Page 88 of Claimed

I turn back to a weeping Erica who’s pleading with her eyes, wanting to be wrong, wanting me to do something.

“I think she’s dead, Greyson,” she whimpers.

Riley takes her face into his hands to comfort her.

I don’t think Mimi is dead despite this faint white noise in my head. I think I can still feel her, feel that presence I felt when she spoke to me. I can’t be sure, but instinct is telling me she might not be gone. She was strong enough to call me here. It’s like my mind is still engaged with a phone call but though there’s not much noise, it feels like the link is still connected. Like I’m tapped into something I wasn’t part of before, but not completely. I really fucking hope she’s not gone. I’m suddenly aware of the lack of stabbing pain in my gut and this has me concerned.

“Maybe not dead.” I tap my noggin. “I feel her. Don’t give up.”

“I think she’s dead,” she cries. “I think she sacrificed herself so Greyson could have her power and use it to save us. Is that what those swirls were between you?”

“I don’t think she’s dead,” I repeat. “Her power is here – “ I tap my temple. “but I still feel like she’s connected to it. How do these links work?”

“I… I don’t know. Maybe it’s not too late? Wake up, Dani!” Erica shakes Danica and small blue sparks, not unlike the red ones that came from me fly from her fingers as she calls out her other sisters’ names, too.

Dani comes to, asking for her medicine bag. Linc runs to fetch it from Erica’s van back at the water tower.

Vivica suggests we break up the circle and wake the other unconscious SCC witch. I don’t trust that one either and still have that necklace ready, though it doesn’t seem like she was in league with Aviva.

“Talk to me,” Vivica requests, eyes filled with fear.

I spill, “She initiated me into the coven last night at Rye’s. She told me she needed to spell her power to come to me in the event of her death. She told me she wanted contingencies in place before meeting with the SCC. She told me earlier today that if anything went sideways, I should step in and break the circle, and that she’d get a message to me to let me know to help. She also told me she was wearing a partial cloak, so she’d appear weak if either of the SCC witches were reading her abilities tonight.”

I tell my cousins that I believe she’s not dead even though her body has no pulse, she’s not breathing. She’s still warm, at least.

***

The girls are all gone back to Riley’s place. Lucinda woke and went to the rented cottage with Mitch Blakely, a wolf shifter doctor on the SCC who is a mentor to Cat Savage and friends with the members of the council of my dad’s generation.

We’ve also put three non-council alphas on patrol outside that cottage and though I’m headed home to my mate, I’m prepared to put this necklace on Lucinda if I get any indication she’s going to cause problems before she fucks off.

She seemed disoriented, upset, and I’m fairly sure I read her right. She’s not a threat to us and had no idea what her crony was up to. I also sense something from her that’s not unlike that pulsing sensation I got when Mimi’s last message came through. I looked over Erica and her siblings and felt it from all of them as well. It’s as if I’ve unlocked an instinct of measurement, feeling something from Erica that was much larger than what I felt from any of them, though Lucinda ran closer to Erica than the others.

I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around it all yet, being overwhelmed by the urge to protect everyone. My pack, my cousins, my unconscious great aunt.

Lucinda explained Mimi is in a state of pause with her dagger in her gut, which Mimi pulled telekinetically, but until we know more about how it might affect the link between us, it stays put.

Even calm, Joel tells me my eyes are still shiny silver, slightly lit.

***

When I get home, I’m both relieved and irritated at the sight of Jase and my woman sitting beside one another on my front step, holding mugs of coffee.

Linc already called Jase and filled him in on tonight’s happenings. His eyes are on me as I approach.

In addition to their close proximity, I’m also not thrilled Stacy is outside the walls of the house. I pull in a calming breath, telling myself Jase wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He’d protect her with his life. I know this about him as well as I know my own self.

I also know he’s not going to let me live last night down any time soon. I’m not ready to joke about four shifters watching me rut my mate in the woods quite yet, maybe not ever.

My mate didn’t mention any embarrassment regarding that, which surprised me, but I wasn’t about to say anything to make her worry about it. She’s got enough to worry about.

At seeing her safe and well, I allow relief to swim through my veins. But on the heels of that relief is something else. Desire. She doesn’t smell like she’s still in heat, not like last night, but I plan to end tonight with another chance at conception, just in case it didn’ttake. And just because. Though even without the chance of conception I don’t plan to let any opportunity to be inside her go to waste.

The pulsing energy inside me has calmed a little, so has that link between me and Mimi, the white noise not loud enough to take space in my thoughts but yet loud enough that I know it’s still there. At the notion of losing myself inside my pretty blossom again, power throbs inside me. All this new magic in me… it’s still fusing with me, getting to know me.

I look forward to learning how to wield it, but in the meantime it’s as if it’s making everything around me more vivid. I feel the energy of the sky, the earth, the living things that surround me. I feel my mate most of all right now and I know she’s happy to see me. I also know her wolf wants at me.

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