Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

I tapped at the steering wheel as we drove along, my mind elsewhere. Thankfully, traffic wasn’t that bad, allowing my thoughts to drift.

I couldn’t believe it. After what felt like solid months, Sam finally had everything he needed for the spells. The whole ritual had gone surprisingly well, without a drop of b***d being shed, and I was happier than ever. We were yet another massive step closer to defeating the witches and hopefully cracking the case of the brothers, the shifter kidnappers, and everything else going on.

But Emma’s uncertain mood that morning was getting to me, I had to admit. She wasn’t generally an anxious person, but she was perceptive, and if she was feeling off, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something I was missing. Lord knew it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Hey Emma, do you think—”

That was all I got out before the entire world seemed to explode.

It was like a thousand things happened at once. Thunder sounded within our car as we were thrown violently to the side. Glass shattered all around us, its little teeth biting into us as we seemed to literally take flight.

I was aware of pain, aware of Emma’s screaming, but there was nothing I could do as the world spun once. Twice. Three times before we slammed into something so hard, I was surprised that my skeleton didn’t rattle right out of my own body.

What…

What happened?

My head was spinning when we finally came to a stop, pain swamping my body. Strange little clinks reached my ears, and I couldn’t place them until I looked down at my rearview mirror and realized it was my skin pushing pieces of glass out as it stitched itself back together.

Wait, down?

Blinking again, I realized that it was indeed below me because we were actually upside down. All the b***d was rushing to my head, which made it incredibly hard to think or figure out what happened. One minute, everything had been fine, and now nothing was.

“Emma?” I asked, trying to crane my neck to the side.

“I’m okay,” she g*****d, sounding absolutely not okay. “I, uh, did we just get into a car accident?”

Oh, that was what happened, was it?

All of a sudden, it was like my brain came back online and I realized exactly what that could mean. Jolting, I ripped my seatbelt apart and kicked my crumpled door off its hinges, I pulled myself out of the car.

I was fearing the worst, my b***d pumping through my veins as it readied for a fight. There was a chance that our accident could just have been a stereotypical case of a car hitting a car, but if I had to put my money on anything, it was that witches were afoot.

Hustling over to Emma, I ignored how my leg throbbed. I was pretty sure that something was out of place in my ankle, but it would pop right back soon enough.

“Thanks,” Emma said as I ripped off her door and freed her from her belt. There was b***d down her forehead, but she seemed otherwise alright, which was a huge relief to me. “How’s the other dri—”

She was interrupted too as I felt energy crackle behind my back. Functioning on instinct alone, I grabbed her arm and dove to the side with her just as a firebolt hit the side of our crumpled car and sent it flying back into the street.

Witches!Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

I rolled to my feet, already shifting, and I heard more cars skidding to a stop. That had to be our guards, and my suspicions were confirmed as I heard the sound of human footfalls quickly changing tino canine paw pads.

“Theo!” That was Emma’s voice behind me, although the last syllable became garbled, telling me that she, too, was on all fours.

I was racing for the witch who had fireballed my car, my teeth bared. I was fully prepared for more of his partners to emerge from nowhere since apparently they could f*****g teleport, but what I didn’t expect was a wolf to tackle right into my side.

The two of us went tumbling, and when I managed to get away, I let out a vicious snarl. I lunged forward, ready to tear into his hide, but I froze when I recognized exactly who he was.

It was the missing guard, Julien.

Hey! Hey, we’ve been looking for you!

But it was like he didn’t even hear me, baring his own teeth and leaping at me. I raced under him, sliding onto my side and popping back to my feet behind him so I had his back.

Listen to me! I don’t want to hurt you!

I caught his tail in my mouth, something that I knew from experience would hurt something fierce but wasn’t anywhere near lethal. However, the twelve piercing talons burst out of the ground to try to impale me.

I let go of the guard’s tail, leaping backwards as obsidian spears sliced through the air where I had just been. They almost reminded me of tentacles, except made of black stone and glowing with crimson malevolence.

But I didn’t have time to round on the witch because another creature emerged out of nowhere. I jumped back yet again, only to have a full-on grizzly bear barrel past where I had been standing.

That was two lucky calls in a short span. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have another. But I was very much distracted by the fact that the witches had a literal bear shifter with them. While there were plenty of werewolves on the continental United States, bear shifters were pretty much contained to the Adirondacks. With their low reproduction rates and disappearing countryside, I didn’t think there were more than a couple thousand of them in existence.

