Page 42 of Enemy Wolf

“What are you doing?” I asked. She appeared to be searching for something on the ground, carefully turning over stones and nudging fallen branches with her feet.

“I’m going to cast a barrier ward. It’ll protect us from any predators and keep the heat from the fire within the barrier.”

“Sounds good.” I continued watching her, fascinated as she bent down to examine objects from the forest floor. “But there are no predators. The feral packs won’t bother us.”

“You’re sure they’re the ones at the top of the food chain out here?” Shiloh picked up a rock and branch. “No bears? Or bear shifters?”

“If wolves shared this territory with bears, we’d be well and truly fucked.” I turned off the bike and started on the fire building.

“You think so?” Shiloh smirked at me as she placed her rock and stick facing south in a seemingly very intentional arrangement. “You couldn’t take on a bear shifter?”

“My kind is already fifty percent bigger than standard gray wolves,” I said. “Assuming the same logic would go for bear shifters, can you imagine a ten-foot tall grizzly? That might even be underestimating, an alpha male would be at least twelve feet tall.”

“You’re right,” Shiloh chuckled as she arranged more sticks and rocks. “That would be terrifying.”

“The wolf packs would be wiped out in a season. Or domesticated, who knows?”

“Your bear overlords will turn you into chihuahuas!” she cackled.

“Now that’s just disgraceful,” I bit out, which made her laugh even harder. And I soaked up every decibel of that beautiful sound. “Will you tell me how your barrier ward works?” I asked when her laughter faded.

She looked up at me, surprised. “You really want to know?”

I shrugged. “I’ve always been curious about magic.”

“Well, it’s similar to how our border territories work,” she explained. “We can go in and out of the barrier with no issue, you’ll just feel a sensation when it makes contact with your body.”

“What do the sticks and rocks do?”

“Those are anchor points in the four cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west. Now, where the magic comes in.” She went to the bike and pulled a small cork-capped glass bottle from her bag. “It’s a little bit of concentration, moonlight, and asking the earth’s magnetic field politely.”

Shiloh went to each of the anchor points, whispered some kind of chant, and sprinkled some of the powdery contents of the bottle over the selected sticks and rocks. Once done, she capped the bottle and grinned at me. “Go ahead. Step out of the border by crossing the line between any two anchor points.”

I went for a little walk and sure enough, I felt something tangible on my skin as I stepped out of the barrier. It was little more than the soft pressure of a breeze, just enough to be noticeable. Just to see if it would make Shiloh laugh, I hopped in and out of the barrier a few times.

Not only did she laugh, she came over and tugged lightly at my wrist. “Get back here, you goof.”

“It’s warmer inside here already,” I remarked. I had noticed a chill after taking off my jacket, even though shifters naturally ran warm and the cold didn’t bother me much. Now, I was comfortable in just my T-shirt despite standing a good ten feet away from the fire.

“I’m just fascinated by this.” I stuck only my hand outside the barrier this time, feeling like I was reaching into a freezer. “You’re quite the crafty witch.”

“Nah.” Shiloh went to unpack more things from the bike. “I’m pretty standard issue actually. A child witch can make simple barriers. It’s one of the first things they’re taught.”

“I see.” I went to help her unpack, laying out our leftover pheasant next to the fire while I set up the roasting spit to reheat them. “So you’re used to having magic-wielders around? No freshly-immigrated humans in your family?”

“No,” Shiloh sighed. “My family were among the first witches in Vargmore. I didn’t even know there were people who couldn’t shift or use magic until I went to school with human children.”

“The moon magic is powerful in you then.”

“You would think.” She sounded a bit sad. “Moon magic is all about cycles. Ebbs and flows, waxings and wanings. A lot of it is deeply tied to fertility. Both in the growth and abundance of the land, and also,” she spread her hands, “in terms of people and animals. Reproducing, you know.”

“Okay.” I got the sense she was trying to explain something to me, and I made sure to listen.

“I come from a long, powerful line, yes. But my mother was...well, cursed is probably the best term for it.”

“Cursed?”

Shiloh nodded, keeping her eyes away from mind as she set up for dinner. “During the werewolf conflict with the vampires, my mother was found to be helping dragon shifters escape to the human world.”

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