Gifted

DELILAH

Arthur took no time at all in stripping down, making me look away shyly, not used to the constant nudity of a wolf pack.

My people occasionally had rituals or celebrations in the nude, but I rarely was a part of them.

Seth took his time, slowly pulling off his clothing and folding them neatly next to a tree as Arthur began to shift.

It didn’t take very long, but it felt like an eternity in comparison to the alphas.

I had only ever seen an alpha shift—in fact, the only two I’d ever actually seen were Cole and Seth.

So my surprise at hearing bones crack and the wet crunching of changing flesh as the magic set in was enough to make me feel a little green.

Before I knew it, a very thin, reddish-brown wolf stood with his paws planted in front of him, a growl in his throat.

I bit my lip and Cole rubbed my shoulders in response. “He’ll be fine, my flower. Trust him.”

The red wolf shook his head, jaws dripping with spittle.

Trust?

Seth still hadn’t even shifted, but was bent over, buck naked as he neatly laid his shorts down on the pile of clothes.

Arthur didn’t attack him in the vulnerable position, but I doubted Seth would have been able to defend himself if he’d decided to.

Thankfully, he waited for Seth to turn and face him. Seth’s face was grim and dark, his eyes predatory.

Even so, I could see the exhaustion plain in his face—under his eyes, in his coloring.

Seth may not have mourned me like Cole had, but there was no doubt he had mourned me.

I felt my heart pounding in my chest, and it nearly stopped the moment I saw Arthur lunge for Seth while he was still in his human form.

In those few seconds, I saw Seth’s death, and I held my breath. But at the last moment, he sidestepped Arthur quicker than any human ever could.

In an instant, Seth shifted as Arthur shook his head, backing away from the tree he had rammed with his head.

A few chuckles went through the pack, which made Arthur growl.

Seth had stood there on purpose, waiting for him to attack. And Arthur had fallen for the trick.

Seth’s beautiful wolf with its light brown fur stood in the clearing, the dark markings around his eyes and back with the white crescent moon on his left flank standing out proudly.

His eyes didn’t meet mine, but everything in my body screamed at me to protect him.

Everything about him was majestic, making me want to sink my hands and face in his fur.

It wasn’t just the mating mark causing these feelings anymore. To be honest, I felt the truth of our mating from the moment I’d told them off at our first meeting.

So much for keeping it professional, but I couldn’t exactly be upset at this point.

My world felt like it was sliding out from under my feet.

If Arthur went in for a killing blow... pack rules be damned, I wouldn’t see my mate hurt.

Even though I was weak, and it could possibly kill me to do serious magic right now, I couldn’t care less.

The two circled one another for a few moments before Arthur lunged again at full speed, and Seth met him head-on.

I grabbed onto Cole’s sleeve, twisting it with a whitened grip as I chewed on my lip. The sound was horrific, and everyone was silent as they bit and tore and growled.

Blood began to paint the ground as dust flew up around them in a cloud.

At one point, Seth had Arthur pinned, but he quickly wormed away.

Seth was panting heavily, but from the way his right leg was bleeding, Arthur had taken more damage.

They began to circle again, but then Arthur’s tactic changed. He sprinted out and charged Seth, doing it again and again, getting in a bite or a scratch before retreating back.

Seth circled, trying to keep facing Arthur so he couldn’t attack from behind. He was bleeding heavily, his sides heaving.

I shook in Cole’s arms, my eyes filling with tears. Everyone watched, silent as the grave, and no one made a move to intervene.

It was then that Seth’s eyes flicked to mine, and my heart broke.

He was exhausted, bleeding, and his eyes told me how tired he truly felt.

As if Arthur could sense the moment of vulnerability, he rushed in for the kill, snarling as he attacked Seth from behind finally, catching him unaware.

I cried out, trying to jump from Cole’s arms, but he held me fast.

Seth didn’t take the blow this time or try to attack back.

Instead, he darted forward, circled, and ran into the woods as Arthur clawed behind him, snapping at his tail. Seth disappeared into a thick clump of ferns near the treeline.

My heart pounded in my ears as he retreated. Arthur growled, staying at the treeline, pacing back and forth.

Was it a draw if he didn’t kill or pin him?

How did fights work in packs?

