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“That must be why my warriors told me they saw them but didn’t attack. Your coven isn’t ready for an attack. They can’t beat Blackthorn.” Jaxon smirks at the news, and for the first time since I found out Maisie was taken, I feel hope growing.
“That’s right. The three of us could do a lot of damage, but Marlowe knew I was friends with you, Calla. She knew I would never fight against you or the pack, so she had the others beat me to teach me a lesson.”
That sounds familiar. Felix called me because he could barely get to an empty warehouse across town. He was hurt so badly and had so many infections that I had to take him to the hospital because he wasn’t allowed to heal himself. All of that was to keep me safe.
“She almost killed you,” I say in a low voice.
“Only because I let her,” Felix says. “She wanted me to come back to her, beg her to heal me, and promise my loyalty to the coven. She knew I was powerful, but I wasn’t strong enough to fight her. I refused to go back. I knew Elise was my only hope, but I didn’t want them to do to her what they did to me.”
“So you called me.”
He shakes his head.
“If what you’re saying is true and you want to help my friend,” Jaxon asks, “then how do we get past the wards? We had a plan, but it seems like the easiest thing to do is to turn them off completely.”
Felix nods, looking more at ease in Jaxon’s grip now that he knows he’s useful and more trusted.
“There are two kinds of magic, as I said. The other coven members only have defensive magic, but I have both. I can easily disable the wards long enough for some pack members to get inside, but that’s where the problem lies.”
Ezra ends with, “We’ll get in, but not without being seen.” He has been paying close attention to what everyone else is saying and only now adds his own thoughts.
“Yeah,” Felix says with a frown. “Marlowe will know right away that I turned off the wards, so you need to hurry. You need to find a way to distract her before you try to beat her and get Maisie back.”
I ask, “How would we do that?”
“Easy,” Felix says with a smile. “We’re using you as bait.”
********
After Jaxon choked a little more, argued, and complained, they came up with a plan. It’s dangerous, and Jaxon doesn’t want me to put myself in danger, but he reluctantly agrees that this is the best way to get Maisie and get rid of the coven threat for good.
Felix is telling Ezra, Skyler, and the other warriors who are there about the layout of the main house so they can get in more easily. Jaxon pulls me aside while they’re talking about their plans.
He hugs me and says, “I really don’t like this.” I sigh and wrap my arms around his neck. It feels good to be in my mate’s arms. I see my mom shaking her head as she turns down a glass of water from one of the pack members behind him.
I move away from Jaxon, who only loosens his grip on me a little.
I say, “I need to talk to my mom,” and I look at her. I can almost see the worry, like a jumbled mess of fears and thoughts floating around her.
Jaxon gives me a nod and lets me go.
“Come back here when you’re done.” I smile at him a little. A clingy werewolf.
As soon as my mom sees me coming, she stands up and hugs me. There are a lot of hugs going on today… I do everything I can to make her feel better, remembering how scared and alone I was when I first learned about the supernatural.
“What’s going on? Are you really going to fight a group of witches with werewolves? I feel like I’m in one of your books,” my mom says.
I’m really glad she’s making fun of it. At least she’s not shaking, screaming, or crying, even if it’s a defense mechanism. Moving forward.
I say with a smile, “It has felt that way.” She smiles at me softly until she sees my wrist, which I’m holding in my hand. The redness has spread even more, and even a little movement makes needles of pain dance along my wrist.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” my mom says with tears in her eyes. “I was trying to get the phone from your hand. I didn’t mean to grab your wrist so hard. Now you’re hurt! I don’t even-”
“Mom,” I say, “I know. I don’t blame you for being scared and confused. Maisie’s gone, and you have every right to freak out. I didn’t know how to stop you from calling the cops.”
“I shouldn’t have hurt you. You’re my baby, my grown-up, college-aged, and mature baby.”
I hug my mom and put all of my feelings into it. I told her the truth: I’m not angry with her. I know she will still feel bad about it, even though it was an accident. When I pull away from the hug, my wrist lightly hits her shoulder, which makes me wince too loudly.
