The Witchling Apprentice

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “What happened—” Whitney got out before Cassie put her hand over her mouth. Whitney sat up and stared at her, eyes bugging as her gaze jumped around the room.

  Tiger Nate stood still and looked at the door.

  ‘We need to leave now. Climb on,’ he ordered her.

  Cassie hated taking orders and not thinking things through, but she understood the urgency of the situation. Nate was way better adapted for getting them out. She could always complain later.

  “Go now,” Cassie mouthed to her friend.

  Whitney stood up, changing into her monster form in the process.

  The barn door opened. Jared stood in the doorway. He stared in awe at the giant tiger that was racing toward him with Cassie on its back.

  ‘Don’t hurt him,’ Cassie begged when Nate rammed into Jared. He kept his claws tucked in while he pushed Jared aside like a rag doll. Whitney kept in step right behind them as he cleared a path.

  Cassie bent down close and held onto Nate’s fur. He ran away from the house as quickly as Whitney had run to it. Wind whipped her hair around, and Cassie was forced to shut her eyes. She didn’t need to see anyway. Anywhere her cousin wasn’t was where she wanted to be. Tiger Nate came to an abrupt halt. Cassie took the cue that her ride was done. She didn’t know how long they ran, but it seemed that he didn’t stop going until they reached Cassie’s home. She slid off his large, furry back. He transformed partially, back to the creature she had seen the night she was in the old cottage and Whitney was protecting her door.

  ‘Why?’ Cassie asked. She kind of preferred the large tiger instead.

  ‘We can’t let anyone know we completed the binding. They planned to drain your magic at the binding. It won’t work now because they won’t have the strength to do it. That was the whole point before. They needed to use the magic of our binding to drain you. I’d prefer they don’t know what’s going on before we take over the clan,’ Nate explained.

  ‘Take over the clan?’ Cassie asked.

  Half-tiger, half-monster Nate gave what Cassie thought maybe could pass as a smile.

  ‘When we’re officially bonded, they have to make me alpha. There’s no one to stop me.’ He gave a creepy sort of laugh in his monster form. Cassie wasn’t in a laughing mood. In fact, she was exhausted, and still a little terrified that Jack would come back.

  Nate gave his creepy laugh again.

  ‘He can’t do that ‘make you disappear’ trick to you now. You’re bonded. He’s not strong enough to take two people at once, or he would have back at the school. Now if he tries to take you, he has to take me, too.’

  Nate seemed to have an answer for everything.

  ‘Go inside and get to bed. You look like you’re going to pass out right here.’

  ‘I can’t just go inside. The coven knows where I live. They’ll just come here to take me again,’ Cassie complained. She was sick of running away, but she couldn’t think of any other option.

  ‘Oh, they won’t be going in your house anytime soon,’ Nate answered, motioning for her to move.

  ‘How can you know that? You didn’t even know that Owen and Nic were going to drug us before,’ Cassie added.

  ‘I promise you, no one is going to move up the binding now. You’re safe. Trust me.’

  Cassie looked at Nate. His limbs were longer than what seemed natural and bulked out at the major muscles. He was taller, but it wasn’t like he was a tree trunk. His monster body was built more like a swimmer—wide shoulders and skinny waist. His lower half was covered in his normal tiger fur, and even his odd cat-like face looked tigerish. But it was his eyes. Physically, he looked very much like the other monster that had attacked her; the one whose red glowing eyes would haunt her dreams for months if not years, but not Nate. His glowing blue eyes told her that it was still him. Surprisingly, it had been him all along. Those blue eyes. He was her protector, and she could feel it even more strongly now.

  Cassie walked up to her uncle’s house and opened the door. She was safe with Nate outside protecting her. Cassie stopped in the doorway. Aunt Maria was asleep on the couch. She sat up immediately as Cassie crossed the threshold.

  Maria ran to Cassie and pulled her into her arms.

  “John! She came home,” Maria yelled.

  Maria held Cassie back at arm’s length and looked her over, head to toe. John came barreling down the stairs. He was just as happy and surprised to see Cassie. He picked her up into a bear hug.

  “How in earth did you get away from the coven?” John asked.

  “The coven? Is that what they’re called?” Cassie asked.

  “They?” Maria asked.

  “Yeah. My cousin Jack,” Cassie replied, confused and just completely tired.

  “Jack?” Maria’s voice cracked. “They gave you to Jack?” Now there was anger behind her words. She looked at John and was ready to begin one of her wordy rants. Cassie knew she would only understand part of it when she stopped speaking English during the middle of it like normal.

  “Can she deal with this in the morning?” Nate asked as he stepped into the room. “We kind of had a long day.”

  Maria’s mouth dropped open. Then her rant was completely gone, and she began to laugh.

  “Yes, yes, go to bed and explain it all in the morning,” Maria said as John gave them both a strange look of confusion.

  “I’m glad you’re home,” Cassie told Maria, hugging her.

  Nate followed Cassie up to her room; she didn’t need to turn around to know he was there. There was a weird feeling where she could almost say she was connected to Nate now with a string. She knew where he was at every instant, and even slightly could tell what sort of mood he was in. It was beyond strange.

