Page 44 of Cage Me
She nods. “Peter woke up screaming, and your mother couldn’t stop crying as she tried to console him. I had to do something, and I was pretty sure you weren’t home or at least didn’t want to be interrupted. I couldn’t let them suffer.”
What comes out next seems to shock everyone in the room. “Thank you. You made the right choice.”
Kasha blinks several times before chuckling. “You’re welcome. Though, I expected more of a fight. I even doubled my caffeine intake to deal with you this early in the day.”
I nod my head toward Drake. “This is your fault,” I tease. “You’re making me soft, and you’ve only been here a day.”
He merely shrugs and takes a seat first. “I’m a murderous shadow shifter. Whatever changes you’ve made are on you.”
He’s full of shit. He’s the biggest cinnamon roll I’ve ever met. One that melted the icing around my heart quicker than I could have ever thought possible.
While I also blame the magic of the mate bond, there’s no denying that Drake holds a goodness within himself that appeals me to him even with him blocking our bond.
He might have come out of that portal raging, but he had every right to be. The fact that he changed his plans—foregoing his vengeance temporarily—the moment he saw me is all I need to know for now.
Giving Kasha my full attention again, I take her in, observing her bright blue eyes and her genuine smile as she sips her coffee. I can easily admit that Drake’s kindness isn’t the first I’ve succumbed to, regardless of all the warnings my mother had given me growing up.
“Considering you made sure they’re mentally okay, I hope that means you don’t have a problem still protecting my family once I tell you that the witch who cursed Drake isn’t just any old hag. She’s possibly one of the original dark witches and several millenniums old.” I drop the bomb of information casually, but I don’t expect her response to be just the same.
Her eyes begin to glow, and she grins. “Magic has never scared me, in any form. That’s not changing today.”
Huh. I maybe should have been getting to know Kasha these last few months instead of keeping her at arm’s length. She just might be more badass than I’ve been giving her credit for.
“There will be no place safer for them than my home,” she adds, sitting a little taller in her chair, a prideful glint in her eyes. “I can assure you.”
For the first time in maybe ever, I accept her promise without feeling the need to question or threaten her. When I do, a light around her intensifies so briefly, I can’t tell if the flicker was only in my mind or her showing off or a reminder from my little mental shakedown last night.
“We need to head to Spells, but we won’t be long,” I tell her as Drake stands from the table, reminding me that his eagerness to be free is just as important as anything else.
Kasha grins behind her mug. “Have fun with the witch.”
Yeah, that’s not going to happen. At least not until I know my mate isn’t going to die today.
Chapter 18
DRAKE
Since the moment I saw the message on Spencer’s phone about unlocking my wolf, I haven’t been able to think of anything else. For over nine hundred years, I’ve been forced to live without my other half. The first couple hundred were the worst, and I shudder at their memory.
Fury that doesn’t even come close to touching what I have now. If Kel had merely caged my wolf and left me as I was, I could have murdered half of Tartarus. Hell, I wanted to.
My only saving grace was the fact that I couldn’t move.
Even now, thinking back on those darkest days, my chest tightens and my fingers curl into fists, desperate to beat in someone’s face.
I should be thrilled knowing that by day’s end, I’ll be reunited with my wolf. Yet, for some reason, all I can focus on is the bad that has happened since losing him.
All the time that was stolen from me, the life I could have had, the few people in my life that I thought might have given a shit about me.
“Drake?” Spencer’s voice breaks through my fiery haze, but it’s her touch that startles me most.
Her fingers are ice cold against my heated skin. Not only that, but the glow from my tattoo is back, bright enough that it’s shining through my shirt.
“We don’t have to do this if you’re not ready or unsure about the consequences,” she says quietly, nodding toward Spells.
How the hell are we here already? I don’t remember any of the walk from Kasha’s to here. Not even a flicker of the crowds I’m sure we passed.
What the fuck is wrong with me?