Chapter 16 Will
Will
Will’s wolf had been uneasy ever since they’d gotten home from that warding job at Celeste’s. Will wasn’t sure if it was because he’d finally met the sex worker Peter had wanted him to talk to or what, but the wolf wanted out fast that night.
Maybe it was Carl. Carl wasn’t an alpha, but he was one of the pack enforcer types, and from the smell of him, he’d wanted Sage. Will was still upset about that.
Things had been moving slowly over the past few months, or at least, things in the bedroom had.
Will could feel his magic growing, feel himself getting more comfortable using it, and it was like he had missed out on it until now.
Using magic the way Sage taught him made Will feel good, made him feel like he’d been given something he hadn’t known he’d been missing all this time.
Like standing in the sunshine after growing up in a cave.
But sex-wise, Will wasn’t sure he was enough for Sage.
Yes, they had done more touching, more getting off together, and at least in bed, Sage didn’t seem to mind that Will enjoyed licking everywhere.
But Will still found himself freezing up a lot.
The part about all of that Will hated most was that he loved and trusted Sage, and yet his body kept on betraying him.
Perhaps the wolf wanted to take charge so he could help push Will’s human side into letting go of all the stupid, unnecessary moments of shutting down. Will would welcome that.
Whatever the reason was, Will got up from the couch, and Sage paused the latest superhero show. Lemon, after its wash, had found a spot under the couch, and while the cushion never seemed to bother Sage too much, it always went for Will’s feet. He shoved it aside, interrupting its attack.
“You mind if I change here?” Will asked. The wolf wanted out, but he didn’t want to leave Sage alone at all, not even for the few moments it took to shift.
Sage’s blue eyes went wide. “Course I don’t. I want to see.”
Will nodded and took his clothes off quickly, skin itching for the shift. He felt the wolf coming out even before he managed to pile everything on one of the armchairs, and as soon as he was naked, Will gave in to the change.
Shifting was akin to jumping into a pool. There was a rush of adrenaline, and then everything was turned upside down and suspended, only to readjust to the new and yet familiar form.
Will never took note of the exact changes to his body, but the moment he sucked in the first breath with his wolf lungs, when he could smell so much more than he could in his human form, it all registered, and the wolf stretched and flexed, happy to be in this shape again.
“Oh my sweet fucking gods,” Sage said. “That was fucking amazing.”
Will loved hearing that from Sage. Normally, one of the first things Will wanted to do was lick Sage’s lips, but today, a sharp restlessness came over him. It was a familiar feeling, one he wished he’d forgotten.
It was the fear. It was what he’d felt right before the loups-garous had shifted and started hunting him.
He sniffed the air and listened.
“You okay?” Sage asked.
Will cast a look at him. Sage was his. As a human, he wouldn’t have dared make that statement, but he was a wolf now, and that right there was his mate.
Will would protect his soft human who lacked the sharp teeth, strong claws, and thick fur to do it himself.
The thought made the fear bite a little less, and he walked around the house, sniffing and listening.
Something wasn’t right, he could feel that in his bones, and every second that ticked away made Will more anxious.
“Hey, you need to go pee under a tree or something?” Sage had followed him past the staircase and down the narrow hallway that led to the laundry room, and the still room beyond, which Sage used to dry herbs and make and store jams and other preserves.
Will’s hackles rose. There was something in the air here, something he hadn’t scented in the house before.
The laundry room smelled of detergent and fabric softener, and the still room came with its own earthy, medicinal scents.
He carefully walked to the laundry room, though he didn’t go inside.
He saw better in the dark in his wolf form, but he still peered into the shadows—until they moved.
No, they shifted, and the scent tore all those terrors from the depths of Will’s memories and brought them roaring back to the surface—everything he’d tried so hard to forget. In mere seconds, the sound of a snarling loup-garou filled the house Will had begun to think of as his home.
Will bared his teeth and snarled at the intruder.
The loup-garou was bigger, stronger. It was a monster in fur, teeth, and unnaturally long claws.
It could tear through Will, and he wouldn’t care, but his mate was here, and Will needed to protect him.
Before the loup-garou could come at them, Will attacked.
“Will, stop!”
Will did not. He jumped at the beast and closed his jaws around a foreleg. As Will sank his teeth into the muscle and did his best to clamp down as hard as he could, a moment of intense clarity made time slow to a trickle.
