Page 50 of Wolf Touched

“Leave now, or you’ll force us to attack,” the older woman’s voice boomed around me, the magic chafing my skin. “Your kind isn’t welcome here.”

Keith’s scent became stronger, and I sensed him behind me just as my power thrummed harder and pulsed outward. In moments, havoc would begin, but I wasn’t sure I could take on twenty-one witches by myself.

“My kind? Aren’t we all supernaturals?” I asked bitterly. What was up with all these people thinking that because we had different abilities, we didn’t have anything in common? That attitude in humans had always perturbed me as a child.

“Yes, we are, but wolf shifters like you think they deserve to make the rules for everyone, and that doesn’t work for me.” She lifted her chin. “Nor does attacking an innocent family that wants to be left alone, the same as my coven here.” She lifted a hand.

My power pulsed out, shaking the ground underneath them.

The older woman tilted her head back when Octavia came racing out.

“Priestess Caroline, stop.” Octavia huffed and clenched her hands at her sides. “This is Divinity. She brought me back, and this boy came with her … pack.”

Who the fuck is Divinity?Keith linked.

I think that’s … the name they gave me.Even saying the words via the pack link knotted my stomach. I didn’t like the idea of them giving me a name. It made it harder to distance myself from them … like they might not have wanted to give me up.

“Wait.” Priestess Caroline lowered her hands. “How isthat possible? You and Dru are human. She has power, and I can feel a strong wolf presence within her. I thought I was mistaken that she was the arcane-born until the ground shook underneath us.”

The other coven members lowered their arms, and the middle-aged woman to the priestess’s right tilted her head. She had the same eye color and sharp cheekbones, making me wonder if she was the priestess’s sister or daughter.

With the coven’s magic easing around me, my power calmed to a high fizz, and my anger flamed without risking the ground imploding. “Shecan speak for herself, and I was a human with power until Raffe and I completed our fated-mate bond. Then I somehow became a shifter too.” I shrugged, not understanding it myself, let alone how to explain it to anyone else.

“The rumors are true.” The younger girl beside Priestess Caroline clasped her hands over her chest. She had to be a teenager, but those eyes were the same color as the priestess’s.

I scanned the others, wondering if they all had the same eye color. Thankfully, they didn’t, or this would’ve been a lot creepier.

The girl giggled. “The arcane-born is the wolf shifter prince’s fated mate. And he chose her! How romantic.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to be giddy with her. I stepped forward, and the two men on either end stepped forward too.

Keith growled in warning.

I lifted my head. “A coven member stabbed my mate, and he can’t stop bleeding despite his shifter healing. We thought maybe you could help.”

Priestess Caroline’s face turned to stone. Any sense of alarm was replaced with more wrinkles as her expressiontwisted with worry. “They attacked you.” Her jaw clenched. “Of course. Olwyn won’t allow you to live if you don’t side with them.”

“You’re not telling us anything we don’t know,” Keith snapped.

I wanted to smack him. Now wasn’t the time to give them attitude. I needed them to help Raffe if they could.

The two warlocks at the end scowled at Keith.

Great, I couldn’t get away from the constant pissing matches between all these alpha men.

Pushing away my annoyance, I clasped my hands together, trying like hell not to come off as threatening or demanding. “Can you help him?” I bit my bottom lip, about to drop to my knees and beg them to do something.

“I’ll need to confirm if it’s what I think it is.” Priestess Caroline walked to me, her long, earthy-brown gown skimming the gravel. “If it is, we don’t have time to waste. Avalon and Faith, go back to the house and bring me the blood fern concoction immediately.”

“But Mother,” the woman on the right gasped. “He’s the wolf prince, and that’s the last bit we have of the—”

Priestess Caroline glared. “Avalon, if the prince dies, Divinity will likely die too. You know what happened in the past. Is that what you want?”

My lungs stopped working. I hadn’t been getting as exhausted and struggling like before Raffe and I connected. Even before turning into a wolf, once I’d been with him, physical things had been easier, and his touch always calmed me. “Please help … me.” My voice cracked. I hoped that asking for myself would mean more than asking for Raffe.

“Fine.” Avalon huffed and gestured toward the gravel path. “Faith, let’s go.”

“Yes, Mother.” Faith glanced at me one last time before following.

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