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Clay wanted to reassure her, but the truth was she would be an oddity there too at least in the beginning. Being a witch and a human mate made her a rarity and the pack wouldn’t be able to contain their curiosity.
He was confident that Julian would help keep things from getting out of hand. Thinking of Julian made Clay homesick. It was uncommon for Betas to be away for long and while he was confident that no one in the pack would try to take his position while he was away Clay was starting to get anxious to be back home. He was also looking forward to settling into what their life together would be once they were home and was eager to get Jade safely away from her coven.
They all moved to the den and once comfortable Jade posed the question of what Sara’s wolf looked like to them.
THE TENSION WAS back setting her teeth on edge while she waited for an answer. Jade wasn’t surprised when each of them Sara included couldn’t tell her what she looked like in wolf form, and just like at the lake the harder and longer each of them tried to find the answer they were met with sharp debilitating pain. Pain that only faded when Jade told them to stop trying to recall the memory.
“What does it mean?”
She didn’t want to answer because she sensed how much that answer would hurt Sara but she knew that she couldn’t withhold the information either.
“It means that I don’t think you can shift.”
“That’s impossible though we’ve seen her do it,” Jace chimed in as he laid a comforting hand on his mate’s shoulder. Jade could feel the connection between them as they communicated telepathically with each other.
“Have you? Are you sure? None of you can tell me what she looks like. It’s an easy question, but you can’t do it. That coupled with her broken aura suggests to me that there is something magical going on here, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the pack is having, at least what seems to be unnatural fertility issues. Issues that started here and spread throughout the rest of the lycan population.”
When she finished the explanation the others seemed less skeptical and Sara seemed sad.
“I’m sorry I know it probably isn’t what you wanted to hear and it’s life-changing.”
“It’s just I feel so close to Caleb and Jace and Adian. When I’m a wolf. If that isn’t happening if I’m not shifting what is going on? What am I feeling? How are we supposed to know what’s real?” Sara broke off with a sob burying her head in her hands. Caleb wrapped a consoling arm around her and it finally seemed to stem the flow of tears.
Jade wanted to reach out and heal the pain she could feel radiating from the other woman but she couldn’t, not when she needed to save her strength to complete the unraveling spell.
“I don’t know, but the first night of the full moon is the day after tomorrow and I promise you I will do my best to get you some answers.” She didn’t add the statement if it kills me because now realizing how tightly woven the pieces of the spell were and the safeguards the caster had put in place the danger to Jade was even greater and it was a real possibility that trying to undo what had been done might kill her.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Jade sat on the swing on the back porch the next morning. Watching as the sky lightened. It was early enough that everyone else was still in bed and she’d had to sneak out from under Clay’s arm to come outside.
She was fully prepared to do the spell. Or as prepared as she was going to get, but she couldn’t shake the sense of impending doom that she felt about it.
It was another reason she’d severed the bond between her and Clay. She worried that if the unraveling went wrong he might be harmed alongside her and she couldn’t stand the idea that something would happen to him or that he could die because of her. It was unacceptable so she’d severed the link as fast as she could.
She could feel the tendrils of the bond trying to regrow and it was only her magical ability keeping it from doing so. Which she knew would anger Clay further if he realized it, but she couldn’t risk him being harmed.
Jade didn’t turn when she heard the sliding door on the deck. She had expected him to come and find her when he woke up and the bed next to him was cold. Clay didn’t disappoint.
He slid onto the bench swing next to her and pulled her into his lap. Then using his toe he resumed the gentle rocking of the swing.
“You’re up early, couldn’t sleep?” he asked kissing the side of her neck where he’d bitten her before. It sent warm a warm tingling sensation along her skin.
She let out a small sigh before answering. “No, it’s hard being in a strange place.”
“And you’re worried about tomorrow.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to deny it but she didn’t want to outright lie so she nodded instead, but she didn’t elaborate on how worried she was. Knowing that if she did Clay would try to talk her out of going through with it.
“Can we spend the day together just the two of us?” Jade leaned into him nuzzling her nose into the side of his neck so that she could inhale the scent that was uniquely his. She knew he likely wouldn’t say no unless he had some pressing pack business, but given that this wasn’t his pack she doubted that he’d be given orders that would be better delegated to someone else.
“Sure we can. What do you want to do? We can do anything you want,” he said while shifting their position on the swing.
“I wish we were alone. It’s hard not to get self-conscious around a bunch of people with shifter hearing.” Clay’s bark of laughter at her comment assured her that he caught her drift
“I’m sure we can find somewhere to be alone for a while, but let's go get breakfast first.”
***
