Page 9 of My Hexed Honeymoon (The Bridgewater Pack #2)

CHAPTER NINE

The forest is quiet this morning—too quiet. As if even wildlife knows something big and dangerous is about to happen.

Natalia grabbed the oh-shit handle or braced a hand on the glovebox a few times, but other than that, she’s remained stony and silent.

From there, we hiked another couple of miles, through thick underbrush practically undisturbed by man, until we crested a peak that allowed us to see the entire valley.

I reach down and extend a hand to Natalia, a gesture of goodwill—along with a pinch of genuine concern for the fragile human body she has to navigate the world in—fully expecting her to ignore it like she’s done every other time I offered assistance.

Evidently, brewing coffee is welcome, but a hand-up is?—

To my surprise, she slaps her palm in mine, and through ragged breaths, asks, “Are we almost…” Wheeze. “There yet?”

“Just as soon as I pull you up this ridge.” Increasing my grip on her hand, I haul her to me with extra gusto.

Only realizing I’ve underestimated how much she weighs as she slams into my chest, the fingernails of her free hand digging into the muscle of my shoulder. “I was going to make some joke about how they’d never find my…”

As she works to stabilize her center of gravity, her breasts smoosh up against my chest. Then I’m staring down at the cleavage the V-neck of her black tank top hinted at, my throat completely dry.

“Whoa, find my body, even before all the hiking.” She narrows eyes the color of that neon green moss that grows on the north sides of rocks and trees on me, and my heart gallops even harder and faster.

“If you made me hike this insanely rocky hill to kill me, not only is that next-level evil, I’ll also come back and haunt you forever. Just saying.”

That, I didn’t expect.

Same way I didn’t mean to soften toward her so fast. I tamp down every squishy, weak emotion—as well as my urge to wrap her in my arms—shame rising up and overtaking the rest of my traitorous desires.

In a perfect world, my wife and I would get along and be on the same team. I could admire her incredible sense of humor and we’d trust each other and all that other happy shit.

But at the end of the day, she’s still a witch.

A marriage in name is all this’ll ever be, so there’s no use pretending it’s anything more than transactional, not for either one of us.

“I’ve seen your kind slaughter dozens of werewolves,” I say.

“Women and children in their beds. An entire village burned to the ground.”

The screams that replay in the back of my mind still haunt me, my brain forever trying to sort out which screams came from my mother, my little sisters, my brother. As if that would make it better, or I could go back in time and save them somehow.

Rage simmers my blood and locks my jaw. “You’re the evil villains, not the other way around.”

Obviously thrown by the switch in mood, Natalia takes a giant step backward, the soles of her shoes slipping against the gravel and rock. She glares at the hand I automatically brace at her hip so she won’t fall, as if she’d rather fall down a cliff than be close to me.

Snagging hold of a tree branch, she tugs herself up higher and away from me, proving me right. “Clearly you’ve already made up your mind about who I am, so maybe I’ll just kill you then.”

I spread my arms wide, showing off the fact that I don’t need a fucking branch to hold onto and speak through clenched teeth. “You can certainly try.”

“Ugh,” she says before storming off into the trees, bushes scraping her cheeks and arms. And even as blood wells and scents the air, I tell myself I’m glad she’s hating this hike so much.

It makes it easier to hate her.

We maneuver our way around rocky crags and knotted tree branches to finally crest the summit. Here, the air is cooler and dense with dew and the scent of pine, damp earth. Natalia’s unique sweet scent swirls into the mix, invading my head and scrambling my thoughts.

Not only do I wish she looked more like a crone with green skin and a wart on her nose, the least she could do is to stop smelling so damn intoxicating.

As we reach the tippy-top and the ground flattens out, Natalia stops short, a gasp falling from parted lips.

A small spring gurgles down the other side, happily carrying water in a wandering path to the valley below.

“It’s beautiful,” she says. Then, without looking at me. “And I’m just talking aloud, not talking to you, so don’t go thinking we’re fine.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I grouse. I bite back a retort about keeping her thoughts inside her head if she doesn’t want me to hear them, but it’s counterproductive to our mission. If I want this over and done with—and I do—it’s best to just help her navigate the Hollow and get on with my life.

Which was always going to be our life, and I’ll likely have to work out my anger issues about that in the training field.

Conall and I had trained hard when we formed the community, using broken-down vehicles to pull and tractor tires to flip.

Whether war was coming or I just needed to let off steam, pushing my body to the very brink is definitely calling my name.

“Okay, so…?” Natalia glances at me, questions swimming in her big doe eyes.

“You talking to me this time?” I ask.

Lifting her nose in the air, she strides away from me, picking her way across stones to reach the edge of the spring. She squats and runs her fingers through the water, ripples spreading over the surface.

Too bad, so sad if she thinks she’s going to get quiet reflection time. That’s not what we’re here for, and we don’t have time for me to constantly tiptoe around her feelings. “Pick up anything? With your…life force shit?”

“Yes,” she says. “A school of brook trout, a few bluegill fish, snails, a pair of newts, and a whole mess of water fleas.”

