Witch Undecided by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Eighteen

Leif drove me to the meeting spot for the hunt in silence. Normally I’d be fine with silence, but this was a silence pregnant with tension. He was stewing on something. It thrummed between us, down the threads that bound us, and left an icky feeling in my chest.

“Leif?”

His grip on the wheel tightened. “I know. I’m just trying to find the right words. I don’t want to argue.”

Oh boy. “Just say what’s on your mind.”

He sighed and pulled the car onto the side of the road. “Jasper.”

My turn to sigh. “I know.”

“Do you?” He frowned. “I mean what do you actually know about him?”

His question threw me, because aside from the fact that Jasper had been a prisoner to a blood witch when Fee and I had freed him, not much.

“What is a malevolent spirit anyway?” Leif asked. “Was he human once? Is he something else?” He took my hand. “I know you care about him. Probably more than you care for us, but do you know him?”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he held up a hand, cutting me off.

“No, hear me out. What we have is new. It’s…complicated. The whole bond thing versus all these emotions.” He made swirly motions with his hand. “But I can tell you one thing for certain. I’m falling for you, Cora. And that’s nothing to do with the fucking mating bond. It’s different. It’s here.” He touched his chest. “Not here.” He touched his solar plexus. “Tor, Rune, and I will protect you, honor your wishes, and make sure the seal remains intact. You can count on us to do that. You know what we are and who we are, but you don’t know who or what Jasper really is. You need to be wary.”

I knew this. But unfortunately it didn’t stop me from wanting or caring about his stupid malevolent ass. “I have the amulet. It’s fine. The seal is safe. He can’t do anything intimate without my permission.”

“And you won’t give him permission?” Leif tipped his head to the side slightly, studying me intensely.

The kiss Jasper and I’d shared in the shower filled my mind. I pushed it away. “No.”

“Okay. But promise me that if anything changes, if you feel you might slip, you’ll speak to me.” He grazed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I’ll never judge you, Cora. Our feelings aren’t always in our control. Tor might not understand your dynamic with Jasper, but Rune and I do, and we want to help.” He smiled. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think Jasper’s evil, but there are too many unknowns surrounding his existence for us to take risks. Just…Guard your heart.” He started the engine again. “And have fun on the hunt tonight.” He peeled back onto the road. “But save some energy for later; it’s my turn in your bed tonight…” He wiggled his eyebrows.

I ignored the skip in my pulse because we were talking about movie night, nothing more. Leif nights were movie nights. We usually fell asleep watching some golden oldie. He gave the best hugs.

I sat back in my seat. “Make sure we have snacks.”

“Popcorn and chocolate-covered raisins?”

“You know it. And some cheese strings for Wren.”

“I stocked up.”

He steered the car off the road, onto a dirt track, and then into a field. A campfire flickered in the distance and several figures milled around it.

“Base camp,” Leif said. “The ladies like toasting marshmallows and drinking fruity cider after the hunt.”

A figure detached itself from the throng and hurried over. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud to light up Halle’s golden locks.

“Have fun,” Leif sing-songed.

God, he was cute, sexy, and funny. A surge of love filled me.

I leaned across the seat on impulse and pecked him on the cheek. “See you later.”

He gripped my nape as I pulled back and looked deep into my eyes. “I like you, Cora. A lot. Don’t get eaten by feywarg.”

“Yoo-hoo, Leif!” Astrid called from somewhere outside the Rover.

I returned Leif’s gaze with a serious one of my own. “I like you too, Leif. A lot. Don’t get eaten by Astrid.”

He groaned as I slipped away and out of the Rover. Astrid shot me a cold glare before reaching for the car door, but the engine flared to life and Leif reversed the Rover before her fingers could touch metal.

I caught the twitch of his mouth before he turned the vehicle and drove away.

Astrid spun on her heel to face me, hands on hips. “You can’t stop him, you know. You can’t poison him against me. All you’re doing is delaying the inevitable.”

“What?” Halle said. “When he finally snaps and tells youto fuck off?”

Astrid ground her teeth. “You don’t belong here,” she said to me. “You never will.”

I pressed my hand to my chest, plastering a look of hurt and horror on my face. “I don’t? Oh no, whatever will I do?”

She stared at me in confusion.

Seriously? Did she not get sarcasm? “Look, Astrid. Be a bitch to me if it makes you feel better, but I think we both know that if Leif is avoiding you, it’s not because of me. It’s because he wants to.”

She opened her mouth to retort but I held up my hand. “Now unless you’re going to tell me something useful, we’re done here.” I arched a brow, waiting.

Her gray eyes narrowed. “You can have him,” she said softly. “For now, but remember, he’s only on loan. He’ll never belong to you, not really.”

