Chapter 19 - Zak
Zak
The December night air bit at my exposed skin as I knelt in the light snow coating the ground.
Foot by foot, Brielle and I secured the new perimeter.
As soon as she began creating one ward, I moved some distance away to create another within line of sight, leaving the perimeter unbroken.
It wouldn’t stop our enemies from reaching us, but it would trip them up for a minute or two and give us advance warning of their impending arrival.
“Almost there,” she murmured, her green eyes reflecting the faint shimmer of magic only we could see. “Just need to anchor this last section to the ridge.”
I nodded, letting my magic flow through the ground like roots seeking purchase. The ward hummed to life, settling into place with a satisfying click.
Behind us, the temporary camp sprawled across the valley outside Moonblessed’s walls, expanding even more to include the new arrivals from Midnight Path.
My chest tightened with an emotion I still wasn’t entirely used to — belonging.
I still couldn’t believe this was my life now.
Mates, a pack that welcomed me, a coven of witch hybrids like me, a purpose beyond simply surviving.
Leaving Ravenscroft behind had been the best decision I’d ever made, even if the journey to get here had been so dangerous I’d questioned my sanity a few times.
Through the Bonded link, my mates’ contentment warmed me.
Freya’s joy had hummed like a tuning fork ever since she and Tor had bitten each other.
Gage’s satisfaction mixed with alpha protectiveness and wariness as his thoughts were never far from what our enemies might be up to.
Rowan seemed restless, no doubt tired of politics.
Heath’s playful energy danced alongside his strategic cunning.
Flint’s reliability warmed me as he wandered through camp, making sure everyone had what they needed, settling disputes before they broke out.
The memory of his warm, inviting voice from that morning brushed over me. You definitely belong with me, starbeam.
My wolf preened under the praise. That silly little nickname should have been nothing, just Flint being his charming self, but it landed like a quiet promise: he already counted me as his, even if we hadn’t claimed each other as mates yet.
And as for Tor himself… his presence in the pack bond and Bonded link felt different from the other men. Where the alphas burned hot and fierce, Tor was like starlight — constant, modest, quietly powerful.
In some ways, he felt more like Freya, but not completely. Freya contained a special blend of magic, but Tor’s magic felt different from either hers or mine. He felt more at home in his magic, somehow.
The alphas probably thought I resented him — or them — for the easy way they’d invited him into the pack.
But I understood they’d been naturally warier of a mage sniffing around Freya.
After everything they’d suffered at the hands of witches — the wolves’ long-standing feud with witches, Rowan losing his wolf family to witches, Freya’s aunt trying to steal her magic — their caution made sense.
Plus, part of it was on me. I’d kept secrets from them, hiding the fact that I couldn’t shift, and the reason why.
Now, I could see how stupid it had been for me not to immediately trust the ones my wolf chose as mates.
Back then, though… I hadn’t been able to trust my own coven.
How was I supposed to trust five complete strangers, especially when four of them were alphas I’d always been warned to fear?
But we’d come a long way in such a short time. And somehow, the Bonded link seemed to grow deeper and broader every day, binding us ever more tightly together, making it easier and quicker to know exactly what the others were feeling.
It felt right that he was here, safe at last after his long search. A deep, humming satisfaction filled me at the knowledge that the Odinswolf Freya had sought for so long was finally with us, where he belonged.
And goddess, the man himself…
Tor’s quiet strength stirred something primal in me.
His dedication through years of solitary searching.
His persistence, never giving up despite the obstacles.
His unwavering faith that he would reach us, even with Denraider cutting him off from us.
His devotion to the pack even before joining it.
The way he’d been determined to help Rowan against the odds.
His ice-blue eyes seemed to see straight into my soul, reading truths I’d barely acknowledged to myself.
My wolf had recognized him instantly as a mate. The certainty of it thrummed through my bones.
I sensed that Tor felt the same pull toward me, but with so many new mates to claim, I wasn’t sure where I stood.
Part of me feared he would find me the least interesting of all his potential new mates.
The alphas were full-blooded wolves, and Freya was half Odinswolf like him.
Then there was me, half a witch, and my wolf was just a beta.
But what I’d felt radiating from him in the bedroom last night…
“You’re thinking about them again,” Brielle said, amusement coloring her voice.
I jerked my attention back to the ward work, heat flooding my cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “Your magic gets all fluttery when you think about your mates. It’s adorable and slightly nauseating.”
“My magic does not get fluttery.”
“It absolutely does. Like little sparks of electricity dancing around.” She grinned, returning her focus to the wards.
Before I could formulate a suitably dignified response, Tor’s presence suddenly sharpened in the Bonded link. His mental voice cut through my thoughts with unexpected urgency.
“Zak.”
I straightened, my playfulness evaporating. “Tor? What’s wrong?”
“Ashworth Coven is on the move. Big force. East ridge.” He blared to all of us.
Mental images flooded through the Bonded link — stark and immediate.
Ravens soaring through the evening, tracking the coven’s movements, their keen eyes spotting movement below.
Witches abandoning their vehicles, moving on foot through the forest with practiced stealth.
Too many to count. All converging on our position.
My blood turned to ice just as Tor warned, “They’re close. You need to get out of there.”
I grabbed Brielle’s wrist, pulling her attention from the ward. “Probe farther out. South and east. Now.”
Her eyes widened at my tone, but she didn’t question. We both turned our magical senses outward, pushing beyond the wards we’d just set, searching the darkness.
And there — a massive presence, tainted and wrong. Magic that reeked of corruption and stolen power.
Brielle’s face fell. “Trella,” she rasped, her voice tight with recognition. “The coven master herself. And a lot more powerful than before.”
I could feel it too — this was the full might of the Ashworth Coven, their power woven together like only a coven could. Yet they were drawing on something else, magic beyond what a coven should possess.
Only the use of life force energy could twist magic the way I sensed. The same method they’d used before, but on a scale that made my stomach turn.
“Come on,” Varden called.
Dean agreed. “If they’re close enough for you to sense, we need to get back to camp ASAP.”
“Brielle and I can sense a large magical force gathering to the south,” I broadcast through the Bonded link to them all, unable to keep the terror from bleeding through.
“Rowan and I are on our way to you right now,” Heath said, but that didn’t reassure me. I didn’t want him caught by the witches again.
“We weren’t done setting the wards,” I warned.
Gage’s alpha command slammed through the pack bond, forcing my body into motion. “Fall back to Heath and Rowan. Now.”
My feet moved before my mind could catch up, the compulsion of his order overriding everything else. I stumbled away from the ward I’d been working on, leaving it incomplete and vulnerable.
“Gage says to fall back,” I gasped to Brielle, who was already shifting into her reddish-brown wolf. It was all I could do to get my clothes off before my wolf tore free, anxious to follow his pack alpha’s command.
We ran.
Behind us, I heard the thunder of paws as Varden and Dean raced between us and the wards, protecting our backs as we fled toward the camp. With their longer alpha strides, they could have overtaken us, but their protective alpha instincts wouldn’t allow them to leave us betas behind.
“How many?” Rowan’s mental voice was sharp as he raced closer to us.
My heart hammered against my ribs, my breath coming in ragged gasps. The magic I’d sensed felt like it was breathing down my neck, close enough to taste.
We hadn’t paused long enough to get an accurate estimate, but I did know… “We’re going to need everyone we can get. I hope the protection council is ready to do more than just talk.”
Rowan and Heath appeared ahead, both in their massive alpha wolf forms. Relief flooded through me as we reached them, and Gage’s command finally released its hold on my body.
“They’re using stolen magic,” I warned through the Bonded link. “They must have caught other wolf shifters after they fled Frost Fang.”
Perhaps some small pack or lone wolves had fallen into their clutches while we’d been recovering from our last battle.
The six of us — Rowan, Heath, Varden, Dean, Brielle, and me — sprinted back toward camp.
We didn’t make it.
The tree line exploded with light.
Witches burst from the forest in a coordinated wave, tearing through our wards, their hands already weaving spells.
Blinding flashes of green and purple magic lit up the night, followed by concussive blasts that shook the ground beneath our feet.
The sickening feeling of tainted magic saturated the air — power stolen from trapped wolves twisted into weapons.