For a moment I just blinked at her, not sure what it all meant. “Okay, so that tells us what?”

“That you’ve brought me to a mountain spring.”

Jutting my jaw, I peer down at her, fighting my urge to shake information from her like a coconut from a tree. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“Wrong.” Shaking droplets of water from her fingers, Natalia pushes to her feet.

“This mission is going to be the hard way, whether it involves getting in and out of the Hollow, or dealing with you and your sour temper. If you’re set on making it more miserable, though, go ahead.

As I’m quickly learning, it doesn’t get much worse than being married off to a werewolf. ”

I reach out and catch her chin in my hand, not bothering to be as gentle as I normally am with her. “Trust me, it can get much worse. And if any of my people die because the princess was too afraid to break a nail rather than dig in and get it done, I’ll ensure it does.”

“Listen, my mom tried to beat magic out of me—or into me, as it were—and it didn’t work.

All it’s ever done is bottle up my powers and put me into a state of permanent freeze.

” She jerks her chin out away from me and inches it higher, a furious storm raging in her elfin features.

“So you can huff and puff and try to blow my house down, but at the end of the day, all you’ll have is your own hot air. ”

My fists tighten one finger at a time, and I don’t have a clever quip or comeback to being called the big bad wolf. If anything, I’m upset with myself that I’m not quite there on his same level.

This is what I get for being so judgmental that Conall couldn’t keep his human veterinarian in line.

I’ve heard marriage involves compromise, so I take a stab at it. “Okay, so threats aren’t helping.”

“I’d actually use the word detrimental .”

I simply glare. So much for compromise. Wasn’t she supposed to give a little too? “I’m as unhappy as you are that we’ve been tied together, but I’m trying here.”

“Are you?” There’s a war in her eyes—fear and defiance, strength and vulnerability.

She advances a step, until the toes of her sneakers bump mine.

“Because you tell me you’re not going to abuse me like my mother did, then you threaten me every step of the way. Is that supposed to make me feel safe?”

She has a point, but she can’t make me say it. When the silence stretches past the uncomfortable point, I settle for a grunt. There. Look at me being all considerate and accommodating.

With a long-suffering sigh and a shake of her head, Natalia’s entire posture deflates. “Y’all want me to abandon my body here in this realm and navigate one known only in twisted fairytales and nightmares.”

She jabs a finger to my chest, that fire within her flaring hotter and higher. “My magic requires leaving my body behind, while the entire time, my survival instincts scream I’m in danger. How the hell am I supposed to concentrate with all of that going on?” Another jab of her finger. “ Huh? ”

I’m fairly sure she’s not actually asking.

Guilt seeps in, weighing down my limbs and feet.

“Have you ever been so afraid that your entire body just freezes?” she asks with a slight crack in her voice. “So afraid that your breath and your thoughts abandon you, to the point you begin to question your will to live?”

Unfortunately, I do. My throat tightens with the memory, those same screams I heard before. Only this time, Natalia seems to want an answer, so I go ahead and give it to her. “Yes.”

Her delicate eyebrows scrunch together, the answer clearly not one she expected.

“It’s been a long time, but yes, when I was a boy.” I don’t elaborate. I won’t, not ever.

Natalia’s voice softens, a hint of genuine understanding flickering in her eyes. “Do you think you could ground yourself in that state? Because I’ve read dozens of books on meditation and centering yourself, even devouring ridiculous tomes on the occult from witches throughout time…”

I feel my lip curl, my sneer coming on before I can stop it.

“When I was a little girl, I got this glimpse into another world that drained me of every ounce of happiness I’d ever felt, and trust me, I didn’t have much to start with. Not with my mother and the crushing weight of her disappointment leaving me so sad and depressed.”

She sucks in a deep breath, the fear wafting off her sharp enough I can taste it. “Andromeda ordered me to keep going deeper into that real—to let go and give in. But every cell in my body shouted there wasn’t a tether strong enough in the world to keep me from getting lost.”

“I’m strong enough,” I promise her, and I can’t explain how I know, but I resolve right then and there not to let her down—not when it comes to anchoring her to the real world, where I also vow to do a better job of keeping her safe.

She’s shaking her head again, and I do my best not to be offended.

But then her eyes lock on mine, and I see the tiniest sliver of an opening.

Pouring reassurance into her with my eyeballs, I throw open the doors on the mating bond. Primitive and all-consuming, my urge to protect her and claim her as mine rumbles through me and vibrates the ground beneath our feet.

Natalia’s mouth drops open, forming the perfect O, and a noise that sounds exceedingly

sexual pierces the air. Her lashes flutter closed as she sways in my direction, fingers wrapping around my biceps, her pulse steadily increasing as her blood pumps hotter.

We both get a jolt like we’ve completed a current of electricity that can’t help but flow, until even my teeth feel as supercharged as a car battery.

“I…can’t…let go,” she says.

“I can, but I won’t.” I lock eyes with her again, but this time, I let my walls down a couple of inches. In the end, we want the same thing, for both of our people to survive. “I promise.”

Resolve bleeds into her features, and she gives a sharp nod. “Okay then. Let’s get started for real.”