Page 4 of Wolfsbane

Or, like, move on. That was an option too.

Looking around, the idea that Mother had relied on a bunch of werewolves who lived out in the woods in shacks that didn’t even have electricity was the absurd part, not that they’d failed.

Mother didn’t respond right away, just crossed her own arms and sighed like she had when I’d been younger and asked too many questions, like she was more put-upon than anyone had ever been.

“Fine. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. He always was useless.” She pursed her lips and tapped her toe. “Well?”

“Well what?” Aleks demanded. “You worked with Grant. Grant is dead. Deal is over. Wildwood is no longer interested in alliance.”

I grimaced and stepped back to fiddle with the door handle on the car. Someone else could stand at her side. Preferably, someone with magic, because mine hadn’t been awakened yet. My role was chauffeur; I wasn’t a fighter. Of course, Mother wasn’t going to take any smart mouthing from a werewolf, so someone who could sling a spell or two would serve her better anyway.

“You listen here, you little upstart. Grant and I had a deal. Blood oaths were made. Your little pack of ragamuffins owes me a witchwolf. I. Am. Owed.”

It took effort not to flinch at the hardness in her voice, but Aleks merely stalked closer to her. His expression was every bit as hard and angry as hers was. “Grant is dead. Deal is over. You have blood oath? His blood is spilled. Absorbed into the earth and gone.”

“You’re his blood,” Mother said, leaning toward him too. “His nephew. If he’s gone, then the oath transfers to you.”

Aleks scoffed. “Grant betrayed Wildwood in favor of you. In favor of selfishness. We do not claim him. This pack follows me because I offer them change. I am alpha because they accept me. Not because of blood. Grant was no family of mine. His line is dead. Blood oath is meaningless.”

Mother stumbled back, and Kate and Tristan caught her while I stared. She was bleeding. Her skin split by the surety in Aleks. And there I was, standing still and useless, horrified and impressed and⁠—

Fuck, she was casting.

Maybe I’d never cast a spell of my own, but I knew the shape of one. Her spell lashed out at the new Wildwood alpha, but another jumped in front of him. This one was large and lean and wild looking, with long hair that fell out of place with the force of the magical impact. The alpha caught him before he could fall.

And when the spell hit his chest, I felt it too.

It was like a magical tornado ripped open the space between that werewolf and me. It tore something from me and pummeled me with the broadside of a flying barn.

But it was invisible to all. There wasn’t even a breeze to tell what Mother had done. Only I knew that it had changed something—something in me.

At the provocation, the werewolves attacked.

I rushed to shut the door behind me when I threw myself in on the driver’s side, and Mother got in too. Tristan had to help her into the passenger’s seat before he and Kate got in the back.

Then we took off, the others driving behind us too close, knowing that none of us would hit the brakes until we were well free of the wolves.

They snapped their jaws at us, running beside our tires until we were far from the center of their community, and as soon as we were free of them, I shoved my foot onto the brake. It was something of a miracle that Destiny didn’t hit our back bumper.

Gravel crunched beneath our tires as we stopped. If the wolves were still chasing us, what were they going to do, rip the door off its hinges and drag us out into the dirt to tear us apart? Not a chance.

If the werewolves wanted us dead, they had plenty of opportunity and justification to see it finished.

They wanted us gone, which was an entirely different thing.

“What are you doing?” Mother snipped, turning my way with pale, narrowed lips and a sharp glare. “Move.”

“No. I’m not going another inch until you tell me what you just did to me.”

Her eyes narrowed, her lashes inky black and covering the whites at the outer edges. “I did nothing to you,” she sneered.

I gripped the steering wheel hard enough that my knuckles went white and kept my gaze level, straight out the windshield, like if I met her eyes I’d fall into a trap and lose my grip on what was true. No matter what she said, I wasn’t making it up. She couldn’t just lie to me and expect me to buy it.

“Bullshit. I felt it. Your spell hit the wolf, and it hit me, so what the fuck did you do?”

I knew from the first syllable that I’d messed up. Kate and Tristan behind us were completely still. Mother’s lip curled. By my second curse word, her fingers rippled through the air.

A tug of magic, and all the air in the car was gone.