Chapter Sixty

“You need to get out of your own way.”

I glared daggers at Ostera, the oldest member of the coven. She sat cross-legged on the ground by the fire that always burned outside in the middle of the street, knitting a colorful blanket while instructing me.

It was sort of amazing, really, the way she could work without looking at what she was doing. Years and years of practice, I supposed.

“I'm doing the best I can,” I grumbled, pushing up the sleeves of my sweatshirt and shaking my hands out.

Not that any of that would help—what I was doing was mental, not physical.

“Imagine your power like a white light,” she suggested, brushing back strands of gray hair teased free by the breeze. Her long, thick braid that hung over her shoulder shone in the early March sun.

She’d been working with me for a whole week, her patience never wavering. Mine, on the other hand…

“It is like a white light,” I pointed out. “That's how it appeared to me at first.”

“Good, then it'll be easier for you to imagine. Now, close your eyes. I want you to envision that white light.”

I glanced at Aimes, who nodded.

“Relax,” he urged. “Let it flow naturally. There’s no rush.”

If only that were true. Every minute that passed was a minute closer to whatever came next, whatever danger lurked around the corner. Stride and Connolly were out there somewhere, as well as Annecy.

Annecy, who was alone, abandoned, and betrayed. It wasn't like I felt much sympathy for her after everything she'd put me through, but I couldn't help placing myself in her shoes either. What would it be like, thinking I had everything under control, only to discover I’d never had control at all? She had trained her army, fed them, and protected them. And all it had taken was Stride telling them what they wanted to hear, and probably flashing his cash, for them to turn their backs on her.

Stop thinking about her.

Instead, I envisioned the white light.

“Now,” Ostera continued, her needles clicking together as she spoke, “imagine yourself harnessing that light. Drawing it together, forming it into a tight ball. Don't try to force it. Set your intention, then allow it to happen.”

I took a deep breath and did as she said, imagining myself drawing the light into a ball, gathering it together, controlling it. It started to work, too—instead of a random sort of light filling my head, it solidified into something stronger, brighter.

“Keep going,” Ostera murmured, her voice softer, sounding farther away than it had before. “Can you feel your wolf forming?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Imagine the wolf splitting away from you so that one becomes two. Can you see that?”

Sweat tracked down my temples. I could picture it in my head, but it wasn’t happening.

She must have seen my strain because she added, “Don't force it. Let it happen on its own. This power is innate. It was born in you. All you have to do is get out of your way and accept it.”

“I’m. Trying!” I said through gritted teeth.

“I know, it’s easy for me to say, isn’t it?” The sound of her needles stopped for a second. “But this is the way of it. It's the same with witches, honestly. We are born with our powers, and it's only a matter of learning to tap into those powers and stop telling ourselves what is and isn't possible. I'm sure the world has limited you without you knowing it. That's the nature of humanity, but you are far stronger than you know. You thought it was shocking and stunning when your wolf first burst free? That’s nothing compared to what you can do.”

I knew she was trying to help, which was the only thing keeping me from lashing out. Frankly, though, I was getting tired of hearing about how powerful I was when I felt small and useless.

I needed this training. I needed to know everything I was capable of if we had any hope of beating Connolly and everyone else against us. But there were times, like right now, when the odds seemed stacked much too high.

Would I have to stop the coming battles just so I could concentrate on bringing my spectral wolf out every single time?

Sorry, everyone, but if you could just stop what you’re doing and come back in about fifty years so I can focus on my wolf, that’d be really great. ’Kay, thanks, byyyyye.

“Maybe she needs to rest,” Aimes suggested.

“Yes, get yourself something to eat,” Ostera agreed. “We’ll come back to this.”

My eyes flew open, the white light I’d envisioned vanishing. “No.”

Even I was surprised at the strength of my reaction. It didn’t feel like it came out of me; that single word barked out like the crack of a whip.

Aimes’s eyes widened in obvious surprise, but Ostera didn’t so much as blink.

“Your wolf is fierce,” she announced with approval in her voice and her smile.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound so salty,” I said.

