“Time to show me that you have been practicing,” Cassie added.
Whitney looked back at the guys behind them.
“Three … two … one,” Whitney counted. On one, there was a thump when one of the creatures leaped from behind them to in front of them
Cassie wouldn’t say she could tell the monsters apart. They were large with dark-colored arms which hung almost to the ground past their backward-slanted knees. The fur covering much of their bodies could have been different colors, but Cassie wasn’t about to sit around and study them. They had made it very clear before that they wanted her for something, and she wasn’t ready to be monster food. The one standing in front of her glared at her with his beady, red eyes from beneath its shoulder-length mane of black hair. He gave a slight smile to show his elongated teeth, which matched the razor-sharp claws Cassie was way too familiar with. Cassie shivered. She had a good feeling this was the one she knew—the one who had already once tried to kill her.
“Go!” Cassie shouted at Whitney as she stared at the monster before her.
Whitney didn’t wait to think more, but stepped on the gas and aimed right for the creature of Cassie’s nightmares. The monster had a look of shock as he had to jump out of the way. He must not have expected the girls to fight back, but if that was the case, he had another thing coming.
She whipped off the main street to a road lined with cars. The group of monsters chasing them had to group closer together, almost forming a line as they followed. Whitney continued to drive through a roundabout way to get to Cassie’s home, losing one or two of the monsters on every turn, but some kept joining the group.
“Your aunt better know how to get these things away from us,” Whitney commented as Cassie had to grab the handle above her head on another sharp turn.
They had just driven past Owen’s house, and it was as dark as the rest on the street. Cassie got a sinking feeling in her stomach. This didn’t look good. Something was off.
‘What is going on here?’ Cassie asked across the bond of emptiness, hoping Nate was back and would tell her what to do or even what had happened.
“Nate’s not answering,” Cassie commented, slamming against her car door on the last turn.
“He’s not answering me either. That means he’s either really busy or—” Whitney didn’t get to finish. She slowed only momentarily but then continued past Cassie’s house.
They both knew it wasn’t a good idea to stop. Cassie’s house was just as dark and void of people as the rest of the homes. The only difference was it looked like someone blew a hole through the front of the house. Claw marks were all over the doors, and Cassie could only imagine how many of the monsters following them had attacked her house.
“Guess we need to try my house,” Whitney replied, finally getting back her fighting spirit.
“Yeah. Your mother would never let anyone attack your little brother.” Cassie replied.
Whitney began to whip around another block and kept up her racecar driver pace. They needed somewhere to hide and soon. The monsters behind them seemed impatient.
“I think I see something running in the woods,” Cassie commented as a large, black shape kept pace with the car.
“Shoot. I thought we lost that one back at your house,” Whitney replied. She couldn’t turn away from the woods as her house sat on the edge of it.
Whitney pulled up to her house and automatically went into the driveway. The monsters were only half a block behind them. Cassie glanced up at the dark house. It looked as vacant as all of them in town.
“Mom?” Whitney yelled, opening her window a crack.
The only thing Cassie heard in reply were the monsters that were too close for comfort.
“We need to get out of here,” Cassie commented, looking behind them. Whitney had a long driveway, and they were now at the far end of it. The monsters all stopped as a car pulled down the road and blocked the mouth of the driveway.
“Shit,” Whitney said under her breath. She wasn’t one to swear, and her mother hopefully wasn’t home, or Whitney would be grounded for months.
“What do we do?” Cassie asked.
She hated the feeling that she didn’t have time to fight back. Cassie had seen the sidhe over the summer and saw their version of magic. They were warriors and had turned witch magic into a way of fighting. Cassie promised herself the next time she had a break to catch her breath from running from monsters she was going to learn how to do that. It seemed like her survival depended on fighting back.
A large brown bear stepped out of the woods.
“When I tell you to climb out of the car, you get out and close your eyes. I’m going to transform partially and pick you up to run,” Whitney explained. “Help just arrived.”
“Help?” Cassie asked, staring at the wild bear in front of them. It wasn’t even looking at them. It was looking at the monsters.
“Your uncle,” Whitney replied. “Though I have no idea how or why he’s fully transformed. It isn’t a full moon tonight.”
Cassie glanced behind them. The monsters were all snarling as someone exited the car behind them. They didn’t even turn around and seemed to be waiting for the new person to join them.
“I think we better go soon,” Cassie added.
Bear John gave out a growl that made Cassie shake in her seat. She sure hoped the large creature was her uncle.
“Now,” Whitney replied, not giving Cassie more time to worry about it.
Cassie threw open her door and jumped out of the car. She barely had time to close her eyes when she felt Whitney’s arms scoop her up and begin running. Wind whipped through Cassie’s hair. Whitney was right. There was no way Cassie would be able to keep her eyes open as her friend ran through the woods—it was faster than riding with the windows open in the car during the summer. Before she could complain, Cassie was standing upright again, and Whitney was beside her.
“We need to put up your protection spell around the cabin quick before they track us here,” Whitney explained. “I sure hope you left some of it here.”
Cassie nodded and ran after her friend to the cabin.
