Keziah narrows her eyes at Neva. “And affected the city how?”
“That’s witch business,” Neva snaps with a sniff, standing tall with her chin in the air.
Oh, now it’s witch business.
Donovan rolls his eyes and snorts in derision, Nolan stiffens and there’s a visible tic in his jaw from him grinding his teeth, and Connor stares at her while Kaleb gazes at the ceiling.
“The previous Alpha attacked Connor and me last night. The spell broke to protect us,” I croak, as the memories of last night snake through the cracks of where I’ve tried to bury it.
Mildred gasps a soft, “Oh, Callie.” Her sorrow infused with my name.
Somewhere within the tumbling dark that was my breakdown, I recall Connor adamantly insisting that everyone needs to believe he killed the Alpha.
I swallow heavily, before adding, “Connor, um, he was the one that… took out the Alpha, but it was too late by then.” My eyes fall to the shiny white scar on Connor’s shoulder, which was all the more prominent in contrast to his warm copper skin. “The spell breaking was… violent, and it destroyed the remains, among other things.”
While most of the room follows my gaze to Connor’s shoulder, Neva chimes in, “That’s another thing you’ll have to answer for, young lady. The fire is one thing, but a huge swath of nothing that goes on for miles where acres of forest once stood is another! Covering up that amount of unexplained destruction is going to be near impossible, and then the Council will have to come to investigate. Then where will we all be?”
“You’re unbelievable,” Keziah admonishes, while my aunt coldly states, “I will take care of it.”
I rub between my brows as all proverbial hell breaks loose, filled with more growling, angry yelling, and aggressive glaring. Deciding that I’m going to need far more caffeine to deal with the battle taking place in my living room, I hobble toward the kitchen—the aching pain throughout my limbs having grown more intense in the past fifteen minutes. The unknown wolf shifter follows close behind, making me wonder if shifters have a telepathic link and Connor has instructed him to guard me.
When I make it to the counter in front of the coffee pot, the pain is so sharp that I start getting dizzy.This can’t be good.Not wanting to telegraph the exciting new problem I’m experiencing until I have less of an audience, I try to breathe through the pain and carefully reach for a mug from the upper cabinet.
This is a mistake.
Pain shoots through my arm and into my chest, and a scream erupts from my throat. I fall backward, smacking my head against the counter behind me, and in what feels like slow motion, I watch the mug I reached for fall and shatter on the ground. My head bounces off the tile floor, and then everything goes black.
∞∞∞
My whole body aches. Every inch of me feels overextended and overused, and my eyelids feel like they’re weighted with lead when I attempt to lift them.
“Guys, she’s waking up,” whispers a warm voice, the gentle timbre like a comforting blanket over my pain-filled body. “You know, pretty girl, when I asked you to get rid of everyone, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. How are you feeling?”
“Ow,” I groan, cracking my eyes open enough to meet Felix’s gaze as he perches on the bed beside me. Thankfully, the light in the room is muted by heavily drawn curtains.
“You feel like ‘ow?’ Is that the medical term?” he teases, his hand floating over the side of my face and down my arm, not quite touching.
“Is now,” I slur, blinking hard to try and get my eyesight to focus. “Pro tip—don’t fall and crack your head on the counter. It hurts.”
“I’ll make a note of that,” Kaleb murmurs from his spot on the other side of me, his face tight as the soft smile on his lips stands at odds with the worry in his eyes.
My eyes slowly drift around my bedroom, finding the door closed, and what sounds like soft whining from the other side.
There’s an exasperated sigh, followed by Sam’s muffled words, saying, “I’m sure she’s fine. And what’s gotten into you? You’re here to protect the Alpha, remember?”
There’s a huff. Another whine. Then scratching at the door.
“I swear to fucking God, if you don’t knock that shit off, I’m going to smack you and make you wait out on the porch,” she growls.
The sounds stop.
There’s a round of snickering and Connor shakes his head. Nolan pats him on the shoulder with a sardonic grin across his face. Both sit on either side on the foot of the bed, with each resting a hand on one of my legs.
Ignoring whatever is going on outside, Kaleb inquires, “Do you know why you fell?”
“Clumsy?” I shrug, then wince because moving hurts.
“Bull. You screamed out before you fell,” Donovan challenges from where he’s leaning against my desk. His voice is even, the tapping of his foot the only sign of how upset he is. “Want to try again?”
