Page 36 of Witch Unexpected
“Fuck.” Leif said the word softly, under his breath, like a prayer.
I squinted up at him to find him staring at me with a look of awe before the moonlight dimmed a little, enough for me to look directly at the statue to see what all the fuss was about.
It glowed softly from within, and a symbol had appeared directly beneath my palm. A ‘U’ with a wiggly line bisecting it horizontally. The symbol pulsed urgently.
I looked at Leif. “Is this good?”
Leif smiled, slow and warm like honey, and my insides trembled. “Yes. It’s good,” he said. “It’s very good.”
“Cora,” Anna said, drawing my attention. She stood off to my left, hands clasped in front of her. “Do you know what this means?”
“That I’m strong enough?”
“Oh, my dear child, it means so much more than that. It means you’re Hecate Blessed.”
Chapter Nine
The other elder witches vanished, leaving me alone with Anna, Leif, and the massive golden wolf. Leif and Anna walked off a little way and dropped into a whispered conversation, blatantly cutting me out.
Rude much? Considering I was Hecate Blessed, whatever that meant, because no one had bothered to explain it to me.
Shit, my palm ached where I’d cut it.
“Cora hurt,” Wren said.
“It’s nothing, buddy.” I shook it off.
The wolf bumped my thigh.
“Whoa, easy, dude.” I backed away from it.
“He wants to help,” a female voice said.
A woman emerged from the fringe of darkness that hung on the perimeter of the platform. She was tall, curvy, with long golden hair that shimmered with amber highlights. It fell past her shoulders in ringlets. Her huge tawny eyes were fringed with dark lashes and fixed on me. My mind tried to wrap itself around where the heck she’d come from.
I stared at her, then behind her into nothingness. “How are you guys doing that?”
The woman chuckled. “It’s a mirage spell. I’ve been here all along, but there’s a veil of magic that prevents occupants within from seeing those outside it.”
“Wait…” I scanned the darkness. “Are there more people watching us?”
“No, they all left. It’s just us.”
The wolf chuffed softly and nudged her thigh. I glanced down at him properly and noted the way his fur shimmered in the moonlight, white blond in places but laced with amber highlights like the woman’s. Were they related?
“Okay, okay,” she said to him. She flashed me a smile. “Rune wants to heal your hand.”
Rune? So that was the other alpha’s name. “Oh?” I looked into his beautiful hazel eyes flecked with green and ringed in amber once again, so similar to this woman’s. “And how exactly will you do that?”
He tilted his head to the side slightly.
“By licking it.” the woman said.
I made a yuk face, and she let out a bark of laughter.
“I know it sounds gross, but it’s super hygienic. Trust me, one lick, and the wound will heal right up.”
I wasn’t a wuss when it came to injuries, but the palm of the hand was a delicate place, one used for a host of activities, and the sooner it healed, the better.
