Chapter 6
Henry
He didn’t know why she looked so surprised when he asked about her coven, but for some reason the witch’s face lost all color and she started wobbling like a toddler on unsteady legs. He frowned more are she tried to square off against him and wound up for a hell of a diatribe, if she was anything like the other witch he knew, but the witch didn’t get more than a deep breath into it before her eyes rolled back and she crumpled.
Henry jumped forward to catch her, since Sasha was a bit too far away and Henry’s wolf side didn’t want the bear anywhere near her, and managed to keep her from hitting the floor. He maneuvered the girl around so her face wasn’t smooshed against his chest, and carefully put her in the chair she’d been hiding behind. He kept her upright with a hand on her shoulder, and glanced at Sunny. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s probably in shock,” the very pregnant woman said. She studied him coolly, both hands on her belly, and apparently didn’t like what she saw. “Why were you chasing her, hero?”
He really didn’t like the bears or their mates. They were confrontational and aggressive for no reason. And with Sasha standing there, looking murderous at having another male in the presence of his mate, Henry couldn’t say what he really wanted to say to the human woman. “I needed to find out why she was on our territory. That’s it.”
Sunny didn’t believe him, that was for sure, but luckily for Henry, the witch stirred and sucked in a breath as she straightened up in the chair. Sunny smiled at her and offered a bottle of water to drink. “It’s okay, Ophelia. Deep breaths. Have you not…heard any of this before?”
Henry couldn’t move from standing next to the witch; for some reason, he didn’t want to stop touching her shoulder. Instead of the terrifying shocks of earlier, her skin resonated with a slight electric charge—just less than static, but enough that the wolf noticed and took interest. He hadn’t gotten that sense on the few occasions that he’d hugged Deirdre, and wondered whether it was something unique to the witch in front of him.
The girl—Ophelia—took a shaky breath and covered her face. “You guys are freaking me out. I don’t…I’ve never seen anyone…do what he did. Ever. I didn’t even know it was possible. I’d heard stories, of course, but figured they were just that—stories. Are you saying… None of you seem surprised by calling me a witch. Are there a lot of witches around here?”
Her voice got soft, like she was afraid of drawing attention to herself, and Henry swallowed an immediate barrage of questions about who she was actually running from. He reluctantly released her shoulder so he could take a seat in one of the spare chairs across from her, not wanting to loom over her like an uncouth bear. “There are some. One is mated to the alpha of my pack. That’s how I recognized what you are when you…stood up to the coyotes.”
“Mated… to the alpha… of your pack…” she repeated slowly, gaze fixed on him like she had to translate from a foreign language.
His patience started to dissipate, even for someone who smelled as enchanting as she did. “Yeah. Her name is Deirdre. Do you know her?”
The witch just kept staring at him. “No. We’re not like a sorority or anything. We don’t have weekly meetings.”
Like he was supposed to know that kind of shit about witches. “Then what are you doing in this city, if you’re not looking for witches?”
“So people aren’t allowed to just visit?” She sat up straighter in the chair but still held her head, squinting even though anger sparked in her gaze. “What’s with the third degree? Can’t I just be here because it’s a nice place to visit and has a great symphony and decent weather this time of year?”
Sasha laughed, though he cut himself off fairly quickly and schooled his expression back to indifferent. “You are funny girl. City is none of those things.”
The witch rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I’m here because I’m here. I didn’t realize I needed an unimpeachable reason for daring the city limits.”
“There’s no such thing as coincidence,” Henry said, and meant every bit of it. “Not around here, and not with the witches. Either you’re running toward something or running away from something. Which is it?”
A flush slowly climbed her cheeks and her voice took on a steely quality. “And I’m saying that’s not the case. Got it?”
Henry’s eyes narrowed. She smelled like fear and worry. She definitely hid something from all of them, and Sasha knew it just as well as Henry did. But Henry wasn’t going to stick around and interrogate the witch. He had better things to do than worry about what kind of trouble she wanted to bring down on the shifters in the city, at least not until he had a chance to talk with Deirdre.
He shoved to his feet and nodded tightly to Sunny. “Great. Good luck.”
He waited at the door for them to unlock it, then walked out into the night to head home for a good night’s sleep. He wouldn’t let the witch’s wide eyes or the feeling of her snuggled against his chest distract him from protecting his pack and his alpha. The witch was on her own.
