The woods outside of Athens, Georgia weren't like the ones I was more familiar with up north. There was an edge of swampiness about all of it, and the air hung heavy with humidity. I was thankful for my long-sleeved shirt and pants that protected me from the mosquitos, but I was melting alive.
My team of demon hunters—Keifer, Bruce, and Laura—didn't dare complain out loud, but I could tell that they were feeling miserable with the entire situation. We all pulled at our shirts and fanned ourselves as we trudged through the undergrowth, but there was no help for it. We had a job to do, and the possibility of catching a demon that had been involved in the Red Canine's attack was too important.
I didn't hold any specific loyalty to Danny and his pack, but I am loyal to my pack, the Silverfang Creek, and these demon attacks have linked the two packs whether we liked it or not. With one of our members, Naomi, mating with Alpha Danny, and the demon activity that had followed Naomi to Red Canine territory, it seemed like the Silverfang's demon problem was going to be the Red Canine's, too.
Danny's pack had done a damn good job defeating the demons that attacked them, but a few did get away. Usually, that would be bad news—we want to kill every bit of demon scum we can—but we have no idea why the demons are even attacking as often as they are. They seem particularly interested in my Alpha's wife, Faye, and her daughter Sienna, both of whom have witch blood.
If we can catch and question one of the demons before dispatching it, we could gain vital information that might change the tide of what feels like an upcoming war.
"Whitney," Bruce hissed, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Look."
I went quiet, trying to see what the other wolf was pointing at, but I smelled it before I saw it. The scent of sulfur wafted through the trees, and when I focused on it, I could see the dark, slumped-over shape at the bottom of the tree.
Bingo.
"Laura, you're with me. Everyone else stays back."
The demon had picked a good spot to hole up, and it was a battle to get through the thick bushes and sticky mud, but after a few long minutes, we finally made it to the sad creature. Some wolf had bashed the side of its head in, and it barely resembled the middle-aged man it must have possessed a long time ago.
It tried to shriek as I crouched in front of it, but the demon was weak, dying. "Get away, dogs. Let me die in peace."
"Good try," I responded, laying my spelled blade against its neck. The blade was as long as my forearm, and I had to work to keep it spelled, but it did the job well. "Tell me what I want to know and I'll give you a quick death instead of a slow one. Why do the demons want Faye and Sienna?"
The demon laughed, black blood spilling from the corner of its mouth. "You have no idea what's coming, do you? Once we have your witch, her pup, or both, our numbers will grow beyond what you can possibly imagine. Your pathetic packs will never survive. You won't survive. They will bring about the destruction of the world."
I pressed harder with the blade, the spell activating and burning the skin of the demon. "That's not what I asked. Why do they want the witches?"
It didn't answer, instead laughing harder and harder, until it was verging on hysteria. The sight unsettled me to my core, and I could hear Laura taking an involuntary step backward behind me.
"You have no idea," it gasped, still chuckling. "It's been centuries in the making. You don't know what you've started. Your wolves will fall, the witches will fall, the entire world will fall."
I stood, ignoring the way the demon laughed as if he’d just cracked the most amusing joke in the world.
"What is he talking about? What's been centuries in the making?" Laura demanded.
"I have no idea," I replied, then quickly swiped the sword across the demon's throat. I barely even needed to apply any force, and I could almost see the exact moment its life drained away. It went from hysterical laughter to complete silence in the space of a heartbeat.
We both backed away and watched as the telltale 'pop!' came from the demon's body, and it was soon engulfed in flames. It would be totally consumed in seconds, and there was nothing else for us to gain from the monster.
The two wolves that had stayed back came running through the foliage at the sound of the 'pop', but stopped short when they saw that it was dead.
"Any idea what it was rambling about?" Bruce asked. The sandy brown-haired male was an older wolf, around fifty years old.
"None. Whatever the demons are up to, it all seems to revolve around Faye and Sienna. All the interest they showed in Naomi looks to have been a distraction and nothing more. We'll head back and talk to Faye," I answered.
My cell phone rang as soon as we turned and began trekking back the way we came, and I almost laughed when I saw the name of the screen. Tapping on the screen, I held the device to my ear, a small smile tugging at my lips. "Faye. Were your witch senses tingling?"
She paused on the other end of the phone, bewildered. "…no? What do you mean?"
"We were just talking about you."
"Oh! How nice!" Faye chirped in a cheery tone. "Did you find a demon? Did you find anything?"
I stopped at a fallen tree, kicking at it before taking a seat. My team were all doing the same thing, wiping the sweat from their faces and pulling at the fabric of their clothing to let in a cool breeze.
"No, not exactly." I didn't want to say any more about it. "What did you want?"
"I've been calling your cell phone for two hours, why didn't you answer?"
Frowning, I checked my screen. Sure enough, Faye had tried to call me a dozen times before this, but my phone had been on silent for the hunt, and I hadn't felt the phone vibrate. "Well, we did find a demon, but it gave us basically no information. At least not anything that we didn't know before…except it said that their numbers would grow if they were able to get ahold of you or Sienna. So I was a little busy."
