Colton’s head spins back out to where he gazed before, and it immediately silences him. His gaze narrowing to a scowl and a low snarl emits from his deep throat like a vibration.
What is it? What can you see?
I look too, my senses on high alert and body prickling as I can still feel the vampires in the distance and now feeding from his burst of hostility. The downside to my blood being part theirs, is since I opened my gifts, I can always feel them whenever they’re close. Mixed with my mate’s emotions, it’s making me feel nauseous and faint.
It’s a witch… let’s go. Move, catch up with the pack. We shouldn’t linger alone; I need to protect you.
Colton’s words are heavy and laced with anger, yet also worry. When it comes to protecting me, he takes zero chances and is most definitely overprotective.
I don’t argue but instead I trust his instinct and turn, pick up my paws and run like the wind, back in the direction we came from. I can feel him close behind me, always staying steps behind even though I know he’s faster than me at a sprint. He’s staying back in case we are followed by whatever he thinks is out there, because he never stops shielding me.
Not that I need it. As far as powers go, Colton sometimes needs me to look after him. As my gifts grew and I began to hone them over the months I found just how powerful I can be.? Almost like sliding into a warm bath after a long hard day: it both set me free and rejuvenated me. From the first moments of the gifts being free I learned how to use them almost like a forgotten memory and even he admits that I can be way more useful than him at times.
Colton is having a harder time with his witch gifts though. So long repressed and so at odds with how he was raised. He is a warrior, and a fighter, but his witch side is to heal, nurture, care, much like his mom and to avoid conflict. So at odds with who he is. He has visions, dreams sometimes, that he cannot separate from fantasy or reality as he tries to navigate what they mean and what he’s to do with them. It frustrates him on so many levels, being a guy who likes to have all the answers to all life’s problems. He hates puzzles and trying to read meanings through vague images. Sierra is trying to expand that ability but sometimes Colton is too rough and ready to sit down and center himself to his peaceable side long enough to do much about it.
We run back the several miles we covered in the hunt, until the homestead looms ahead, high on a hill over the next mound of treetops like a welcome calling haven. We don’t let up and can sense the closeness of the others rounding in as we get home to our safety net.
Why would they have a witch out here?
I ask innocently as we slow our paces to a trot and move to the clearing that opens out before we hit the new village we built around and behind the homestead to accommodate our pack. It’s been a busy few months of creating a proper habitat for our growing pack to live, and as the houses come into view behind the tall cage fences, I relax and start to walk. We’re close enough now that the other patrols in the pack will still be circling, and we no longer have to watch our backs. We’re within the perimeter of our safe haven.
You heard my mother, she told us that some of the witches joined forces with the vampires in this fight and are only too happy to see the downfall of the wolves. Some of them feel wronged by us. I guess, this is the first of them showing up to prove her right. It’s been months of sporadic attacks that never succeed. Maybe they think a witch on side might give them an advantage since their weapon is all but useless now.
I don’t respond as a cold chill runs through my stomach and I glance back into the dense darkness and try to feel anything beyond the tree line. There is nothing, they never followed us back in here, but the uneasiness that I picked up first is still there. Almost like we’re being watched. I shudder in subtle fear at the thought of what might be out there. Trying not to let my mind run riot and imagine the worst.
Don’t! Colton nudges my face with his nose, reading my mind, and pushes me away from where I’m staring, breaking my train of thought.
Let’s go inside and change, clean up, and eat. Forget it for now and we’ll talk to my mom in the morning. We’re safe within these boundaries, even from witches.
His tone tells me he’s worried about what we felt out there too but he’s being his usual self. Solid, commanding and like nothing gets to him. He is brushing aside the current problem, and shelving it until after we eat and sleep, when I know Colton does his best thinking. He’s a dawn riser and uses the quiet time to figure things out. We’re all tired and it’s almost morning as it is.
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