Page 90 of Wolf Heart

Instead of answering, I shrug. "What happened to you?"

"Like you don't know." He spits a stream of blood out onto a cluster of leaves between us.

The muscle in my jaw twitches. "Was it the witches? Did they take her?"

He replies with a bloody-toothed grimace. "You should be so lucky. Juniper's a fucking freak... just like I told everyone for years."

I leap at him. I crush my hand around his throat and haul him up. His head smacks against the pine tree and I growl at him.

"No more insults or games. Tell me what the fuck happened."

He laughs, but my fist closes tighter and his chortle turns into a gurgle. "F-fuck. She's not human, she's not a wolf. I-I don't know what the hell she is."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I narrow my eyes, not quite trusting this bastard. Not quite believing my own eyes when I'd seen her claws, her blue skin.

When his words come out as a choked sob, I loosen my hold on his throat slightly.

"Don't know, man. She's not wolf, not human. I don't know what the fuck she is." He shudders. "She's an abomination."

I glower, forcing my hand not to kill him right here and now for insulting her, though I can't deny what I saw…

"Let me go, man. I told you what I know."

I narrow my eyes, holding him up with one hand until his fear is strong. "You so much as fucking look at Juniper and I will rip your head off."

He pales, but nods.

I drop him and he crashes to the forest floor with a whimper. I've no time for him.

Even if the witches haven't taken her, she's in danger.

I can’t lose her. Not now. Not when I’ve just found her. Not when everything rests on delivering her to the witches myself.

I sprint through the forest, leaving the injured wolf behind me.

I shouldn’t have left Juniper alone. I shouldn’t have underestimated the other wolves and the witches. I should have stayed.

And now she may be lost and my pack unable to ever break the curse.

The forest is silent. The birds have stopped chirping and the scent of magic hangs heavy in the air.

A growl rumbles in my chest, the wolf within getting impatient. I’m ready to tear apart whatever took her.

I slow, trying to not make a sound. The air is tense with the tension of a storm to come. The scents from the beasts around me are sour as if they’re sick or something.

I sniff the air and my nose burns with the taint of magic.

I know this smell.

I run in the direction of the scent, and the rotting stench of death smacks into me. A dozen dead birds, dead and rotting, have their heads twisted around the wrong way. The stench of dark magic is heavy in the air.

I pivot on my heel and sprint past the birds, knowing I need to get to the witches fast. My pack needs me.

In my chest, my wolf paces, eager to be out and hunt, desperate to get to Juniper. I've no idea if the witches from another coven have taken her or the ones we made a deal with sought to intercept us and took her.

All I know is that being away from her is eating a hole in my gut.

The need to find her vibrates through me.

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