Page 32 of His Whispered Witch

“What were you expecting to say?” he said, clenching against a cascade of worst-case scenarios.

She licked her lips and then licked her spoon clean, and Asher lost his breath for a moment.

“I don’t know. I thought I’d have to tramp through the wilderness and find you, or I guess, your wolf, and get him to trust me and then try to get him to shift.”

Asher shuddered. “Please don’t do that.”

She looked hurt. “Why not?”

“It took an entire pack of wolves and a really strong spell to get me human the last time. If I’m gone, just walk away. It’s not worth your life.”

“You would really attack me?”

He wanted to say it was a risk, but suddenly his wolf was there again, outraged. “I don’t know.”

His wolf reared.

You can’t guarantee anything,he told his wolf.

“Wait, you said a spell with wolves?” Penn said and slowly lowered the bowl to her lap, forgotten.

“I did,” Asher said and gripped the paperclip.

“Witches and wolves worked together?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I grew up with a witch in my pack.”

“That’s impossible. The treaty.”

“The only people Kathleen had to fear were her own family!” He gentled his tone. “She hid from them with us.”

“With a pack.”

Do not say the word fate,he told himself sternly.Whatever you do, stop there.

“Yes.”

“It’s illegal. It’s impossible.”

“I don’t think there’s a law. And has anyone seen that damn treaty that’s ruining all our lives? And anyway, it doesn’t matter. She fell in love. So I grew up with a dozen potions a week from her.”

“She made a potion to keep you human? How on earth?”

“Actually, that was a charm.”

“She has potion magicandcharm magic?”

He clenched his teeth. “That was a different witch.”

“So now two witches are living with your pack? Happily?”

“There are more than that,” he said slowly.

“What the hell? How many more?”

“I lost count.” He’d met them all when they kept him human and dragged him down from the mountains. He just had never added them up. “There’s the alpha and his new, um…”Do not say mate, do not say mate.“Partner. Girlfriend? And her daughter.”

“They have children?”

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