Page 4 of Pitch a Witch
His dark gaze rolled over me, stopping longer than was polite in a few places. Where my neck met my shoulder, around my boobs, which were peeking from the open buttons of my deep purple silky blouse, and mostly around my hips where I stood angled between him and the house at my back. As a shifter, Ace obviously paid closest attention to the lower part of my body. He was a butt man, through and through, and shamelessly I took advantage of the attraction he still had for me.
“I need to get out of here without Alex dragging me back kicking and screaming,” I pointed out the obvious, shifting sideways more so he had a better view of my ass. “You know where each patrol is at any given time and how to accomplish that without your Alpha or his mate knowing I’m gone. And before you start lecturing me, let me say one thing: I don’t want to die. I just couldn’t live with myself if someone else does. I have to do something.”
“And what is the something that you want to do, Hazel?” His eyes were glued to what he could see of my perky butt, but at least he didn’t give me a resounding no, so I rushed to further my case.
“I just want to see what is happening with my coven, my grandmother, and my friend. You know. Just an adventure of reconnaissance. They won’t even know I’m there.”
“I don’t think a reality exists where people don’t know you are there, Hazel.” Ace’s lips curled in a telling smirk that I pointedly ignored.
“You going to help me or not?” I deadpanned, done playing stupid games with the beta. Ace was handsome, but not enough for me to talk in circles all night. Couldn’t he see the shit I had to do and how important it was?
“You knew I’d help before you even asked.” There was no accusation or frustration in his statement.
“Right, I just had to stroke your ego so you would free me into the world, huh?” The weight pressing on my chest lifted somewhat, so my comment held no bite.
Amber finally emerged from the house, and as soon as her gaze found me, she headed our way. My smile was genuine and a lot less strained while I waited for her to join us.
“I said I’d help you, not set you free.” Ace snorted like I was dumb or something.
“Huh?” Amber was almost to where we stood at the side of the porch.
“No way you are getting loose. I’m going with you, Hazel.”
Fuck a duck!
3
“There was absolutely no need for you to tag along,” I grumbled the next night, folding my arms across my chest as I glared out the window of Ace’s SUV.
What was it with the damn shifters and their four-wheel drives anyway? None of them would be caught dead in anything other than a SUV. This one smelled like the beta mixed with the scent of freshly-cut grass, and I sank deeper into the buttery soft leather of the passenger seat so I didn’t bite his head off when he snorted at my annoyance. A metal chain dangled from the rearview mirror with the head of a wolf swinging between us like a pendulum, compliments of the bumpy road we were on. Gravel crunched under the thick tires, and trees blurred in my vision as we flew away from the pack lands illuminated only by the headlights of the car.
“There was no need, you are correct. There was a want, however.” The infuriating man kept snickering like everything was a joke to him.
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Ace.” With a dramatic huff, I wiggled in my seat so I could face him, but the stupid seatbelt was trying to choke me, for Hecate’s sake. “You of all people should know this.”
It was the truth.
The night I met Ace was anything but a usual encounter where two people meet each other and later become … something. Sissily and I were flopping around the dance floor like fish out of water, giggling like schoolgirls after a dozen cocktails, when a warm, large hand folded over my arm. In my typical fashion, instead of turning to see who it was, I took hold of the offending appendage, tilted my pelvis forward, and flipped him over my shoulder. Ace dropped like a rock at my feet with a loud humph from all the air pushing out of his lungs. We exchanged names while I’d loomed over the beta as he’d stretched out on his back in the middle of the club and grinned like a loon up at me.
“You asked me to go against my Alpha and I agreed to do it, Hazel.” All humor gone, he side-eyed me and tightened his hold on the steering wheel. “This way, at least I can save face by claiming I was with you the whole time when he chews me up because I contravened his orders.”
Since I had nothing to say to that, I kept my mouth shut as we bumped along the road, my organs rearranging themselves from the dips and larger rocks we hit. Ace was right. Instead of giving him a hard time for shadowing me, I should be grateful he’d entertained my crazy idea to sneak me out in the first place. The problem I had was the unease accompanying the clawing fear that had rattled my bones the moment I jumped in the car, which I was trying very hard to hide. After the mad chase we had through the city over a week ago and the Blackwood shifters pushing me off the road in the middle of a cornfield, I hadn’t stepped foot outside of the pack’s land, which was practically vacuum sealed with guards patrolling day and night.
Ace eased on the gas pedal and slowed the breakneck speed when we entered the outskirts of the city. Too soon, buildings replaced the open fields and traffic surged from all sides. What I’d hoped would be relief at finding myself back where everything was familiar had turned into panic-induced anxiety that sent hot-cold flashes through my body. Heart palpitations shortened my breath, and cold sweat dampened the back of my shirt. My eyes darted left and right when I saw the ominous shadows reaching for my soul and looming everywhere I turned. I worked hard to keep my emotional state calm and collected so my magic wouldn’t surge up and cause a distraction, but it was a real struggle at that moment.
A soft, golden glow melded with the blue light emanating from the dashboard, alerting me that my power was about to make an appearance. Hurriedly, I stabbed my hands under my light jacket, which I had draped over my thighs so I could hide the symbols coming to life all over my skin. Glamour or not, I needed to ensure that nobody saw me impersonating a glow stick in Ace’s car, so I eyed him to see if he had any reaction to it. Appeased that Danika knew her shit well, I slumped in the seat and took slow, measured breaths until I was calm. Well, as calm as I could be given my predicament.
“Are we stopping at the Gatekeeper’s coven?” Ace took Superior Avenue past the Casino pulsing with bright lights, only slowing at the stoplights. “We can conduct reconnaissance first if you’d like and turn back after we are sure everything is good.”
“I’m not hiding from my coven, Ace. Just from Danika,” I muttered, embarrassed that even as an adult I feared my grandmother. The witch was a shark, and if the beta had any common sense at all, he wouldn’t want to come face to face with her either.
We turned right on 6thStreet, crawling to the end of it before making a second right to double back to the main road bisecting Cleveland. Chomping on the inside of my mouth, I debated my options. When we passed a store selling mystical thingamajigs, I smacked the wolf’s arm with the back of my hand.
“Park there.” Enthusiastically, I stabbed my finger in the direction of an empty spot on the side of the street.
Ace arched an eyebrow but did what he was told like the smart man he was. The store was a tiny little thing but only a block from my coven, which happened to work perfectly for what I had in mind. The seatbelt hissed like a snake when I yanked it off me, and I jumped out the moment the SUV glided next to the sidewalk.
“What are we doing here?” Ace asked as he slapped the driver’s door closed.
