Chapter Three: Mason

"You're not worth it!" Tamsin turned and walked away from the tavern. And from him.

She has no idea that we are mates.His wolf hung his head in sorrow. She can't feel it like we do.

No, she does not. To her, we are only the person who tried to kill her, Mason replied. The person responsible for her being stuck on her own for five years.

So she thinks,his wolf said. Perhaps it's time you set her straight on that.

No, Mason said. Not yet. We need to be careful what we say to her. We can't let her, or anyone else, know that we are mates. It will only make things worse. The prophecy says that the union of a wolf from the DuskWood Pack and a witch from the DawnLight Coven will bring about the fall of both, and maybe even worse. We don't want to kick the hornet's nest anymore.

Humpff, his wolf grumbled.

What?Mason did not like the tone of his wolf's humpff. It usually meant trouble.

I am sure that the tavern knows we are mates. And the witch, Morwenna, his wolf added. Us not telling Tamsin may do more harm than good.

The tavern? Mason chewed it over for a moment. Maybe…we've heard the rumors as much as anyone else. But Morwenna? How could she know?

The same way she knew Tamsin and that other guy were about to appear out of nowhere. Do you think it's a coincidence that she was in there, moving the furniture out of the way right before Tamsin appeared?his wolf asked.

No, of course not… Then he paused. But how could she have known? Mason asked as he strode after his mate, who seemed to be heading somewhere with a purpose. He was sure she didn't want him to follow, but he was going to anyway.

I don't know, but there's something that she's not letting on, his wolf said. Maybe the tavern brought us and Tamsin here tonight because it knows we're mates.

Even if that was the case, why now? Mason did not like the idea of being a pawn to the prophecy once more.

I don't know…there must be a reason. What about Kengar, the orc who was picked up from some distant land in a time of need just to meet Nyara? his wolf mused. Perhaps Tamsin needs us. We did just save her life thanks to the tavern, after all.

Not that I'm sure she sees it that way. Mason gritted his teeth. The thought of how she might think about them had kept him awake on many a night, and now to see the anger she held toward him made him all the angrier at their circumstance. It's no matter now, though.

"What are you doing?" Tamsin swung around and confronted him, her eyes ablaze.

Damn if she wasn't the most incredible thing he had ever laid eyes on. How had he managed to ignore their connection for years? And then managed to bury his feelings for her when she disappeared? He only realized now as he looked at her under the dim streetlights how dull and lifeless the world had felt without her in his life.

Because if we hadn't, we'd have gone insane, his wolf reminded him.

"I'm coming with you," Mason said in answer to his mate's question.

"No, you are not." She put her hands on her hips and thrust her chin forward. "You are going wherever wolves go. And I am going...somewhere else."

He could understand her trepidation, her anger toward him, but she had no idea how much danger she was now in. For now, no one else knew Tamsin was back. But soon, word would spread and danger would rear its head once again.

Tamsin might not be the only one in danger,his wolf grumbled. Once word of her return gets out...

I know.Mason could only imagine the wrath of his father when he found out his son had lied to him. He doubted Lyril would care that Mason had only betrayed the pack because Tamsin was his mate.

"I..." Before he finished his sentence, a rope snaked out from a nearby doorway and curled around his foot. With a jerk, it hoisted him up into the air and wrapped itself around a sign for Cobblestone Cobblers, leaving him dangling upside down.

Tamsin stared at him for a moment, and he was certain he saw hesitation in her eyes before she turned away, leaving him swinging in the breeze.

"Hey!" he called after her, but she ran on without a backward glance. "You don't know…" But she was already out of sight and out of earshot.

If I had to guess,his wolf said, I'd say she doesn't like us much.

Humpff, Mason grunted as he swung back and forth, reaching for the end of the sign so he could hoist himself up. As he worked, he kept his shifter senses trained on his mate as she headed toward the outskirts of town.

I think we both know where she's going,his wolf said.