  “Get some sleep. I’m sure we will have to deal with everything tomorrow,” Nate explained.

  “And Whitney?”

  “She’s fine. She had the best excuse for everything. She was unconscious for all of it. It’ll just be our story to tell.” Nate pulled back the covers on her bed and patted the sheets.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a bit bossy?” Cassie asked as she yawned and climbed into the covers. She had no energy left to argue with him.

  “All the time. In fact, I remember this little girl when I was growing up who used to tell me that she was going to curse me if I kept bossing her around.”

  “She still might,” Cassie replied as she laid her head on her pillow.

  Every muscle in her body relaxed. She was beyond tired. Why did he have to be right?

  “I’ll be downstairs. You are safe here,” Nate told her, touching her cheek gently. “I won’t let anyone hurt my mate, ever.”

  “Hey, remember. Don’t read any more into all of this. I had to add my blood to activate the spell,” Cassie said with her eyes closed.

  “Or you could have just lied and told him that since you never tried the potion on silver, it didn’t work,” Nate answered. Cassie hadn’t thought of that. “Goodnight, my love.”

  The light in the room switched off. Cassie was finally alone. She cuddled into her covers. She was warm and safe. Her life was completely different, and it had all changed in just one week’s time. All she wanted to do was join the coven and become a witch. Now she wasn’t so sure. Everything was different. It seemed as though the answers to every secret were hidden behind lies. Her life went from boring to complicated with one fateful decision. It wasn’t exactly what she expected, but it was her life and hers to figure out. Cassie couldn’t keep any more coherent thoughts going. She was too drained. Her new life was exhausting—and kind of fun. But she was never going to admit that to Nate. Maybe she didn’t know what moving up to a witchling apprentice meant, but she wouldn’t change it for the world. She felt it in every fiber of her being. This was where she was meant to be, and everything that came with it was just one more adventure.

  Author note:

  Thank you for reading THE WITCHLING APPRENTICE! Keep reading for the sneak peek of the next boo
k in this series THE WENDIGO WITCHLING. Before we get there, I’d like to ask that if you enjoyed reading this book, please consider leaving me a good review on Amazon.com. Look for updates on my website on my current works, or join my mailing list at: http://www.bkristinmcmichael.com/list

  I greatly appreciate all the support from everyone and it keeps me going day in and day out! THANK YOU!

  Book Two in The Skinwalkers Witchling Trilogy: THE WENDIGO WITCHLING

  Cassandra Booth didn’t look back as she ran. She was getting better at dodging people on the street. Turning the corner, she dashed into the town’s only used clothing store. There were a few straggling shoppers who were scouring the racks for deals, but that didn’t matter to her. Cassie ran to the back of the store and the changing rooms, grabbing a bottle of perfume on the way.

  It was only the fourth time in the last twenty-four hours she had tried to run away. She might have bonded herself to school heartthrob Nathaniel Bay, but that didn’t mean she was planning on anything changing. She did it to save her friend. She had no intention of getting married at sixteen to a guy she hadn’t spoken to in years before he was chosen as her mate. The night human world was nuts, and she wanted out.

  “You need to pay for that,” the cashier told her.

  Cassie waved at the middle-aged lady before ducking under the curtain which led to the back rooms.

  She ran past the first few rooms before stepping in the third one. Quickly, she touched everything in the room. Stepping back into the hallway, she doused herself with the cheap perfume. She didn’t need to be a night human to smell how obnoxious the stuff was. Cassie hurried down the hallway and placed the empty bottle along with the only money she had with her on the counter in the last room. She didn’t care how much the stuff cost. It wasn’t worth what Cassie left as she snuck out the back door just in time.

  Cassie slid down behind the door and waited.

  Her life was getting more and more complicated since the ceremony to make her part of the coven got closer. It wasn’t just a bonding ceremony they were planning; they wanted to drain all her witch powers. Cassie didn’t plan to stick around for that. Nate had it all planned out. Or so he said. Where was he now? He had been missing in action for four days straight. Cassie knew the coven wanted her and her powers, and she wasn’t about to do as they wished. She needed to get away, and she had to leave now.

  “She backtracked again,” one male voice said.

  “Any trail?” another replied.

  “No. She’s getting better at this. Check back in the store; we must have missed it,” the first voice responded.

  “Well, I’m not going to be any use now with that smell. You should have never told her how much you hate perfume,” the second grumbled.

  Cassie smiled. She couldn’t care less if Nic Welch was going to lose his sense of smell for a week. That was his own fault for telling her about his great dislike of perfume. She didn’t know if all skinwalkers were that sensitive, but it seemed so.

  “Mikel is going to kill us for losing her again,” Nic told the other guy. He kicked in the door of the last changing room.

  “Only if we don’t come back with her, and I, for one, am not going to give up looking until I find her,” the first replied. They didn’t even come to the backdoor that read employees only.

  Cassie held her breath as they walked away. This was the farthest she had gotten away from the night humans keeping her captive. The first few days she hadn’t noticed the people following her, but once Nate went missing, she began to see people around her more. It was her best friend Whitney that spilled the beans and was now forbidden from seeing her. Whitney was the first person Cassie was going to call once she got out of the town.

