Page 20 of His Whispered Witch (Witches and Shifters: Scott Pack #6)

She shrugged and kept moving. Now that they’d made the decision, she seemed remarkably calm about it, or maybe it was just her turn to be numb. He remembered that she’d already left everything once, as he had. Were they both just getting used to this?

Hopefully, they’d never have to get used to it again.

He was tossing whatever perishable food he found in the pantry into the bushes for the mice when he heard an unearthly shriek from the woods. He stilled. They were too late.

The donkeys reared and wheeled in the trailer, but she held out her hands, the air changed, and they quieted.

“What the hell was that?” Penn asked.

“Perimeter alarm.”

“What?”

“Nothing is left of the wards. Anybody can walk right across them, but the warning still works.”

He frowned. It hadn’t gone off when she crossed it anytime except for the first. Since the moment she’d touched him, his wards had stayed silent.

Lord, did even Malcolm’s magic recognize her?

He’d have to talk to his alpha before he introduced them, lest there were any crazy declarations.

Malcolm had returned home and unilaterally declared Quinn was his fated mate.

He wasn’t wrong. They were blissfully in love now, but it hadn’t been a great start to the relationship.

Asher certainly wasn’t going to explain that even before they were anything to each other, the family wards knew who she was.

The alarm cut off.

She froze for a second, her hands outstretched toward the end of the horse trailer. “We’re too late.”

He laughed. At any time in the last decade before today, if he’d been told that a coven bearing crossbows was heading right for him, he probably would’ve just welcomed them as a convenient way to end it all. Now that he had something to live for, he was a bit upset about it.

“Do you know the tactic they’ll use?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I know I was going to get slotted into the rotation, but they weren’t telling me anything yet. I don’t even know the talents all of them have. I do know they have more active talents than not.”

He took a deep breath. “You’re gonna have to drive.”

“Why do I have to drive?”

He leaped into the back of the truck, shoved her belongings to the front of the cab so he would have space, and unbuttoned his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“As far as I know, I’m the only defense we have.”

He was going to willingly shift, and he wasn’t even worried about it.

“Dammit, no you’re not. Just hold on.”

She closed her eyes, and he felt the air shift.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re in the middle of the goddamn Colorado mountains.”

Something rustled in the bushes, and he spun around to see a skunk dart toward the road.

Did you know? he asked the wolf. He should have known that there was a stinky rodent twenty feet from his house.

A shadow passed over him, and he ducked, every alarm bell twanging as he looked up to see a hawk swoop low.

You’re freaking out about a bird?

His wolf didn’t answer.

“I need more!” she shouted. “Dammit!”

“More what?”

“Magic.”

He shrugged his shirt back on and leaped out of the truck toward her. She had her eyes closed, and her hands waved through the air. He could hear the crash of something much bigger in the trees. He looked around to see a moose head for the road.

“You are useless,” he said to his wolf and got back the faintest feel of a collar around its neck and winced. If his wolf was useless, it was Asher who’d made it that way.

He reached for Penn. They’d connected before.

It was what sent her running the last time.

He hoped she’d gotten over her surprise as he grabbed her hand and put it on his chest, grateful he’d already unbuttoned his shirt.

The warmth of her palm immediately seeped into his skin and calmed him and the wolf.

He didn’t know what to do. Was there a spell? It had happened automatically the last time.

Please.

She opened her eyes and met his, and the connection snapped into place. He poured every bit of power he could into her.

“Better?” he asked with a grimace, feeling like all the energy in his cells was getting sucked out of his fingernails.

“Hell yeah!” she said, and the rustling became a stampede.

When two bald eagles swooped overhead, making him twitch again, and a second moose and a mountain lion loped by, he gulped and stepped away. She followed him, prolonging the contact.

“I think we’re good,” he said.

When an entire herd of deer nearly ran them down, he wrenched away, and she staggered.

He caught her, worried it would make the connection stronger, but it winked out, and he was just holding the love of his life in his arms.

“Holy shit,” she said.

