Leaning forward, Jared pressed his lips to Cassie’s. Something clicked in Cassie’s mind, and it felt right—perfect—like she had been waiting a lifetime to kiss him even though she just met him. It was strange. She wanted to pull back and try to understand where all the feelings were coming from, but she couldn’t. She was frozen with her lips to his.
Cassie’s heart beat uncontrollably. It wasn’t her first kiss ever, Nate had taken that, but it felt like her first time ever kissing someone.
Jared pulled back so that their noses were still touching.
“I’ve been waiting long enough to do that,” he said, his voice rough and his eyes an open book for Cassie to read. She was still confused, but her body wasn’t. She felt like she had known him her whole life and had been waiting for that kiss.
The burn around her wrist caused her to break his gaze and not look into his memories. It was exactly the same as when it happened on her neck when she didn’t know that Nate had claimed her as his mate. Those lines were still there according to everyone that could see them, but now she was certain there were new ones. She didn’t need to see them to know they were there. When the burning stopped, it finally hit her. Years of memories flooded into her mind. Cassie dropped to her knees as the weight of everything came back to her. Nate grabbed one elbow and Jared the other as they jointly ushered her to the bed.
“Cassie, are you okay?” Nate asked, rubbing the new invisible mark on her hand.
Cassie tried to look at Nate, but her eyes grew unfocused as the memories continued to come back. She closed her eyes instead. It was an information overload.
“What’s happening?” Nate growled at Jared, seeing Cassie in pain.
“Beats me. You’re the one that’s done this choosing a mate thing before. This was my first time,” Jared replied rather snarkily.
“Stop arguing,” Cassie told them. Her head was pounding from all the new information.
‘Cassie, are you okay?’ Nate asked silently, half with concern, and half-testing that the bond was still there.
‘Yes. Just a lot to process,’ Cassie replied, flopping back on the bed with her eyes still closed.
‘Process? Was this the same as when I bonded to you?’
‘No. This isn’t about that. I remember now.’ Cassie rubbed her head.
‘Remember what?’
Cassie suddenly remembered Nate had been left out of all that had happened since she last saw him the day before. She sat up but her head spun, and she had to lie back down.
‘We need to talk, like soon.’ Cassie peeked out from beneath her eyelashes to see both Nate and Jared staring at her with concern.
‘Give me something or I won’t be responsible if I go all animal-like on everyone,’ Nate replied, still filled with concern.
‘Shortened version: We all knew Jared and his family when we were kids. We grew up together, and the coven changed our memories to make us think it was Owen, not Jared.’
‘Impossible,’ Nate interrupted her.
‘Let me finish before Jared gets pissed and figures out we can talk this way,’ Cassie continued as quickly as she could, still lying on the bed like her head was her only problem. ‘I saw my uncle when I was waiting for Ryder. Maria sent me a message that they are looking for the witches and that all the younger skinwalkers without a mate can still talk with you. Only the older ones who were mated went feral when the witches were taken. In your animal form, you can talk to everyone, including John since he doesn’t have a mate. Maria didn’t come because the wendigo are still looking for her, and as long as she’s around, they can’t take the town from the witches.’
Cassie carefully sat up again, still rubbing her head.
She slowly looked Jared over. He was just as she had pictured teen him to be when she was a kid, but she could still see the boy they spent hours with. He waited with his face full of concern.
“I wouldn’t have done that if I knew it was going to hurt you,” Jared explained.
“I know,” Cassie replied shyly. She remembered Jared completely, but it had been almost eight years since she last saw him. He was as much stranger as he was a friend. He was a mixture. “You’ve always protected me mentally where Nate was the one to protect me physically.”
Jared sucked in his breath. “You remember,” he said quietly.
“Everything,” Cassie replied, staring up into his honey-amber eyes. There was much swirling around in her thoughts, but he was still Jared. She knew him. He was really her best friend, not Owen. Every single childhood memory she thought was with Owen, was really Jared.
