Page 26 of Bewitchingly Hers
I pulled away. The words stung. Would it? Maybe to her. “You’re right,” I muttered. “It would be a mistake.” But not in the way she thought it would.
“Yeah.” Her voice was all breathy.
Shaking my head, I looked out the door. “I should go.”
“Go where?” She frowned. “I’ll be done in an hour, and then we can?—”
“No.” The word was more of a grunt than anything. “I’ll meet you back at the house.”
Fuck me, I was fucking everything up. What was I even doing?
I grabbed my bag, hoisting it onto my shoulder, before hightailing it out of the coffee shop. My senses were riding me too hard, and I needed out. Out of this place, where her smell surrounded me. Out of reach, where all I wanted to do was pull her against me. Out of sight, where I could stop thinking about the witch who’d saved my life.
The witch who didn’t know she was mymate.Who had no idea why seeing other men around her was making me go out of my skin. Who had no idea what hearing her talk about sex was doing to me. How badly I needed her. How badly Iwantedher.
I’d just met her, and I knew it was irrational. But it felt like I’d known her my entire life. Like something had clicked into place that night when she’d found me, broken and bleeding, and my heart was now a little lighter. But what was it about her that had me in such a trance? That had me trulybewitched?
Shutting my senses down, I focused on inhaling the clean, fresh air. It wasn’t quite the same as home—there, the airsmelled of mountains, like pine and spruce trees. Here, it smelled earthier, with more oak trees, elm trees and beech trees dotting the skyline. I didn’t mind it though.
There was something about the feeling of the world under my feet here that settled me.
“Fuck,” I groaned. This wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing here.
I was supposed to be figuring out what had happened for the witches to close themselves off, why the fate would give me one as a mate,nottrying to figure out how to get her to want me too.
Stripping off my clothes, I left them in a bundle on the back porch, and headed towards the woods. I needed a run to clear my head. The shift happened almost instantaneously—one second, I was running on two feet, and the next, on four paws. I turned around to look at Eryne’s cute little house, thankful it bordered the woods. Letting out a short howl, I dove into the thick underbrush.
After not running for weeks, feeling the air through my fur and the ground under my paws felt freeing. Like back there, everything was muddled. Complicated. Out here, surrounded by forests and nature, there was just me.
Letting my legs take me wherever they wanted to go, I headed towards the mountains at the edge of town. There was something strange about the town wards. About how they’d cracked and fought against my skin as I entered.
If Eryne was right—that this place was supposed to be protected against those who weren’t witches—they weren’t working. They were failing, as if there was somethingwrongwith the magic. It feltbitter,like it tasted wrong. It grated against my senses.
Something sinister was festering here. The better question waswhy?Why had this community closed themselves off fromthe rest of the world? And did it have something to do with the creature that attacked me outside the town limits?
My wolf whimpered. He knew something was wrong, too. I ran the perimeter, along the ring where I could feel the witches magic at its highest, until somethingfoulhit my nose. Like the lingering smell of rot and decay. I dug at the barrier, unable to stop until I realized exactly what it was.
Death.
I needed to get back—to tell Eryne what I’d found.
To tell Ezra that there was something bigger going on than I’d expected before. Something that I couldn’t handle alone. Which meant operating as a team.
Wolves were good at that. Hundreds of years ago, we used to live in packs. We thrived on alpha hierarchies, though those had long since been dismantled. Now, our towns functioned much like most human towns did, with governments, town councils, and a bunch of red tape that made it immensely hard to do my job.
Luckily, I operated outside of town limits.
Outside the law.
There was a reason my entire family had no idea what I did. To protect them, I had to hide the truth. But how much longer could I hide it from Eryne?
Our mate deserves the truth,my wolf reminded me.
If only it was that simple.
Because everything had just become a lot more complicated.
CHAPTER NINE
