3. Kirsten

As we crested the hill leading to Jace's house, I spotted what remained of my car. It was bent, cracked, dented, and warped, and sitting on flat tires in his yard.

"Oh my god," I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth. "How did you get it here?"

"A few of the guys in town run a towing service and garage. They hauled it up from the side of the road and brought it here. I wanted you to see if there was anything you needed before they started to work on it. I don't think it's totaled, but we'll have to wait until they take a look."

He was right. For having rolled down a hill, it mostly looked like superficial damage to the fiberglass, plastic, and glass on the outside.

"Thanks," I muttered. "I appreciate it."

After Jace parked the truck, I got out and walked to my car, then opened the trunk. It only opened halfway; the frame was bent and wouldn't allow it to open wide. My suitcase and the boxes I'd packed up were still there, though the boxes had opened and spilled their contents around in a chaotic display.

"Looks like it's all still here," I said.

Jace walked over and reached in, pulling my suitcase out. "I'll have some guys head to the cabin and get anything else you might need. If you end up needing something that you forgot about, I'll send you with an escort or have them head out to grab it."

I frowned. "Really? An escort? At the cabin? Isn't that the safest place I could be with the ward around the perimeter?"

Jace shook his head and put the suitcase down. "At the cabin, you'll be safe. I'm not worried about that. It's the traveling to and from there that worries me."

"You think they'll try to take me again?"

"I wouldn't put it past Eren. If there's one thing I know about him, it's that he hates not getting what he wants. The fact that you escaped with almost no help from me or my pack will send him into a frenzy. Honestly, I'd kind of like to be a fly on the wall at his place right now. I'd pay good money to watch him throw his tantrum."

My memory flashed back to my escape. Eren chasing after me as I ran to the garage. The blood-smeared face twisted with rage like a spoiled child who didn't get the gift he wanted and wanted the world to know how upset he was. Yeah, he'd be throwing a temper tantrum right about now. If I had to guess, there were some fist-sized holes in the walls of Eren's house.

"Would they risk coming that close to your pack lands, though?" I asked. Surely, even as angry as Eren was, he couldn't be that stupid. "Won't he try to stay away?"

The look on Jace's face told me everything I needed to know. His eyes darkened, and he glanced over his shoulder in the general direction of Scottsdale. "I wish that were true. If I had to guess, he'll be watching every move you make. Hell, he may have people hiding in the woods around the cabin now, watching and waiting for you to return."

A shiver traveled up my spine. I imagined hungry eyes watching me through the trees as I walked up the steps to the porch.

"While you are under my protection, your cabin is still outside my pack land jurisdiction," Jace said. "Technically, I can't tell him to stay off that land. As long as they aren't on your cabin's property or my land, they're free to come and go as they please. They can basically stalk you all they want."

The disgusting feeling of helplessness settled over me, but my slide into angry depression halted when I suddenly realized what Jace was trying to say.

"Wait." I looked at him, brows furrowing. "Are you saying I need to move in with you?"

"Well, yeah. I thought that was obvious."

All I could do was sputter, half-formed words and phrases tumbling from my mouth in fits and starts before I finally found my footing again.

"Hang on, I did not agree to this. Moving in together is…" I raked my hands through my hair. "God, it's a pretty big deal. That's not something to decide on the spur of the moment."

"True," Jace agreed. "But this is not a normal situation. There are bad people after you. You were kidnapped today, for fuck's sake. You're still learning about your magic and figuring out how to control it. Can you honestly say that if Eren and his goons somehow got past your ward at the cabin, you could fight them off by yourself?"

I opened my mouth to say exactly that. I could tell Jace about how I blasted the hell out of both Eren and Poli, that I was strong and could defend myself. Then I remembered my failed attempt at trying to melt the second doorknob during my escape. I couldn't explain where the spells I'd used against the two men had come from. If push came to shove, my instincts might take over, but that was a hell of a gamble to make with my life.

"I'm not saying you can't handle yourself or that you're weak," Jace said quickly before I could come up with a rebuttal. "What I'm saying is, you need to be in the safest place possible. You need to stay sheltered while you learn how to access and control your magic. The safest place to do that is with me. Here."

Those were all valid points. Still, I didn't like that he was making such huge personal decisions without consulting me, even though his thinking was logical.

Before I could argue further, Waylan came running from the house. He'd arrived before us due to our little talk at the side of the road on the way back. He had a phone to his ear and looked utterly terrified.

He spoke into the phone as he hurried toward us. "Yes, ma'am. I understand… yes ma'am… I'm sorry, I won't call you ma'am anymore."

