Page 18 of Pack Witch
Bo answered, “Thank you, ma’am. But I’m hopin’ not soon—not too soon, anyhow. We ain’t growed into fine enough upstanders to deserve her, Alpha Brand said. We’re on a sort ofquest thing to learn all about the old ways, and the history of our shifters.”
“And get better at huntin’ and trackin’, and even math and readin’, even though I’m truly shit at that, ma’am?—”
“And maybe by the time we lay eyes on our true mate, she won’t take one look at us and make a flower arrangement out of our guts or something.” Bo took a breath, panting from talking so fast. “Because if she’s at Western, like Alpha Brand thinks, she’s most likely a witch and can do such things.”
“Who even knows what she can do.” Leroy smiled, staring into the distance, like he was imagining his future mate casting spells.
Julian sighed. “I wish Brand hadn’t said a word about her. You two are ridiculous.”
Ridiculous for being excited about finding their true mate? About chasing the dream of her across the country? Suddenly, I didn’t want to be close to Julian.
I pulled away and held out my hand to Bo. “If you feel you must make restitution for accidentally hurting me, then come on. I have firewood to chop, laundry to hang out, and some spots in the cabin walls that could use re-plastering.” Turning my back on Julian, I led the boy toward my home. “And just for the record, I don’t find it ridiculous at all that you would go hunting for your true mate. I find it romantic, and I’m sure she will, too.”
Behind me, I heard a low whistle from Leroy, then Ida’s whispered, “I think I found the worst fool in this group.”
Chapter 10
Zinnia
“Let me check on that wound, sweet girl,” Ida demanded as soon as the cabin door shut behind us. The boys were right outside, working on the list of chores I’d given them. Julian had gone to gather more firewood right after Ida had torn invisible strips out of him. I didn’t have the best hearing for a shifter, since my wolf had faded, but I was pretty sure she’d intended for me to hear her dressing him down for his behavior toward the boys and me as I escorted them to my home.
“It’s fine,” I protested as she swatted my hands away and pulled me down on the bed.
She tutted and cleaned the wound again, using a tincture I’d made of dried yarrow a few weeks before. “The cabin looks good,” she commented, nodding at the quilts on the walls. “Smells a bit like?—”
“I know. It’s spring cleaning time.”
She murmured about the best ways to clean quilts, and I was glad for the distraction. When I’d first moved into the abandoned hunting cabin, there had been nothing but the pine log bed, table, and chair, gifts from the Mountain pack.
Over the years, I’d decorated the interior with hand-sewn quilts and braided rugs to make it cozy and inviting, though the only visitors I’d had were the kind that came with feathers, fur, or scales.
As Ida worked on my wound, I gazed at the dried wildflowers and drying herbs that hung in bundles alongside my pots and pans near the cooking stove, and tried to think of what else needed doing before the late spring rains came in earnest. The river that wound along the bottom of the valley below my home would swell with floodwaters, and I needed to gather the young wild onions and garlic that grew there before then.
Does Julian like garlic?
I shoved the thought away. There would be mushrooms ready to harvest on the fallen trees, to add to the harvest from my garden.
Does he like mushrooms?
Damnit, I was the fool. An old fool with no wolf, no sense, and three worn-out dresses that made me look like a grandmother on laundry day.
Ida finished before I could figure out how to kick myself in the ass for caring what Julian thought or did. “This wound may be fine—though it’s not quite as healed as I’d like to see. But the deeper wound is what worries me.” We both went quiet, until she sighed. “I didn’t know it was him when I brought him here, the reason you showed up bleeding at our borders all those years ago. If I’d known, Zinnia—if you’d told anyone…” Her expression held real hurt, and I knew I had to explain.
“Told you that my true mate met me, that we touched, and he threatened to kill me?” She gasped, and I took a calming breath. She sat down slowly, listening intently as I told her the old, painful story. I tried to make it fair, to include the parts I’d only just discovered, about why Julian hadn’t known me. She’d earned the truth, though, and the tale was ugly. She was one ofthe only shifters who knew just how close to death I’d been after his rejection.
“My heart is breaking for you both,” she said at last. “He never knew you, and you both suffered for so long.” Her hands were on my head, and I realized at some point I’d curled up, my head on her lap, my cheeks wet with tears. “So much time lost. But, Zinnia… this may be your chance to make it right. If you can forgive him?” I nodded once. “Then why is he out there, and you in here? Why didn’t you claim him last night?”
I didn’t answer, and for once, Ida went quiet, waiting me out. “He didn’t claim me either.” I wasn’t proud of how it sounded, like I was sulking. Like my pride had been hurt, not just my heart. “He didn’t even ask.”
She stood and opened a window, letting a small breeze in. “I’m afraid he may have a little too much of the martyr in him. He fled his dishonorable pack, then spent the next twenty-five years trying to make up for their actions, their crimes. But I think he’s been paying the price for letting you go. That’s why he’s here, after all. One last journey before the end.”
I heard a distant shout of, “Ida, keep out of it,” from outside, and realized Julian hadn’t been all that far away. At least not with an open window and shifter hearing. “Stay out of my business.” He was coming closer.
“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing she didn’t have long to explain. “What price? The end?”
Ida closed the small window again, a pained grimace marring her sweet, rounded features. “I shouldn’t tell you, but I will. Julian’s dying. When he arrived at the Alpha’s Den, I wasn’t sure if he’d make it through the week. I brought him here to see if you could help patch him up with your magic, enough to give him the strength to go home once more, to see his homeland before he dies.”
I stood abruptly, my blood cold. “Dying?” It couldn’t be true. He’d made love to me the night before so powerfully, so perfectly.