“It didn’t exactly stop them the last time,” Cassie complained.
Whitney pulled the door open. “That’s because you didn’t know what you needed protection from. It’s different now. You can’t put a spell on something you don’t believe in.”
Whitney stepped inside the darkened cabin with Cassie right behind her. A pop sounded from in front of them, and Cassie only had time to turn to the noise before she noticed her friend dropping to the ground beside her. A handful of glowing dust magically lit up the room momentarily, and Cassie found herself frozen in place.
“Sorry we had to do it this way, but you’ll thank me in the morning,” a male voice said.
Cassie couldn’t move as she wanted to squint in the night to see who the person was. The voice was familiar, but she had no clue as she couldn’t see.
She thought of a counter spell and repeated the words over and over again in her head. She needed to be free, and she wanted nothing to do with the monsters chasing her. They would eat her alive if they found her in her cabin frozen. She and Whitney were sitting ducks, waiting to be eaten. Cassie had to get them free.
“Stop,” the guy said as if he knew what she was doing and could see her move in the dark.
Cassie had only freed two fingers from the spell as they twitched to motion. She needed more time. Whoever made the spell was powerful, but she was even more so. She had to get away. The guy with her had no clue the monsters were chasing her, or worse, he could be with them. She needed to be free. Cassie pushed all her energy into the counter spell.
“Cassie, stop that. You need to come with me,” he told her, moving closer. “We have Nate, and if I don’t return with you tonight, your cousin is going to kill him.”
Upon hearing that, Cassie stopped casting her spell. They had Nate. That’s why he told her to go away. Whitney said Nate couldn
’t talk back only if he was unconscious or dead. He wasn’t dead yet, but would be soon if she didn’t stop. Could she believe the guy speaking? Moving closer, he reached up and touched her face. Now he was only an arm’s length away and standing close enough to the light pouring through the door for Cassie to see. Jared stared at her as he waited for her to believe him. He moved into the moonlight, which was now shining brightly.
“Look in my eyes if you need to trust me, but I would never lie to you. They have him and plan to kill him if they can’t find you,” Jared explained. “They’ve only kept him this long to try to get to you. He wouldn’t tell us where you were.”
Cassie looked at him. He was being completely honest with her. She could see memories of the day and how her cousin was holding Nate captive. Nate was strapped to a table with electrodes on him to shock him constantly and keep him subdued. His whole upper body covered in cuts that varied from little shallow ones to a few deeper stabs showed how badly he’d been beaten.
“Jack will kill him,” Jared told her, waiting for her to agree with him.
His eyes told her what she needed to know. Cassie stopped resisting the spell. She needed Jared to take her back if that meant they would spare Nate. Whether she wanted to be his mate or not didn’t matter at this point. She wanted him to live, and that was all she was worried about right now.
Jared moved closer and wrapped his arms around her waist. He touched her forehead with more magic, and she instantly felt sleep hit her.
The morning light was seeping through the curtains by the time Cassie woke. She stretched as she lay in bed. She felt smooth satin sheets beneath her and instantly opened her eyes. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes, trying to remember where she was or what had happened the night before. The half-opened window curtains showed off the deep purple and green colors of the room. Cassie closed her eyes and rubbed her head again. She was drawing a blank as to where she was or what she had been doing.
Magical residue was still on her forehead as she rubbed it. Cassie pulled her fingers back and looked at them closely. She couldn’t exactly see the magic, but it was more like she could feel it. Her fingers rubbed it back and forth. It wasn’t a weak potion, but it wasn’t familiar. She could name most of the students in school based on how they made their potions, and likely even their families because it was all relatively passed down from generation to generation, but this was new. This was from someone she hadn’t met before.
“Your cousin said that would wear off in a couple of hours, but it’s been over eight,” Jared said from across the room. He stood and walked into the pale purple light the curtains had brightened the room to.
Cassie rolled more of it between her fingers. It was a strong potion, and anyone that knew even a little bit of magic wouldn’t have said only a couple hours.
“This wasn’t made to end in only a couple hours. He lied to you,” she replied, staying in her bed as the rush of memories came back to her.
Monsters had been chasing her and Whitney. Her uncle as a bear helped them escape. They went to the cabin, and Jared did something to Whitney.
“Where is she?” Cassie asked. The last detail in her memories came back, and she covered her mouth. Jared had said if she didn’t go with him quick enough they were going to kill Nate. “Did you guys kill him?”
“Whitney is fine. I had to get you back here to protect you from her,” Jared began his explanation.
“I don’t need protection from her. She would never hurt me, but you guys … You’ve proved more than once that you’d like me dead.”
Jared slowly moved forward, silent as a panther.
“No one will ever try to hurt you again. If they do, they have me to deal with,” Jared explained, not exactly answering any questions.
“And Nate?” Cassie whispered. She wasn’t afraid of Jared; he had been nice to her the last time she had visited her cousin. She was afraid for Nate. He said they were planning to kill him, and the memory she saw showed he wasn’t in too good of shape.
“He’s fine now that you’re here,” Jared replied with a shrug, like he didn’t care at all.
