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“I’ll stay with them,” Aries
told him as the other men ran off.

Enoch nodded to him and looked at me. “
Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

He started to go, but I gripped his hand and brought him back to me. I went up on my tiptoes and
grabbed his face to kiss him. I exhaled against his lips before letting him go.

“Be careful,” I told
him.

He leaned
in and took one more pull from my mouth and walked away, looking at me as he did so. “A guy could get use to this.”

I smile
d and nodded. I hoped so.

We huddle
d and waited as Aries made a meaty wall of protection for us. It was quite comical how the men were so set on being the protectors over us without being asked. It was just in their nature.

Within minutes, we heard the crackle of leaves that let us know they were walking through the woods. We saw them emerge and I couldn’t hold in my gasp as seeing a half-naked girl in Enoch’s arms. He was carrying her, her arms aro
und his neck, and I felt a stab of jealousy before I pushed it away. She was obviously in distress. Her clothes were dirty and her hair was a mess of wet curls, which meant she’d been in the water. I didn’t wait for them to bring her to us. I rushed forward.

“Fay!” I heard Aries scold, but I kept going.

Enoch set the woman down and I realized he was carrying her because she had no shoes on. She limped a little in the soft grass and looked around at us nervously. Enoch glared at me when I emerged next to him. I smiled a little at him and shrugged, whispering, “You need a woman’s touch for this.”

I looked at the woman. “What’s your name?”

She looked about ready to topple over as she looked at the ground. I saw the rest of them had followed me over.

“I have no name.”

They all stepped back, apparently knowing what that meant. Enoch pulled me behind him.

“You’
re an outcast witch!” Soria accused and actually put her arm out in front of Franz.

“I am,” she said softly. “I could have just not told you, but I told you the truth. Please…” she pleaded.
“They stripped my name from me, but it wasn’t my fault. Please.” She fell to her knees and started to cry. Her tears sizzled in the grass and I stood in stupefied wonder.

I got a weird feeling about all this.

Bridgette was arguing with her devourer in hushed whispers before we could hear what they were saying.

“But everyone who comes here seeking help is entitled to at least a fair vote from the group!” she said and pleaded with him. “Augustus, please. What if they had turned me away? You would have never met me.” She smiled. “And we both know how much of a shame that would be.”

He shook his head and groaned. “It would be a travesty.” He gripped her shoulders and kissed her before looking up and clearing his throat loudly as if to say, ‘stop staring.’ “She’s right. We at least need to let the group vote. Our open door policy is what it is, but…”

“Why was your name stripped, and
why were you cast out?” Soria asked, all business.

The girl’s tears fell harder as she told us. “My clan was a very open and progressive one
, or so I thought… My mate. I met him outside my clan and… He wasn’t a warlock.”

You could hear the sighs all around. “You thought they would approve?” Bridgette asked. “They never approve. What was your name before?”
              “No,” Soria said quickly. “She’s never allowed to say that name again. We’ll have to give her a new name.”

“We?” Bridgette said with a smile.

Soria rolled her eyes. “She got kicked out because of her mate.” She looked at the woman. “What was he?” she asked quietly.

W
e all noticed how she said referred to him in the past tense, and how broken up the woman was. It was obvious the clan must’ve not taken the news well. They killed him to hurt the woman and then cast her out. Wow, these people don’t play around.

“He was a
lycan.”

“A werewolf?” Bridgette asked, her voice shrill.

“They aren’t as bad as they say they are,” the woman defended. “He was so good to me, and to them. He repaired things in our clan, houses that needed to be fixed, all kinds of things. They didn’t even know he was a lycan until I told them he was. And then they killed him because of it. Because of me.”

Her tears had made small black spots in the grass beneath her.

Soria knelt down next to her. “Our kinds don’t understand. I’m a witch, too. I left before I could be cast out. I’m sorry we were so skeptical, but we have a lot of people coming at us right now. How did you even know where to find us?”

She gulped. “I cast a spell to take me to a place where I could be free.” She shuddered through a sob. “I thought that when I ended up in the lake that I was meant to drown, that it meant that there was no place like that and death was the only option.”

Soria hugged her, leaning away with a hiss when the woman’s tears burned her shoulder. “I’m sorry!” she wailed.

“It’s okay. You know how many times I burned my mate when I first got here?” She smiled. “A lot.”
They both looked back at Franz. He smiled as he came and helped her up.

“And I’d go through it all again,” he said. “Come on. Come sit by the fire. We’ll get you something to eat.”

She looked back at Enoch. “Thank you.”

He nodded once.

They all left, but Enoch grabbed my hand to hold me back. He sighed. “Having a strained, upset witch in camp is dangerous,” he mused.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I can see why. But it could also be a really good tool.”

“Witches are the most volatile creatures there are.” He swiped his face. “I hope this doesn’t blow up in our face.”

“What happened?”

“She was in the water, so tired she could barely swim anymore. No idea where she came from.”
              I squinted and turned over what she said in my mind. “And you jumped in to save her?” I said, just now noticing that he was soaking wet.

“Yeah.”

I started to walk back, but he grabbed my hand again. I smiled and shook my head. “You’re getting insatiable.”

The little smile that sat on his lips was adorable as he scoffed. “We haven’
t even brushed the surface of insatiable.” He put a hand behind my head and tilted it back before bending down to me. I gripped his cold, wet shirt in my fingers. It made feeling his hard stomach that much easier. He shivered and moved a little. “I’m ticklish, love.”

