Page 38 of Captive Mate
“I’ve gotten the wards set up to trigger a barrier spell to hold them, but the barrier spell isn’t fucking working,” he said in a rush. “Seriously, this is bullshit. I know I need the components arranged in a circle to match the salt circle that’ll form the barrier itself, but the order in the book doesn’t seem to be working and —”
“Don’t tell him that,” Ian put in, pacing over to take up his usual position at Nate’s shoulder. “He’s not here to help us. He’s probably spying.”
I lifted my chin and stared him down. I wasdonetaking Ian’s crap. “What did Matthew tell you?” They probably wouldn’t notice that my voice shook a little when I said Matthew’s name. “You’re not the Armitage pack leader, last I checked.”
Ian’s scowl deepened. Good. Asshole. “Neither is Matthew while he’s not back to normal.”
What? “But he is back —” I broke off, shaking my head. Ian probably didn’t trust Matthew’s state of mind even after the spell was broken, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to convince him. “Whatever. You’re not the pack leader, and if the council’s letting Matthew call the shots tonight, that ought to be good enough for you. Are they?”
A pause. “Yes, they are,” Nate said, sounding thoroughly exasperated. He punched Ian in the arm, and Ian winced and rubbed at the spot. I covered my mouth to hide my smile. Right. Like Nate had hurt him. “Matthewisin charge, and he said Arik’s helping us. I’m not happy about it either.” He paused to glare at me. “But I need a second set of magical hands, and you sure as fuck aren’t going to be useful, Ian.”
“I’ll be useful once we start fighting,” Ian grumbled.
“If this works there won’t be any fighting,” Nate said. “Hence, you know, the treacherous shaman who was trying to kill us a couple weeks ago and may or may not sabotage us.”
“Thanks for the introduction,” I said. “Really. I’m blushing. Also, could we maybe stop with the pleasantries and get to setting up the spell? Because the Kimballs are supposed to be here in less than an hour.”
Nate gestured with his arm, turned, and set off into the woods. I followed, with Ian lurking between us and baring his teeth at me.
We ended up in a small clearing about a hundred yards into the forest, off the path and closer to the territory boundary.
I stood, hands on hips, and surveyed Nate’s preparations where they were set out in the center of a small dirt circle. To the side was a battery-powered lantern with a tattered volume of spells set out beside it, a couple of pebbles weighing the pages down so they didn’t flap in the mild breeze.
His candles were the wrong width, but I chose not to comment on that. They’d do. That was just nit-picking.
On the other hand…
“That’s common mallow, not marshmallow root.” I set down my backpack and crouched to dig through it. “That’s not going to work for you.”
“What?” Nate snatched up the herb, peering at it and turning red. “I picked it myself!”
“Yeah, and it looks really similar. Easy mistake to make.” I mentally patted myself on the back. I could be tactful! I could get along! “I can tell by the smell.” I set aside a few baggies, rummaged a little more, and pulled out a sack of marshmallow root. Thank the gods I’d grabbed some. I hadn’t been planning on doing this type of spell, but you never knew.
“I don’t have a shifter’s nose,” Nate muttered, sounding somehow sulky, apologetic, and defiant all at once. “I thought it was the right thing.”
“We’ll just replace it.” It took real effort, but I forced myself to hand him the bag rather than doing it myself. If I simply took over, Ian would assume it really was sabotage, and Nate would get even sulkier. “Here, you do that, and I’ll look at the book for a minute.”
Nate nodded, his cheeks still burning red, and took the bag.
We worked mostly in silence for a while, with me examining the spell to see what precisely it was supposed to do while Nate fiddled with the herbs. As I’d expected, it was a spell for containment: a large salt circle set closer to the wards, activated through our incantations here, that would be strong enough to hold a whole gang of angry alphas and keep them from crossing the line. It looked good in theory; all I had to do was figure out where Nate had gone wrong other than the mallow, and watch as he carefully adjusted the placement of the components.
Ian paced the clearing, making unhappy noises whenever Nate and I were close enough to touch, and sending and receiving the occasional text on his phone.
I bit my lip a dozen times when my mouth tried to start talking without my brain’s permission and ask who he was texting, what the rest of the plan was, and where the fuck Matthew was.
But by the time Nate and I had everything set up, I didn’t need to ask.
My nose tingled. I could smell Matthew’s unique pheromones. He was on his way. My cock stirred in my thankfully loose track pants. Fuck that little — well, not so little — traitor, anyway. A minute later, I heard quiet voices and footsteps crunching on the forest mould.
I kept my head down. The last time I’d met Matthew’s eyes, he’d just had his mouth on me, his big hand wrapped around my cock. Both our cocks. We’d been covered in each other’s come.
And then when he’d woken up, I’d been gone.
What would I see in his face when I looked at him again? I wanted to wait as long as possible before finding out.
It wasn’t that long. I was facing away from the approaching group, but I knew they’d stepped into the clearing when Nate glanced up and smiled. “We’re almost done!” he said, sounding like a kid looking for a pat on the head.
I wanted to sneer, but the low rumble of Matthew’s voice from behind me wiped the nasty smile right off my face. “I knew you could do it, Nate. We’re lucky we have a warlock in the pack.”
