5. Kirsten

Harley waited a full three seconds after the door closed behind Jace to turn to me. "Spill it," she said. "What's really going on here? You and Mr. Alpha Wolf are being weird around each other."

We hadn't had time to discuss everything that had gone down prior to my kidnapping. I sank onto a stool by the bar and took a second to compose my thoughts.

Harley took the seat opposite me. "I thought you and this dude were all hot and heavy?"

"We were." I sighed. "We had a fight." I rolled my eyes. "More than a fight. We basically broke up."

Harley's eyes widened, and she waved at the surroundings. "Um, I don't know if you know this, but people don't typically move in together after they break up."

"Don't be an asshole. I know. It's weird."

I filled her in on everything that had happened. The scene at the auditorium, Eren's appearance, the way the crowd reacted, Jace not going to bat for me, the whole thing.

"I even gave him a cure for his curse, and he threw the damn thing against the wall," I finished. "It was not a good time, and I just needed to get away for a while. Honestly, I don't think I'd have left forever. Too much was happening too fast, and I needed a week, maybe two, to think things over."

"And getting kidnapped and almost molested by a psycho gave you a change of heart?"

Glaring at her, I shrugged. "Maybe."

"So you guys are, what? Working it out?"

"I have no clue what we're doing," I admitted. "After I escaped Eren, I wanted nothing more than to see Jace. The moment I saw him, I ran right into his arms. And I knew then that I was finally safe. We had a moment in the car on the way home, too, a real connection, but then some of the awkwardness started to seep back in."

"No shit," Harley said. "That excuse of a hug before he left was embarrassing as hell to watch. You kind of left the big guy hanging for a second there."

"Ugh," I groaned, covering my face with my hands. "I'd hoped it wasn't noticeable."

"You failed. And if I noticed, he definitely did."

"Shit."

"Let's rewind," Harley said. "Where's your head at? Do you actually want a relationship with Jace?"

I almost said, "Of course!" But after reflecting on it a little longer, I realized the real answer was as ambiguous as my feelings.

"I'm not sure."

Harley nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. You haven't had the best of luck with guys. I get it."

That was putting it mildly. My whole life had been one disappointing guy after another, beginning with my own father.

"I'm worried that if I jump back into this, something will go wrong," I said. "Some of the trust we had is broken. If I did try again and it didn't work out, I'm not sure how I would handle that. I have to figure out if I can truly trust Jace. But I'm kinda stuck. I don't want to get close to him again until I trust him, but I need to get close to him to find out if I do trust him." I snorted. "It all sounds so dumb when I say it out loud."

"Here's my thought," Harley said. "Give him another chance."

"Really?" My eyebrows shot up. "Like that?" I snapped my fingers. "Go right back to him like nothing happened? That doesn't sound like the Harley I know."

Harley grinned and shrugged, nodding toward the door Jace had walked out of a few minutes before. "There's something about that guy… I don't know. I have a feeling about him. I'm pretty sure he's a great guy who'll take really good care of my friend. I can't explain it better than that."

Cocking an eyebrow, I said, "A feeling? Do you have the same feeling about Waylan?"

Waylan had drooled over Harley's picture, but he'd been absolutely punch-drunk at meeting her in real life. I hadn't been blind to him trying to catch glimpses of my friend as we drove home from the airport or how awkward he'd acted around her. For a guy who usually seemed so casual and sure of himself, it was a funny reaction.

After everything I'd learned about shifters, I wondered if, by some magical miracle, Harley might be Waylan's fated mate. It would explain his reaction to her. If that was true, though, it would be a bridge to cross later.

Harley barked out a laugh. "You mean the sexy chauffeur? The guy who could barely string two words together on a three-hour drive? That Waylan?"

"Yes, that's the one. I swear, he's usually much more charming."

Harley made a face I couldn't quite judge. Exasperation, maybe? "He's hot, yeah. Like really hot."

"But?"

"But I'm a city girl. You know that. I'm not in the market for a mountain man. Not in a small town like this. It would never work out. I like dinners at fancy restaurants and nice bars and concerts. Here? I'd be, like, field-dressing the deer he hunts, or plucking chickens or…oh, hell, I don't know what people do out here in the country, but it's not my speed." She winked at me. "A little vacation fling wouldn't be out of the range of possibility, though."

I chuckled, but I knew my friend as well as she knew herself. The one thing Harley craved was stability and a man who would take care of her. She'd dated everyone from lawyers to professional athletes, and all of them had been found wanting in one way or another. She wanted what they couldn't give. If Waylan had any sense in his head, he should show her what he was really like. If he did that, I had no doubt that the only reason Harley would go back to Houston was to pack her stuff and head to Crestwood for good.

