And now is not the time for that. I need her to know how much she hurt me, how terrified I was to lose her.
“I promise.” Sable lifts her head, her gaze darting up to meet mine. Her brows draw together a little, a little line appearing between them. “I promised you yesterday. Did yo
u not believe me?”
“Just reiterating the point.” My grip on her tightens a little, my jaw clenching at the memory of our frantic race through the woods. “I was… I was afraid, okay? We’re lucky we found you before you got too far ahead. You could’ve been hurt without us.”
“I’m a big girl.” I can hear the note of steel in her voice, the determination and pride. “I’m not weak.”
“No.” I chuckle quietly, because I’ve seen firsthand how much backbone my mate has. “You’re not. And none of us think you are. But you’re also a part of a pack now. A team. You, me, those fuckers over there.” I jerk my chin toward the sleeping wolves. “We’re all in this together. And sometimes, doing what you want isn’t what’s right for the team. You taught me about putting the team ahead of myself. I think you need to remember it too.”
Sable straightens a little, reaching up to run her fingers through my hair. “You’re pretty wise sometimes, you know that?”
I snatch her hands out of my hair and shift her on my lap so that she’s facing me more fully, her legs straddling my waist. Her palms brace against my chest as I look down into her eyes. “Well, I don’t know about that. But I know what it’s like to be stubborn and think you know what’s right.”
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at that too,” she teases, one corner of her lips tilting up.
I give her ass a light slap like I did after we found her in the woods, loving the way her blue eyes widen and darken, and the faintest hint of her arousal teases my nostrils. I rub the sting away, massaging the perfect curve of her ass as I pull her a little closer to me.
“You need to accept help and trust us, sweetheart,” I murmur, leaning down to brush my lips over hers. “Just like I’m learning to do too. What do you say? We’ll practice together?”
She leans up, pressing her lips harder to mine, our kiss a slow burn like the sunrise. “Deal.”
Before I can say anything else, she slides farther up my body and deepens the kiss, and talking becomes the last thing I want to do.
We cross the Two-Tone River later that afternoon, and in the process get a biology lesson on why it's called that. Dirt and sediment settles along the edges, giving the outer rim of the river a brownish color, while the center of the river flows with an abnormal turquoise blue that Dare tells us originates from limestone deposits carved deep beneath the central part of the water.
I’ve never been one to care about shit like that, but Sable’s excitement over learning it—and seeing it in action in the river—is contagious.
The Two-Tone is slow moving and easy to cross, except for the fact that Sable has never gone swimming in her wolf form before. So Ridge and I precede her while Archer and Dare follow close behind her, ready to leap into action if something goes wrong. But doggy paddling is one of those things that comes naturally to pretty much all wolves, and despite her nerves, Sable’s on the opposite bank before she even realizes she’s back on solid ground. The subsequent celebration as she shakes off water and then bounds around the rocky ground yipping like a puppy is so fucking cute I can barely stand it.
Once across the river, we enter the northern mountain range and work our way through all the peaks and valleys. It’s hard work that makes my legs ache, and we have to pause often to give Sable a break. A light rainstorm cools us off in the late afternoon, and by nightfall, we see Wolfsbane Mountain for the first time. It does, in fact, look like a giant, howling wolf’s head, and we make camp in its shadow.
The next morning, we continue past Wolfsbane and deeper into the mountains where the peaks become higher and more craggy, which slows our pace. We spend three days in the mountains, following wispy traces of humanity—a scent in the undergrowth, dusty footprints left in the dirt, tiny things that show someone has been through here.
We can’t be entirely sure we’re tracking the witch. Some of the scents are so faint, we aren’t even entirely certain we’re tracking the same person. But it’s all we have to work with.
On the third day, we catch our first taste of magic.
My skin prickles with the alien sensation of it. I stop walking and glance at my companions to see if they feel it too. Ridge looks around us, confused, but Dare and Archer are tensed as if ready to run.
That’s how I know for sure it’s witch magic. No shifter likes witches, but out of all of us, those two in particular have the most reason to hate and fear the witches—and as a result, their magic.
Hey. No worries. We can do this together, I tell them, dropping back to stand beside Dare. We have your backs.
Archer nods, but I can sense the unease rolling off him.
Beside me, Sable shifts to her human form before any of us can make a sound. She keeps her movements slow and steady as she pulls a cotton dress from her backpack and slips it on over her head.
What is she doing? Ridge grunts inside my head, worry coloring his voice. She needs her teeth.
I’m sure she has her reasons, Archer argues, but he sounds just as concerned.
I nudge her with my nose, trying to ask her what the hell she was thinking without being able to say the words. She’s safest in wolf form, with access to her animal speed and sharp teeth, like Ridge said. Lucky for me, she’s so empathetic she knows immediately what I’m asking.
“If the lone witch is here, and she attacks us with magic, I need to have access to mine,” Sable says urgently, tightening the straps on her backpack so it’ll fit her current smaller frame, then throwing it over her shoulders once more. “It’s hard enough to control the witch when I’m in human form. It’s impossible when I’m a wolf.”
Archer whines, but I nod once, letting her know I get it. And none of us can argue the point—she’s totally right.