Chapter 21 - Mark

I charged through the portal I had just created with the knife we’d bought from the witch. Nausea washed over me as I crossed the threshold, but I pushed it to the side. I didn’t have time to think about that.

I lifted my head, sniffing the air. A jolt of something like triumph mixed with fear washed over me and my wolf as I caught the faintest trace of Lorelei’s oak and vanilla scent. She had been here recently. Unfortunately, mixed in with her scent was another familiar one. One I was far less happy to encounter. Inara’s.

Several other wolves appeared through the portal behind me. Jameson and Declan stalked forward, both of them looking at me, waiting for me to take the lead. Malcolm, Klyte, Oliver, and Sam lined up behind Jameson, while Jackson, Nolan, and Will padded behind Declan, claws digging into the ground, waiting to race through the trees. The rest of both teams had stayed behind to protect from any counterassault. Letting out a low growl, I turned and followed Lorelei’s scent down a thin trail.

Just as her scent was beginning to grow in strength, another vaguely familiar scent masked it. Crashing brush sounded to the side, and a moment later, a women with a suppression collar locked around her neck came racing down the hill. Holly. She caught sight of us and charged toward us.

“Lorelei is up there!” she cried. “Hurry!”

She clambered onto Jameson, and we continued moving up the slope. We came to the middle of a clearing, and I pulled up short. Lorelei stood on one side, clutching a staff, crouched as though ready to spring. On the other side was Inara, her face contorted in fury as she glared at Lorelei. I watched in horror as she hurled something that looked like a fireball at Lorelei.

Lorelei stayed where she was, not even ducking. A moment later, I understood why. The fire dissipated feet away from Lorelei as if it had slammed into a wall.

“It’s not going to work,” Lorelei jeered. “You’re going to have to try better than that. No magic is getting through.”

Inara took a step toward Lorelei, unsheathing a knife.

I let out a guttural snarl and charged toward Inara. Lorelei gasped, looking toward me. Relief broke out across her face. The witch spun, her eyes widening in surprise. She took a single step back, then her eyes narrowed, growing shrewd.

“I should have known your wolves would get here eventually,” she drawled. “No matter. They’ll be simple enough to deal with.

As I charged forward, she made a gesture with her hand. Something shifted in the air. Behind me, I could hear the other wolves snarling and growling their protests. Reluctant to take my gaze away from Inara, but needing to know what had happened, I turned to glance quickly over my shoulders, only to see several of the wolves trying to push forward but getting nowhere, as if an invisible wall was there.

I looked over at Inara, understanding what had happened. She had created a barrier so it was only the two of us, preventing the rest of the Silver Wolves and Gold Wolves from being able to charge in to help.

Before she could cast anything else, I jumped in the air, lunging toward her, jaw open, ready to crunch around her neck. Inara hurled what looked like a black mass toward me.

The spell slammed into me, and I yelped. Even though the amulet absorbed most of the blow, it was strong enough that it knocked me to the side, and I collapsed to the ground. By the time I staggered to my paws, Inara had already started walking toward me, the blade outstretched.

“I’m going to kill you nice and slow,” she hissed. “And make sure that all of your friends and that bitch over there get to watch. And then I’ll kill her and your pup, and I’ll pick you all off one by one.”

I lunged for her again. This time, when she hurled another, all I felt was a warmth against my chest. Whatever she had thrown this time, the amulet had taken care of it. My paws landed on her shoulder, pushing her to the ground.

With a shriek, Inara grabbed the talisman around my neck even as I tried to bite down on her. The strap snapped, and the amulet broke free. She gave a triumphant laugh and flung it away, deep into the grass and out of reach.

Her hand wrapped around my front leg. Burning pain ran up it to the joint, and I yelped. But that was nothing compared to the agony that erupted in my side as a knife plunged into my side. Inara yanked it out, holding it, poised to strike again as the hurt threatened to consume me.

I couldn’t let her keep going. I had to fight through the pain.

I swiped with my claws, dragging them across her stomach. She screamed and doubled over, which was when I sprung into the air.

My front paws slammed into her shoulders, knocking her onto the ground. She cried out, arms reaching out to hold me back. But it was too late.

My jaw wrapped around her neck, and I bit down. Bones crunched beneath my teeth. Inara jerked, giving a final indistinct, guttural sound before she stilled.

Her body crumpled to the ground as I released it. I stepped back, watching to make sure she didn’t stir. When I was finally satisfied she was gone, I shifted back to human, groaning as my aches and bruises slammed into me.

My gaze landed on a wide-eyed Lorelei, her face pale and terrified. It was only when I gave an exhausted smile that she ran over, wrapping her arms around me.

“Thank god you’re okay,” she said. “I thought she would…” she trailed off, shuddering. “I’m just glad you’re all right.”

“I’m glad you’re okay, too,” I said.

I held her close, reveling in her scent. Just being able to touch her again, to know she was safe and all right, set me and my wolf at ease, finally telling me the danger had passed.

I could have held her like that for a century, but eventually, we broke apart. The temporary salve of Lorelei and her embrace vanished, and I suddenly remembered all the pain running through my body.

I winced. She noticed and immediately looked me up and down, cataloging all the injuries.

“You’re hurt,” she said, her eyes locking on the wound on my side, oozing something black. She crouched to examine it. “She hit you with a curse.”

I grimaced. “I thought those were supposed to go away when the witch died.”

“Only a few curses work that way. Common misconception.” She crouched and examined it. “Here. I think this might help.”

She walked a little ways away and bent to pick up the knobby staff she was holding before. She came back and pressed it against the wound. I hissed at the initial touch, but moments later, all the pain dissipated. When she pulled back the staff, the injury had vanished.