He held the phone out to me as he approached. Confused, I took it from him. It took me a moment to realize it was my phone. Jace's men must have found it in the car after the wreck.

"It's your friend. She called your phone a few minutes ago. I, uh, gave her a rundown on what happened," Waylan said sheepishly, then hurried away.

"Oh, shit," I muttered and put the phone to my ear. "Harley?"

"Holy fuckingshit, Kirsten. What the hell is happening? I call to check on you, and some dude answers, tells me you were kidnapped? Please tell me this is a joke. Please."

A weary sigh escaped my chest. "I wish it was. Some assholes ran me off the road and took me—"

"Who are they?" Harley hissed, cutting me off. "I'll castrate every one of the pieces of shit. Have you called the cops?"

That was an interesting question. We hadn't. From what little I knew about shifters, most of the packs handled law enforcement on their own. Local districts did almost nothing in the way of investigation, leaving that to the alpha of the pack. But I was a human—er, well, a witch now—but still. Did that mean the cops needed to be informed? Would they arrest Eren, or would they say it was a pack matter since I was Jace's mate? That was something I'd need to ask Jace.

"No, I'm fine," I said to Harley. "I got away. I'm with Jace now. I'm safe."

Harley grumbled. "I'm booking a flight as soon as I'm off the phone with you. I'll be there tomorrow morning."

I blinked in surprise. "Harley, you don't need to do that. I'm serious."

"Nope. Not listening. My best friend was attacked and abducted. If you think for a single moment that I'm not about to come down there and raise almighty hell, you've got another think coming."

It would be pointless to argue. I'd known Harley for the better part of my entire life. Once she had her mind set on something, it was a done deal.

I looked at Jace. "Looks like I might be having company tomorrow. Do you have room for one more?"

The surprise on his face was only there for an instant before he nodded. "Uh, yeah. I have a few guest rooms."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," I said to Harley.

"Whew." She sighed, and when she spoke again, some of the tension had left her voice. "I'm still pissed, but I'm happy you're safe now."

"Me too. Listen, I need to get going. I'm trying to get settled. As you can imagine, it's been a rough day."

"No shit," Harley snapped, then she softened her voice, going quiet the way she used to do when we were teenagers and she wanted to tell me a secret. "Also, who was the guy who answered the phone? He sounds hot."

"Oh my god. Harley, I'm hanging up. Love you."

"Ugh, fine. Love you, bye."

"What was that all about?" Jace asked when I got off the phone.

"Overprotective best friend," I said. "And I couldn't ask for a better person to have on my side. Present company excluded, of course."

Jace shrugged. "Second place is better than last place, I guess. Come on, let me show you where you'll be staying."

He grabbed my suitcase and led me inside. So far, I'd only seen the lower level—the living room, den, and kitchen area. Following him upstairs, I realized it was a very big house. We passed a room that looked well lived in. I peeked inside and had no doubt it was Jace's bedroom. There was a masculine quality to the décor, and it just smelled like him. But to my surprise, he continued past that room to the next bedroom down the hall.

"Here we go," he said, setting the suitcase down. "Queen bed. Small closet, but it has an en suite bathroom. It was Shayna's room when she lived here. Before she found a mate." He looked at me quizzically. "Is everything okay?"

The confusion on my face must have been evident. I gestured to the hallway, pointing back toward his room. "I just sort of figured you'd have me bunk with you."

His smile slid away, replaced with an intense and dark stare. "Honestly? There's nothing I want to do more than to take you to my room, lock the door, and spend the next three or four hours showing you how sorry I am. Showing you in the best way possible."

The words, coupled with his hungry stare, sent a pulse of heat between my legs, and butterflies swirled in my stomach.

"But," he said, snapping out of whatever thoughts had been running through his head, "I think it might be better if you have your own space for a while. After how things went," he added. "The fight? I guess it would be good if we continued getting to know each other. I don't want to rush things. That's… well, that's what I did before. The last thing I want is to push too far, too fast again and have this fall apart for good. I do not want that to happen."

"I don't want to have that happen, either."

He smiled faintly. "Glad we're on the same page."

Harley's question sprang to my mind. "Are you gonna call the police?"

He gave me a weird look. "Doubtful."

"Won't they want to know about this?"

Grimacing, he sat on the bed. "It's hard to explain if you haven't lived in the shifter world your whole life. Laws for humans and shifters are pretty different."

"So kidnapping isn't a crime? What about murder?" I asked, incredulous.

