Magic Side: Wolf Bound Complete Series: Books 1-4, page 96
Savannah looked away. “I had to get out of town. It’s safer for everyone.”
I took a hesitant step through the shallows toward her. “You need to stop running, Savy.”
“I’m not running.” Her head snapped back to me. “I’m staying away because I’m trying to protect you and the pack. The prophecy—which you repeated to me—says I’m supposed to take the wolves from every werewolf who resists the damned Dark God. So not only did I release him, but I’m the werewolf antichrist as well.”
Her voice burned with pain and resentment, but all I could hear were the echoes of my own words, foolishly recounting the prophecy of the Dark Wolf God before I realized it was about her.
A twin-soul will come to power. They will be the harbinger of destruction.
I shook my head as I approached her. “We can’t be sure of what the prophecy means.”
She stretched out her hand, and dark tendrils of smoke swirled around her fingers and coalesced into the form of a wicked bronze blade.
The Soul Knife.
She raised it and pointed it at me. “It’s pretty clear what it means. If the Dark God gets his way, he’s going to take control of me, and I’m going to cut out the souls of everyone in the pack with this—just like Dragan tried to do to me.”
My eyes flicked to the wound he’d given her with the blade. It still hadn’t healed.
Cara, one of our pack members, hadn’t been even that lucky. We’d watched him ram the blade into her helpless form and sever her soul in the Dreamlands. She’d lived, but he’d left her a woman without a wolf—a truth that only Regina, Sam, and I knew. No one else, not even Savannah. The guilt of that failure was mine to bear.
But what if that was our whole pack’s fate, all of us without their wolves? Was this the end the prophecy warned of?
It took all my strength to keep my signature and expression steady. “You’re not Dragan. We’ll find a way to stop this.”
“I killed Dragan trying to prevent the Dark God from returning, but I just gave the Dark God exactly what he wanted. I refuse to be a puppet again.” With a snarl of frustration, Savannah hurled the knife into the sand, then dismissed it into tendrils of smoke with an angry flick of her wrist.
I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when the cursed thing disappeared.
My mate left the water and headed toward the beach, her shadow dress fluttering behind. “Until we figure out what’s going on, it’s safer if I stay away.”
In a step, I closed the distance and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around. “No,” I snarled, with a ferocity that made her eyes shoot open wide. “You’re coming back to Magic Side. With me.”
She tugged against my grip. “Jaxson—”
“Please,” I said, “we can figure this out together. Please, Savy. Trust me.”
2
Savannah
Jaxson’s hand locked around my wrist, but it was his eyes that pinned me in place, burning like golden stars against the night sky.
The signature of his magic vibrated the air, a cascading waterfall of sensation. It woke every nerve in my body, as if I’d been sleepwalking through the last decade of life. The rich forest scent and snowy taste of his magic made me feel like I’d stepped straight from the lake onto the porch of a warm cabin in the silent winter woods of Wisconsin, hundreds of miles from Magic Side and all my problems.
It pulled me toward him, and it took everything I had not to submit. It would’ve been so easy to give in and go with him, to pretend that the Dockside alpha was strong enough to make the coming storm disappear.
But I knew he couldn’t. That was up to me.
“Let me go,” I said, my voice low and about as steady as I could hold it.
For a moment, he held on in silence, and then his grasp softened as he reached up and brushed my hair. “I want to give you the space you need, but we’ve only got six days—”
I stepped away as my mouth turned sour. “Six days until the Dark Wolf God returns? Until he enslaves our people and turns Magic Side into a mound of rubble and ash? Do you think I don’t realize that? I spend every waking minute dreading it.”
“We need to make a plan.”
“I have a plan,” I snapped as a moment of frustration pierced me like a knife. Did he think I hadn’t considered what I was going to do?
I turned my back on him and began trudging up the dune toward the tree where I’d hidden my clothes. Jaxson followed.
