Page 98 of Spellbound & Speechless
I exhale shakily and nod. “I know.”
“My heart belongs to you. You can’tpush me away again.”
“That’s not what I’m doing here. I’m just letting you know where my priorities are.”
“It feels like you are.”
A tear falls down her cheek, and I swipe it away with my thumb, holding her face in my hands.
“I’m not. I promise I’m not,” I murmur. “I don’t want to push you away. I’m letting you know where my focus is.”
“And it’s not on me? I’m not a priority anymore?”
“It is. It’s on keeping yousafe. That’s all.”
“What does that entail?”
“It entails…” I walk forward, wearing a somber expression. “Talking to the Crivello pack again. That’s where I’ll start.”
She can’t say I didn’t tell her about it this time.
This isn’t usuallywhat newlyweds are getting up to. We should be somewhere tropical, where we can drink unlimited cocktails and she can work on her tan.
I shouldn’t have to worry about her dying, but all I can think of is Aspen bleeding out in my arms.
Fuck. It’s not fair. The only thing I should be focused on right now is how many times I can make her come on my face before she taps out.
Of course, nothing in my life works out like it should. I’m back to feeling like her bodyguard and groveling to a wolf pack just to keep her safe. It’s pathetic.
My mom will convince me not to join the pack, so I spend the morning avoiding her questions. She finds other things to focus on around the house, like the witch wards—which she seems interested in—and comingup with a plan.
Not that there’s a plan to come up with, really. None of us knows what we’re doing. Even my mom doesn’t know, and she spent decades chasing the corrupt witch around. We know how to find her, but what do we do then?
Will our claws and canines be enough to stop her?
The pack may not be able to help with the corrupt witch, but they can keep the Hawthorne sisters safe. That’s what I’m counting on.
Finding Antoni is always easy. He’s a social man, and after asking around, I catch him walking through the park with his dog. The animal perks up, wagging his tail as I approach.
“Mac.” Antoni usually greets me with an affable smile, but today, his face is stiff. “Hey, man. I hope everything is all right.”
Fuck, this is going to be embarrassing. Antoni was there to see what happened, and he either expects me to bring him bad news… or he knows I’m here to grovel.
The latter is technically better, but it doesn’t feel great.
“You, uh… probably saw most of what happened,” I say. “It’s still that. Whatever that was.”
His brows climb higher. “Juniper is?—”
“She’s fine,” I say.
I don’t technically know if it’s true, but if something were wrong, we would have heard about it. Aspen would know. Junipermustbe okay.
He shakes his head. “I have to say, this is my first time meeting one of the corrupt witches, and I don’t envy the Hawthornes. Not one bit. The smell alone was foul.”
“Trust me, I know. At least it makes them easy to track.”
He squints. “Is that what you’re doing here? Tracking them down?”