Harley looked over my shoulder and frowned. "What the fuck?"

I spun on my seat to glance out the window. A blur of motion streaked past, followed by another. Wolves. From their coloring, I knew it wasn't Waylan or Jace. Maybe the betas Jace said would be coming to guard the house? My magic surged in my chest and head. Did that mean danger? I was fairly certain it did.

Before I could voice my worry to Harley, a loud howl erupted from outside, sending goosebumps up my arms. The hard pounding of boots running on the wooden porch sent a shiver of fear through me, but when the door opened, I let out a sigh of relief. It was a member of the Crestwood Pack. I'd seen him in town but didn't know his name.

He plowed through the door, panting, and closed it behind him.

"Miss Holly," he said.

"What's going on?" I demanded as I stood.

Grimacing, he tilted his head. "A little issue, but we've got it handled."

"Stay here," I said, looking at Harley. Thankfully, she looked too confused and scared to argue.

I stalked to the door, but the man moved to block me. "No, ma'am. Jace said to keep you inside if anything weird happened."

A gut-wrenching wolf howl sounded through the air again. It was the sound an animal would make as it lay dying.

"Let me see what's happening," I demanded.

"It's being handled, miss. It'll be okay."

"What's being handled, damn it? What's going on out there?"

The guy's eyes darted around nervously, and he let out a hiss of breath through gritted teeth. "It's a little—"

A yelp of pain from outside cut him off, and he jerked his head around, obviously recognizing the wolf who made the sound.

"Ah, shit. Hang on. You two ladies stay here," he said, rushing rushed back out the door.

He swung it closed behind him, but I grabbed it before it could latch and looked out. My jaw fell open. Two wolves thrashed about on the grass out front. One, a brown wolf, had a huge gash in his right shoulder, the skin hanging off in a three-inch strip like someone had taken a filet knife to it, exposing the muscle beneath.

The other wolf snarled and snapped at the injured wolf, trying desperately to latch its teeth onto his throat. Our guardian sprinted down the porch. Leaping off the top step, he shifted in mid-air and joined the fight. Another wolf lay on the ground, this one motionless, its chest still. Dead?

Yelps and growls pulled my attention back, and the two Crestwood wolves finally did enough damage to send the other wolf racing away. Harley joined me at the door, looking out upon the devastation in the yard.

She gasped. "Oh my god."

The Crestwood wolves shifted back. The man who had told us to stay inside towered over the smaller, injured man who lay on the ground. The wound had looked bad on his wolf form, but it looked absolutely horrendous on his human body. The skin from his collarbone to his shoulder hung in a ragged strip. Even his enhanced pain threshold and healing didn't do enough to keep the tears of pain out of his eyes. He thrashed around, moaning incoherently.

"Stay there," the big man said, holding a hand up like a stop sign.

I ignored his growl of protest as I hurried down the steps to the injured man. As I did, I glanced at the dead wolf on the ground. Its sightless eyes stared up at the sky, glazed and empty. I prayed he was one of Eren's. Jace would be devastated if he knew one of his men had died.

Dropping to my knees beside the injured man, I looked up at the other guy. "What's your name?"

He blinked. "Uh, Tank, er—" He winced and shook his head. "Hank. My name's Hank, but everyone calls me Tank."

"All right, Hank the Tank," I said. "Get down here and put pressure on this wound."

Thankfully, he obeyed. As he knelt, I noticed he sported several deep gouges himself. Two puncture wounds on the side of his neck made me think he'd been close to having his throat torn out.

"I'm going to help out," I said.

"We'll heal," Hank said. "Don't worry about us."

The blood pouring from the other man's wound said differently.

"He's going to bleed out before he can heal. I can help him," I said, though, deep down, I wasn't a hundred percent sure I could deliver.

Tank's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and he glanced down at his friend. "Kyro's gonna die?"

The man on the ground looked up with surprised eyes just as blood spurted from his chest in an arc.

Great job, Tank, I thought.

"You'll be fine," I said, patting the man's thigh.

When I told Jace I knew what type of witch I wanted to be, it hadn't been a spur-of-the-moment decision. I'd thought through the options since Tinsley had told me about the different witches. In the end, the choice was clear. My whole life had been about caring for people. After high school, I'd debated between two careers: medicine and education. I'd chosen education simply because I didn't think I could handle the mental load of working to save people's lives and still having to watch a number of them die. Now that I had magic to draw from and more options, I wanted to focus my talents on healing. Being a healer meant I could give Jace's pack something no one else could.

