Page 12 of Bewitchingly Hers (Witches of Pleasant Grove #3)

CHAPTER NINE

eryne

M y house was empty when I got back, after the shop was locked up and closed for the night. I frowned. Had he left? Maybe he’d changed his mind from earlier. Maybe it was something I’d said.

Had Rina and Wendy’s comments upset him that much?

Or had mine?

He’d rejected me without even blinking, and I didn’t know why it hurt so much when I was the one that brought up that sex wasn’t a good idea.

“Barrett?” I called, even though I’d already checked every room. His stuff was still here, though, sitting at the foot of my bed, so I figured that was a good sign.

Why did I care? I had to confront the idea that I hardly knew the man.

Before this morning, I’d thought he was a wolf, for crying out loud.

And yet, the idea of him leaving didn’t sit right with me.

I could use any excuse I wanted—that he wasn’t healed enough, that I was just concerned about his well being—but I knew what it all boiled down to.

For the last two weeks, I’d had a purpose besides my job. Taking care of someone else.

Nursing him back to health had given me something to do. And to go back to before, to a cold, empty house, just felt… lonely.

I wrapped my arms around myself. It was hard to admit out loud. Maybe because the last year of my life, overall, had been amazing. I’d gotten this new job. Moved into my own place. Kept myself entertained with making earrings and new friends.

But was it enough? Was I… happy?

Frowning, I headed towards Nutmeg’s cage, opening the door and waiting for her to scurry over to me.

After she crawled onto my hand, I scratched under her chin with my free hand, the motion soothing me.

Witches believed in the familiar bond, that it helped strengthen our magic.

There was something incredibly powerful about our connection with animals.

“That’s my sweet little Nutmeg,” I cooed as she looked up at me, twitching her tiny little nose.

A lot of the witches in Pleasant Grove had cats for their familiars—including the Clarke sisters.

Though I wasn’t sure Damien really counted as her familiar anymore, but semantics .

Still, when it had been time for me to pick mine, I’d taken one look at the tiny little hedgehog and I’d known she was supposed to be mine.

Lifting her up, I let her crawl onto my shoulder as I walked towards the kitchen.

Movement outside caught my eye as I walked past my glass sliding door, and I froze.

Was that?

I opened the door in time to watch as the huge, dark red wolf bounded through the air—and then it’s form shifted, turning back into man. The transformation was surprisingly graceful in a way I would have never expected.

Some werewolf lore described it like all of their bones were breaking, reshaping to create the new form, but this? This was completely different. Mesmerizing, even. I couldn’t look away.

Barrett walked out of the woods, heading back towards my house, running his hands through his wind-swept hair. The most perfect shade of auburn I thought ever existed.

I took the moment to admire his body before he realized I was there. Tall—well over six feet—muscular, and covered in freckles. How was it possible for a man to have that many abs? He was heading toward me, and he was completely naked. How did this keep happening to me?

“Oh.” My cheeks flamed. I was openly gawking at him as I stood on my back porch.

This the second time today this had happened to us. Except unlike this morning, he didn’t cover up with sheets or a pillow. Which meant I could see everything .

“Enjoying the view, little healer?” He smirked, flexing his muscles.

My mouth was dry, again. Or maybe I was drooling. I wasn’t sure.

“Oh, goddess. I’m so sorry.” Looking away, I scratched under Nutmeg’s head as I stood at my sliding door.

I could almost make out his reflection in the glass, and I was trying to avoid looking at anything.

Especially between his thighs, at what I knew was definitely an impressive package. And he hadn’t even been hard this time.

I bit my lip, trying to ignore the way my heart was thudding in my chest. Had a man ever incited a reaction like this in me before? Had I ever wanted to strip my clothes off and throw myself at?—

He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I just went for a run. I needed to—” I heard rustling, and then he was closer to me, his breath practically ghosting over my neck. “You can turn around now, sugar. I’m dressed.”

I turned around, finding him dressed in the same clothes he had earlier, sans jacket. His muscles looked even better now, somehow, which should have been a crime.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, still averting my eyes. “I didn’t mean to?—”

Barrett shook his head. “It’s fine.” He looked back towards the forest, and a worried look came over his face.

I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

His nose twitched, like he’d just smelled something bad. “The wards around your town. How do they work, exactly?” It wasn’t exactly a secret, but I wasn’t sure if it was something I should tell an outsider. I looked around at the trees, and then nodded with my head for him to follow me inside.

There was something unsettling about having this conversation outside as the sky grew darker.

“I don’t know all the details, honestly.

” I didn’t pay that close of attention, something I now regretted.

Maybe if I was more in tune with everything happening around me, I might have had more answers.

“Every full moon, we do a spell that’s supposed to recharge them.

It combines all of our energies—all of our magic—to renew what was cast centuries ago. ”

“To keep you safe.”

I nodded. “Yes. But we can leave, you know. Plenty of witches choose to live outside Pleasant Grove.” It was a life that required you to lose your connection to magic, however, because we all knew what would happen if we were caught by humans.

Persecution. Fire. Trials and thousands of our sisters lost. Thousands of innocent lives, because humans were scared of what they didn’t understand.

“Did you?” Barrett asked, shaking me from my thoughts of pyres and witch hunts.

“Did I what?” I tilted my head to the side.

“Leave.”

Oh. “I thought about it, for college.” Wendy and Rina both had, and I knew they didn’t regret their years of playing human.

I shrugged. “But… I love this town. It’s always been home.

Even if I’ve spent most of my life on the outside of society, I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Losing what makes you a witch… sacrificing that to be among the humans… it just sounds awful.”

“I agree.” He rubbed his chin, at the reddish stubble already growing in. “We feel the same in Walnut Ridge.”

