Willow nods. “You guys go ahead. I'll manage. Actually…” she turns to the two lovebirds still hanging by the chair. “Rissa, you guys can go, too. Thane and I will clear up once we're done here.”
“Sure,” Brooks smirks and tosses Willow a wink. “I think she gets it.”
“Of course she gets it,” Rissa muses as she slaps a playful hand against Brooks's chest.
As soon as everyone has left the witches’ room, and it's just Willow and me, I turn to her with a cocksure smirk.
“So…was that a plan to get some much-needed alone time?”
Willow giggles, pointing me to the chair. “Maybe. Or maybe I don't want you to get embarrassed in front of the others if you're anything like Brooks.”
“Pfft!” I scoff as I take a seat on the chair in front of her. “You really think I'd be afraid of a needle?”
“I don't know,” she shrugs as she ties the strap around my bicep. “What could the great alpha Thane Savage possibly be afraid of?”
Willow leans forward, holding the needle in one hand with an alcohol swab in the other. Our eyes meet, and she pauses, our breaths catching at the same time.
“I think I might be somewhat like Brooks,” I whisper measuredly, and Willow arches a brow.
“How so?”
“I don't wanna keep my hands to myself right now…”
Willow's breath catches for a heated second as she stares deeply into my eyes, that breath escaping with a whispered, “Thane….”
“Willow….”
I'm about to reach for her face to pull her in for a kiss when suddenly, she snaps up straight, her eyes turning a regal shade of iridescent gold as she stares past my head.
“Willow…?” I whisper in the softest tone, drawing my hand back slowly because I know what this is, and I don't want to risk snapping her out of her vision before she sees what she needs to see.
Maybe she'll have a vision that'll help us understand what needs to be done with the potion that's brewing on the gas burner.
But while I watch her frozen in her trance, I can't help but be fascinated by this creature, this witch, who now occupies every corner of my heart.
If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I love Willow Barker, and I can't wait to find the right opportunity to tell her my feelings.
It'll have to be special.
As special as she is.
Chapter 22 - Willow
I'm back in the woods, orange and ruby flickers of light cracking the air in front of my face, and Rissa smiles at me warmly.
I gasp as I lift my hands, seeing my veins ignited with gold pulses of light, my magic stirring awake.
Without thinking it through, I step forward just as Dawson emerges from somewhere behind the trees. When I look up, I notice the full moon glowing above us, casting its silver light on our surroundings.
Dawson is carrying something—the cauldron—and a tap on my shoulder has me glancing back. It's Thane, holding out a bag of the herbs toward me.
“You got this, Willow,” he says, his reassurance prompting me to take the bag and empty out the contents into the cauldron that Dawson has since placed over the fire.
Aurora stirs the pot, the herbs and plants mixing with the moon water before she adds the last key ingredient—alpha blood.
A combination of the blood of all four alphas of the Snehvolk pack is poured into the mixture, a cloud of white smoke curling upward as Yvonne steps forward, her arms held out to the sides.
Yvonne chants, calling on the honor of the moon that glows above our heads, the Moon Goddess who created our beings, and our ancestors who came before us.
