As we all clambered out of the vehicle, I asked the group of witches, “How did you know we were heading toward the coven?”
“Mom told me where it is,” Amethyst said as she shut her door and approached me. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, and her purple eyes seemed vibrant. “She visited here several years ago, and in case something happened, she gave me the address.” Her black sweater bunched at the shoulders as she pointed into the woods.
“Why are we surprised that witches are involved?” Logan grumbled as he held out his hand to help Gabby out of the car.
“I’m not handicapped, you know?” Gabby pushed his hand away and got out of the car. She pulled her light tan sweatshirt over her jeans and glared at him.
“I was being gentlemanly,” Logan growled, hurt reflected in his eyes.
He was trying to be a mate to her, but she wasn’t ready, and her wolf wanted to be strong. Maybe she was to be trying to prove something to us … or hell, maybe just to herself.
You might need to talk to him. They aren’t on the same page. In a way, their situation was quite the opposite of Aidan’s and mine.
Yeah, but you’ll need to talk to her too. Aidan stepped around the car and took my hand.
You’re right. It wasn’t just her working through stuff; he was too. He’d lost his pack and family from the sounds of it.
“What about me?” Beth climbed out of the car and placed her hands on her hips, glaring right at Logan. “You weren’t gentlemanly to me.”
“With a mouth like yours, I figured you didn’t need anyone’s help.” He lowered his chin to look down on her.
“Oh, dear God.” Samuel marched between them. “I don’t have the patience to deal with you two after what I had to attempt to sleep through last night.”
“And you aren’t even a wolf shifter.” Aidan closed his eyes. “So imagine how much worse it was for Emma and me.”
“Are we going to stand around and shoot the shit all day, or are we going to get moving?” Standing on the outskirts of our circle, Coral lifted both hands.
She was right. It was time to get moving. There was no telling what we’d have to deal with or how long it would take. “Let’s go.”
“Remember, we have to move slower.” Aidan nodded toward the witches. “They need to be able to keep up and not make any noise.”
“Got it.” Gabby took a few steps toward the woods.
“Wait … what if they have a perimeter spell?” If they were guarding something, it made sense that they would be protecting their space.
“Does it really matter?” Coral crossed her arms. “If there is a perimeter spell, are we gonna quit and head back home?”
“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there,” Aidan answered. “We won’t know how to react until we see how they take us being here.”
That was a good point. If they were angry, we’d have to deal with that differently than if they were annoyed. There were so many different scenarios, and we couldn’t plan them all ahead of time.
“Fine, but follow my lead.” Amethyst glanced at the wolves. “Got it?”
“Of course.” She was a witch and the next priestess of her coven, so they’d listen to her the most.
“No time like the present.” I let go of Aidan’s hand and led the group into the woods.
Our group moved slowly but steadily. The deeper we got into the woods, the more I expected to see animals running around or hear birds chirping, but it was silent. Don’t you find it odd that there are no animals around?
I led the pack, letting the pull take me to where the girl was, with Aidan right behind me.
His footsteps were silent as he linked back with me. Yeah, we need to be careful. Animals don’t run away from witches like this.
Unfortunately, they usually only ran away from predators, which would probably mean wolves. Do you think it might be The Hallowed Guild?
Maybe. Aidan paused. Most likely, but I don’t smell them.
That didn’t mean anything. I held up my hand, telling the others to stop. We need to alert them to the possibility.
Fine, but we have to be very quiet. Aidan turned around, and the eight of us huddled.
“There might be shifters nearby.” Maybe it was coincidental, but with our luck, it wasn’t.
“So what do we do?” Coral looked around as if she expected a wolf to attack us.
“You three stay here.” It was smarter to limit the number of those scoping the area to stay under the radar. The more we had, the more likely we’d be found. “The five of us will go check things out.”
“Why should you risk yourselves and not us?” Samuel frowned.
“Because we can hear and smell better than you.” Our senses were as strong in human form as in wolf form. It was part of being a shifter. The only advantage our wolf form gave us was in fights, and the whole point of this excursion was to prevent one.
“It’ll be fine,” Beth said, scanning our surroundings. “We know what we’re doing. Just stay put, and we’ll be back.”
“Maybe I should stay with them.” Gabby flinched like she hadn’t wanted to say that. “But what if the wolves found them unprotected?”
Dammit, I hadn’t even thought of that. “You’re right. If you’re okay with it, that would be perfect.”
Logan’s shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t say anything.
He couldn’t be thrilled with her staying back, but we would all have to be okay with our mates being in danger.
“Let’s go.” It sucked that we weren’t a pack, so mind linking wasn’t possible. There were several reasons to stay in human form; we could use hand gestures, and our wolf scent wasn’t as strong in human form.
The four of us moved faster without the witches. I continued to follow the tug to the girl. If The Hallowed Guild was already there, they’d be tracking the same person.
I tapped into my wolf, allowing her to surge forward, and then tapped into my animal senses. At the first sign of the enemy, we’d have to stop and regroup.
Enemy.
The word sat heavy in my stomach. I’d never expected to one day consider other wolf shifters my enemies. Hell, I hadn’t even considered the Murphy pack my true enemy, more like misguided idiots. Maybe the Rogers pack had had it right all along.
A breeze picked up, blowing toward us, and the faint scent of wolf stopped me dead in my tracks. I detected at least ten individual scents if not more. Shit, we found them.
I turned toward the group and pointed to my nose. If we could smell them, then they could potentially hear us. I pointed back in the direction from where we’d come.
Do they have the marked girl? Aidan’s concern flew through our bond.
No. I only smell males. At least, that was some good news. So they haven’t caught her… not yet anyway. We just needed to give them a wide berth.
At least, one thing is on our side. His eyes were still focused on our surroundings.
Beth spun on her heel and led us back to the witches.
When the four of them came into view, my heart calmed.
“Did you find anything?” Gabby spoke more loudly than I’d have liked.
I forced myself not to scold her, but that didn’t stop Aidan.