Astra watched him carefully for a few seconds. “Protector,” she repeated. “Like who?”
“Well, there’s me. Then there’s my en—” he stopped. He had to tell her about shifters first. That would make the entire explanation a hell of a lot easier.
“Should we maybe sit in your truck while we talk? I’m sort of scared more of her posse will come for me.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s actually a good idea.”
Well.
Blaze was an alpha. He was a problem solver. He might not be the smartest guy in the world, but he should have thought about taking her somewhere safe before he started on the whole story. Clearly, the fact that most of his blood had traveled south was hindering his thinking.
He led Astra to his truck and held the door opened for her. He tried to look away when she propped her ass up, but failed. The black material of her scrubs pulled against the juiciest ass he had ever seen. For a few seconds, his brain grinded to a halt so he could imagine what it would be like to bite her ass.
Do it, his wolf growled, desperate for a taste of the woman that was theirs.
“Are you okay?” she asked him, concern on her pretty face.
“Yup.”
He slammed the door and ran to the other side of the truck where he took his seat. Astra was buckled in, but she had managed to turn her body toward him.
“So my family is safe?”
“I swear to you, Astra. You are in the safest place when you’re with me. I’m a shifter. That means that I can shift into a wolf.”
“Right,” she nodded, “I sensed there was something different about your aura. So you’re a wolf shifter.”
Blaze was stunned by how easy this was going down. “You’ve heard of shifters?”
Astra nearly rolled her eyes at him. “Well, yes. I’m a witch. How silly would it be if I really believed that my kind were the only type of supernatural creatures that actually existed?”
“That’s fair.” Blaze didn’t know what to say for a second. He had really thought he would have to explain the existence of shifters. Astra was really taking everything in stride.
It made him like her that much more.
“I’m the alpha of the Marblehead pack.” He began his explanation, and he waited a few seconds to see if Astra would ask him a question, but she didn’t, silently prompting him to go on. “I came to get you, but my first-in-command, my enforcer Jett, has your sister. Axel, he’s the alpha of the Salem pack. He and Sheriff Zane have your cousins. You’re all safe.”
Astra’s brow was furrowed and her full lips were puckered questioningly. “First of all, how did you even know this threat was coming? And secondly, why would not one, but two different wolf packs choose to help witches?”
“Well, from what Sheriff Zane told me, one of the member's kids walked into the police station and reported that the Order of Salem was planning on killing all the Bishop witches.”
“Why us?”
There was so much sadness in her blue eyes, it made Blaze’s heart ache. “They want to kill all of the Salem witches’ descendants in the same order in which they were executed in 1692. You don’t have to worry about the other witches of Salem. All of them are under police and wolf protection until the Order of Salem is dismantled.”
“That is some fucked up shit,” Astra sighed. “Why do these humans always come after us? It’s not like any of us use our powers for evil. We just want to be like everyone else. Have jobs, families. Maybe even get so lucky as to fall in love. We’re not harming anyone.”
“I know,” Blaze said. And he did. There was a reason why the shifter community remained secret. They didn’t need to be chased down like animals. He was sure that if the Order of Salem knew about wolves, they would also become targets.
“You’re sure that all the witches are safe?” she asked in earnest.
“Yes, you’re all safe.”
“But why are the wolves helping us? I get the cops, but shifters…”
“Like I said, the Salem sheriff is a shifter. A lot of his employees are as well. That’s how the wolves of Salem and Marblehead got involved. But even if we didn’t have police officers in our ranks, we still would have made it our mission to stop the witch hunters. They want to kill people on our land. It’s not right. We defend what’s ours.” There was a double connotation there, but it was lost on Astra. She didn’t know she was his yet.
But she was. He would have to tell her eventually.
He had finally, after all of his years of searching, found his mate. He wasn’t going to let her walk away and out of his life.
“Oh,” Astra nodded as his words sank in. “So this is like a wolf outreach program for the attacked witches of Salem. Shit, where were you guys during the Salem witch trials? It would have been great to get help then.”
Blaze could only shrug. He didn’t know enough about the history to get into it.
“I don’t want to frighten you, or upset you, but there is something else.” His mate didn’t say anything, only looked at him expectantly. “I’m going to take you to my place until this threat is taken care of.”
To her credit, Astra didn’t even look frightened. He took a discreet sniff of the air, and she didn’t even smell scared. Interesting. His mate wasn’t only a feisty redhead, but she was brave. He liked that in a woman.
“Who’s taking care of the order if you’re hiding out with me and the other wolves in charge have also taken a Bishop witch under their wings…er… jowls? Paws?”
Blaze chuckled at her attempt at lightening the heavy mood of the discussion. “Both wolf packs and the Salem’s sheriff’s office are chasing down the witch hunters. As soon as everyone in the Order of Salem is caught, you’ll be able to return to your home and business, but until then…”
He cleared his throat. He had only just met her, but he was already feeling the mating pull. His wolf was already chomping at the bit, screaming that there was no way they were just going to let her walk away once this was all resolved.
“Until the order is caught, I’m staying with the big bad wolf to run away from psycho grannies. God, it’s like a fucked-up fairy tale twisted on its head.”
He laughed again, because she was right. It was indeed a weird twist on the Little Red Riding Hood. Shit, she even had the red down pat with her thick waves of auburn. “You’re okay with all this?” He was truly surprised. Astra wasn’t just courageous. She was also hilarious. He was going to have a good time keeping her around.
“Okay with all of this? I mean, sure, as much as I can be. It’s not like I can defend myself against guns. I mean, sure, I’m a witch. But I know very little defensive magic, and once I’ve done too much magic, I’m depleted. I’d be a sitting duck. If you’re offering to help me, I’m not going to say no. I will need to make sure that my sister is okay, though.”
“Of course, that only makes sense.”
“And I also want to point out that if you hadn’t just saved me, I’d be who knows where being tortured but Mrs. Gellar. I’m choosing to trust you. But if you try to hurt me, just remember, I’m a witch. I can curse your dick so it never works right again.”