“Let’s go.” He ran for the truck. He saw a hoof-sized dent in the side of his horse trailer and winced. As she slid into the passenger seat, he said, “Maybe tell them they don’t have to help?”

She twisted around. “Oh my god! Not you guys!”

The beige lizard was clawing desperately at the windshield, surprised by the glass. “Not you either!”

She plucked the little dude into her lap.

It was about a foot long with another foot of tail, and it climbed her like she was a tree.

It settled on her shoulder and gave him a beady lizard eye.

Asher had no idea what was going on in that tiny head, but he was fairly sure the thing would do violence if it could.

He felt another alien stirring within him and winced.

The snake saw a rival—or a snack. Was that her influence?

If he hung out with any animal witch long enough, he’d start feeling like a snake?

He wanted to ask another wolf, but he couldn’t help thinking this was probably the only time on earth this had happened.

He floored it, and they bounced toward the gate.

“There’s not a back way off this property?”

“Hell, there’s hardly a front way off this property.”

“No, don’t kill anybody!” she shouted into the ether.

“Okay?”

“Not you, the bobcat got a little enthusiastic. Don’t hurt anybody either! Just keep them away from the road! I can’t believe I’ve become the person I hate.”

“What?”

“I’m asking animals to defend us.”

“Would your pack, um, your coven kill any of them?”

She whistled. “Good point.”

As they got near the gate, the animals got thicker, but they didn’t impede their progress.

Somehow, she talked them into holding back the witches and keeping the way clear.

There had to be twenty different species and close to a hundred animals altogether, all mutual enemies or prey, and they were all doing her bidding.

He had to confess that when he first heard of her talent, he didn’t think it was very powerful.

He began to feel hope for himself. If she could do this with wild animals, the wolf was really nothing.

It reared up in anger, and he hushed it absently as they made it through the gate, where they were immediately pelted with some kind of potion.

“Dammit!” he said, unable to see. He started the windshield wipers and then just stuck his head out the window to try to keep on the road.

He risked a glance around to see women in the woods fighting off various animals.

“Please don’t hurt them,” Penn whispered.

He wasn’t sure if she was talking to the witches or the animals. He was looking at her and nearly missed the woman step into the middle of the road. He came to a screeching halt and almost t-boned the trailer as the woman raised her arms.

“That’s Siobhan,” Penn said and reached for her door.

Instinctively, he hit the child locks. “Don’t.”

“You’re not going to run her over!”

“Hell no! Just give me a second.” He did not want her to go out there.

He opened the sunroof on his truck. There was a bar that kept it from being open too far, but he broke that off and slid the glass away. Penn stood up, and he took her hand, feeling the connection snap into place. He let as much magic through as he could.

“You have betrayed the Griffin coven,” Siobhan intoned.

Her voice was deeper than he expected. She was probably in her sixties with black hair and a shock of white at her temples.

She wore what he considered the Colorado uniform of jeans, hiking boots, and a plaid shirt. She held a crossbow in her hands.

“I haven’t,” Penelope whispered.

“You are banished, and the wolf’s life is forfeit.” She raised the crossbow.

“Damn,” Asher said, and instinct took over.

He yanked Penn’s belt loop, pulling her back into the truck, and threw himself over her as the crazy lady loosed the first bolt.

It slammed through the windshield so hard, it didn’t even crack; it just left a golf ball-sized hole in the supposedly shatterproof glass.

Asher looked around for the bolt when pain snaked down his arm. He found it lodged in his shoulder and cursed again. He cared a lot less about running her over now. There was plenty of room to get out of the way. He jolted forward as a second bolt took out his side view mirror.

“Not the truck!” he shouted as he zoomed forward. Siobhan didn’t move.

Penn cursed a blue streak next to him, then started mumbling. A giant shape lumbered toward the road.

He hit the brakes as a moose plucked Siobhan up daintily with its enormous antlers and took off through the woods.

“Do not hurt her,” Penelope shouted and then looked at him. “Drive!”

He floored it.