I landed against a canvas bag of potatoes with a groan.
“I seriously hate Declan,” I muttered, climbing to my feet. I scanned the smoky space, trying to locate the three females, and Honor bounded over to where we kept the potatoes. “Elaine? Lona? How are you—?”
“Honor!” Elaine shouted and then burst into sobs. The smoke cleared enough for me to see the black wolf nuzzling her.
Emotion tugged at my heart, a sharp contrast to the anger I held for Declan.A mother knows her child, no matter what.
‘My mom!’Rage yelled, yanking me from the warm fuzzies.‘Get that curse off my mom so I can kill Declan.’
‘One hundred percent behind you on that. Almost died. I’m on it now.’I strode toward Elaine, pausing only long enough to grab the wire cutters sitting next to a basket of butternut squash. I snipped the zip-tie from Elaine’s ankles and then grabbed her hands, “Tell me about the spell Surlama did.”
“You’re naked,” Elaine said, gasping and wide-eyed, looking from me to Honor before breaking into another sob.
Nudity wasn’tthatbig of a deal among wolves though most learned how to better manage their modesty by my age. Yet, here I stood, butt-naked in front of my future mother-in-law.
‘She’s in shock,’Honor said, stepping to my side.
Because, really, what else could go wrong?
I nodded and clipped the second binding to free her hands. “The spell?”
Elaine just continued to cry. I think seeing her once-burned son back, in the flesh, had broken her.Was there better etiquette for this kind of situation? Because I wanted to shake her.
“Nai Crescent!” Lona scolded. “How dare you run around naked in front of guests? Callie, give her your jacket.”
My gaze jumped to my bestie Callie, who shucked off her jacket like she’d done it a million times for me.
“Sorry the zipper’s broke,” she said with a half-smile.
“And put on those pants,” Lona said with a huff, indicating a pair of jeans that sat atop a donations bag in the corner of the room. I crossed the room quickly, slipping into the jacket and pants. Then, I handed Callie the wire cutters so she could free Lona.
“Are you okay?” Callie asked.
“No. Not at all.” In fact, I was so many levelspastokay. “But good to see you, girl. We need to catch up. Later.”
Right now, I needed to save my shocked future MIL.
As I returned to Elaine, I saw a dark green smudge—the same color as the mist Surlama had attacked me with—right over Elaine’s heart. In fact … the smudge was darkest over her heart, but a fine mist webbing covered her entire being, both human and wolf.
Keeping my eye trained on the sickly green smudge over Elaine’s chest, I pointed at it. “Can you wipe that away?”
She looked at me, perplexed.
‘What is that?’Honor asked, cocking his head to the side as he stepped closer to his mother.
So he could see it too? Interesting.
“Bite me,” I commanded and then held out my arm to Honor.
‘What?’He cocked his head to the side. ‘No.’
My gaze landed on my father’s pruning shears, and I scooped them up as Elaine’s eyes widened.
‘I see the magic spell—maybe my blood can heal it.’I hoped. ‘Grandpa’s not back, so it’s worth a try,’ Itold Honor.
Dragging the sharp edge of the shears over the fleshy part of my hand, I pushed hard enough so the wound wouldn’t heal right away. Pain seared my palm, and I winced.
‘You’re going to rub blood on my mom?’Honor watched as I massaged my palm to get the blood flowing. ‘She’s … not so good with blood.’
