Charlie down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out the patio door. Cash and Jasper were waiting for them at the edge of the forest. The buttons on Cash’s flannel were undone, his hair was mussed, and his eyes were alight with wildness. Jasper shared the same feral spark in his gaze. Mari recognized that look and the inner part of her that responded to the wolf song jolted with excitement.
She expected the force of the full moon to be lesser tonight but if anything, it felt stronger. The moment she stepped into the light, it rushed into her. Air pushed from her diaphragm in a breathless gasp, the sacred gift from the Blue Goddess coming alive in her lungs. Electric warmth tickled from the tips of her fingers and toes, climbing up her limbs and filling the cavern of her chest. A fire ignited there, roaring with life every time her heart beat.
“Are you unwell?” Charlie asked.
Mari ignored him, moving away from the alpha as a familiar tug urged her feet to move. Nothing else mattered but those green eyes locked with hers. They called to her soul. She sank to her knees, her hands coming around to grip Jasper’s face.
He was in there, that regal man, the red warrior with bestial strength and ancient blood. Mari was going to set him loose on the world. The heat inside of her became determination. She didn’t need Lyse to teach her. The witch that whispered wisdom from within had the knowledge of a hundred generations.
“I see you.” She whispered to him.
Jasper pressed his forehead to hers. Joy intermixed with trepidation flowed from him to her and she gladly soaked it in.
Cash interrupted their exchange. “You’ll have plenty of time for neckin’ later. C’mon now, kids.”
They began a long journey into the darkness. Overhead there wasn’t a cloud in sight but under the canopy of the trees there was scarcely enough light for her to see the silhouettes of the two men in front of her. In that moment it occurred to Mari that she was blindly trusting two strangers to lead her into a dark forest in the middle of nowhere. Would she even live to regret this?
She kept a hand tightly wound in Jasper’s fur and limped on her bruised ankle as swiftly as she could. The delicate trickling of wild water could be heard just as they emerged in a picturesque meadow. Moonlight stretched down from the sky to kiss the grass with light, making everything shimmer in silver hues.
“This is where we change before a hunt.” Charlie explained absently. “Trevor, come with me.”
They took position in the middle of the clearing. The evening was hot and sticky and the tension in the air only thickened it further. Mari found herself sucking nervous breaths into her diaphragm. Her newfound confidence dissolved easily as an image of Jasper stuck between forms played through her head on repeat. For hours she managed to cage her fear but the anticipation had her so on edge that her defenses slipped.
A million biting anxieties chewed on her like a pack of rats, scurrying from the dismal holes where they lived to gnaw on her flesh. It made her skin prickle painfully and her throat tighten. Jasper looked up sharply, sensing the sudden upwelling within her. Charlie’s eyes stabbed at her like shards of ice. This was exactly what he warned her not to do. She was distracting Jasper and they hadn’t even begun yet.
But what if he got stuck because of her?
What if she couldn’t stomach the change and her revulsion made him flee? What if Jasper died during the change and the pack blamed her for the curse and killed her too? What if she couldn’t repeat the magic from the solstice? What if she could and Charlie realized she was a risk to the pack? And worst of all, what if Jasper was doomed to be a wolf forever?
Get it together, Mari! You’re a true witch. You can fix this.
“Don’t fret, little witch. He can smell your fear.” Mari jumped in surprise when Cash sidled up beside her. “If anyone can help him, it’s Charlie.”
Not Charlie. Me. Maybe I’ve been able to do this the whole time.
A rapid nod was her only response. Her tongue was too dry to speak. Instead, she crouched and pressed her hands into the duff. Silently, she called on Earth Mother and Mother Moon, begging for their strength and blessing. Begging them to make him whole.
Set him free. She pleaded. Let me guide him to freedom.
A sudden calm overcame her and the heady weight of magic settled back into her skull. A gentle sway rocked her body as the magic of two goddesses fused within her. She walked in both worlds, showered by the light of the Blue Goddess in the dead of night and blessed by the sustenance of the Goddess of Flesh and Blood under the sun.
That was why she could do this. Mari was the bridge to light for the children of the moon. That was her role. The witch speaks and the wolf listens.
Magic strummed through her hands and danced across the clearing. In rhythm with the pulse of magic came a song deep in Mari’s heart. The music was soothing and familiar. A woman’s high pitched voice called out into the world with the magic of the moon on her tongue. It was her own voice, singing a song that she didn’t quite remember. Was this the magic she used on the solstice? Was it really so easily at her fingertips?
Jasper glanced at her one more time, seeking reassurance. She gave it to him with each drop of power that she drew from the goddess above.
“I call on you Trevor, my son under the moon. As your alpha I am your keeper, your father, and the vessel of your strength. I call on you to return to me and speak to me in the tongue of man.” Charlie’s voice was guttural and wolfish, almost a growl. The intensity of his words rippled through the air. Mari tasted a foreign and earthy magic. “Shed your wolf skin and come to me as man.”
