Blood & Wine

8 | Eden

I watched Dasher, waiting to see how he would react to Fynley and Jagger. Calla opened the door, light on her feet as always, and I wished I was at full strength so I could pin those werewolf bastard children to the floor and torture them by stealing the air from their lungs.

But I was working on being a better witch, and that involved not attempting to kill them.

At first sight anyway.

I draped myself across the sofa, stretching my legs out so they'd have nowhere to sit. I didn't plan on them being here long, and the only reason I had gotten so many wings was because Calla could eat a whole pan by herself, and Dasher, whether he knew it or not, was going to descend quickly into his wolf side, which meant he'd be hungrier than both Calla and me put together.

Dasher tensed. His lips threatened to pull back from his teeth in a snarl, but he didn't even seem to be aware of it. My hand trembled slightly—I wasn't ready for him to be a werewolf, to handle the problems that came with that.

It was already enough to control myself when I lost my temper. How did I prevent him from losing it?

He grabbed the table, digging his fingers in. If I had my magic, I would've soothed him with some wind, but, instead, all I had was that bond even a lack of magic couldn't touch—the Coven bond. I tugged on it, sending him good feelings, a sense of calm even I didn't have.

Letting Fynley and Jagger into our house was dangerous. To expose them to Dasher made me antsy, but Fynley had a point—either the 'wolves get to know Dasher and accept him, or my cousin would have a hard time hunting and Changing in the woods. It was a lose-lose situation either way, but at least I could broker some sort of deal, some sort of protection for him.

But the 'wolves wouldn't be able to shift, which left them as little threats.

And, as we all had agreed upon before coming over here, if they acted out of pocket or physically threatened me, I could nail their hides to the wall if I caught them.

Which would be easy, but they didn't know that.

Calla stepped back, her face already flushed red from holding in that temper. Dampening our magic had been for our benefit. We didn't need a war with the rest of the werewolves—or a visit from the Queen Mother, nor a visit from the King of Werewolves.

Jagger walked in first, scoping out the room with a hardened expression on his face. He sniffed the room, his eyes going straight to Dasher. His lips did curl over his teeth as he met my cousin's eyes.

Calla glanced at me.

It's okay, I said with my eyes, and she relaxed her stance.

Dasher would be getting more than a few looks from werewolves when he did Change. I had to let my cousin feel these 'wolves out. I couldn't protect him from everything. Just like I couldn't protect Calla from everything, even if I wanted to.

Fynley walked in second, but he ignored Dasher. He made a beeline for me, not even bothering to look around. "Eden, what a lovely home you have," he said. He paused, looking over his shoulder at Calla. "I don't see you often, gorgeous."

If looks could kill, he would've been dead.

She didn't bother responding to him, just slammed the door shut.

"You didn't even look around, Fynley," I replied. "You could've walked into a trap."

He shrugged, stopping at the table. He kept his eyes on me. "Let's cut the shit. Being in this room makes me uncomfortable, magic or no magic. Jagger, relax. We're invited guests."