16. Daire
Daire
We didn’t talk much as we walked. I didn’t know where we were going, and my head was full of bees.
I’d just had sex for the first time ever, and I’d lost my magic in the same moment.
I still felt a strange surge of pride that Viktor had been able to use it, not just that my magic was doing good work, but that he’d figured it out so quickly.
If a wolf could learn to cast that quickly, they weren’t anything like we’d always presumed. Viktor was every bit as clever as I thought I was . . . maybe more so. Definitely more capable. He had taken to my magic faster than I might’ve done in his shoes.
So, I’d satisfy myself with that—my magic was in the right person for the moment.
But being a werewolf didn’t make walking through the woods barefoot any easier.
The muscles in my legs ached from use, and there was a deeper, duller, throbbing soreness.
Both of which made it nicer to hold onto Viktor’s hand.
He was steadying, and whenever I took a wrong step, it was his strength that kept me upright.
After about fifteen minutes, I’d decided I was never going to be a hiker.
It took us a few hours more before we got to the edge of pack lands and the road against it. It didn’t circle the whole of their territory, but curled around this side and bisected the forest for miles in either direction.
And the coven was waiting for us. They were here, but they were also out on either side, pulled off the road a couple of miles away. Even over that distance, I could hear their voices.
“We can walk around them,” Viktor said, squeezing my hand.
I nodded. While I wasn’t so sure about that, we needed space, and I needed time to think.
They’d spelled the road. It might break if we got to the far side of their farthest casting, but a man-made demarcation like this was easier to work with. There was no guarantee they hadn’t set a barrier down the whole thing.
Once we’d gotten out of sight of the first SUVs we’d come upon, I wandered to a stop. Viktor stopped too, pulled not just by the tether between us, but his hand in mine.
He looked at me, his head cocked curiously, but he didn’t say anything. Was that just him, or was it because he was used to dealing with werewolf senses? I could still hear Destiny’s voice behind us, and Ryan up ahead, but I knew they couldn’t hear us.
“There’s a ward,” I said with a sigh. “If the caster had any skill at all, it’ll follow the whole road. Eventually, we’re going to have to cross it, and the second we do, they’ll know we’ve tampered with it.”
We were only about halfway to where the wolves actually lived. If the coven caught us out here, even inside Wildwood territory, we’d be screwed.
“So?” Viktor scowled. Strangely enough, I didn’t think he was annoyed with me.
“So there’s no point in adding hours to our trip just to have to break the wards eventually. I’ll show you how to do it, then we run.”
Viktor arched his brow. “I thought never again?”
I sighed, scratching the back of my neck.
“In my heart, never again. In reality, maybe today. A little more. But our own wards should hold. They’re smaller, specific to us.
They’d have to find us before they could break them.
If we can get enough distance from where we break theirs, they shouldn’t be able to find us again. We’ll . . . be safe on pack lands?”
He shrugged. “They could follow us. We’ve been attacked before, and they know where we’re going.”
I shook my head. “No, I mean . . . your pack won’t . . . I can go with you?”
“You don’t have a choice.”
I grimaced. Okay, that was probably true.
I didn’t even have underwear, much less a phone to call for help.
It was the coven or the werewolves, and I knew what Mother wanted with me.
Even if I found a way to untether myself from Viktor, if she caught me, I’d probably end up in that basement cell until she could get her hands on him too.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” Viktor said, squeezing my hand. “Tristan was bitten, but after that, when he stopped fighting, no one hurt him. And he meant us harm when he entered pack lands. You don’t.”
“He’s alive?”
Viktor nodded.
“And Kate?” I asked.
His expression didn’t change. “No.”
“Right . . . ” So I had a fifty-fifty shot with the wolves, and those were better odds than I had with the coven, so that decided it for me.
I let go of his hand and shook out my fingers, before I stepped to the side of the road. I could smell the magic, like leaning toward a brick wall after a rainstorm and scenting the damp baked clay.
“Start like this.” I lifted my hands in front of me, palms out, with the tips of my thumb and pointer fingers together to make a triangle and the rest of my fingers spread wide.
“When you push out, lead with your first finger and let your hands turn. Your thumbs will come apart, but imagine that’s the ward breaking.
Then move your hands apart like you’ll part a curtain. ”
When Viktor moved, they felt it. Destiny’s voice turned sharp as she told the others to get in the car, but I ignored them.
Without his shirt on, I could see Viktor’s muscles straining, the effort when his magic pushed against the wards. His arms strained with the effort even when I’d only felt wind.
“That’s it,” I said. “You almost have it.”
He’d created an opening large enough for Buddy to toddle through. On the other side, he sat up on his hind legs and watched us curiously.
Viktor spread his hands far enough that we could slip through, one at a time. He paused to pick up Drew. The SUVs were moving down the dirt road toward us.
I snatched his hand again and took off running, which I was definitely no better at now than I had been before. My lungs burned and my feet hurt and I really wanted some freaking pants, because there was nothing good about my dick slapping against my thighs with every step.
And the SUVs had stopped. Witches had piled out of the cars and were chasing after us on foot. We weren’t making any headway, because I was too fucking slow. I was going to get us caught and killed, and it didn’t matter because I couldn’t breathe.
I took a couple bounds, my feet hitting the ground so hard that it jolted up my legs, and then I was done. I doubled over, gasping for breath, and shook my head. There was sweat on my brows and tears in my eyes and I couldn’t go on.
I was definitely going to puke.
Viktor jerked to a stop ahead of me. Drew had climbed up on to his shoulders and I thought—I thought when I looked down at his feet, that he was going to insist he carry me too.
I couldn’t even argue with him anymore, because I couldn’t breathe, and we were fucked, and Destiny was shouting now and I was pretty sure they were close enough that Viktor could hear too. Maybe they couldn’t see us directly, but if they’d caught our trail—fuck.
With my face cupped in both his hands, Viktor pulled me upright. He breathed slow and deep, as if he could get my lungs working again purely by example.
“It doesn’t always hurt,” he said urgently. “The shift. It’s natural. Think about your paws in the dirt. How it felt to run on four legs. It’s freedom, and if I can do magic, you can do this, zaichik.”
His fingers twisted in my shirt, pulling it up. Stunned, I lifted my arms and let him. If I didn’t figure this out, Destiny and the others were going to see more of me than they bargained for.
“The run, the hunt, the wolf. It’s all yours, as natural as standing there on two legs.”
I shut my eyes, because I couldn’t look at him or my own bare legs and really believe I was anything but what I was.
Closing my eyes? That helped. And Viktor was right.
It didn’t hurt to shift. I felt the strangeness of it, legs and arms rearranging, but there was no pain like there’d been when I was bound.
I fell forward on four legs, my lungs stronger, my body built for this.
I looked up, and Viktor nodded at me. He smelled . . . complicated. Proud and sad and angry, and I whined.
“Let’s go,” he pressed.
Help.
It was a single word, but a thought so clear.
We needed help.
I threw my head back and howled, and then, I took off after him.