Barbara took her hand. “You’re older and wiser, which means you’ll catch on quickly. And you have Tristan, me, and the whole pack here to help you.”
A thud outside had Sara spinning to look. The guys were doing something on the porch. “He came to see me this morning, and I kicked him out.”
“I know,” Barbara said. “He came to our place after and told us.”
“I'm still really pissed at him, yet, there's this part of me that wants to get over it and forgive him.”
“Of course, you feel that way. He’s your mate.”
Sara frowned, considering the words. “I don’t really know a lot about my wolf, I feel like she’s a stranger to me, but I can feel her certainty that Rhett is our mate.”
“Are you okay?” Barbara asked.
“I don’t know. So much has gone on in such a short amount of time. Moving here, meeting Rhett, having him give me a mating bite ...”
“The intruder, the shift, the run to my house, the passing out …” Barbara finished her sentence for her.
Sara watched the men leave the porch. Then, they shifted into their wolf forms and took off toward the woods. “I guess they’re looking for more clues out there.”
It wasn’t a minute later when her door was busted down, and an angry man charged in. Both women stood in alarm while the wild man shouted, “What did you do to me?”
“Bryce! What are you doing here? What do you mean?” Sara asked.
Bryce looked as if he had seen better days. He had a black eye and a busted lip, and his clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in weeks. He also looked like he hadn’t been washed in weeks, though she’d just been on her date with him the night before.
“What did you do to me? I went home last night, and all these weird things started happening to me, and when I told my friend about it, they informed me that you were a witch, and you hexed me.”
“When you went home last night? Was that before or after you came around here trying to break in and attack her?” Barbara instantly came to Sara’s defense.
Bryce looked absolutely crazed like he was off his rocker. That was when Sara noticed a large blade in his hand. She didn't know what he planned on doing with that weapon, and she sure didn't want to find out.
“Bryce, I can explain. Just calm down. Put the knife down,” Sara said, quickly glancing at Barbara, who was staring out the window toward the woods and where their men had disappeared into it.
“Whatever you did, you need to undo it,” he demanded, inching closer to where she stood.
“Hold on a minute!” Barbara finally looked away from the window and faced Bryce. “You smell like a shifter. Lynx, to be exact, am I correct?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because that means you should be able to smell on both of us that we’re wolves.”
“She’s not a wolf,” he said, pointing to Sara. Then, he took a moment, considering her scent, before adding, “Well, she sure wasn’t when we went on our date, so you must be doing something to make it seem like she’s a wolf now.”
“Were you not here yesterday and saw a wolf?” Barbara asked, to Sara’s surprise.
“That must have been you,” Bryce accused.
“I promise you, it was not,” Barbara stated in such a cool tone that it brought goosebumps to Sara’s arms.
The woman held such a reserved, awe-inspiring power without raising her voice at all.
“She smells like a wolf now,” Barbara continued. “And it’s not a trick. She is a wolf, and she didn’t hex you.”
“I don’t know how she did it, damn it! But she had to have because everything went to hell after meeting her. I know it was her! It has to be.”
“I’m a wolf! Not a witch, you moron!” Sara lied, hoping to keep him tied up in the debate long enough that she could come up with a plan. Bryce was growing angrier by the second, and she had to do something before someone got hurt.
“Seriously, have you ever seen someone who is both wolf and witch?” Barbara continued the lie.