Aidan appeared right beside me, blood dripping down his face. He whimpered when he looked at my foreleg and then huffed and focused on the wolf trying to stand.
Not wasting his advantage, Aidan raced at him and sunk his teeth into its neck, digging in to hit the main artery. The wolf collapsed as blood poured from the wound.
I took in the chaos around us. Only a handful of wolves were still alive, but several witches were lying still on the ground, covered in blood.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Beth’s sweet scent filled my nose, and her snout nudged me in the back.
I spun around and found blood on her. Shit. How hurt was she? I scanned her body and sighed in relief when I realized the blood wasn’t hers.
“You won’t kill any more of my family,” Finn said, rage ringing in his voice. He pulled out a knife and charged the wolf.
The wolf hunkered down and charged. Finn lifted his free left hand and chanted some undistinguishable words, and the wolf fell back again. As soon as it hit the ground, he raised the knife high above his head and slammed it into the wolf’s heart.
The wolf whimpered and thrashed until the overly sour scent of fear poured off him as it realized it was going to die. Finn kept his hands on the knife, digging it in deeper, his amber eyes burning into the wolf’s fading vision.
I began trotting over to him, but Aidan stepped in front of me, shaking his head no.
The message was loud and clear. Finn could be out of his mind. There was so much anger in him. He could easily mistake me for an enemy wolf.
When the wolf took its last breath, Finn ripped the knife from its chest and faced me. “Let’s go finish this.” He headed back to the witches, who had the last wolf cornered.
“Take it to the cellar of my house, and chain it up. I’ll be there shortly,” Beatrice instructed two male witches. She turned toward me, and her eyes softened. “Let’s get you inside and take care of that wound.”
I nodded and limped to Beatrice’s house. Aidan kept pace beside me, and his eyes met mine.
This would have been an amazing time for a mind link. I was going to be okay. Hell, I’d be mostly healed by morning. That was a nice perk of having shifter genes.
Amethyst hurried to the front door and opened it for Aidan and me. “Beth, go change and come back here. Coral and Rowan will be here by the time you get back.”
My nails clacked against the wood as I slowly climbed the stairs and went straight into our bedroom. The metallic smell of my blood and the pain were making me nauseous, but I powered through it. The best thing for me was to change back into human form and get the wound taken care of.
Aidan entered the room right after me and shut the door with his head.
We both called our wolves back. Our bones began to break again, and the fur disappeared from our bodies. I soon found myself on two legs, and we were both standing completely naked in front of each other.
My eyes took in every inch of his body. His abs were chiseled and his skin flawless. Warmth spread throughout my body as my gaze lowered. He was definitely not small.
He chuckled as he watched me. “You see something you like?”
“Nope, not at all.” I would never admit that I was close to drooling. I walked over and kissed him. As I lifted my arm, I groaned and pulled away.
“Get dressed.” He opened the closet and threw down a pair of jeans, some underwear, and a tank top. “We need to disinfect your wound.”
“But I was enjoying…” I wanted to have at least a few minutes alone with him. I mean, he was naked, for Christ’s sake.
“You can enjoy it later.” A sexy-ass grin crossed his face. “You not getting an infection is a lot more important.”
“Fine.” He was right. We had other things to deal with. I took one last scan.
“Now.” He arched an eyebrow, humor clear in his eyes.
Getting dressed went slower than I’d anticipated. I hadn’t noticed how many movements caused the muscles in my arm to move. Ten minutes later, I was finally dressed, and that was with Aidan’s help.
Downstairs, we found the same group from breakfast. Finn, Samuel, and Coral were sitting on the couch while the rest of the group was at the kitchen table.
As we passed them, it was hard not to notice the blood on Finn’s face or the deep scratches on Samuel’s arm.
We hadn’t come out of this unscathed.
“Come here, dear.” Beatrice stood from her chair and waved Sage to move down a few seats. “I’ve got some alcohol to clean your wound; then we’ll put some healing herbs on it.”
Not wanting to be rude, I hurried over. She picked up some cotton and soaked it with the disinfectant. I sat across from Sage, and Amethyst sat between her and Beth.
“Here, hold my hand.” Aidan frowned as he held out his hand. “Squeeze it if it’ll help.”
Needing his touch, I took his hand and sucked in a deep breath as Beatrice placed the alcohol on my arm.
If I’d thought it hurt before, I’d been wrong. The alcohol made my arm feel like it was on fire. It was the section of my arm closest to my shoulder. He’d gone for my neck and missed.
Tears fell down my cheeks as she cleaned it.
I had to distract myself. “Has the wolf shifted back to his human form?”
“Yeah, he just has,” Rowan said as she gave me a sad smile. “Someone used a spell to force him back to his human form. He refused to do it on his own.”
“Figures. Men are scaredy cats.” Beth nodded at me. “You know I’m right.”
I tried to appear strong. “How many did we lose?” I tried to keep the emotion out of my voice, but my emotional and physical pain quivered through.
“We lost ten.” Sage’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “The rest of the coven not with the wolf is preparing them for the death ritual.”
“I’m so sorry.” I felt responsible.
“It’s not your fault, child.” Beatrice shook her head. “They died protecting our destined leader. It was with honor.”
It didn’t make things better.
Beatrice picked up some green paste and applied it to my arm. “Let me bandage you up, and we’ll all go down there and see what he has to say.”
Within minutes, I was bandaged and ready to go. As I stood, the others followed suit.
“It’s about damn time.” Finn opened the front door.
Aidan frowned at my cousin. “She had wounds that needed to be cleaned and bandaged.”
“I know. Otherwise, I’d have left without you all.” Finn’s voice was low in warning. “The next part will be the best.”
His eagerness to get to the enemy wolf scared me. He enjoyed hurting wolf shifters. If this was any indication of what we might face once we got to the basement, there was no telling what to expect to happen in the next few short minutes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Our group followed Beatrice and Amethyst outside and around the house. A stairwell beside the house led downstairs to a basement.
It looked like one of those staircases you’d see in a horror movie. The steps were concrete with no railing. The humidity was heavy, making it feel like I was breathing liquid instead of air.
Aidan’s concerned eyes met mine. “You okay?”