Page 96 of His Whispered Witch

Asher stepped back and took a deep, bracing breath.

“Thankyou,” Malcolm said fervently.

Penn stepped up, and he carefully put an arm around her shoulders. The bearded dragon bopped his head up and down. His wolf snarled, and Asher looked away. He didn’t think the beast would ever be a fan of reptiles.

“And thank you!” Malcolm added, his eyes on Penn. “Although it is super weird to hunt without immediately poisoning your prey. I think I was more snake than I thought.”

“You’re welcome?” Penn said, and Malcolm dashed away to corral the colt.

Penn’s back pocket buzzed, which he felt more than heard, and she stepped away. He frowned. She had gotten in touch with her family, but they were still insisting she come back home, so contact was few and far between. She still held out hope that more of her family would run, and Asher, Malcolm, and everyone else had assured her that any witch would be more than welcome to come to the land, but so far, it had been slow going. He looked around. The only other people she talked to were all here.

She hung up and turned toward him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s Annie.”

“Who?”

“She was from the Griffin coven in Colorado.” A slow smile spread across her face.

“What?”

“She just ran away with a werewolf.”

“What?”

“They’ve known each other for years. They fell in love in high school or something? Only he didn’t go to high school? I didn’t understand most of what she was saying, but they’ve run away together.”

Asher burst out laughing. “We’re gonna have the whole world paired up by the end of this. We just can’t keep away from each other.”

He folded her in her arms.

“She doesn’t have anywhere to go.” She murmured into his shoulder.

“Oh. Of course. No worries. She can come here.”

She shook her head. “He won’t leave his family.”

“She’s gonna live with the pack?”

“I don’t know. I told her she always has a place, but they’re gonna try and make a go of it, I think.”

“Alone?”

“I don’t know. But she can’t go home. The twins…”

“They might come around one day.”

He thought of the crazy woman standing in the middle of the road he nearly ran over; she confronted the truck without an ounce of fear. He gave it fifty/fifty odds, but he hoped for her sake that one day they would come around. Penn had more family than she knew what to do with here, but he knew it had hurt to leave.

Malcolm passed them, leading Excalibur by a halter, and Penn said to the horse, “You did so good. You ran so fast.”

“Yeah, we’ll worry about insignificant things like direction later,” Malcolm said with a laugh.

“I’ve gotta go light the grill,” Asher said. The day would end with a barbecue. The Dukes had bought half a pig that a couple of wolves were guarding in front of the big house, even as multiple different teenagers in wolf form tried to steal it.

The healing witch, Becca, approached with her mate, a tall blonde dude with kind eyes. She carried one child on her hip and another clung to his hand.

---