Page 83 of Wolf Hunter

All these years, I’d only assumed they wanted a little muscle on their side to keep them safe. Safe from what? They want a certain amount of leniency and the beasts at their back to keep them sheltered from anyone else who might want to come into this territory. Shifter packs or otherwise.

Right?

They’ve been willing to give up their magic for this so-called safety. Are they protecting something they want no one to know about?

It doesn’t make sense to me anymore, and the loose ends add up to something odd.

I have no justifiable reason for their actions in mind. Besides, Reid’s father had been the problem, by all accounts. So why hire a hit on Reid knowing the mantle of power had passed?

They knew. They knew because this last ceremony was Reid’s second. Mae understood exactly what was going on, and since she is the one at the helm of the witch hunt, no one argues with her.

Why take Reid out when his father is buried?

And no one seems concerned about the kidnapped women outside the one brief flash of outrage I saw…

Apparently I’ll go to the grave with these questions.

I sit alone in the dark for who knows how long, trying to call on my magic and shift myself out of here.

Come on, I urge my body. If ever there was a time, now would be it. I reach deep inside myself, down to the core of who I am. The piece of my soul responsible for my invisibility. There has to be something left inside me.

I don’t sense any kind of spell keeping my powers suppressed, so this has to be all me.

Nothing. Not even a tickle.

I let my head flop back as I yell. No one comes to me. They probably like the yelling. It lets them know they’ve succeeded in rattling me.

Finally, I stop trying altogether. It seems pointless, all this fighting, and for what? For nothing. I’ve failed myself. Carmen. Reid and the rest of them.

I’m as useless as they come because for some reason, my power decided to leave me when I needed it the most. Tears prick the corners of my eyes, and I can’t even wipe them away.

“The execution is set for the morning. I thought you should know.”

I jerk up at the sound of Mae’s voice, embarrassed to be caught crying. She’s not alone, of course. The main members of the coven wait behind her.

“You’re kidding,” I reply with obvious sarcasm. “You and your little buddies are going to execute me? I’d never have guessed.”

“It’s the way it has to be. For every act against the coven, there must be consequences,” she tells me. “This is the fate you brought on yourself.”

“Goodie. I’m so excited. I’ve never been to a real-life bonfire before. I guess witches make for the best kindling.”

I kill people for a living, and it seems my time has finally come.

The day of reckoning.

The small dark voice in my head wonders how long I thought I could get away with the killing. How I considered that I might come out unscathed, although each death stained my soul a darker black.

I have nothing to say to defend myself. I made my choices.

Except this one. I never asked to fall in love with Reid. It sort of just happened.

Mae doesn’t even have the decency to look me in the eye. Finally, she squares her shoulders and faces the rest of the coven with her back to me and the light from the outer room keeping her in shadow.

“You knew the price when you agreed to take this job.” She has to raise her voice to be heard. “I told you that failure would not be tolerated. You had those words in mind when you went into the beast’s lair, and yet, you came back to us having changed sides. What else did you expect?”

“I didn’t realize you’d exact your price out of my skin should I change my mind,” I say.

“This one spent way too much time with the wolves. It’s like she’s become one of them,” Lavender Hair puts in with a laugh. “Imagine. A witch who wants to be a wolf.”

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