Mona drops her head to the ground, then sits back and turns to face me. Large, dusky pink nipples tip full, round breasts. I force my gaze up, and she's scowling.
I toss her the shirt I tore off earlier. She slips it on and comes to a stand. I try to clear my throat, but all it does is draw her attention downward. There's no hiding my erection, so I don't even bother.
"What happened out there?" I ask.
She shakes her head and turns back toward where we came from. "I don't know. We were playing. Drinking water from the stream. And then…"
Her voice trails off, and she takes a step closer to the forest.
"We're not going back there. They can handle it. Kellen said it was witches?"
There's a reason we patrol so diligently. Our enforcers are constantly running perimeter checks, ready for anything.
So, how in the fuck did witches get on our land? So close to the heart of our clan?
Mona turns back to me. She looks stunned. I tilt my head toward the cabin. "Come on, let's get you inside. I'll call Doc. You still smell like magic."
"It's on me?" she shrieks.
My t-shirt hangs loose on her slight frame, shifting with her movements as she twists around, frantically trying to inspect herself. The hem barely covers her ass cheeks. I step closer and steady her with my hands on her shoulders.
"It's not on you. They couldn't have spelled you, not that quickly. Magic is… it takes effort, and usually a group. Witches have elemental power—they can start a fire, conjure wind, that sort of thing. But to spell someone, especially a shifter, it takes aconcentrated effort. In the time it took for me to feel you joining our clan and Kellen and Eli's howls alerting us to trouble, they couldn't have spelled you."
She whimpers but keeps patting her sides, like there's something invisible stuck to her. Then she looks up at me, her big, bright blue eyes wild with worry. "But you said I smell like magic," she chokes out.
I shake my head. "Spells and compulsions take time—more than they had. You smell like magic, but they would have needed more time for it to be effective. Doesn't mean they didn't try. You're okay, I promise. But come on, let's get you to Doc. He'll check to be sure."
She hesitates, eyes darting back toward the forest's edge, but finally relents, sliding her fingers into mine.
We walk around the side of the house toward the front, and when we get inside, I say, "I'm going to call Doc, have him look you over."
She waves me off. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt." I'm relieved to hear her earlier worries have eased, but I'm not taking any chances.
"And the blood?"
She frowns and looks at her arms. There's a faint streak of red, hard to see with the dirt and freckled skin, but I can smell it. "Oh, that. Eli bit me."
"Hewhat?"
"To scare me, I think." She grins wide, and her lovely face lights up, blue eyes sparkling. "It worked!"
I let out a strangled laugh and try to temper my irritation. "I'm glad it worked, firefly. But tell me again how he bit you?"
"Don't be like that. I mean, Grayson's methods aren't conventional, sure. But it worked! We got our shift down to like two minutes. And Beep thinks she's figured out what's wrong with us."
I hold the door open, and she steps in, barefoot, heading to the kitchen. I follow, unable to pull my eyes from her ass, the tiniest amount of cheek peeking out beneath my oversized t-shirt with each step she takes.
"And what does Beep think is wrong?"
"Is it weird that I'm really hungry?" She asks without answering. I shake my head no. "Ravenous, actually. Is that the shifting or the magic?"
I lean into her, inhaling the pulse point on her neck. She shivers, and I smile and step back. "Either. Wolves are always hungry."
She chews on her lip and looks out toward the direction of the forest.
"They're fine, Mona. You haven't been here long, so we haven't had a chance to show you, but our enforcers are some of the strongest in the world. They're okay, I promise," I reassure her. She nods, some of the tension leaving her shoulders.
She doesn't ask: if they are amongst the strongest in the world, how did a witch get past our borders? They took Lily when she was at work, further down the mountain, closer to the humans, where we don't patrol as much. But they never should have made it this far onto our land.
