Page 80 of Bound to the Wolf
She got less ribbing than she might have expected while she and her sisters chowed down on a pizza from Franklin’s. But judging by the looks Elise had been shooting her all night, Delainey was going to need to apologize to her.
Ugh, that was stupid.
You kidnapped one woman’s boyfriend a little bit because he was a werewolf, and then suddenly when you start dating your own werewolf, people tried to make it weird.
In Delainey’s defense, she wasn’t trying to hide anything. Reece had never kidnapped her. The kidnapping had been done by a mysterious third party who had yet to reveal themselves, and Delainey was beginning to worry they might never do that.
She and Aya were sitting at the table in the dining room with Aya’s largeHistory of Magic Connectionsopen before them, but the book hadn’t offered any clues into how to break the tether.
The book took up most of the table’s surface, its leather cover cracked along the spine, pages thick and yellowed with age and heavy enough that Aya had to use both hands to turn them. Extension cords still snaked across the hardwood floor from the single outlet to the laptop chargers shoved aside to make room.
Aya sat straight-backed in her chair, her black hair tucked tightly behind her ears, reading glasses perched low on her nose as she traced a line of text with one fingertip.
“I don’t think they took this from a spell book,” Aya said. “Someone developed this nasty piece of magic themselves.”
“Lovely,” was Delainey’s response.
There were many ways to do magic. They had hundreds of books in the basement with thousands of spells, or more, that could handle everything from getting blood stains out of white fabric to flying, though she had never quite mastered how to actually make herself fly.
“What’s this about Emerson and research?” Delainey asked. She was glad the man was gone, but it didn’t sound like he was gone forever, and Aya was still wearing the hospitality bracelet he had given them, so he was assuredly coming back.
“He said something about a book in the Wallace Grove libraries that he thought might help,” Aya said without looking up. “It’s been more than three weeks, closer to a month,” Aya pointed out. “Are you sure we don’t want to start asking them for help? I’m sure they would give it.”
“At what cost?”
Their little coven was connected to Wallace Grove through Elise, and tangentially through the fact that Briana and Emerson used to date. They had no connection to Delainey. They owed her no loyalty or favors.
She wasn’t special enough to warrant their help without a high cost, one she definitely couldn’t afford to pay. And frankly, given how the Nevins had reacted to Elise and Nico, she wasn’t sure she wanted to now that she and Reece were something.
“Maybe it’s not as much of a priority right now.” Aya gave her a sly grin.
Delainey rolled her eyes. “Apparently, you don’t realize how close thirty feet really is. I like him, but I don’t want to be joined at the hip.”
Aya’s mouth dropped open and her grin took up her whole face. “Youlikehim!” she teased.
“Oh my God, shut up. Are you twelve?” Delainey wanted to bury her face in her hands and possibly never look at anyone in her coven again.
But Aya wouldn’t let it drop. “I literally cannot remember the last time you liked a guy enough to bring him home. And now you’re shacking up with a werewolf!
“Against my will,” Delainey had to point out. “He and I would not be a thing if it weren’t for the stupid manacles and the tether and all of this bullshit.”
Which was true, and Delainey didn’t really like to think about that.
Would she and Reece have found each other if it wasn’t for magical interference? They had that night at the bar. Even without the tether between them, she had felt a pull to that man she couldn’t quite resist, ever, even when she knew it was the smart thing to do.
Look at her now.
She liked to think that maybe they would have ended up together without being locked in a house, though she was stubborn and so was he.
They might have danced around each other for a decade, glaring at each other over Nico and Elise’s inevitably adorablechildren before they could finally admit that they wanted each other.
“What’s it like?” Aya asked. “Elise doesn’t share, but you’re more fun.”
“If you’re so curious, you should sleep with one of them.” Delainey wasn’t giving details. If she told Aya, it would spread to Serena and Briana and Elise before sunrise, and then they would start critiquing every possible detail she shared.
No, thank you.
“I think we have enough pairings with the Southern Basin Pack right now. Don’t you?” was Aya’s pert response.
