Page 14 of His Whispered Witch

He shook himself. The self-pity was hardcore tonight.

He had a home. He had a job that he had just discovered he was terrible at, but hey, new project. He lived in a beautiful place. His family supported him, whether he wanted them to or not. He was still drawing revenue from the family horse racing business. There were a significant number of people on Earth who would donate an organ to get what he had.

The fact that paradise came with a crazed wolf? Well, everything had a price.

He decided to hike up the hill again. In high summer, the sun wouldn’t set until well after ten, but it was still a beautiful view. As he crested the first rise, a blazing alarm sounded through the woods.

He spun and jogged quickly toward the potholed road onto the land.

His cousin, the former occupant of his tiny cabin, was a tinkerer. He was also the son of a witch, which meant everything he touched went a little magical.

When Asher had gotten here, he’d lived in a forest of tin arches, benches, and animals. He couldn’t walk ten steps without stepping on something. Gradually, he dumped it all in a field behind the house, away from the donkeys—except for the gate. Everything else slowly lost its animation and stopped freaking him out. Unfortunately, the gate spell charged every time he used it.

He jogged toward the twisted tin monstrosity that bowed over the road and saw a little two-door sedan with Pennsylvania plates crawling along the battered road. Nobody who lived above 7000 feet would ever buy a car like that. Who the hell was coming to him from Pennsylvania?

The car stopped, andshegot out. He remembered the business card.Penelope.

Questions skipped through his mind, but he couldn’t seem to make the connection between his brain and mouth to ask them. What was she doing here? Wasn’t she afraid? What had changed in four hours?

“It was unprofessional of me not to try and help a client,” she said, and the low tone of her voice shivered through him, making his wolf sit up and pay attention to something other than murder and revenge.

Asher still couldn’t say a word.

“So I am going to.”

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“But some ground rules. It has to be here. You can’t go back to Silver Spring. That’s the Griffin Coven territory, and they have crossbows.”

Asher scratched his head, wondering why crossbows of all things were the threat she led with. He was pretty sure they could kill him with a crossbow, but it would take a hell of a lot of work.

“And you can’t eat me or anyone I know. Or really anyone. I don’t know why I’m specifying…”

Even at his lowest and most out of control, he had no desire to eat another human. Carnivores in general didn’t go after prey that was bigger than them.Maybethey’d go after a child. Children were always getting eaten by something, right? He probably shouldn’t mention that.

“I have not eaten another human being.”

Should he mention the horses? He should probably not mention the horses. Or the donkeys.

“And you have to pay me so much money.” She glanced around at the terrible road. “Okay, that part is negotiable.”

“Anything. Any cost.”

She squinted at him and took a deep breath. “And I don’t know if I can help. I know you said you were an animal, but I’ve never even met a shifter before. I don’t know how to help. I don’t know whether Icanhelp. I don’t know what the problem is. This might fail.”

“I know.”

“Or I might make it worse!”

“I know.” And because he was also a man who wasn’t dead, he added, “Dinner?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I made naan.”

“You made what?”

“Flatbread? Curry, rice, a side of okra, though they were frozen, and a chickpea potato thing that’s delicious. It has cinnamon.” He went from barely able to get a word out to babbling like an idiot. He bit his tongue to shut up, tasted blood, felt the wolf surge, and staggered away from her, just in case this was it.

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