Page 39 of Pack Witch
“Her friends?” I muttered, stepping away from his arm, glad to be able to walk on my own now. I was still unbalanced, but I ignored the feeling.
Zinnia’s head rose slightly. “Leroy?” Before he could answer, she’d slumped back to the ground. A few of the animals shot us grumpy looks, and two squirrels raced over to chitter angrily at our feet before racing back to her side. The pre-dawn gloom seemed to lighten just as she tried again. This time, she half-rose from the ground, and the golden light illuminated her face. She really did resemble a fairy tale princess, surrounded by animals.
“Miss Zinnia, don’t get up!” Leroy called, then sucked in a breath on a whistle as Zinnia tried to stand and failed. The bloodstained, filthy dress she had on was the same one she’d worn last night when she’d… when I’d… I dropped to my knees, a knot forming in my throat as it all came rushing back.
“Leroy, bring him closer, please,” Zinnia murmured, her voice the only sound that cut through the static hum of loss and pain that filled me. I felt myself being lifted off the ground, half-dragged across the garden, the scent of crushed greenery reminding me of the first time I’d seen her.
My eyes snapped to hers, as she gave quiet orders from the center of her garden. The animals all scampered or slid away, watching from a distance, as Leroy maneuvered me into position, letting me slump next to her.
“That’s right, put his head on my lap. There.”
I blinked, and he was gone. All I could feel was emptiness… and her hands on my hair, smoothing it back, soothing me.
“I know. It hurts,” she crooned. “Let me help you.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but then I felt the power I’d sensed in her the night before surging up from the soil, through her lap and into me, finding every place where our skin touched and running like warm honey through me. The emptiness was the lack of my wolf, and my Alpha power, but also the magic of the moon.
But slowly, as she comforted me, I felt the magic she was offering soothing the ragged edges of my torn soul, filling in some of the places where my wolf magic had resided, calming me.
“Can you sit up?” she said at last.
I tried and found it easy, my strength returned. “Not my strength. Yours.”
She knew what I meant. “Ours.” Her hands folded around mine as I moved to kneel beside her, taking her in. She appeared as some sort of nature goddess, with small, white flowers blooming in her hair and grasses clinging to her legs as she sat up, as if the earth itself longed to touch all of her, all at once.
I knew that feeling, and I found myself smiling as I realized the blossoms were forming a crown on her head. Suddenly, kneeling felt more than appropriate. “You’re magical,” I whispered, seeing the area around her no longer as a garden, but a kingdom. The rise in the center where we sat was not just a hill, but a throne. “Thank you for saving me.”
“I wish…” Her eyes moved to the moonless sky, one of her hands to her slender neck. I waited, but she didn’t go on.
“What do you wish, my love?”
A tear brimmed on her lashes as she admitted, “I wish we’d been able to claim each other. That we could have kept our wolves with us. We could’ve been mates, with a claiming mark to show the world.”
“We are mates, my beloved. We are now and always will be,” I vowed. “Our wolves wait for us in the moon, and someday, we’ll join them. But just because we are broken apart, doesn’t mean we’ll never be whole.” I kneeled lower, pressing a kiss to the top of one of her hands. “Let me try to be enough for you, Zinnia. Let me make up for some of the pain I caused you.”
Her gasp had me looking up, and her lips on mine silenced me. “You are enough, Julian. I promise. You are.”
Enough.I wasn’t sure that was true. But it wasn’t what mattered. I drew back and whispered the only question that did. “Are you mine? Are you still… Are you still mine?”
“Forever, my love,” she assured me, kissing me again, our tears running together to flavor the kiss with salt.
As she kissed me, the emptiness I’d felt upon waking diminished. I was enough.Thiswas enough. And deep in the night, when we folded our bodies together, the last wisps of fog burned away behind the flower-crowned nimbus of her hair. Then, I glimpsed two bright meteors, streaking across the dome of deep blue above, like a promise.
We’d lost everything. We’d lost nothing. The earth’s wisdom filled me. My mate and I were beams of moonlight and currents of the earth, wandering stars and raindrops, finding our way to one another, again and again. We were the dreamers, and this was only a moment in our journey.
Chapter 21
Zinnia
“Ihad the best dream,” Julian mumbled at my side. “It was so good, I’m almost scared to open my eyes.”
I let out a breathy laugh, surprising myself. I stretched out my fingers and toes, feeling my body. I was alive, maybe more so than I had been in decades. Energy hummed through me from all directions: the ground beneath me, the sky above, and even the sleepy, well-sated mate who lay naked at my side. My mate.
I had a mate at last, even if we weren’t bonded as shifters, with claiming bites. There was still something there, tying us together with the earth’s magic. Truthfully, I was a little frightened at the intensity of the connection, and shocked at some of the side effects. I decided to face those issues later. The energy surge was giving me far better ideas.
“Then don’t open your eyes. You can feel your way.” I let one hand move over his shoulder, then down his abdomen, taking in the hard planes of muscle and the smooth skin. So much skin to touch, and all of it mine.
He groaned. “Have pity on an old man, mate. I’m not ready to go quite yet.” He nibbled at my neck, then rolled to face me, his erection already hardening against my leg.
