Page 22 of His Hunted Witch

“Figured. I meant if I get bloody.Iwon’t hurtthem.” He clenched his teeth. Could he make that promise? If they provoked him to a fight and he shifted, he had no real control of what happened next.

This was all going to be totally fine.

He took one last breath and froze when he felt her hand on his shoulder. “This is a nice thing. You’re way nicer than the rest of your pack.”

He gaped at her. Nice? “I think I’d be more impressed if the people you’re comparing me to hadn’t kidnapped you, knocked you out, and locked you in my house. That may have skewed your rating.”

She laughed and then slapped her hand over her mouth as people shifted in the woods. “Okay, you’re way nicer than I am.”

It wasn’t possible. He ran toward the voices, cloaking himself in the extra magic of his wolf that allowed him to go unnoticed. He circled to the right as fast as he could, so he’d come out away from Goldie.

Four people were consulting in a small clearing in the sycamores. One had a flashlight, destroying their night vision. Even when he let go of the cloaking, he was almost in the circle before they noticed him.

He stepped into the light with his hands up. “Hey.”

The group spun toward him. There were two men and two women. The younger two were a mated pair, judging by how they responded to each other. He was looking at two wolves and two witches working together. What had those idiots been thinking, trying to take on a mated pair and a coven full of witches?

He took a deep breath. If this went wrong, there would definitely be blood.

“Goldie is fine,” he said.

The older wolf surged forward. “So you do have her.”

“Where is she?” the older woman asked.

“She’s safe.”

“She isn’t,” she retorted, “because she’s not home.”

“She is unharmed.” He winced, thinking of her knocked unconscious. “Mostly.”

The younger wolf growled.

Aiden stepped back. “She’s fine! She told me to tell you that when she gets home, she wants a cup of chamomile tea on The Point. And something else. Another plant. Slippery elm!”

The two women stopped short, but the wolves kept coming.

“What did she say?” the younger witch asked. She was one of the tallest women he’d ever seen, with dark hair and a jangle of bracelets that meant everyone within a mile would hear her coming. As he looked closer, he could tell that even with her dark hair, she was related to Goldie. He glanced at the older woman, another towering beauty; her hair was shot with silver. He was talking to her family. He was telling her family that she couldn’t come home.

“I’m here to cry peace. You’ll get her back when we have a new treaty in place.”

“You kidnap our sister and then demand peace?”

“You’re the one planning to assault my pack. I have an insurance policy.”

“Your pack is out of control,” the older man said. He dominated the group. Even the witches arrayed around him. Aiden was looking at the alpha; he’d bet his bedroom furniture on it.

“We made a deal with you, and you broke it immediately,” the younger man said. “There’s no other deal to be made.”

“Not with me. This attack wasn’t sanctioned. I’m trying to stop any more.”

“You don’t even speak for your pack,” the alpha said.

At the moment, nobody spoke for his pack. They had no idea just out of control his pack was. This was a mistake. The alpha was right. He couldn’t control his family. He thought he’d come out here, renegotiate, and send Goldie home with a table. He didn’t think they’d reject the deal.

“Yours to you and ours to us,” he said with no hope of success.

“Ours to us, except for our sister!” the younger woman said.

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