"It's not that it isn't a crime. It's just that a couple hundred years ago, some laws were put into place that sort of gave us free rein to govern ourselves with little oversight. Alpha challenges, pack warfare, and skirmishes were far more common back then and part of our society. The government didn't think they could legislate that out of our nature, so they basically washed their hands of us. The only time they would interfere is if we harmed or put a human or a human's property at risk."

"I'm basically a human, though," I countered.

He bobbed his head. "True, but you're my mate. It's binding, especially since I publicly proclaimed it to the pack. In the eyes of the law, you're a shifter now, even though physically you aren't. We could call the cops, but they would tell us to handle it internally."

"Holy shit," I muttered.

"It's a lot to take in, I know. I'd hoped to give you a rundown on stuff like this slowly, but here we are." Jace put a hand to his head. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't even ask. Are you hungry? Did that asshole feed you anything? Some water or something else to drink?"

Drink? That reminded me of something else. Something even more important. The second vial of potion I'd given to Shayna. The one she was supposed to give to Jace.

"Hang on," I said and sat beside him. "Question. Did Shayna give you the–"

"The potion?" He nodded. "Yeah, she did."

"Did you take it?" At that moment, nothing else seemed to matter but his response.

"I did."

"And?"

"It definitely worked. I thought my pull toward you was strong before, but after taking the potion, the need to be near you grew even stronger. Like there was nothing more in the world I wanted than to have you in my arms. The curse is gone, and I can't tell you how free that makes me feel, but it also showed me that my desire to have you wasn't tied to the curse. You truly are my fated mate."

Hearing that had a strange effect on me. Relief was at the forefront, yes, but also a weird sense of pride. The potion had been successful. A potion I'd helped make. It was exciting.

On top of those feelings, another kind of excitement bubbled up within me. A happiness that I couldn't even describe. I'd hoped for this. Deep down, I'd wished that Jace and I really had been meant for each other.

The moment he told me he still wanted me after the curse had broken, I was surprised by how much I wanted him. Any doubts I might have had fled from my mind. Now that I was truly meant to be his changed things. It was somehow more real. Still, we would have to fix what had been broken. The fight that had sent me fleeing from Crestwood still lingered in the back of my mind. It clearly also lingered in Jace's.

"I need to shower," I said.

The expression on his face told me he didn't want to let me out of his sight, but he nodded. "I'll give you some time to get settled and freshen up while I make us something for dinner."

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. A gentle yet touching gesture that, had I been standing, would have made my knees weak. Without another word, he stood, stepped out, and closed the door behind him.

It was the first time I'd been alone and safe since before Eren and his men appeared as wolves on the road. Had that really only been this morning? If I hadn't known better, I'd have assumed it had been at least three or four days. For a few minutes, I simply sat there, letting it all sink in. Was this my life now? Seriously? It was like I'd fallen into someone else's world. Traded places with some woman in an action movie.

I showered for far longer than was necessary, but the hot water streaming over me was calming. Relaxing. I stayed under the spray, letting the heat turn my skin pink, until the water started to cool. After dressing, I went downstairs and found Jace at the stove. Waylan stood at the counter, chopping lettuce.

Seeing me, Jace gestured to the steaming pot on the stove. "I hope you like spaghetti. I didn't have much to work with. It's been a few days since I went to the store."

My stomach clenched and growled so loudly I was afraid Jace's shifter hearing would pick it up. "You could give me a bowl of cooked worms and I'd probably eat it," I said. "I'm starving."

"Oh, good," he said with a smile. "I freaked out when I saw how bare my pantry was. Have a seat. It's almost ready."

Waylan rolled his eyes. "‘Freaked out' is a mild way of putting it. Mr. Stone here, if you haven't noticed, likes two things above all others: fancy frou-frou coffee and cooking. When he realized he hardly had shit to make you a gourmet fucking dinner, I thought he was gonna have a panic attack."

Jace pulled a piece of spaghetti from the strainer and slung it at Waylan. The pasta slapped him across the face, sticking to the bridge of his nose.

"What the hell, bro?" Waylan chuckled as he pulled the spaghetti from his face.

"That's what you get for being an asshole. And stop talking shit about my coffee."

"What dude has a half dozen different things to brew coffee with?" Waylan asked, holding a hand out to me in a pleading gesture. "It's weird, right?"

Ignoring them, I took a seat at the bar, plucked a piece of buttered bread from a plate, and stuffed it into my mouth. A few minutes later, I had a massive salad and a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and cheese in front of me, along with a cold beer Jace had plucked from his fridge.

"God, I'm so hungry," I said as I dug into the salad.

Jace took a seat beside me while Waylan ate standing up. After a few minutes, Jace and Waylan shared a loaded look, and Jace cleared his throat.

