Page 79 of Forced Plus-Size Mate

She shakes her head, her mouth twisting. “The witches left!” she cries, the words bursting out of her as if against her will. “They decided the only way to keep all of you safe from the war between packs was to go back to the canyon.”

“They… left?” I can’t absorb the words, and my heart won’t believe them. “She left me?”

Again?

“She did it for you, Body,” Lucy says urgently. “I didn’t agree, but she said it was the only way to restore peace. The other witches agreed with her, too, and they all decided to go back. I don’t know how they’re going to live up there with no powers, though.”

“No powers?” I echo, dumbfounded. “What do you mean, no powers?”

“Over the last couple of days, all the witches have lost their power, except for me. They think it’s because of the violence. Because innocent lives are being lost because they selfishly want to stay.”

“Selfish?” I can barely follow what Lucy is saying, I’m so distraught.

“Yeah,” she says. “They thought staying and trying to match up was only going to cause more bloodshed. So, they decided to leave to save the packs.”

“If Decker came after us for this, then it was only a matter of time before they found another excuse,” Peter says. “I know dirtbags like that inside and out. They throw their rage behind an idea to justify their violence, but it’s the rage that drives them, not the idea.”

“Where would they be?” I mutter. Suddenly, it dawns on me. “The camping ground! That’s it, isn’t it, Lucy? They’re meeting there with the bus?”

She nods, turning away from me. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admits miserably. “I promised Amanda I'd keep her secret, but this just feels wrong.”

“That’s because it is,” I snap. I pull out my phone and text Bae, then tear off my clothes and shift, loping away down the street. It’s still early, and I can get away with running through suburbia a little as it’s not far to the forest.

When I get to the trees, the wild soul of my wolf takes over, and my paws fly across the soil, barely touching the ground. I feel part of everything—the trees, the sky, even the ground itself.

I’m in harmony with the mountain, more than I ever have been before.

A great howl rises in my chest, but I snap my jaws closed, not letting it spiral from my throat. If Decker’s scouts are around, the last thing I want to do is tell them where I am.

I reach the campground in record time, and Bae is just pulling up when I get there. I bound right past him, diving on Amanda’s scent and following it around the parking area. I can smell all the other witches, too, and the rusty, flaking paint of the old minibus.

Bae shifts and barks, and a couple of other wolves emerge from the forest. With a short huff, I gesture for them to follow and put my nose to the ground.

The old van is easy to track. I can smell the grease around the engine fittings and the cheap paint. We trot some distanceout of town, but I barely notice. All my attention is on the scent and the road ahead.

Suddenly, burnt rubber cuts through the greasy smell. There are dark tire marks stretching across the road, and I follow them into a side road.

As I turn into the forest to follow the narrow track, I smell something else.

Blood.

I break into a hard run, following the tire tracks and the scent of carnage up ahead. My fear turns swiftly into rage. I know that if Amanda’s hurt, I will unleash a kind of hell on Decker that will make him wish he was never born.

And if she’s dead… then I might as well be, too. I will take as many of Decker’s wolves down with me when I go.

We find the bus crashed into an embankment. The smell of blood is strong, but I can’t smell Amanda. I rush up to the van, shifting as I go up the steps. I’m shocked to see the witches still in their seats… but all of them are horribly injured and unconscious.

I go up the laneway, checking to see if they are still alive. None of them respond to being shaken or spoken to, but so far, no one is dead.

“Whoa,” Bae mutters after shifting back to human himself, coming into the bus behind me. “This is serious. Kent, run back to town and get help.”

One of the other wolves barks in response and turns back towards town, running as fast as his paws will carry him. I’m desperately looking for someone, anyone, who can tell me what happened to Amanda.

Up the back of the van, I find Nell on the floor.

“Nell,” I murmur, turning her onto her back. She has a massive, dark bruise down one side of her face, and it looks like her arm is broken. She moans as I try to look at it.

“Body?” she whispers.

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