And we both know it's not safe for her out there.Mason doubled his efforts to free himself. His mate's life depended on it.

The sign for the cobblers creaked and groaned under his weight as he swung harder and harder, reaching his arm up to grab the sign, but the rope was slightly too long, so he couldn't reach the sign when he lifted his arms. Finally, after several frustrated minutes, he managed to get hold of the rope around his feet.

If the DawnLight Coven knows Tamsin is back in Wishing Moon Bay, they might be looking for her. His wolf's tone was urgent.

We can't let them find her.

Nor can we let them find us like this. His wolf closed his eyes and focused. I can't sense anything right now, but there's no telling when they will turn up, riding on their broomsticks or however those witches get around these days,

I'm going as fast as I can!

Mason climbed hand over hand up the rope toward the sign for the shop, his body beginning to cramp up from both the strain and the awkward way he had to bunch his body up as he finally grabbed hold of the cold metal that he had been tied to.

He didn't pause for a breath or to rest his aching muscles. Instead, he hooked one arm around the sign, and with the other worked at the knot, but no matter how much he tugged and pulled, it would not loosen.

She's good, Mason said. We didn't even have time to react, and I can't undo this.

We're going to have to. And fast. She's already so far away. His wolf paused. Let me try.

All right.

Mason shifted. For a moment he hoped that the rope would not be tight enough to hold his wolf, but he felt it tighten as his leg was replaced by the lithe leg of his wolf, who had both of his paws hooked around the shop sign to keep them up.

He sank his fangs into the rope and quickly gnawed through the fibers. Before they knew it, they were once again shifting as they fell through the air, and Mason landed heavily on his feet, shaking off what was left of the rope.

Now let's find her.

As he straightened up from the cobbled street, he paused and pushed out his senses. Searching, not for his mate, but for anyone who might be out there.

Like our father, his wolf said.

If he finds her before we do, there is no telling what will happen,Mason said. Even more so than if her coven finds her first.

But how will he know? His wolf raised his head and sniffed the night air. She has only just arrived. Surely only us and Morwenna know she is in town.

I don't know,Mason said. But he sure does have a knack for knowing things he should not.

Like how he learned our mate was the one mentioned in the prophecy, Mason's wolf said mournfully. He never did explain who told him.

Yes. There were plenty of things about that night that bothered Mason. But he'd never pushed for answers in case he raised Lyril's suspicions.

But maybe it was a conversation he needed to have with his father. First, however, he needed to make certain Tamsin was safe. Mason took off at a jog, his feet echoing through the empty streets as he followed his mate's scent that lingered tantalizingly in the air.

It would be dawn in a couple of hours. He needed to get Tamsin somewhere safe, out of sight before then.

And how do you propose to convince her to go anywhere with us?his wolf asked. She's obviously not very keen on us, and for good reason.

And likes to remind us at every opportunity, Mason replied dryly as he ran down the main street. Every one of the occasional headlights that passed him made his hackles rise. Every driver could be a coven or pack member, someone who would recognize Tamsin, or Mason, and ask him what he was doing running about town in the middle of the night.

She does, doesn't she? His wolf chuckled, despite the seriousness of the hunt to track their mate.

Her scent was becoming stronger as the houses thinned out and the street became wider. She was moving fast, but he was faster. And by the time he reached the edge of town, he didn't need to track her anymore. He had suspected her next move, but now he knew exactly where she was going.

The ancient oak tree that had stood in the silver glade for almost as long as the DuskWood Pack had warred with the DawnLight Coven. Perhaps war was too strong a word. But ever since that damn prophecy was written, they had been at odds with each other—in other words, time immemorial. The warning contained in the prophecy passed down from generation to generation that one day a witch from the coven and a wolf from the pack would come together and somehow bring about the end of both. Although, the exact details had been a little murky until Tamsin found a lost scroll that set out the prophecy in black and white.

And in some way, sealed her own doom.

Who says it's even true?Mason asked shortly.

Are you willing to risk everything to find out? his wolf asked.