I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you had gotten that much better at magic in the last twelve hours,” I joked. “I’m impressed.

She snorted, shaking her head. “No. I’m still a fairly mediocre witch. It’s amazing what having access to a bunch of highly powerful magical artifacts can do for you, though.”

A cough coming from the edge of the clearing rang out. We both turned to see Declan leaning against a tree, the other wolves behind him and Jameson. When he saw he had our attention, he pushed off the trunk and came to stand in front of us.

“Glad you’re safe. Both of you,” Declan said. He glanced over at the shattered boulder. “I’m guessing that was the entrance?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Lorelei said. “But yeah, no getting back in there for a while. I might be able to get in there at some point. I’m sure Mom and Dad have notes somewhere, and now that I know how to do it, I might be able to come up with a new way in. Until then…” Lorelei shrugged. “No one will be able to get any of the items there.”

Declan nodded. “Probably for the best. I don’t want someone else trying to follow Inara’s footsteps. The power vacuum she’s going to leave will be hard enough to handle.”

“We’ll see.” Lorelei shrugged. “Inara was something else entirely. I wouldn’t be surprised if her group scattered instead of reforming around someone else. Orin was probably the most likely person for them to rally around, and he’s not going to be starting any covens anytime soon.”

Declan nodded, not asking her to elaborate. Neither of us needed her to. “I guess we’ll have to keep track of them,” Declan said. He raised an eyebrow, scanning the clearing. “What happened to the diadem?”

“It’s in The Trove. I threw it in there right before breaking the entrance.”

“Risky,” Declan remarked.

“Necessary,” she corrected.

“This is all well and good,” Jameson growled, coming to stand next to me. “But we don’t know where Georgia and the others are. With Inara dead, how are we supposed to find them?”

My wolf and I let out a low, warning growl to Jameson at how he was talking to Lorelei. I only stopped because she put her hand on my arm, quieting me. To her credit, Lorelei looked the furious alpha dead in the eye, not fazed in the least by his obvious panic.

“I’m assuming you portaled here somehow,” she said. “Considering how far away we are from Brixton.”

Jameson gave a curt nod. “One of our witches gave us this.” He held out the knife.

Lorelei bent to examine it, then nodded her approval. “Great. We’ll use that.”

Jameson frowned. “You haven’t been wherever they’re keeping them, though,” he countered. “You don’t know where to go.”

“I haven’t been there, but Holly has.” Lorelei gestured toward Holly, who had been lurking in the shadows, her eyes wide with shock, her hands wrapped around her stomach. “She can get you there, no problem.”

Holly nodded, though she still looked pale and shaken up. Jameson handed her the knife.

“Wait here,” Jameson told me and Lorelei. “We’ll come grab you once we’ve gotten the girls.”

I nodded, trying to communicate my appreciation for that gesture. I didn’t need to be a mind reader to understand he was also giving the two of us the chance to be alone. I watched as Holly drew the knife through the air, creating a portal. She and Jameson stepped through, and the other wolves piled into the portal after them, all itching for a fight after being pushed out of the last one.

The instant we were alone, I turned to Lorelei. “Lorelei, I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have locked you up like that again. I should have worked with you to come up with a solution, not locked you up the way I did.”

I wasn’t sure what would happen. I half-expected her to yell at me for locking her up, and I wouldn’t have blamed her. Instead, she pulled me into another hug, holding me tight against her like she didn’t want to ever let me go.

“And I’m sorry for running away,” she said when we finally broke apart. She chewed her lip. “It’s just, I’ve never felt attached to a community like this. I’ve never wanted to actually be a part of something. I’ve always wanted to be alone. But when the women were taken, I realized I couldn’t sit by and do nothing when I could try to fix things.”

I stroked the top of her head. “Well, I’m glad you’ve found a place you want to stay instead of feeling like you have to be by yourself.”

She sighed and gave me a guilty grimace. “I probably could have tried to come up with something better than be a martyr,” she admitted.

“I didn’t exactly give you many other options,” I pointed out. I brushed a strand of hair from her face, stroking her cheek with my thumb. “Let’s just say we both acted impulsively for what we thought was best.”

“I just didn’t know what else I could do,” she said. “I knew Inara would kill the others if I didn’t show up. I couldn’t just—”

I shushed her. “She would have, and you did what you thought was best with the information you had. All that matters right now is that you’re safe, though I was going out of my mind with worry.” I snorted. “I was worried I wasn’t going to get the chance to tell you how I really felt.”

She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. “And how do you really feel?”

I hesitated, wanting to say the words but not fully understanding how to articulate all my feelings. The three words didn’t seem enough to capture how I truly felt about her. Only, I didn’t think any words could capture how I truly felt about her. I had to go with what I had.

“I love you,” I said. “More than you could possibly know.”

She gave a slow, happy smile as she looked up at me, unadulterated affection and joy blossoming across her face.

“I love you, too,” she said.

The words made me happier than I could have imagined. I broke into a wide, idiotic grin as the words rang over and over again in my head.

I pulled her into a kiss, trying to convey everything that those few simple words couldn’t. She kissed me back, holding me tight as the kiss deepened. It was several minutes until we finally broke apart, and I asked the question I had been too nervous to ask for the past several days.

“Does that mean you’re going to stay?” I asked.

She snorted. “Of course. I can’t see myself anywhere else.” She jabbed me in the chest, a playful smirk spreading across her face. “You’re stuck with me.”

I broke into my own ecstatic grin, pulling her toward me until she was pressed against my chest.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, and bent down to kiss her again.