Page 89 of Wicked Witch of the Wolf

“I don’t know.”

“Can’t you feel him through the pack bonds?”

“No.” He stared directly into my eyes, all expression wiped from his face. “The alpha forswore him before coming here tonight.”

“What?”

Being forsworn, or expelled, from a shifter group was a serious thing. It was traumatic for the shifter and significantly weakened a pack. The higher in the pack the shifter, the worse it was all the way around.

While I absorbed all this, I asked, “And Desmond?”

“You’ll never find a single piece of the bastard. The wolves were thorough.”

Yikes.

“Now, quit stalling and help him.”

“When you say it like that it makes me feel dirty,” I said.

“Betty, godsdamn?—”

“Return.” Once again, I didn’t rely on a chant or a power word or any other taught-witch method. I did it the earth witch way.

Floyd’s mouth opened as wide as it would go, and a river of dirt flew out of his mouth and into the hole where I was lounging. The whole thing took less than a minute, but it couldn’t have been a pleasant sixty seconds.

And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving wolf.

“He’s unconscious, but alive,” I said, rising to my feet. “What’s your deal? What side of the fence are you standing on? Or are you getting redwood splinters in your balls?”

He hoisted Floyd’s body onto his shoulder. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“Even if I agree to ditch one of my favors?” I held up three fingers.

“Do you?”

“Yes. Tell me where you stand, and I’ll give you back one of the three you owe me.”

He stared at me for a long moment, the alpha leader’s body limp, head swaying with every movement Mason made. “Agreed. I’m not on his side,” he cocked his head toward the wolf, “and I’m not on your side.”

“So fence straddling it is?” I asked.

“This isn’t a binary situation. There’s another side. One you’re incapable of seeing right now.”

“What other side?”

He looked at me, an angry wolf in his eyes. “Giving up another favor so soon?”

“No. Also, I hate you.”

“That’s because I don’t put up with your bullshit the way everyone else seems to. I make you uncomfortable.”

“No. Ronan makes me uncomfortable. You piss me off.” I shook dust from my clothing into the rapidly closing hole at my feet. “I dislike people who have the strength and brains to do good and choose evil instead. It’s a quirk of personality, I know, but one I can’t seem to fight.”

His lip twitched. A wide smile in Mason’s world. “I know.”

There was a commotion behind me, and fire flew past my head and hit the tree next to Mason.

“Your gnome is creating a diversion so the two rats who shifted back to human can get the witches to your car. Good job. The cowards in the pack pulled back when you burst out of the ground like a godsdamned zombie, and I didn’t position any of them behind there, anyway. You have a clear path.”

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