Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Skidding up to her, I take my human form. I have many questions that will never be answered if I remain in my wolf skin.
“What was that?”
“Vampire,” she says, her face turning bright red as she looks me up and down. I wonder if I am the first naked man she has ever seen. I note that her gaze hangs around my crotch for a long moment before she drags it away, avoiding my gaze.
“I mean what was the thing you did?”
“Summon sunlight,” she says with a little shrug. “It’s a simple cantrip. I learned it so I could go for walks at night. They never see it coming. I was surprised that the vampires didn’t start to learn, but then I realized that the ones who experience it never get the chance to tell anyone else.”
She lets out a little giggle.
“That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my fucking life,” Thorn breathes. “That was so fucking amazing.”
Skor and I exchange looks.
She’s practicing magic.
Our mate is a witch.
This situation was dire to begin with. We were given one scrap of a whelp to mate with and now it turns out that she practices forbidden arts.
Magic is not permitted where we are from. The consequences of magical actions are too dark and too damaging for it to be practiced. Most wolves and people think that it is not real. They have very little capacity for it, and no knowledge of it whatsoever. Our family has a particularly dark and negative association with all things magic. It has taken more from us than I can ever express. I cannot stand it. I will not suffer it to exist in my presence.
“Seriously, baby,” Thorn is saying. “You’re so talented. I would have had to have bitten him or staked him or something.”
Tabby smiles, pleased.
The magic will have to be curbed, but I am not sure if that is the main problem in this moment. I am more concerned with her absconding from the feast.
“You left without us. Where were you going?”
“Oh,” she says. “Away.”
“Away.”
“Yes.” She’s smirking at me with obvious enjoyment, but I think I see a glimmer of fear in her pretty eyes. She wants me to think she’s a feisty little mountain she-wolf, but she’s hiding a frightened pup inside.
She is afraid of us. She was not prepared to be given to three males. She is a virgin and she fears for her body and what we will do to it later.
“We did not give you permission to leave without us,” I say, making no mention of her magic power. We will have to discuss that revelation privately and decide what to do about it. In the world we intend to live, a single little witch could be more trouble than the entire mountain range of undead beasts.
She stares at me blankly.
“You need to obey us,” I tell her.
“The summon sunlight cantrip isn’t the only one I know,” she says, looking at me with a stormy expression. “I don’t need to obey you. You just saw I can protect myself.”
“Yes, you can,” Thorn says, a note of excitement in his tone. I make an impatient gesture at him. The last thing she needs is encouragement. This girl is almost entirely out of control. To make matters worse, she could not have said anything more incendiary if she tried. Not only has she flaunted magic, she now dares to threaten me with it?
The trick was impressive, but that is what it is. A trick of the light. There is more to surviving than being able to call down light. If the vampire had been a little faster, or if there had been another in the shadows, or if some other predator had emerged, she would be consumed as surely as we are standing here now.
She is putting herself at risk and she is threatening me. None of this will go unpunished.
“Little girl, if you dare to try any of your workings on me, I promise you I will thrash you past the point of your ability to bear it. I will break you over my knee.”
Her stormy expression deepens, then turns into a pout. “That’s not fair.”
I do not dignify that complaint with a response.
“Bring her,” I instruct Thorn and Skor. “We have to deal with this tonight.”
Tabby
I knew they’d come for me. My scent is strong and they are hunters.
Some small part of me hoped they’d just let me go. I am terrified of each of them, though I would never admit it. What would be the point of telling them of my fear? My experience in the pack teaches me that expressing weakness is a good way to be hurt.
The big man with the notes of gray in his beard is angry at me. Krall. He looks like his name, like he came out of some far northern cave. He wears the most scars out of any of his brothers. I bet he thinks that means he’s the strongest and the eldest, so he gets more say in things. I’m going to teach him otherwise. Tonight he’s going to learn that being old and battle-worn means nothing when you’re far from home and fighting enemies that don’t play by material rules.