But what I did know was that I stood no chance between a fellow pack member who had apparently gone evil, a bear shifter, and a witch.

Thankfully, I wasn’t alone, a fact I was reminded of when Emma went sailing over my head, barreling into the male witch and her teeth burying themselves into his shoulder.

The man fell to the ground with a cry and I could tell the two other shifters were rounding to help defend him. That wouldn’t do at all.

I lunged for the guard, going for Julien’s leg. I wanted to incapacitate him, not kill him. I would if I had to, but I figured that would be playing into the witches’ hands. They wanted to see me kill one of our own, I could tell. It was a sick sort of power play, one that people who kidnapped innocent shifters loved to pull off.

But the bear was out of my range, and for a moment, I feared the worst. But I should have known better because several more howls sounded around us before three more of our pack descended to fight him off.

It seemed like a good balance, at least for a moment, but a crackle in the air told me that more had joined the fray.

It was turning into a real mid-street blitz. And in the middle of a dense city street in the middle of the twenty first century, there was a non-zero chance that someone was snapping pics and filming video. Clearly it didn’t matter what Mahlan thought about the council knowing what happened, because they were definitely going to find out one way or another. At this point I would be surprised if TMZ themselves didn’t run a story about a zoo breakout.

But that was an issue we could all worry about if we survived. And considering that I was pretty sure at least two other witches arrived, that wasn’t exactly guaranteed. But I was going to give them one hell of a fight. We all were.

Another crackle ripped its way through the air and I let go of the brainwashed Julien’s leg to roll under the closest car. And just in time, as several strikes of lightning stuck down, illuminating the street. Thankfully they weren’t as strong as actual lightning, or at least I assumed as much considering that I wasn’t fried under the car. Probably shouldn’t have hid under a giant hunk of metal.

I didn’t let the moment go to waste, however, and rolled back out of the car to rush at the closest with. It wasn’t Ellan, and it wasn’t the male witch either, as I was pretty sure that I was smelling his b***d spilling across the ground. But that was alright. At the moment, I was satisfied with attacking any witch as long as I tasted their b***d on my teeth.

The witch saw me coming, however, and I saw her preparing herself. So I adjusted my angle to sail over her head, going over the shield that she had no doubt conjured. I landed behind her, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have time to turn around and catch her leg in my jaw. So instead I kicked back with both of my rear legs, catching her in the middle of her back and sending her stumbling forward.

It was just the extra seconds I needed. With her trying to recover, this time I did whirl, lunging for her with my teeth bared.

Unfortunately the girl clearly had some battle experience, because instead of continuing to try to stand, she instead threw herself forward. So instead of my teeth sinking into her thigh and perhaps catching her femoral artery, they caught around her foot.

Oh well, a limb was a limb. I bit into it as hard as I could, and the witch let out a shrill scream.

“Let me go, you bastard!”

Bastard? I was the bastard? She was part of a group that was systematically hunting down me and my people!

I dug in harder, trying to jerk her back towards me, but the woman sat up and faced her palm towards me.

I may not have done many rodeos one on one with witches, but I knew that a palm out was the equivalent of someone pointing a rocket launcher at me, if that rocket launcher was set to random damage. I let go of her and leapt to the side, dropping to my belly.

Not low enough, however, because the wave of energy that shot out of her ripped along the ridge of my back, leaving a few small bald spots in it’s place. Not a flattering look, for certain, but I had other things to worry about.

Besides, it would grow back.

I rolled, my long limbs tucking in, but before I could get my own feet under me, something else lifted me up and threw me down the street.

And boy, did I go sailing.

I braced for impact, hoping that maybe I would land against something soft. But it seemed luck was not on my side. I went past a tall partition and apparently crashed into what had to be a construction yard, cinderblocks and debris flying everywhere.

I hit hard, the breath being driven from my body as everything seemed to crack. I gasped, and I could feel my inner wolf starting to slip away from me. But I gripped it with all I had, encouraging it to come back to the front. After so much time waiting for me to navigate the corporate and espionage parts of our plan, it was time for the wolf to take the lead.

Thankfully, it cooperated, still wanting the b***d of its enemies. I could tell he was also worried about Emma. Last we both saw her, she was massacreing the shoulder of one of our enemies, but that was at least a minute in the past, and in a battle with witches, that might as well be a few year’s time.

