Page 12

CHAPTER 12 - RAZE

I couldn’t ignore the call of nature. Not after being caged and then nestling with Little Wolf for another day to distract ourselves from the horrors of the last two days.

Yesterday, my wolf went into nesting mode, creating a pile of blankets in my lounge room and drawing my mate into them to snuggle by the fire. We only left our little haven to get more wood, use the bathroom, and bathe. Thank the Munyara for my sanctuary neighbors bringing us meals and saving us the effort of cooking. They were also a little curious to assess the stranger and meet my mate, and I was more than happy to introduce her.

Today, I had stiff muscles from lazing all day and needed to get out and stretch. What better way than an early morning hike in the forest surrounding my temporary home—clear, blue skies, a balmy twenty-two degrees Celsius, and nothing but the call of birds. And with my mate, no less. Something I’d been daydreaming about since my arrival here.

Activity I had to wrestle my wolf into since he wanted to curl up with her all day in her den, feed her, protect her, make love to her, if she was up for it.

In the end, I made the right choice. Little Wolf enjoyed the outdoors after being cooped up in prison, training, shifts at her laboratory or researching leads on the missing prisoners. She didn’t stop touching tree trunks, brushing leaves, taking long breaths, smiling, and squeaking every time she came across a new mushroom or flower with chemical components she hadn’t encountered.

I felt at home surrounded by nature. Temperate eucalypts gave way to rainforest. Every time I breathed, I took in the scents of eucalyptus, soil, bark, blooming banksias and wattles, fallen leaves, and mushrooms growing under logs, different from the drier, unforgiving landscape of my mother’s tribe. Wildlife scurried or flittered about the forest, and I pointed out the lizards, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, and cockatoos. Little Wolf’s delighted coos set my chest alight, and my chest rumbled at her enthusiasm.

Nothing compared to the plateaus, valleys, and waterfalls. I could see myself settling here and becoming part of Liv’s pack permanently if Little Wolf and my brothers were allowed to visit. I wouldn’t trade this for the inside of a stone box.

Little Wolf swung my arm as we navigated one of my favorite paths that I traveled every few days when I wasn’t working in the commune’s garden, hunting food, building another cabin, or other duties to pay for my board.

The countdown to our inevitable goodbye ticked in the back of my head with more urgency, making it hard to give Little Wolf my all. In six days, I had a mission scheduled with Luna and her men to search a relocation spot for the Brotherhood traffickers trying to remain relevant and cling to their dwindling power. I didn’t want my mate to come when it put her in danger. That said, I couldn’t protect her when she returned to the Guardians.

She noticed and kept glancing my way, finally addressing it. “You’re uneasy. Do you need to call Aaliyah back?”

I broke my stride and came to a stop beside her, lifting her hand to kiss and smooth with mine. “That’s not the only reason.”

Angst nipped at me, prompting me to obtain the box with Jaz’s evidence to clear my pack’s name and exonerate them from the Guardians. Chances were, Devon burned all traces of it and taunted me to find him, leading me into a trap where he’d kill me. To survive, I needed to eliminate a streak of bad luck for me, which I was convinced affected the team.

I brushed my fingertips along her soft arms. “We need to find the bone witch’s femur and burn it, releasing us from the curse.”

Then, and only then, would things turn around for us. There was no other reason for our string of misery. First, my tribe banished me, then my father perished, the Lycan Alpha poisoned me with his werewolf venom, and I almost joined my father and ancestors, finally ending in my casting out from the Guardians. My affliction spread to members of my team, resulting in Tor’s broken spine, Knoxe’s demotion, suppression of Pascal’s magick, and my mate being kidnapped by vampires. Afflictions I wouldn’t let continue when Little Wolf and I almost perished if it wasn’t for the last-minute stroke of luck by our team to save us.

“What happens if we destroy the bone?” she asked. “Will it break our curse and win us our freedom and safety? Because if it does, I’m down for it.”

Little Wolf’s lip folded between her teeth. Sometimes I found this action sexy. Not today, when she fretted about her freedom, returning to the prison, leaving me behind, and the safety of her harem.

I pulled her closer, resting her head on my chest, soothing her with my rumble. “I believe the bone witch will go to the stars with Biame, find peace, and cease to curse us.”

Her palm coasted along my skin, and my throat vibrated, my wolf missing her touch. “Let’s destroy it. I don’t want this thing hanging over us like a dark cloud.

Her wistful smile tugged at my chest, and I nuzzled her. “Thank you, Little Wolf. I won’t stop fighting for you or my pack.” I kissed her forehead.

“Love you.” Words I’d never tire of hearing.

We finished our walk, went back to the cabin, showered off the sweat. The drive was long, ten hours northwest if we drove straight through from the outskirts of Bathurst. We’d have to camp the night, make it a two-day trip. With this in mind, we packed lunch, clothes, and grabbed a bag with a camping shovel, matches, a can of gasoline, and wood. Then we jumped into my black Ford pickup and made tracks for my tribe’s land in Broken Hill, stopping in Cobar to camp overnight and stretch after our long drive, hitting the road early the next day at 7AM, reaching our destination at 11AM.

I went around to the side of the car, opening my mate’s door, offering her my hand to climb down from the truck. “The burial location is a sacred spot to the tribe, marked with rocks and black cockatoo’s feathers.”

Wind tugged at her ponytail, and she squinted in the bright sunlight. “Black? That’s not ominous at all.”

“It’s a symbol of death in my mother’s tribe.” It hurt less each day to refer to them as that. “This way.”

