Love's a Witch (12 page)

I turned back to Craig. My tears had doubled as I shed tears for two big losses.

“Are you leaving because of me?” I hated that my voice sounded as weak as the light beam I saw just a few hours ago.

“Yes. That’s exactly why I have to go.” And he walked away. Before now everyone had left me before I was born, or through the other side of a family court swinging door. Watching him walk away from me was so much worse. Craig had looked me in the eye when he let me know I wasn’t worth it.

I couldn’t move from the floor. Jake stood so still he blended in with the furniture. I was in the Clan. I could feel the support pumping into my body from Jake and Amber, but I still felt alone. Something was missing. Something I had almost grabbed hold of.

The only time Jake moved was to turn on the chandelier as the room darkened. I wasn’t really sure how much time had passed before I heard Amber’s voice.

“Craig’s an idiot.”

Amber’s arms came around me. She held me from behind and Jake stooped in front of me. He waited until my eyes cleared enough for me to focus. It took a few minutes.

“Mary, we are making up new rules and new standards, but Amber and I cannot hold someone here who chooses to leave our Clan. Holding someone against their will is not something we will ever do. Leaders set a standard when they reject their own sects to start a new faction. Amber and I decided right away that we would welcome everyone, but demand the presence of no one. As much as it hurts you, and us as well, we have to let him go. But you…” He sighed. “You can bring him back to us. The harvesters could still be near so I cannot let you go after him tonight, but we will track him in the morning.”

I must have looked really confused because he smiled at me. His eyebrows did that dance he did when he was trying to deal with unpleasant emotions. He reminded me of Alpha Paulson when he did that. The smile didn’t reach Jake’s eyes, but I knew he was trying to make me feel better. He waited until I worked up enough energy to smile back before he spoke. “Brave girl. Can you still feel him?”

“No. Where he was…it’s just empty.” I felt the empty all through me.

Amber settled closer behind me, resting her chin on my shoulder. Her arms still held me tight, and I was grateful for the support. It was the only thing that was really keeping me from curling into a fetal position and waiting for the next horrible thing to happen.

“When someone leaves a were Pack, everyone feels it. That canyon sized emotional hole is usually swallowed up by all the other wolves coming together. We don’t notice it after a while.” Amber blew out a breath, puffing out my hair from behind. “Something tells me it won’t heal like that for you.”

I sniffled. “You think I’m his mate.”

She pulled back a little. “Yeah, I do. I see you together, and I see how he sees you. You might not run on four paws, but you are meant to be his. Just as you’re meant to be with us. I loved being with you when I thought you were human.”

“I am human.” That was why he left.

“By the barest margin if you ask me. You have done something no other human has done. You are in a Clan.” Amber gripped me under my armpits and hauled my slightly numb ass up, and steadied me on my feet. She held on until the pins and needles stopped stabbing at my skin. My body was pretty stiff.

“Amber, you made up the ‘Clan’. You are only the second hybrid to be in one. Craig was the first wolf to be in one. When you create something new, being the first to do something in it isn’t exactly noteworthy.” I cocked up the edge of my mouth into as much of a smile as I was capable of. Amber was trying to make the empty spot a little less raw. The least I could do was use twenty-six tiny muscles and smile.

She squeezed me. I wrapped my arms over hers so I could hug me too. I was feeling a little needy at the moment.

“If you ask me, and you didn’t, but I am going to tell you anyway, you are strong, adaptable, and have the most pure magic I have ever seen.” Amber cracked jokes like a starving man cracks pistachios, but she didn’t have any of that usual twinkle in her eyes that told me a pun was coming.

“And your blood saved my life. I wouldn’t exist as I am if not for you. I know that vamps and wolves don’t see things the same way I do, but you are just as much my maker as Jake. You hold power. You are needed, and you are amazing.” Amber moved in front of me and rolled her eyes. “Craig isn’t the type to make emotional decisions. There’s a reason he left. In his stupid rational mind, he is up to something. Tonight we rest. Tomorrow, I promise to help you find out why. Okay?”

