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And that pull I felt before, the restless feeling that convinced me to wander and explore, grows stronger when she smiles at me. “Hello. I wondered if you would be by to pay a visit.”
“You wondered about me?”
She nods slowly, sagely. “Oh, yes. I figured curiosity would get the better of you if nothing else. And here you are.”
“Here I am.” For lack of anything better to say, I incline my head toward her work. “That’s beautiful. I always wished I was good with my hands. It must be nice, sitting out here with your knitting, soaking in the sunlight.”
“It is. I could teach you to knit if you wish. I could teach you a great many things.”
There’s a tickly sort of sensation in the back of my mind, but I can’t figure out why. She seems friendly, her already-lined face creasing deeper when she smiles. There’s nothing creepy about her—my wolf isn’t warning me. Still, I feel uneasy under her stare.
Just the same, I don’t feel like leaving.
It’s when she reaches down to loosen more yarn from the ball sitting in a basket between her feet that I see it. Inside her wrist, hidden by what she’s working on. That’s how I didn’t see it before. A tattoo of sorts; the ink faded after what I guess would be many years.
But the symbol is clear. A circle pierced by what looks like an arrow.
Why does that look familiar?
She notices the direction my attention has gone in and chuckles. “Ah, so you noticed my mark?” She even holds her wrist out so I can see it better, like that was the point of this all along.
“I feel like I’ve seen it before, but I can’t remember where.” And it’s going to drive me crazy if I don’t figure it out soon. I have no idea why it seems so important, but I can’t take my eyes off it.
Finally, it hits me with all the weight of a stack of bricks. I remember it now—there wasn’t much time to study the symbol but seeing it in front of me brings the memory back clearly.
That symbol was carved into the bolt of the arrow that pierced my chest. But… “Isn’t that a witch’s mark?” I whisper, afraid to hear the answer.
I pry my eyes away from it to find her smiling, nodding. “That’s right.”
“But aren’t you…”
“Aren’t I what?”
“Aren’t you a wolf? I feel like you are.”
“I am.”
“But you’re also a witch.”
She puts down her work, nodding slowly, watching me like she wants to see how I’ll react. “Very smart, little wolf. What are we going to do about that?”
34
WILDE
Of all the times for her to decide she wants to explore.
My wolf is nearly frantic by the time we gather back at the house to meet up with the family’s private guard, and I’m right there with him. How could I not have known? Then again, why would I have guessed?
“We have to be delicate about this.” I say. Standing in the courtyard in front of the house, I have a fairly clear view of most of the town. It’s a breezy day, so any scent she carries will be less likely to reach me unless she’s close. I turn to the men: a few of the guards, Forrest, Thorne, and Benedict. “We don’t want to raise an alarm over this.”
“We have to make sure the pack remains calm,” Thorne adds.
Fuck calm. I’m as far from calm as I could possibly be, and with good reason. Lili. She’s mine. I can feel her as sure as if she stood beside me now—I can feel her inside me. I can hear her in my head. Our connection grows stronger by the day, by the hour.
I cannot lose her. That’s the only thing I know for certain as I stand here, chomping at the bit, dying to find her.
A witch. Her mother—her birth mother—was a witch. I can’t believe I didn’t feel it.
Forrest gives direction while I seethe. “Split up into four teams and take the north, south, east, and west sections. She was at the orphanage, so start there. If she’s already gone for the evening, she may have told someone where she was heading.”
“We’ll meet in the center of town in half an hour,” I announce, not waiting for Thorne to set the time limit. He’s taking too long. This is all taking too long. What if they already came in and took her?
“You know the alarms would have gone off.” I look at my brother, unsurprised that he’s able to read my thoughts.
I know he’s right, but I’ll be damned if I rest easy. They could have found a way. They’re fucking witches, after all. By now, they may have worked out a method of breaching our borders without notice. Of all times, they would pick now, too.
