“What a pretty stone,” her client said, an evil smile on her wrinkled face. “Too bad it won’t make a lick of difference.”
Astra felt her entire body go cold.
“Pardon me?” she asked, her voice shaking.
Something was definitely wrong. It crackled around her, making her skin crawl.
“You know, Astra, I’ve been coming here for a long time. To watch you. And I have to say, for such a powerful witch, you sure are dumb.”
Astra opened her mouth to protest, but her voice died, her throat as dry as a desert.
Mrs. Gellar’s mouth was twisted in an evil smile, and she was holding a gun, the barrel pointed directly at her heart.
I knew it! Astra’s mind shouted.
Chapter Two
Blaze
Blaze leaned against the side of his pickup truck in his enforcer's driveway, arms crossed. It wasn’t like it was actually helping with his impatience or fatigue. The sky was shining just a little too brightly, and the sounds of nature were just a little too loud. He’d only just gotten into bed when his phone had rung with troublesome news. Blaze had immediately hung up and called Jett with the order that he be up and ready in fifteen minutes.
That was sixteen minutes ago.
Blaze was getting ready to beat down the door when Jett finally walked out of his little blue house. The other wolf shifter slammed the front door behind him with a bit too much strength. It made Blaze’s teeth rattle. He’d had six or seven too many beers last night, and now he was paying for it. He wanted to devour a stack of pancakes, a full pound of bacon, and a gallon of coffee to soak up the burning edge of the alcohol still sloshing around in his brain.
Typically, shifters didn’t get hungover, but he had really overdone it. It hadn’t helped that he had also had to close down the bar after the bachelor party for one of the members of their pack.
As both the alpha of the Marblehead pack and the owner of Gray Wolf, the only shifter bar for hundreds of miles, Blaze had offered to host the party. Even knowing it would be hard on him.
The fact that yet another one of his pack was getting married irked him. It wasn’t so much that the kid was getting hitched before him. It was more a weird type of jealousy that now wolves younger than him were finding their true mates.
And Blaze was still waiting.
“Why in the fuck do we need to be up so early?” Jett mumbled, walking up to him at a sluggish pace.
“Got a call from Axel. There’s trouble brewing up there in Salem.”
Jett rubbed a hand across his eyes, and Blaze understood the sentiment. It had been a particularly rowdy night. And that was saying something. Shifter parties did tend to be excessive and boisterous.
“How is that our problem?” Jett gripped.
“This group of witch hunters calling themselves the Order of Salem are after some women. Axel called to warn us. He thinks it might splash onto our lands.”
“Witch hunters?” Jett wasn’t as skeptical as Blaze had expected him to be.
But he could only figure that the existence of witches had to make sense. They were wolf shifters, so it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination that other supernatural beings existed.
“Right,” Blaze answered. “Witch hunters. Apparently, these idiots want to kill the descendants of all the Salem witches executed during the Salem trials. In the same order and everything.”
“Didn’t a bunch of witch families leave Salem to settle here after the trials?” Jett’s interest was finally perked.
Blaze took a deep breath of morning air, hoping to wake himself up. “Yup. And it just so happens that two of the first intended victims basically live on the border between Salem and Marblehead.”
“So what are we going to do? Stop an assassination attempt on two witches?”
“That’s right. Axel and Zane are taking care of two witches of their own. The two women we have to help are a set of twins. Astra and Selene Bishop. They own a holistic center in Salem. I’ll head over there while you head over to their home. We need to keep them in separate locations. That way the witch hunters are spread thin. It’ll give our pack, the Salem pack, and the Salem sheriff’s office the chance to catch all of them before anyone is hurt.”
“Lucky for us that the Salem sheriff is a wolf enforcer of his own pack.”
Jett wasn’t entirely wrong. It was a good thing, especially in this particular situation. Blaze was just about to give Jett more instructions, but he stopped, his mouth hanging open in surprise. A leggy brunette stumbled out of Jett’s house on bare feet. Sky-high shoes were clutched in her hands and yesterday’s mascara smudged under her eyes. She faltered when she spotted them.
“Oh. Hi, Alpha.” Her face reddened with embarrassment.
“Hey, Leah.”
He watched as the woman jumped into her car and sped away. Jett kicked at a pebble with his shoe.
“Don’t say anything,” the enforcer warned. “Nothing happened. I was too drunk.”
“You gotta stop fucking around, Jett. For real. How do you expect to be ready for your real mate if you’re wasting all of your time sleeping around?”
Jett shrugged. “I’m not looking for my mate. You know that. We can’t all be stand up men like you. I’m not meant for the wife and kids thing.”
It was on the tip of Blaze’s tongue to tell his enforcer that he was wrong. Jett would only argue that Blaze expected more from him than what was necessary. But really, Jett had an important position in the pack, and that meant he had to behave better. It was a useless conversation they’d had too many times.
“Back to our business. We’ll keep the witches separate, and once all of the culprits have been stopped, then we’ll let them go about their business.”
“Fine. So I’m to bring the witch here?” Jett asked.
“Yes. Keep her safe and, please, I beg you, do not fuck her. We don’t need things to get complicated.”
Jett sighed and crossed his arms. “Really? You think it’s necessary to warn me not to have sex with a woman I’m protecting?”
“Well,” Blaze looked in the direction Leah had disappeared. “Can you blame me?”
“Like I said, nothing happened. We stumbled home drunk, that’s it. Not that who I fuck is any of your business.”
“But it is,” Blaze insisted. “You’re my enforcer and how you behave is a direct reflection of me and my leadership. You need to chill out, Jett. I get that you don’t want to fall in love again after what happe—”
“I’m not doing this.” Jett walked around to his car. He was great at avoiding anything that caused him any sort of pain. “I’ve got a witch to save. Text me the address.”
If Jett wasn’t such a loyal and great pack member and employee, if he wasn’t such a good friend, Blaze would have been much less critical of his enforcer’s behavior. As it was, Blaze knew Jett was sleeping around because he was still hurting. He wanted Jett to move beyond the past.
“Jett,” Blaze called out, “keep me posted. Let me know when you get back here with one of the witches.”
“Yes, Alpha.” There was an edge of attitude to Jett’s voice.