"Just breathe deep," I said, pressing my hands into the wound, pushing Tank's aside.

The shifter, who looked like he couldn't be more than twenty years old, nodded and winced in pain as my palms pushed the flap of skin back into place and pressed down. The other wolf had nicked a blood vessel. Not an artery, thank God, otherwise he'd already be dead, but something important enough that blood pulsed in a steady stream from the wound.

Behind me, I heard Tank on the phone.

"Jace, you gotta get back here. Pronto, dude. Eren's guys showed up. They came rushing out of the trees like three seconds after you were out of sight. Kyro's hurt bad…"

I tuned out his voice and focused on the man beneath me. With every ounce of my being, I tried to access my magic like I had when escaping from Eren. Instead of offensive magic, I pictured healing energy seeping from me into the man. After several seconds, the stone on my neck hummed to life, sending warm pulses into the skin on my neck. A cool tingle shivered across my palms, like I'd plunged them into ice water.

Kyro gasped.

When the tingling stopped, I pulled my hands away, and the flesh had knitted back together, completely healed.

"That's freaking amazing."

I looked up to find Harley gazing down at Kyro's healed arm. I hadn't even heard her come over.

Kyro sat up slowly, running his fingers over his skin. "Holy shit, that's crazy." He smiled gratefully at me. "Thanks. Thanks a lot." He shot Tank a look of pure irritation. "And thank you for making me think I was gonna die."

Tank shrugged. "She said it first."

The sound of a truck moving like a bat out of hell caught my attention. It rounded the curve of the driveway so fast that the rear fishtailed. Two seconds later, the vehicle rocked to a stop, and Jace and Waylan leaped out of it to sprint toward us.

Jace shoved Tank in the chest. "Didn't I tell you to make sure Kirsten stayed inside if anything bad happened?"

Tank, who actually towered over Jace by a foot, flinched back and bowed his head. "I'm sorry—"

"Don't yell at him!" I shouted. "I came out on my own. He was busy trying to save us."

Jace looked at me like I'd gone insane. "Why would you come out? There was a fight happening."

I gestured to Kyro. "He was badly injured. I couldn't just sit inside until you got here. I had to help him."

"She healed me," Kyro agreed. "She helped me, Jace."

His words sent a jolt of warmth through me and reinforced my belief that I'd done the right thing.

Jace ran a hand through his hair. "He probably would have healed eventually. It's what we do. I'd rather be sure you're safe inside."

"There was no way I could have known how bad it was. He was leaking blood like a sieve, writhing in pain, and I could help. So I did." I sat back on my heels and crossed my arms. "I'm not apologizing for helping one of your pack members."

Jace opened his mouth to argue some more, but Waylan stepped between us. Rather than making it look like he was blatantly trying to stop us from yelling at each other, he addressed Tank.

"What happened to Kyro?"

Tank heaved a sigh and gestured toward the trees. "Kyro and I were walking up to take a seat on the porch. You and Jace had just left. Like I told you, it was less than a minute or two after you were out of sight. Kyro froze, sniffed the air. Said he scented a shifter who wasn't from our pack. Before I could say anything, two wolves came bolting out of the woods like their tails were on fire and their heads were catching."

"They were out of their minds, Jace," Kyro said. He was still sitting on the ground. "Their eyes were crazed."

"I killed one," Tank said. "Then I ran inside to make sure Kirsten was okay and defend her if the other wolf got inside somehow. He got a good hit in on Kyro, so I came back out, fought him off, and he tucked tail and ran." Tank shook his head. "Even when he ran, I could see he didn't want to. It was like he wanted to keep fighting, even though he knew he was gonna lose. So much rage, man. I've never seen anything like it."

"Are they Eren's wolves?" I asked. I didn't know who else would have sent them, but I had to know for sure.

Jace walked over to the dead wolf and nudged it with his foot. "It definitely smells like one of his, but…" he trailed off and stared at the wolf for a few seconds, sniffing the air. "There's something weird about it. Off. It's stronger, somehow." Jace turned to Kyro. "Is that what you scented?"

Kyro got to his feet. "Yeah. I knew it wasn't one of ours, but it was a little weird. I can't quite place it."

"I know why," Waylan said, kneeling close to the dead body and taking a big whiff. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Shifters had increased senses like natural wolves, but still, the thought of sniffing a dead body made me want to gag.

"It smells feral," Waylan said.

Jace stiffened, then gave a slow nod of his head.

"Feral?" Kyro yelped. "Seriously? I've never met up with a feral wolf."

"It would explain why they fought like madmen," Jace said. "Because they were mad."

