Chapter 12 Jaxon
Jaxon
Who does this guy think he is?
We should put him in his place.
As much as I agreed with my wolf, now wasn’t the time. We were guests on Ossory territory and this Vincent character was obviously respected here. If the rumors were true, he was wielding some unheard-of magic and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was curious to figure out what it was.
Sarah seemed to think the warlock hung the moon. She followed along behind him like a puppy as he left, leaving the two other Ossory witches and the rest of us here to enjoy the bonfire.
“Where are you going?” I asked as Tisiphone jumped to her feet and hurried to gather her used dishes.
Her eyes darted around as her wolf paced within. “I need to talk to my sisters.”
Of course she wanted to speak with them. This was the exact thing Alpha Kera wanted to know about. Add in the fact that Vincent’s whole speech hit close to home for Tisiphone and her tight-knit family…
I stood. “I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to.” Trish shook her head. “Stay. Enjoy the party.”
Some party. After Vincent left, a somber mood had settled on the crowd that lingered. By the heated discussions, I could tell who’d received invitations and who hadn’t.
It was a divisive tactic. Pitting us against one another with the haves and have-nots. Alpha Oscar was famous for this during his reign, and I’d been eager to get rid of those ruling principles when I took over the pack.
The witches and warlocks still sitting by the bonfire couldn’t see that they were being played. This challenge Vincent offered wasn’t what it seemed. I didn’t know what he was doing, but I was going to figure it out.
“We should all go,” I told the rest of the coven, hoping to keep everyone together. The looks cast in our direction weren’t exactly hostile. More curious. But now that I knew what he was up to, I understood that the invitations to us wolf-witches were no coincidence.
Whether to make it look like he had our support by having the descendants of the western packs here or to publicly shame us for not doing more, I wasn’t sure. Both outcomes benefited his cause.
“I think some of us should stay here,” Calla said, relaxing as her wolves adjusted their sleeping bodies across her feet. “We don’t want our new hosts to think we’re up to something,” she added under her breath, soft enough for only wolf-shifters to hear.
Gentry and the twins looked to Calla and nodded, before Gentry turned to Trish. “You’ll send word to our Alphas too?”
“Sure.” She was already moving.
“Wait up,” I called, following as she weaved her way through the tents.
But she didn’t wait. Vincent had gotten under my skin a bit, but he’d affected her worse.
I don’t like the sound of that.
Me either.
Tisiphone hit the open field running, swiping the dress from her body in one solid move. Her bare skin bathed in the moonlight.
I looked away, gathering myself and getting control of my beast who wanted to tear through my skin and chase after her.
You know the rules.
I’m good. We’re wasting time.
Tisiphone’s beautiful brown wolf landed on her paws in the soft grass. Bluish tipped fur lined her tail and undercoat, making me smile as my own wolf took control of our body.
My bones broke, rearranging into that of the beast, and his black paws thudded heavily against the ground. He was so much bigger than the she-wolf that raced ahead. Everything about them was different. She was faster, but he was stronger. More obtrusive. More alpha. Hungrier. Motivated.
But he stayed steady, shaking with the effort to hold back. One yard. Two… Three yards.
His hide rippled with anticipation, fur bristling as he watched her get smaller and smaller in the distance. She needed space. If we charged right up on her flank, she’d push him away. Only when she was almost to the border did I release my hold on him.
And I realized my mistake too late.
She’s not going to like this, I said with a pained sigh, knowing how much Tisiphone hated being chased.
Her wolf will. My beast howled as he took off like a bolt of lightning. The grass and earth cushioned each of my heavy paws, absorbing his energy as the air filled his lungs with its soothing caress. We flew through that field, until he was right on Tisiphone’s wolf’s heels.
In his mind, he was winning the chase. But I doubted Trish saw it that way. Our dance didn’t allow for play like this. Not anymore. Not since we’d grown enough to know what games like this meant.
My wolf slowed to her pace once he gained on her, panting and pretending to be out of breath.
You’re not fooling anyone. I rolled my eyes.
Yet my heart caught in my throat as Trish’s wolf slowed and pressed her body against my beast’s side.
The two of them walked together, nudging each other.
