AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let me try to help you. Then we can sort out all the other stuff between us.” She said the last with a smile trying to lighten the mood a bit. He grinned back but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Mating with you isn’t something that I can put on hold. The more I’m with you the stronger the urge will be, not just for me but for you as well, and I don’t want you to feel forced into anything because of our proximity to each other.”
Did she want to mate with him?The answer that came to mind almost immediately was yes. She wanted him still with a fierce intensity. She just wasn’t sure what exactly mating meant, though she was fairly certain it was more than casual.
“So if we spend time together the bond is inevitable?” she asked. Unable to hold back the bit of trepidation in her voice. It wasn’t fear of Clay, but rather the fear of the unknown that haunted her. Jade had spent so much of her life hiding her abilities that revealing them now made her feel vulnerable and exposed.
“It’s possible. The more we’re together the more we’ll want to be together, and mating is a serious commitment. It’s not something either of us should enter into lightly.”
“Will you let me see what you’ve gathered so far?” she asked needing to shift her focus to a safer topic while her mind processed what he’d told her. She asked gently knowing that allowing an outsider access to what he’d gathered would be difficult, but Clay surprised her when he agreed without further coaxing.
“I have Kelly’s research notes back at my hotel. If you have time you can come look at them today.”
Another woman’s name on his lips caused an ache in her chest that she dared not examine too closely.
“You aren’t staying with the pack?
“No, I didn’t want to be in the way. The pack here isn’t as big as the pack back home and there might not have been space for me.”
She sensed that there was more that he was reluctant to reveal but knowing how uncomfortable sharing her secrets was she wouldn’t press him for answers.
“OK, lead the way.”
***
The notes were well organized and the entries went back several generations. Jade brought out the herbs and crystals that she’d brought with her and laid them on the table.
“I need to shield the room to prevent the coven from feeling the surge of power that this spell will create.”
“Do you need me to do anything?”
Jade wasn’t sure if his presence would alter her magic but it seemed rude to ask him to leave her with so much information on his heritage. So she just shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She placed salt at the door and the window of the hotel room and then made a circle of salt around where she would be working as well. She used the same spell that she guarded her home with to shield the magic she was going to unleash. She gave him a small apologetic smile feeling guilty about the mess she was making in his room.
“Hopefully housekeeping doesn’t give you a hard time,” she joked. Then turned her attention to casting the circle around her work area.
CLAY COULD FEEL the hum of her power as she sealed the room. It made his hair stand on end as if the room was electrically charged. Even his wolf took notice of the change, but not wanting to distract Jade he clamped down on his energy reigning in the wolf side of himself with an iron fist.
He watched, fascinated as her eyes seemed to take on an ethereal glow as she chanted over the books and he swore he could see points of light dance over the pages as if bending to her will.
She swayed as if coming out of a trance and gripped the edge of the table as if to keep from falling over. Clay rushed to help her worried that she would hurt herself but came up short at the edge of the salt barrier she’d set.
“Sorry, just give me a minute.” She cut the circle with the white handled knife she picked up from the table. All at once, the room returned to its original state the static feeling dissipated and Clay was able to reach the table.
“The origin is here.” She pointed to the family tree where Jace and Ryan’s grandfather's name Samuel Wilde was, then wiped the perspiration from her temples.
“We had narrowed it down to originating with my family it spreads out from there. We just aren’t sure why or what the cause is.”
He watched as she ran her fingertips over the paper as if tracing the lines of ink. They seemed to glow and he was left with the impression that she was absorbing the knowledge from the very paper itself.
“That’s the problem you’re looking for a natural cause. When you should have been looking for something magical.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The look of shock on his face would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. The man turned into a wolf at will and he honestly didn’t realize that there was a magical element to his ability to shift. She couldn’t find humor in the situation though not when it was clear that someone had set out to hurt his family. Even now she felt the strength of the magic that had been used against them.
“How can you tell? His question was honest and curious as though he was interested in learning rather than doubting her. Jade motioned him closer indicating the large family tree that had been glowing only moments before.
“The spell I used, I asked the original spell to reveal its secrets and it lit up the name Samuel Wilde in the family tree. He’s the point of origin. The issues started with Samuel Wilde that’s why his name lit up. It could have been something natural associated with Samuel but the vibration in the ink suggests otherwise.”
