Page 6 of His Hunted Witch

The horse nibbled on the collar of his jacket.

“Am I forgiven?”

The horse head-butted his shoulder none too gently.

The wolf reared up. It mostly ignored the big horses, taught from birth they were part of his pack, but old instincts died hard. Aiden bit the edge of his tongue and tasted blood.

“Enough,” he said, and the horse shied away. He took a deep breath and gentled his tone. “Enough.”

He ran his hand through Bonanza’s mane, and the horse dropped his head, ceding dominance if not forgiving him. Aiden turned to get the saddle and stopped short when he saw his cousin Jackson at the door.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m just?—”

“I got eyes,” the older man said.

“I’ve been?—”

“I got ears too.”

Aiden nodded once.

“You got any eyes or ears?” Jackson asked.

Bonanza batted at Aiden’s shoulder, and he scratched his neck. “I don’t know.”

“You hear what’s gone down?”

He shook his head.

“The young ones thought to get themselves some witches.”

Aiden grimaced, suddenly wishing he had neither eyes nor ears. “I smelled them.”

Jackson heaved the saddle off the stall door and handed it to him before smoothing a saddle blanket over the horse’s back himself. “Got run right back out of town.”

Aiden put the saddle on, and Bonanza danced in the stall.

“Enough,” he said and finally hit the right note so the horse obeyed him without shying.

“Learned their lesson,” Jackson said.

“Good,” he said because what else could he say? Play games with witches and get run out of town. It sounded about right.

“Heading home to set things right?”

The question took his breath away. The alpha was dead. The pack was dying. And the younger generation learned chivalry in the school ofSeven Brides for Seven Brothers.

“No.”

Jackson grunted. “Always did keep to yourself.”

Bed, steak, run. He could do that much. “Yep.”

“Who is taking over?”

For a second, his wolf surged within him, volunteering. Aiden hauled a lot harder on the wolf’s reins, forcing it down. He could not challenge for alpha. His wolf was submissive, unable to win the dominance games so essential to keep the peace in any pack. The beast made up for that by being the most aggressive, crazy animal in any pack Aiden had ever come across. It could win every fight, but it could never be alpha.

Bonanza lost patience and bucked behind him just a little. Or maybe he was picking up on Aiden’s impatience.

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