And the alternative? Mason asked.

Is not worth contemplating,his wolf replied as they shifted.

They left the glimmering street lights behind them as they loped over open ground toward the forest. It was dark beneath that thick canopy during the lightest days, and so at night, it would be all but impossible to navigate, unless you knew the way. And despite the relationship being tense between his pack and the coven for as long as history remembered it, all pups were taught the way to reach the glade, hidden within the dense forest.

What if The Lonely Tavern brought Tamsin back to Wishing Moon Bay and lured us there just so the prophecy could be fulfilled?Mason asked as he closed the distance between him and his mate.

So, you do believe the tavern knows we're mates?his wolf asked.

Maybe not the tavern itself, Mason replied. But the witch, Morwenna. You must have felt it, too.

Her magic? his wolf asked.

We have lived our whole lives in Wishing Moon Bay. We have witnessed all kinds of magic. We've felt it flow through the air, through the very fabric of all living things...

But we have never felt anything so ancient as Morwenna's magic, his wolf finished.

Yeah. It's not even just when she casts spells. There's just this aura around her, around the tavern, Mason said. And then when she does use her magic—

To save her furniture,his wolf chuckled.

It's not funny, Mason replied.

No, but I believe that although Morwenna knew something was coming, I don't think she knew what was coming, his wolf said.

You don't think she knows about the impending prophecy? Mason asked as they neared the edge of the forest, a great wall of trunks and low branches.

She either doesn't know or doesn't care,his wolf said as they slipped between the giant trees, along the hidden passage known only to a few.

And yet she insisted we leave together, with our mate. Even though us and Tamsin being together is the very thing that could destroy...

He stiffened. There, up ahead. He could sense Tamsin as she headed for the ancient oak, but he could sense someone else, too.

Someone who knows Tamsin is back in town?his wolf asked, his hackles rising.

We never did find out what exactly happened to her after that night, Mason said.

Or who was responsible,his wolf said.

Although they had their suspicions.

There had been another witch there, a young witch who went by the name of Sophie, but there had also been something, or someone else. They hadn't sensed them, but there had been a scent on the air. The aroma of old flowers, that had once been sweet, but had been held onto too long and started to sour.

But it wasn't Sophie, or whoever he'd scented that fateful night who was waiting for Tamsin at the ancient oak tonight. No, the person they could sense was powerful and all too familiar and set his hackles on their ends.

Mason raced on, picking up his pace as he leaped over thick gnarled roots and slipped between gaps in the trees. He needed to make sure she was safe. He needed to hear what was said.

Tamsin was close now, nearing the edge of the glade, just up ahead.

But then he sensed she had stopped.

Mason slowed, his senses on full alert. Had she sensed danger?

Had she sensed him?

He moved, making sure he stayed downwind of her.

There she was. He caught a glimpse of her through the trees, hunkered down, staring at something ahead. Toward the glade.

Voices. He crept closer, keeping low as he circled around the glade to get a look at who was there.

And what he saw froze the blood in his veins.

The leader of the DawnLight Coven. Guinevere Gwilym. Talking to none other than the alpha of the DuskWood Pack. Lyril, his father.

How had he not he sensed Lyril? He knew his father well enough to sense him from this short distance, surely.

Mason narrowed his eyes, squinting into the dim light from magical stones hanging from the colossal boughs of the old oak tree in the center of the moss-covered glade. There was something odd about the figure of his father. He was slightly transparent, as if born of smoke, drifting lazily in the air from the burning incense at the base of the tree.

A communication spell, his wolf said with distaste. He's not really here.

What could he possibly want to talk with Guinevere Gwilym about? He has always maintained that there was to be nothing by animosity between us. Mason kept low as they stalked just a little closer through the thick undergrowth. If they could not sense their father, he would not be able to sense them, and so he allowed himself to focus on their words.

And the topic of that conversation?

Tamsin. More precisely, Tamsin's return to Wishing Moon Bay.

And their need to kill her.