“C-Cole, is it—”

“Hush, little one,” Cole said in my ear, nuzzling me. His body was tense, but his words were calm.

The amount of blood on the ground made my heart ache.

There was so much of it, and the majority was Seth’s.

When he’d retreated into the woods, I was pretty sure I had seen him limping, but I couldn’t be sure.

The gash on Arthur’s leg no longer seemed to be bleeding.

I knew werewolves had superior healing, but how far did that go?

Growling, Arthur looked into the woods, turning to pace once more to the right.

As he turned, suddenly Seth seemed to manifest from the tree directly behind him, jumping on his back.

It took all of two seconds for Seth to sink his teeth into Arthur's neck and pin the smaller wolf. He growled, biting down as a shrill whimper of pain came from Arthur.

Seth growled louder as Arthur tried to shake him off, sinking his teeth in deeper as blood began to flow down his jaws.

Finally, slowly, Arthur whimpered and did a slow roll to show his belly. Victory.

The breath I hadn’t realized I was holding released in a whoosh.

Cole pulled me close in a gesture of comfort. “See, no worries,” he murmured, kissing my forehead.

Seth released Arthur and lifted his head in a victory howl. Everyone in the pack kneeled or bowed their heads in respect, with the exception of Cole.

Some of the others joined in to howl as well.

I pushed out of Cole’s arms, running on wobbly and exhausted legs to Seth’s side.

My body was barely holding me up and I sunk down, my knees scraping on the dirt and rock below as I pulled him close.

My arms went around him as I sobbed, feeling the wet, sticky blood all over his body.

My wolf, my poor, exhausted wolf—covered in bites and scratch marks.

I was proud of him, so very proud. But I never wanted to witness something like that ever again.

Seth looked at me with a soft huff; his eyes were rimmed with red and bloodshot.

He was exhausted, yet still stood there as a leader, bites and scratches riddling his body, covered in blood that dripped into the dirt as he panted.

~It won’t kill me, but it will exhaust me.~

Before he could say anything to stop me, I let go of him, wiping some of the blood off my arms to collect it on my fingers.

I bent down and began writing runes into the ground. The magic stirred quickly, magic that we used only in emergencies.

Magic that wasn’t something witches used very often. Blood magic.

As long as a sacrifice was willing, or the blood was freely given—in this case, Seth’s was already on the ground—it could be used for a number of things.

It was often used for spells in small amounts, but something like this needed far more energy.

I willed it to heal him, the runes lighting up on the ground, sending a murmur up through the pack.

I didn’t care. I stayed on my knees, wobbling as I held my hands above the runes, pushing the last bit of strength I had into the spell.

Gasps and surprised voices surrounded me as my head swam and my vision began to fade.

As the last bit of my strength dwindled away, I felt my body fall sideways, only to be caught by warm hands.

Darkness enveloped me in its warm, sweet embrace.

SETH

I held Delilah in my grasp, my fingers sliding over the outline of her face.

~You are going to be the death of us.~

I sighed before sliding my other arm under her legs, inhaling her scent as I stood, glowering at the rest of my pack.

Arthur was lucky my mate had distracted me with her little noises of concern.

My wolf wanted nothing better than to snap his neck when he resisted, and even being the pack’s second as well as Cole’s friend and mentor wouldn’t have stopped me.

Arthur had always held a grudge against me and my brother.

I’d seen the look of envy on his face at Cole’s superior skills each time they trained, Cole easily beating him despite Arthur being older and more experienced.

It wasn’t just a friendly sport. It was like Arthur tagged along behind a friend he felt like he could never keep up with.

Cole wanted to believe they were friends, but if it wasn’t for his pity, Jewel would have rightfully been our second.

Of course, Cole had wanted to keep to the laws, and the laws said females couldn’t be second-in-command.

It was too problematic during breeding season, since a second was supposed to help protect the pack while the alphas had to rut.

That one was one of the reasons I’d agreed to having Arthur be our second—it was rather satisfying seeing him not get laid season after season during the best sex a wolf could ask for.

Thankfully, the chances of having offspring while still unmated were relatively low, but it helped packs survive.

Alphas were even more prone to violence during breeding season; the first time Cole and I had disagreed had been the first time we participated in a rut.

