Chapter 4

Kane's POV:

I’ve managed to avoid Willow for a week now, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It helps that I am barely home. I have had one meeting after the other with two Alphas that are threatening to go to war with each other, and today we’ve finally reached a somewhat precarious agreement. It is bad enough when rural wolves go to war, but when those living in the cities do it they tend to attract the humans’ attention. It never ends well.

At night, I lie in my living room, listening to her bustling around Mildred’s apartment, doing Goddess knows what. I never see her leave, though I do see delivery drivers come by at least once a day with food. Her diet is slightly concerning – she appears to live on pizza and burgers.

I park in the basement garage, dropping my head on the steering wheel. The prospect of going upstairs is daunting. Every time I do, her scent calls out to me, and it’s driving my wolf, Dario, nuts. Night after night, I have to fight with him, have to fight with myself, and I don’t know how much longer I can resist. More than once, I’ve regretted my invitation to Willow.

At last, I manage to drag myself from the car and make my way to my ultra-modern penthouse, which contrasted so starkly with Mildred’s. Her lifestyle was rather basic. As she put it to me once, “All I need is indoor plumbing, the rest is just a lovely cherry on top.”

I smile at her memory. I miss her so much. She was the only person I could be myself with. No one knew me better, understood me better, than Mildred. The smell of blood and pain hits me when the elevator doors open. My wolf growls and gets ready to attack.

No, not again.

My mind goes blank, and I have only one goal. Getting to Willow. I run across the foyer to her apartment. The door is slightly ajar, and without any regard for my own safety, I rush down the hallway to the living room.  

The first thing I see is Willow lying on the floor, curled in a little ball, her clothes torn, blood pooling under her. A man of maybe fifty is towering over her. “What’s going on here?” I ask, keeping my voice calm and even, despite the fact that I want to tear his throat out.

The man turns to look at me. He has Willow’s green eyes and auburn hair, but the resemblance ends there. His eyes are hard and cold, his lips set in a thin, cruel line. “Get lost, wolf,” he snaps at me.

“No, I don’t think so. This is my property. I’m not going anywhere.”

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“Yeah, but it does. Anything that happens under my roof concerns me--” I spread my arms open --“and this is my roof.”

“No wolf has a right to interfere in witch business,” he hisses stubbornly.

“Except when that witch business happens on his territory,” I growl. I'm not nearly as afraid as I should be – I have heard about Daniel Jones, know how dangerous he is, but he’s hurting my mate and the last thing I care about is my own safety.

The air around us starts crackling, grows thick with his magic. He narrows his eyes. “This is your last warning.”

I lift and drop one shoulder, giving him a mocking smile. “Go right ahead. Coven master or not, I don’t think the council will look too kindly on you if you use an unauthorised killing spell--” Jones doesn’t look so confident anymore --“I wonder what they’ll do to the witch that starts a war with the werewolves because he killed their king.”

The air clears, and I can breathe a little easier. It will be so easy to kill him. When he’s not using magic, Daniel Jones is just another human, but I don’t think my tribe elders would look too kindly on me either if I start a war with the witches.

“Two weeks Willow,” he says. “I’ll grant you two weeks. Then you will come home, or so help me Gods, daughter or not, I will have you burned at the stake.”

Her long, curly hair, wet with blood, obscures her face, but I can hear a muffled, “Yes, father.”

Jones pushes past me without another word. “Kill him,” Dario says. “He hurt our mate.”

“No. We’ll start a war.”

He growls his disapproval at my decision, but I ignore him. I wait until I hear the ding of the elevator before I kneel next to Willow to inspect her injuries. Mildred told me about Crystal Rose’s brutal tactics, but it’s still a shock to see him do it to his own child.

She moans softly when I move the messy hair out of her face. I bite back a groan when I see the black and blue bruises covering her skin, but I can’t stop the deep rumble that erupts in my chest. When I touch her, she gasps and tries to get away from me, but she doesn’t get far. Instead, she curls into a little ball and hugs her knees to her chest. It’s a pitiful sight.

“It’s okay, baby,” I soothe, “I won’t hurt you. Let me see.” She uncurls herself and lets me inspect her. Every bit of exposed skin is discoloured with bruises, but I can’t find any open wounds that account for the blood on the floor. “Where are you bleeding?” I ask.

“I’m not.”

“Willow, there’s blood everywhere.”

“Yes,” she croaks. “He likes that one.”

She is hurting too much to talk, and I don’t want to cause her more pain, so I don’t push her. “Do we need to take a little trip to the hospital?”

“No. I’ll be okay in a few hours.”

Hours? “I can get our pack doctor--”

“To treat a witch’s magical injuries?”

Yeah, no, that’s a bad idea. “Then what do you need? What can I do?”

“There’s nothing you can do. The magic he used…it’s designed to inflict a lot of pain, but it heals fast…that way he can stretch out the torture.”

Sweet Goddess. Not that werewolves are saints by any means, but I don’t know a single wolf that would do something like that to his daughter. “There is one thing I can do.” Without asking her permission, I pick her up and carry her to the bedrooms. “Where do you sleep? Mildred’s old bedroom?”

“No…I can’t stand it. The guestroom.”

I know how she feels. I can’t handle the idea of going in there either. I kick open her bedroom door, feeling the repelling magic she cast on the room, but it doesn’t affect me. “What are you doing?” she asks.

“You are going to sleep in my arms. It will ease the pain and speed up the healing.”

“I don’t think that will work.”

“It will. Do you always have to be so stubborn?”

“Yes,” she says and gives me a watery smile. “Aunt Mildred used to say I’m made up of two parts stubborn and one part stupid.”

“You’re not stupid,” I say as I lay her down on the bed, and kick off my shoes.

“I am. I never learn my lesson.”

“Come here,” I pull her against me.

It feels good holding her in my arms. Too good. I am playing with serious fire here, tempting Dario and myself like this, but I can’t stand the thought of her suffering. Staring into her eyes, I trace the outline of her face with my finger, then kiss each eyelid closed.

“I’m all bloody,” she mumbles.

“Blood washes off. Go to sleep.”

I’ve had a long day and several sleepless nights. Her close presence relaxes me, and without meaning to, I fall asleep soon after she does. I awake sometime in the middle of the night with a raging hard-on and Dario screaming that he wants his mate.

Willow is awake, staring at me. All the emotions and desires I’m feeling are swirling in her eyes. Smiling, she lays her hand on my cheek and snuggles deeper into me, pressing herself tightly against my chest. My heart is beating so fast that I can barely breathe, and all I really want to do is mark her and claim her as mine.

I wait until she falls asleep again, before extracting myself from her arms. As quietly as I can, I roll off the bed and sneak out of the bedroom. “No!” Dario says. “Where are you going?”

“We have to leave. It’s too difficult being this close to her.”

“But she is our mate.”

I don’t answer him. There’s no way I can make him understand why we can’t be with Willow.

I can’t do it. I can’t be this close to her, knowing I can’t have her. It’s too much. The Goddess is asking too much of me.

After taking a quick shower, I decide that it’s time to cut my visit short and head back home. When I come back in two months to check on my family’s business interests and my city packs’ wellbeing, she should be gone. Things will get easier once I’ve put some distance between us.