I tried to get up, I did, but a sharp spike of pain drove the air from me yet again. Squirming, I craned my head to look at my side and realized there was a twisted piece of rebar sticking out of it.

Well, that wasn’t good.

I tried to push myself off of it, but it was with the way I was caught on it, my paws could only barely scrape the floor. I could shift back into human and try to get off it that way, but with how it was impaling me, there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t mess with my human organs in a lethal way.

Did I risk it, or did I keep fighting and risk bleeding out anyway? While my healing ability was impressive, we weren’t immortal. Shifters could die just like any other fae.

So what was my choice?

Theo!?

Emma’s voice came to me, although, I couldn’t see her anywhere. I did my best to answer nonetheless, calling out in our shifter’s voice.

I’m here. I’m trapped, pinned by some rebar.

I’m on my way!

Part of me wanted to tell her not to come, but realized she wouldn’t listen anyway and it would be better to save my breath. Except speaking as shifters didn’t require any breath so… yeah.

But it was only a moment or so later when Emma jumped the wall, b***d sprayed across her russet fur. Like something out of a movie, a spray of fire, and a hail of swarming insects arched across the street behind her. Those witches really weren’t pulling any punches.

Oh my God. I’ve got you, I’ve got you.

Rushing to me, Emma began to shift, nearly human by the time she reached the slab of concrete I was attached to. But she stopped there, retaining her sharp claws, elongated ears, teeth that didn’t quite fit into her half-candid snoot, and her brilliant golden eyes. Smart, considering we were in the middle of a fight. She could shift more quickly into her wolf body or fight on the fly if she needed.

“This is gonna hurt, but I have to be careful, alright?”

I know. I’m ready.

Her broadened palms gripped me on either side of the wound and carefully but consistently pulled me off of it. It hurt, oh how it hurt, and I couldn’t help the howl that escaped me. But Emma persisted, laying me down on the ground as b***d bubbled out of my wound.

I felt cold, and a little bit like I was going to pass out, but I could also sense my body starting to heal itself. A bit slowly, considering it was a through and through wound, but enough that I wasn’t worried about dying. At least not yet.

“Are you alright?” Emma asked, stroking the top of my head lovingly.

As much as I can expect to be. The real question is if I’m gonna be up on my feet before anyone finds us here.

The answer to that particular riddle came as part of the wall in front of me was blown away, a figure stepping into the yard I had been knocked into. But it wasn’t the witch who sent me there, no, it was none other than Ellan herself.

“You’ve been far more of a hassle than you’re worth,” she said, slowly approaching me. But her speed wasn’t because she was scared, but rather because she was so confident that she had me. And given the situation, maybe she did. “I think it’s time we dealt with both of you so I can move on with my f*****g life.”

She approached, both of her hands raised, but I wanted to know where she got the gall to complain about her life! She was the one terrorizing us.

Clearly the irony was lost on her, because she flew forward far faster than any human could move, like it was the wind itself that was pushing her. My eyes went wide as there was no way that I would be able to heal in time and get out of the way.

Turns out I didn’t have to worry, because Emma whirled around at the last second, her clawed hand shooting out towards Ellan’s middle. The witch noticed just in time, so while she killed her speed so she wouldn’t be impaled, Emma still was able to dig her claws into our attacker’s middle.

“I’m so f*****g sick of you,” Emma hissed through her massive teeth, whipping her skull foreward to headbutt the witch.

Ellan stumbled back, cursing as b***d streamed from her nose, but Emma pressed further, slashing the witch across her face. While I could sense that my body was knitting itself back together, it wasn’t quite ready for me to begin fighting just yet.

But Emma seemed to have the witch on the ropes. The woman kept trying to bring up spells, but Emma was too close and dealing too much damage.

Or at least she was until three more witches flew up over the wall, spells at the ready.

Emma! I cried, finally fighting to my feet. Thankfully, my love was paying attention and she jumped backwards, shifting midleap so she was once against fully a wolf.

This isn’t good, she said, her claws digging into the ground. Hey, we could use some assistance over here!

I knew she was calling to the guards, but I was pretty sure they were busy considering there were still debris flying through the air along with fire, plumes of water, and… and was that a tentacle?

Emma and I were boned. Even at our best, we weren’t about to be able to take on three fully powered witches on our own. Even though Ellan had taken some serious damage, witches were wiley like that.