She walked off, leaving her final words buried in my chest like invisible needles. Ouch.

“Don’t,” Halle said. “Not worth it.”

“But true.”

“Not true. The future is unwritten, Cora. Remember that. You can write it however you please.”

As long as fate didn’t get in the way.

The hunt wassomething females from all three packs took part in. A task and a bonding experience.

“The feywarg are a nuisance,” Halle said. “Their numbers grow exponentially if we don’t hunt them. Culling them monthly protects the livestock and helps keep our ecosystem balanced. They don’t belong here. They shouldn’t be hunting here, but they come into our world regardless.”

We strolled toward the campfire. “Do you know why?”

“Fucked-up faerie syndrome is what they call it.” Halle’s voice dropped. “They say the place is dying. So many fae have migrated into our world for good and integrated into society. But there are some that can’t live outside of the fae realm.”

“I honestly don’t know much about the place.”

“It’s huge, like multi-dimensional. They say that it exists outside of time, that past, present, and future run side by side. Some people even believe that the fae realm is an anchor, a hub that binds all realities.”

Okay, that sounded big. “And you say it’s dying?”

“That’s the rumor.”

“Then won’t that affect every reality it’s connected to?”

Halle stopped short and stared at me, wide-eyed. “Fuck.”

I ignored the oh shit feeling, because this was not my problem. I had enough on my plate. The Magiguard knew about the fae realm’s demise. They’d be doing something about it if they felt it would affect us, but Halle looked spooked.

I placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure it’s fine. Just stories, right?”

“Yeah. Stories.” Her expression remained pensive.

We reached the campfire and I spotted Heather. She held out her arms to me and I joined her, getting a hug for my efforts.

“Hello, sweetheart, so glad you made it. Now listen, stay close to Halle, don’t stray far from the pack. Ladies!” She addressed the wolves around me. “The anchor is our responsibility tonight. Mate to our alphas, we are honored to have her run with us.”

Most of the women smiled warmly, but a few remained impassive and a couple rolled their eyes. But then these were the wolves standing by Astrid, friends of hers, or maybe potential breeders to my mates. Either way I didn’t care. I had no time for immature bitches.

“You’ll be safe with us,” Heather said. “Leif’s told me how hard you’ve been training to run with us.”

“I have. I want to be able to do this with you.”

“And I’m so happy you do. When we spot feywarg, we howl to let the pack know. We’ll be splitting into smaller packs. You’ll be with Halle, okay?”

I nodded. “No problem.”

Around me clothes were being shed, and naked flesh gleamed in the firelight.

“The fire keeps the feywarg at bay. They like to bite, and the bites are toxic; they’ll make you sick. If you find yourself overwhelmed, head back to camp.”

The air crackled with power as the wolves shifted, and in a matter of minutes, I was the only bipedal occupant in the camp. Heather was a huge dark wolf with sharp, intelligent eyes, small for a dire wolf, but she still came up to my thigh.

Another wolf nudged my hip and I looked down into hazel eyes so like Rune’s that for a moment I thought he was here. But this wolf’s coat had no amber highlights.

“Hey, Halle.”

She chuffed and swung her head in a come-on gesture. Around us the wolves were splitting into groups of five or six. Heather inclined her head, then set off. I followed Halle to a nearby pack of wolves I didn’t recognize. Probably Holm Pack. I hadn’t had an invite from them yet.

We set off across the field and into the woods. The wolves fanned out around me, and the only sound was the pant of their breath and the crunch of their paws on bracken as we wound through the trees. I had no clue what we were looking for. I should have asked about that. Never mind, I’d pick it up. My body tingled with power eager to be expelled, hands warm and ready to shoot lightning. It was so cold that my breath plumed in front of my face, but my blood was warm with anticipation.

God, I’d missed the action. How in the hell did the anchors sit around all day doing nothing? If not for training with Sloane and runs with the guys, I’d go insane. Which reminded me, I needed to bug Anna about the silent sisters and the glamour. Surely they should have it ready by now?

Something silver and about the size of a weasel shot across my path up ahead. I noted the black striations down its back.

Feywarg?

I looked to Halle to find her looking back at me, tongue hanging out of her mouth in a goofy way as if to say, now the fun begins, then she threw back her head and howled before picking up speed.

The chase was on.

I pushed myself, boots pounding earth, leaping over logs in pursuit of the—motherfucker!

Streaks of silver lit up the night. Fuck, they were beautiful. How could I hurt them? Two of them twisted and headed toward Halle, and I caught sight of their eerie silver eyes and wide mouths filled with needle-like teeth that gleamed like metal.

