Page 20

Story: Bad Magic

Jagger was naked, his tattooed chest heaving and his face contorted with rage and traces of his hound.“Get your fucking hands off hernow.” The last roared, his voice a deafening force that had me shrinking back and lifted goose bumps all over me.

No one moved.

Jagger snarled.“Now, wolf, or I will send you to Hell screaming.”

The wolf abruptly lifted his hands, releasing me, then shoved me hard toward Jagger, like I was some deadly poisonous creature.My shoulder popped back into place from the force, and I managed to bite back my shriek.

Jagger grabbed me, hauling me out of the back of the van, and I could feel his heart pounding hard against mine as he held me to him in a viselike grip.

Warrick strode forward, and the alpha hellhound’s eyes were blazing red.“What the fuck are you doing with this witch?Does Draven know this is how you treat females?”

At the mention of Draven, the wolves’ alpha, the male who had held me in the van, flinched, his unease so strong even I could smell it.

“She’s no witch,” the wolf fired back, then spat on the floor.“She’s a fucking demon.Look at her.We have every right to deal with demons encroaching on our territory, in any way we see fit.”

“Wrong on both counts.Not that it matters, but she is more witch than demon, and even if she had not a drop of witch blood in her veins, you would have been making the wrong fucking play, wolf.”

“All she had to do was speak up.She chose not to.”

“Because she’s fucking terrified!”Jagger roared.

He obviously hadn’t missed how badly I was shaking.

The wolf’s gaze slid over me, uncertainty filling his eyes for a moment before it turned to defiance.“Bullshi?—”

Roman grabbed the wolf by the throat, and slammed him to the floor of the van so hard, the steel dented.“Does she look like a feral to you?No, she looks more like the kind of female they snatch for breeding.”

“What if she’d been a breeder trying to escape her demon captors?”Warrick added.“I don’t know how you treat females in your pack, asshole, but warning: you do anything like this again, and we will make sure you never do again.Understand?”

Rome shoved the wolf away and turned to me.“You okay, Sutton?”

I nodded, but it was hard with my face pressed against Jagger’s throat, his grip not even coming close to easing.If anything, it had only grown fiercer.

The wolf’s gaze sliced between me and Roman, then back to Jagger, and it was like the enormity of his situation finally hit him.

His gaze widened in alarm.“I had no idea she was yours.I would never have touched her if I’d known.But come on, man, she broke into our place.Why don’t you ask her why she was there?That’s something I’m certain our alpha will want to know.We thought she was up to something.I was just trying to defend our territory from the enemy, and she sure as hell looks like the enemy to me with the fucked-up way she looks.She sliced me up with her claws, for fuck’s sake.She doesn’t look like any witch I’ve ever seen.”

That’s when I noticed the deep gouges down the side of his face.

Jagger snarled again, the sound ripping through the forest.

“Now would be a good time to shut the fuck up,” Warrick said, then placed a hand on Jagger’s shoulder, his red, glowing eyes burning into the wolves.“Get the fuck out of here, now.I’ll be calling Draven to deal with you.You’re lucky we’re letting you leave at all.”

The wolf didn’t say anything else, but his upper lip peeled back, flashing his canines.Then the wolves started the van and tore off along the dirt track, a shrieking sound coming from the dented and torn-up vehicle.

“Get her home,” Warrick said to Jagger, holding his gaze for long seconds.“I’ll speak with Draven.Looks to me like some of his pack have gone rogue with that shit.”

I was still frozen, and I hated myself for it.I thought I was getting better.I thought I was doing okay, now this had thrown me back to that nightmare, and probably set me back months.Jagger strode along the road we’d driven, not saying anything, just continuing to hold me in a firm grip.His bike was up ahead, and when we reached it, I saw his clothes in a heap on the ground.I could only assume he’d gotten off his bike and shifted so he could smash into the van to stop it.

I refused to let my brain come up with reasons for that, reasons that could give me false hope.

He eased me down his naked body, staring at me with those moss-green eyes of his.“You think you can hang on to me on the back of the bike?”

I nodded.Still struggling to get my vocal cords to freaking work.

“You’re bleeding.”His hand went to my forehead.“You hit your head?”

I nodded again.