Page 63 of Witch Undecided
Most of the women smiled warmly, but a few remained impassive and a couple rolled their eyes. But then these were the wolves standing by Astrid, friends of hers, or maybe potential breeders to my mates. Either way I didn’t care. I had no time for immature bitches.
“You’ll be safe with us,” Heather said. “Leif’s told me how hard you’ve been training to run with us.”
“I have. I want to be able to do this with you.”
“And I’m so happy you do. When we spot feywarg, we howl to let the pack know. We’ll be splitting into smaller packs. You’ll be with Halle, okay?”
I nodded. “No problem.”
Around me clothes were being shed, and naked flesh gleamed in the firelight.
“The fire keeps the feywarg at bay. They like to bite, and the bites are toxic; they’ll make you sick. If you find yourself overwhelmed, head back to camp.”
The air crackled with power as the wolves shifted, and in a matter of minutes, I was the only bipedal occupant in the camp. Heather was a huge dark wolf with sharp, intelligent eyes, small for a dire wolf, but she still came up to my thigh.
Another wolf nudged my hip and I looked down into hazel eyes so like Rune’s that for a moment I thought he was here. But this wolf’s coat had no amber highlights.
“Hey, Halle.”
She chuffed and swung her head in a come-on gesture. Around us the wolves were splitting into groups of five or six. Heather inclined her head, then set off. I followed Halle to a nearby pack of wolves I didn’t recognize. Probably Holm Pack. I hadn’t had an invite from them yet.
We set off across the field and into the woods. The wolves fanned out around me, and the only sound was the pant of their breath and the crunch of their paws on bracken as we wound through the trees. I had no clue what we were looking for. I should have asked about that. Never mind, I’d pick it up. My body tingled with power eager to be expelled, hands warm and ready to shoot lightning. It was so cold that my breath plumed in front of my face, but my blood was warm with anticipation.
God, I’d missed the action. How in the hell did the anchors sit around all day doing nothing? If not for training with Sloane and runs with the guys, I’d go insane. Which reminded me, I needed to bug Anna about the silent sisters and the glamour. Surely they should have it ready by now?
Something silver and about the size of a weasel shot across my path up ahead. I noted the black striations down its back.
Feywarg?
I looked to Halle to find her looking back at me, tongue hanging out of her mouth in a goofy way as if to say,now the fun begins, then she threw back her head and howled before picking up speed.
The chase was on.
I pushed myself, boots pounding earth, leaping over logs in pursuit of the—motherfucker!
Streaks of silver lit up the night. Fuck, they were beautiful. How could I hurt them? Two of them twisted and headed toward Halle, and I caught sight of their eerie silver eyes and wide mouths filled with needle-like teeth that gleamed like metal.
They leaped at her, claws out, mouths open and ready to chomp, but Halle turned her head, snapping her jaws around one feywarg’s neck and slashing at another with her claws. The feywarg fell to the ground, bloody and very dead. Halle continued chasing the horde of silver streaks that split up into the night. Wolves rushed past me, going in various directions after the feywarg.
I headed after Halle, weaving through the trees, gaining on the feywarg. Five, six, shit there were eight of them up ahead, and then they split into two groups. Halle headed left and I went right, hands tingling, ready to power up. The feywarg looked over their shoulders at me, spitting and snarling. I sent out a blast of lightning, taking out the straggler. Its body twisted and hit the ground. The others squealed and picked up speed, leaving me in the dust. Fuck, they were fast, and even my training with the guys hadn’t prepared me for how fast these fuckers were, but I had an ace up my sleeve. I jumped, materializing right behind the feywarg and blasting them with my mojo.
They hit the ground, stiff, charred, and still.
The amulet made long jumps hard. I needed to keep them infrequent, but training with Sloane had helped me learn that jumping was no longer off the table.
I looked down at the dead feywarg and then around the clearing we’d ended up in. A pile of furry bodies was shoved up against a tree. I wandered over to take a closer look.
Dead rabbits.
The feywarg had been hard at work.
Shit, I’d completely lost track of the pack, the hunt, and my sense of direction. I’d retrace my steps. I turned to head out when a shadow at the edge of the clearing shifted and a silver form clutching a dead rabbit in its mouth hurried toward the tree.
Shit. I raised my hand to blast it and it froze, noticing me for the first time. Its gaze flew past me to the dead feywarg. My hands fizzed and the rabbit fell from its jaws.
“Please, don’t.”
The power in my hands fizzed out. What the fuck?
