Page 15 of Wolf Heart

“Hell, all the packs rejected her just like the prophecy. She’s our ticket out of this nightmare, man.”

My gaze slides past him to her. She licks her bottom lip and I have to look away. It’s distracting as fuck. Being outcasts hasn’t exactly lent itself to getting laid regularly.

“I can get you a reward… whatever you wish,” she says in a wavering voice.

“You can?” Dex smiles, turning on the charm. “What kind of magic do you have?”

Her eyes widen and she shakes her head. “It’s not magic, it’s something else.”

“What?” I ask, interested that she has some sort of special ability.

Aspen snorts. “She’s a witch.”

The girl’s eyes glimmer and her mouth tightens. “I’m not a witch. I don’t do magic.”

“Then how can you—” I say, thinking in my gut this is fucking stupid to even entertain this idea.

“Because,” she inhales a shaky breath like she’s debating if she can trust us or not, “my mother will pay. She’s a witch.”

Fuck me. “Didn’t you two learn your lesson from last time we entertained a witch’s daughter? No way are we doing this. We take her back to the pack right now.”

“This is different.” Dex cuts in between me and the girl, lowering his voice. “She’s half-wolf and maybe she’s right. Maybe her dear old mom can break the chains on us.”

I shove him away from me. “You’re too fucking sentimental. The only thing that will happen if we take her to her mother is we’ll be lucky to leave with our fur intact. Her mom could be a fucking pyromancer and send fire to our balls with a fire spell that’s never quenched.”

He grimaces, but I don’t back off. Both of them should know better than to trust a female and especially one that has even a drop of witch blood running through her veins.

Dex rubs his golden stubble on his chin, looking off in the distance. “She could be our ticket out of this hell.”

“You’re an idiot,” I scoff.

Dex focuses back on me, his glare threatening. “And you’re a coward.”

“What do you think, bastard?” I clench my fists. “That we'll just take the girl to her mother and we’ll fucking see then, huh?”

Dex winks and flashes a grin. “Sounds like a plan.”

The girl’s face brightens, her eyes are shining with hope. “You’ll help me?”

She must have cast a spell on all of us for me to even consider this. I clench my fists tighter than unclench them. What the hell. If this works, we could be free before the winter.

“Yes, we’ll take you to your mother,” I say, my voice low and grumbly. "But if we smell anything fishy, we'll drop your ass no matter where we are or what's chasing us."

She nods vigorously.

“Fuck it.” My wolf ties me up in knots inside over this. He wants to run, to be free. To hunt and fuck and not worry about the ramifications. “You stay with us. You do whatever we say without question. Without arguing.”

“Sure.” She gives me a watery smile.

The three of us head in the opposite way of the barrier. She walks next to Aspen. With her blue hair and his auburn, they look like they could be circus performers. Not that I’ve ever seen a circus, but my mom had a storybook of one with pictures.

"We should head to our camp for the night," I say.

Dex nods, but he’s too busy staring at her ass. He should know better than to get distracted.

The chance to see our old pack again and make things right is too good to pass up. I squeeze my eyes shut briefly as my heart hurts at the thought of seeing my sister again.

She’ll be sixteen this winter.

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