  Now she just needed to make it to some sort of vehicle. She hadn’t thought it through that much. It was more of a spur of the moment decision this time. She found planning gave them an edge to stop her.

  ‘Cassie, just go back to them,’ Nate pleaded over the bond and the direct line into Cassie’s head with his voice.

  He had been physically gone, but somehow seemed to know what she was up to all the time. She needed help understanding night humans, and Whitney had told her enough to know what to do. There was a small town she needed to go to visit in the mountains that was filled with night humans.

  She had traveled across the country the summer before to help out a friend. While there, she had broken a blood bond, even though it was only temporary. Given enough time, maybe she could break her unwanted bond with Nate. In the least, she could learn more about night humans and what it meant to be bonded to one.

  ‘I told you that I was only doing the spell to save Whitney. I don’t want to be bonded to you,’ Cassie replied to Nate. It had been easier than she thought, talking to him over the bond they shared.

  ‘Doesn’t matter. Mating bonds are for life,’ Nate answered. ‘Now go back to them before you get yourself in trouble.’

  ‘Life? Well, we’ll see about that.’

  ‘Don’t make me come find you,’ Nate threatened.

  Cassie looked out the back door of the store. Someone was bringing packages and had left their car running. She was pretty sure stealing a car was a crime, probably even a felony, but what other option did she have? Cassie stepped out of the building and smiled at the girl leaning against the wall. Whitney gave her a big smile.

  ‘Cassie, get your butt home. John and Maria are going to be upset.’

  ‘Good for them. Maybe they’ll think twice about keeping everything from me.’

  ‘Cassie.’ Nate was no longer teasing. He sounded very angry.

  ‘Good luck finding me.’

  Cassie slid into the passenger seat.

  “Where to, bestie?” Whitney asked, pulling back her long, blonde hair into a ponytail.

  “Triclan City.” The place for night humans. If anyone could help her, she had to be able to find them there. Cassie needed answers, and she needed them soon before she got too caught up in the night human world. It was time for a road trip.

  [link] The Wendigo Witchling

  Acknowledgements

  As with any work of fiction, there are many people to thank along the way.

  To you, the reader. Thank you for taking the time to read this story and go on the journey with me. If you liked it, please leave a review on your favorite online bookseller (or all of them!) and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, etc. The greatest help you can do to keep a writer going is to support them by spreading the word about their books and leaving them encouraging words. If you are really inspired, join my mailing list to get updates first on my current and future writings.

  Also I would like to thank my editors and cover designers. A good editor is essential to getting the story correct (and in my case- more than one). Thank you so much, Kathie at Kat’s Eye Editing and Melissa at There for You Editing. They made the book just that much stronger and such a better story that you all got to read. It would not be the same book without them. Also a thanks to my proofer Ashton Brammer for going over the novel with a fine toothed comb to catch little errors that bug people. A thank-you to my cover artist Jessica for such a pretty cover. I’m not very specific with cover requirements- so finding an artist that can do such a great job and get what I am thinking is great! They may say never judge a book by its cover, but everyone does! I greatly appreciate all those that can do what I cannot, like editors and cover designers. I’m grateful I was able to find great professionals to work with on this book.

  I’d also like to thank my hubby for continuing to push me further down the writing road. He gives me time when I need it to work on my stories. He encourages me to keep going each and every day on this adventure. And he does all the behind-the-scenes effort to make this work (have you seen my trailers- he is awesome!). This would be so much harder without his help. So thank you, B. for pushing me off the deep end (or the cliff as I see it sometimes). And a great big thanks to my little munchkins who keep me g
oing from before the sun comes up ‘til long after it sets. Love you AK, KB, and EM.

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novel!!

  About the Author

  B. Kristin McMichael is the author of YA and clean NA paranormal fiction. Her vampiric "Night Human World" includes the YA coming of age series "The Blue Eyes Trilogy" and the spin-off adventure series "The Day Human Trilogy". She's also the author of the NA time travel romance series "The Chalcedony Chronicles".

  For more information on all of her books, visit http://www.bkristinmcmichael.com

  Subscribe to her mailing list for new release notifications and deals: http://www.bkristinmcmichael.com/list

  B. Kristin graduated with her PhD in biology at Ohio State where she worked as a scientist before taking her passion of writing full-time. Besides writing, she enjoys chasing her kids, playing outside, and baking cookies.

  B. Kristin McMichael lives in Ohio with her husband and three children.

  Other Books By this Author

  The Night Human World

  The Blue Eyes Trilogy (Series One)

  o The Legend of the Blue Eyes

  o Becoming a Legend

  o Winning the Legend

  The Day Human Trilogy (Series Two)

  o The Day Human Prince

  o The Day Human King

  o The Day Human Way

  The Skinwalkers Witchling Trilogy (Series Three)

  o The Witchling Apprentice

  o The Wendigo Witchling [Summer 2016]

  The Chalcedony Chronicles

  o Carnelian

  o Chrysoprase

  o Aventurine

  o Chrysocolla

  Standalone Books