Page 97 of Scars of the Sun
Ramona and I had just hopped off my bike and taken our helmets off when the Leader came around what was left of the house and stormed toward us. His green eyes were blazing, glowing in a way that was far from human, and I caught the scent of forest still strong on him. The pack had been on a run, and I knew immediately that Cata and Mara had planned this around the event. Knowing that the pack would be occupied.
The Leader’s usual orderly curls were a mess about his head, and I suppressed a growl when his hands connected with my chest, grabbing at my shirt. He was shaking, trying to hold back his Wolf since there were a few concerned human neighbors present as well, but I wasn’t going to fight back. “What the fuck do you know about this. Tell the truth, or I will fucking kill you.”
“Orion, stop!” Ramona urged with her own growl. Seemed like we’d been through this scenario before.
I kept myself steady and open. Any type of defensiveness would set him off, and we obviously had bigger problems to worry about. “I assure you, Leader. I had nothing to do with this. And I will stand with you to get revenge.” I let my Jaguar slip a little to the forefront, taking advantage of his eyes staring mine down to see the sincerity of my words. Ramona was my family, and by extension, this Wolf. His mate and children were all mine to defend, too, and the times I’d been here, I knew how special this place was to all of them.
He sniffed the few inches between us, claws ripping into the shirt I’d hastily pulled on when Ramona answered her brother’s call. We’d dressed as quickly as possible, and I’d popped in my contacts so that my glasses wouldn’t get in the way.
Orion’s growl settled a bit, and when he eventually dropped his hold on me, I surreptitiously released a long exhale. Ramona clutched my hand in hers. Her eyes were glassy with tears as she faced her brother who had calmed only a fraction. “How bad is it?”
He swept his hands up and down his face, before dropping them to his sides. Not only did his fingers and hands twitch, but his wrists jerked in agitated movements as well. “Bad. Whatever they did blazed right through the wards Sylvie and Josie had kept up over the years.”
“And the garden?” Ramona croaked. We couldn’t see it here, with the blackened skeleton of the house and smoke blocking our way. By the lack of hope in her question, I knew she already had a feeling of what his answer would be.
I brought a hand around her waist, bracing for her brother’s response. “Destroyed.”
My princess let out a little distressed whine, and I tucked her head into my neck while fighting back my instinct to take this on as my fault. Would they have still done this if I hadn’t mated Ramona? When Mara interrogated me about my matewho wasn’t even my mate at that point, I’d been tightlipped. As if the powers that be took some small mercy on all of us, her scenting was weaker than other shifters, so maybe not. But she could’ve still smelled Ramona on me. And the familial note that ran through her and the Pack Leader.
Orion went to go speak with another Wolf who eyed me suspiciously but said nothing, and I rubbed soothingly at Ramona’s shoulders. She stayed rooted in place, unwilling to go closer and see one of her favorite places gone. My mate let me comfort her as silent tears spilled down her cheeks. My Jaguar grumbled, itching to retaliate against those that’d made my mate upset.
A flash of rage shot toward us, something I’d never experienced before, and it took too long for me to recognize Sylvie, rushing from where the garden once was. Her hair was down and wild, with twigs and leaves that’d probably been a result of full immersion in the interrupted run.
Her cherry-red painted nails resembled drops of blood, and they were like talons, aimed for my chest like she wanted to pull out my soul. Her brown eyes were glazed and wrathful, even as Ramona lunged between us.
“Sylvie!” Ramona snarled just as Orion wrapped a hand around his mate’s waist to keep her from going at me. My princess held her sister at arm’s length, muscles bulging as the witch continued to press forward. She was mumbling in a foreign language, using words that weren’t of this world at all.
Fuck, I caused this. Right? My family had destroyed something sacred to my mate andherfamily, and I was the link in between.
I wanted to say something, but my words were more than just stuck in my throat. It felt like it was slowly closing, invisible hands circling around my windpipe while cotton was stuffed down my throat. Ramona was struggling in front of me, but Icouldn’t get my body to obey. My muscles were trembling, not unlike when I was about to shift, but it was wrong and painful. I clutched at the base of my neck, not knowing how or what to do to make it stop.
Sylvie’s hands were trapped by Orion’s arms, opening and clenching at her sides, and when she met my panicked stare with my mate still struggling in the middle, she smirked in a dark, possessed way that was nothing like I’d seen before.
Ramona cast a worried glance at me over her shoulder, and, through the black now creeping in on my vision, I saw her eyes widen even more as she took in my state, now kneeling in grass, mouth opening and closing uselessly. “No, Sylvie! He didn’t do this! O, get her to stop! Where the fuck is Josie? Can you call her?”
A few more seconds of agony, just as I started welcoming in unconsciousness as a reprieve from this pain, it stopped. Well, the force causing it stopped, but I coughed until my throat was raw, and my limbs were still tingly and sore. Ramona collapsed by my side—when had I fallen completely on the ground?—and ran her hands over my face. Her whines of distress were nice and something to hold onto, so I let her cool citrus fill my lungs and calm my racing heart.
“She’s still helping Juno—Sylvana, mo ghrá, I’m here…” The Leader was speaking low and urgent, and when my clearing vision focused on them standing just a few feet away, the witch was now weeping in her mate’s chest. Great, big wails that grated on my ears, but I was just thankful that she was no longer trying to murder me with whatever fucking kind of magic that was.
A couple humans and Wolves jogged over, obviously seeing me on the ground, and asked if I needed assistance. With lame assertions that I just tripped and fell after arriving, they eventually backed off and continued to look over to the scene of smolder and ruin.
I sat up slowly with my mate’s arms still around me, breathing through the lingering tremors. Witches could be particularly nasty, but the dark power off of Sylvie wasn’t fucking human magic. How in the hell I hadn’t realized until now that she was Fae, I didn’t know. Nowthosewere some vengeful fuckers.
Ramona kissed my face relentlessly, still making that very canine sound of distress. “Are you okay, baby?” She scented at my neck, and the gesture itself was bolstering my energy and making me feel better.
Slowly rubbing my cheek on her temple in return, I tried a deep breath, finding my lungs aching but otherwise okay. “I’m okay, Princess. Really thought I was gonna be killed by a faerie for a second.”
But my mate was unamused by my try at humor. She shot me a look that was full of worry, relief, and irritation. “Don’t even joke about that. If she weren’t grieving, I would’ve had to knock her on her ass.”
A warning growl carried over to us, and I shifted a little to see the Pack Leader still cradling his mate in his arms. Her sobs were calmed to little hiccups, and an older woman with fiery hair had wandered over and was rubbing Sylvie’s back. Whoever she was, the combination of she and Orion’s reassurances were working, and the churning rage was all but gone from the air.
“Watch your mouth, Mona.” The Leader grumbled, and his face was sharp.
Ramona bared her teeth. “And you watch your mate. We’re family, but I won’t have her hurting mine. Especially when he had nothing to do with this.”
I tried to sigh, but everything was still raw, so I coughed halfway through the gesture. Ramona rubbed my back in soothing circles, and I was eventually able to draw in enough air. “It’s okay, Princess. I get?—”
“No. Don’t you fucking try and make excuses for someone attacking you, Río. I won’t hear of it, so just be quiet if that’s what you’re gonna do.” She punctuated her command with a kiss on my temple. There was no hope for me ignoring a directive like that, so I just leaned into her and tried to begin forming a plan.