Page 27 of Witchbane
“Doesn’t fit her anymore. She’s too tall.”
I stared indignantly up at my mate, probably looking like a Smurf on the rampage. He gave me a smile that told me he found me adorable. “I’m not cute. Turn off the ‘You’re cute’ face.”
“But youarecute,” he said. He pulled down a plastic storage bin and opened it to dig through a heap of gloves, trying to find matching ones.
“Expecting it to be cold? I fucking hate the cold.”
“It’s below zero in the mountains at night right now. We have no idea where we’ll find him.” We both left unspoken if we’d find him at all. I couldn’t imagine a forest god hung out in only our forest when he had an entire world to roam. Was he part of the Native American religions or something brought here by the fae?
“At least I have you as my personal furnace,” I grumbled. Werewolves ran hot. He probably wouldn’t need all the winter gear, but he’d take it with.
“One of the perks of our mate bond,” Liam said, smiling. He loaded up our packs and headed for the door. He wasn’t worried at all, I realized. “I’m going with you. No reason to be worried,” he said, obviously catching my thoughts. He waved a goodbye to Carl who was acting as a brick wall to keep the women out of the kitchen.
“Be safe you two,” Korissa called.
“See you soon,” I told her. “Our cells are on.”
“For now,” Liam grumbled as we exited the house and out into the cold. “Too far into the woods and we will lose reception.”
“You don’t have some sort of satellite phone or something? What kind of a Boy Scout are you?”
“Never was one. Only a simple werewolf with a lot of life before technology, behind him. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
“We have no idea what the forest god will want. What if he wants our firstborn child? We might not even find him.” Yes, I was feeling pessimistic, mostly because I hated the cold and felt like I was running again. At least it was with Liam this time.
“If that’s what he wants, I’ll have to work harder to get you pregnant,” Liam said with a straight face.
“Right, ‘cause you haven’t already tried to breed me?”
He kissed me. “And I plan to keep trying, over and over and over.”
I growled because his words made me hard again. “Jerk.”
He laughed, leading us away from the house, and I followed. Soon we were swallowed by the trees and I hoped Liam knew the forest well enough to keep us going in the right direction. There wasn’t a path of any kind. The snow was only thin due to the thick proximity of trees, but I suspected that would change the deeper into the woods we went.
“We will find him.”
“You don’t know that. I think when Underhill cast me out last time, it was sort of at his feet, not because he found me, or I found him, or anything.”
“But he’s aware of you,” Liam said. “Chose me to be your mate.” He strutted a little when he said that.
I gave him a squinty-eyed glare. “You realize that probably wasn’t the best thing foryou, right?”
Liam snorted and tugged the scarf wrapped around my throat. “Of course it was. I’ve never been happier. The pack is coming together, my mate is learning new things about himself every day, and if I have some random forest god to thank for it, so be it.”
“Do we even have a plan? Once we find him?”
“Ask him to release your kitsune.”
“Here?”
Liam shrugged. “If we’re in the middle of the woods, there would be no one to get hurt.”
“Except you.” Now I really didn’t want him coming along.
He stuck out a hand, walking backward for a minute. “Hi, I’m Liam Ulrich, Alpha Werewolf of the Cascades Mountain pack. Maybe you haven’t heard how great and awesome I am? I’ve been given my true mate, who is not only an omega, but a kitsune spirit of elemental magic.”
“Again, I remind you, those are not all good things.” I kissed his hand. His point was that he could take care of himself. I didn’t doubt him as much as I worried that my other side would go crazy and eat him. “Brat. You’re weird.”