It was the second time he’d mentioned his hometown. “But you left, didn’t you?” I asked, rubbing Nutmeg’s chin one last time before putting her back in her large enclosure.

“Left is a big word. I travel a lot for work, but it’s always home. Wolves are pack animals, after all.”

I nodded. Home. “Right. And your job is… what, exactly?”

Barrett turned away, like he knew exactly what he’d been keeping from me. His mouth formed a straight line, and I could practically read the turmoil on his face.

What was so bad that he didn’t want to tell me?

“Why did you come here, Barrett? To Pleasant Grove. What attacked you?” I looked back outside. “What did you find out there?”

His amber eyes flashed to mine, darkening like the eyes of a predator. “Are you sure you want to know, Eryne? Because once you do, you can’t go back. You can’t unlearn everything I’m about to tell you.”

“I want to know,” I insisted. “No, it’s more than that. I need to know. So please. Tell me why. Because I don’t understand why I feel so connected with you. Why I…” don’t want you to leave. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I held back.

Barrett sighed. “Okay. But maybe you should sit down.”

I complied, sliding onto the couch and resting my legs underneath me, grabbing one of my pumpkin pillows and holding it against my middle for support.

Pacing back and forth, he raked his fingers through his hair, messing up the dark red strands. “I’m a huntsman.”

I was pretty sure I’d heard him wrong. “A what?”

“A monster hunter.”

Guess I’d heard him right. “That’s a real thing?”

He shot me a glare before continuing. “Yes. We’re a small team, but our focus is keeping people safe. Both the paranormal communities and humans who don’t even know we exist. We eliminate threats before they become a big enough problem for humans to notice. And then we make them go away.”

“So the thing that attacked you…”

He cursed. “I got a report. And I was the closest, so I was investigating. I should have waited, but I didn’t want to lose my lead.

The scent trail was running cold, and I knew I only had a few hours…

But I was rash. And look what happened.” Barrett gestured to his body, and I could still picture the way I’d found his wolf, bleeding and crying out.

“So, what was it? A vampire?”

Barrett froze, turning to look at me. “A vampire ?”

I winced. “Those marks on you could only have been made by teeth, and I just thought maybe?—”

His voice was a grumble, and when he spoke, it was in a different voice than I thought I’d heard him use before. Commanding. Alpha . “Don’t go anywhere near vampires, Eryne.”

Sucking in a breath, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the man in front of me. The man who took up so much space in my living room, he felt bigger than life. “Okay,” I whispered.

Barrett nodded to himself, like that satisfied him. “Anyway, I told you the truth before. I don’t know what it was. Nothing I’d ever seen before. Everything from that night is still a bit blurry, but it was wrong. And the smell, the rot ? —”

“You think whatever attacked you has something to do with the barrier failing,” I guessed.

Finally, he sat down next to me on the couch. “Yes. I needed the run to clear my head.” He looked guilty as he looked over at me. “I’m sorry, by the way. For how I left earlier.”

I bit my lip. In the grand scheme of things, it seemed stupid for me to be upset about. But also, he didn’t owe me anything.

“What about the barrier?” I squeezed the pillow tighter to my abdomen, trying to ignore the way his commanding voice had left me achey all over. Crossing my legs, I hoped he didn’t notice my reaction.

His eyes dilated, and his nostrils flared as he looked at me. “I… What about it?”

“You were looking at it, weren’t you? You found something wrong with it.”

He groaned. “Yes. It has the same traces as the creature that I was tracking. It feels unnatural. Wrong. I think it’s causing the barrier to break down.”

“But why would it come after our wards?” I asked.

“Do you want my best guess?” He scratched his head. I nodded, encouraging him to continue. “It wants to consume the magic. These things… they don’t stop until they’ve devoured everything in sight.”

My eyes widened. “So, not a vampire.”

He chuckled. “ No. Definitely not a vampire. I don’t know the name for what they are. Not yet. But I suspect that they’re creatures from the very depths of the underworld. They only leave death in their wake . ”

I waited a beat for him to laugh. To reveal this was all some sort of funny joke. But he didn’t. He just stared at me, like he was waiting for me tor process that piece of information.

“I need to lie down,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

“Today feels like the longest day of my life,” I admitted.

“Was it really only this morning that I found out who you are?” I couldn’t look away from his eyes.

Those beautiful amber eyes, just the same as his wolf.

They were captivating, swirling somehow, full of emotions I couldn’t even begin to describe.

He reached his hand over, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear before cupping my jaw. “It feels like I’ve known you forever,” he said, voice a low murmur.

It made my heart flutter, bats practically erupting in my chest.

His lips were so close to mine. My eyes fluttered shut. I wanted this.

Was that insane? I couldn’t describe what was pulling us together, but whatever unseen forces had drawn us to each other, I wanted to pursue it. Wanted to understand. Wanted to know.

I leaned in towards him, knowing that all it would take was just another inch or two for our lips to meet.

My heart pounded in my chest, and I wondered if he could hear it. Wondered if he knew how badly I wanted this. Wanted him.

Barrett cleared his throat. “We should go to sleep.” In the blink of an eye, he was off the couch, standing on the other side of the room.

“Oh.” The mortification stung, the implication burning at my cheeks. He didn’t want me. “Right.”

Of course, he didn’t want me. We’d just met.

Why would he want to kiss me ? I was just some witch in a town that was just a blip on his radar. Just another case as he went around hunting monsters.

I couldn’t compete with that. I couldn’t compete with home, a place he spoke of with such open affection.

So I stood, heading back to my bedroom without another word.

Trying to ignore the pang of loneliness in my heart.