“Don’t be. Your wolf understands how strong you are and wants to prove itself. Perhaps that’s how we ought to think about this.” She tapped her chin with one long finger, nodding slowly. “This time, when you try to bring your wolf forward, imagine yourself stepping aside and allowing the wolf to do what comes naturally. Take yourself out of the equation, so to speak.”

Strange, but when she put it that way, everything made more sense. I was standing in the way of my wolf.

“But I have to be in control of her,” I pointed out with a touch of fear in my voice.

This was still so new, and everything felt so dangerous. There was so much riding on all of this.

“What better time to practice, then, when you don't have to worry about her hurting anyone? You're among friends, family. You're safe here. She is safe here.”

I looked to Aimes, who nodded firmly, his smile warm and encouraging. That was what I needed, that reassurance. He had my back in all the right ways.

“Okay,” I sighed. “Let's try this again.”

I closed my eyes, and once again, I saw the white light in my head. This time, I imagined just her, not her and me together.

Do your thing, I told my wolf. Show me what you can do.

An effervescent warming sensation filled my chest. I couldn't help but smile. It almost tickled.

But then that sensation turned to a pulling, tugging, and my heart raced faster the more intense that sensation became. What was happening? I wanted to stop it, but I couldn't. I couldn't give in to my fear. I forced myself to remain calm, taking deep breaths, steadying myself.

“You're doing it,” Aimes whispered. “You're doing it. Keep going.”

It was like wisps of smoke coming together. Thin at first, almost lost in the breeze, but soon they solidified.

I opened my eyes—and gasped. There she was, my beautiful white wolf. She looked up at me with eyes that were as familiar as my own, eyes full of life, fight, and a spark of humor.

“Yes,” Aimes murmured, pumping his fist in excitement while he stared at my wolf.

She was there for no more than a second or two before vanishing, but she had appeared without violently bursting out of me.

“Did you see it?” I asked, my voice almost shrill with excitement.

Really, there was no need to ask. I saw it written on both their faces, their pride, their satisfaction.

“And now that you know what's possible,” Ostera explained, “it will come easier next time, and then again the time after that.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. I had done it. It was possible.

I wanted to try again, but the experience had drained me. I wasn't sure I could manage it again so soon.

“You should get some rest,” Aimes said, clamping an arm around my waist. “You look exhausted.”

“Yes, rest before supper,” Ostera insisted. “I don't want to wear you out. You should be proud of the work you've done and how far you’ve already come. Considering you had no instruction the way you should have from a witch in your pack, you've done beautifully. Exceptionally, in fact.”

“Thanks.” Beaming, I did a little skip, which made Aimes laugh.

He took my hand and returned us to our bungalow. Aunt Sarah must have sent out the call for everyone to pretty much leave us alone while I was training, since most of the coven were indoors.

Were they afraid I’d blast them with my wolf or something? Then again, there I was, someone with little understanding of her powers. Stranger things had probably happened at the hands of an untrained wolf.

As soon as the door was closed and we were alone, Aimes pulled me to him.

“Watching you do that was so fucking hot,” he growled, his hands running over my ass. “Hot as hell.”

“Well,” I breathed, grinding myself closer. “I certainly believe you, given what you’re currently packing in your pants.”

He buried his face in my neck, nibbling, licking, kissing. “I wanted to throw you to the ground and take you then and there, in front of Ostera and everything. You’re incredible.”

“Am I going to have to be careful with myself when I'm using my powers around you?”

“That depends on how frequently you want me to ravish you.”

“How about all the time?” I tilted my head to give him better access and moaned as his hands skimmed underneath my sweatshirt.

Pleasure took root and spread through me, pleasure so sweet there was nothing to do but sink into it. I wanted to lose myself. I wanted to connect with him in the middle of all this confusion and upheaval. So much uncertainty.

He was my touchstone, my foundation. I only needed to come back to him to center myself again.