“And Whitney?” Cassie asked. She was obviously alone in the huge, purple-glowing room.
“Ryder is watching over her,” Jared replied.
“Ryder?” Cassie asked, starting to fear for her friend.
“He won’t hurt her,” Jared explained, making it close enough to sit on the edge of the bed. “He’s just watching over her until she changes. Then he’ll take her to the woods and let her go, just like the rest. We’re not killers like the coven teaches. Once everyone had transformed, we caught them and took them out to the woods for the safety of everyone in town.”
Cassie looked at Jared. He was hiding nothing and completely open with her, but making no sense. Whitney had explained the skinwalker thing was like werewolves in movies—they changed into their full animals on the full moon. She was right in that the moon was bright last night, but not a full moon. Was Ryder watching over her for days, waiting for the full moon? That really made no sense.
“How do you feel?” Jared asked, reaching up for her face but putting his hand back down.
“Feel? Like someone did a spell on me, but not the first time. Why?” Cassie asked.
“You were out longer than I thought you would be and you were thrashing around the whole time. I thought I did something to hurt you.”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. I think the last spell put on me was last week by the coven. It happens. It doesn’t feel good, and eventually, they wear off. That’s life as a witch.” Cassie had no idea why she was reassuring him.
Jared nodded and still looked her over. Cassie swung her legs off the bed and finally noticed the chain around her left ankle.
“What is…” Cassie stared at the chain. She was chained to the bed. That was a new one. The coven never had to restrain people physically because they just used magic, but she got the feeling here was a bit different.
“You can’t be left alone right now. The clan doesn’t trust you. Once you are bonded to me, they will let you come and go as you please, but until then…” Jared directed his gaze over to the window as he spoke. He seemed a bit embarrassed.
“Until then you’ll keep me chained up?” she finished for him. He nodded.
Jared continued to stare away in shame. Cassie would have laughed if she wasn’t annoyed by everything. She had met him last week, and he was the only one who didn’t scare the crap out of her. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She was more than intrigued by him then and still didn’t know what to think. Jared was a mystery to her, but his shy side was kind of cute, so different from all the guys she knew growing up. He was with her cousin, and from what she could tell they were the bad guys, at least from how Whitney explained it. The wendigo attacked humans and drank their blood. The skinwalkers protected the humans from the wendigo. Cassie, being human, got the feeling it was a no-brainer which side she was on. But Jared? He was different. His eyes weren’t the hardened stare she got from her cousin or his brother, Ryder. He didn’t look at the world like he wanted to conquer it. He wasn’t trying to hide behind a smile like Jack. Jared was real, and even if she knew almost nothing about him, she could tell. He wasn’t bad.
“Can I see Whitney and Nate?” she asked.
“I don’t know if Whitney is still here, but we can go see,” Jared replied. Reaching down, he unlocked the chain from her foot. “Please don’t wander away from me. Until we are bonded, some might still see you as the enemy. I can’t protect you if you run away from me.”
He was completely honest and sincere, but Cassie still cringed. She was already bonded, and she needed to get away before anyone found out. People could only bond to one person. Until she understood the situation better, she would play by his rules, but that was only until she found a way out. She had already played this game with Nate’s henchmen that were protecting her. Once she knew where W
hitney and Nate were, she would see how to get out. They were not sticking around; no matter how much Jared kept saying she would be safe, she got the very distinct feeling she would never be safe with the wendigo.
Jared led the way to what Cassie expected was a door to a hallway. It turned out it led to a stairwell. The open metal stairs spiraled down to the room below. Cassie stepped into an immaculately clean guy’s room.
“Umm …” Cassie didn’t know what to say.
Jared ran his hands through his chocolate-brown hair, which was long enough it was curling around his ears, but nowhere as long as his twin, Ryder, who could pull his blond hair into a ponytail.
“Yeah. Sorry. Tradition and all.” He shrugged his explanation.
“Tradition?” Cassie asked, trying to catch his eyes as he avoided hers.
“You’ve heard of mother-in-law suites?” he asked. Cassie nodded but had no idea what he meant by it. “Well, this is sort of a mate’s suite.”
Cassie froze in her tracks. It had been bad enough when Nate chose her as his mate without her agreeing, but now Jared, too? And he was going to chain her up in a tower on top of it? She needed Owen around to crack some fairy tale joke and make it not feel as real as it did. Her life was a freaking fairy tale at the moment.
“Um, excuse me?” Cassie replied. “This is the twenty-first century. Not exactly legal to chain girls up in rooms and force them to marry you, you know.”
“I know. I know,” Jared quickly replied. “And I said I’m sorry. This is all clan stuff. Sometimes I don’t get a say in things, especially tradition. It wasn’t meant to be taking you as a prisoner. Most of the women who are chosen as mates are more than excited to get treated like a princess.”
“Yeah. Sorry. I’m not most people. I’d rather go back home and pretend the whole night human world stuff doesn’t exist,” Cassie replied. “And it’s very insulting.” She pointed up to the room with the chain on the bed. Chained to a bed in a tower? How much more cliché could they get?