Page 76 of Wolf Tamer

I hold her close, her cheek pressed to my chest. “I know, Tash. I know.”

ChapterTwenty-Four

Tasha

Icling to Reid like I’m some kind of wimp, and surprisingly, he’s got nothing to say about it. The strange Canadian with a name straight out of a musical seemed to have left the building the same way he entered the Redcliff land: by magic.

Except I’m starting to become a little more fluent with magic, and it seems to me that he didn’t work any. None that I can see, anyway.

“Let it go for now,” Reid says. “Come downstairs and I’ll put some fresh coffee on for us. We’ll decide what’s next.”

I nod because what the hell else am I going to do?

Reid has to pry my hands away from his shirt, and the smile he sets on me is anything but reassuring.

We lost Oliver just like that. In a blink. And it stings in more than one way. Not just because it makes no sense but because it’s just another personal failure to add to my list.

I need to sink my teeth into something substantial, something I understand.

So I stand there silent, taking stock while Reid heads back downstairs.

Surprises are also rising higher on the list of things I hate. I’ve had enough of those things to last me a lifetime and—

It seems Reid is no sooner out of my sight than the hairs on the back of my neck rise. The baby fine hairs on my arms follow suit, and a chill seeps down through the thick layers of my winter jacket. I’m unsurprised to see the rest of my hair lifting as well. Static electricity nips and bites along my exposed skin.

Uh-oh.

Then I see it again. The dime-sized tear in reality suspended in air before me. My stomach sinks like an anchor as light bursts directly in front of my face, and I have just enough time to take a few steps back before it grows to the size of a frisbee.

Shit, here we go again.

Did they know Reid had left and I was alone? It sure seems that way, but how is something like that even possible?

Gritting my teeth and widening my stance, I wait. What else is there to do? I could probably run into the bedroom and grab my knife, but by the time I get back out to the hallway, they’ll be here, and I’m not about to let them get the upper hand on me any more than they already have.

The portal doesn’t snuff out like before. The edges begin to glow brighter, the spell getting stronger by the second. They found whatever missing ingredient they’d lacked before, and now things have reached the highest danger level.

“Bring it on, you sons of bitches.” Shuffling back and more out of direct sight, I crack my neck first to one side and then to the other. “I’m ready for you.”

I’m unsurprised to see Mae step through the portal first, with Emily standing directly at her shoulder like some kind of obedient dog who’s been taught to heel. The moment her feet touch down in the hallway, a wicked smile lights the elder witch’s features and takes ten years off her face.

The urge to kill these two assholes has my skin itching.

Slowly, I walk around the portal, revealing myself fully.

“Huh,” I begin, fists out. “How funny. This is the first time I’ve seen you smile and actually mean it.”

Her attention spears through me automatically.

“Breaking and entering really does it for you, Mae? Seems I’ve finally managed to figure you out.”

Emily tries to rush at me with a curse, but Mae holds out an arm, and the young wolf stops dead in her tracks.

Huh times two.

“I may not be a wolf with a great scent of smell, but even I could sniff you out from the beginning.” I speak directly toward Emily. “You little fucking traitor.”

“Traitor?” She scoffs. “Talk about calling the kettle black, witch.”

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