“Did I hear someone ask for some help?”

My head jerked in the direction of the voice just in time to see Sam rise over the wall as well, but man, his entrance was so much more than any of the other witches.

I was familiar with his level of power and how he usually felt in my presence, but something was entirely different about him. I could feel a pulsing, dizzying power emanating from him, making the fur of my thick pelt stand on end.

“Who the hell is that?” One of the witches gasped.

“That’s him! That’s the bastard that’s been siphoning from me all day!”

“That’s right,” Sam said, grinning as he floated in the air. That was right about when I noticed that his eyes were glowing a villainous sort of green and… and were those leaves moving around his arms!? “And you’re not getting it back!”

I glanced to Emma and she nodded minutely, letting me know we were both on the same page. Using Sam’s quite good distraction, we lept at the two closest witches, our teeths locking around their necks.

Was it honorable? Probably not. But nothing about what the witches were doing to us was honorable and I was disinclined to take the high ground. Not when it came to them.

Both of the witches went down, gasping and choking as Emma and I didn’t relent. Their b***d spilled across the floor and into our mouths, heady with the kind of powers only witches had. Emma and I would probably be hopped up for quite a while, and not just with the relief of finally having some damn peace.

And that left only Ellan.

“Call the rest of your witches off,” Sam growled, his voice taking on an echo to it that I wasn’t used to. It felt entirely unnatural, almost like a siren’s call, beckoning us closer. Granted, Emma and I knew better, keeping our teeth in the necks of the other two witches until they grew cold.

“Or what, you’ll kill me?”

“Oh no,” Sam said, slowly setting down in front of the bleeding woman. “You’re going to die either way. The only variable is how much ofyour coven dies with you.”

“You get a little hint of true power and suddenly you think that you’re unstoppable?”

I tensed, not sure what to do. Part of me wondered if I should let go of my pray and rush Ellan, but Sam just laughed.

“You know, I always thought I was a small fry who could never be on the level of someone like you. But it turns out that you’re no better than me.” He lifted his head and I swore that there was a sparking ball of green light in it. “You’re just hooked up to a better battery.”

There was a lot of ways that the next moment could have gone, but never, never in a thousand years did I expect hundreds of man-sized tentacles to burst from the ground, covered in torns and whipping this way and that, reaching desperately for anything around them.

For a moment I was sure that Emma and I would be collateral damage, both of us letting go of the dead witches and stepping back. But the vines ignored us entirely, some of them choosing to drag the bodies underground while the rest surrounded Ellan, tying her up in a writhing mass and hanging her upside down.

Had… had we done it?

Shocked with plenty of surrealness, Emma and I both shifted back to humans, cautiously walking to Sam.

“Are you really doing that?” Emma asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, his brow beginning to shine with sweat. “But I am starting to run low. Whatever questions you got for this lady, I suggest you ask them now.”

“What’s a matter, green witch? Your so called battery running low?”

Sam just rolled his eyes. “You know, you’re not really in the position to be snark at anyone.”

“Why? What have I got to lose?”

“…you know, it’s annoying how glib witches are when it’s not me.”

If I let them keep going, the two would keep bantering until Ellan got free or passed out from b***d rushing to her head.

“Why were you all hunting Emma!?”

The witch’s head snapped towards us and she cackled. “Really!? You finally got me all to your grubby little paws and all you want to know is why we went after your little girlfriend?”

Her l!ps curled back on that last part, showing her discuss, and I’d never wanted to slap a woman so hard in my life. “Answer the question!”

“Because my superiors are idiots, that’s why!” Ellan snarled with a surprising amount of heat. “They ordered me to curse her so we could use her oath to your alpha to track members of your pack! But you know what!?”

Emma and I both stared at her. I had to admit, I was confused by both her rage and her levity, her laugh breaking out between strings of spiteful words. “You don’t even have an oath to your alpha, just to your stupid wolf hubby there, because we stole your moonstone before any of you could swear in!

“And our scrying told us that your pack had all taken a b***d oath, which shoudl ahve made tracing them even easier! But apparently you didn’t take it, you bitch! Making you useless, utterly useless!”

I glanced to Emma, actually fairly surprised by it all. “Wait, you didn’t do that, did you?”

