Claiming His Witch (17 page)

“Pup? What’s wrong? What’s on your mind?”

“Jesus, Zuri. I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to—”

He stuttered just as a loud knock rattled the door. His forehead landed on my chest with a thump, and he hissed a curse word.

“What is it?”

Pup lifted his head and gave me an apologetic smile. “I have to go to work.”

“Work?” I sat up, detangling the two of us. “Now? You really have to go now?”

He huffed a sigh. “Yeah. I do. I’m sorry, I know this is shit timing, but I have to do a job for Rebel. I promise you, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

My mouth fell open as my stomach bottomed out. “Tomorrow?”

“I know, I’m an ass. I’m sorry.” A second knock on the door had Pup growling and yelling. “Give me a goddamned minute, would you?”

Whoever was at the door walked away, their wet footsteps loud on the wood porch. Pup turned back to me, holding my hand and pulling me toward him. Looking incredibly guilty.

“This job is not at all what I want to be doing today, but I came up here for a reason and I need to follow through.” He brought his lips to mine in a slow kiss. “I have so much to say to you, so many things to talk about. But I’m out of time.”

I sighed into another kiss before pulling away. Even though I didn’t feel it, I said what he needed to hear. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine.”

He sat back on his heels. “I have so much to be sorry for—”

I shook my head, fighting to keep my voice even. “No. Don’t do that now. Whatever you have to say can wait. The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back.”

He dropped his head to my shoulder and sighed. “Yeah, okay.” He was up and off the bed before I could reply, before I could stop my heart from burning in my chest at the thought of being left alone in a new place.
 

“Who knows”—Pup pulled a leather coat on over his sweater and grabbed a matching pair of gloves—“if things go well, I might be back before morning.”

I nodded and gave him what had to be a shaky smile. It certainly didn’t feel strong. He rushed over to kiss me goodbye, owning my mouth for the briefest of moments.
 

“I promise, as soon as I get this done, it’s nothing but you and me for a while. I have so much to make up to you for. We’ll spend a few days together, just the two of us. It’ll give us time to talk, and for me to fix my mistakes. We can stay here, go someplace else, whatever. Anything you want.”

His smile made a sense of shame roll over me like the tide, building until I felt worse than I did before it began. The man had to work. I’d stormed into his life, into his cabin, taking over and expecting him to capitulate. I could let him go for a day. It was only a matter of hours, really.

“Sure.” I took a deep breath and shored up my smile. “That sounds good.”

He stopped, his eyes meeting mine. He stared for a long moment, assessing me, before stepping closer and lifting my chin with his finger.

“I don’t want to go, but I promised my Breed brothers I would do this. I swear to you, though, I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can, and I’ll be missing you the entire time I’m away.”

I took a deep breath to hold back the tears threatening to burn a path down my cheeks. “I’ll miss you, too.”

“Here,” Pup said, handing me his phone. “Put your number in.”

I typed my information into his phone, sending myself a quick text message so I had his number. Handing him back his phone, I gave him the best smile I could. Pup leaned over me, calm and serious.

“Don’t worry.” With a final kiss, Pup strode toward the door. “I’ll call you when I get there and text you as often as I can, okay?”

I nodded, not wanting my voice to break. But as he grabbed the door handle, as he prepared to exit the little home we now inhabited and walk out into a situation I knew nothing about, I bolted off the bed.

“Wait.”

Pup stood and watched me as I rushed to my bag and grabbed a black cloth headband I’d packed in my haste to leave the lighthouse. Facing him, meeting his gaze and holding it, I mentally focused on the energy of the earth around me, particularly the power of the trees and the strength of the wind.
 

“By knot of one, my spell has begun.” I tied a single knot in the headband, twisting the fabric and moving up to do it again.

“By knot of two, it will come true, that my thread shall return anew.”

When the second knot was tied, I let the fabric slide through my fingers, twisting one final knot. “By knot of three, so mote it be.”

I kept my eyes on Pup’s as I closed the space between us and put the knotted fabric in his pocket. “Don’t lose it.”

He grabbed my elbow when I moved to walk away from him, bending over to give me a deep kiss before whispering against my mouth, “I’m going to love the fuck out of you, little witch. Just you wait and see.”

