Page 1 of Son of a Witch

CHAPTER1

Raze

The doorto the Guardian’s prison slammed shut behind me. Watchers as tall as me eyed me, growling, warning me to leave. They had their orders as did I. Banished. Forgotten. Forbidden, yet again.

Chunks of my heart stripped from my chest as my wolf ripped at it, snarling, threatening to destroy me if I left our mate and family behind. Prisoners left vulnerable without the magical defenses on the walls.

The sun set in the distance. Night would hit the desert of Broken Hill soon. I squeezed my suitcase in one hand, my keys in the other. Everything I owned. My black pickup waited for me in the parking lot.

On my way out of the facility, the warden had warned me. “Put as much distance between yourself and the Guardians as possible. Once they investigate the invasion, retaliation is possible. I might be able to give you a few weeks, months at best. Lay low until then.”

Munyara, my freedom came at a price, and I might still never be free if the Guardians pursued me. Emptiness filled me at the thought of having no home to go. No tribe to shelter me from the Guardian hunters.

Vartros hadn’t given me much time to say goodbye to my team, causing me to leave half my heart and soul behind. My wolf howled with anguish and my chest ached.

I spun and grabbed a bar of the gate, shaking it. “Wait!” I shouted at the retreating guards. “My mate’s still inside.”

Those few remaining who weren’t injured or killed in the vampire attack on the prison took no pity on me, didn’t turn around, and didn’t stop.

I gripped the bars tighter, feeling no magick pulse in them. Every last bit of it siphoned by the vampires, weakening the Guardian’s defenses, allowing them to free Styx, their leader, and the other gantii captives.

I found peace knowing most of the corrupt guards were dead. Two in particular who let Edwardo and Devon into Astra’s chemistry lab to attack and attempt to rape her. My wolf grunted with satisfaction that I ripped off Devon’s dick and balls for harming my mate and offending me.

The grunt turned to a pathetic howl at leaving my mate locked up in this place. I clutched the bars harder to remain standing.

“Raze!” A familiar, warm, wolfy voice called to me, and I glanced up from the concrete.

She hurried down the hall, dodging the two guards who tried to apprehend her. Dark brown hair streaked with fiery red to match her fierce, protective goanna spirit. Turbulent and determined eyes more vivid than the sky. Cheeks rosy from running and lips parted.

My fingers cinched around the bars that my mate came for me. Maybe the warden had let her go after all and she decided to leave with me. Hope charged through every bone in my body, and I stood straighter.

“Little Wolf!” I stretched out for her, and she caught my hand when she reached me. “Come. I’ll take you home.”

Her face fell and my heart splintered. The way she rubbed her free hand down her black, silk mission uniform over and over told me her answer. She’d come to say goodbye. A proper goodbye. The one she couldn’t say in front of the warden and the others.

“I can’t, Raze.” Her long, whimpered pause and the way she twisted her hands nearly broke me. “I must stay for Tor. Although he’s not showing it, he’s broken in his mind and body. He needs me.”

“No,” I growled and shook my head. “A bond made between two souls is more powerful than anything. You’re my mate more than you are his.” I squeezed her hands so tightly she yelped. “You are mine. Always.”

I didn’t care that I was being selfish. That she belonged to the others as much as me. She was my mate, my family, my home, and I couldn’t lose it all in one day.

“Get inside.” The sentries approached from behind.

“Just give me five minutes,” Astra barked at them.

“You don’t give the orders.” One grabbed her by the shoulder, and I snarled so savagely his hand dropped from her.

Munyara.

I’d partially shifted. My teeth and muzzle elongated. Claws extended from my fingers. Eyes turning silver as my wolf peered through them, a move I shouldn’t have made. They could snitch about it to the investigators but nothing got between my mate and me.

“You have five minutes and that’s it.” The sentry backed away, motioning for the other to do the same, giving us space.

Little Wolf slipped her arm through the bars to cup my face. “You are brave. Strong. Fierce. Unafraid. I know you will survive without me. At least until we find a way out.”

This was her way to let me down gently after she smashed my heart moments ago.

Her touch hardened, her fingers digging into my cheek, desperate to keep me with her. “I don’t think Tor’s that strong after his accident. He’s putting on a brave face for all of us. Masking his pain with jokes. I hate taking sides … but he needs me more than you right now.” She stuttered the last bit.

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