Our scents mingled. Two animals reconnecting like long lost friends.
A sense of peace washed over me as I thought back to our younger days, before everything had gone so wrong.
How long had it been since our wolves were together? Years? How had time slipped from us so fast?
The moment didn’t last long.
We crossed Ossory’s border back into Anubis territory. Tisiphone bolted ahead before shifting into her human form.
Her very naked human form.
“We need clothes,” she said, barking out the order as the scents of her sisters and Cerberus grew stronger. One large tent was set up near the trees, but the two females came rushing out from it.
“Didn’t you just get there?”
“What happened to your stuff?”
“We shifted quickly.” Trish dragged her hands over her face. “Give me a second, I’m out of breath.”
She smells so good. My wolf stepped forward, sniffing and drawn by Tisiphone’s scent.
What is wrong with you? I yelled, wrestling for control. We’d seen her naked before. Plenty of times. As shifters, nudity didn’t affect us.
But my wolf was salivating.
“Clothes for him too.” Tisiphone turned and bopped my wolf on the nose.
He blinked, stunned.
It gave me enough time to take over our body by forcing the shift. Meg tossed me a pair of loose female pants, which I struggled to get into, as Tisiphone pulled an oversized shirt over her head.
“Is someone going to tell us what happened?” Alec leveled me with a glare. I’d almost forgotten how angry she always was, and I couldn’t understand why. I did know I never wanted to be on her bad side.
Tisiphone was so different from her sisters despite them being identical. It was easy to forget they were triplets. She didn’t feed off of Alec’s anger, calming instead as she took a deep breath.
“So that Vincent warlock guy?” Trish said. “He’s nuts. He’s got a vendetta or something and is going to get us all killed.”
“Agreed.” I growled, feeling ridiculous in the too tight lilac sweatpants.
But I was the only true Alpha here, despite Meg being an alpha wolf too, and it was my job to handle situations like this.
“We need to get word to all the packs that Vincent means to go to war with the humans. Do either of you have a paper and ink?”
Meg nodded, grabbing me supplies. I hastily scribbled a note to Victor explaining what to do in case of an emergency and telling him to be prepared.
Alec was still watching me with that angry look in her eyes. “War with the humans? Why?”
“The warlock is saying he’s going after the other witches born within city walls,” Tisiphone explained.
And there I heard it. The little bit of agreement she had for this cause. By the looks on her sisters’ faces, they shared the same sympathies.
But it wasn’t the time to make rash decisions. We needed more support until we knew the threat we were up against, and I didn’t trust this warlock at all.
It might be best to leave, my wolf thought bitterly.
“I’ll get the rest of the coven packed up and we’ll head back first thing in the morning,” I said, trying to sort through the best way to keep everyone safe. I guessed I didn’t need the letter to Victor.
“No, don’t do that.” Trish frowned. “We just got here. And we don’t really have any information to give Alpha Kera other than what we heard tonight.”
“You want to stay?” Meg asked. “What happened to complaining about this festival the whole trip over?”
Tisiphone tugged at the hem of the t-shirt she was wearing and shrugged.
My heart was still beating fast from the run, but it skipped for an entirely different reason when Tisiphone wouldn’t raise her gaze to meet my eyes.
She wants to be here… With me?
Alec looked between the two of us before sighing. “I’ll go. I’m faster than Meg.”
“Want to bet?” Meg growled.
“Can you two just stop?” Trish stomped her foot on the ground. “This is serious.”
“I’m taking it seriously.” Alec threw a middle finger over her shoulder as she started to undress. “It’ll take me a day or two to get to Kera. You better have more intel when we come back.”
Trish started growling, and quieted when I glanced at her. Color flushed her cheeks pink.
She coughed. “Also, let the other Alphas know. Everyone is freaking out a bit.”
“Aye, Captain.” Alec gave her a salute before shifting into her wolf. Meg slipped my message into a travel bag, then looped it over the wolf’s shoulders. Alec’s powerful sigma wolf bounded off into the night without another glance at us.
Tisiphone was growling softly again.
When I looked at her, she stopped.
“Okay, so that’s taken care of…” She started towards the border. “We should get back.”