And then he walked out the door.

I dialed Zuri the second I parked my bobber on Feral Breed property. Seeing her face fall when I told her I had to work had gutted me. For a moment, I’d thought about taking Rebel up on his offer and staying with Zuri instead of dealing with the Kalamazoo den, but I couldn’t fail him. He’d given me a job, and I needed to see it through. Then I could deal with groveling for Zuri’s forgiveness.
 

The phone rang twice before a slurring voice that definitely didn’t belong to my mate came through the speaker.

“Joe’s Morgue. You stab ’em, we bag ’em.”

“Hey, uh. Is Zuri there?” I grinned as I heard my mate in the background, yelling at Scarlett for taking her phone.

“What? Are you afraid I’ll coerce him with my wit and charm? I’m not trying to steal your man. I was trying to be helpful.” Scarlett grunted and there were definite sounds of a scuffle before the giggle of my beautiful mate met my ears.

“Hi, Pup. So you made it down there okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” I leaned my bike onto the stand and rested against the seat. “What’s going on there? Scarlett causing trouble?”

Zuri huffed. “When isn’t she causing trouble? I’m sorry, I was in the bathroom when the phone rang.”

“No problem.” I had to pause as the roar of a seriously boss engine came from my left. On the far side of the parking lot, a custom chopper rolled to a stop. The gray-haired man riding it quickly dismounted and rushed toward the front door, the telltale limp revealing him as the shifter known as Crash. Leader of the satellite den and the man I needed to talk to. “I only have a minute, babe. But I’m here, I’m safe, and I’m thinking of you.”

“I’m thinking of you, too.” Her whispered confession made a low rumble start in my chest.
 

“Good, keep thinking of me until I come home to you.” I coughed to hold back my growl, not wanting any of the guys who might come outside to hear me. “I have to get to work, baby. You have fun with your sister and try not to let her lead you astray.”

“I heard that, Lassie,” Scarlett yelled, her voice carrying through the phone. There was the distinct sound of a fist meeting flesh before Scarlett started whining. “Ow, you bitch. Just for that, I should try to steal him from you. Don’t think I can’t.”

Zuri sighed. “I’m sorry. There’re times when I wonder if she was raised by wild animals.”

“The only place I’m wild is in the sack, baby!” Scarlett yelled in the background. “C’mon, wolfman. You know you want this.”

I laughed. “How drunk are you two?”

Zuri giggled again. “Maybe just a little. Beast brought over some whiskey before he left for his shop.”

“He left?” The thought of Beast not being there with my mate while I was working set my world on end for a moment. I knew he had to get the bagger for Rebel, but I figured he’d wait until I was back. Three women in camp and only one shifter there to protect them—I wasn’t the biggest fan of those odds. But I reminded myself that the shifter watching over them was Rebel, my leader and friend. He would never let anything happen to my mate.

Zuri hummed her affirmation. “Yeah, he said something about needing to get some bags? I offered him my duffel, but he just laughed.”

I shook my head and smiled, still a little uncomfortable about her not being as guarded as I thought she would be, but entertained by her common mistake as well. “Bagger, baby. He went to get Rebel’s bagger. It’s a kind of motorcycle.”

“Oh.” She paused, silent, until snorting a chuckle. “No wonder he laughed.”

“It’s okay. You can teach me about being a witch, and I can teach you about bikes.”

“Yes, definitely.” She dragged out each syllable, making me wish I were there just to see the way her lips moved. And maybe taste the burn of alcohol on them.

“Okay.” I sighed, hating that I had to hang up, not ready to let her go. “You stay close to Rebel. He’ll be keeping an eye on you, I’m sure.”

She snorted again. “Yeah, Charlotte’s here drinking with us and poor Rebel’s out on the porch. She told him it was girl time. That big dude left because she told him he couldn’t come inside since he has a penis. I don’t care that his aura is a mess of colors all the time; he earned points for that.”

“Well”—I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me—“a wolf wants to make his mate happy.”

Her voice dropped, becoming breathy and soft. “You make me happy.”

“I’m glad, baby.” Anxiety gripped me, making my chest hurt and my skin feel too tight. “I’ve got to go. I’ll text or call as soon as I can.”