"What's going on here?" I finally said.

"I'm not sure," Jace said after exchanging another loaded look with Waylan. "But I'm gonna find out."

A hand on my shoulder almost made me jump, but it was just Harley. "Let's go inside," she said. "I need a nice strong drink after that."

Later that night, after the chaotic dust of the afternoon had settled and Jace, Waylan, and the two other men had disposed of the wolf carcass, I sat reading on the sofa in the living room. The sun had set as Harley and I ate a dinner of sandwiches and potato chips. After, she'd gone up to her room to rest and get settled in fully.

The front door opened, and I glanced up from the page to see Jace.

"Hey," he said, walking over. "I'm sorry about earlier today."

Holding my place with a finger, I laid my book on my lap. "You were kind of a dick," I said with a teasing lilt.

Jace slumped onto the couch. "I freaked the fuck out when Tank called. You have to see it from my point of view. The day after you're kidnapped, more shifters attack? At my own goddamned house? When I thought you might be in trouble again, that you could be hurt? I sort of lost it. I panicked, and when I got here and found everything all right, I… I had to get that nervous energy out somehow. I'm sorry. I apologized to Tank for shoving him." He rubbed his hand over his face, the stubble on his cheeks rasping. "That's not the kind of alpha I want to be. It's not the kind of alpha I am. I was scared. That's all."

"No, I get that. A lot happened today and yesterday. I know how stressed I am, so you feel the same." I leaned forward and put my free hand on his thigh. "But just because you're scared doesn't mean I have to stay in the background. I have skills, powers I'm learning to use. Powers that can help your pack. Like I helped Kyro today."

"I don't want you in danger again. All I want to do is protect you." He chuckled. "That's going to be hard with how stubborn you are."

"Is Kyro okay?" I asked.

Jace nodded. "Good as new. He had some other bruises and cuts, but those have pretty much all healed. He's really grateful to you. While we were, uh, cleaning up, he kept telling me not to be mad at you and how amazing you were."

More of that warmth washed over me. It reminded me of whenever one of my students had a breakthrough—finally learning something and mastering it, and me knowing that I'd helped them do it. That's what it felt like after I healed Kyro. Knowing that I'd helped him sent a thrill of such intense happiness through me that I had a hard time describing it.

I was meant to be a healer.

"I'm glad he's feeling better," I said. "I won't take back what I did—I can't. And if the same thing happens again, I won't hesitate to help."

"That's what I wanted to talk about," Jace said.

I stiffened, waiting for him to chastise me and tell me I needed to stay on the sidelines like a good little girl.

"I want to teach you some self-defense, if you're up to it. It would ease my mind a lot if you had that knowledge, along with your magic, to fight back if Eren or his goons show up again."

I blinked in surprise. That was not what I'd expected. Rather than telling me to hide so he could protect me, he wanted to teach me to fight? The idea was appealing, especially since I was still learning to control my spells and magic.

"That way, if I'm not around, or you get caught alone, you'll have as many tools as possible to fight back and help yourself. But"—he held up a finger, looking serious—"that's not going to happen. This is just a precaution because I damn well will make sure you're safe."

The urgency in his eyes told me just how terrified he was about something happening to me. It actually seemed like he might be more scared of me being taken or hurt than I was.

"I think that's a good idea," I said. "Especially if it will give you some peace of mind."

Jace's shoulders sagged in relief. He'd prepared himself for a fight from the looks of it. My quick acceptance had taken him by surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not? Maybe it'll be fun."

He sighed. "Thank you, Kirsten. You have no idea how much better that will make me feel. We can start tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

"Sure."

Jace reached forward, fingers grazing my chin as he cupped my cheek. My stomach did a happy little flip as he leaned forward. I parted my lips, ready for the kiss, wanting it, but instead, he angled his head upward. His lips pressed to my forehead.

I concealed my disappointment. I shouldn't have been surprised—I'd told him I didn't want to jump back into something. He was just doing what I'd asked. Still, my lips tingled at the thought of pressing against his.

Jace leaned back. "Good night. I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night."

Jace stood and walked toward the stairs. I watched him go, and despite everything, I felt the sting of rejection. Perhaps I should have initiated it. Then again, that would have given Jace mixed signals. I couldn't tell him I wanted to take it slow, only to turn it around and shove my tongue down his throat.

The novel in my hand suddenly seemed much less interesting. Carrying it up to my room, I put it on the nightstand and pulled my suitcase out. The books Tinsley had given me were nestled inside. If I was going to be a healing witch, then I had to start studying.

The first book had an entire chapter devoted to the subject. I spent the night devouring the information.