Mari wasn’t sure if it was the words or the fierce way that Charlie gazed into Jasper’s eyes but something happened. He repeated himself over and over, calling Jasper to change. Then he threw his head back in a howl. The mournful, quavering sound was strange coming from the throat of a human. Both Cash and Jasper gave answering howls.
Finally, Charlie quieted and watched as Jasper’s spine snapped unnaturally straight. His back made a popping noise like it might if he was stretching. Shoulders and joints followed. All onlookers held their breath as Jasper went motionless. Then suddenly he was yowling and writhing in pain, back arching, claws digging deep pits in the soil. Mari had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out at the sound of his agony.
For a moment her shock at the sight of his change distracted her and the flow of magic between them stopped. His eyes shone with absolute panic when, as the magic stopped, so did his change. Mari quickly called the song back to her mind, furrowing her brow as she gave it singular focus.
It was me. She thought, astonished. A big part of her hadn’t truly believed it. Even hearing from Gran that her power was tied to the wolves, hearing from Alexander and Henrick that she could do what Lyse could do, Mari was in disbelief. It is me. I am the witch that sings for wolves.
The horrible dislocating cracks and writhing went on for more than ten minutes, back arching then straightening. Legs popping and clicking, distorting their shape and then returning to normal. Sometimes Jasper howled, sometimes he panted, and sometimes his jaw snapped open too wide, disjointed, and noiseless pain pushed from his chest.
Was this what it looked like to be stuck? Was he caught in the very first throws of change, unable to continue? Cautiously, so as not to startle him, she crawled closer. The song in her heart desperately wanted to escape her lips but she knew she couldn’t sing it aloud. She couldn’t be discovered yet. Mari stopped when she was close enough to feel Jasper’s labored breaths on her cheek.
She closed her eyes and listened to the rise and fall of his chest, picturing that chest rising not as the wolf but as the man. She remembered the feel of it beneath her fingers, imagined the heat of him. Then she recalled the way he appeared when Gran revealed him to her, bound, trapped, helpless, and she imagined the piercing sound of her song as a sword, cutting away the magic that shackled him.
When Mari opened her eyes, the skin on his back split to reveal throbbing pink flesh, wet with blood. Eventually skin parted in other places with a horrible tearing noise, revealing sinew and muscle and what might have been bone.
No gore Mari had ever seen matched that of a werewolf change. It was pure hell and she wasn’t even the one experiencing it. Every fiber of her being wanted to run as far and fast as she could from the terror in front of her. She wanted to wretch. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tear the wolf skin from Jasper’s body just to get it over with. But she did none of that because pleading green eyes watched her through all of it. He needed her to be strong.
For almost an hour Mari didn’t look away as a human form emerged from deep within a red wolf coat. The change seemed endless, stretching each minute until she feared the process ossified. Then suddenly Jasper, pale and shaking violently, collapsed with his head to his knees and it was done.
Moonlit pearls of sweat pumped from his every pore. Rich locks of dark red hair and a shaggy beard to match plastered to his neck and face. He was just as he appeared in her dreams only more unkempt, which she supposed was expected for a man who hadn’t groomed himself in over a year.
Jasper was a man. Mari hadn’t imagined it. She wasn’t crazy. He was really there with her on the solstice.
At first only his fingers twitched. Flexing and testing their ability. Then he rose onto his knees, hazy eyes trained on her. Mari froze when he unexpectedly extended an arm, then another, slowly dragging himself to her. Jasper’s breathing was ragged and his body shivered like he was hypothermic. She stayed unmoving when he settled beside her, cupping her face with his slick hands. She almost jerked back in surprise at the feverish heat of his skin.
More surprising than the warmth of his touch was the kiss that he pulled her into. It wasn’t a peck or anything as friendly or casual as that. It was a real kiss; a passionate, starving kiss that demanded everything from her. Cash and Charlie’s presence vanished from her awareness and the meadow melted away as she impulsively kissed him back.
A niggling voice in Mari’s head reminded her that she was kissing a complete stranger, a man she’d technically only met for a few breaths. Her heart rejected that though because she did know him. His closeness was as familiar as the feel of home and her chest flooded with an ache of homesickness when he broke away.
“Someone’s going to be busy tonight.” Cash snorted.
“M-m…” Jasper opened his mouth and croaked.
“It’s okay, Jas. Take it slow.” She brushed his hair over his shoulder and away from his sweat drenched neck, careful not to touch his skin as Charlie instructed.
“M-ma…” He tried again. He wanted to say her name, she thought. “Mate.”
