Chapter 17 #2
I’ll have to find a way to make it all up to Ash.
He spent more than a week as a ghost, silver eating his foot up from the inside out, because my sister is a vindictive, bitter raccoon.
Way I see it, our best revenge will be in the love we have for each other and the forever we gave each other when we finalized our bond.
Still, I feel the urge to apologize to everyone in this room. It’s an old habit that I wish I could break, but just like how I need to wash my hands obsessively and steal all of Honey’s treats, apologizing for Crystal is just something I’ve always done.
However, before anyone can say a word following Crystal’s flounce out of my apartment, Max’s phone buzzes.
It has to be Max. The sheriff mutters a frustrated curse under his breath, something about how did they know he was back—and I’m behaved enough not to point out that, the second Max started throwing his weight around, every shifter in Moonburrow sensed that our Alpha was home as easily as if there was a billboard put out announcing his return—before yanking his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans.
He answers the call with a sharp, “Yeah, Barrow?”
Barrow. One of the deputies down at the sheriff station.
Whatever the other wolf says comes through loud enough that the whole room can hear frantic yelling through the speaker.
Max’s expression changes instantly. I thought he was all business before, but his entire face shuts down, eyes gleaming fiercely as he snaps, “What the fuck do you mean, Riordan’s gone?”
It’s worse than that. Riordan Lobo has left Moonburrow, but Olivia Frost is dead.
That’s right. The witch healer who first diagnosed Ash as cursed was murdered this morning—and, according to Max, Penelope Willows is the one who killed her.
You think your head is spinning? I went from discovering that my sister thought it would be funny to muffle the mate bond between Ash and me only to inadvertently turn him into a ghost when he ‘played dead’ and the silver needle kept his soul from returning to his catatonic body to finding out that there’s been another murder in Moonburrow…
and it involves a witch who only came to town because of us.
Turns out that, while Honey and Max were on their way back to Moonburrow—and Ash and me were sleeping off last night after Gus snuck into the room and curled up at the foot of the bed with us—Riordan got a call from the Moonburrow witch coven as the sun was coming up.
Olivia Frost was found dead in her quarters.
The last one who had been in to see her?
Penelope. Three separate witnesses confirm that the two had a loud argument in regards to a lost witch artifact, and when the screaming stopped, Penelope fled the coven.
They found Olivia dead and informed the acting sheriff: Riordan Lobo.
He processed the scene, allowed the witches to reclaim Olivia’s body as is their custom, and stopped Penelope from leaving Moonburrow.
All of this seemed to have happened in the time between Honey and Max discovering Crystal behind the bakery.
On the plus side, that means my sister couldn’t be involved in Olivia’s murder.
Then again, it’s only after Max tells all of this to Honey—and, by default, me and Ash and Gus—that I realize that I forgot to mention that someone tried to break into my shop and shot silver bullets at me while they were on their honeymoon.
I still don’t. I can blame Crystal for the first part; she would totally try to break into my shop if she could and, while we’re both raccoons, I’ve got the better fingers.
But shooting at me? She might use a silver needle she found in the trash to fuck with me, but you can’t torture a dead sister, can you?
She didn’t try to kill me… but someone did.
And now Olivia Frost is dead.
I don’t think Penelope could’ve done it. My first impression of the cursebreaker definitely wasn’t that she was capable of murder, but if she tried to cast a spell on Olivia and it backfired… maybe?
So now Penelope is in a cell that Riordan put her in, but instead of trying to solve the crime, he grabbed the nearest deputy—Barrow—told him that Max was back in town and he was now handing command back to the Alpha, then walked out of the station.
According to Barrow, who followed him onto the street, Riordan shifted on the spot and a big, black wolf tore off down the street.
No one has seen him since. He’s gone, and Max left Honey and Gus with me and Ash at my store so that he could head over to the sheriff station and try to figure out what the hell was going on.
That was three hours ago. Since then, Ash and I have distracted Honey by telling her everything she missed while she was on her honeymoon with Max in between making lunch.
Well, no. Not everything. I decide not to mention the whole love brownies fiasco—that’ll be a fun surprise for later—and we downplay our actual mating because some things are private, but other than that, we tell her all about how I found Ash in the dumpster behind Dough You Believe in Magic with Gus’s help, how Olivia was the one who said he was cursed and suggested we call in Penelope, and all of the other crazy shit that happened after that.
I was just about to finally mention the morning when we were shot at on Main when Honey gets a text. She jumps off the couch, hurrying for the stairs. Me and Ash exchange a look before getting up to follow her. Gus has the same idea, hurrying after Honey even before we turn toward the hall.
Right as we reach the store level, there’s a rap-tap-tapping at my front door.
For a second, I wonder if Crystal came slinking back, striped tail between her legs. But considering Honey is already on her way to open the door, I know exactly who it is.
Max has returned.