Page 96 of WitchBorn

I wasn’t surprised to see Dylan waiting for me by the door. But Sebastian thrust a large hot cup of tea and a box of food at me. “Take it with you. Eat something,” he commanded.

And because I served him and he demanded it, I would eat, even if it meant choking it down. I took the boxes and silently followed Dylan to his truck. He drove me home, the mile going by fast as the red and orange glow of the autumn leaves made my heart heavy. He pulled into a little gravel road leading through some trees to a tiny house, and put the car in park.

“You need anything?” Dylan asked.

“No,” I said as I got out. He waited until I opened the door to the house before steering the car back around and out. I put the food and the computer on the kitchen counter inside the door. The whole house was less than five hundred square feet. Not a castle by any definition. But the wide-open lower level, which was all kitchen, a small bathroom with an all-in-one washer and dryer, and fluffy sofa facing a television I used for background noise, made it feel big. The upper loft hosted a queen-sized mattress surrounded by windows looking out into the woods. And after living here for nearly nine months, it felt like home for the first time in my entire life.

“Xiao?” I called, not seeing him on the sofa and wondering if he was upstairs. But I couldn’t hear his breathing either. Maybe he’d gone back to the big house. I sent a text to Liam just in case, worried about the little would-be king.

I’ll keep an eye out for him.Liam replied.Get some rest.

I sighed and headed up to the loft, crawling into bed and lying there, tired and cold, but anxious. The realization made me roll over and stare off into the distance as though I could sensewhere the feeling was coming from. It wasn’t mine as I couldn’t identify a source for the apprehension. How odd.

I lay there a while. Closed my eyes, and even dozed for a time. The sound of a car pulling up outside and a door closing roused me from a groggy half sleep. Were they dropping Xiao off? He never traveled by car. I hoped they weren’t bringing me more food. Sebastian already raided my house twice a week to clean out my fridge and restock it with ready to eat meals even if I rarely touched the ones from the week before. His compulsion from earlier lingered, but without a set time, I could push it off until it became unbearable to comply.

The scent of cinnamon wafted through my open windows, unfamiliar but warming, like a hot cup of apple cider laced with the spicy bite. The car drove away, though I’d only ever heard one door close. Strange.

A soft knock sounded on my door. Sebastian and Liam had a key and entered all the time. Xiao could just pop in whenever he wanted. No one else visited. Who could it be?

I rolled out of bed, tired and exhausted, fumbling my way down the stairs. The left side of the house was a wall of windows behind the sofa peering out into the woods, but the door stood as a solid barrier of wood without a peephole. On warded land within Summer’s territory, I had never had cause to worry, yet the anxiety in my gut grew as I approached the door, as did the scent of cinnamon and apple.

I braced myself to open it, chiding myself for being a scared idiot. But when I cracked the door, the man standing on my tiny porch made me gasp. “Finn?”

Sixty-Five

WESLEY

He looked as I remembered, young, with his dude-bro attire of a college hoodie and short on the sides, long on top, haircut, no hint of shadow in his face. The kind of guy who could be any college kid, and I’d feared had only been a glamour of the man I’d been mated to.

“Hey,” he said, seeming nervous. He thrust a small box at me, but since it was from the Sweet Tooth, Liam and Seb’s bakery, I knew it was pastry. “Sebastian said he has been working on perfecting this for a while.” He looked really uncomfortable for a few seconds. “He didn’t recognize me. But I understand from my wolf’s memories, how bad we fucked up. I was going to say something but the Alpha wolf showed up and Oberon ran interference before dropping me off. He said they want to interrogate me, but I had to see you.” He let out a long breath. “It hurt to see him and he didn’t recognize me, and yet I knew him and all the terrible things I did…”

I took the box, our hands brushing and my heart fluttering in my chest. He was really here, in front of me. Had I fallen asleep? Was this some sort of dream? Most of the time, when I dreamed of him as Finn, we sat down together and I dreamt of him holding me. I always woke up from them crying and alone.

“I’m sorry,” Finn whispered.

I stood in the doorway, uncertain what to say, wanting to throw myself at him, and fearing I’d shatter our dream.

“I’m not a dream, baby. I’m sorry I took so long to get control of everything.” He leaned against the side of the house, his heartbeat racing to my sensitive hearing. “I got my shit together, and had to talk to my moms. Was gone a long time and they were worried, but they look forward to meeting you, and then I called Oberon to figure out how to get here and not have Summer put me in an oven…” he rambled as if uncertain where to stop.

It hurt to breathe. He couldn’t be real.

“I am. Wesley, please.”

I blinked at him, a lock on my jaw as a thousand thoughts ricocheted through my mind.

“Wes,” Finn said. He caught my arm, holding my elbow as he settled into the bubble of my personal space, amber eyes meeting mine.

He didn’t look like some werewolf king. He looked likemyFinn.

“I am, baby. Love… say something. Please.”

Tears blurred my gaze as I feared this was some final goodbye. Probably necessary as he’d spent the last year not needing me at all.

“That’s not true,” Finn cupped my cheek in his palm. “I’ve missed you desperately. I tried to stay out of your dreams at first, but sometimes it just happened and then you didn’t run away or scream at me. So sometimes I found you. Even if it was to sit with you, or watch you wander through my realm. And since the kitten watched us a lot, and I let him in, I thought it was okay, that maybe you knew and Summer knew…”

“Then where the fuck have you been? Why did you…” I couldn’t repeat that he’d sent me to Sebastian like some used up toy.

“He kept you safe, right?”