Chapter 21 Will
Will
Will did not like having Carl in the garden, but Carl was getting his arms scratched up by the blackberries, which was good. On the other hand, Carl was picking the very biggest, very juiciest blackberries, which was not good.
“It’s important to always spoil your human mate, you know,” Carl said conversationally. Fuck him.
“I spoil my mate all the time, and he’s a witch, not some run-of-the-mill human.”
“Way I see it, you moved in with him like some witch bride, but a wolf, even a witch wolf, would want to provide for his human mate, wouldn’t he?
That’s what all the wolves in my family pack said—the ones who fell for humans, at any rate.
It’s the wolf’s protective instinct, yet you let your mate run all around town to work his very handsome butt off.
Have you considered that he might be better off with someone who can actually pamper him? ”
Will was seconds away from hurling his bowl of raspberries at Carl, but angry banging from the front door caught both their attention. They exchanged a look and headed back inside.
“Sage?” Will yelled as soon as he crossed the threshold of the back door. He sniffed the air. The house was silent.
“Is there a basement?” Carl asked.
“Yeah, but he wouldn’t be in the basement when someone is about to break the fucking door down.” Will hurried to the front door and opened it, only to find himself face to face with…a soccer mom.
“Where the fuck is my daughter?” she asked, furious.
“Um.”
Will took an involuntary step back, the woman’s yelling making his anxiety spike with sudden force.
“Ma’am, your daughter isn’t here.”
Carl swooped in, pushing Will aside to face the woman head-on. Will recognized it as a protective move rather than a dick move, but he still didn’t like it.
“My younger daughter came home, telling me the young man who lives here told her to go home, because he was going after the man who asked my older daughter for directions? What is going on in this place? Do I need to call—”
Before she could finish her threat, screams from down the street made her turn and hurry down the steps to the front gate. Carl followed. So did Will. A teenage girl ran straight up to the woman and threw her arms around her mother’s neck.
“Mom! That guy, he said he just wanted to show me something in the woods. And then he said his friend was coming, and he needed me to run so—”
“Where?” Will asked.
The girl pointed.
“I think I know where. Let’s move,” Carl said.
“He was supposed to stay inside.” Will ran after Carl.
“Well, he’s not here, is he?”
They made it to a small playground, and Will could sense the remains of a spell there.
“He did magic here. Uh. Magic almost gone, reveal yourself, anon!”
The magic came to Will as a smell: sunshine and smiles. Sage’s smell.
With his jaw set, Will followed the disintegrating spell, and Carl followed him. It was almost as if they were pack.