A Rebellious Moon

Chapter Forty-One

For a solid second, everyone in the backyard stared upwards at the corner of the house. The glass shattered outwards with a tinkling noise, raining down in the far end of the garden. Flames licked out from the hole they had created.

A cackling sound filled the air as three women vaulted over the fence into the garden. The one in the lead was laughing manically while the other two remained stoic. They floated down lightly and landed mid-stride moving towards the group.

"Witches," breathed Farah into Amanda's ear.

Chase had released Devon's neck and was now growling quietly. Devon lay limply beneath him, but even with a glance, Amanda could see his eyes trained on the laughing witch.

The newcomers stopped a few feet from Chase and Devon. The laughing witch changed from her cackle to howl. Immediately, Tristan, Zac, and Cooper transitioned into their wolf form and moved to flank Chase.

"Nina!" Amanda called out, her eyes not leaving the trio. "Take everyone else and go put out that fire. We'll figure this out."

Nina nodded in response and rounded up the others. They jogged into the house, closing the door firmly behind them.

The witches didn't even acknowledge them leaving. The lead witch finished her cry and trained her narrowed eyes onto Chase. Her two compatriots just appeared bored.

"You! Let him go. He is mine," she said pointing at Devon.

Chase's tail stood out stiffly as he backed away. As he cleared Devon's body, he dipped forward and pushed his head with his nose as if to say 'here, have him.'

With a derisive snort, the witch gestured to the other two. They stepped forward and waved their hands in an intricate pattern. Light formed from their palms and surrounded Devon. In a panic, he started to transition and crawl at the same time. He edged back away from the women with his paws gaining traction as they became hands and feet. But the magic had already taken hold and he was restrained before he could get more than five feet.

As he was now in human form, Amanda turned and asked, "Devon, who are these people?"

Devon shook his head, eyes wide.

The witch shrieked. "He is my lover. I will not let you have him. I will not let you kill him. And I will not let you leave me." She pointed to Amanda, Chase, and Devon each in turn.

"Oh dear," Farah muttered. "She's crazy and appears to have power in her coven, if these other witches are doing her bidding. I'm betting she's the one behind the hunter attacking you as well."

"You think?" Amanda whispered back. "Well then let's fix this now." Louder she said, "What do you mean have him? I have no interest in having him. Rather he wanted to have me."

"Ha," the witch screeched. "I know you are his mates. I know enough about werewolf culture. But he will be mine. He told me he loved me and then he left me. I went to find him to find out what went wrong and he told me he found his mate and couldn't be with me. I told him we could fix it, but he didn't believe me. I will fix it today." The witch raised her arms menacingly towards Amanda.

Farah in response raised her arms and called out, "Stand down, sister! You don't have the whole story."

"We're not mates. Chase is my mate," Amanda declared.