“Yeah, there was only time and supplies for someone from each bloodline to do it, and Mahlan was that for mine. We didn’t even think about needing me to do it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ellan asked between truly unchecked peals of mirth. But it wasn’t a happy sound. No, it was bitter and tinged with the kind of madness only someone drunk on dark magic could have. “It wasn’t even purposeful? You guys just accidentally stumbled into subverting all of our plans?”

“Looks like it,” I answered with a shrug.

Maybe it was petty, but it was ever so satisfying to irritate the witch.

“Guys, I realize that you’re probably enjoying some karmic justice,” Sam said, his teeth gritted. “But I can feel her fighting me while she’s talking to you.”

Right. Better get a moveon then.

“Why are you kidnapping so many of our kind? And how are you controlling our packmate? Or that bear shifter!?”

“Questions, questions,” the woman said, still giggling. “If you really cared about that, you should have asked that first.”

Suddenly her entire arm phased through the vines holding her, partially transparent like she was some kind of ghost. Sam let out of a shout and the plants surged to contain her, but more of her started to just phase through the mass.

But it turned out that neither the witch or Sam’s vines were as fast as Emma. My mate leapt into the air, grabbing the witch on either side of her head, and twisting sharply as Emma flipped off of her.

The cracking sound filled the construction yard we were in, and all of the witch’s intangible limbs suddenly went solid. Limp, the vines let her body drop to the ground, where it crumpled.

“Is she-”

I was cut off as her body continued to crack and stiffen. I took a step back, wondering what the hell was happening, before she turned to ash and completely floated away on the wind.

“Witches don’t normally do that, do they?” I asked, looking with concern to Sam.

“Sorry, that’s probably because I drained her pretty thoroughly. Not a great way for witches to go.”

“Oh.”

I felt like far too much had happened in too few seconds, my brain scrambling to keep up. After everything we’d gone through, all the dead ends and high stress, one of our biggest enemies was dead.

Well, one of the biggest enemies that we knew about, that was.

“Theo!”

Suddenly Emma’s arms were around me, but it was a welcome surprise compared to the rest of the day. I knew once we got home we would both be battered and bruised, but that didn’t matter at the moment. Because, for the moment at least, we were safe.

Emma k!ssed me silly, her l!ps all over my face, happy sounds escaping her throat.

“Ellan! Their numbers are overwhelming us!”

Our happy moment paused when another witch came running in, one I’d never seen before. He was a younger man, his head shaved and an interesting tattoo going down the side of his face. Was that… was that his coven mark?

“Oh.”

It was a moment of comedy as his eyes went wide, his feet skittering to a stop as he saw his three dead comrades littered around us. Well, what was left of his comrades. The vines had done a gruesome job with the bodies.

“You’ve killed her!” he cried before his eyes landed on Sam. “You! Traitor!”

“Traitor?” Sam shot back. “You’re betraying all the tenants of good magic and hurting innocent people! You’re the traitors!”

The man looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he just cursed and fled. Maybe we would have laughed at the timing of it all if we weren’t so damn exhausted. But as it were, I was just relieved that finally, finally it was over. Or at least this little section of our mystery was over.

“How’s your side?” Emma asked, returning to k!ssing all over my face.

“Sore, but fine,” I said, interrupting her k!sses by nearly crushing her in my own hug. But it ws a good crush, one that actually did make her laugh. “You were amazing out there.”

“So were you,” she whispered, looking at me like I was the center of her world. I didn’t think she’d ever glanced at me like that. “Theo, I need to tell you something.”

What? Was she greviously wounded!? Had she been cursed again while I was knocked out of the battle? What new and horrible thing had happened to us?

“Yeah?” I asked, knowing my voice sounded strained and unable to do anything about it.

“I love you.”

…what?

I stared at her, eyes wider than they had been the whole battle. Had she just- no, she couldn’t have! But… but I swore she did!

“I love you so much, Theo, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know our circumstances weren’t ideal, but you know what? I’m okay with them because they brought us together. And honestly, I think we were meant to be in a way I was too stubborn to ever realize.”

My heart pounded so hard in my chest that I knew she could hear it, and likely all the other wolves that were in our guard. My b***d was rushing in my ears, making it impossible to hear, and yet I clung to every word that she said, knowing I would treasure it for the rest of my life.

Emma loved me? Emma loved me!?

It was more than I could ever hope for, more than I’d ever dared to dream of. I’d been pining for Emma for years and I’d assumed she’d always be out of touch. Even in the insane circumstances with which we were mated, I’d come to terms with her never truly loving me and just settling with what happened.

