Page 27 of Winning the Wolf

Waving away her words, I pointed at the map. “I’m really hoping this location spell works.”

“There are a lot of factors involved.” Picking up a long thick needle with an engraved handle, Clementine held out her free hand, indicating that I should place my hand in hers.

“Is that silver?” I asked, cringing away from her.

A light dainty laugh tinkled from her mouth. “No, it’s metal, I promise. Here…” Offering the needle, she urged me to take it. “…feel for yourself.”

My fingers traced the metal handle as I inspected the silver material. It was hard to tell what had silver in it and what didn’t. I just had to take the chance if I wanted to find my sister.

“You found me online through a page where I offer my services. I promise I have no vendetta against the werewolves. In fact, you’re pretty fascinating to me, honestly.”

A smile lifted the corner of my lips, despite myself. There was a time I’d been proud to be a wolf. My pack had been my home, welcoming and accepting me. When my brother had committed suicide and my sister had gone off the rails, I’d slowly become the beta, only good for serving coffee.

“We’re not as great as we think we are.” Sadness crept into my soul as I took a deep breath.

If the wolf spirit heard me downplaying my species, she might not help me with tracing my sister. Our belief in the Great Spirit that we descended from had almost been mythical. However, on every werewolf’s sixteenth birthday, the wolf spirit visited in a dream, a dream where we ran with the spirit and felt her filter into us, living through us in order to exist in the world.

“Your ancient history goes back as far as ours does, if not further.” Clementine gestured for me to hand her the needle. “Which makes you bound to the Earth as much as we are.”

Absently twisting the needle in my hand, I nodded slowly. She was right, we heralded from the natives in the north of the world, our physical selves morphing when danger from the south forced us to defend our lands. Those dangers were the witches who hailed from Africa and Middle Earth.

I snapped back to the present and gave her the needle. “It’s a good job we learned to co-exist.”

“When the vampires arrived, we didn’t have much choice, did we?” Pursing her lips together, Clementine waved her fingers, once again asking me to trust her.

Holding my hand out, palm up, I waited as she took my forefinger and pricked the end with the sharp tip of the needle. She held my finger over the bronze divining bowl and squeezed hard, forcing several droplets of blood to bloom until they dropped.

“Not silver,” Clementine quipped, raising her eyebrows as the small cut on my finger healed over. Shame my other injuries couldn’t do the same.

Smiling, I sat back and waited for her to do her magic. Literally. I had never seen a witch at work. Our pack had wanted to stay isolated, kept away from the other supernaturals of the world. I had no idea if that was because of Phileas or just because we happened to be in an isolated spot, away from the big busy towns.

Clementine started a Latin chant as she picked up the bowl and tipped it, dripping the small amount of blood onto the map. The red blob started to move, slinking across the map towards Cheddar. My heartbeat skipped when it went past the town, going further north towards the mid-lands between the Dusk Moon and Twilight Moon Pack lands. The fields were open land, designed to make sure the enemy packs didn’t cross into each other’s territories.

“Nyla?” I whispered when the blood stopped right on the edge of the Dusk Moon Pack lands. “How could you?”

According to the location spell, my sister was still with our enemy, even though they’d killed our alpha. A sigh escaped me as I sat back, my heart sinking into my stomach. Who was I kidding? Nyla might have even killed them herself, although I had no doubt she wouldn’t be powerful enough to slay the alpha.

“Are you okay?” Clementine glanced between me and the map, clearly not aware of the thoughts rolling through my head.

“Yeah,” I muttered, “you’ve been really helpful.”

“I’m glad the spell worked. It means your sister is alive.”

A sob choked me as the realisation hit me square in the gut. Shit, there had been a huge chance that she was dead. I hadn’t known that the location spell could’ve only been done if she was alive. The relief that flooded me was overwhelming, almost bringing me to my knees.

“I hope you manage to sort your differences.” Clementine folded her hands on the table. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

Shaking my head, I swallowed down my emotion and checked the time. I’d told the witch a white lie to get her help, pretending that Nyla and I were estranged. Not that the lie was far from the truth but I hadn’t wanted to risk her knowing too much. For both our safety.

“Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.”

I stood quickly and got my phone out to take a picture of the map. Clementine didn’t object or rise from her seat. Instead, she looked at me, her eyes narrowing when I tried to awkwardly smile.

“Your life is about to change unexpectedly.”

Blinking in order to stop an eye roll, I sighed loudly. “It already has.”

“Noo…” Drawing out the word, Clementine fought a smile. “…it’s something more. However, I can’t tell what it is so… just be prepared.”

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