“Yeah. Okay. And hey, about my sister—”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, shaking my head.

“No, I just want you to know you shouldn’t take what she says to heart. She’s just drunk and mouthy. Scarlett’s usually the one chasing guys—”

“Zuri.” I grinned as she squeaked, cutting off her own babbling.

“Yeah?”

Growling loud enough for her to hear over the line, I dropped my voice low as I said, “Your sister never had a shot, will never have a shot, and can talk all the crap she wants. I’m yours and yours alone, my mate.”

Her gasp came through the phone loud and clear, as did her whispered “Oh. Okay.”

I sighed and looked toward the front door of the denhouse, which was definitely not the place I wanted to be. “I have to go.”

Zuri sounded just as down as I did when she said, “Right. Work time. Bye, Pup.”

“Bye, baby. I’ll be missing you.” I hung up the phone with a swipe, tucked it into my jacket pocket, and swung my leg over the bike seat. I forced the smile off my face as I approached the door. This was not the time for happy, lovey, newly mated Pup. This was time for Feral Breed Pup. Enforcer of the Detroit den.
 

The door was locked when I reached it, so I rapped a few times with the back of my knuckles and waited. Seconds later, a voice came over an intercom tucked discreetly beside the door.

“What do you want?”

“I’m here to see Crash.”

“No strangers allowed. Get the fuck off our property.”

Glaring at the device, I noticed what looked like a camera lens. I turned just enough for whoever was playing the part of the Wizard of Oz to see the cut on my back. Even without the wolf insignia, I knew the Feral Breed rocker on the top would be enough to get me inside.
 

“Pretty sure this is all our property, man. Now let me in—Rebel sent me.”

There was a few seconds pause before the locks unlatched and a young shifter in a black T-shirt pulled the door open.
 

“Crash will be out in a few.” The kid stepped back so I could enter. What met me was pretty much what I’d expected. Shifters sat around the room, watching TV or playing cards, bottles of beer littering the tables, and a hazy cloud of smoke floating through the air.
 

Four huge flat-screen televisions were mounted over the bar, each showing a different football game in progress. Money exchanged hands on every play as bets were won and lost, and shifters cheered or groaned over the performance of their preferred team. Pretty much a typical Sunday in a denhouse.

But then I saw the five smaller TVs behind the bar. Each had a view of outside the building, focusing on the door, the parking lot, the gated driveway, and even the road leading in.
 

“Is that live feed?”

The kid I’d asked looked nervous, but another denmate sitting at the bar spoke up.

“Gotta keep our team safe.”

I stared at the screens, realizing how many other shifters kept taking glances at them as my blood began to chill in my veins. “Safe from what?”

A new voice chimed in. “From things that go bump in the night.”

I turned as Crash, the leader Rebel assigned to run the Kalamazoo branch, strode into the room. Big, broad, and inked from his fingertips to his jawline, the man exuded a vibe that had made me quake in my boots the first time I’d met him. But no longer. Crash was a lot of things, but a threat to me wasn’t one of them.

“Aren’t we technically the things that go bump in the night?” I reached out to grasp his hand as he offered it, giving it a single hearty shake before slapping him on the opposite shoulder. “It’s good to see you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

He huffed and growled. “Circumstances couldn’t really get much worse. Come on back. We can chill in my office.”

I followed him down a hall, the noise of the shifters in the main bar disappearing as we walked deeper into the labyrinth of old office spaces at the back of the building. When we reached the closed door to his office, he stopped long enough to tap four times, pause, then tap twice more before opening it. He stepped in quickly, the speed at which he moved surprising me. Before I could comment, I walked into the room and immediately froze.

The young shifter who’d opened the front door for me sat on a couch, a rifle resting across the arm. Pointed right at me.

The growl that rolled through my chest was as loud as any I’d ever released. “What the hell is going on here?”

Crash settled into a seat behind the desk and leaned back. “What the hell is going on in Detroit?”

I glanced at him but quickly turned back to the young shifter with the weapon. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Crash slammed his fist on the desktop. “We’ve been calling for over a week trying to rouse some help to hunt down whoever ganked Spook, but no one’s calling us back. And now you show up all by yourself. Where is everyone?”