Page 75 of WitchCurse

Toby sighed. “But you also don’t understand that this is a three-way dominance fight, do you? My wolf demands submission. Nick is not at all submissive, though he may come across as kind and polite. My human half would bend, but the wolf says no. That leaves you.”

“Then we are doomed, little wolf, I’m hardly a submissive being.” Letting others gain control always meant pain, a new way for someone to hurt me, and I’d kept that shield up for longer than I’d ever realized. He ran his fingers through the hair at the end of my braid, some of the strands looking iridescent in the firelight. He wrapped the bit in his fist, tugging tightly, and I sighed at the pull. He growled, the sound making my skin raise in gooseflesh, his smile a bit wolfish.

“Doomed?” he asked, leaning in close. I expected his eyes to turn gold or wolfish, but they remained blue, his lips lingering close to mine. I sucked in a deep breath, the scent of him full of wood and pine, memories of my youth and that wild freedom I missed, my anxiety easing as the smell washed over us. “I think you’ll do just fine,” he said, his lips skimming over the tip of my nose.

He tightened his grip on my braid, forcing me to raise my chin to relieve the strain. He kissed my jaw, and briefly let a butterfly flutter of a kiss trail across my lips before nestling his face into the well of my neck. He could tear my throat out, shift from man to wolf easily enough, but instinct said that wasn’t his goal. Rather he seemed to be memorizing my scent, the rising edge of arousal, and his grip on my hair making me more pliable than I’d like. But just as I was about to reach up and free myself, he let go and sat back.

“Let’s go hunt the shadows,” he said, his eyes flashing to wolf for a half second before going back to the clear blue. “Instead of just eating what they give to us. A real hunt.”

I blinked at him. “You may not be able to hunt them. The alpha said he couldn’t touch them.”

“But the alpha is bound to Sebastian, which means his magic is different. You said these shadow things are an ancient type of magic, like the elementals that walk this world, right? Sebastian is bound to the wolves because their strength can sustain him. The shadows fed you as a youth, why not now? If we have pockets of them close by, maybe they are what you need to sustain you.”

I hadn’t really thought about it, but it made sense, as the shadows existed long before I’d been born. “I suppose?”

Toby grabbed his phone and held up the map. “Let’s go to Nick’s old house, clear it. The house isn’t there anymore. Oberon had it burned to clear out evidence of the wolves, but the land is dark and black. Last time I was there, I saw nothing, but I was not bound to you.”

I didn’t like the idea of stirring up memories for Nick. It was bad enough he was bound to me until insanity and/or death did us part.

“That’s why we need to go,” Toby said, seeming to read me easily. “Clear this, give the area new life and maybe it won’t trigger those bad memories? I would also like for us to hunt together. My wolf sees you as part of my pack now, and I hope that giving it a taste of your own skill to hunt, it will stop demanding you need constant protection.”

“I’m hardly prey,” I said.

“I know that. Technically, neither is Sebastian.” Toby shrugged. “My wolf says otherwise. It’s very simple minded in a lot of ways.”

I sighed, thinking maybe it was a small kindness I could pay to my scion. “Do not get angry if you can’t see the shadows,” I said. “You do not fear my kitsune? Or do you wish me to hunt as a mortal fox?”

“Kitsune is fine.” He got up from the bed, gaze lingering on me as I pulled my clothing back together where he’d parted it to examine the marks I couldn’t see. He put his hand to the door, the edges blurring for a moment and symbols that seemed to etch themselves into the wood with light.

“Structured magic,” Toby said. “I’m good at it, was before you took me as scion. But the wolf has little real magic, most is related to the pack. I look forward to practicing more than making doors in the future.” He opened the door. “Shall we hunt fluffy shadows, filled with goo and darkness?”

CHAPTER24

Kiran

The area writhed with dark bubbles of shadows gorging themselves on the life of the land. Many were so large I couldn’t imagine how I’d eat them at all. But we emerged from the portal, I shifted into my normal kitsune form, feeling warm, hungry, and a bit of glee at having someone to hunt with, real prey rather than just devouring some hapless fae or spiked mortal food. I might not need battles and blood like the wolf, but my kitsune enjoyed a good hunt now and then.

Toby stripped out of his clothes, folding them and setting them aside. My own would return when called with magic. Could I teach him to do the same in the future. He changed to his wolf, the transition taking a few minutes, and another minute or so for him to align with his wolf. The mortal wolves, even the shifter type were smaller than theHuntof memory, and my kitsune form dwarfed Toby’s wolf. The alpha had a larger wolf than a lot of the pack, but I knew he was also one of the oldest, and Liam’s second and third were bigger still than the alpha. Toby was not small in werewolf terms, but not nearly kitsune size. Sebastian’s kitsune, more foxlike, was smaller than mine, more in line with his alpha, meanwhile mine mirrored the big cats that had long fascinated me in this world.

The wolf’s gaze examined me, for what, I wasn’t certain, but I opened my mind to him, hoping he could hear me as we approached the clearing.

Are you in there, wolf?

Yes, came a snarled reply. Toby or the wolf? Both and yet not? I couldn’t really tell.

Can you see the shadows feasting?It was a bounty of darkness spreading to the area around the exposed foundation of the house. There was nothing left but a flat sprawl of concrete and dying trees.

Yes. These things are the shadows you ate?The wolf sounded more like Toby in that moment as he approached one, seeming to sniff it.Smells like sugar?

I sniffed the air, trying to catch whatever he smelled, but only caught the heady odor of earth, dirt, decay and growing things, despite the lingering snow. The scent green and filled with life, they smelled like food to me either way.

It will be less fun if they don’t try to run away.The little bastards had gotten very cheeky in the ages since I’d stalked this world. How had they not overrun everything? Were there others like myself hunting them?

The wolf tilted his head to examine the nearest one, then pounced. I expected him to go right through it, unable to touch them like the alpha, but Toby dug into it and began tearing it up. The creature didn’t make a sound, but the handful nearby scattered. Well, that was certainly more fun than just eating them like some haphazard buffet.

I raced for the closest, snapping it up, the watery bits of magic a delight of warm jelly as I swallowed it down. Toby latched onto the dark bit from it before I could stuff it away, stealing it for himself as he examined it, and shoved the rest of the magic from the one he tore apart to me. He chewed on the dark bit and I paused, watching, waiting, worried. The shadows scurried around us, but I knew I’d be able to find them all later.

Tastes like black licorice and peppermint,Toby said, as he finished the one he’d grabbed, not bothering to give back the dark bits. I frowned at him, reaching through the bond to try to retrieve it, but found nothing tangible, only a hint of chill.