Page 57 of Magic Claimed
Esoti had summoned me. I had missed my chance of escape. I clawed at the collar, my fingernails digging into my skin, knowing my actions would do nothing to stop it squeezing, constricting.
“Serafine, what’s wrong?” Eike said.
“The collar. Esoti wants me to return,” I gasped.
Jarom scrambled to his knees, his fingers fluttering around the collar. The frantic fluttering in my chest wasn’t my own. “We have to get this off.”
Jarom yanked the collar, but it stuck fast and all he did was topple me. My chest ached, but the panic wasn’t mine. I clenched my eyes against the barrage of emotions pouring into me. “Jarom…stop!” I wheezed. Black dots edged my vision and I struggled for breath.
“Brother! Get yourself under control.” Eike pushed Jarom away from me. One set of arms took me from another. The world spiraled and then stilled. I sat in Eike’s lap, while Jarom panted, hands fisted, grimacing as he fought for control.
Their emotions were too much to bear. I couldn’t do it. Jarom’s head snapped up and his eyes blazed as he wiped a shaking hand across his mouth. The band squeezing my chest eased as he fought for control. “Serafine…please forgive me.”
But then my panic swirled deep within my stomach when the collar squeezed. Esoti would not wait. “I have to go!”
“We’ll go back to the lodge in wolf form, see if Alerick is back, get some clothes and take her to the castle,” Eike said.
I clutched Eike’s arms. “You can’t come. Esoti will kill you if he finds out…”
Eike’s expression turned dark and his mouth flattened into a thin line. “We’re coming with you, Serafine. Don’t argue about it.”
Images of Esoti torturing them to death filled my mind, but they would stay dead and I would keep on living, knowing their deaths were my fault.
“This is not negotiable, Serafine,” Jarom said. “We’re coming with you. We need to.”
The bond was influencing them, their emotions fake. Need was different from want. Want implied that they acted of their free will, knew the risks and would still act knowingly putting themselves in danger. Danger for me. Need meant they acted to satisfy the bond.
Eike kissed me fast and hard. “Stop thinking, Serafine. We need to get to Alerick. I came to tell you he’s back at the lodge, before…” He cleared his throat. Before Jarom had been fatally wounded and I’d healed him.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Jarom said.
Jarom nodded and Changed into his wolf form. I scrambled from Eike’s lap, conscious of my nudity, closed my eyes and found my wolf ready and waiting. In a flash, my body sprouted fur and I stood on four paws. Eike’s grey wolf flashed next to me, and we sprinted through the forest, bounding over fallen logs.
Eike let out a blood curdling howl and at least twenty wolves ran from the forest and surrounded us.
My heart raced, pumping adrenaline through my veins. My wolf loved running with her mates in a pack. She wasn’t alone anymore. She needed her pack. Was desperate for it. Her need seeped into my human side and I didn’t feel so alone, like I normally did.
Pack meant strength. Companionship. Affection. Everything I’d been starved of, and now? Now I could see them as positive. These wolves weren’t there to harm me. They were here to help protect me, and for me to protect them. We were symbiotic. It was a strange concept, but not wrong. It didn’t fill me with unease, as it had done before. There was a bond between us all, and I only felt a fraction through my connection with Jarom.
Esoti had masterminded my entire life; taking away my mother and fathers and keeping me away from everyone in the castle who may have become a friend. He hadn’t instilled fear only into me, he’d done it to everyone there.
When I thought I’d been clever hiding from him, I’d still hidden alone, separating myself from everyone. It had taken me a long time to befriend Gilda, only doing so when I was sure Esoti would not punish her.
Gilda! I hadn’t given her a moment’s consideration. I’d accused her of working for Esoti when she’d been helping me. I hoped the wolves were looking after her.
We crashed through the underbrush and to the lodge. Jarom and Eike Changed and charged up the front steps. I followed in wolf form because the rest of the wolves followed and they’d already seen enough of my body.
“Alerick!” Jarom bellowed. The door to the office swung open. My heart flipped as Alerick’s enormous form appeared in the frame.
He knelt before me, his fingers dipping into my fur. He released his breath on a shaky exhale as he pressed his forehead against mine. I tensed, but only for a moment, before swaying into his touch. Pleasant surprise crossed his face. “I feel your bond with Jarom.”
Jarom also knelt beside me and put his arm about my body. “She saved me, brother.”
Alerick’s fingers tensed in my fur. “You are amazing, Little Mate.”
I swam in a moment of disbelief, before joy coasted through me at his praise. I’d never been praised before. I shuffled on my four paws, suddenly shy beneath his piercing gaze.
“Sedric!” Eike bellowed.
