Page 4 of Witch of My Heart

“Don’t worry about that bag. Really, don’t. I’ll patch it up as need be, but that can be your bag when you come here from now on. I’ve never trained a cat before. I should’ve thought about him having a lot more rage than you. I get it. I have a broody wolf who was a bit prone to fighting before I met Kez. Still prone to it if I don’t get enough exercise.”

Yeah. He wouldn’t have let Ginger Barrel murder his carrier. I rolled my eyes but took the hand Adrian offered and let him pull me to my feet.

“It gets easier,” he said.

“Which part?” I asked, as he handed me a towel and a water bottle.

“All of it, I guess. The punching bag. The fighting. Those parts probably before the others,” he said and flashed me a knowing smile.

“Hey,” he said when I didn’t answer him. “Next time we’ll try some hooks and uppercuts. I like to start everyone off on jabs, but maybe one of them will appeal more to your feline nature.” He squeezed my sweaty shoulder, and my cat rolled his eyes.

“Thanks, Adrian,” I said, because he was trying to help.

He had no other reason than a kind heart and his love of the gym to wake up before the tail crack of dawn so we could have the gym to ourselves.

“You good?” he asked.

“No, I’m a cat. I’m always bad,” I grinned at him and sauntered off toward the locker room.

Chapter Three

Blithe

“I’m going to miss you so much! I always thought it would be Trista or Travis taking off first!” My carrier gushed as he pulled me into a tight hug.

I’d miss him and Dad too. Hell, I’d even miss my older siblings. They were annoying twats, but they were my annoying twats.

“Don’t say it! Don’t say anything! It’s a trap!”My wolf warned inside my thoughts.“He knows something! I’m telling you he knows something!”

“You know I’m coming back, right?” I chuckled but hugged him back. “Besides, someone has to keep Duke in line. He may start a second night club out there in Heartville while he’s not even sticking around to run this one.”

“It’s not a nightclub,” Duke said for the hundredth time since he opened it. “It’s an all-night lounge. Mostly Academy students studying. On the weekends, we clear the space for karaoke and dancing. Haven is a literal haven for artists.”

“We know, sweetie,” Dad let go of me and hugged Duke instead.

I was about to slip around to the driver side door of the moving truck, but Uncle Blake pulled me into a tight hug. They were always doing that to us. Trading us around like collectable plushies to hug on. I didn’t mind so much this time. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into exactly, but knew I had to talk to the coven to find what I sought.

When Uncle Blake let go of me, I fingered the keys in my coat pocket and slipped around to the side of the moving truck. Del and Rex didn’t have much to move, but it was more thanwould fit into Rex’s trunk. The Academy offered to ship them to Heartville via drone, but Del’s anxiety was already running high. He had a newborn and was preparing to start life all over in a strange village in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t envy him one bit.

“What’s the plan?” My sire rounded from the back of the moving truck.

“What plan?” I blinked, sounding more guilty than I liked.

“Huh,” he laughed and shook his head. “A guy in Heartville?”

I wished that was the truth. A guy everyone would’ve understood. Hell, they’d even have understood a girl.

“Say we’re hunting BigFoot,”my wolf offered up, but I ignored him.

He wasn’t great in a pinch.

“No. Just doing a favor for Dad,” I said, nodding in the direction where Dad and Uncle Blake now both had ahold of Duke like he was going to war instead of a village near the rodent border.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, but I was your age once. I know it’s something,” he said. “No drinking behind this wheel or any wheel. If you end up arrested somewhere, call me before Darian. If you end up in a fight for the love of Frost’s balls don’t drink them. That’s not healthy. You never know what people have snorted or shot up these days. You don’t need that shit in your system.’

“I’m not going to pick a fight,” I said, and the words slid easily off my tongue because they were true. “And I’m not going to eat someone hyped up on a party drug either. Shit. That leaves a bitter taste on my tongue just thinking about it.”

“But, if you’re going where I think you might, I’d take your own blood supply and ensure you don’t end up someone else’s. Old habits die hard.”

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