“Let’s have something to eat,” I suggest, “and then, we’ll fill you in.”
We’re walking down the main staircase when Lucas reaches the foot of the stairs, his phone in his hand. The look on his face stops me on the third step.
“What is it?”
He looks up, the phone going into his pocket. “They’ve found someone.”
My stomach drops. “What do you mean?”
“A witch, whose entire family has apparently lived in that village for generations.”
Behind me, Violet inhales sharply.
Lillian frowns. “How far?”
“Seven hours by car. Three in wolf form,” Lucas answers. “They haven’t made contact with her, but they’re asking around.”
Lillian meets his gaze. “Let’s go, then.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sienna
We left the moment Hennessy’s call came through, headed for the human village where he thinks he has found a witch.
But I’m slowing down. The third time my paws stutter against the moss, I know I can’t hide it anymore.
Now that I am in wolf form, the mark on my collarbone has decided to make itself known: a slow, heavy ache dragging from my throat into my chest with every stride. In my human form, it sits quietly. Out here, with my body running on instinct, it pulls at me.
I push myself harder. My ribs ache.
Lucas runs at the front beside Darius, his dark wolf eating up the ground in long, fluid bounds. Violet flanks me on the right, a sleek shadow keeping perfect pace. Lillian holds the rear, older but keeping up easily.
None of them have noticed me struggling. I focus on the next stride. Then, the one after that.
My front paw catches on a root.
I’m stumbling before I register the impact, my chin nearly clipping the dirt. Suddenly, a warm body bumps against mineand steadies me mid-step. Lucas. He has broken formation without breaking stride, his bigger wolf running tight along my left side, his shoulder pressed into mine to take some of my weight.
His eyes stay forward. The pace doesn’t change.
For the next half mile, he runs with me. The bond hums steadily between us, but he can’t ask me anything in his wolf form, and I can’t tell him anything in mine.
The trail breaks open into a clearing. A stream runs through it, pale in the lowering light. We stop. Violet pads to the water, while Darius and Lillian lie on the soft ground to rest.
Lucas turns his head to me, chuffs once, and walks toward the stand of birch trees at the edge of the clearing.
Follow.
I follow him.
We’re out of sight of the others before he stops. The shift rolls through him in a single graceful motion, and he stands tall, naked, his hair damp at the temples from the run. He doesn’t reach for the bag tied to his ankle. He doesn’t cover himself. He just looks at me, his arms loose at his sides, and waits.
“Shift,” he says.
I shake my head.
“Sienna. I know something is wrong.”