That wouldn’t be a problem anymore though.

The thought made me internally sigh as I stroked Delilah’s hair a bit more.

This little ball of magic had come into our lives and forced us to share, just as we shared everything else in life. Even if it was the last thing either of us wanted.

“She’s going to be the death of us,” Cole said, holding my clothes in his hand as he crossed his arms.

I chuckled; my brother had practically read my thoughts. “She really shouldn’t have done that. I would have healed just fine.”

Cole’s lip twitched a bit. “We both know that’s a lie, and if we had been in her shoes, we probably would have done the same.”

He looked down at her, his eyes shining with love and adoration that I knew were also in mine. My clothes dropped from his hands onto the dirt.

I waited for my wolf to stir, as it had when the pack had lashed out. The anger had been enough for me to want to show every last one of them who was the alpha.

But I had reined in that basic instinct and kept the presence of a strong fair leader.

Seeing Cole look at her like that didn’t make my inner wolf stir in anger at all.

The fact displeased me though—it didn’t feel right to share what was mine.

In this one aspect of my life, such as when I had picked up the guitar or began working on cars, I simply didn’t want to share this with my brother.

Not that it had been an issue until now, since Cole had different tastes.

“Yeah…we probably would have done the same,” I agreed, thinking back on the aftermath of the spell.

Delilah had died—we had all seen it.

And afterward, Cole had shut down completely.

I had tried to move him, to get him to come home, but he had lost all emotion.

It was strange, seeing my other half suddenly devoid of all things that made them who they were.

I hadn’t handled it well either. I hadn’t slept at all—unlike Cole.

Instead, I had been barking orders to pull in more of the pack—in case of a war with the witches at the loss of one of their own.

I had been planning for the asshole Arthur to take over, at least until Cole had recovered from his grief enough to do so.

That way I could travel, and do as Delilah had said.

Treasure her.

Everything had been packed in the Jeep and ready to go, the urge to flee becoming more urgent every second.

I had just sent Jewel to check on my brother one last time—I couldn’t bear to say goodbye—when suddenly the force to run had hit me, pulling me into the forest.

I had run into Jewel at the edge of the woods, and she had told me that Cole’s condition hadn’t changed.

Still, a strange force had kept urging me to check on my brother, just in case.

Then, seeing her had made my blood boil with need.

My wolf had snapped, wanting to claim her first in every way, but other than that twinge of jealousy all I had seen was her.

Golden and beautiful, the flecks in her brown eyes shining gold and green at me, making me want to kneel down and worship her until she cried out my name over and over.

Delilah was alive, and it had been even better than my memory of shifting and running through the forest for the very first time.

Now, here in the present, my brother was watching me with guarded eyes.

“Perhaps you two should lie down?” he suggested.

I wondered if Cole was worried that she preferred me since I had been rough with her, or because she found me more attractive.

As much as the thought swelled my pride, I knew better. And while I greatly disliked the idea, I knew what I needed to do.

That didn’t mean I had to like it, but maybe I could make this into a fun, silent competition of sorts.

I didn’t have to like the situation I was in, but I could try to make the most of it.

For her.

“I actually feel very revitalized,” I said. “Perhaps you should take her to her room?”

Cole hesitated for a second, as if he wanted to say something and thought better of it.

“We have a guest occupying her room. It wasn’t authorized, but it’s a witch. She doesn’t mean us any harm from what I can tell, but she has barred herself in the room until Delilah sees her.”

“You’re just now telling me this!?” I growled.

Cole rolled his eyes. “Well, I didn’t exactly have ample opportunity while you two were fucking like rabbits in the brush. And it isn’t something we should let Delilah worry about until she’s had some rest.”

I grimaced. “So. Your room then,” I grunted reluctantly.

Cole held out his hands wordlessly.

I passed her over, giving her one last look of concern.

I was certain she was just sleeping, but who knew after what that last spell had done.

It made me dislike magic all the more.

“Treasure her,” I muttered, grabbing my clothing from the dirt.

Cole cracked a smile, nodding before heading inside, carrying Delilah in his arms.

The rest of the pack milled about, looking at the three of us.

Now it was time to sort out this mess before I rested.

Thankfully my little witch had given me a bit more energy, though I wasn’t sure how long it would last.