Page 120 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

“Yeah,” Kirsten said through a yawn. “I was up late. Where were you? I thought you were still in bed.”

I licked my lips, unsure how to proceed without scaring her or freaking her out. I leaned against the counter, crossing my arms.

“Um, random question. Have you spoken to your friend Tinsley lately? The witch with that store?”

Kirsten froze as she poured milk into her bowl, her head moving slowly as she turned to look at me. “Why?”

Well, fuck.

“I just wondered if you had,” I said with a shrug.

There was a reason I’d never tried out for drama class in high school. I was a terrible actor, and Kirsten saw right through me.

“What’s wrong? Is she in trouble?” she asked as she returned the milk to the fridge.

With a sigh, I held my hands up in surrender. “Nothing to be worried about yet, but can you just give her a call? It would ease my mind.”

Kirsten’s face pinched in concentration as she watched me. Sighing, she grabbed her phone off the counter and punched in the number for the store. She put the phone on speaker as it rang.

I glanced at the clock. 8:30. Would she be up yet? Surely, if she operated a normal nine-to-five business, she’d already be there. Please, I thought. Please be there.

A moment later, the line clicked. “Inner Enchantments, this is Tinsley.”

Before I could stop myself, a sigh burst from my lips. Relief, heavy and uncomfortable, washed over me.

“Hey, Tinsley. It’s Kirsten.”

“Oh, hey. How are you? Is everything all right?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Kirsten said, turning an irritated glare on me. “My friend Jace is here. I think he needs to talk to you.”

I suppressed a wince at the words my friend.

“Tinsley?” I said. “Jace Stone here. We’ve never met, but I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Same about you, Mr. Stone. Now, may I ask what this is all about?” A note of suspicion tinged her voice.

“Have you ever had any dealings with a guy named Eren Miller?” I asked. I gave her a quick physical description.

Kirsten stiffened. She could probably tell where this was going. The last thing she’d want would be for her new friend to be pulled into this bullshit. If she hated Eren now, I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be if she found out he’d done something to a friend or loved one. She might explode.

“I don’t recognize the name or description,” Tinsley said. “I can be on the lookout for him, though. Is this guy bad news or something?”

“The worst,” I said.

When Tinsley spoke again, fear had crept into her voice. “Is he some kind of witch hunter? Do I have to go into hiding?”

Her fear made me feel like shit. I’d freaked this poor woman out for nothing. Now she’d be looking over her shoulder all the time because I’d jumped to conclusions. Her immediate suggestion that she’d need to go into hiding had piqued my interest, though.

“Have you had to hide before, Tinsley?” I asked. Would shifters and humans still be hunting witches? After all these years? I supposed it was possible. Waylan and I had been searching for a witch to help me remove the curse, and from how terrified Tinsley sounded, it made it all the more likely that there were still witch hunters out there.

The other witch was silent for so long that I was about to ask Kirsten if the connection had dropped. But then Tinsley spoke, quietly and timidly, as though she was afraid of being overheard.

“I did once. A long time ago. It was about fifty years back. A shifter pack found out I was a real witch. They took me. Kidnapped me.”

Kirsten gasped. That hit a little too close to home. I had to admit the parallels were astounding. A pack had found Tinsley and abducted her?

“How long were you with them?” I asked.

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