The potions don’t tell me anything.
“What do these do?”
She laughs, her eyes maddened. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Alpha?”
I scour through the cupboards, looking for dreamroot or lavender beetle. I remember one of the witches told me thatthose could be used to render someone unconscious for a little while.
Never thought I’d be needing to use it so soon.
As I fumble through quickly, Monroe continues to laugh.
“You’re not a witch,” she taunts. “If you want to get me to shut up, you’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way. Do you think Danielle’s gonna forgive you, then?”
I block her out, search through all the top cabinets. No dreamroot, no lavenderbeatle.
Come on.
I look through the lower cupboards, searching from left to right.
Finally, I see it, in the corner, a small bottle of dreamroot.
As Monroe sees, her eyes freeze. She moves against the rope with greater force, tips her head back, and screams.
Without hesitating, I open the bottle and throw the solution on her.
She continues to scream.
Part of me feels guilty, but I push past her similarities to Danielle. I need to find her—the real her.
Eventually, her screams quiet down, her eyes grow heavy—she closes them.
“You won’t get away with this, Elli-”
Then her head slumps, and she’s out cold.
Thank God.
I was one scream away from a burst eardrum.
***
I run out of Monroe’s cabin, shift into my wolf form to get a better scent of the real Danielle. She’s close.
I can’t believe that my senses failed me before.
As I run through the coven, I cause a stir. Witches are calling my name, yelling at me, asking what’s going on.
But there’s no time to explain.
I sprint through the coven, paws leaping over the ground and plummeting onto the floor. I’m skidding through the mud.
Eventually, I get to the forest land just outside of the coven.
I scent her.
I shift back into my human form so that I can yell her name, but there’s no response.
“Danielle! It’s me. I’m here.”