They leaped at her, claws out, mouths open and ready to chomp, but Halle turned her head, snapping her jaws around one feywarg’s neck and slashing at another with her claws. The feywarg fell to the ground, bloody and very dead. Halle continued chasing the horde of silver streaks that split up into the night. Wolves rushed past me, going in various directions after the feywarg.

I headed after Halle, weaving through the trees, gaining on the feywarg. Five, six, shit there were eight of them up ahead, and then they split into two groups. Halle headed left and I went right, hands tingling, ready to power up. The feywarg looked over their shoulders at me, spitting and snarling. I sent out a blast of lightning, taking out the straggler. Its body twisted and hit the ground. The others squealed and picked up speed, leaving me in the dust. Fuck, they were fast, and even my training with the guys hadn’t prepared me for how fast these fuckers were, but I had an ace up my sleeve. I jumped, materializing right behind the feywarg and blasting them with my mojo.

They hit the ground, stiff, charred, and still.

The amulet made long jumps hard. I needed to keep them infrequent, but training with Sloane had helped me learn that jumping was no longer off the table.

I looked down at the dead feywarg and then around the clearing we’d ended up in. A pile of furry bodies was shoved up against a tree. I wandered over to take a closer look.

Dead rabbits.

The feywarg had been hard at work.

Shit, I’d completely lost track of the pack, the hunt, and my sense of direction. I’d retrace my steps. I turned to head out when a shadow at the edge of the clearing shifted and a silver form clutching a dead rabbit in its mouth hurried toward the tree.

Shit. I raised my hand to blast it and it froze, noticing me for the first time. Its gaze flew past me to the dead feywarg. My hands fizzed and the rabbit fell from its jaws.

“Please, don’t.”

The power in my hands fizzed out. What the fuck?

“Please…” Its crazy silver eyes widened, and its mouth quivered. “Please don’t kill me.”

The crunch of bracken filled the clearing. The feywarg stiffened, then froze as the golden form of Halle padded toward me with a feywarg dangling from her jaws. The feywarg by the tree let out a sound that was a cross between a wail and a shriek.

Halle dropped her cargo, lips pulled back from her teeth in a snarl, and pounced. I acted on instinct, throwing myself between the feywarg and Halle.

“Stop!”

Three more wolves from our pack joined us in the clearing, carrying more feywarg bodies.

Halle jerked her nose up at me, her eyes clouded in confusion.

Did she know? “It can talk.”

Halle chuffed and then the air rippled as she shifted into human form. “What are you talking about?”

I looked down at the feywarg. “Say something, dammit.”

The creature fixed its silver eyes on Halle and hissed.

“Cora, get away from it,” Halle snapped.

This was crazy. “It spoke to me.”

“They can’t speak. They’re vicious predators. Nothing more.”

“You’re the vicious ones,” it squeaked.

Halle jerked back. “Fuck.”

“You kill us. You hunt us. All we want is food. We have a right to eat.”

The other wolves shifted back into human form, steam rising off their bodies and evaporating into the freezing night air. They joined us, faces pale with shock.

“This can’t be happening,” one of them said. “This must be a trick.”

Confusion rippled over us and then the feywarg bolted.

No one tried to stop it. Everyone’s attention was on the tree with rabbits piled next to it.

The elation in my chest from the hunt faded. The feywarg attacked livestock and wildlife, but if the stories of the fae realm’s demise were true, then these creatures were living in a dying realm. Starving. Maybe our world was the only place they could get food. The rabbits were their haul. To take home to feed their families? Oh, God.

The hunt didn’t feel like fun anymore. In fact, I felt kinda icky.

“They’ve never spoken,” a brunette wolf said.

“We’ve never given them a chance,” Halle added.

“It doesn’t matter,” another wolf said. “They kill livestock and cute bunnies.”

“And we don’t?” Halle ran a hand over her face. “They’re not mindless, vicious predators. We need to report this to Heather. Reassess the hunt. Maybe we can communicate with them and come to an arrangement.”

“How?” the brunette said. “They procreate too fast. The numbers will overwhelm us if we don’t cull them, and—”

Howls lit up the night in the distance. Halle’s head shot up. This must be a signal that more feywarg had been sighted.

“Fuck,” Halle said. “We’d better find Heather.”

I’d barely taken a step when the world went completely silent. The wolves tensed, and then a sharp crack of snapping twigs cut through the air. The women surrounded me, their naked bodies pale in the moonlight.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

Halle fell into a defensive stance, shoulders bunching. “Varga.”

I caught a flash of yellow eyes, the curve of a dark shaggy back. Oh shit.

I looked from Halle to the other two women in human form. “Why aren’t you shifting into wolf form?”

And then it hit me. Shifting required miasma, a kind of magic, and the varga nullified magic.

The wolves weren’t shifting because they couldn’t.

They were stuck in human form and we were surrounded by varga.

Fuck.