“If the Dark God wants me to cut out the souls of the pack for him, then I’d better make sure I can’t, and no one else can, either. I’m meeting Neve tomorrow, and I’m going to hand the Soul Knife over to the Order. They have a magic vault that’s supposedly impregnable. If the blade is locked in there, I won’t be able to use it against anyone.”
Jaxson nodded as he climbed the dune beside me. “That’s a good start.”
His voice was low and approving, reflecting back none of the frustration I’d felt. He was patient, and I needed that right now.
I stopped in my tracks and dug my nails into my palm. He wasn’t going to like the next part. I sure didn’t. “I’m going to ask—if and only if things go really bad—whether they can lock me away in there. To keep the pack safe. Obviously, with what happened with Dragan, Bentham isn’t secure enough, and if the Dark God starts to take cont—”
“No.”
Jaxson spoke so quietly, it was almost inaudible. But the power behind that single word shook me to my bones, like an earthquake erupting inside of me. Every muscle froze, and I couldn’t step forward or protest or even breathe.
His command was absolute. Undeniable. Irresistible.
Jaxson stepped up behind me and whispered in my ear. “I’m your alpha, and I forbid it. Imprisonment is death to a wolf.”
He was so close, I could practically feel his heart beating. Struggling for every ounce of control I could muster, I parted my parched lips and rasped, “I will do what I have to, to protect—"
“No. You’re letting this prophecy control you. Don’t. We don’t yet know what it means.”
Frustration burned my neck, but I surrendered just a little. He was right. I was allowing my fear of the prophecy to control me.
Jaxson circled around and lifted my chin, so I had no choice but to look up into those intense, impossibly golden eyes. “I suspect the Dark Wolf God would like nothing more than for you to lock yourself away. He’s been trying to control you or kill you since you stepped foot in Magic Side. Somehow, you’re a threat to his plans. We just have to find out why.”
The glow in Jaxson’s eyes dimmed, and his power over me faded, but I didn’t move away.
The trace of a warm smile softened his stern expression. “You’re powerful, Savannah, and you’re the one the Dark God is afraid of. But you don’t have to fight him on your own. You’re part of a pack.”
How I wanted to believe him.
I was so tired of the running and the unending fear. Tired of having to be strong and earn every breath I took. I wanted to be able to release just a little of it. To lean on someone else.
We were so close to each other that half a step would do it. We’d be skin to skin, my robe of shadows meaningless between us. I could just melt into him and let the world fade away, even if only for a moment.
Instead, I nodded and stepped back. Maybe one day, we’d have that chance.
I stepped behind the tree where I’d stashed my clothes, plucked my undies from the crumpled pile, and pulled them on beneath a billowing cloak of shadows. “I get it, Jaxson, I really do. I don’t have to do everything on my own—not that I was planning to.”
From the approving way the alpha watched me, I began to get the sense he didn’t have to be able to see me to appreciate the dressing process.
His eyes never wavered. “No more running off. I’m with you, whether you like it or not.”
I pulled my wet hair back. “I guess that means you’re coming to Pere Cheney with me, then?”
Surprise cut across Jaxson’s face. “Pere Cheney? Why? To see the ghost?”
“I swore an oath to bring her a headstone,” I said as I fastened my bra. “I don’t like being beholden to anyone—not you, and certainly not to a half-crazed long-dead witch who swore she’d torture my soul and fill every waking moment of my life with cold and pain if I didn’t follow through with my end of the deal.”
“I shouldn’t have let you speak to her alone,” Jaxson grunted, his voice tinged with frustration and protectiveness.
I shimmied into my shirt, wincing as I pulled it over the damn wound in my shoulder. “The ghost gave us a hint on how to defeat Dragan. I’m hoping that if I follow through with my side of the bargain, she’ll give us a clue on how to defeat the Dark God. Maybe she knows a weakness of his or something.”
Jaxson nodded. “Your plan is good. Getting rid of the knife and meeting the witch. Regardless of whether she helps us, we don’t need to make another enemy at the moment.”
I smiled slightly while I pulled my tight shorts over my ass, a little regretful that the cloud of shadow blocked the view. I mean, he’d seen me naked. We fucked, for heaven’s sake. Why was I wrapped in shadows?
