Page 13 of Whisker me Away
"You don't have to answer right now," Rowan said quickly, misreading her hesitation. "I know it's a big decision. But I wanted you to know where I stand."
Freya's gaze drifted past his shoulder to where Kieran stood at the crowd's edge, his eyes fixed on them with an intensity that made her pulse stutter. Even from across the festival grounds, she could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands clenched like he was fighting some internal battle.
"I need time," she said finally, the words scraping her throat raw. "To think about everything."
The hurt that flashed across Rowan's face made her feel like the worst kind of person. Here was a man who loved her enough to propose despite her obvious distraction, and she was asking for time because she couldn't stop thinking about someone who'd made it clear she was just another job to complete.
"Of course," Rowan said, his voice steady despite the disappointment in his eyes. "Take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere."
That was the problem, Freya realized as guilt settled like lead in her stomach. Rowan would wait patiently while she figured out her feelings, never demanding more than she was ready to give. He was everything a woman should want in a partner.
So why couldn't she stop wishing for someone whose touch set her skin on fire instead?
8
KIERAN
Kieran stood at the festival's edge, watching Rowan drop to one knee beside the bonfire like he was witnessing his own execution. The sight of another man proposing to his mate sent his tiger into a frenzy of rage and possession that made his claws threaten to extend.
Ours,his tiger snarled, pushing against his human control.Stop him. Claim her. Now.
She's not ours,Kieran shot back, even as every instinct screamed at him to shift and drag Freya away from the man kneeling at her feet.She made her choice.
But watching her face as Rowan spoke, seeing the way her green-gold eyes went wide with something that looked more like trapped panic than joy, gave him a sick surge of hope he didn't want to feel. When her heard her ask for time instead of throwing herself into Rowan's arms, his tiger practically purred with satisfaction.
She didn't say yes,the beast pointed out smugly.
She didn't say no either.
Kieran forced himself to turn away before he interrupted a marriage proposal. He had a job to do, festival-goers to protect,and absolutely no business standing here obsessing over a woman who'd rejected him once and would probably do it again.
He began patrolling the festival's perimeter with the kind of predatory focus that made people unconsciously step out of his way. The corruption at the pumpkin patch had everyone on edge, parents pulling their children closer and supernatural senses on high alert for signs of further spread.
But as Kieran walked the festival grounds, he started noticing something strange. The areas where Freya had been earlier in the evening showed no signs of corruption. Not just absence of the blight, but something more. The grass looked greener, the autumn flowers more vibrant, as if her presence had somehow strengthened the natural magic that flowed through Hollow Oak.
He knelt beside a section of ground where he'd seen her standing twenty minutes ago, pressing his palm to the earth. His tiger's senses picked up the lingering trace of her magic, warm and clean and achingly familiar. But underneath it was something else. Something that felt like healing.
Interesting.Kieran stood, brushing dirt from his hands as pieces of a puzzle began clicking into place. If Freya's magic could cleanse corruption simply by her being present, then maybe her grandmother's binding spell wasn't just failing. Maybe it was trying to adapt, to use Freya's power in ways the older woman had never understood.
A scream from the corn maze cut through his thoughts like a blade.
Kieran was moving before the sound fully registered, his tiger surging forward as he raced toward the source of the commotion. He found a group of teenagers clustered at the maze's entrance, their faces pale with terror as they stared at something inside the towering corn stalks.
"What happened?" he demanded, pushing through the crowd.
"Jenny and Mark went in there about ten minutes ago," a girl with tears streaming down her face stammered. "We heard screaming, but when we tried to follow them, the paths started changing. Moving. And there's this black stuff everywhere."
Kieran peered into the maze and swore under his breath. The corruption had spread through the entire structure, turning the cheerful autumn attraction into a twisted labyrinth of dying corn and writhing shadows. Somewhere in the middle of it, two kids were trapped.
"Everyone back," he ordered with the kind of alpha authority that made people obey without question. "Stay at least twenty feet from the entrance."
He was about to enter the maze when footsteps pounded across the grass behind him. Freya appeared at his side, her copper hair wild and her eyes bright with determination.
"I'm coming with you," she said.
"Like hell you are." Kieran caught her arm, his touch automatically gentle despite his words. "That thing in there is exactly what's been corrupting your family's magic. You go in there, you're playing right into its hands."
"Those kids are in there because I failed to contain this properly." Her voice shook with guilt and resolve. "I'm not letting anyone else get hurt because of my mistakes."
