Wolf Spell: Shifters Bewitched #1 by Tasha Black (i am malala young readers edition .TXT) 📕

her for her anger. It was shocking that my brothers hadn’t picked up on the hellhound that wandered the woods last night.

And I felt guilty that I had hidden Bella away instead of fighting. But she was my mate. It was my nature and my duty to protect her.

Dueling allegiances battled in my chest, and I wanted nothing more than to shift and howl at the inconstant gods for watching over all of this impassively.

But even as my mind tangled, my feet moved quickly. I began to jog as I got closer to the opening of the boxwood maze. The wait for evening had been endless.

If I thought I was worried for Bella last night, now I was frantic. My thoughts began to run in rhythm with my footsteps.

I have to claim her tonight.

I have to claim her tonight.

I have to claim her tonight.

“Luke?” her soft voice startled me out of my reverie.

She stood just outside the entrance to the labyrinth, her eyes wide with fear.

“Yes, little one, it’s me,” I told her, the endearment falling out of my mouth again without my permission.

I opened my arms and she fell into them.

A symphony of emotion played through me at the soft feel of her curled against me. I closed my eyes and tried to memorize the melody of her fragrant hair and the warmth of her body pressed to mine.

“Sorry,” she said, quickly pulling away.

It took all my restraint not to clamp her to me. But I knew it would only hurt my cause.

I had to make her crave my touch and then deny her. Only this would bring the headstrong little witch around and make her ready to be claimed.

And I had to claim her quickly, or risk her very safety. I could not let her go back to that castle again. Not with the threat of the Order hanging over it.

“How was your day?” I asked her casually, leading her back into the labyrinth as if we were normal people going on a normal stroll.

“Kind of crazy,” she admitted. “Something broke into the library - something with paws.”

“You know it wasn’t me, right?” I asked her.

“You were sealed into a cave all night with me,” she said, looking at me like I had lost my mind. “You’re the only one who couldn’t have. But do you think it was the hellhound, or…someone else?”

One of my brothers, was her implication. I appreciated that she knew better than to say it out loud.

“My brothers have pledged their souls to the protection of the library, as I have,” I said carefully. “And a hellhound only operates at the bidding of another, so a break-in seems sophisticated for such a base creature. But, yes, it’s possible that it was a hellhound, and it’s also possible that it was something else. Your headmistress chose to clean up before we could investigate properly.”

A furrow formed on her lovely brow. I resisted the temptation to kiss it away, and focused my eyes on the forest instead.

“What do you mean a hellhound operates at the bidding of another?” she asked me, neatly ignoring my dig at her headmistress.

“There is a group of people who want access to the library,” I told her. “We protect the school from them and from others. They are desperate for stronger magic, and their skills are stepping up recently. I suspect the hellhound is their doing.”

“Who are they?” she asked. “Why don’t they just go to a school if they want to learn magic?”

“There are three ways to obtain magic,” I told her. “Three ways that I know of, at least. The first was the original magic, born to the recipient and used freely.”

“The fae,” she said dreamily. “I just learned they were real today.”

“Don’t look so lovelorn about them,” I told her firmly. “The fae are no friends to men. And besides, they’ve stayed on their side of the veil for generations.”

She scowled at me, but didn’t argue.

“Shifters, like me, and other magical creatures also fall into that category,” I explained. “We are born with our power.”

It was an oversimplification, but the premise was sound.

“The second kind of magic is what I’m learning, right?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes,” I told her. “Magic for a price, for those lucky enough to be blessed with a touch of the gift. Pay it forward or pay it afterward, your magic must be earned.”

“What about the third kind?” she asked.

“That is where this order of warlocks comes in,” I told her. “They are not born with magic, and they do not earn it. Instead, they steal it.”

“They steal it?” she asked, looking horrified.

“It’s not a pretty idea,” I told her, knowing I could not spare her this knowledge. “Your teachers may explain it differently, but the truth is simple. They steal power from a magical being by pulling it out of them by force.”

“You mean, by…by…” seemed not to want to complete the question.

“By killing them,” I said, sparing her the necessity. “Most times by killing them, but sometimes they manage to keep the vessel alive, to drain it as long as possible.”

I shuddered and tried not to think of my council brother, Jared, who had gone missing in these woods two years ago.

It was tempting to think the increase in the warlocks’ power around the same time was coincidence. Could the fiends have captured him somehow and drawn magic from him to power their mischief?

I hoped not. I hoped he had simply run from his fate. Better that the mighty panther was dishonored than to think of him as dead, or worse.

We’d scoured the forest in search of him for weeks. But he’d vanished completely. It would take quite a bit of magic to hide from the full attention of the entire Brotherhood of Shifters. Not even the Order of the Broken Blade could manage such a feat.

Could they?

“What are you thinking about?” she asked softly.

I remembered our bond. While I was sure she could not yet read my thoughts, I worried