I laughed under my breath. “How is that possible?” I asked against his lips and kept kissing him. “I thought you were a big, bad devourer?”

“I
am
a big, bad devourer,” he told me and before I knew it, a tree was pressed against my back. I laughed loudly and pushed against his chest and gave him a stern look.

“You’re all wet.”

His face twisted and he groaned. “Ah, you’re killing me. Baby, don’t talk dirty to me right now.”

I giggled and had no idea why he was in such a good mood, but I loved it. I hugged him around his neck, not even caring that I was getting wet in the process, but apparently he did.

“You’re going to get wet.”

“It’s okay.”

“You’ll get cold.” He laced my fingers with his and tugged me toward the fire. “We’ll get warmed up. Come on, princess.”

I smiled to myself
. “That name has really grown on me.”

“I know.” He smirked and looked over at me. “You never hated it to begin with.” I let my jaw drop open. “I never got any anger from you when I said it. You’ve liked it from the very
beginning.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to my ear. “Admit it.”

I huffed a laugh. “I will never admit it.” I smiled as I stared straight ahead, but he looked at my peripheral and it made me smile wider. When we reached the fire, he sat on an open spot on a log and pulled me to sit between his legs.

The nameless witch watched the whole thing as she sat with a blanket around her shoulders, eating a bowl of something—stew probably. She seemed a little irked as she watched Enoch’s arms go around me and settle on my thighs and I didn’t get it. If she just lost her mate, how could she possible have a crush on Enoch already?

I go
t it—he saved you and you have some hero worship going on, but you said they killed was your mate.
Your mate
. Again, something wasn’t setting right in my gut.

Enoch was looking the other way talking to Aries and Franz and hadn’t seen anything. I was the new person in the group. Did I really want to be the one to start something by bringing up the fact that the new witch was crushing on my boyfriend? No. That’s exactly what it would look like. It wouldn’t look like a crisis. She caught me looking and smiled a little before
looking away to finish her food.

“So,” I started quietly so as not to disturb the boys’ conversation. “What do you want your new name to be?”

Clara jumped in. “You look like a Marguerite.”

Everyone just ignored that.

“I don’t know, really. I haven’t given it much thought.”

“Who’s somebody that you look up to?” Soria asked.

“My great grandmother. She died when I was ten, but I still remember her teaching me all the basics.”

“
Was there a nickname she called you?”

The woman smiled. “Violet—because it was my favorite flower.”

“Violet it is,” Soria announced, all proud of herself. “Finish your soup and I’ll get you some clean clothes and a shower and a bed for the night.”

“I’m done,” she said and stood. She looked at Enoch and bit her lip. “Thanks again for saving me.”
              “Sure,” he said gruffly.

Soria and Franz took her away and I turned in Enoch’s lap. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, too. I’m tired.”

“All right,” he agreed without a fight and waved to everyone once as we left.

He pulled his shirt off as soon as we were inside and kicked his boots off by the door.
I stared at his back, at the muscles and scars and marks that living as long as he had had given him.

“I’m going to change,” he called over his shoulder and grabbed some clothes from Eli’s room before going into the bathroom. I figured I had enough time to change if
he was changing, so I kicked off my shoes, and then pulled my jeans off and my semi-wet shirt.

I took a cami from the small pile Clara had given me and was putting it over my head when Enoch came out with dry clothes on. He was wearing
nothing but a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. I was never going to see him in anything but jeans it seemed. That was a shame.

“You’re not going
to put on something more comfortable?” I asked as I finished pulling the cami down over my stomach.

“You mean like you?”
His voice had gone deep and taken that growly tone that I loved so much. His eyes looked at every inch of me.

I turned to find something to put on. “I thought I had enough time to get dressed before you came out.”

I heard the swoosh of him blurring across the room a second before he was wrapping his arms around my stomach. He pressed his mouth to my ear and didn’t whisper it, he growled it. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are, Fay?”

“No,” I whispered.

“How is that possible?” He kissed the side of my neck. “Put something on, sweetheart, because I want to kiss you all night.”

I grabbed the first pair of shorts I saw and turned in his arms. He
leaned down and captured my mouth, tilting my head back with his. His big hands grasped my sides through my cami and he groaned as he picked up on the way he was making me crazy right now. I had to admit that I didn’t foresee that ever getting old—being able to know, without a shadow of doubt that I was attracted to him, and vice versa. Wow, that was an amazing relationship tool. I grinned into our kiss and leaned up on my tiptoes to reach more of him.

His hand, so warm it was ridiculous, crept under the back of my shirt and pressed into my back while the other one
gripped my hip and then went lower to my thigh and under my behind. He pulled back and licked his bottom lip. “You gotta put something on, sweetheart,” he groaned. “I can’t wait to leave here. We’ll get our own place when we get to Colorado.”

“We will?” I asked coyly.

“Yes,” he barked playfully. “Don’t even pretend like you don’t want to stay with me.”

“Colorado?”
              “That’s where we’re going tomorrow night.” He sighed and chuckled as his hands flexed on my hip. “Go. Now. Before I stop being the good guy.”

I shook my head and slipped under his arm. “You’ve been the good guy all along, Enoch.”

I heard him groan behind me and the bed squeak as I went into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair out. I even put some coconut lip-gloss on. Then I washed up a bit and shaved my legs as fast as I could because I knew that tonight was far from over. I smiled at myself in the mirror. Somehow, I had gotten what I always wanted. Someone who wanted me for me and didn’t want anyone else.