Behind him, Sage was singing a spell. Will wasn’t able to listen to the words, but the voice…he focused on that. Sage’s voice.
If I die here, I want to do it with his voice in my ears.
The loup-garou was growling and raising one clawed paw, and Will knew he would feel those claws, feel that pain tear into his flesh just like the other loups-garous had forced pain into him.
But this time around, things took a different turn. Will was no longer prey, he was protecting what was his.
I can’t die. I have to fight for him, if only long enough so he can run away.
Except Sage didn’t run. He was casting. Will got so mad about that. It was dangerous. The loup-garou’s paw came down, and Will’s only thought was that he wanted Sage out of the house. Out out out.
Pain bit into Will’s side even as magic sang through him. Sage yelped. The loup-garou snarled, but instead of finishing Will with the single strike, instead of burying his claws deeper into Will’s flesh, the beast stopped.
Not the pain though. Will was bleeding and it hurt, but he kept holding on, even when the loup-garou started moving, shaking his front leg in an attempt to dislodge Will. The beast jolted, and for long seconds, Will had no real idea what was happening in his singularly focused state.
When the loup-garou turned in an evasive move, Will finally saw two more wolves in the room.
They were both black with silver eyes, and they were moving around the beast, using the shadows in the dark laundry room to their advantage.
Then one jumped at the loup-garou, but the attack was executed in complete silence—apart from the loup-garou’s cry of pain.
Will loosened his hold and let go of the beast when it jerked under the other wolf’s teeth. He had no idea who these wolves were, but they were helping, and that was good. They might give him an opening to get to the monster’s neck and tear out its windpipe.
But as soon as Will hit the ground, the wolf not actively attacking barreled into him and slammed him into a hamper.
Out of the corner of his eye, Will watched as the huge beast escaped out of the laundry room, chased by the first black wolf.
The second, the one who had knocked him into the hamper, stopped briefly to look at Will, and Will sniffed.
Recognition hit. Carl. The black wolf was fucking Carl.
Will bared his teeth, but he didn’t growl since he didn’t have the energy to do that.
Will’s mouth tasted of the loup-garou’s blood, and every breath brought a fresh wave of pain.
Carl ran out of the room on quick, silent paws.
Will moved—he had to find Sage—but as soon as he did, the pain in his side cut through the adrenaline for good.
“Will! What the fuck—how?” The lights came on, and Sage stood in the doorway, dripping wet as if he’d taken a shower with his clothes on. He paled, ran toward Will, and sank to his knees next to him.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. You’re bleeding.”
Sage. He was safe. Will was relieved, even as he saw the blood on the floor. Not all of it was his, but the hamper he’d slammed into was smeared, ruined. After everything, he’d still leave his mate with a mess to clean up.
I’m sorry. I can’t do anything right after all.
“Fuck.”
Sage was moving him, lifting him gingerly, and Will yelped at a touch against his wound. His side was on fire, his lungs as well. The loup-garou’s claws had gone deeper than Will had first thought.
“Truly mended be the skin, truly mended, without, within,” Sage said, then said it again. “Think it in that beautiful wolf head of yours, okay, sweetcakes? Think it while I say it. Truly mended be the skin, truly mended, without, within. Come on, Will, help me out here.”
Sage repeated the spell a third time. He sounded like someone had taken away all his cushions.
Will didn’t see the point of him trying magic in this form, but his mate was asking him to, so he did his best. Truly mended, skin, bone, tissue.
He hung on Sage’s every word, and after several repetitions, he felt the magic, felt it flow through and out of him, similar to how the change flowed through his whole body. The pain eased, and Will felt better.
“Wow.” Sage cupped Will’s face. “Wow. You truly are a witch wolf, sweetcakes. But if you ever fucking do a spell like that on me again when I’m about to blast a fucking loup-garou to bits, I’ll never let you lick me again. Ever.”
Will bumped into Sage, because Sage was making no sense. Yipping from the door made Will jump up and stand in front of Sage with his hackles raised. The two black and silver-eyed wolves were back, and Carl, the one on the right, had his gaze focused on Sage’s hand in Will’s fur.
“Who are you? Can you come closer and let me have a look?” Sage asked.