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When Goldie came to, her head was pounding. She really had to stop getting knocked unconscious. She opened her eyes gingerly, and the weak winter sun speared into them. She heard a snarl, snapped her head around, and had to close her eyes for a second as the world spun. Even as she did, she scrambled away from the sound.
Gritting her teeth, she opened one eye to see a writhing, bloody pile of fur. Had more wolves arrived?
She tried to tap into that strange connection she had with Aiden’s wolf, but the moment she reached out, she was met with a mass of incoherent rage. It sent her headache pulsing.
She rocked to her hands and knees and crawled toward the wolves. “Stop it!”
They didn’t even twitch. The brown wolf she thought was Buck struck again, and Aiden’s rage melted into pain.
“Stop it!”
Buck swung toward her, his jaws dripping with blood.
“Disgusting. Seriously, stop this.”
Buck paused.
Just when she thought they might walk away from this, Nathan bit Aiden’s throat.
All sense of the wolf vanished, and the pile went limp. Aiden was down.
She scrambled for the stick she’d dropped. With a banshee scream, she struck Nathan’s jaw before he could finish the job. The wolf whimpered and reeled, and then steadied and growled at her, standing over Aiden.
Dear god, he would not kill his nephew, would he? Was she going to stand here and witness a murder?
She scrambled for her magic, but there was no time for a spell. She envisioned the last spell she had written, the nonsensical words she used to create colors and bangs to scare Buck:Sparkly, banging, chilling spree. Scare this wolf, so mote it be.
The world erupted into daytime fireworks.
Buck yelped and danced back.
She had one chance. She spared a second to write,Strengthen me, so mote it be, and swung the stick as hard as she could.
She bashed the side of Nathan’s head so hard that her stick shattered like she was a baseball player on steroids. Nathan went flying back.
Oh god, had she justcommittedmurder?
She breathed again when he groaned and twisted on the ground, his eyes closed.
Buck danced around his father with a whine, then aimed for her.
She brandished the nub of wood in her hand, and the wolf shied. She charged him, shouting, “Trouble, newts, eyes, and bubbles!”
Bubbles?
She crashed to a stop a foot from him, brazening out her meager attempt at intimidation. They stood staring at each other for a timeless second as Goldie realized she absolutely would commit murder to protect Aiden. Buck must have seen something of that in her face.
The wolf turned tail and ran.
She spared a single second to check that Nathan was well and truly unconscious before she kneeled by Aiden. Claw marks raked down his front, and bite marks peppered his throat.
Aiden?She probed inside for some sign of consciousness, but he was well and truly out.
What could she do? Where could she go?
Dire wolves were not immune to their own poison, and they had no antidote.
But her family did. Her coven herbalist had created a green goo that neutralized the poison when the wolves first attacked her coven. Her sister was the coven healer and had worked to close wounds like these.
