Sage walked out into the garden.Will followed, sniffing the air.The wandering pond seemed to be at the far edge of the property.This close, he could tell Sage smelled like it.
How did he fall into the pond?Did the pond move again?
Sage walked to a patch of the garden claimed by orange and purple snapdragons.He carefully moved the flowers away and picked at a hunk of moss that had covered what Will now saw was a flat, round stone, about the size of a dinner plate.Sage put his hand on the stone, fingers splayed.
“Okay, let’s make you a little more unwelcoming, shall we?”
“You are the stone of hearth and home,
you are the Verts’ witch’s stone.
I call your binds and spells and wards
and bid you bind them heavenwards.
Bind double fast and double tight,
ward against each beast in sight,
who might—at will or wicked wish—
come with intent quite devilish.
Stone of earth and heaven cast,
may your spells forever last.
Keep out all harm to mine and ours,
at all the day’s four-and-twenty hours.”
Will felt the magic readjust and settle into place, like a pressure shift not heard, but felt in the ear.His spell done, Sage got back up and brushed his hands clean on his wet pants.
“Okay.I need to change.”Will yipped.“Yeah, you like that, don’t you?So funny.C’mon, you have blood in your fur.We could both do with a shower, I guess.”
In Will’s opinion, what he needed was to crawl into Sage’s bed and under the covers with him so they could cuddle until morning.Will had very nearly lost Sage, and he wanted to be close to him now, not least because Carl was apparently just waiting in the wings.
But Will could shower, especially if it meant Sage would shampoo him and shower with him.Will was pretty sure he could sneak some more licking in as well.
17
Will
Willcamebackintohis human form early.He could still feel the moon in the sky, nowhere near sinking back below the horizon, and he wondered about that, but only for the time it took Sage to turn in his half-sleep and drape an arm around Will’s human-shaped middle.
While Sage was still sleepy, Will was fully awake, the skin-on-skin contact setting his nerve endings on fire, and not in a bad way.My mate, Will thought.Safe, he thought.He wasn’t deep in the haze of the wolf’s mind.Instead, he and the wolf seemed to be on the same page.
Will turned Sage on his back in the predawn semi-dark of the bedroom.It was around four in the morning, and the witch just wasn’t good when it came to early mornings, but Will was going to make waking up worth it for him.
Sage smelled good.Will straddled him, sniffing his neck and kissing him until he finally stirred, lifted his hands, and marked Will’s back with warm palms.
“’S so early.”Sage was barely able to blink his eyes open.
“I’ll wake you up.”
“You got hurt.And also you did magic in your wolf form.”
“Did I?”
