Page 77 of Strike It Witch

“No, I didn’t trust her to handle it. I dropped everything, hitched the Airstream to my Jeep and drove straight home.” My voice quavered. “I was too far away. I didn’t make it in time.”

I cleared the tremble from my throat, mentally calmed myself.

“Before I left, I called the coven mother, Margaux Ramirez, and asked her to check on Mom. They’d been friends for several years, and I knew Mom had helped Margaux with a few spells now and then.”

“What happened?”

“Margaux refused. Said it was too dangerous for the coven to get involved.” My throat tightened with suppressed sorrow. “Mom died an hour before I got here. Margaux could’ve prevented it—even if she didn’t want to help with magic, shecould’ve come over and tried to talk her out of it. Distracted her until I could get here. But she didn’t, and Mom died.”

“What about the other tenants in the park?” Ronan asked. “Why couldn’t one of them help?”

“I tried to call every single one, but they were all attending Barbara Berry’s funeral service. She’d been a tenant here for years, and everyone except Mom had gone. They had their cell phones switched off.”

Ronan listened, nodded. “Do you think your mom chose that night to do the spell because they were gone?”

“Yeah. It fits. She was protective of her tenants. If everyone was away and the spell backfired, it would only kill her. As it did.” I sank onto the bench seat.

“I’m sorry, Betty.”

“Thanks. People in town know what happened because our community is a small one and Mom was respected here, but I don’t talk about it much. In fact, I’ve never told anyone all that—except Ida and Fennel.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

I did trust him. More than I’d let on earlier.

Or maybe I was getting lust and trust mixed up. Gods knew I’d made that mistake before.

Ronan lowered himself onto the seat across from me and clasped his hands on the table. “I’m not trying to be pushy—or maybe I am, hell. But I need to be there when you make the book exchange. My father’s demanding it.”

“Of course he is,” I said.

“Do you blame him? There isn’t a lot of trust between you.”

Anger pulsed through me. “He’s not a trustworthy person. Sorry, Ronan, I know he’s your father and the alpha of your pack, but he’s not a good person.”

He stared down at his hands, nodded solemnly. “At this point I should just get a shirt that says,You’re preaching to the choir, folks. I get it, Betty. Maybe better than most.”

“Do you? Has he told youourhistory?”

“His version.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I’d like to hear your side.”

“You’re talking about Floyd’s wolf-killer comment last Tuesday, right? You want the real story, not the sanitized one your father told you?”

“Sanitized isn’t the word. He blames you for killing one of his betas. He says your guilt is why you hound him.”

“Of course he does.” I muttered a few Spanish curse words under my breath. “The truth makes him look like what he is. A low-grade piece of mierda.”

“As I said, I’d like to hear your side.” He searched my face with his gaze. “If you want to tell it.”

Want? No. But maybe it would be good for me to get my side of the story out into the world, or rather, into the pack.

“I was hired by a shifter friend to help her father, a beta wolf in the Pallás pack. Back then I was still working my mom’s travel route, and she was a client of my mom’s. Both were beta wolves, but her father was very weak. His shift was painful even with the help of an alpha wolf. Only someone at the level of your father, Mason Hartman, or you would’ve been able to change him without terrible pain.”

Ronan’s face went slack. It was as if he knew where this story was headed.

“Mom and I came up with a charm he could wear to help with the worst of the pain. She crafted it, and I spelled it. With it, he could shift without pain when even a weaker alpha helped out. It was an answer to a prayer he’d hadn’t dared voice, he told me.” My chest tightened, my throat following suit. “He decided to try shifting on his own, with only the spell to assist.”

“Goddess of the moon,” Ronan whispered.

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