Chapter 54
Despite the ominous nature of Dean’s threat, Caster had little doubt the Prime Alpha would come to their rescue.
His love for his brothers all but guaranteed it.
And he couldn’t blame him for threatening war, not when he would do the same if anyone threatened his family.
He glanced at Mark, who was engaged in deep, hushed conversation with his younger brother and James across the room, a world away.
He would do anything to protect him too, even if he had yet to earn that right.
Riley had suggested they move to a more closed-off section of the house, away from the gaping hole that was once the kitchen’s wall.
They’d chosen the conference room, the same one that had been the setting for their first meeting.
That first time he’d seen Mark had only been a little over two weeks ago, an eternity when measured by the seismic changes it had brought to his world.
Still, he wouldn’t change anything about it if he could.
“Is she still here?” Damien asked. In the wake of Dean’s anger and threat to the peace they’d worked so hard to forge, Caster had lost sight of the main threat.
Riley nodded. “Yes, but she’s staying back.”
“There is one thing I don’t understand,” Kyle said, his focus on Riley. “Did she think you wouldn’t be here?”
“Yes,” Edie said. “Her boldness is too much, even for Ethel. Her power has grown, but it still doesn’t compare to yours.”
“Perhaps she is desperate?” Damien’s question had him glancing at Mark, and he didn’t fail to notice that every witch followed his gaze.
“I think it’s time we found out why she wants him. She…”
He had Kyle by the throat before he’d even finished the sentence. “What did you say?”
His voice roared in a rage-filled mind. The small, tiniest, rational part of him, unconsumed by the need to protect Mark, knew Kyle hadn’t meant to be so cavalier. But that part would never be in control when it came to Mark’s well-being.
“Caster!” His mother’s voice flooded that tiny rational section of a mind he was losing control of.
“Caster?” But it was Mark’s voice that drew him back from the edge of destruction.
He glanced at his claws digging into Kyle’s neck, the scent of his blood, its warmth as it oozed past his wrist to stain the cuffs of his shirt, seeming so foreign.
Kyle didn’t move. His face remained stoic, showing none of the overwhelming pain the injuries caused.
“Caster, stop.”
It was more Mark’s attempt to wedge himself between him and Kyle that had him releasing his long-time bodyguard.
The deafening silence persisted as Mark’s palm landed on his chest. “He didn’t mean anything by it.”
The roar of his anger simmered down to contentment as he floated back from its heights.
“He’s right, though.”
Caster started to shake his head—
“Until we know why she’s here, we have no hope of winning this fight.” Mark looked at Edie, keeping his body in front of Caster, his hand a distracting weight on his chest. “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know what it could be.”
Will you stop? I love that you want to protect me, but you can’t. Not from this.
Mark’s voice floated through Caster’s mind, and he regained control. I’ll die before I stop protecting you.
Mark sighed his frustration, his hand on Caster’s chest falling away to rest on his forearm. He could understand Mark’s need to project strength, and he didn’t see him as anything but. Still, the witch was after him, and he hadn’t been bluffing when he said she’d have to go through him first.
“There has to be a reason.” His mother’s tone held the barest hint of the admonishment clouding her calm expression when she glanced his way.
“He transforms fast.” Kyle didn’t look at him as he said it. He’d been on the receiving end of Caster’s anger before, and he never fought back or held a grudge after. Still, he vowed to find a way to apologize to him later.
Mark shook his head. “I always could do that. My father said, I preferred my wolf-form as a child, so I had more practice than the others.”
The concern on Adella’s face or the sudden shift of Riley’s attention didn’t bode well.
“How fast does it happen?” Riley asked.
Mark glanced at him, and he nodded his encouragement. Still, the effort it took for him to confess a truth he hadn’t shared with others increased the tension in his body, a tension Caster could feel in the way he squeezed his arm. “I couldn’t do it after the witch’s attack ten years ago.”
The weight of his proclamation settled in the room, the only sound, Mikey’s sigh.
“How is that possible?” Riley’s voice was a whisper. He stepped closer to Mark, stopping short of touching him. “Your wolf is your lifeforce, if he wasn’t”—he turned to his mother— “right?”
Adella nodded.
“I could feel his presence. I just couldn’t transform.” Mark’s courage was unparalleled.
Edie moved closer to him and, unlike Riley, didn’t shy away from touching his arm. “So, today when we saw you…”
Mark nodded. “It was the first time in ten years.”
Caster couldn’t miss the weight of his mother’s stare if he tried. She would have questions, but now was not the time. The way all three witches glanced his way was an indication that they too, had deciphered his role in that particular event.
Edie’s voice fell to a whisper. “OK. What did it feel like?”
Mark’s hold on his forearm tightened. “So natural…”
“How long did the transformation take?”
He looked at Caster, “I don’t…”
“Less than a minute.” Caster saw Riley’s astonishment, his need to end this conversation and wrap Mark in his protection, almost unbearable.
“Wow.” He’d carried the same awe in Edie’s voice since he’d seen the magnificence of that transformation.
“He also shouldn’t be that big,” Mikey said, drawing Mark’s attention. He shrugged, “What? It’s true.”
“I did think you were larger than you should be.” Riley smiled, and Mark relaxed, releasing the tight grip he had on his arm.
“Magicae Lupus?” Edie’s question drew him away from the sensation of Mark’s touch. She turned to him. “But that would mean…”
“Oh, honey.” His mother’s awe-filled whisper was not enough to draw his attention away from Edie’s shocked expression.
“What are you talking about?” Mark asked before he could.
“It is only a legend. Could it be?” Adella’s question only increased the tension.
Mark’s tight grip on his arm returned with a vengeance, and Caster couldn’t help the wince. His fear, apparent by the sudden thud of his heartbeat, was worrying.
“You’d better explain yourself.” Caster leveled his best challenging stare at Edie, though the tiny witch didn’t flinch from it.
“My mother used to tell stories of a wolf whose lifeblood was infused with magic. He could transform faster than the blink of an eye and resist the effects of magic.” Adella’s eyes didn’t stray away from Mark as she spoke. “Magicae Lupus.”
“That’s not possible.” Mark’s denial was emphatic, and despite everything he’d seen from him, Caster couldn’t help but agree. A magical wolf unaffected by a witch’s power was a stretch even in his world.
“Do you know if your mother had any contact with a witch, an Earth Witch, while she was pregnant with you?” Edie asked.
Mark shook his head. “My mother hated witches.”
“Isn’t there a way to confirm it?” His mother’s voice was so small, Caster turned to her. Her expression shocked him still. It was a mixture of maternal worry and only what he could describe as subdued joy. Was there something else they weren’t telling him?
“Yes. It is easy enough to find the magic in him, even determine its source,” Adella answered.
“No.” Caster didn’t know what this was, but subjecting Mark to it didn’t sound like a good idea.
Mark turned to him and smiled. I can handle it. Plus, I’m curious, aren’t you?
“Oh, dear Goddess!” His mother whispered through the hushed silence. “It is true, isn’t it?”
“What?” The tight rein on his impatience slipped away with each passing second.
“Magicae Lupus can only control the magic within them in the presence of their Anima Alterum,” Adella answered.
It took a second for the individual words to register in Caster’s mind, Anima Alterum, echoing its significance. He shook his head to deny the meaning. Soulmates were not a thing. He chanced a glance at his mother, whose expression was now an indulgent smile.
He didn’t need this. Not now. But even as he denied it, it explained everything with perfect coherence.