“Okay.” Rest didn’t sound half bad.

I let Amber’s words rattle inside my brain. They bounced off the inside of my cranium until I let them claw their way into the mushy center. The strength from my Alphas flowed into me. I felt Amber’s determination and Jake’s stability. I didn’t have to figure everything out by myself. I had help in creating this new me. I was Clan. I was a witch. I was needed, and I was wanted. The time for crying was done. Now came the time to fight. We had more than one battle ahead, but the first step was getting my Clan, my support, my army back together.

You aren’t running that easily, Craig.

Chapter Sixteen

Craig

I put the slip of fabric to my nose again. Part of me hoped to get a different olfactory result. No such luck. I scented the air. Left. Past that tree. Over that hill. Towards the water. I followed them. I didn’t even need to shift to process this scent. I knew it all too well. Scents are powerful holders of memories, and this one prevailed for most of my childhood.

The smell took me on a journey, and I saw days and nights in the woods. It also brought back extravagant parties that were necessary to secure positions in elite communities, and hunting in the woods for expensive pelts that held high black market value when times were tough. This was the scent of the Alakin Pack. My first Alpha. My father. This was his scent.

My father’s scent had been in Kari’s house. Kari was gone. Kari had been stolen by harvesters. I knew my Pack was all about keeping the blood lines pure, but I couldn’t believe they were capable of this. They hated vampires. They hated dealing with anyone they felt was beneath them, and as a highly structured Pack, everyone was beneath them. As their son, my blood screamed that this was a mistake. But my nose had convicted them. No trial needed.

Harvesting was a lucrative venture due to the danger involved. This was about dealing with hungry vampires after all. Consorting with other supernatural creatures might be beneath my father’s Pack, but money was not.

I had to do something about this. I had to get Kari back. I hated that a woman had been kidnapped because I wasn’t on top of my game. I hated the pain I saw in Mary’s eyes more. When she broke down it took every bit of strength not to pull her into my arms. Licking my teeth, I realized every last granule of dragon’s blood was gone. No barriers. No safe zone.

So I broke from the Clan. I couldn’t tell Amber and Jake, and certainly not Mary, that my own parents were the harvesters.

I would get Kari back and they would never have to know. As long as I didn’t re-join the Clan, I could keep this under wraps. I could do what needed to be done, and keep everyone safe. If I did go back I wouldn’t be able to hide what I felt for Mary any longer. Did it matter? Would she even want me after she found out this was all my fault?

I didn’t need to follow the scent any longer. I could follow my eyes. I’d found them. There are a lot of things life throws at you. Watching the people you ran through the woods with as a pup drag a bleeding woman like a trash bag to the curb was not something that you wanted landing in your lap. Kari had scratches all over her body. She had fought hard. Considering the marks that my father had on his arms, including the torn wetsuit-looking thing he was wearing, she was stronger than they gave her credit for. Smarter too. She had evaded them, in the woods no less, for days until we showed up.

My father handed her off to William, his Beta. She struggled a bit, but went softer as he extended his claws into her arms. Her blood spilled, and I saw red. This was not what was going on, it couldn’t be. My brain tried to imagine some reason other than harvest that she was here. Had Kari committed some crime against the Pack? Did she use magic against them? I knew these people all my life, but I still couldn’t fathom a reason Kari would be kidnapped other than her black market value.

As I realized what I would have to do, it confirmed that breaking free of the Clan had been the right thing. Amber and Jake had taken to the road to save their love. They represented a beautiful future, one I had always wanted. The compassion they showed for everyone helped seal my fate, and solidify my resolve with what I was about to do. Amber and Jake would never put me in danger. I wasn’t going on a camping trip and roasting marshmallows. I wouldn’t be safe here, and that’s exactly why the Clan couldn’t know.