When he cupped his hands under my ass and lifted, I wrapped my legs around his hips, clutching him tightly as he carried me to the bed. He dropped on top of me, the very opposite of gentle and tender. He was so hungry. Hungry for me.

A needy, pulsing ache throbbed between my legs, and I met his frenzy with my own, reveling in the knowledge that he needed me the way I needed him. That all I had to do was be myself, entirely myself, to turn him on and make him half-crazed to be with me.

“Fuck, Aimes…” I whispered as he lifted my sweatshirt over my head.

I helped him and tossed it to the floor as he kissed his way down my body, working my pants to my ankles once he reached my waist.

I was already soaked for him by the time he spread my thighs and wasted no time descending upon my hot, aching pussy. I clutched the back of his head, holding him close, running my fingers through his silky hair. My back arched when his tongue parted my lips, working its way through my swollen, throbbing folds.

“Yes,” I moaned when he began flicking my pulsing bundle of nerves with the tip of his tongue. “Oh, just like that…”

I jerked my hips, my body taking control, desperate to find release.

I didn’t bother to hold back what was pouring out of me, a steady stream of overlapping moans. Let the rest of my coven, the whole street, the entire city hear me scream out the raw, blazing pleasure of Aimes's tongue against my clit. He knew just what to do, how to touch me, his arms hooked around my thighs and holding them in place while he unraveled me.

“Oh yes… Oh my bookstore god.”

My body went still all over, caught in a moment of blinding heat, the wave reaching its crest before crashing over me, sending ripples of pleasure through all of me, all at once.

I was barely aware of him still working my pussy, lapping up the juices that flowed freely with my orgasm. I was still lost in that hazy, blissful place when he crawled his way up the length of my body and pressed his hard cock against my entrance.

“Yes.” A single word delivered on a breathless whisper.

I opened my eyes in the split second before Aimes drove himself into me, wanting to see him when he did. To look into his eyes. My inner muscles gripped him, and I relished the delicious fullness of him inside me.

His hips began to move, gliding him in and out. He slid a hand under my head, tilting my face up.

He brushed his lips over mine, whispering, "This is mine."

He kissed me then, urgently, filled with heat. A promise of so much more to come.

His sparkle cock moved inside me, fucking me hard, pushing me closer and closer. He grabbed hold of my legs and hitched them around his ass. The new position opened me up even more, letting him go even deeper.

I had never felt anything so hot, so intense. It was as if all of my nerve endings were connected to his cock.

He was pounding into me so hard that my head slammed into the headboard. I was oblivious to everything except for him driving me to that pinnacle.

His voice was a harsh growl when he said, "Now."

I looked into his eyes just as his Prince Albert hit the right spot inside me. My pussy clenched around him, and then I was coming.

It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I cried out with the power of it. While I still contracted around him, he thrust into me harder and harder, fucking me through my orgasm, prolonging it, and I knew he was about to come too.

I dug my heels into his ass, urging him on. My fingernails carved into the muscles of his arms as he drove into me.

"Look at me," I urged softly.

He opened his eyes. Twin blue flames that burned into me, full of hunger and lust and love.

I'd never seen anything so erotic as Aimes coming, his face etched with the intensity of the feelings that were coursing through him. With a damn sexy moan, he drove himself deep into me one final time. He held me there as his cock jerked inside me.

“I think you broke me,” he whispered when he came back down.

“Good,” I whispered back with a satisfied smile.

Still joined, we lay together, touching, feeling, existing, and it was pure heaven. We didn’t even say anything because we didn’t need to. We fell asleep like that, locked together in every way that mattered.

But while I slept, Stride appeared in my dreams. He was facing me, smiling his fake, Photoshopped smile, and he had so many wolves at his back. They were snarling, growling, pawing at the grass. It was here, near this part of the city.

I jerked awake, covered in sweat, my heart leaping against my ribs.

Birds chirped outside in anticipation for the coming spring. A light breeze gently shook the windowpane.

Stride wasn’t really here. Yet.

Eventually, though, we were going to have to face him.

How could I be sure we would survive it?