I lead her six-hundred feet north, dropping my bag to the ground and removing the shovel, lighter fluid, sticks, and matches.

Dark vapor heralded the bone witch’s arrival. Chants of ancestors past sounded in the background, as she crouched low, shaking her damn tool of torment, uttering condemning magical words.

Little Wolf squeezed my fingers. “Oh, God, she’s cursing us again!”

“No more, witch.” I stabbed the shovel into the sand and didn’t stop digging until I exposed her object of misery.

Hands shaking, I removed it, unwrapping the animal skin keeping it dry, confirming the bone within, and a leather pouch secured to one end. Dried magical herbs, a cockatoo’s claw and tooth of a possum stored inside the bag formed a protection spell from scavenger animals seeking to unearth and desecrate the bones.

Holding onto one end of the femur, I lifted my boot, pressing it to the center of the bone and applying enough pressure to snap it in two. Part one of ridding the curse.

I dropped the offending item into the hole and exacted part two. “Fire, please, Little Wolf.”

My mate added the sticks into the hole, squirted lighter fluid over the wood, and removed a match from the box. Fire licked at the pile, burning in her eyes. Everything went up in flames. I drew her into a hug to comfort her, watching the fire darken the bones, burning away the symbols etched into one side that brought it power.

“No, please, don’t,” the bone witch begged, stepping into the hole to protect the treasure connecting her to this world.

“You cursed me for no reason, witch!” I barked, ready to be free of this.

“You never would have escaped if I didn’t afflict you.” The witch tried to reason her way out of it.

Spirits were crafty like that, tricking you into finding your path. I wanted to claim my own fate and not have others meddle. That included the Guardians.

“Go to Biame and wander the stars, ancestor,” I commanded.

“No,” the witch sobbed, her outline fading.

Wisps of darkness teemed off my mate’s and my skin as the curse released. Pressure on my ribcage and throat eased. Relief danced at the edge of my heart. I thumped a fist on my chest and saluted her as the last of her spirit vanished into the afterlife.

“Do you feel that, Little Wolf?” I ran my fingertips along her shoulder.

She rubbed at her ribs. “Yes. It feels lighter and not as tight.”

I squeezed her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “We’re free.”

“Ohthankgod!” Rushed words burst from her mouth and I laughed, pulling her in front of me and wrapping my arms over her shoulders.

We stayed until the blaze consumed all the sticks, and I shoveled sand back into the hole, burying the remains.

My mate packed up the rest of our belongings, and held the bag open, letting me insert the shovel and zip up the pocket.

“Thank you for this, Little Wolf.” I lifted her into my arms to give her my undying vow to defend my mate from any threat to her and our pack.

“No thanks needed. You wouldn’t have rested with it on your conscience.”

“Would you be up for some more hiking?” I kissed her forehead to eradicate the lines bunching her skin. “There’s somewhere I want to camp for the evening with the most beautiful view. I think you’ll like it.”

“I’d love that.” Her smile kept the fire in my heart ticking over.

I clasped her hand and led her back to my vehicle, driving us to the Sundown Nature Trail, famous for its night sky views. We grabbed our camping gear, and commenced the trail through sparsely vegetated hills, covered in ephemeral grasses and wildflowers, adapted to the harsh, dry environment. Along the way, we spotted goannas and bearded dragons, and I took pictures for her with them in the background, since the lizard was her spirit animal of protection.

“I want to show you something.” I tugged my mate ten feet off the path to a tree with a white trunk. “This is a Gumbi gumbi plant.” I picked an orange fruit and crushed it between my fingers, releasing red seeds. “It’s a native apricot.”

“Yum.” Little Wolf plucked a fruit and put it in her mouth.

I lifted my palm to her mouth. “Spit that out. It’s poisonous. My mother’s tribe crushes the leaves into a powder to mix with water as an infusion for coughs and colds.”

She turned her head sideways and spat out the fruit. “Oops.”

I adored her enthusiasm to try new foods… just the right ones.

I showed her several more plants and explained their uses in my culture, collecting some edibles for her to try. She rejected most as they were sour and an acquired taste, better off used in pastes and herbal teas.

Then I took her off-track to a spot where I loved to camp that no one else knew about, surrounded by sweeping hills that gave us plenty of privacy. I shifted small sock fragments from the sandy ground and set up our tent. My mate fixed up everything inside while I hammered in the pegs.

When she emerged, we foraged for leaves and twigs for a fire, then returned and set up our cooking equipment.

“Here comes the fun part.” I shaved the end of a thin branch, fashioning it into a spear.

“What are you up to?” Her eyebrows crashed together.

“Hunting.” I lifted her up and guided her through the rocks, taking care to scan for snakes, spiders, and scorpions.

Within twenty minutes, I caught us some edible lizards and rabbits populated by settlers. Little Wolf closed her eyes and blocked her ears as I skinned them, skewered them, and put them on the campfire.

I lifted her from her camping chair, sat in mine, and lowered her onto my lap, wanting her body on mine. “You can open your eyes now.”

“I didn’t like that part,” she admitted.

I grew up catching animals and it didn’t bother me, but I understood she was raised differently.

“You’re welcome to eat the packed sandwiches.” I lowered my lips to her neck, reveling in the heat of her sweaty skin.

“No, I’ll brave the natural food.”

I drop kisses on her throat. “That’s my brave little mate.”

“Brave, crazy, insert other adjectives,” she joked, and I laughed.

“Perfect,” I murmured into her neck.

She shifted on my lap and smiled seductively, running her palms along my chest. “You certainly know how to make a gal feel special.”

She was special. More than special. And I was about to show her while our dinner cooked.