A spy with loyalty to another Pack was just as bad as getting caught wearing a wire. I tried to force my dedication to the Alakin Pack as I approached, but I couldn’t make it happen. Some things really are impossible. Giving yourself to a Pack when you fundamentally disagreed with the Alpha…well that was one of those things that a man’s wolf wouldn’t let him do. So I approached my parents as a Packless wolf. No support, but no ties either.

My father scented me first. His head turned without urgency, as if I were any other wolf. No excitement or welcome back. If anything, he looked wary of me. His dismissiveness put the last nail in the coffin containing the Pack’s innocence. Humans were food for vampires. They were just crops to my former Pack.

Considering what my father was doing, it wasn’t emotion I was expecting. I hoped that even without my pledge to the Pack, the fact that I was the spawn of the Alpha would grant me access. I looked at Kari, but allowed my eyes to pass over her. No wolf around us showed the woman sympathy, and I couldn’t make the mistake of going against the grain. I had enough painful splinters already.

“Craig. My son. I knew it was your scent at the witch’s house. You seemed to be dedicated to that abomination of a Pack. I would have reached out, but…you understand why I didn’t. So tell me. Why are you here?” He made no move towards me. I had to go to him. Like the subordinate wolf I was, I did.

Not exactly a welcome home, but this wasn’t home, and I shouldn’t have expected any welcome after the way I left them.

“Craig?” My mother’s voice hurt my heart. She was wiping blood off her hands on a towel. Like my father, everyone who had walked with Kari’s beaten body had on the body hugging long-sleeved long-legged jumpsuits. Dressed in matching grey, they looked like superheroes. Only my former Pack was on the wrong end of the good guy/bad guy spectrum.

The suits also weren’t cheap. This wasn’t a crime of opportunity. This was something they had invested in and planned. This was how they earned their money. My old Pack was now a Pack of harvesters.

“Mother.” I bowed my head as a sign of respect and to grit my teeth at the scent of the witches all over her.

“Give your mom a hug.” She pulled me into an embrace, but it wasn’t about love. She was trying to get a sense of me. She would still smell the others on me, but she would be able to tell that I’d broken my tie with Amber’s Clan. I hugged her anyway.

Times like this, being unattached to the Pack was useful. An Alpha can force his will on a subordinate, and pull the truth from him. My parents couldn’t get a read on my emotions. I was a good enough actor and enough of a stranger by this point that my mother didn’t sense my revulsion.

My father waited for the nod from my mother before he spoke to me. “Are you coming for a visit?”

“I need a place to stay. I am Packless at the moment and need to move on, but I scented you and had to see you all again.” Now both my mother and father stared at me. Either they didn’t believe me or they had no desire to let me anywhere near the Pack again. By old law, if they denied me they were in their rights to kill me for invading Pack land. Hopefully they had enough blood on their hands at the moment, and I could convince them my intentions were my own. “I need to make some money too. You have a witch. Are you harvesting? For vampires?”

I was out of my dragon’s blood resin, so I had to just use my own barriers to keep my disgust out of my voice. It must have been enough, because my mother came towards me with open hands, and not unleashed claws.

Her hands were free of blood now, at least on the surface. She linked arms with me, pulling me towards an elaborate tent grouping. We ducked under an awning into a large open area. There was actually room to stand upright. Camping chairs sat next to a small table set up. A cord brought in power from a generator outside. A small laptop sat open on the table and a small air conditioner unit was strapped to a wooden milk crate.

“We don’t serve the vampires, son, you should know we would never stoop so low. We simply find harvesting for their distribution leader to be profitable. When the housing market crashed, the properties we rented were not up to our standard of living.” She said this while standing in a room without real walls. Their standard of living wasn’t exactly stellar right now. “The asking price for witch blood is sky high. This is also a way to be true to the desires of our wolves and hunt.”

Knowing there was a stock market of witch blood was something I could have lived without. “Isn’t there a huge risk of exposure? All the cameras, and all the cell phones, and even social media have to make it difficult. How can you do this under the radar?”