immediate barrage of questions about who she was actually running from. He reluctantly released her shoulder so he could take a seat in one of the spare chairs across from her, not wanting to loom over her like an uncouth bear. “There are some. One is mated to the alpha of my pack. That’s how I recognized what you are when you…stood up to the coyotes.”
“Mated… to the alpha… of your pack…” she repeated slowly, gaze fixed on him like she had to translate from a foreign language.
His patience started to dissipate, even for someone who smelled as enchanting as she did. “Yeah. Her name is Deirdre. Do you know her?”
The witch just kept staring at him. “No. We’re not like a sorority or anything. We don’t have weekly meetings.”
Like he was supposed to know that kind of shit about witches. “Then what are you doing in this city, if you’re not looking for witches?”
“So people aren’t allowed to just visit?” She sat up straighter in the chair but still held her head, squinting even though anger sparked in her gaze. “What’s with the third degree? Can’t I just be here because it’s a nice place to visit and has a great symphony and decent weather this time of year?”
Sasha laughed, though he cut himself off fairly quickly and schooled his expression back to indifferent. “You are funny girl. City is none of those things.”
The witch rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I’m here because I’m here. I didn’t realize I needed an unimpeachable reason for daring the city limits.”
“There’s no such thing as coincidence,” Henry said, and meant every bit of it. “Not around here, and not with the witches. Either you’re running toward something or running away from something. Which is it?”
A flush slowly climbed her cheeks and her voice took on a steely quality. “And I’m saying that’s not the case. Got it?”
Henry’s eyes narrowed. She smelled like fear and worry. She definitely hid something from all of them, and Sasha knew it just as well as Henry did. But Henry wasn’t going to stick around and interrogate the witch. He had better things to do than worry about what kind of trouble she wanted to bring down on the shifters in the city, at least not until he had a chance to talk with Deirdre.
He shoved to his feet and nodded tightly to Sunny. “Great. Good luck.”
He waited at the door for them to unlock it, then walked out into the night to head home for a good night’s sleep. He wouldn’t let the witch’s wide eyes or the feeling of her snuggled against his chest distract him from protecting his pack and his alpha. The witch was on her own.
Chapter 7
Ophelia
Maybe I should have felt bad about being so short-tempered with the stranger who’d turned into a wolf, but I refused to apologize or wallow in it after I finally got shown to a room on the seventh floor and fell into bed. I’d had a hell of a long day and didn’t have to explain myself to anyone. No one deserved the fifth degree just for visiting a city—like that guy, Henry, was the self-appointed sentry to keep people out of the entire metropolis?
I made a huffy noise and rolled over, burying my face in the fat pillow, and drew my knees up to my chest as I tried to get comfortable. Even being exhausted didn’t help me fall asleep. It was like I’d pushed past the fatigue and ended up in a near-hyper state after the adrenaline of confronting people who apparently knew that witches existed.
I exhaled and finally sat up, reaching for some yarn and knitting needles from my bag. I just needed to work a few rows and it would help me calm down. A small lamp on the table next to the bed gave me just enough light to cast on and start on a small washcloth. I spooled a little magic into the yarn as I started knitting, focusing my energy on making the cloth soothing and reassuring with a spell for comfort, and breathed out a great deal of the nerves that still had me jumping when the heater kicked on and rattled in the wall.
It would all be fine. None of them knew about Rocko, even if they seemed to know a lot about witches, and I’d never heard of a witch named Deirdre, like Henry mentioned. If she was the head witch in charge around there, then