Nix perked up in my inner place where my wolves stay. I could feel her get to her feet and slowly prowl closer to the edge of my consciousness. The closer she got, the more she took over.
I could see the flash of my eyes on the cool dirt as Nix sat below the surface. My eyes had shifted. Since seeing her, she had become more powerful, and with the power came my understanding of her. I was able to picture her in my mind, and see her expressions. So when she lifted her brow expectantly, I looked behind me. What was she feeling? “No?” I was confused and my golden eyes helped me see further into the murk.
Magic, when we stumbled under the gazebo at first and when our foot touched down. No one but those your grandmother planned to be down here could be. The ripple was gentle, yet powerful. She was a strong witch.
“I felt nothing.” I rubbed my arms.
Yes, you did.
Megan’s soft voice called to me.
Think. When we first fell, the world seemed to stop for a second. And when we first came down, your skin pebbled. Even without knowing you felt something.
“Was that magic?” I still didn’t understand what I was supposed to feel. I still had yet to connect to nature, and half of my time here was already gone. I had barely scratched the surface, and I still had no way of protecting myself from Brandon. “What are we going to do? I have to go back in less
than a month, and we can’t hide our scent yet.” I breathed faster. My mind flashed back to the table and the pain of being cut into, smelling my blood tainted with silver, and seeing my pup for the first and last time. I wiped away a tear that fell. “I don’t know what to do.”
Calm yourself, we will figure this out together. The three of us.
Nix’s powerful voice called out as my foot hit the bottom step of a staircase.
I started up the stairs and finally pushed out of the tunnel into what I could only describe as a shallow cave cut into a cliff, but there were no cliffs by my father’s pack.
“Where are we?” My flashlight cut across the stone and I moved out toward the entrance. I slid out and somehow, at the edge of the sea. Waves crashed before the lip of the cliff, and I could see stairs cut into the left side heading up. So I followed. I walked up, slowly and carefully, mist hitting my face. I screamed as my foot slipped on some slick moss and I windmilled my arms to catch my balance. I pulled myself up to the top of the cliff, and there, at the edge of a clearing, was a small cottage that faced the sky.
It was stunning.
“This is impossible.”
Only if you think magic is a thing of myth.
Megan’s voice sounded, and I nodded. We followed the short path to the door and I pushed in. The world shifted, and it was like I was seeing one thing with one eye and something different with the other.
On one hand, the cabin looked perfect, everything was intact. I could walk in and see every piece of furniture and every dust mote as it danced by. On the other, the cabin was a burnt shell of its former glory, the ruins that lay tattered were charcoal black and crumbling. I pushed in through the wood door with a soft creak and kicked up a cloud of smoke and debris.
This dual vision was splitting in my mind. “What’s going on? How is this possible?” I pushed my way through the front room, feet squeaking on clean floors, and stumbling over rocks. “If either of you says magic again, I might scream.” Two sets of laughter followed my threat, and I knocked my hand against my temple. And the clean, perfect, homey cabin disappeared. Leaving behind the burnt shell of a home.
For that, I think you will have to ask the woman that sent you here. Only she will tell you.
Nix settled as the air wavered in front of me and the homey, plush living room was back. Only this time, there was laughter.
“Come, my darling boy, where did you go? Gran has you.” A dark-haired, blue-eyed boy with two missing front teeth ran into the room from the kitchen and a stunningly beautiful woman followed suit.
Her face held no wrinkles, but her hair was turning gray. It was uncanny, almost like looking into a mirror. Only her face was what I would look like in a few hundred years. Her eyes met mine, and she froze. The boy disappeared up the stairs, but she walked closer and raised her hand to cup my face. “How?”
“Places hold memories.” Her voice wavered. “You are stunning, my girl. I’m sorry I won’t be able to meet you in person, but I want you to know I love you with everything I am.”
“You know who I am?”
“You think I wouldn’t recognize my babe? Children of my line have my spark, and like recognizes like.” She leaned in. “You have had a hard road so far, but everything can be remade stronger. Roots can grow deeper. Paths change and grow.”
“Your home is…” I stumbled over my words as I looked around the homey cabin. The warmth that surrounded us flickered, and the burnt husk long blown out sat at our feet. I looked back at my grandmother as she looked around her home.
“Gone but not gone. What you see now is just a memory burned into the very ground I worked with my blood and tears. The ruins, the husk, are what is truly left. A sad testament to the love that burned here.” Her words were filled with sorrow, until a small giggle sounded from above us, and the cabin flickered back around us. Warmth once again slipping into place.
“What happened to it? How am I on a cliff by the sea, hundreds of miles away from the pack house?”
“I was never a pack animal, preferring my solitude. But magic can fold the very fabric of space, connecting one spot to another. I was able to have my solitude, but also my family.” She turned away and trailed her hands along the furniture and it all flickered, turning to ash in her wake. She twirled, kicking up a cloud so high I had to cover my mouth to breathe. “As to what happened here? It was the night of the attack. I felt wolves breached our borders, and I ran to save them. I fought to keep this space closed off, but as I fell, so did my defenses and someone found my tunnel.” She walked over and sat at the fireplace. The cabin flickered back into life, fire roaring and laughter coming from the stairs. “I watched as the person ransacked my home, and while your father was taking care of the pack, my house was burned.”
I watched a tear fall. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be darling girl. They didn’t find what they were looking for. What you are looking for. Now come, time is short and you have too much to learn.” She waved me over and patted a stone. I placed my hand on it and there was a flash. The stone was gone, and under it was a book. “Hurry, someone is hunting you and I can’t block him for long. You need to protect yourself.” Then, once again, I was alone, and the cabin, that was once so full of love, was just a crumbling ruin.
As I navigated back down the stairs and into the cave I was cautious. The stones slipped under my feet and the book was heavier than I expected. I had to maneuver myself and the ancient text in such a way to squeezed back through the entrance of the cave, and back into the tunnel. Once through, I had to take a second. My arms were screaming at me from the weight of the tome in my arms. As I started to run, a new foreboding grew, a random feeling like something was chasing me bubbled in my gut. But as I hit the bottom step of the stairs heading up, a howl ripped through the air, but it was unlike a howl I had ever heard before. Deeper, darker and somehow two toned. It made even Nix perk up and Megan hide.
“What the fuck is that?” I whipped around to face the way we had just come, but my flashlight showed nothing. “It sounded like it was right behind me.”
It came from far off.
Nix paced the edge of her home, brushing her fur against my side, calming me and herself with the contact.
“How did it reach me down here?” I whipped back and stumbled up the stairs.
It was that loud. Nix’s voice sounded a little breathless.
“Are you okay?” I paused with my hand on the door, and waited for Nix to answer. Another howl ripped down the tunnel, somehow louder. And Nix started to pant. “Nix? What’s going on here?”
I don’t know. But I can’t stop my reaction to the call. Move. Now. Before I cannot stop myself from keeping you here and waiting for the male that is calling for us.
Nix huffed and slunk back into the depths, forcing herself with every step.
Go now. He’s coming.
I pushed the hatch and slammed it behind me, running to the panel and pulling it back. I made sure everything was closed up before running straight back to the pack house. “Amy!” I looked over my shoulder as I burst through the back door and ran straight into Cass.
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply