Chapter 15
WITCHY SHIT
Ziara
“Zee.”
I woke to the familiar woodsy scent that meant safety and the far less comforting sight of my boyfriend hovering over me like I might shatter.
“You were having a bad dream.”
I tried to focus on his words as I moved to sit up, only to remember that I’d recently been stabbed in the throat with a magical rock, making every little move hurt.
“Whoa, there.” He caught my shoulders and gingerly lowered me back onto the bed. “It’s early. You need more sleep. You need to heal.”
His eyes took me in, but I couldn’t meet his gaze. Not after last night. Not now that Mack knew.
My fingers instinctively found and probed the wound. The skin had sealed, but the entire area was sore to the touch. Figured, since it hurt like a bitch to breathe. Swallowing felt like rubbing sandpaper down my throat and catching it on fire.
“Water,” Mack said, reading my pained expression, which was helpful since I wasn’t sure I could speak. He helped me sit up, grabbed the glass from the nightstand, and raised it to my lips. I was hurting but not helpless, so I took over, wrapping my hands around the glass as I drank.
He frowned and rubbed calming circles over my back. “You wanna talk about it?”
The water hit my throat like tiny shards of glass, making me want to beg him to knock me out so I could finish healing in peace. But with every gulp, the pain lessened.
I drained the glass, held it toward Mackiel. “More?”
The word sounded as raspy as it felt, so of course, he took pity on me and headed for the kitchen, giving me a much-needed moment to think.
When he returned, I drained a second glass while he crawled into bed beside me.
Finished, I set the glass back on my nightstand, eased back down onto the mattress, and closed my eyes.
Sereana had nearly taken my life with the bloodstone in front of Mack and the alpha, yet the bitch still lived. Mack hadn’t said as much, but if the alpha had killed her, it would have been the first thing out of Mack’s mouth.
I wanted to feel betrayed, but I couldn’t even give myself that.
Dad didn’t owe me special treatment. He was the alpha first, and my father second.
A distant, conditional second I had to earn and re-earn with every mission, every binding, every bared throat.
The pack needed the bloodstone activated.
Sereana needed my blood to do it. And Dad needed the war won more than he needed me whole.
The math wasn’t complicated. I just didn’t like where it left me.
“Zee?” Mack asked.
“I just want to forget.”
Understanding replaced the concern on his face.
He lay back and opened his arms without a word.
I went gratefully, curling against his side, pressing my face into the hard warmth of his chest until his heartbeat was the only sound in the world.
His arm settled around my back, steady and sure, anchoring me to something solid while everything else threatened to come apart.
The dragon had promised to leave me alone tonight, and I refused to waste a single minute of that reprieve on thinking. I matched my breathing to Mack’s and let his warmth pull me toward the edge of sleep.
I was almost there when he spoke.
“I get why you never want to talk about the binding.” His voice was low, rumbling through his chest and into mine. “But I’m here. Whenever you’re ready. Even if that’s never.”
“Thank you.”
There was so much I was keeping from him. But the Bloodrite had made my boyfriend a conduit to the alpha, and there was no off switch. What Mack knew, Dad would know. Not because Mack would choose to betray my trust, but because the magic wouldn’t give him a choice.
Then again, the Bloodrite was supposed to bind me, too. So why hadn’t I reported the nightmares to the alpha? Why could I keep secrets that the magic should have dragged out of me?
Not nightmares.
No, the dragon tormenting my dreams was something else. I could still feel the bastard’s sword-calloused hand around my battered neck. Squeezing. This was way past nightmare territory.
I needed to report everything to the alpha in the morning.
Mackiel kissed the top of my head. “Anything I can do to help you forget?”
How did this man always know exactly what to say and do? I breathed a sigh of relief, releasing all the problems I couldn’t currently solve and welcoming the distraction he offered. I kissed my way up his chest and neck before settling my lips against his. “Yes, please.”
He carefully rolled me onto my back and tugged up the bottom of my T-shirt to kiss his way down to my core.
My brain went blissfully blank as his talented tongue worked over my little bundle of nerves until I couldn’t even remember my own name.
He took his time with me, patient and thorough, the way he always was when he knew I was breaking.
And when we finally came together, the way he buried his face in my neck told me everything his words hadn’t. He was scared, too.
When we were both sated, he spooned me back into his arms. The feral scent of mating faded as he peppered kisses across my head. “You okay now?”
I almost laughed, because not in the slightest. Tears seared the backs of my eyes, and guilt threatened to rip all my secrets from my chest. I was so far outside the realm of okay that I couldn’t even see it anymore.
Needing the reassurance only my partner could give, I blurted out the only truth I could share.
“The dragon will come for his bloodstone. No matter where we are.”
Mackiel stilled and then nodded against the top of my head. He brushed the hair back from my face. “The alpha’s aware. You know he’s got a plan, right?”
Without hesitation, I said, “Yes.” Dad never half-assed anything.
Already feeling better, I turned and buried my head in his neck, breathing in his scent. His arms went around me in silent reassurance that everything would be all right. I wouldn’t need to sacrifice myself. I couldn’t let the dragon get into my head.
Just in case, I asked, “Where’s the bloodstone?” as I settled against his side.
“The alpha has it.”
That was good. The bloodstone was now Dad’s problem. He’d decide which sacrifices had to be made to protect the pack. It was out of my hands.
“Sorry you had to watch the binding,” I whispered, unable to look up at his face.
“I’m not.” Mack’s surrounding arm tightened until there wasn’t so much as a breath between us. “Is it always that… awful?”
“The whole stabbing me in the neck with the bloodstone thing was new, but other than that, yeah. My monthly binding sucks.”
“I knew it was bad, but I didn’t—”
I shook my head, cutting him off. “What happened after I passed out?”
His chest rose and fell as he sucked in a deep breath, but he let me change the subject. “Witchy shit. Your blood seeped into that fucking rock, then it swirled around making shapes before settling into some weird design. The witch said it was a map.”
That was similar to what the box had done before I took the stone. I nearly blurted as much out loud, but that was another detail I’d left out of my report to the alpha. Not intentionally, but he’d asked me a question that sidetracked me, and we never circled back to the box.
And, if I were being honest, I hadn’t wanted to admit that my blood had activated the container’s opening mechanism.
That hinted at theories I wasn’t big on considering.
Especially since everyone already knew I was a freak.
They didn’t need confirmation, and Hitch would have spread the news all over the pack.
“A map of what?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Wherever we’re heading in the morning.”
“You still don’t know?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention to their conversation. All I cared about was making sure you were okay and getting you home.”
Aww. I settled my hand on his chest. “Thank you for that.”
“Always.” His hand cupped mine, keeping it pressed against the hard muscle, as he met my gaze. “We don’t need her to take them out.”
“Sereana?”
He nodded. “I don’t trust her, Zee.”
“Good. Neither do I. Nobody should. She’s a witch.” I was half-witch, but we were both adept at ignoring that inconvenient fact.
“Exactly.” He ran his free hand through his hair.
“I wouldn’t put it past her to double-cross us.
I know the alpha doesn’t trust her either, but you should have seen her eyes when she hurt you.
She fuckin’ enjoyed herself. No wonder she doesn’t need a man.
Causing pain is clearly what gets her off. ”
“You have no idea. But the last time we fought the Mondeine, both sides were nearly wiped out. Sereana is shady as hell, but she’s powerful, and she hates the Mondeine with the passion of a hundred fiery suns. I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her, but her goals align with ours.”
“For now.”
“For now.” And I didn’t want to even think about what would happen when that changed, and she was no longer around to bind my wolf.
“I can’t believe you have to go through that every month,” Mack said, as if he could read my mind. “You sure you’re okay? That table…. Those fucking straps…. Why didn’t you ever tell me it was that bad?”
Annoyed that he kept bringing it up, I asked, “Why would I? You think I want to talk about that? I don’t even want to think about it. It happens, and then it’s over. That’s how I get through it every month.” Emotion clogged my throat, making it impossible to speak.
His fingers feathered over my arm as tension built in the air between us.
“Has a dragon ever attacked the farm?” I asked.
Mack’s fingers stilled, and he studied me a heartbeat too long before answering. “No. I saw a wyvern once. But a long-range harpoon dissuaded it from attacking. Never seen a dragon. What was it like?”
This topic was no better than the last, but I had to give him something.
“Terrifying.” But then I remembered that wasn’t how I’d described him to my dad.
In his human form, the dragon hadn’t been frightening at all.
His silver eyes had roamed over me with a curiosity I’d never seen in anyone’s gaze before.
Thinking about it now made me uncomfortable.
Exhaustion tugged at my eyelids, and I remembered how I should be spending the limited time that I was free of him. “Not someone I ever want to see again.”
Warm lips landed on my forehead. “Get some sleep, Zee. I got you.”
Hoping he was right, I drifted off to sleep.