This is what we’ve been afraid of. We have witches sniffing around. Are they planning on coming here? Hiring a plane and having someone drop them off? Our airstrip isn’t registered for public use, but if someone flew over the village, they’d see it for sure. We’d have to shoot the damn plane out of the sky if we wanted to keep them away.
“We found a spell in one of the boxes, too,” Skye says from behind me.
She and Ty are holding hands, and she seems worried.
“What kind of spell?” Ty asks.
Her frown deepens. “I have no idea. But I chucked the thing out of the plane mid-flight, so hopefully it won’t affect us here.”
I groan and lean against the truck. “What do we think they’ll do?”
Skye shivers and wraps her arms around herself. Instantly, Jack moves near her to put an arm around her shoulders. It’s like they’re all attuned to each other on some non-verbal level, and I’m the odd man out.
“I think they’re coming here. I’ll have to confront them sooner or later, but Jack refused to leave me in Anchorage so I could deal with them there.”
The thought of her staying in the capital all on her own while her family is chasing her is terrifying. “Of course he refused,” I bark.
But she shakes her head. “You don’t understand. Now every villager must stay in their human shape until we can figure out what’s happening. It’s not safe for you. Witcheswillhunt you down if they discover a whole clan of sea dragons living under the radar.”
She’s worried about our safety, not her own.
The selflessness of her actions is humbling. When I contacted her for the first time, I saw she was a person who’d helped out a litter of puppies and got arrested as a result. My hunch that she’d be the right person to help us has paid off—she’s doing all she can to protect us. It’s not her fault her family is crazy.
And I need to take responsibility for the fact that I brought this shitstorm down on us.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll call an assembly tomorrow and explain what’s going on.”
We’re long overdue for a clan meeting anyway. I know this might be the last one I get to call as a clan leader, because my people might decide they don’t want me at the helm anymore.
Jack and Ty look at me as though they understand, and Ty clasps my shoulder for a moment before letting go. I appreciate the silent show of support, but two people believing in me won’t be enough.
We pile into the car, and because there are four of us, along with the post and the boxes, it’s a tight fit. Skye ends up squashed against me, and she’s doing everything she can to avoid touching me as we drive through the dusk. I don’t blame her, not after my idiotic escape the morning after we slept together. But she’s clearly uncomfortable on her perch, bouncing up and down with every pothole we hit. When she bumps her head on the headrest in front of her, I sigh and drag her closer, until she’s sitting in my lap.
I imagine I’m the only one who hears her quiet gasp, and she goes completely still. I run my thumb over her knee, rubbing small, soothing circles on the soft denim of her jeans. Skye slowly relaxes, her body molding against mine, and it’s all I can do to keep my triumphant grin in check. She grips my arm with her small hands but doesn’t push me away. Her ass fits perfectly in my lap, but I don’t make any weird moves: I want her to trust me, not think I’m groping her.
The ride is over all too soon, and she gives me a long, searching look before climbing out of the truck.
Then she stops short, her hand flying to her mouth as she notices the dead, quartered moose hanging on the porch. “Oh!”
“Oh, man,” Jack groans. “What did you do?”
“Uh.” I scratch the back of my head, looking at Skye. “It’s a moose. For you.”
“Um,” she says, her pretty face going pale. “Thank you? You…you caught it? On your own?” Her voice rises with each word, squeaking.
It seems like I’ve miscalculated this. I brought her food, and she’s…not impressed.
Ty, asshole that he is, bursts out laughing. “When did you even get the chance?” he asks. “Did we walk right past it earlier?”
“Yeah.” I sigh and give it up for a lost cause. “I’m sorry, Skye. I thought— Never mind.”
I stalk past all of them and into the Lodge, leaving those great, skinned hunks of meat hanging on the hooks that are suspended from the porch roof. I should have gone with flowers, probably, or asked Jack to pick up something pretty in Anchorage, but I thought this would show her that I care. That I can provide for her. It was a stupid idea. Somehow, I managed to forget she was a witch and not Alaskan at that, despite the fact that this is exactly what’s been causing us trouble these past two months.
Fuck it all. I’m never going to be what she needs, and it’ll be better for all of us if I make myself scarce right now.
“To be fair,” Ty says behind me, “most of the meat you’ve been eating here comes from the forest, you know. Moose, elk. And old Stuart at the village keeps chickens for everyone.”
I don’t know whether I’m a fool to torture myself, but I stop behind the door to listen.
