Page 111 of The Witch’s Daughter

Later. Not yet. We were still having fun with each other. There’d be a time in the future for pups. For more of… this family stuff.

“The twins are helping Ophelia remodel her art studio.” Alpha Jareth spoke of his nephews, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “I’m heading back there after this.”

I watched as Kera leaned closer to him, the two stealing a moment of time just for themselves. Jareth and I hadn’t talked much since he’d congratulated me on killing Alpha Oscar, but the look he gave me now spoke of the challenges it would take to run an entire pack and still make moments like this happen for your mate.

I’d do it, though. Maybe not every Sunday. But my mate needed this, and I’d make it happen as often as I could.

“And what of the witches still trapped in the human purist cities?” Alec stabbed her knife into the steak. “Or do the gods not care about them?”

Tisiphone tensed beside me. It was a question she still asked, mostly when we were lying in bed about to fall asleep at night.

Kera took a sip of her beer before responding. “I understand what Vincent was saying, though I’m not sure of all that religious stuff. I will say that he was playing on their sympathies. But we can do more with the programs we have in place to help provide an escape for those who don’t think they can get out.”

“And all we can do is keep giving them knowledge that there is something outside of those walls.” Sage looked at her younger sister.

Coral nodded. “They have to help themselves too, just like we did.”

“You’re right,” Tisiphone said. Even if she hadn’t been my mate and I couldn’t feel her emotions, the relief was obvious in her tone. “But we’ll also keep trying to help. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you aren’t in this alone.”

Tisiphone tucked her teal hair behind her ear, glancing at me from the corner of her eye as she smiled. My heart swelled at the gratitude in that look. I knew she was grateful I hadn’t stopped trying to get her to come around.

Little did she know, I never would’ve given up on us. Even if it took the rest of my life to get her to finally admit that she was mine.

39

Meg

I hurried to seal the last of the letters that needed to be sent in the morning and put out the candles in Alpha Kera’s office before heading home for Sunday dinner.

My eyes burned from copying the message to the various packs in our region, detailing the events of the magic festival fiasco, and I was running late and on fumes. I also hadn’t seen my sister in weeks. It was the longest we’d ever been apart. I was anxious to get to her.

I undressed in the dark forest, leaving my change of clothes in the basket we kept closer to town. My bones broke, rearranging to those of my wolf, who shook out her brown fur and landed on the forest floor with her paws.

Finally. She took off on a trot, heading down the well-worn path through the woods that would take us home.

Sorry it took so long. I closed my eyes, needing a minute. It’d been a rough day. Since Tisiphone left, Alec had been showing up to work less and less. I still had all our clients to take care of. Plus, Alpha Kera was pushing me harder these days.

She shouldn’t make you write her letters. My wolf growled as she trotted through the moonlit woods with the leaves and pine needles crunching underpaw. It’s a waste of your talent.

I ignored my own wolf. It was no use arguing with her. Alpha Kera wasn’t wasting anyone’s time. She had a plan. I was sure of it. One day, I’d be required to fill her shoes, so she was testing me now.

Then why does she keep you under her thumb?

It wasn’t my beast’s fault she was frustrated. As the only other alpha wolf born into this pack, there was bound to be some tension. Alpha Kera had told me herself how hard it was to wait for our time to come into our fated roles—especially as alphas.

It wasn’t like I was forced to stay here. I was twenty-four and could leave at any time. I could also challenge Alpha Kera if I wanted to. Hell, she’d trained me to do it. But I didn’t quite feel like fighting my own aunt to rule our family pack.

Unlike my beast, I had patience.

But she treats you like a beta.

That’s enough. I put my metaphorical foot down, growling at my own wolf.

Shh. She growled back. Something is out there.

The scolding I was about to give her died on my tongue as the woods I knew like the back of my paw suddenly fell silent.

An eerie fog drifted through the low-lying tree branches, distorting the glow from the moon. My wolf stepped softly, ears twitching on alert, while the temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees in a minute.