Page 24

Jesus, where had the spirits come from? I’d thought I was dealing with one rogue entity out to do harm, but I’d been wrong. There were at least three. One would be bad enough, but of course, it wasn’t that easy. And now more humans were dying.

“I need to find out where the spirits came from. That was insane.” I glanced over at my silent familiar. “Ren?”

His fingers were clenched into tight fists, and he was staring silently out the window. Shit. My sweet fox wasn’t cut out for this, no fox was cut out for this. It just wasn’t in their natures. I was hurting him, he was hurting himself, and I didn’t know how to stop it, how to help him.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I never should have taken you in there with me.” When he was a kid, he was always joking around, playing pranks—fun, cute things that made us crack up. He’d bring me gifts, too, all the time, things he’d made himself while he ran in the woods. His nature had been all fox, as it should be. I was turning him into something else.

“That won’t happen again,” he said, voice low, devoid of emotion.

“What?”

“I’ll follow your orders, Willow, and I’ll learn to fight, properly…how to handle a weapon.”

I turned back to him. “No, Ren, I don’t want you to do that. That’s not you. I know it’s hard, but I think…I think we need to…”

“No.” His eyes were glowing gold in the dark cab of the truck. “You can’t tell me to go, I won’t do it. And you can’t…you can’t keep leaving me behind.” He took in a shuddering breath. “Please.”

My heart shattered in my chest. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Anything to prevent him from being hurt again. I loved him, he was my family, and seeing him like this was killing me. “But this situation, it isn’t right for you.”

The gold in his eyes flickered. “I was…” He cleared his throat. “I was born to be by your side, Willow. If I’m not your familiar, then I’m not…I’m not anything.” His gaze turned wild. “Don’t send me away. I’ll do better. I can do better.”

Pain arrowed through me, and I reached over and grabbed his shaking hand and squeezed. “I promise I won’t send you away. I need you just as much as you need me.” And it was the truth. The bond went both ways. I don’t know what I’d do without him. But, yeah, I’d been pushing him away lately. My goal had been to protect him, instead I’d hurt him even more.

“Promise,” he said.

I gave his fingers another squeeze. “Promise. You really want to learn to fight?”

Determination transformed his handsome face. “More than anything.”

If he wanted to do this, I had to help him. He had to learn to protect himself or I’d lose him. I nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“We’ll dress your wound, and then you need to get a good night sleep, because you’re coming to the hounds’ clubhouse with me in the morning.”

His brows lifted. “Really?”

“Yep.”

He needed to know how to fight in both his human and animal forms, which meant he needed to learn from other shifters.

There was nothing else for it, I had to throw my sweet fox to a pack of hellhounds.

* * *

We pulled up at the house, and Mags and Iris ran out, Brody right behind them.

“Where did you go?” Mags said as she opened my door. Her gaze shot to Ren, only realizing in that moment that he was sitting beside me, and her eyes widened. “Ren, oh god, what happened to you?”

“I’m fine,” he said and shoved his door open. He got out and Mags rushed around to help him.

“Inside,” I said to him. “We need to take care of that wound, then you can crash on the couch.”

He nodded and strode inside. He still seemed dejected, and I hoped taking him with me tomorrow wasn’t a terrible idea. But honestly, I was out of options. I could ask Rocco for help, I guess, but though the knights shifted forms, they weren’t “shifters” as such. No, I’d stick to my plan. It was the best I had right then, and I’d never forgive myself if Ren was hurt again because I let him come with me so completely and utterly unprepared like I had tonight.

“You need me to stick around?” Brody asked, looking concerned. His muscled arms were folded, blue gaze alert.

The last thing we needed was another overprotective male on our hands. “Thanks, Brody, but we have it covered.”