Page 42 of Freed Wolfsbane

Malachi is working on translating the diary entry, which turned out to be in a mix of languages. Along with Latin, it also has German, French, and Russian thrown in for shits and giggles. He’s only been working on it last night and this morning, but it feels like it’s taking forever.

Since it’s more time-consuming than he thought, Saint is working on the list. He’s bent over the table with his head buried in a Latin dictionary with headphones on. While Saint isn’t as good at Latin as Malachi, he’s leagues better than the rest of us.

Bastian and Xander are the ones out in the field with the mages today. Since Malachi and Saint need to work on the documents we found, my other two mates get to participate in finding Ryker.

We all agreed that it would be best for me to stay here. That way, Malachi can focus, rather than worrying about what’s happening to me in the field. Unfortunately for me, that means I have nothing better to do than pace around the gorgeous library. Even the walnut shelves lining every wall and filled with more books than I could read in a lifetime aren’t enough to keep my attention today.

A blush creeps up my cheeks at being called out for hovering. “Sorry,” I mumble. I scuff the toe of my boot against the rich burgundy carpet to avoid having to look at Malachi.

He chuckles softly as his chair scrapes back across the carpet. Muffled footsteps sound behind me before Malachi’s arms wrap around my waist and pull me up against him. I’m surrounded by his campfire scent, which instantly relaxes me.

Leaning down, he nuzzles his bite mark on my flannel-covered shoulder. I suck in a breath at the contact, trying to get used to how much one of them touching their mark turns me on.

I’m now bonded with all four of my mates, and it feels like something in me shifted. My magic and wolf felt like they were in constant competition before. Like they were opposing storms competing to wreak the most havoc and seize the most power. Now, they feel almost like they’ve merged together.

It’s only been a day, so I’m not really sure what that means for my magic, but I’m hopeful that it’ll be easier to wrangle. I did feel like my magic fought me less when I was with the Knights. Although, that could just be because it was a dire situation. My magic can’t be a moody little problem child if I’m dead, so that’s probably why it was working with me.

It’s also strange, in a good way, being able to feel all my mates in my chest. I can feel each of the bonds individually, and I can sense their emotions if I focus on it hard enough. Right now, I can feel intense concentration from Saint, excitement from Bastian, exasperated amusement from Xander, and determination and a hint of arousal from Malachi.

I push my hips into Malachi’s erection that’s digging into my lower back. He groans softly, and his hands flex on my hips before he moves his dick out of my reach. I resist the urge to pout because I know now’s not the time. We need to focus on Ryker, not getting it on.

“I’m about halfway through the letter,” Malachi rumbles. “By the relatively modern languages in it, the entry obviously wasn’t written by someone from Dido’s time. Instead, I think it was someone from around the time the curse first went into effect.”

My brows scrunch as I try to figure out what that all means. “Is that a good or bad thing?”

He lets me go and grabs my hand in his much larger one. Leading me back over to the light wood table he was working at, Malachi leans against it. Pulling me between his legs, he settles his hands on my hips and traces small circles with his thumbs. I wind my arms around his neck and lean my head against his shoulder.

Nuzzling his face against mine for a long moment, he eventually shrugs. “I’m not sure yet. I’m hoping whoever it is has information about how we stop the curse. If the letter doesn’t pan out, we still have the list Saint’s working on, the artifacts, and the blueprints. We will figure it out, baby girl, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I tell him half-heartedly, so badly wanting to believe his reassurance. But at the end of the day, we have no idea if what we found will be even mildly helpful, much less the key to stopping the curse.

He slides his hand through my hair and tilts my head back so I’m forced to look at him. “I don’t.” His navy eyes flick between mine. I nod as much as I’m able to with him holding my head in place. Once I do, he lets my hair go and cups my face. “I know this has been a long, hard road, baby girl. I’m behind you whatever you want to do, but I don’t think it’s time to give up.”

I narrow my eyes at him because I never said I was throwing in the towel. I’ve come too far and been through too much to quit now. “I’m not giving up. I’m just…” I trail off as I try to figure out what exactly I feel. “I don’t know. It’s just hard to have hope or optimism when it feels like the Knights are ahead of us at every turn.”

“They won’t always be,” he tries to reassure me. “Yes, we’ve had setbacks, but we already know things they don’t. They’ve been working at this for centuries, while we’ve been at it for a month. I think we’ve made pretty huge progress in a short amount of time.”

“But will it be enough to stop them?” I whisper.

Malachi clenches his jaw as he hunts for something to say, because we both know there aren’t any guarantees. His navy eyes gentle, and he leans his forehead against mine. “I have to believe it will be,” he tells me softly.

“I’m pretty sure we have a potion for something, if that helps any, little shadow,” Saint chimes in, startling me.

When I process what he said, I pull away from Malachi to walk over to Saint. I peer over his shoulder. I inspect the neat handwriting on the parchment with his scrawled notes scattered on papers next to it. “You finished the list?”

Saint wraps an arm around my waist and hugs me to his side. “Yeah. It looks like a bunch of ingredients for a potion. I don’t know what it does, but I think Nan would probably know.”

“The diary entry might have more information,” Malachi offers.

I nod before something occurs to me. “Does my family in Hawthorne Grove know what happened?” I realize I hadn’t even thought they might be worried about me. After being on my own for so long with only Ava to consider, it’s hard to remember that there are a bunch of people who care about me and who are impacted by my choices. I’m not alone anymore, and I need to stop acting like it.

“No. With the backup from Elemental, there wasn’t really a reason to worry them about it. I’m sorry if we made the wrong call.” Saint peers up at me uncertainly, his gray eyes swirling with worry.

I run my fingers through the strands of his short brown hair, trying to comfort him. “You made the right one. I just wasn’t sure if I was in for another talking to about making dumb decisions from Molly and Emmy.” I wince because Molly can be scary when she’s mad or, even worse, disappointed in someone.

Saint’s lips curve up in a half smile, but his eyes shine with heartache at the mention of me giving myself up to the Knights. He pushes up from the deep blue upholstered chair to wrap his arms around me. “You’re safe from your aunt’s wrath this time, little shadow.”

I snort at him saying “this time.”

---