Again, I nodded, remembering the day I’d looked into her glowing eyes.
I swallowed.
“In the forest, she had touched me and for a moment she had blocked out everything around me. That feeling... I can’t really describe it.”
“As if you had arrived home,” I added, shocked by my own memories.
Julian looked at me in silence.
“Do you think she put a spell on us?”
“If she did, it wasn’t on purpose...” Julian whispered thoughtfully.
A slight anger was gathering in my chest.
Bayla Adams had cursed me and Julian. A damn witch had gotten inside our heads. Whether on purpose or not didn’t matter.
I clenched my fists.
“Ems...” He loosened his hands on my shoulders and ran them down my arms, where he paused, bringing me fully back to him.
My heart began to leap.
If he only knew the effect, he had on my emotions...
I looked him in the eyes.
“Please don’t do anything rash.”
I suppressed the burgeoning anger, but it came back. I took a step back from his manipulative hands and hoped he didn’t take it personally.
“But I don’t want a witch going into our heads whenever she wants and making us feel her pain,” I snapped.
“I’ll find out what that means, Ems. Don’t worry about it for now and leave it to me.”
“Whatever...”
I snorted and decided to go back to Nash and the others in the pack. It was important that I was somewhere where I could let off steam without messing things up with Julian. At the same time, I was stunned.
How had one of them managed to get into my head? Didn’t they only control the four elements?
When we reached the others, Nash looked at me with scrutiny. Hopefully, he hadn’t overheard. Otherwise, not only would I be screwed, but Bayla as well. Then Julian would probably get involved somehow, and the other witches...
“God! Why is everything so complicated?”
I kicked the tree like it was its fault.
“Hey, Emely, are you okay?”
Irritated, I turned around, straight to Hunter.
Hunter was tall, not as tall as Nash, but he was at least as trained. His former Afro was now trimmed short. Patterns had been shaved into the sides, emphasizing his facial features.
I sometimes wondered if he had roots in Jamaica because his father was definitely not from here. And his brothers, Harry and Joshua, looked the same.
Most of the pack had roots here or in other parts of North America. Some were descendants of the former Esadowa tribe members, which you couldn’t tell by looking at most of the pack members. In the Copeland family, in particular, the indigenous features had become somewhat blurred, and I was always amazed at how much Nash looked like our father and I looked like our mother. She had belonged to one of the last Esadowas, and now I wore her dark black-brown hair, bronze skin, and dark eyes.
“You seem a little shaken up since last night.”
“Just a few annoying witches...” I replied, and we both grinned at each other.
“You should do more with us again and not deal with things that get you down inside,” Hunter said a little more calmly now.
“Exactly, your brother is far too weak in the games without you,” Noah laughed.
His light brown hair showed just as little of the Esadowa gene, earning him an annoyed look from Nash.
Cody, the smallest of the group with the darkest hair, patted Noah on the shoulder with a laugh.
None of them showed that they had heard the news. Because that’s what our Alpha had ordered through our bond.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Huh?” I crossed my hands in front of my chest.
That you haven’t been hunting with us for a long time. Hunter replied in my head so that only I could hear it.
Sending messages to others through our bond. To one or more pack members. Something we often did, especially in our friend group.
Communicating with others in the pack using this method was only possible if the alpha had previously placed his alpha bond on you, something only an Alpha or someone with the alpha bond could do.
