Page 19 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

With that cryptic nonsense, Elias charged out the door, right as Mrs. Stewart arrived to pick up her bunny.

And I did my best to convince myself it didn’t matter if I never encountered another werewolf again.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I drovethe Jeep up a rocky side trail, the windshield wipers swiftly clearing the rain that’d slowed to a drizzle. Once I couldn’t go any farther without scratching up the paint and dinging the sides, I launched myself out of the vehicle and raced toward the green beam of light that cast the entire area in a slime-hued glow. There’d be claims of another UFO sighting buzzing around town tomorrow.

Hell, I wished that was all it was. Aliens would be easier to handle.

Earlier this evening, three of my people had been at the lake and spotted a large plume of smoke. They radioed for backup as they headed to check it out, hoping they could catch the culprit in the act.

Now they were stuck inside a witch’s version of a booby trap. The instant they’d crossed the border of the sigil trap, it ensnared them within its circle, zapping anyone who tried to get in or out.

Irritation raked at my insides, and I wanted to rip off my shirt and howl at the moon. Not that it’d do any good, but howcould a witch—or several as the case may be—be eluding us so easily?

This was the second time this week our enemy had evaded us. Yesterday, another member of my pack had been hunting, spotted an unfamiliar figure, and sprinted after them. During the pursuit, Claudia undershot a jump to the other side of a ravine and slammed face-first into the sheer cliffside. She’d made the leap countless times, so I didn’t buy that she merely miscalculated—especially since she also wasn’t healing. Luckily, she’d managed to claw her way up to safety, or she would have suffered broken bones on top of the busted nose and scrapes running the length of her shins and forearms.

I crested the hill in time to see Diego charge the column of light. Sparks erupted, and a zap accompanied the acrid odor of sizzling flesh. Diego yelped and swore, the charge enough to send him flying back on his ass.

I strode over to where Nissa and Tyrese stood. “Anything new?”

“I picked up a strange scent on the west end,” Tyrese said. “Me and a couple of men followed it to the creek. We spotted tracks but lost them in the rain. Before returning here to help Diego and Nissa try to free Betty, Cara, and David, I instructed them to keep poking around for clues and to report if they found anything more.”

“What kind of tracks?”

“Human and wolf.” Tyrese peeled his gaze off the column encapsulating our people and turned to fully face me. “The footprints could belong to someone in town, but it’s unlikely, as they don’t normally wander this deep into the woods without us sighting them in advance. As for the pawprints, I can’t say for sure they weren’t one of ours, but I asked around, and no one admitted to being out and about. Plus, I would’ve noticed if the scent were familiar.”

Kerrigan lived on the east side, a fact that had nothing to do with anything, and why did she keep coming to mind time and time again? Lately, my senses and instincts were cranked to high, screaming that something was fishy, and that was clearly throwing me off.

“Betty’s not doing so well.” Nissa jerked her chin toward the circle, where Betty had just crumpled to the ground. Her daughter, Kara, and son-in-law, David, huddled around her, doing their best to assure Betty even though their features spoke of suffering and desperation. “We can’t hear anything they say, but David tried hitting the forcefield from the inside, and the skin on his fist isn’t healing.”

Shit.That meant they might die while attempting to break out.

Nissa rested a hand over her swollen belly. “The little guy doesn’t like it, either. He’s kicking like crazy, as if he wants to get away.”

Both she and Tyrese had taken to calling the babythe little guy, even though they hadn’t had an ultrasound to discover the baby’s sex. Before I’d burned the bridge with the new vet in town, I’d contemplated asking if she would perform one for my beta. If I could talk Nissa into it, that was, which was a big if. A few months before she ran into Diego and me, she’d escaped from a medical facility where they’d experimented on her, lots of testing her pain tolerance and healing, so she was wary of anyone in the medical field.

Not even her husband could convince her to see a doctor, local or in another city. I wasn’t sure Nissa would take kindly to me suggesting a veterinarian instead, but my main concern was the health of her and her baby.

Which also meant getting her as far away from the witchy vibes, in a way that wouldn’t cause an argument. We didn’t have long before curious humans would seek out the odd light, but atleast it’d require a hell of a hike. “You two secure the perimeter. I’m gonna take a closer look and figure out what exactly we’re up against.”

I strode toward the illuminated column, raising my shoulders against the snapping electricity that nipped at my skin.

Scorch marks crisscrossed Diego’s fists, forearms, and his face. While the red, puckered flesh undoubtedly hurt, his hide had knitted itself together, so at least there was that. I placed my hand on his shoulder and told him to rest while I took a spin at it.

I met David and Cara’s eyes through the trap, keeping steady contact despite the burning it caused. Then, even though they probably couldn’t hear me, I raised my voice, adding assurance to my words. “Just hold tight. We’re gonna get you out of there.”

I squatted and studied the ground. I couldn’t see the lines of the magical sigil, which made it next to impossible to attempt to break the circuit. Based on the high current coursing through my body from merely being near the trap, it wasn’t weak enough to break by simply smearing the line of the circle anyway. A spell this powerful often came equipped with a failsafe.

Throughout history, there’d been plenty of strife between the different supernatural species as they battled for the diminishing amount of land where they could live without fear of discovery. But witches usually attacked as a coven. They hit hard, without warning, so this didn’t fit their usual M.O.

Footprintsandpawprints. Coincidental? My gut said no.

The Crescent Pack resided up north in one of Maine’s national parks, around four hundred miles away. A good three days’ travel in wolf-form, or one full day by car. If any of their wolves had wandered through, they would’ve checked in. Those rules and boundaries were in place for a reason, and wars had been started over less. Earlier this year, the alpha of their pack and I had a major disagreement about my obligations and thefuture in general. I’d shown him that if it came down to a brawl, I’d win, and our packs had given one another a wide berth since.

“No weak spots,” Sasquatch’s deep voice said next to my ear, so low it was like hearing only the bass line of a song. “This is high-level sorcery.”

The guy had seen a lot of things in his day. Although I joked it was due to him being a good foot taller than everyone, it was more that he’d wandered the forests for so long, with nothing but the company of a hawk he got defensive over whenever anyone dared to ask. He used to remain on the sidelines, never joining a pack until he and I met up. Sometimes I experienced a twinge of guilt for pulling him into the fold, even though I also believed he was better for it.

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