“Shoot,” Jared exclaimed, jumping up from the bed. “Both of you stay up here. I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared downstairs before there was a knock at his door. Cassie took a deep breath. Things had just gotten way more complicated. It was easy to believe Ryder was delusional about her past, and actually, she wanted it to be that, but it made sense. Jared had the letter and even a picture of her and Nate. He knew much about her because he actually knew her. He could counter and fight with Nate, because he knew Nate. They all had grown up together. So why was Jared a wendigo and Nate a skinwalker? For every one answer, Cassie now had two questions.
Nate stood by the stairway and listened to the conversation happening in the room below. Cassie wanted to talk more with him, but she was sure what they needed to talk about had to be a silent conversation. Since his concentration seemed to be on the room beneath them, Cassie didn’t want to interrupt him.
Cassie could only hear muffled talk from below, but that didn’t seem to be the same for Nate. The door to the room opened and shut, and Nate hurried over to the window. He watched outside for a few minutes before finally turning back to her.
“What’s up?” she asked, hating that she was left in the dark again.
“Jack just stopped by. He was freaking out about me being loose and something about not being able to skin me,” Nate replied, still staring out the window.
Cassie shivered. Her cousin seemed a bit on the bad side and all, but skinning Nate? That sounded beyond a “bit” bad. His torture seemed to be escalating, which was horrible.
“Jared never said I was up here,” Nate added, more perplexed than Cassie was.
She had the memories of their past. Jared might be a wendigo and on the other side, but he wasn’t a bad guy. He never was. She didn’t know him from the past years, but when she looked into his eyes, she could see it. That part of him would never change. He was always going to be a good guy. It was just part of him.
“Why’d they leave?” Cassie asked, not sure who Nate was watching more, Jared or Jack as they walked outside.
“To get a kit for you to do magic. Jack was a bit upset that Jared would want that as he doesn’t trust you to be on their side, but Jared assured him that you were already marked as his mate. I can’t tell who’s in charge, but it seemed like Jared has more power than Jack.” Nate stood, but still watched outside.
“How could Jared have grown up with us if he’s a wendigo?”
Nate finally turned from the window. “Whitney said she was going to explain all of this to you, but I’m figuring she left out a few details.”
“Like …”
“Like the wendigo are made from the skinwalkers,” Nate replied.
“Made from?”
“When a skinwalker goes bad, they become a wendigo. When I said we were the good guys, I literally meant the good guys. If you do a deed that is so bad it taints your soul, you lose your animal and become one of them. A creature stuck, unable to change into what you are naturally.”
Cassie sucked in her breath. She hadn’t seen Jared, but she was pretty sure that he was a wendigo. Did that mean he was bad?
“So what you’re saying,” Cassie paused so that she could word it correctly, “is the wendigo are skinwalkers?”
“They were, or their parents or a long-lost relative were at one time. Once they become a wendigo, they can’t go back to being a s
kinwalker. They curse their whole family.” Nate walked back over to the window.
Cassie watched him silently as he thought. His mannerisms showed that he was as worried and as confused as she was, but she didn’t want to pry too much. He didn’t have the same memories as she did. He wanted to believe her memories, but his own mind still had Owen in place of Jared. Luckily for Cassie, Nate believed her over the coven and trusted her for now.
The door to Jared’s room opened and closed again. Jared made his way upstairs, and Nate moved to step between them. Jared stopped in the doorway and held his hand up.
“Whoa, kitty. I’m not about to do anything that would hurt her. She’s my mate now, too,” Jared replied.
Cassie rubbed her hand where she knew the invisible mark was. Nate looked down at her hand and finally noticed it.
“Impossible,” he muttered, taking her hand in his.
It has to be a night human thing to see the bond mark, Cassie concluded.
“How can we get his memories back?” Cassie asked as Nate stared at her hand.
She needed him to remember. She now knew it wasn’t impossible for her to have two mates. In fact, Jack was more than right that she could bind to as many night humans as she wanted. She needed to know why Jack knew this, and what it meant.