You’re afraid of letting him through that rusty armor of yours, Wolfie murmured in my mind.
What are you calling rusty? I teased back with mock anger.
At least I had my wolf.
My phone buzzed. “I bet that’s Casey, wondering where the hell I am. We need to roll.”
“Casey,” Jaxson said flatly. It wasn’t a question, but rather a statement of all that was wrong with the world.
“He’s got the headstone in his car. I didn’t know anyone else shady or skilled enough to find an unbreakable tombstone at a moment’s notice.”
Jaxson’s jaw clenched. “Fine. But we’re taking my truck. Your Fury won’t make it up the back roads, and Casey’s ride is a piece of shit. I trust it less than I trust him.”
I dismissed the shadows and grabbed my phone to text my cousin. “Where’s your truck parked?”
“On a pull-off on Highway Twelve, near the boundary road. He’ll know it when he sees it.”
I texted Casey. His response was quick: Jaxson? WTF.
“Yeah, my cousin might not be keen on the idea, either.” I pocketed my phone.
“Follow me,” Jaxson said, and took off running through the woods.
I had my Swiftley boots, so it was easy for me to keep up with him without breaking a sweat. My feet pounded into the sand as my soul breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to run together.
I didn’t know why I’d run from him before. Instinct, I supposed. A dread of what was coming tightening around my throat. The fear that I would be the one to hurt him, to hurt the pack.
I couldn’t face that.
Hush, Wolfie said. Stop worrying. Just focus on his buns.
She was incorrigible, but my eyes darted down involuntarily. The sight was enough to drive the dread away for a moment. Feeling a little flush rising, I wondered if I might work up a sweat after all.
When we neared the road, Jaxson slowed and stopped by the bushes where he’d stashed his clothes.
“Give me a few minutes to talk to Casey,” I said, tearing my eyes from the hard angles of his body. “We haven’t cleared the air.”
Jaxson nodded and started dressing. I lingered for just a moment, then made my way to the road through the cluster of oak and hickory as my stomach tightened.
Last time I’d seen or spoken to my cousin was at Aunt Laurel’s. She’d tried to stop me from leaving, and I’d lashed out with my magic. I’d bolted out of the house, leaving Casey cradling her with a look of abject horror on his face.
Since then, he’d learned that I was a werewolf and Jaxson’s mate. And now, I had to tell him I was the werewolf antichrist. Shit.
We’d become so close, yet I’d kept so much from him. And I hadn’t returned any of his calls.
How the hell did I expect him to forgive me?
I stopped dead in my tracks, the guilt of everything weighing on my shoulders like massive iron chains. It had taken all the courage I had just to text him to ask for help with the gravestone. How was I going to face him now?
My leg kicked forward as Wolfie took control, and I yelped in surprise.
Stop that. I’m going! I snapped at my wolf.
Didn’t seem like it.
“Savannah?” Casey’s voice echoed through the trees.
I sighed and trudged out of the forest into a whirling morass of doubt, guilt, and fear.
Jaxson’s big black truck was pulled off to the side of the road, lit up by the headlights of Casey’s RAV4 parked haphazardly behind. My cousin was leaning against the hood with his arms crossed.
I didn’t need werewolf senses to read his mood: pissed.
3
Savannah
“Just because I’ve agreed to help you does not mean I forgive you,” Casey said as he popped open the back of the RAV4.
Heat crept along my neck. Why couldn’t he just say, Hi Savy, I’m sorry everything has gone to shit. I’m here to help.
I clenched my fists, and it was all I could do to stop my fangs from popping out. “Forgive me for what? For being a filthy werewolf? Or for attacking Aunt Laurel?”
He held up his hands. “Geez, Shaggy, no need to go to Defcon Two. Mom feels terrible about everything that’s happened. All of it, I swear.”
I hugged my arms around myself and dug my nails into my skin.
Aunt Laurel.