I grit my teeth and say I’m sorry out loud as all the werewolves in the room look at me. I sometimes forget that they can hear even the quietest sounds. The small wince could have been a loud alarm, since Jaxon came straight to me even though he was in the middle of something with his warriors.
He gently grabs my wrist and looks at the damage. My mom only slightly avoids him.
“Do you have something we can use to wrap this up?”
He asks my mom, who looks both guilty and scared at the same time. I don’t think she forgot that he went crazy and wanted to jump on her not too long ago.
“I have something in the upstairs closet. I can go get it.”
Felix says, “No need,” as he waltzes over to us. My three-pack guards are keeping a close eye on him and are ready to attack if he even hints at using magic. I’m still not sure about him. I don’t believe him. He’s kept too much from me. But I know he’s my best chance to get Maisie, so I’ll work with him. Later, we’ll work on our friendship if there’s anything left.
Felix reaches for my hand, which Jaxon is holding, but as soon as he does, a guard grabs it and twists it behind his back.
“Ow, f**k! I was going to heal your Luna. No need to be so handsy.” Felix rolls his eyes and pushes the werewolf away. The werewolf lets him go, but only after Jaxon gives him a small nod.
Felix opens and closes his hand to get it moving again, and then he slowly reaches for my hand again. When Jaxon growls, my mom hides from him and Felix laughs.
“Chill, Alpha,” Felix says in a mocking tone, “Do you want Calla to be in pain?”
Felix must know exactly what to say to make Jaxon mad. I think Jaxon is angry that he is the only reason I can’t get rid of the pain, but he also doesn’t trust Felix not to do something.
“Go ahead, Felix,” I say. I know I can’t go into the coven’s lair with a sprained wrist right now. Also, Felix wouldn’t try anything with so many wolves around him unless he wanted to die. He can’t beat the pack.
Jaxon lets Felix take my hand this time. Jaxon still has one hand on my hip, maybe to remind me that he is in charge and my protector. Felix works while I lean my head against his chest.
The magic that heals feels strange. He only says a few words softly before blue magic wraps around my wrist and sinks into my skin. I can almost feel the blue mist, which is so cold it hurts, working through my bones and ligaments and fixing the damage. This magic is nothing like the spell he put on me to make me sleep. That one felt evil and frozen, but this one feels almost new. It only takes a few seconds for my wrist to feel better.
I mumble “Thanks” and move my wrist back and forth, noticing how normal it feels.
Felix agrees.
“I hope you know that this doesn’t make up for the fact that your sister took mine.”
“I know it doesn’t.”
“I trusted you,” I say softly.
“I trusted Elise, which was obviously a mistake. I thought she had changed as much as I had, but I guess I was wrong. I know it’s my fault for letting her into the pack house and getting close to you. But I promise,” Felix says, looking straight into my eyes, “I will get your sister back no matter what.”
I nod, wipe away the tears I didn’t even know I had, and look at Jaxon.
“Are you ready?”
Jaxon looks at me and smiles.
“Let’s go save Maisie.”
It was hard to say goodbye to my mom. She cried and begged me to stay with her. She said she didn’t want to lose both of her daughters and wished there was a different way to get Maisie back. She knew the choice was made when I shook my head quickly. Also, she couldn’t have stopped me because I’m surrounded by werewolves who do what I say.
The pack turns into wolves, and I ride on Jaxon’s back as he takes us to the edges of the coven’s main house. This gives me a lot of time to think about the mistakes I’ve made in the past. It feels like forever since I found out what Jaxon really looked like, and even longer since we met. It’s so silly to think about how scared I was of him back then. He could never hurt me or anyone he loves.
He has done so much for me, and now that we have Maisie back, it’s time for me to start doing things for him. As soon as I get Maisie back, I’ll start learning what it means to be a Luna. I can be the leader of one of North America’s strongest werewolf packs and still do my schoolwork. No problem.
Okay, it’s not easy peasy, but I want to be closer to the group for Jaxon. They act like a family and do whatever it takes to keep each other safe. They didn’t think twice about following Jaxon’s orders to help save my little sister. They didn’t do it because he’s their leader; they did it because they love and respect him.
The closer we get to the main house, the more scared I feel. Will we make it there on time? Will Felix have enough power to undo the wards? Will we be enough?