"So, we need to talk."

I swallowed my bite and sighed. "Ugh. Four of the worst words in the English language."

"Not like that," Jace said. "We need to fill you in on what's about to happen."

"Shifter stuff," Waylan said through a mouthful of pasta.

"What kind of stuff?" I asked, already feeling the first tendrils of unease trickle into my mind.

Jace twirled his spaghetti around his fork. "I already told Eren I would challenge him, but I need to make a public announcement to the other alphas in the area."

"Why is that important? This doesn't concern them, does it?" I asked. Why would another alpha care that two others were at each other's throats?

"It's tradition," Waylan said.

Jace nodded in agreement. "But it also keeps the packs honest and helps maintain peace. If one alpha simply doesn't like another alpha, or is getting greedy for their land and people, they could just launch an attack. If that happens enough times, our society descends into chaos. Making a formal declaration of the challenge does multiple things. It ensures that whatever fight the alphas have against each other remains a one-on-one fight to keep innocent casualties at zero. It also informs the other alphas of an issue so they aren't totally caught off-guard by a fight."

"Also," Waylan added, pointing his fork at us, "the other alphas act as a sort of de facto judge and jury for the event."

"Judge and jury?" I echoed. "What would they decide? Aren't you two just fighting each other until one loses?" I still didn't like to think about the fact that this fight was supposed to be to the death.

"A neutral party, selected by the other alphas, will choose a time and date for the challenge," Jace replied. "They also act as an enforcer. If an alpha gets cold feet and decides not to arrive at the appointed time and day? That alpha forfeits the challenge and loses his place as alpha of his pack. It's an honor thing."

"That's kind of amazing," I said, and that was honestly the truth. Shifter culture was so different from human culture, it was like a whole other world. Magical, in a brutal and terrifying sort of way.

"Yup," Jace said. "It keeps everything nice and tidy."

"Does it have to be to the death?" I asked. "Can't you, like, get him in a headlock until he says ‘uncle' or something?"

"To the death," Jace and Waylan said in unison, looking utterly serious.

My appetite faded as my anxiety rose. I poked at what remained of my food. "I don't like it. The thought of you getting hurt makes me queasy. Though," I added with a sardonic smile, "I really doubt Eren has a chance in the world of beating you in a fair fight."

That made Jace grin, and Waylan rolled his eyes. "You can't say stuff like that," Waylan groaned, turning to put his bowl in the sink. "You're gonna give him an even bigger head than he already has."

"The challenge is not a sure thing," Jace said. "Eren could decline and revert to all-out war. Even a shitty alpha would choose the path that leads to the least amount of suffering for his pack. Eren is worse than the worst alpha, though. I could actually see him putting his own pack at risk to save his own ass."

I hadn't thought about that possibility. This entire struggle had been so focused on me, Jace, and Eren that I forgot there were hundreds of other people at risk, too. I recalled the young woman at the store when I'd first gone to meet Eren. She'd seemed nice and didn't deserve to have her life upended—or even ended—because some stupid witch decided to move into the neighboring town.

"What's wrong?" Jace asked. "I can tell you're upset about something."

"I don't want people getting hurt or dying because of me."

Jace covered my hand with his. "This came to a head because of you, but it's not your fault. This thing has been brewing for years. It's about Eren's disrespect for his pack, the hierarchy, and our rules and laws. He pushes everything to the limit for his gain. Everyone knew it, but we always looked the other way because it was always Eren being Eren. Deep down, most of us hoped he'd grow up one day and sort himself out. All this?" He waved his other hand around. "It shows that he never will and that he's a danger to not only us, but his own pack. He has to be dealt with before he goes even further."

"I don't even want to think about what he might try next," Waylan said. "The fake fire and kidnapping you is the most blatantly unlawful shit I've ever heard of an alpha doing, honestly. It would have been less of a slap in the face if he'd amassed his whole pack for a full frontal assault."

All this fighting and squabbling. If it went down the way Jace and Waylan said, it would get ugly. And then I'd be sitting here, doing nothing, like some Helen of Troy. If I wanted to help, I'd need to figure out how.

I was an eclectic witch. Tinsley told me that meant I could master any single type of magic I wanted and use others. That being said, I still didn't…

A new idea sprang to mind. There were dozens of shifters who could fight. They didn't need another warrior, even if she was a witch. What they needed was someone who could actually make a difference to the innocent people who might be hurt by all this.

"Why are you smiling?" Jace asked.

Snapped out of my reverie, I jerked my head up, my smile widening. "I think I finally know what kind of witch I want to be."