“No, not until you tell me exactly what is going on.” Meg caught her sister by the arm. “Is it safe there for you? What does he have everyone doing? Do you have any bad feelings? Is your magic acting up?”
I knew it was Meg’s alpha wolf pushing her hard, and not having all the answers was killing her.
But I hated seeing how Tisiphone sank into herself, nervous as she dug her toe in the dirt. “I’ll be fine. There’s some testing tomorrow, but I’m sure it’s nothing crazy.”
“And I’ll be there to protect her.” I stood tall by Tisiphone’s side.
It was a slip of tongue. I didn’t realize what I’d said until Trish’s eyes narrowed, and by then, it was too late to take back.
“Maybe I’ll just skip the trials altogether,” she said.
“That’s good.” Meg sighed in relief. “Why don’t you spend time shopping and having fun? We’ll get the intel one way or another. I’m sure Jaxon can figure it out. But Alpha Kera will be pissed if you take unnecessary risks.”
“Yeah. That’s a good idea.” Tisiphone’s face fell. “I’m tired, though. I’m going to call it a night.”
“If you’re sure…” Meg looked very much like she didn’t want this conversation to be over.
But Trish was already walking away.
“Hey, wait up…” I called after her, yet again.
She didn’t shift into her wolf, so I didn’t give into mine.
Awful idea if you ask me, he grumbled.
It wasn’t the first time in my life I wondered if this was how it’d always be—me chasing after Tisiphone when she didn’t want to be chased—and it wasn’t the first time I thought about giving it up.
If she hadn’t looked so sad right now, maybe I’d have been able to let her go. Her outline was a silhouette against the night sky, with the moon high above and Halley’s Comet charting its course through the stars.
A once-in-a-lifetime event, they said.
I lowered my gaze to the earth, making sure there were no obstacles in Tisiphone’s path that would make her bare feet stumble.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I said, catching up to her side.
“There’s nothing to talk about.” She shrugged.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” I filled the silence. “All of us, we should lie low and watch until we know more about this Vincent character. That was always the plan. Nothing has changed.”
Trish snorted. “Your plan, maybe.”
“Did you have another plan?” I asked.
She chewed her lip as she thought. “No. I guess not.”
I knew her, and I knew that was all I’d get out of this talk. She was the expert at dodging anything with depth. I fell back into our dance pattern.
“Nice night tonight,” I said.
“It really is.” She turned her face to the sky. “Do you ever think about all the times this comet has passed by before? How much history she’s seen in her life? It’s beautiful.”
I smiled to myself as we continued to walk. This was what I loved about her. How she saw the world so differently, and could still find something pretty in it no matter how cold or cruel it was.
Despite the aloofness she presented, I knew she felt stronger and loved harder than anyone I’d ever met.
“Very beautiful,” I said.
Tisiphone caught me staring and it was my turn to look away.
“I didn’t mean it, you know,” I hurried to add. “Earlier. When I said I’d protect you. I know you hate when I say that. I just meant you wouldn’t be alone. I know you can protect yourself.”
She shouldn’t have to. My wolf growled.
I coughed to cover the sound.
“It’s not your job,” Trish reminded me. Echoes of sadness laced her tone. “Besides, now that my Alpha is coming, I should stay out of the way. Like Meg said, she’d be upset if I did anything dangerous.”
I hated how defeated she sounded, but if I knew how to fix any of this, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.
“Maybe we can do something fun to get your mind off things,” I offered, trying hard not to let on just how much keeping her away from Vincent and whatever the warlock was planning helped my wolf breathe easier.
Tisiphone smiled softly. “Thanks, Jaxon. I don’t need your sympathy, though. I can take care of myself.”
Every muscle in my body ached with the restraint of holding back as we came to a stop in front of her tent. My wolf begged me to move closer, to close the distance between us. To make her see that she was never a burden.
But there was a chasm between us years wide that couldn’t be filled with one night or one talk.
Gods knew I’d already tried.
“Get some sleep then,” I teased. “Big day tomorrow.”
“Right. I’m sure you and the rest of the coven will be busy.” Tisiphone sighed as she unzipped her tent. “Try not to get into too much trouble without me.”