Page 47 of Predator

Crap.

The last time we met out in the woods, my grandmother called for a truce. Since we separated after Tristan and Remy started their fight, and she was gone before Remy zapped me when I tried to run back into the woods, she never really ended the truce. Remy reminded me of that when I met him earlier.

Is that why she’s acting so friendly? Or is Marie just trying to lull me into a false sense of security—or, worse, distracting me from the reason why I came here?

I grit my teeth. “I’ll just leave the door open.”

“Nonsense. Tap into your magic and close the door.”

I can’t. It’s ridiculous that she’s trying to force me into admitting that I have no witch magic, but she has to know that I can’t. “No.”

“It’s very simple. You are a Bordeaux. You are coven. Find it inside of yourself. Grasp the power and use it.”

To close a freaking door?

This is ridiculous. I don’t have time for this BS, not when I’m expecting to hear Lucas’s howl any second. As soon as he checks on our bond and senses that I’ve left the pack house, he won’t even have to go check in with Eleanor and find out where I’ve gone. The tie stretching between us will lead him onto witch territory.

He’s been here before. When I first arrived in Winter Creek, I saw a big, black dog watching me from my bedroom window in Bordeaux Manor. I thought it was a stray and took pity on it because, even then, I was drawn to Lucas. I fed him, and though I had no idea what tossing my scraps would signal to the shifter, he risked his feud with the witches to watch over me long before our fateful meeting in the woods.

Just because I’m on witch territory right now… that won’t stop Lucas from coming after me. But since I don’t want to be the reason behind another confrontation between witches and wolves, I need to find out what Marie wants from me, grab Jeannie, and get the hell out of Dodge.

“I can’t, okay. And it doesn’t matter anyway. I just want?—”

“Oh, come here.” Snatching my hand before I can take it back, Marie presses her palm against mine. “There. Try now.”

I tug my hand out of hers, flinging it back with force. “What did you”—I gasp—“do?”

The door behind me slams shut the same time as my hands take on a slight glow. Like one of the super strong lightbulbs back at the office, it seems to emanate out of my palm.

“Better,” she purrs.

“What did you do to me?”

“I made the mistake once before to coddle you, Jolie. To let you believe that the magic isn’t welling up inside of you as we speak. I was stubborn. A Bordeaux shouldn’t need help to cast, but I lost even more in refusing to do so. Not anymore. If you won’t go to the magic, I brought your magic to you.”

“Well, don’t.”

A soft chuckle from Marie sends a shiver down my spine. “So forceful. Oui. You will be a good leader for the coven when the time comes.”

Um… no. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“I’m aware. But, please, forgive an old woman her fancies. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.”

A long time? It’s only been a few weeks since our last confrontation.

“You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be. I’ve done so much for you?—”

She has got to be joking. “Yeah? Like what?”

“I brought you here. I arranged your precious fate. I housed you. Fed you. Even used your blood to remind you who you were born to be. Wouldn’t you consider that generous?”

Forget all the rest. My blood… is that why she enforced the blood ward? I didn’t start having dreams about Jolie until I ran smack dab into it so, whatever she did, it worked. I got her memories, her fears, her hopes… and her mate.

I shake my head. “Yeah, and to keep me here.”

“Of course. But I had to, mon cher. If you left, you left with any chance to end this wretched curse, once and for all. I told you. I searched years to find you, knowing that you were my only hope to save the coven?—”

And she didn’t think to just ask me for help? To explain in a way that I—still believing I was a plain human chick—could understand? She got me to believe she was my estranged grandmother. It doesn’t matter that, in a way I don’t quite get yet, she is. I would’ve done anything to impress my long lost family. I took a train into a small town I’d never heard of, didn’t I? If she had somehow introduced me to Lucas on any night other than the full moon, then let Fate take over… I could’ve helped her.

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