Chapter 3

You can’t avoid werewolves when you’re a witch. From a young age, they teach us to hate and fear them, but what they don’t tell you is how to handle it when you are fated to one. I can’t be the first witch this has happened to. There must be some kind of record out there somewhere. Maybe there’s a spell I can use that will break this bond thing between us…something that will spare us both.

I don’t go back to my aunt’s flat. Instead, I run from the building, ignoring the waiting elevator, running down the five flights of stairs, and breathless I sprint out onto the beach. Taking my sandals off mid-run, I dash into the surf and dive into the freezing water, trying my best to get the image of Kane out of my head. I want to wash the way he makes me feel out of my body.

I come up for air, dive under a wave, and keep swimming. There must be something. Something. Anything. My mind is reeling, going over a thousand spells I’ve memorised over the years. I know a few that can kill werewolves, one that will interrupt their shift or trap them in their human form, and a particularly brutal spell that will rip the wolf from his body. Maybe that one will work. No werewolf, no mate bond right?

My limbs are numb from the cold, and my chest aches. I turn around to swim back and my heart sinks. I am too far out. How did I get this deep so fast? Did I swim this far without knowing it? How is that possible? As if to answer me, a wave lifts me and carries me towards the beach, but almost immediately a current pulls me back out, deeper into the ocean. I swim forward, trying to pull myself out, but can’t.

Shit.

Nevermind Kane. I’m going to die tonight. That will solve all my problems. I forget everything I know as the panic grips me. I forget the lessons Aunt Mildred taught me about how to swim out of a rip current. I forget every magic spell I’ve ever learned – not that I think I can magic my way out of this one.

I flip onto my back and stare up into the night sky. Maybe, if I’m lucky, a shark will eat me and it will be over quickly. I’ve always feared drowning. But this is what I get. It’s karma coming to bite me in the ass.

I have almost made peace with the fact that this is my end, when Kane breathes next to me. “What are you doing?”

Surprised, I turn my head to look at him and sink under the surface, I inhale and swallow about a gallon of saltwater, before I feel something tugging on my ponytail, dragging me back to the surface. Spluttering and wheezing, terrified, and panicking, I wrap my arms around his neck. Pressing myself against his warm body, I tentacle my legs around his waist. “Stop it,” he commands. “You’ll drown us both.”

His warning doesn’t sink in. If I let him go, I’ll drown. Why does he want me to let go? Does he want me to die? Does he hate the idea of me that much? I just hold on tighter, still trying to cough water out of my lungs.

“Willow!” he barks. “I’ll get you out, but you have to let go.”

Finally, my mind clears and the more rational part of my brain kicks in. He wouldn’t have taken the time to swim all the way out here if he wanted me to drown. I relax my death grip on his neck, and let go of his waist. “Sorry,” I wheeze. “I can swim. You just startled me.”

“You are already tired and too far out to swim back. Didn’t you hear me calling to you?”

“No,” I say through gasps of air.

“Okay, come on, we are going sideways, out of the rip current.”

He puts his arm over my chest and flips onto his back, bringing me with him. I lie back with my head on his shoulder. Closing my eyes, I feel myself relax. I let him swim me out of the current, giving me time to catch my breath. Halfway back to the beach, I try to stop him. “I can swim from here.”

He either doesn’t hear, or doesn’t care, he just keeps swimming. When I try to slip free of his grip, he tightens his hold on me. “Quit it,” he growls.

Giving it up as a futile fight, I watch the stars glide by, enjoying the way the cold water washes over me, the enjoyable difference between his unnaturally warm body and the freezing ocean. I can get used to this, I really can. I can imagine my life with him. No worries, no pain or fear, no little fledglings crying out in the night. I shudder, and he loses his grip. I take the chance to break away from him.

It’s a fool’s fantasy anyway. He doesn’t want me, and even if he did…no one’s life is ever free of concern and sadness. No one is ever truly happy.

He doesn’t try to stop me this time, but he stays by my side, even though he’s a much stronger swimmer, until the waves spit us back out on the beach. I fall on the soft sand, rolling over, staring up at the black sky.

Kane kneels next to me, a frown between his eyes, disapproval on his face. He rakes his fingers through his wet hair, smoothing it out of his face, and looking for all he’s worth like a model in a cologne advertisement. “That was stupid Willow.”

“No one asked you to interfere.”

“You would have drowned if I didn’t. What were you doing, just floating there? You were almost out in the open ocean. You’re lucky I saw you.”

“Why do you care?”

“You’re my…” he bites off his words. “You know, most people are grateful after someone saves their life.”

“I wasn’t dying.”

“Fuck, you’re stubborn,” he swears and gets up.

He starts gathering his scattered clothes, looks at me, opens his mouth as if to say something, then shakes his head, and pulls his trousers on over his wet boxer briefs. He’s a remarkable sight. A god of a man. Every perfectly cut muscle glimmers enticingly in the moonlight.

He leaves me on the beach and starts trudging back up to the complex. I roll over onto my stomach and push myself onto all fours. Even though it’s right on the edge of the beach, the penthouse seems very far away, and I am exhausted. My lungs burn from the inhaled seawater, and my limbs are led-heavy.

Halfway up the beach, Kane stops, drops his head as if considering something, sighs, and turns back. “Come on,” he says, “upsy daisy.” With one fluid movement, he scoops me into his arms like a proper movie-perfect hero.

Where does he get the energy and strength from? I know werewolves have remarkable stamina, but even he has to be tired after that swim. “I can walk,” I mumble defiantly. “I just need to catch my breath.”

He snorts loudly and keeps going, carrying me up the beach, not saying a word until he deposits me back in front of Aunt Mildred’s apartment. “Lock your door,” he says, “it’s generally safe here, but…you never know.”

He’s thinking about my aunt’s killer. “Sure.”

“I have good hearing, if you’re in trouble--”

“I’m not your concern, Kane. You said so.”

“It doesn’t mean I want you to die…if you die it would--”

“Oh right, hurt you. That’s what it’s all about, right? You and your fragile feelings.”

“No, I really--”

I step inside the pink palace and slam the door in his face before he can finish his sentence, making sure to lock the door behind me.

Tired as I am, I go to Aunt Mildred’s magic room before I go to bed. I root around her baskets of crystals, talismans, and potions until I find what I’m looking for. Silver. A lot of it. My aunt didn’t trust the wolves after all. I can feel the magic she cast on the various silver items.

Picking up a long, thick silver chain, I go to the guestroom. I just don’t feel right sleeping in her bed, and wrap the chain around the doorknob, before locking this door too.

The silver, combined with the magic, creates an effective shield against the wolves. I don’t know if it will work against a shifter as strong as Kane, but he’s not the one that scares me. Without bothering to change out of my wet dress, I stumble to the bed and crash on it.

I didn’t just come here for my inheritance. I don’t need it. I came to find out what happened to my aunt, and now that I know she was murdered, as I suspected all along, I plan on tracking down her killer…and when I find him, he will pay for what he’d done.