My bare feet smacked against the forest floor, the soft bottoms of my feet colliding with dirt, rocks, sticks, and leaves. After almost an hour of chasing him, the spirits stopped guiding me.
Sweet witch, this is too much. You must rest.
“I can’t!” I cried out, my knees collapsing under my weight. “I can’t lose him.”
Harlow, evil lurks close. Be on your guard.
Ice spilled throughout my veins as I pressed my palms into the ground. I didn’t have time to waste on my feelings. “Thank you, Spirits of the Forest. You’ve done well. May I ask for your assistance just a little longer?”
Of course.
I sucked the magical energy from around me and focused on the evil presence running rapidly in my direction.
I could sense them; three beings moving fast with murderous intent. Their urge to kill was sweeping through the forest at a rate I hadn’t seen before. Strange enough, their energy was familiar to me.
They came to an abrupt halt in front of me, twigs snapping underneath their weight. The sounds of bones popping sent another chill down my spine.
Werewolves.
“This woman reeks of the rogue,” a male voice said.
A few sniffs to the air sounded out before two more murmurs of agreement rang out.
“What should we do with her?”
“Could use her as bait.”
“Bet you she’s his mate.”
“Second mate, you mean?” One laughed.
My eyes opened, and I could feel magic blazing through my fingertips.
There were three ripped men, stark ass naked, standing in front of me. They were average in appearances. Black hair, dark eyes, so dull. The only thing that made them different was the strange energy they gave off along with their intent to kill.
“Oh, shit! Look at her eyes!”
I smirked. My eyes turned silver when I was full of magical energy. It was when I was the most dangerous. “I’m Harlow. I reside in the forest with the spirits. What business do you have here?”
The guys chuckled, giving each other a knowing look. The one in the middle let his eyes wander over me in a way that made my skin crawl. “A witch, huh? You’re pretty young for a witch.”
“And hot.”
“Dude, we can’t just kill her. Can we keep her?”
“Not all witches are old hags.” I raised myself off the ground and levitated a few inches in the air to make me taller than them and give me an advantage point. “I’m also not anyone’s to kill or keep. I’ll ask you one more time.” I raised my arms and pointed my heated hands toward them. “What is your business here?”
“She’s kind of scary—“
Whack.
“Shut up.” The one on the left hit the one in the middle before stepping forward. “We have one purpose. And that’s to serve Alpha Lockhart. We are looking for a rogue wolf. He used to be Beta of the Maxwell pack. Goes by the name Xavier. Brown wolf, kinda scruffy.”
I pressed my lips together. AlphaLockhart. The werewolf pack filled with violence who killed his own sister, Xavier’s mate. What a terrible—
My body stiffened. That energy was so distinct. Being so close to them, it all made sense. I knew exactly why it was so familiar.
Flames licked against my palms. “Do you know anything about the murder of the Oak witch and her husband in Hollows Coven?”
Confusion wafted off of them, but it only made the flames grow stronger. “Answer me!”
They flinched.
“No, lady. We don’t know anything about any witch. Never met one before.”
Liar.
“You’re lying. I’m an empath. I can tell.”
“Okay, fine. So we’ve met one!” The one on the left stepped forward. “But we haven’t heard of an Oak witch or any witch being killed in Hollows Coven.”
Just because they didn’t know, didn’t mean anything. That energy of the Lockhart pack was the same energy that was all over my parent’s corpses.
“Shut the fuck up!” The one in the middle jerked the other guy back by his shoulder. “We don’t owe this witch anything. Fuck being bait. Let’s kill her like our brother killed his first mate. Bet that’ll really piss him off.”
Without warning, that one shifted into a blur of black and launched himself upward toward me, biting my calf and jerking his head, shredding the flesh before I could blink.
A scream of agonizing pain left my mouth as I summoned a blazing ball of fire and shot it at him, knocking him off.
He yelped but got back to his feet as the other two shifted into wolf form and flanked him. He smiled with a piece of my skin in his teeth, and my stomach churned.
“You’re disgusting.” I summoned more flames and they heated my entire body.
The two wolves in the back glanced at each other but the one in the middle growled, making them stand their ground.
All three jumped at me, and I levitated higher, but the one on the left managed to grab my foot in his teeth, skinning it as he slid off and hit the ground.
My scream boomed around the forest as I shot a stream of blue fire at him, lighting his whole body on fire. He moved about, trying to shake the flames off, but it was no use. He shifted back into human form and dropped dead on the forest ground.
Blood dripped from me to the ground below as the fury within remained. Their pack was responsible. Their pack took away a teenage girl's whole life.
They killed my parents!
I held my hands out and lit the other two wolves on fire before they could attack again. They tried shifting too, and one had been able to stop, drop, and roll until the fire was put out. But the other dropped dead just like the first.
I lowered myself to the ground and winced. The pain was excruciating as I hobbled toward the dying wolf and stood over him. “Why are you such monsters?”
The bastard had the audacity to smirk up at me. “We follow
