She ran straight at me, not giving a damn that everyone knew her intentions.
Her desperate need to save her mate was making her reckless.
As she jumped at me, I tapped into my wolf, allowing her to control me while in human form.
Emma, move. Aidan was only two feet away, but he was still too far to do anything given how quickly this was going down.
Just as she leapt and was in midair, aiming for my neck, I pivoted, wrapped my arm around her, and threw her to the ground. I interlocked my arms around her neck and positioned her with her legs pointing away from my body to keep her from slashing me with her claws.
She thrashed and kicked, but I increased the pressure around her neck until she began to weaken.
The chained wolf kept trying to lunge at me, but the chains held strong.
“Holy shit, she took a wolf down in human form,” Beth said, her voice full of awe.
The fight soon left the white wolf, and he fell to his belly. He whimpered as he watched me, completely helpless.
After a few seconds, the girl passed out and stopped moving. Once I knew she wasn’t pretending, I released my hold and stood. “Let’s get them in the house. We’ll force them to shift. It’s time to get answers.”
Chapter Nine
Aidan and Samuel dragged both wolves inside the house while Beth and I grabbed two kitchen chairs to restrain them in.
I hated doing this, but both were being irrational and scared, which was not a good combination.
“I’m not sure this is smart if you want them to work with you.” Coral chewed on her bottom lip as she glanced at the wolves passed out on the floor.
“You do remember they attacked us less than ten minutes ago?” Aidan growled and jerked his head in her direction. Blood coated his shirt where the guy’s claws had dug in. “Would you like to open us up to another attack?”
“He’s right.” Amethyst cupped her elbow with a hand. “We can’t risk them attacking again, which they would, given the opportunity.”
“Can one of you make them shift back so we can get them in the chairs?” I hated to ask since they were already struggling with the capture, but my witch magic hadn’t been released.
“Yeah, I can.” Amethyst lifted her hands.
After a few seconds, the two bodies began to shake. They had to be repelling the magic.
The ground underneath them shook, and something iridescent coated their fur, making it shiny.
“What the hell—” My words cut off as magic coated their bodies and their fur retracted. We hadn’t seen the other guy change back at Blue Ridge. We’d come in after he was in human form, so I’d had no clue this was what the person had gone through.
Their bodies convulsed as their bones cracked, forcing them back upright. The wolves levitated as the hair disappeared.
It was awful to watch. No wonder the witches weren’t keen on doing this. I closed my eyes and turned into Aidan’s chest, needing him to block the image from my head.
He wrapped his arms around me, but the cracking noise was almost as bad. It wasn’t like a normal shift where the body was open to it; it was literally forced. I hadn’t expected it to be different.
Soon, the house stood still once more, and the girl’s cry filled my ears.
“We need to lock them up now.” Samuel’s urgent voice broke me from my horror.
I pulled away as Aidan rushed to grab the man while Samuel handled the girl.
“Emma and Beth, get the chains,” Aidan ordered. “Coral, get something to cover them.”
Coral ran to the bags that were still by the door and opened hers. “I think she should fit in my clothes, and I’ll grab a pair of Samuel’s pants.”
Shit, I needed to get my act together. I couldn’t be this way. I had to be stronger.
I retrieved the chains by the door and gave one to each guy. Beth stood between the two chairs to help the guys re-chain them.
Coral tossed some pants at Amethyst and said, “Put those on him.” She then dressed the girl in pajamas.
As soon as she was dressed, Samuel picked her up and put her in the chair.
The girl’s head hung, her black hair covering her face. Her skin was a paler olive like mine. As Samuel chained her hands, I went to her left side and moved her hair.
Her birthmark was similar to mine, but it only contained the lines for the right upper vertex of the star.
At least, it hadn’t taken us long to find her.
“Don’t touch her,” a raw, raspy voice threatened.
I turned to see the guy awake and, thankfully, not naked. Luckily, Aidan had already secured his arms and was binding the bottom part of his legs because the guy grabbed for me, but the chains restrained him.
“Will you chill out?” Beth smacked the guy in the back of the head.
A snarl escaped him with hate clear in his eyes.
“I don’t think that was an effective method.” Coral chuckled.
“Both of you, stop.” I tried to keep the smile from spreading across my face. It was so inappropriate with two people chained up after being forced back into human form. They were miserable.
Aidan got in the guy’s face, showing him no fear. “Who are you?”
I wasn’t sure how he’d managed that. The guy was scary as hell. His hair was almost white, but he had to be around our age—at the most, early twenties. A huge scar ran down from his right ear to his nose and was set deep in his cheek. His light blue eyes were nearly as white as his hair.
“Like I’m going to tell you shit.” Spit flew from his mouth. “You’re all going to pay for this.”
“There are six of us against two of you.” He wasn’t thinking logically, so I was forced to help him think it through. “Three witches and three wolves. Do you really think you stand a chance?”
“Oh, there’s one way to make him squeal.” Aidan walked over to the girl and grabbed a fistful of her hair.
“Don’t fucking touch her.” The guy jerked toward Aidan, almost tipping the chair over.
You aren’t going to hurt her. Us hurting her would not do me any favors.
Of course not, but I have to pretend like I’m willing to. Aidan’s voice was calm and collected. He’s the same as the assholes back home. He won’t tell you anything even if you hurt him.
Do you think he’s a member of The Hallowed Guild? If he was, why would he care about us hurting her? You’d think he’d be encouraging us to do so, but then again, mates trumped everything. That’s the only reason why Aidan and I finally made it back together.
I’m not sure, but if we go by Beatrice’s assumption, I’d say yes. Aidan lifted her head by the hair, causing her to stir.
“I said leave her alone.” Desperation was clear in his eyes as he tried to reach Aidan once more.
“Who are you?” Aidan’s tone was low.
Maybe we could play the good-cop, bad-cop angle. “Look, we don’t want to hurt her or you.” I lifted my hands up placatingly. Hell, I had no clue what I was doing. It was called winging it for a reason. “It’s just … we think she may be in danger.” That wasn’t a lie, and my scent would let him know that.
“You’re the ones who restrained her in a chair.” He scowled, and his freaky-as-hell eyes met mine. “So … I’m thinking you’re the reason she’s in danger.”