Page 10 of Pack Witch
I suddenly remembered Ida’s words. “She was a shifter?”
A long time ago, she’d said. Not now. My wolf panted, in panic.
“Once,” Ida replied, pulling her discarded dress back on. She kneeled back down and pulled a handful of dried vines and foliage from the basket, which I realized must be some sort of magical first aid kit. I’d never seen such a thing. My original pack had been magically strong and healed easily from all but the worst wounds. We never got sick. But Zinnia had human medicine in her home, which meant…
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “Tell me.”
Ida wrapped the plants around Zinnia’s head, like a dried flower crown. It practically wept magic from every dried-up leaf and blossom on it, and I could sense it falling on Zinnia’s skin and vanishing, as if she were drinking it. “When I met her, her wolf was still… discernible. Now, well, you can feel for yourself, can’t you?”
I could. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know all of it, and what I do know isn’t mine to share. She’s a hermit, and thanks to her magic, only a few in our pack even know she’s here.” She made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Bo, Leroy? Bring out a quilt for her. She’ll need to lie on the earth, if I’m not mistaken, but it’ll get cold soon. You two will go back to the campsite with me and leave her to heal, if she can.”
“Lie on the earth?” I reared back in shock. “You’re leaving her?”
“We are,” she corrected. “We all are.”
As if she understood, the bear lumbered toward Ida and nudged the woman’s thigh with her black nose in what had to be an apology, then disappeared into the woods. The birds and animals that had filled the clearing, flinging themselves at the boys earlier, now vanished as well, though a wary hawk kept watch from a branch above.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I replied, fighting for calm. “She’s my mate.”
“She’s my friend, and this is what she asked me to do, long ago, if she needed healing. She needs privacy, and silence. She can’t be touched. She was very clear about it. You will not keep her from healing, do you understand?” Her wolf’s eyes shone in her face, assessing me, the power almost stifling.
“I will… not touch her, unless she asks,” I promised, pulling away. It felt like something inside me was tearing slightly as I let go. “But I can’t leave her. I won’t be apart from her, ever again.”
Ida’s dark eyes flashed as she gave me an assessing stare. “If she chooses you.”
I snarled, then managed to speak through sharpened teeth. “Even if she doesn’t. Even if she doesn’t accept me, I will not leave her. I will protect her, and guard her?—”
“You will leave heralone, if she asks you to,” Ida half-shouted, only quieting when a slight furrow formed on Zinnia’s brow. “I made a vow on the moon to her, Julian. That I would protect her privacy here, that no one would disturb her while she lived on Mountain packlands. When I found her, years ago, clawing her way across these mountains… Well.” She wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. “I’ve never seen anyone so broken, not even my boy Samuel after his mate was murdered.” She breathed deeply, then finished, “All Zinnia ever asked for was to be left alone. She promised in return to help heal anyone in the pack who needed magic. She’s quiet and kind, and she has no one else.”
“She has me now.” I swallowed. “If she wants me.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
I clenched my teeth, but answered, “I’ll… I’ll let her choose after she heals. I’ll guard her until then. Is that enough?” It had to be. I couldn’t leave her, not yet. Not now, while she was vulnerable.
I was aware of Leroy comforting Bo, and I managed to tear my gaze from my mate. Bo was sobbing, his friend holding him up. Leroy nodded his head to me, or to Zinnia, I wasn’t sure. “He didn’t mean to bite her, Sergeant. It was a mistake.”
“I know.” There was no anger in my reply, only fear and a heavy sense of resignation. If she didn’t survive, I wasn’t sure Iwould either. “Tell him, when he can hear you, that I don’t blame him. It was a mistake. He thought he was protecting her.”
“The pack protects,” Leroy responded, the mantra of our pack, the ones I’d left behind to take this final journey.
The atmosphere grew even more somber as the afternoon slid into evening. Ida escorted the boys back to the campsite quietly while I shifted into my wolf form. I lay close to Zinnia, not touching her, though I longed to.
The shadows grew longer, and the air colder. A whippoorwill sang, and the frogs at the nearby river began to trill, as my mate breathed quietly.
Eventually, I slept as well, and dreamed.
Little star, where are you?The homes and buildings of Occidens had been constructed around the tall trees at the base of the Blue Mountains, the rocky cliffs providing protection on one side and the trees a natural camouflage. But for the first time, I wished the birches that edged the heart of the packlands, and the pines that towered behind them, were gone.
They were hiding her, though her scent wafted through the needles and branches, taunting me. Fresh green mint, and the rich, herbal scent of rosemary, mixed with something else—the shimmering electric scent that hinted at magical power.
I caught glimpses of her as she ran, but every time I grew close, she slipped behind a tree and was gone. She twinkled like a star, as she always did. I’d never caught sight of her face, but I could sense her light, her spark, from miles away.
Why?I called out.Why are you running away?
The answer came in my ear, a whisper.I ran after you, Julian. You were the one who left me behind.
