Page 133 of Black Willow Witch
Logan watched him so closely he almost tripped over a tree root. ‘Has this got something to do with what Mom went through when Dad died in front of her?’
Ripper swallowed, his gut twisting. ‘I can still hear that scream. The agony in it, the mindless rage . . .’ It had been the cry of a broken soul.
‘There’s a very big difference between our mom and Emberlyn,’ said Logan, his voice soft.
‘What’s that?’
‘If something happened to you, Emberlyn wouldn’t lose all control and throw herself into a fight she couldn’t win. She’d fucking destroy everyone she held accountable – and she’d do it right there right then with a minimal amount of struggle.’
Ripper felt his lips almost twitch. Yeah, his witch would do exactly that. She was no slave to her emotions, even when they were running high.
‘You never envisioned yourself claiming CeCe?’
‘Not once.’ Ripper inadvertently kicked a pebble, sending it skipping along the ground. ‘You?’
‘Too many times,’ Logan mumbled.
‘You were right in what you said. You care for her far more than I ever did.’
‘You meant what you told her, didn’t you? You never actually loved her.’
‘I meant it,’ Ripper verified.
‘She’s kept her head down since the whole hair-turning-green thing a fortnight ago. I think she’s still shaken over it,’ Logan added, a hint of humor in his voice. ‘Much as she will haveknown that Emberlyn’s a vengeful creature, I don’t think she was prepared for your witch to doanythinglike that.’
His brother wasn’t the only one who’d found it amusing. Ripper had been wrong to worry that his clan would be so unnerved by Emberlyn’s actions that they wouldn’t want her around. On the contrary, they respected that demonstration of strength and pitilessness.
‘It was a genius punishment on Emberlyn’s part – she forced CeCe to have to own up to her actions and admit to a difficult truth.’ Halting, Logan turned to him. ‘And now you’ve gotta admit to your own difficult truth.’
Stopping at his brother’s side, Ripper frowned. ‘Which is what?’
Logan regarded him with a serious expression. ‘You have some decisions to make regarding Emberlyn. You might be okaynowwith how things currently are between you, but that won’t last. We’re werewolves. It’s in us to claim what we intend to keep. You won’t be able to fight it unless you break away from her before it gets too late.’
‘Break away?’ Ripper all but snarled.
‘Walk, or get over your reservations about mating – one or the other. Tonotclaim her wouldn’t spare her pain if she lost you, it would just mean you weren’t mated.’
Ripper ground his teeth, his thoughts—
‘Fuck.’ The barked curse made them both tense. It had come from Crew. A birdcall came next – aGet over heremessage from the werewolf in question.
Ripper and Logan tracked the sound, finding Crew staring at a tree. Their other clan members materialized, coming from various directions.
‘What is it?’ asked Ripper.
He pointed at the tree. ‘That.’
Ripper did a double-take. A pile of skulls and other bones – most covered in stringy flesh and blood – rested against the large tree.
‘Jesus,’ Kerr breathed.
‘What could have done that?’ asked Crew. ‘I mean, I can smell Rabid piss – you can’t mistake it for anything else; it’s too distinctive. But they don’t collect the remains of their kills and stack them like this.’
Ripper glanced around, noticing there were deep grooves in the nearby trees. But some claw marks were smaller than others, as if not all were made by the same creature.
‘They do now,’ said Logan. ‘Because there’s nothing else out here that would. You ask me, it’s aStay away from my territorymessage.’
Crew frowned. ‘Rabid mark their slice of territory, but they don’t use scare tactics to keep other packs away. Why would one suddenly do this?’