“Yours came back when I kissed you,” Jared replied.
Nate glared at Jared. “Not about to happen, buddy.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. Jared had to see the truth even if Nate didn’t. They had been friends and knew just how to push each other’s buttons.
“Mine came back when your mark showed up,” Cassie explained, trying to get off the kissing part because it was still too confusing.
“Still not going to happen for us,” Nate replied, glaring at Jared before he could suggest it.
“I don’t know how to get the memories back for him. I didn’t know binding to you would do it for you. They don’t exactly tell you how to unscrew up your life when they throw you out of the clan,” Jared replied. “But I’ll suggest that you turn into your animal soon before Jack traces you here. He’s dead set on skinning your animal from you.”
Nate continued to glare at Jared. It was obvious he didn’t trust him a single bit, and he was a little perplexed by him offering to help.
“I get it. You skinwalker, me enemy wendigo,” Jared said in a mock caveman voice. “We hate all.”
Now Nate was more confused. Jared wasn’t just trying to help him, but was making fun of the whole situation.
Cassie raised her hand since neither guy seemed to notice her. Jared smiled as he turned to her.
“Um, can you explain what skinning Nate entails? Because I might suggest he run far away from here, not just turn into his tiger.”
Nate didn’t seem to agree with that suggestion, but he was just as curious.
Jared shook his head. “Sometimes I forget how unfair this is to you guys. You don’t have all the same cards as us. Man, if I were you, I’d be pissed at your father. He did this to you guys.”
Nate lifted his head and closed his eyes, sensing the world around him. “Let’s get back to the skinning part because Jack should be here in about two minutes.”
“Skinning you. It’s a term we use to mean stripping your animal. There is all this magic stuff of catching you as you shift that allows us to take your animal from you,” Jared spat out.
Cassie’s eyes got big, and Nate’s anger flared.
“You were going to turn me into one of you?” He pointed his finger at Jared.
“Me? No. I don’t want you as a wendigo. It would majorly suck. Jack? Well, he does. He seems to think if we turn you, then it will break your father, and the whole clan will fall. I don’t think it’s that easy. And I don’t want you as one of us,” Jared replied.
There was a knock on the door again.
“Your choice, man. Be your tiger and stay safe, or go back to being Jack’s new toy.” Jared turned and went back downstairs.
“Do you trust him?” Nate asked. Jared was obviously taking his time going down the stairs and making his way to the doorway.
“Yes,” Cassie whispered. Logically Jared had to be evil to be one of them since Cassie could remember he was once a skinwalker, but Cassie’s heart said otherwise. The Jared she remembered could never be evil.
Nate stood up and pulled Cassie into his arms. He kissed her almost as quickly as their first kiss before stepping back and changing into his tiger, his clothing shredding as the large black and orange beast appeared.
Tiger Nate moved in front of Cassie and waited. Cassie heard Jared talking to Jack as they climbed the stairs. Jack got upstairs first, and his face fell. Jared had been right. He obviously had been trying to catch Nate in his day human form and was now severely disappointed.
“I told you if Nate was here, he wouldn’t sit around as a human,” Jared added.
“He’s no use to me now.” Jack turned and left the way he came without a word to Cassie or Nate.
‘Are you going to turn back?’ Cassie asked.
‘Not a chance. Looks like Jared was right. Jack did have plans for me. I thought he was trying to make me change before. This just confirms it. And Jared was also right that I’m better at defending you in this form. Why does he have to be right?’ A glimpse of Nate’s time with Jack shone through his mind to Cassie. She shivered at the image of Nate being cut repeatedly to take his blood.
‘He knows us, and I don’t think he’s the evil you guys say the wendigo are. We just need to figure out what it means. We were all friends once. Why did the coven get rid of his family?’
After shutting the door downstairs, Jared returned to Cassie and Nate.