✽✽✽
Thankfully, Cash came prepared with spare clothes for Jasper. The redhead accepted the sweatpants but rejected the shirt, not wanting the fabric to cling to his skin. It took a minute for Jasper to gain his footing but when he did, he tucked Mari’s hand into his and began leading her back to the house without bothering to see if Cash and Charlie followed. No one spoke on the walk back, probably because none of them knew what to say. Mari was still dumbfounded by the whole thing.
Charlie offered them food when they made it back into the house. Jasper shook his head but said nothing. He momentarily released Mari to press his forehead to the alpha’s. Once their exchange was finished, Jasper practically dragged her to the staircase.
“Don’t forget to use protection!” Cash called after them.
She was too stunned to react to Jasper’s hasty retreat until they were already in his bedroom. He closed the door with both arms, trapping Mari with her back against the wood. She stared down at his chest, too nervous to meet his eyes. The heady emotions that fueled her earlier fizzled out with the clammy chill of her anxiety.
Though the hint of ribs and bony shoulders showed that Jasper was definitely underweight, he was more muscular than she expected. And much taller than she remembered. Mari was by no means vertically challenged but she felt incredibly small with him leaning over her as he was. He wasn’t as big as Cash—and she doubted that anyone was—but he could only be a few inches shorter.
“Mari,” Her heart jumped upon hearing her name come from his mouth for the first time.
Mari’s gaze stayed firmly locked on his torso, trying not to notice how, despite a slight tinge of panic at being trapped, she was responding to his closeness. The salty tang of his sweat smelled delicious mingled with his natural scent.
His chest was dotted with scars like the ones Cash had, though Jasper had far fewer. The one that caught her attention and held it spanned the entire left side of his peck, just over his heart. It was pink and raised and very obviously left by wolf teeth. The wolf that left that scar must have been absolutely massive to have jaws that fit around such a wide ribcage.
“You’re afraid?” His lips were inches from her ear.
“N-no.” She stuttered, realizing too late that tears slipped from her unblinking eyes.
“Mari,” he rasped, wiping a tear from her cheek. His hands were so hot. Was it normal for his temperature to be that high?
Jasper pulled back to study her, brow pinched in confusion. She saw her opportunity and took it, ducking under one of his arms and walking to the other end of the room. She considered rushing into the bathroom and locking herself in there but that would be unfair. Jasper hadn’t done anything and it was possible she misunderstood his intentions. This was their first meeting, really, and she was assuming a lot about his expectations.
“It’s nice to finally meet you.” She managed to squeak out.
The redhead crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to one side. “You know me.”
“Not this you. Not a talking you.”
Jasper took three steps, closing a surprising amount of distance. “You set me free.”
“I—no, it wasn’t me. Charlie set you free. I was just moral support.” Shit, he did know. Of course he knew. Which meant the pack wasn’t safe for her. Gran was wrong.
“Mari,” Whoa, how did he get so close without her noticing? He was just two feet away, reaching a warm hand out for her face a second time.
“Anyway, I should let you get cleaned up.” Mari dodged him and hurried over to her tote. “I’ll just grab my pajamas and head downstairs. The couches in the parlor look comfy. I can sleep in there.”
And maybe hop out the window so your alpha doesn’t eat me when you tell him what I did.
“No!” Jasper growled. It sounded shockingly inhuman.
“No?”
“Don’t leave.” His face fell. “Please.”
“Jasper, I…this is…I think we’ve misunderstood each other.”
“Sweet Mari,” he whispered, once again cornering her. “You’re afraid.”
“I’m not afraid.” She hadn’t intended to snap at him but she was afraid and felt silly for it.
“Safe.” He frowned and cleared his throat. “I will keep you safe.”
Even from yourself? Even from your pack?
Not that Mari thought he was going to hurt her. She just didn’t know how to handle this. She couldn’t deny that she had feelings for the man in front of her. She’d been waiting for his change like a giddy kid waiting for Christmas. Even in his disheveled, sweaty state he was beautiful, his presence so intense it filled the room with intoxicating energy.
Still, if that was what he wanted from her, they needed to talk about it first. They couldn’t just exchange some ambiguous nuzzling and then boom, she was his mate. Mate was serious. Mate implied procreation, which was so not on Mari’s agenda. And mate meant a commitment that she wasn’t sure she could give. Not to someone so regal and powerful. What did Mari have to offer him, anyway?
“I understand.” Jasper nodded solemnly and took a step back. “Stay. Please. You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor. But stay.”
“Jasper, that’s not—“
Before she realized what she was doing, Mari extended a hand and rested it over his heart. His skin was as warm as she remembered and it sent the same sparks up her arm. Every part of her wanted to collapse into him, to take him in her arms until that anguished expression vanished from his face. But the sudden rush of emotion startled her enough to keep her from responding to her body’s desire.
“You’ve waited a year to sleep in your own bed. Don’t let me ruin that.” She withdrew her hand and looked down at the floor.
