Page 77 of Freed Wolfsbane

Turning around, I see Bastian’s wolf jumping around by the fountain and yipping, while Xander’s wolf rolls his eyes at his twin. I let out a soft snort at their interaction before heading over to check out whatever they found. Malachi and Saint beat me there and are intently looking into the dry fountain when I reach them.

“Pretty sure Bastian found the entrance.” Malachi points at what looks like a trapdoor in the bottom on the water feature. I can’t see much, other than the top of a ladder when I peer into the square black hole.

While I watch, Bastian presses his paw into a stone, and a white plate slides over the hole. Once it closes, you can hardly even tell that it’s there. With water in the fountain, it’d be almost impossible to spot it.

When I look up at Bastian, he stomps on whatever activates it to open the entrance again. “Good job, Bastian.” When Xander lets out a disgruntled yip, I hurry to tack on, “And Xander. You both did great work.”

Wolf Xander huffs but doesn’t bark at me, so I assume he’s satisfied with my praise. “So I’m guessing we’re going down the sketchy hole we found in the ancient fortress.”

I’m sure absolutely nothing will go wrong with that plan.

Saint huffs a laugh. “You would be correct, little shadow. Malachi will go first and let the wolves know if it’s safe to leap down. Then you can go, and I’ll follow.”

I nod because it sounds fine to me. I’d rather be going into the spooky hole in the floor first, but it’s not worth wasting time to argue with Malachi.

At my agreement, Malachi vaults over the fountain edge and stares into the dark abyss. He cautiously steps onto the squeaky ladder and slowly disappears. I wait with my heart in my throat, listening for any screams of pain or surprise, but there’s no other sound besides the creak of the metal and the clanging of Malachi’s footsteps on the rungs.

Several minutes later, we hear a loud thump. As I rush to climb over the edge of the fountain, Malachi calls up, “It’s too far for you to jump, Bastian and Xander. You guys need to shift back.”

Saint sighs. “I’ll go grab you guys some clothes. I’ll be right back.” He opens a portal into the Wyldhart house and disappears before reappearing less than a minute later with a bundle of fabric and shoes.

Bastian’s the first one to shift back, and Saint shoves the pile at him before turning around.

Laughing, Bastian tells Saint, “You’re gonna have to get used to seeing us buck-ass naked, bro. Our girl likes group activities, and there’s not much room for modesty then.”

My face turns bright red at Bastian’s comments. I mean, he’s not wrong that I liked having both him and Xander at the same time, but I’d never pressure Saint to join.

Saint twists to look at me with his eyebrows raised. Instead of the disgust I expect to see on his face, there’s intrigue that makes a flare of arousal burn in my core. He doesn’t say anything but looks at me expectantly. I shrug and look away, not knowing what to say.

Letting the subject drop, Saint doesn’t speak. Instead, he gently turns me back toward the fountain. Bastian and Xander are dressed in jeans, sneakers, and tees. Xander’s already starting to climb down, his blond head disappearing quickly.

Bastian holds out his hand to help me over the fountain ledge once Xander calls up that he’s down. “Your turn, pretty girl.”

“Thanks,” I mumble as I steady myself with my hand in his.

Taking a deep breath, I brace my hands on the side of the hole and stick one leg in. After my foot lands on a rung, I cautiously put my other leg down. When my hands touch the ladder, I’m surprised by how smooth and cold it is. I guess I expected it to be rough and primitive for a multi-thousand-year-old hunk of metal, but it’s not. It feels almost like new.

The climb down seems to stretch on forever. I’m so focused on my rhythm of moving my hands and feet that I yelp when I touch solid ground. I reflexively let go of the ladder and stumble backward, almost falling on my ass. Strong arms catch me and hold me until I’m steady.

“Careful there, sweetheart,” Xander rumbles, holding onto me even when I’m no longer in danger of falling. I soak up his ocean pines scent and the comfort he’s offering that we both need right now.

When Bastian starts clanging down the ladder, Xander lets his arms fall away. I walk to stand between the two of them and shove my hands in my pockets to keep from fidgeting.

Looking around at the space, I can’t see much in the dark other than the gray stone walls and matching floor and ceiling. Calling my magic to me, I envision it forming a ball in my hand that works as a floating torch.

My magic illuminates the space somewhat, and when I see what’s around us, I wish it hadn’t. There are spiders. Everywhere. Gigantic spiders, small spiders, baby spiders, and pretty much every type imaginable are crawling all over the ceiling.

I resist the urge to scream, but just barely because Ihatespiders with a fiery, burning passion. The thought of them and their creepy eyes and millions of legs makes my skin crawl. The fact that I’m surrounded by hundreds of them is enough to almost make me throw up.

Malachi sees my ashen face and terrified eyes and rushes over to me. “What’s wrong, baby girl?”

“Spiders,” I whisper as I close my eyes and pretend they aren’t here. I guess I’ve never mentioned my phobia of the worst bug known to man before. I usually try to forget the fact that spiders exist, so I don’t really talk about them much.

I hear Malachi choke on a laugh. Opening one eye, I glare at him for finding my predicament funny.

“Sorry,” he tells me while fighting a smile. “I just never expected spiders to be what terrified you. You seem so impervious to most things that scare people, but I’ll protect you. Don’t worry.”

I scoff. There’s no way he can protect me from the devils on eight legs, but we have so many other things to worry about. Once Saint is safely down the ladder, I book it in the opposite direction of the spiders. Like the entrance to the fortress, there’s only one route we can go, which is down a long hallway.

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