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My shoulders slumped. “I joined because of the camaraderie. I’ve only been in the coven for about a year. I never realised it was so...”
“Authoritarian? Geez. Come on, you look pale, you’re either going to puke or pass out, so let me take you away. We can come back at first light. Whatever was here,” again his eyes scanned the trees around us, “well, it ain’t here now.I hope.Looks like it’s after your kind, as well as mine. Besides, Mattie isn’t the most endearing of people. I don’t want the rest of her witches trampling around my patch. You, I don’t mind so much. For now.”
I hesitated, but I knew he was right.
Nausea lolled. I wiped my forehead with my sleeve.
Reluctantly I held out my hand, catching his half glance under his fringe as he forced a smile.
I didn't care now. Seeing my friend sliced up, body parts strewn from branches, well, holding an alpha’s hand in comparison to that, wasn’t a problem.
I did need him. Or somebody. I couldn’t do this alone and his past transgressions, they seemed insignificant compared to this. Maybe his barbaric side would even help get us through this?
Marrock stayed close, his warm hand engulfing mine as he slowly led me back onto the path and past Nathan’s lodge.As they passed us, his pack narrowed their eyes with mistrust, but said nothing.
Witches and werewolves had a shaky, violent past.
Taking a sharp left from the path, we wound our way through the forest until I could see a large lodge.The warm copper glow from the windows and a soft yellow beam of light over the front porch spilled into the forest around it. Comforting and inviting. A longing even, a chance of respite that I needed. I felt oddly faint, scared and totally out of my depth.
Outside, a truck and an old sports car were parked. At the front of the two-storey lodge, rows of neatly grown herbs, spices and plants with thick wool insulation at their bases. I suspected that he didn’t grow the herbs.
Wooden steps led up into his home. He pulled his keys from his pocket with his free hand, and never let go of mine. I gulped. It seemed to have taken until now for my head to clear, for my thoughts to become coherent.
But as he stepped inside, doubt strangled my throat, my breathing hitched as he pulled me in with him.
I needed to get out. To run. Or I’d be next.
What the hell was I doing? Was this a trap? Had he or his men slain my friend, I mean I couldn’t tell. I was so shocked by the images. Or had Nathan gone crazy, turned into a wolf and devoured Lisa? Was I next? What the bloody hell was I doing trusting this alpha whose reputation was brutal, to say the least. How did I know?
He saw this, smelt the sudden fear and let go of my hand, his eyes averted. His voice was like silk as he said, “Look, go if you must. I get it, you don’t trust me. Heck, I wouldn’t trust me if I was you. And if ithelps, I don’t trust you, either. I mean, that massacre involved magic, and you’re a witch. And we already know you've used blood magic on this night, for whatever fine a reason. For all I know, that dark, twisted and forbidden magic could have set off a stream of bloody events. And yet, here I am offering you sanctuary in my home. But I swear, I have no idea what this is, except you’re not safe on your own in the woods tonight. Hell, I don’t think any of us are. Stay, go… whatever. But if you come in, I will do my best to protect you. Perhaps you could do the same for me?”
For some stupid ass reason, at that moment I did trust him. Or perhaps I just wanted to trust him. Something that awful, shared between us made me feel drawn to him. Foolish, I know.
Mattie would know soon thanks to Josey and Becca, but she’d never realise the full horror of it. I dragged my shocked self into his home and followed him into his grand living room. Oak stairs ascended on one side, a large fireplace at one end with opulent, furnished seats encircling it. I narrowed my eyes as I saw the pictures around his home. They were expensive, you could almost smell the money. A framed skull, wearing a crown with paint bursts which made it look like the painting was sparkling and unusual fine art paintings of werewolves, silhouetted amongst darkened trees. I didn’t know how his pack made their money. I doubted it was anything legal though. But whatever it was, I could see he at least made a lot of it.
As he made his way over to an oak side table, glancing over his shoulder, he caught me staring. “I like unusual and pretty things to look at.Please, sit down. And don’t be nervous. If I’d wanted to eat you, I would’ve done it by now. Drink?”
Absent-mindedly, I found I was biting my nails again. Placing my hands beside my legs, I pulled my back straight in the chair. My mind now firmly back in the game I asked, “Shouldn’t you be helping your pack?”
“I’m the alpha, if there’s any evidence, or anything of note, they’ll let me know. Right now, I need to think. With you.” He handed me a glass, quart full of whiskey. I sniffed it. I don't usually drink.
His voice was slightly gruffer now. “Drink it, you’ll need it. It’s smooth. Look, a werewolf and a witch...”
He sipped his drink, then splayed his hand before sitting in a large chair next to me. His furniture was oversized, the cushions were so soft I wanted to lose myself in the chair, to slink down, to hide. Before us the fire in the hearth was dying.
Leaning towards me he asked, “You ever heard the tale? The Witch and the Werewolf?”
Tentatively I sipped the drink. “No. Did you just make it up?”
“Jesus Christ, you don’t trust anybody do you? What the hell, with your coven master, has she told you nothing? As far as I know, she’s still involved. Look, about a century ago, there was a wolf from this pack called Zale.”
“Zale sounds like a modern name, surely?”
Slamming his drink on the table before us, Marrock lunged over from his chair. “Elsa, do me a favour, love, either shut the hell up and listen, or go home.”
I bit my lip.
He huffed, “Thank you. That’s why I don’t date, you women are exhausting. You never, ever shut the hell up! Now, Mattie, your coven master, or whatever the heck you call her, should’ve told you this as it involves your bloody coven. Zale was a descendant of Lycaon, you know who he is right?”
