“The vines will stabilize her,” I said to the watcher wolf. “Don’t remove them until you have to, and I ask that you not cut them. Touch them and gently ask them to let go. They will. Becareful not to jostle her too much. She will be okay if you get her back to your keep soon, okay?”
The wolf whined and nudged me with its cold nose. I reached out and scratched it behind the ear. “If Caelan asks, maybe say you have no idea who I was?” I smiled hopefully, but the wolf gave me a baleful look.
“Right. Fine. But if he doesn’t ask, you don’t have to tell him.”
The wolf huffed which I took for a yes. “Alright. Be careful.” I eyed the other wolves still involved in what appeared to be a fight to the death. “Good luck.” I rose and carefully crept back along the wall until I disappeared around the corner and hurried the rest of the way to my car.
I might regret this later, but my Floromancy was a magic of life, and if I had the opportunity to save someone, I would always find a way.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
CAELAN
Battle always set me on edge for hours afterward. I had a rival pack in my territory, and it had taken me by surprise, a fact I needed to sit with once I was sure we were all out of the danger zone. Other wolves were beginning to test the boundaries of what I’d put up with. This one hadn’t ended well, but there’d be no repercussions as the wolves had encroached on my territory. A clear case of defending what was mine.
Tired and sporting a dozen wounds, I shifted back to human form and leaned my head against the wall. Garrett and Simone were fine as was almost everyone else except for Lena, who’d been ambushed earlier, fortunately able to call for aid before they killed her.
I turned to see how the wolf fared. During the fight, I’d felt an oddly familiar magic in the area, but it hadn’t felt harmful, so I ignored it. All my focus had to stay on the fight.
Jack, Lena’s mate, sat beside the wounded wolf, who’d shifted back to human form. My gaze swept down her body, and I froze, breath catching as I spotted the source of the familiar magic. My mind went back to that day in the woods when I’d been ambushed and had damn near died, only to wake up nakedand alone the next morning, fully healed and wrapped in vines and wildflowers.
Pushing off the wall, I stalked over to Jack and crouched. “Who was here?” I already knew, but I needed it voiced.
Jack shied away at the harsh rasp in my voice. “She knew you’d ask and pleaded for me not to tell you.”
I gritted my teeth and stared at him, gold light flaring over the other shifter’s face. Jack abruptly dropped his eyes. “Evie,” he whispered. “She said her name was Evie and asked to help Lena.”
All this time I suspected it had been Evie in the woods that night. This solidified it. Lena’s once mortal wound had healed to a thin, pink line, Evie’s healing power still glowing around her.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Evie said she will live if we get her back to the keep quickly. She asked for us not to cut the vines if we could.”
My eyebrows lifted. “How do we free her?”
Jack swallowed hard, his eyes still on his mate’s still form. “She said to ask them nicely.”
I barked a laugh. What a little hippie Evie was. “Fine.” I touched one of the vines on Lena’s ankle. “My name is Caelan. I’m a...friend of Evie’s.” She’d piss her pants with laughter if she heard me right now. “Do you mind letting go of Lena? We need to take her back home so we can call the doctor.”
At first the vines did nothing, but Evie wouldn’t tell Jack to ask if she hadn’t meant it, so I waited for a few moments. Eventually, the vines pulsed with that familiar pink and green magic I remembered from that night in the forest, and slowly unwrapped from Lena’s body, retracting back into the ground. Evie had destroyed the cement around Lena’s body, but we were in an alley. The city could fix it if it became an issue later.
I touched the ground. “Thank you.”
Nodding to Jack, I rose. “Bring her and let’s get home.”
“Should I stay back and dispose of the other wolves?”
“Let them rot.” It was the highest insult I could pay to the lower Alpha who’d sent them here. If he wanted his people back, he could trespass on my territory and try to take them.
A vicious smile crossed my lips. I couldn’t wait until he tried.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Idid not mention the detour to Moira or the others when I got to the shop a couple of days later. All was quiet on the shifter front, but the morning after, I awoke to a small basket on my front porch filled with heirloom seed packs from one of my favorite places to order from and a hand-embroidered apron that read:I like big buds and I cannot lie.