Faye hummed. "That's not good."
"I don't think I was in the habit of sugar-coating things with you. Sorry if that was blunt.“
"Oh, Whitney, I've never accused you of sugar-coating. It's just that we might have a new problem. How close are you to packland right now? Because it would be so much easier to talk to you face-to-face about all of this."
"I'm unfortunately still deep in the Georgia backwoods," I sighed. "What is it that you need to talk to me about?"
Faye sighed heavily and the phone was silent for a few long moments before she spoke again. "Just come home. I've been having these feelings about you, almost like premonitions, and I really think it's important that you get back to us."
Her words sent a little shiver up my spine, but I thought there was more to it than what she was saying. "Faye…what's really going on?"
"I'm not lying!" she insisted, before exhaling out of frustration. "Okay, look, don't hang up when I say this and please listen to all of it. We're doing a mate match ceremony soon, and ever since we finalized the plans for it I've been dreaming about you being there. I think it's really, really important that you're present, Whitney."
Unspoken words hung in the air, but Faye knew that saying them would be a step too far for me, 'It's important you're there because I think you're going to be matched with a mate'.
It upset me at first—Faye knows good and well that it's hopeless for me when it comes to finding a mate. My job is a nightmare for most male wolves—I have to leave my home quite often to hunt, a lot of my work is secretive, I spend time with other male wolves while we're hunting, and worst of all, it's ridiculously dangerous. No man wanted a mate that could die any day, leaving him and potentially a child behind.
And that was the other problem—children. I wasn’t against the idea. Actually, the thought of being a mother filled me with a warm sort of joy, but I wouldn't want to give up my job just because I was a mother. All of this put a big red X over me in most male wolves’ minds, and I was a seriously undesirable mate candidate.
I'd accepted that long ago, and besides on nights when I have a few glasses of wine and feel sorry for myself, I'm mostly okay with being perpetually single.
What I wasn’t okay with was being dragged to a mate match ceremony just to be disappointed. Even if Faye found my match, he was bound to be disappointed, too, and it would just be a bad time for everyone. Faye knows all of this, so why in the hell would she try to drag me to a ceremony after all this time?
"Faye," I groaned. "You know how I feel about all of that stuff."
"I know, I know. I wouldn't even ask except…the premonitions have been getting more and more frantic. I wake up with my heart racing, and the only thing I can think about is how you have to be at this match ceremony, Whitney. Please come. If you aren't matched then no harm, no foul, right? And if you are—"
"Stop right there," I interrupted. "We both know I won't be, and even if I was, the guy would run for the hills. But…" I trailed off, closing my eyes and blowing out a frustrated breath. "If you say it's important, I believe you. I'll rally the troops and head home."
I could practically hear the smile in her voice as Faye spoke. "Really?"
"Yeah. But don't say anything about a mate for me, okay? I know it's the purpose of the whole thing, and that's probably what's making you think I need to be there, but it's a moot point. There's not going to be any mate."
Faye's voice softened. "We can't be certain of that. There might be, you just can't see it yet."
"No, I know for a fact. It's fine. I'll be home tomorrow evening."
"Perfect. I'll run by your apartment and make sure you've got food in the fridge. And hey, be careful on the way back. Naomi warned me that Julian and his jerk followers are MIA, so who knows where they've set up their so-called 'pack'. I know you can handle yourself just fine but the less drama we have with them, the better."
Ugh. Julian and his new pack, the Reckless Stalkers, were the last thing I wanted to deal with. "I'll stick to the main roads driving home, don't worry."
We said our goodbyes and hung up, and I groaned, looking around at the tired expressions on the rest of my team's faces. I was feeling the same way, and I hadn't slept a wink last night because I had been so excited about the hunt. Now, though, my energy had drained away and left behind bone-deep exhaustion.
"Let's head back. We've done all we can for now."
They all perked up, and within seconds, we'd all stripped out of our clothing and shifted into wolf form. Running was a lot faster than walking, and it felt good to stretch all four of my legs after such a long day.
The trip back to our small, two-bedroom cabin took a little under an hour, and as we neared the front door, I slowed down to human speed and changed forms, grabbing my spare clothes out of the back of my Subaru. The rest of the group followed suit, and I led us up onto the porch.
"Everyone get some sleep," I told them, leaning against the door frame. "Tomorrow we're heading back home, so we need to get an early start."
The group said their goodnights before disappearing inside. I took a moment to stretch out my neck, feeling a few vertebrae pop back into place before sighing.
I was exhausted. We had been gone for almost a month, tracking all sorts of demons we'd heard about, but it was all for nothing. The information we got from the demon we found dying was next to useless, and Faye's insistence that I be at the mate match ceremony only frustrated me.
I didn't have time for men, or love, or the inevitable heartbreak that would follow. I wanted to go home, but not for a mate match ceremony.
But when I thought back on how serious Faye had sounded when she explained her dreams, the will to fight her request drained completely out of me. I trusted Faye more than almost anyone else outside of my team, and if she said her witchy powers were telling me to come home, who was I to argue?
After all, I was more familiar with magic than most…but that was my little secret to keep.