Page 58 of Fur Ever Wicked
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Adalyn pulled the long, thick cloak around her body. Standing in the dense forest, on the south side of the castle, she whispered a chant she’d learned from her grandmother years ago. At the time, Adalyn hadn’t understood why her grandmother made her memorize the spell when she’d let her write the rest of them down in her secret journal. Her grandmother had also insisted she never use the spell unless she absolutely needed it. Life and death situations only, and that kind of thing. There were so many times she wanted to do the damn spell. At that age, there were so many things she would have done.
Sneak out of the castle. Check.
Play pranks on her sister. Check.
Snoop on her mother. Check.
Steal fresh baked cookies from the kitchen? Check.
The possibilities were endless. With a long sigh, she’d memorized the spell and promised her grandmother she wouldn’t use it unless she absolutely had to. Now, she knew, she absolutely had to. It was a matter of life and death. The longer she could go without being seen, the better her chances of getting her and her father out alive.
With the spell complete, Adalyn gathered every ounce of courage in her body and placed one foot slowly in front of the other. Armed guards stood watch less than a half mile away from her position. They were the kind of guards she intended to avoid, the ones who shoot first and ask questions later. As long as the spell worked correctly, they’d never even sense her presence as she passed through the back entrance to the castle.
Unless her mother had done a quick home reno while she was gone, she simply needed to slip past the guards and make her way into the tunnel system that would lead directly to the dungeon. As she headed for the entrance, all the reasons why she should have asked for help passed through her mind. She’d been tempted to turn back a number of times, but she knew she couldn’t. Her mother had already done enough damage to the Black Paw Pack. She wasn’t about to let her hurt anyone else.
The pack had become her family. Even her brother, unexpected as it was, had seemed to accept her.
The time she’d spent with her mate had been like nothing she’d ever anticipated. Even now, there was a connection she could feel with him. No matter how much distance she put between them, she could still feel him and draw from his energy, his warmth wrapping around her.
“That’s because he’s our mate,”her wolf explained.
In theory, she knew what the word mate meant. Mina and Erin had explained it to her, but she didn’t fully understand the concept. Supposedly, through some majikal, mystical connection she was bound to Wade for the remainder of her life. How did all of that work? What abilities did that give them? Were there limitations?
Their explanations weren’t very helpful. All they had to offer was that it was different for each mated couple.
Because that helped so fucking much.
But what was even more confusing was somehow the Fate’s had designed her to be Wade’s perfect mate.
No pressure or anything…
The memories she replayed of her time with Wade kept her mind busier than ever. It was the only thing that had stopped her from turning around and hightailing it back to the pack, forgetting about her crazy plan altogether.
As she crept along, she kept her footsteps light and even, not wanting to make a sound. Though she was concealed by the spell and the cloak, she had no idea if either hid the slight sound of her footfalls or the pounding of her heart.
Her wolf growled in the back of her mind as they approached the guards, leaving no doubt the animal was spoiling for a fight. Blood and torn throats flashed in her brain, making her wonder if that’s what she could really do to those men if she let her wolf side lead instead of the witch. Was the wolf really that powerful? Could she rip a man’s trachea from his throat without a second thought?
Now was not the time to test the theory, not when she could hopefully slip by undetected. If she were to attack the guards, she’d have to be quick enough to fell both before they could alert others to her presence. Not a risk she wanted to take.
With each step closer to the men, the growling heightened. The wolf urging Adalyn to surrender control to the animal. The beast seemed to crave the blood the gore as more images filled her mind, causing a rush of bile to climb up her throat.
“Look, you take over if my plan doesn’t work. But to be honest, I don’t know how to use your strength or power to our advantage.”She pushed back against the wolf, begging the animal to be patient.
“All you have to do is surrender control and I will take care of the rest,”her wolf urged.
She was within inches of the guards, her attention split thanks to her wolf. She wanted to trust the animal and her instincts, but it wasn’t something she was comfortable with. Adalyn knew exactly what she was capable of as a witch and had zero doubt about how deadly she could be if she needed to be. The wolf, to her, was an unknown.
Adalyn froze mid-step.“Stop. I need to focus,”she said with a firm voice. One the wolf did not appreciate.
The wolf backed off, allowing Adalyn to concentrate on her last few steps past the guards. She breathed a sigh of relief when she slipped by unnoticed.
“Whatever!”her wolf huffed.