“He’s not about to give up. He really thinks making you a wendigo is the answer to everything.” Jared shrugged. “For my sake, please just stay a tiger.”
‘My dad would never break just because I was gone. He doesn’t care that much,’ Nate told Cassie.
She doubted that. All of her memories from her childhood told her that Nate’s dad cared, and cared a lot. Jack might have been closer to the truth than Nate realized.
“You can turn someone into a wendigo from taking their animal?” Cassie asked.
She had all sorts of new memories, but anything clan specific wasn’t really taught to her. She was only a kid and not yet into studies at school when Jared left. After that, everything was kept from her.
“We have two kinds of wendigo. The first level is someone who comes from the wendigo line or is forced to be one. We call that a pledge level. That’s the kind you’ve met already. All the younger people around here are still pledges.” Jared shook his head.
Cassie looked at him as he gave a grim laugh.
“Okay, it sounds even stranger explaining it out loud. It makes it sound like we have a choice in the matter. Pledge. What a joke.” Jared turned to leave.
“And the second level?” Cassie asked.
Jared glanced back over his shoulder. “Hope you never meet one of those.”
A shiver ran down Cassie’s spine. The pledge wendigo were bad enough. She really didn’t need to be told that the full members would be worse. She could have guessed that much.
“If you want to set up spells around the rooms, it might make you both feel a bit safer,” Jared suggested.
“How would I?”
“I went with Jack to grab a stocked witch kit. It’s downstairs. It should have everything basic and maybe a bit more in it. I know you witches like to use your own stuff, but your uncle didn’t leave your house in the best condition. I’m not sure there’s much left there to scavenge.”
With that, Jared left the room. Cassie turned back to Nate. His big tiger eyes looked at her once he was sure Jared was downstairs.
‘He’s right. It would be better for you to put spells around the room to keep us safe. I can’t stay awake forever because I’m too low on blood,’ Nate stated.
Cassie followed Jared downstairs. Staying at the top of
the stairs, Nate looked down into the room.
“With what you’ve been doing to Nate, won’t being low on blood keep him from protecting me?” Cassie asked.
Jared looked up at the stairway and sighed. Walking over to the mini fridge under his desk, Jared took out hospital bags of blood.
“It’s donated blood,” Jared explained as Cassie stared at the bags in his hands. “I get it from the hospital because I refuse to hunt humans like everyone else around here.”
‘It will do,’ Nate told Cassie.
“I’ll feed him and then set up the wards,” Cassie explained, reaching for the bags. Whether it grossed her out or not, this was her world now. She was part of it, and it was high time to suck it up and deal with it.
Jared shook his head. “I got that. I’ll get him the blood, and you get everything set up. I have a feeling it won’t be safe around here until you do.”
Turning, Cassie glanced at Nate. He nodded his tiger head, like he agreed even though he could speak to her in her mind.
“Where is the kit?” Cassie asked as Jared walked up the stairs.
“By the door,” Jared replied.
Moving toward the door, she saw that there were several bags thrown against the wall, like they had been dropped by Jared as he came into the room. Cassie turned back to ask which one, but Jared was already upstairs. When she walked to the stairway to ask Jared, she heard him talking to Nate.
“You better not make me regret this,” Jared was saying. “And you better never tell my father about this. He would kill me for it. I’m only doing this because I need your help keeping her safe. I won’t be full strength until I bond with her, and until then there are many that can hurt her.”
Cassie hurried back to the door at the mention of people around to hurt her. She needed to do her part. She reached down and took the closest duffle bag, hoping that since it was closest, it was the most recently dropped by the door. She was rewarded when she looked inside. It was filled with plastic boxes of herbs. Needing a large space to set them all out, Cassie took in her surroundings. The desk, while clean and neatly organized, wasn’t enough room. There was a coffee table with a bit more room, but Cassie really needed more. Finally, she realized the only place with enough space was Jared’s well-made bed. She started to haul the bag over to his bed, but it was heavier than she expected. Jared was instantly beside her, picking it up for her.