Page 111 of Witch Undecided
SLOANE
Vax circles us, his huge frame eating up space, his magnetic presence sucking the oxygen from the room. Furs drape his shoulders, making his large, broad frame seem even bigger. I’m a tall woman, powerfully built, and there aren’t many men who can make me feel small. Tor comes close, but this guy is a whole other breed. All the varga we’ve seen are inhumanly large, as if born in the time of gods and titans. These huts seem too small to occupy them.
“Why have you come?” he asks. “Who sent you?”
I see no harm in answering both those questions. “We came for the female dire wolves you kidnapped, and we came of our own accord.”
He stills. “Dire wolf females were taken?”
Okay, he sounds like this is news to him. I narrow my eyes. “You took them.”
“We tried,” he says. “But we failed.”
“And then you tried again and succeeded.”
“You killed Danny.” Poppy’s voice shakes with suppressed rage. “You tore him to shreds and took the shifters.”
Vax’s arctic gaze narrows. “You believe we took your females?”
I tip my head to the side. “Didn’t you?”
“No.” He meets my gaze levelly.
I’m so fucking confused.
“Liar!” Poppy lunges at him and Jessie grabs her around the waist, tugging her back. “You killed Danny, you killed him.” Her voice cracks on a sob.
Fuck it, the last thing we need is an emotionally distraught witch. Danny and Poppy may not have taken things to the next level, but there’d been real feelings there. Fuck, she may even have loved the shifter. I hate that she hasn’t had the chance to grieve, that she has to be here, face to face with the creature that may be responsible.
Maybe.
Because I’m starting to doubt myself now.
I need to get to the bottom of this. “You say you didn’t take the female dire wolves from town, but you tried to nab them from the forest. You can see why we’d suspect you.”
His lip curls as he leans in. “I don’t care what you witches think. But I see now that there is another player on the field.”
“What do you mean?” Jessie asks.
“Six weeks ago, a pack of our females went into your world for a hunt escorted by two of our beta wolves. They never returned. We went looking for them and found our betas torn to shreds by what we then assumed were dire wolves. The females were gone. We can sense they’re alive, but we can’t locate them.”
Poppy is calmer now. “You thought thedire wolvestook your females?”
“We’ve been scouting ever since, trying to locate them. Getting close to the pack houses to sniff them out, but nothing. So we decided to take their females and offer a trade for ours.”
“Why would the dire wolves want your murderous, human-eating varga females?” Jessie asks.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, witch,” he snaps, chest rumbling on the edge of a growl. “Not everything is as black and white as you think. Not everything can be separated into good and bad.”
“So you don’t eat humans?” Jessie challenges.
His jaw tenses.
“Yeah, you see, in my world, that makes you the bad guys.”
Vax sneers, lip curling to reveal even white teeth. “Think what you want. We don’t have the female dire wolves, and if our females weren’t taken by your dire wolves, it’s obvious someone else is involved. Someone who has both our wolves, and we need to—”
Howls tear the air, urgent and loud.