But no, Emma was in front of me, looking at me with genuine care and affection, confessing her love for me.

“I want to move into that giant lake house with you. I want to have kids. I want to run under the full moon with you, argue with you, make up with you, live my life with you! You complete me in a way I never knew I needed, and I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you.”

I couldn’t resist any longer. I k!ssed her for all that I was worth, hoping she could feel every ounce of passion and adoration I had for her. Because I was in love too. Deeper and truer than I had ever been in my entire life.

“Are you certain?” I asked breathlessly when our l!ps broke away from each other for just a moment.

“Without a doubt,” she said, smiling up at me with that gorgeous grin of hers. Naturally, I had to k!ss her again. And maybe a third time too. Pretty much I just held onto her, wanting to cry from both happiness and shock, until Sam cleared his throat yet again.

“Hey, I hate to breakup a happily ever after, but perhaps we should check on the others, yeah?”

Emma and I parted, but she still held onto my hand. It was hard for my mind not to slip into imagining our future together. Once we were safe at our home, I was going to let my mind go on whatever daydream bender it wanted.

“Yeah, we should.”

The three of us walked out of the construction yard, me limping slightly and Sam swaying a bit. I eyed him, but he just made a shrugging motion. Me and him were going to need to have a conversation about his sudden influx of powers and apparent draining of Ellan, but that could come later. Maybe after like a week of sleep.

The street was an absolute mess. Cars were upturned and destroyed everywhere, there were puddles of unknown liquid, fire damage, and who knew what else. It was like the apocalypse happened on the block and I knew that we would once again be making the news.

Unless the council stepped in, that was. Which I couldn’t imagine them not doing considering the mess we made. Oh well, if any punishment came down, it would ultimately fall on Mahlan’s shoulders for not contacting them in the first place. Not that I wanted my best friend to get in trouble, but maybe a little ‘I told you so’ would do him well.

Theo! I recognized Ricky’s wolf as he trotted up to me, b***d all around his muzzle. The three witches out here suddenly fled. Did that have anything to do with you?

I nodded. “Ellan was likely their leader and when she died, they felt the shift in battle. You lot should get out of here before the news crews rush in.”

Of course, sir. Will our guys on the force take care of the bodies?

“They should. Anything I should tell them?”

The large wolf shook his head. No. But sir…

“Yes?”

The shifters ran with them. We couldn’t get through to either of them.

There was a pang in my chest at that, but I wasn’t entirely surprised. “Thank you for telling me. I’m sure we’ll be seeing them again.”

I hope so, sir. I know that looked like our guy, but there was something wrong with him. It was like he wasn’t even there. I know he didn’t recognize me.

“I got the same impression. But we’ll worry about it later. For now, let’s go home and lick our wounds.”

Yes sir!

Ricky howled to the rest of the guards and they ran off, disappearing through different allies. As for Emma and I, we both looked to Sam, who winked at us.

“So, need a lift?”

We shared a chuckle and he led us to a car that was surprisingly not a moped. I didn’t know how he’d gotten another vehicle, but I wasn’t really in the mood to ask.

Life grew somewhat surreal as we both slid into his car and he started to drive us home. Like I was dreaming and I would wake up with everything still being up in the air. But before I could feel too untethered, Emma took my hand.

“We did it,” she whispered, looking so incredibly proud of me.

“We did.” I agreed.

“I’m so thankful that you’re my mate. I hope you know that. And now that we’ve mostly dealt with the people trying to murder me, you’re stuck with me forever.”

I leaned over and k!ssed her for maybe the dozenth time that day, as soft and sweet as I could. “I’ve loved you for so long, and ya know, I’m beginning to think that forever may not be enough.”

She grinned up at me, those beautiful eyes of hers framed by her thick lashes. I could stare into her gaze for ages and not grow bored. “We’ll do our best then.”

“For you? Always.”

We leaned against each other, fully in the moment, until Sam called back to us. “Hey, did your wrist clear up?”

“Oh! I completely forgot!”

Emma pulled her arm from where it was wedged between the two of us and looked at her wrist, which was indeed bare of that awful circle that had been weighing us down for the past few weeks.

“It’s gone!”

“Thank God!” I said, bending down and k!ssing her pack brand as well. And once we got her home, I was probably gonna k!ss her everywhere else too. “We really are rid of them.”

“For now,” she said, heaving a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, for now.”