Chapter 3
Three
Knox
T he unquenchable thirst that leaves you raw and desperate on a scorching summer day hits me hard. The pull towards her is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Agatha told me there’d be a sudden aching I couldn’t ignore, but is this the price she warned I’d have to pay? A longing so intense it’s damn near suffocating?
I gulp down air, but it isn’t enough. I look down at the half-finished cabinet I was building and scoff. There’s no way I can finish my work now, not today. The overwhelming ache to head north is turning into a screaming agony. My legs feel on fire with how badly I need to move. I can’t stay in my workshop a second longer. I need to see her.
But first, I must call Agatha to ensure this is the real deal.
She never confirmed whether she found my fated mate; she just said I would know when she did. And this pull may be telling me to head north, but I don’t want to take off blindly running until I hear it from the witch’s mouth.
She picks up before the phone even has the chance to ring. “It’s time, Knox.”
“This is really it, then? You mean it? This is?—”
“Yes. Your fated mate has been summoned. The tarot has done as promised. And, as you promised, you must pay your dues.”
“I’m paying them right now, witch. My skin feels like it’s on fire. I can’t think, I can’t concentrate, I can’t?—”
“How you feel is irrelevant,” she snaps coldly. “Go to your mate. Go in the direction that’s calling to you. You’ll know her when you see, and when you do … all will be revealed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, but glancing at my phone shows the call’s been disconnected. “Shit,” I mumble. Agatha’s vague statement aside, the burning in my legs continues to grow. It’s now clawing its way up my hips and torso, and I’m afraid I’ll soon combust if I don’t get a move on.
I shift into my wolf form, taking off on all fours to cover ground quickly. It takes me over an hour to get to the city limits, away from my little cabin in the countryside just south of the city. I run all night, opting to run along the outer west edge rather than straight through. A wolf is an unwanted trespasser in rural spots; The city is a goddamn death sentence.
My journey leads me around the city’s outskirts and out the northwest corner, my furiously burning legs carrying me straight through the night. A vibrant full moon hangs above me, lighting the way to a quaint tiny home nestled on a small plot of farmland. It seems she also lives in the middle of nowhere, an endearing fact I doubt is coincidental.
I creep up to the property, paws pressing into the grass with stealthy silence. I shove my nose over the edge of the window and see her: A beautiful woman with long, dark hair and a curvy frame facing away from me. She’s dancing to classical music while flipping something in a pan, her hips swaying rhythmically with the beat. The open window wafts the smell of fried eggs my way, but more potent than that is a scent that draws me in and makes it impossible to look away.
Her distinctly human scent hits me, her very essence flooding my nostrils and filling me with an intoxicating mixture of need and serenity.
This is her—my fated mate.
Agatha was right; she isn’t a shifter at all. This is going to complicate things. Shifters aren’t out to the rest of the world, especially not to humans.
As she turns to grab a plate from a cupboard, my eyes take in every minute detail of her face. Long bangs sweep across her forehead, messily falling over one eye as she stretches up to reach the plates. Round cheeks and a slender nose lead to a set of beautiful, pouty lips, lips that I desperately long to know the taste and feel of. She spins on her heel and plates her food. Judging by the hour, I’d say she’s an early bird, and this is breakfast.
She takes the plate and sits at the dining table past the kitchen, the low light of the room making her difficult to see. I risk her spotting me in human form to get a better look at her. I close my eyes and breathe, waiting for that familiar sensation of my body changing, but nothing comes. No matter how hard I focus, nothing. I can feel my willingness to change, but it’s as though a magical ward is stopping me.
Panic grips me as I realize I’m stuck in my wolf form, unable to shift.
Unable to show that dazzling creature my true self, the self she’s bound to fall in love with.
I watch her a bit longer despite my inner chaos. Something about her soothes me, even in wolf form. She has an aura that’s equal parts spicy and energetic as it is tranquil and calming. I want to get to know her so severely, ask her where she’s from, what sorts of movies she likes, and what her hopes and dreams are so I can fulfill them all, but I’ve no way to ask her anything.
I have to force Agatha to change me back.
I fight the urge to stay outside my mate’s window. It’s hard to ignore the tether between us as I turn and run the opposite way, but I need this dealt with sooner rather than later. My mate is never going to be able to accept me like this. Not when she’s a human, and I’m … this .
I run so hard to Agatha’s that my legs throb when I get there. Her little brick house is in a sparsely populated neighborhood with more shops and laundromats than actual housing, and I realize it is not too far from my mate’s house. I get to her place, and she opens the door wide, not bothering to invite me in. The sun is barely beginning to peek over the horizon, most humans still fast asleep in their beds.
“I knew you’d come,” she says, but I growl loudly in response, baring my teeth to show her I mean business.
All she does is laugh, a cackle that sounds all the more horrendous this hour of day.
“Patience, wolf,” she says, spitting the sour words in my direction. “I need you to be patient and have faith in the deck. The tarot will seal the fate of you and your mate together, but you have to give it time. And I did warn you there’d be a price. You’ve sacrificed some magic, the magic to shift, it seems, temporarily. Consider it an offering to the deck and all the power it holds. Nothing lasts forever, but for now … you’ll have to stay like this.”
I growl again, but she gives me a no-nonsense look that has my tail subconsciously tucking between my legs. If she isn’t going to help me, then there’s only one thing left to do.
I have to convince the love of my life to fall in love with this side of me.