Feral Bonds

Chapter 20

When the witch finally arrived a week later, Natania kept her distance. No matter what Vincent said, no matter how loyal his employees were, she wouldn't trust a witch as far as she could throw her. Natania watched over the clean up crew from within a sturdy tree nearby, lounging on a thick branch several feet off the ground.

Ray landed beside her, making her startle, but she kept her grip on the bark as she glared at him. "What? Are we not friends anymore?" he asked.

"Were we ever friends?" she bit out. As far as she was concerned, he was just an asshole.

He held out his hands in surrender. "How was I supposed to know you would be loyal to him and not just an inconvenient baby to watch over?"

"I'm not loyal to him," she growled. "I'm counting down the fucking days, Ray." Just over four months.

"Whatever you say, wolf." Ray rolled his eyes. "You'll stay, they always do."

His absolute certainty that she would remain just made her more determined to go. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she said sarcastically.

"Being dead usually helps," he deadpanned.

Natania bit her lip to keep from laughing. No amount of being weirdly friendly was going to make her forget what a dick he had been every time she interacted with him. He stared at her face and she schooled her features back to neutral.

"I thought you liked Lily," he said, after watching her for several minutes.

"So?"

"She'll be hurt if you leave."

And I'll be hurt if I stay. She didn't voice the thought. "She's an adult, she'll be fine. Besides," Natania adjusted around so she was sitting up, her feet dangling off the branch, "it's not like she won't have seen my decision."

"If she had," Ray said, "she'd be trying to convince you to stay."

She growled deep in her chest. "What do you want from me, Ray? I know you don't care whether I stay or not. So why bring it up?"

He set his jaw. "Regardless of what you think, she's like my sister. I don't want to watch her be hurt. And your presence has been good for her." He glanced down at the house. "Plus, you've turned out to be surprisingly useful."

"Thanks," she said dryly.

Ray stared at her again and Natania looked away from him. "You should stay."

She blew out a harsh breath. "I'm not a coyote. I've been a pack leader since I was ten, I'm not made to follow orders." The coyotes were the most likely of the beast bound to seek out protection from witches, or vampires, since they were too weak to protect themselves.

"Seems like you've been doing fine."

"Because I'm bargain bound," she growled. "Hard to ignore orders when you have a magical leash." She wondered if her packmates had felt like this when she gave them orders, though they only got an actual leash if she put power into the order intentionally. She had tried not to do that often.

He opened his mouth to speak and she pushed herself off the branch, landing as a wolf on the ground and crouching to absorb the impact. If anyone was going to convince her to stay, it wasn't going to be Ray, so there was no point in listening to him.

Natania stalked into the house and curled her lip at the feel of magic. Not black magic, but near enough that it made her skin crawl. The bodies had been disposed of already, so the smell had mostly dissipated, but the blood and mess remained. The witch's coyote was leaning against its master's leg and she had one hand on its head as she chanted.