Page 62 of Wolf's Witch

Finally, Sienna came back over and lifted her hands. She uttered words I didn’t recognize, and instantly the scenery around us changed. The movement had been so sudden and immediate that my stomach lurched. I bent over to puke. Thankfully, someone untied the gag before I choked on my dinner. I coughed, retching again.

Sienna chuckled. “I should’ve warned you that the teleportation spell can be unsettling.”

I glared at her. “Where is Zeke?”

She pointed to the rise in front of us. “Just over the hill.”

Snow blanketed us in silence until the single howl of a wolf cut through the night. Impossible. There was no moon in the sky.

I gasped, snapping my head toward Sienna. “What have you done?”

She tipped her head back, laughing. When she looked at me again, there was a flicker of unnatural darkness in her silver eyes. She stuffed the gag back into my mouth. “I have done what is necessary. With the sacrifice of an Elemental and an Alpha, my immortality spell will be complete.”

My eyes widened as I struggled to break free of her grasp.

“It’s nothing personal.” She shook her head slowly. “Lillian and the Coven of Light started this war. I’m just finishing it.”

CHAPTER 22

Zeke

Wyatt came withme, but I was the only one able to track this strange scent. As we got closer to the parked cars, there was a new one.

Wyatt looked over at me. “Do you smell that?”

I nodded, scanning the area. It wasn’t an animal, but it wasn’t quite human, either. The snow was falling harder now, shortening the visibility of an already dark, moonless night. Werewolves had better vision than humans, but in the dark, we had to lean into our senses of smell and hearing.

Wyatt grabbed my arm. “Wait. I think I recognize—”

He collapsed in a heap on the ground. Fuck. I knelt and rolled him over. His pulse was strong and even. The sugary sweet smell was coming off Wyatt now.

And then I knew what it was. Magic. And someone had just cast a sleeping spell on Wyatt the way Ruby had done to Kiefer when he caught us together after a few too many beers. I straightened up slowly, listening for any footsteps while I struggled to see in the darkness. There was another witch out here, and she wasn’t from the Coven of Light.

I took cover behind my truck, sniffing the air. The scent of magic was fading, and the other scent grew stronger. Wyatt had recognized it. I sucked in another breath, hoping to do the same. It wasn’t a werewolf, but there was a touch of wolf blended with a man’s scent.

And then I knew. The man Mathias had bitten, the werewolf hunter, was stalking me. He was still human. He hadn’t shifted during his first full moon yet, and I needed to finish him before he did.

But the hunter was human. He couldn’t have been the one who had cast the sleep spell. Normally, I’d keep pursuing them. I was faster and physically stronger than either a human or a witch. I could take them on my own. But I was the Alpha now, and my second-in-command was unconscious on the ground. I needed backup.

Something stung the back of my shoulder. I reached up to smack the bug and found…a dart. Fuck. I narrowed my eyes, forcing my legs to move back toward the circle. My vision started to tunnel. The flames from the fire pit looked miles away. I’d never make it. I struggled to keep my eyes open. I had to warn my pack and protect my mate.

But my body wouldn’t respond. My legs buckled, and I stumbled, falling to my knees. I buried my hands in the snow, dragging myself forward.

Behind me, a man whispered. “How is he still awake?”

Another person stepped out of the shadows. That was who the sweet smell was coming from…

I rolled over and stared up at a face, not understanding what I was seeing.

It was a man. A…werewolf with magic. A witch hadn’t cast a sleep spell on Wyatt. It was this werewolf.

And then the world went dark.

I awoke tothe wet popping of my ankles breaking and reforming. I opened my mouth to scream, but my vocal cords shredded, reshaping until my groans became a wolf’s whimpers. What the hell was happening to me? There was no full moon tonight.

The more I panicked, the worse the pain became. Shifting was excruciating, nothing smooth or magical like in the movies. It was bones snapping, skin stretching, and the ripping and tearing of tendons and ligaments. I’d learned early on that surrendering to the natural process made it faster, but there was nothing natural about this particular shift. It felt like I was being swallowed by the wolf, forced to take animal form. Like my humanity was being devoured.

When the transformation was complete, the wolf growled at the robed women circling us. Witches. But this wasn’t Ruby’s coven. The wolf lurched toward the man in front of us. I recognized his scent again—the bitten werewolf hunter. But a chain stopped my wolf short. The massive animal struggled, but there was no breaking free of the collar around our neck and the chains keeping us on top of a huge, flat rock.

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