I wanted to hate her for helping my parents cast the spell that bound my wolf, and even worse, for hiding the truth of what I was. But after everything she’d done for me, all I felt was shame. I’d lost control and attacked her, and even if it was an accident, I’d hurt the woman who’d taught me magic and opened my eyes to the unlimited possibilities of this world.
I bit my lip and looked away.
Casey gently touched my arm. “I know she’s forgiven you, Savy. Hell, I think she feels like she deserved what happened.”
Nausea wound around my gut. That just made it worse. She didn’t deserve any bit of what I’d done.
I shrugged off his touch. “What about you? I saw the way you looked at me.”
My words were sharper than I expected—twisted and bitter, pushing him away. But the truth was, I was desperate for his forgiveness, even more so than hers.
Casey lowered his hands and hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. “Look, when I was a kid, Mom had beautiful straight hair. One time, she grounded me for stealing, and I got so mad, I lost control of my magic and burned off all her hair. It’s been curly ever since. I remember that every single time I look at her.”
I tried to imagine Aunt Laurel bald. It didn’t work.
“Magic is hard to control when it’s new. That’s the reality of our world. You were rightfully angry, and your magic went haywire. That’s happened to me and to every other kid in Magic Side.”
I looked away as shame flushed my face. “I’m not a kid.”
“Duh. Most kids have way more experience. You’ve been doing spells for what, almost a month? Cut yourself some slack. If my mom can forgive you, then you can forgive yourself.”
Shame flushed my neck. “Yeah, that’s not something I’m ready for.”
I moved toward the gravestone in the back of his ride, but he blocked my way. “Not so fast. Part of the bargain is that you get over your shit and tell me everything. Like everything, because I’ve got a feeling I don’t know half the crap that’s going on around here.”
He was right about that, but everything was going to be a long conversation.
I walked over and lowered the tailgate of Jaxson’s truck. “Fine. But first, help me move the damn tombstone over, okay?”
Casey rolled his eyes. “Why is Jaxson coming along? This was supposed to be cousin time.”
“Because he is,” I growled as I headed back to the RAV4. “He literally hunted me down. I don’t think he’s going away.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, Casey sighed. “Great. Fine. But let Jaxson put the tombstone in his own damn truck, then. It took a couple of huge dudes to load it up.”
I frowned at him. “I’m a werewolf. Just help steady it.”
I slipped my fingers under one end of the granite slab and gave Casey a steady glare. He shrugged and grabbed the other side. “Okay, but if I slip a disc, you’re paying the medical bills.”
We heaved the damn thing upward and staggered back from the car. “Oh, gods, this is heavy!” Casey grunted.
My arms strained, but we shuffled in tandem toward the bed of Jaxson’s truck.
Casey’s end got progressively lower until he was practically crab-walking. “We need to put it down, Savy! It’s got to be four hundred pounds!”
With an exasperated snarl, I scooped my body forward and heaved the gravestone up and out of his hands. “It’s two hundred, tops. Just help me lower the thing without scratching up the truck. It’s new.”
He jumped into the bed and helped me set the stone down gently. “Damn. I knew werewolves were strong, but this She-Hulk business is going to take some getting used to.”
“Yeah, well, frankly, I can’t believe that you’re remotely okay with me being a werewolf,” I muttered as I shut the bed.
Casey shoved his hands in his pockets but didn’t climb down. “Screw that. That’s on page two of the list of things I’m pissed about. Number one is the fact you didn’t tell me about it. I’m hurt, Savy. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to trust anyone ever again.”
Yup. He was going to milk this for all it was worth.
I rolled my eyes. “Can you honestly blame me? After all the werewolf hate you throw around?”
He shrugged. “Well, if I’d known my cousin was a werewolf, maybe I wouldn’t have said some of those things.”
I blinked, dumbfounded by his logic. “You realize that makes absolutely no sense, right? You need to start thinking about shit differently now. I’m a werewolf, and I’m part of the pack. If I’m going to trust you, I need you to let go of whatever hate you’ve got left.”
