Savior of the Wolves

Aiden’s POV

I didn’t mean to find Jessica at the firm. The truth was I wanted to be alone. I thought if I came out early, I could get this frustration released. I just didn’t feel like myself. I hadn’t slept well since she arrived. It’s like having a nagging unsolved mystery lingering over me...gnawing at me. I couldn’t help but think I was missing something.

What if that something could jeopardize someone I loved?

As I stepped out of the side door, I saw her...alone. I heard music playing near her. Someone said that my mother gave her an iPhone as a present. I was not surprised by my mother. It was just that I was bothered. Could it have actually been her birthday on the day we found her? Mom said it was her eighteenth birthday in fact. Something deep inside of me felt raw thinking that such a horrific day could’ve been her birthday.

My thoughts were unstable and kept envisioning a better day for her. A celebration...her laughter. I felt bad for her and I just keep wishing that I had known.

But with that last piece of information, it did answer one important question. She didn’t turn on her eighteenth birthday. So...she was not a wolf.

Definitely a witch. Or so Lexie believes.

Dad said Lexie sent for an elder witch who could identify the magic that appeared to linger on our guest. Lexie was gifted for sure. She had cloaked Sophie for years. Lexie is strong and capable, so we trust her opinion. But she also thought that it was older, darker magic. Something she hasn’t been trained in or seen. So it won’t be long now. We’ll finally have some answers once the elder arrives.

But for now, she was recovering well here. After her sight returned well enough, she left the confines of her room and began to come out to the firm as the nurse suggested. I watched her imitate others to do some light movements with our weapons. But today was different. She was stretching and moving to the music.

The more she moved, the heavier her breathing became, and the crazier I felt.

“I am a future fucking Alpha for fate’s sake,” I reminded myself. Why are there these random moments where I couldn’t think around her? Why did I feel like I had no control?

I needed answers.

I began to smell something. It filled the air. It filled my lungs and flowed through my body. It was her scent. My wolf howled within me and I felt him losing control.

“What the hell?”

I cleared the entire gardens and was standing behind Jessica before I realized what happened.

I didn’t know what she was thinking as she turned slowly to stare at me. Like she felt me behind her. She didn’t hear me through the music. There’s no way. I don’t make a sound. But she turned and had the same hungry look on her face that I knew I had. The hunger was swallowing me alive.

She looked at me with an expression that I couldn’t explain. I felt like she was pulling me to her. But that was impossible. It was the animal in me being misguided by the magic around her. I understood that it was powerful because it was distorting everything around me...and my brother.

Then she moved. It was the slightest movement. Or did I move? I had no idea. All I knew was that now, my mouth was inches from hers, and God she smelled intoxicating. The sun was touching her face and I wanted nothing more from this existence than to pull her face to mine. I wanted to taste her.

I wanted to protect her.

I wanted to…I clenched my fists and shook the thoughts away.

Her eyes were studying mine. I was trapped in her stare for…I don’t know how long. I could see it in her eyes, her expression…she wanted me. I could taste it in the air. Her body was releasing hormones that I had smelt on other girls before, but I had never been affected by them. Until now.

My breathing had increased, and my wolf was aching inside of me, and it was all I could do to contain this pain. Our want.

“Your heart’s racing,” she seductively whispered through winded breaths. She never took her eyes off me. She was oddly confident in how I reacted to her.

Then like a jolt into reality, I heard my dad, “Son, to my office. Now.” I could detect trouble in his tone...even through the link.

I stared at her a moment longer, but couldn’t disobey my father, “I have to go.”

I leaned even closer to take a final whiff of her scent and felt my wolf resist my father’s command. Her mouth had parted, and it nearly sent me into a frenzy.

I couldn’t tell if she was relieved or saddened as I took one step back, still looking at her.

I couldn’t stay around any longer and find out...I nearly ran back into the house.

***

As I rushed into my dad’s office, his expression was unusual. It looked like worry. But my dad doesn’t worry. I mean ever. Sitting across from him by the fireplace was Lexie and an older woman. I instantly put two and two together. The elder witch had finally arrived.

“What do you know?” I urgently asked.

The elder woman slowly turned to me. She had a softness to her face that somehow forewarned me that the information she was about to explain wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“I don’t know what she is Aiden.”

“But it’s magic right?” I pressed.

“That I do know,” Odia’s raspy voice confirmed. “I will be able to get past it with your mother and father’s intervention. It’s highly unusual. It’s not a typical spell. That’s why your dad couldn’t absorb its magic. This kind can’t be removed...the spell has to be unlocked.

“How is that different?”

“Witches can remove any spell with the right knowledge of the spell. This one, it was locked...meaning, whoever put it on her...died doing so.”

“The spell is so powerful that it killed the witch?” I gasped.

My attention was drawn to my dad’s head shaking no as I heard the same audible response from the elder witch. Clearly, my dad had already been briefed with the information.

She looked saddened as she explained, “The witch was killed while placing the spell on the child.”

“You mean somebody killed the witch?”

“Yes,” she answered sadly.

“Why?”

“I’m not certain. This is extremely rare.”

“But you can unlock it?” I asked desperately.

“I can,” she said confidently.

“When?” I asked eagerly.

“The next full moon,” she spoke with certainty.

“And that’s when?”

“Three days.”

“Why not do it now?”

The start of his voice turned me to him. “Son. It’s not as simple as we’d hoped. She and I have discussed it at length. This is the only way she’ll have enough power to unlock it. I will draw power from the full moon, it will be at its strongest then, and Odia will use it to hold the magic open. Your mother will be able to read Jessica’s mind then. They will see what happened as the spell was placed and it will show them the spell’s purpose...and the spell will unlock as Odia holds it open.” He stopped to look at Odia, unsure whether to finish or not. Again with that look of worry in his eyes.

“What are you not telling me?” I huffed.

“Spells like these,” she paused, “are protection spells. It could be to prevent something. What’s hard to understand is that the spell always has an expiration date. That can be tricky,” she said.

I stared at her. Waiting. Surely there was more.

Unfortunately there was.

“If you use a date...let’s say, “after the birth of her first child”, and she never has a child, it won’t expire. It will become unstable. So we have learned to be more precise. I use one year, five years...whatever the case may be. So, when the date arrives, the spell ends with its purpose fulfilled.” She paused while staring into the fire, “This spell was tainted by the death of the casting witch. Its expiration date was set, we don’t know when that was, but it could have expired already. The witches’ death locked the spell from expiring. And now if we don’t remove it...it will kill her.”

“What!” I roared.

The old lady wasn’t bothered by my outburst. She expected it. She was anticipating more...because…

There was more!

“There can’t be more. Tell me it’s not worse than what you’re already telling me?” I begged.

As the witch turned again to meet my plea, I already knew the answer. This detail worried her. She took a deep breath, and I knew I was holding mine...waiting.

“She will die if we don’t unlock it. But she can also die if the purpose of the spell isn’t fulfilled...and the expiration date has passed.”

“So what can I do?” I pleaded with the witch. My heart felt dangerously impaired.

Dad reluctantly shook his head.

“Damn it, dad! Don’t tell me nothing!” I growled, smashing a nearby table to pieces.

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