Page 60 of Witchbane

He chuffed and laid his head on me. The weight was huge, but grounding.

I breathed out a long sigh.Heavy.

Many evenings we would spend after dinner with the pack in the family room, Liam’s head in my lap, as we watched some dumb show. It wasn’t about the television, but about bringing everyone together. Liam’s comfort with me always eased the pack discomfort. And having him in my lap often made me feel strong. Like he trusted me to protect him as much as he protected me. Not that the pack would ever raise a hand against him. But alphas didn’t often show weakness. I loved that he was vulnerable with me, never expecting me to submit simply because he was the alpha.

Mine.He lifted his head and nuzzled my face.

I was.

Need you to change,he said.

Change into human? I didn’t think that was going to help my energy level or the intense ache in my leg. The thorns were gone, no longer grinding into my bones as I moved. I could feel the absence of them. But my leg felt cold, half numb, and yet prickling with those crawling ants of awakening nerve sensation.

Kitsune.

I stared up at my mate, who was a kitsune, and tried to make sense of the word. He wanted me to change into a kitsune? Hadn’t he taken that? I wasn’t sure I even could. It had been a long time since it happened, and the forest god’s hold had been tight.

Had he put the thorns there? Part of what was used to bind me? That didn’t feel right.

Change,my mate instructed.

I huffed at him, frustrated, but having to at least make an attempt. The kitsune wasn’t all that different from the fox. Or even changing back to human. I focused on it, feeling that beast rise up inside, awake, aware, waiting. For a few seconds we stared at each other. A metaphysical face to face. And I realized there was no wall. The ice barrier was gone.

I gasped. The kitsune stalked forward, not menacing, but confident. It rubbed against me, gifting me with warmth. A spill of lava-hot heat to roll over my soul. And then the change came, as fast and painless as the fox, and completely unfettered. From fox to kitsune in the span of a heartbeat.

Liam chuffed and scrambled to his feet to give me room, my size matching his. I collapsed, leg still hurt, though it seemed to be healing. The blackness vanished, but so did the red fur, turning white and patchy. Several spots appeared scarred over, a thick, pink, jagged edge where there had been a gaping wound.

Heat rolled outward from the core of my soul, spreading in slow lapping waves. It took a while for it to reach all the way from edge to edge of me, warming me inside and out. I’d been cold for long enough it was an odd feeling. Almost like being feverish, yet not uncomfortable.

Liam licked my back leg, laving it in long strokes like he could heal it with his touch. He concentrated on the scars, and didn’t seem bothered by the odd white color stretching up to my hip like some weird sock.

Beautiful,he said.Hurt?

Mostly I was warm and sleepy. No raging monster or chaos filling my gut. No thorns biting into me, tearing me wide, and filling my veins with infection. And my mate was there. Breathtaking and powerful. A kitsune like me. Did that mean he’d given up his wolf?

Liam shifted, changing in an instant, unlike he ever could before, from kitsune to wolf. It was his wolf, the dark lanky beast with strong shoulders and my mate’s amazing eyes. I recognized the feel of his wolf, that earthen awareness that was more instinct than human. He changed again, into human. Nude and beautiful, covered in the lines of the scion bond. I winced at the memory of them hurting him, tying him up, burning into his skin.

He wrapped human arms around my head, hands gripping my fur. “I don’t regret anything,” he said.

I pressed my nose into his collarbone, taking in the familiar smell of him. Vanilla, home, and mate. The kitsune recognized that too. And I was the kitsune. Not a separate thing of terror and power, but me, in another form. It settled in, no longer fighting for control, but allowing a partnership because before us wasmate.

“Yes,” Liam agreed. He scratched behind one of my ears, and I tilted my head to enjoy the feeling. “Maybe we should try to get back? Before Nick worries too much?” He tugged at my fur. “We need to work on these random portals you do. It’s hard to keep up.”

I didn’t recall opening a portal, only an explosion of magic when he’d become my scion.

“Can you change to human?” Liam asked.

He had done it easily enough. That meant I should be able to, right? I imagined myself as me, small enough to fit into his arms again. And suddenly I was human and wrapped in Liam’s warmth.

“There you are,” Liam muttered, face buried in my hair, which was probably a wild mess.

“Naked,” I grumbled, loving his body against me.

“Yeah, we’ll have to work on that. How about first you open a door to get us back to the palace?”

It hadn’t worked before. I frowned at him. He cupped my face in his hands and gave me that intense blue gaze of his, his expression expectant. The least I could do was try, right?

I sighed, reached for his hand, and turned away enough to make room to etch the symbols in the air. The door appeared like it had a hundred times before when I tried. I grabbed the knob, turned it, expecting a brick wall on the other side, only it was a dark portal. I gasped.