Moon Bound

10. Carina

After letting me pee and having a thirty-second sponge bath, the female wolf—the same from the clearing yesterday—leaves, grunting on her way out, “Stay here. I’ll be back with food.”

The door slams shut behind her, and with it, her sour mood follows. Ever since she came in, she’s glowered at me, speaking an entire ten words, which were, “Don’t try anything funny. Do what you need to do.” Asking for a shower was a temptation laid out in front of me, but Ryder seems like the better one to ask. Hateful energy blasts from her and I’m not in the mood to make more of an enemy of myself than I already am.

In the safety of the bathroom, with my magic once more, I give myself a fresh outfit of leggings and a shirt. Comfortable clothing in case I have to sleep in his bed again. The wolf hadn’t questioned me when I came out wearing different clothes than I went in with.

A scuffle comes from behind me and I spin, focusing on the door in time for the cloud of smoke to settle across the room. Witch. My body moves, one foot in front of the other, getting into a better stance as my blood heats. With my trapped magic, I’ll have to rely on physical violence, but with my clasped hands, I’d only be making minimal damage. Still, it’s worth the effort.

The smoke falls to the ground, leaving behind a slim figure, her curtain of blonde hair falling around her toward the wooden floor. A red, velvet cloak is tied around her neck. Ancient eyes scrutinize me, falling on the cuffs around my wrist.

“What is it with these men and thinking binding a woman is the best way to win their hearts?”

The familiar voice has me straightening and my hand going to my chest, relieved.

She’s the most prominent figure within the covens—the Goddess on Earth. Literally, put here to do Her bidding. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen her though.

“Mary?” I whisper, shock tinging my tone.

“In the flesh.”

If she’s here, it’s for a reason. For the first time since arriving, a true smile lights my face and I step forward. “You can help me.” I jingle my arms, the noise of the chains being thrown around the room. “Get me out of here.” Back home, or anywhere that isn’t here.

It's what Mary has continually done for me. When I was still learning my magic, I accidentally got myself wrapped up in bushes—Earth magic gone wrong. I was alone in the woods with no way to contact Mom, but thankfully Mary saved me then, untying me from the plants and sending me on my way.

I needed her again when I was a teenager. Fire magic is the trickiest to manage, and a human girl pissed me off. Mary is the only reason that human is still alive. Mary talked me down—became my personal counsellor—and helped find me ways to manage my emotions, so my spells remained in-check. She never judges, simply aids. She’s a busy witch, managing all covens worldwide, but her constant check-ins are always a relief.

She’s helped me time and time again, so now should be no different.

Her lips purse, head tilting to the side. “No, I can’t. Sorry, Carina.”

She’s saying—What? She won’t help me. For the first time in my life, she’s not here to help me out of a bind—the first time it’s not been my fault.

I jingle them again, frustration dropping my voice drop low. “Why? Mary, I’m stuck here. Grandma handed me over and didn’t fight the threat.” Another step, and my eyes widen, crazed.

“Yeah, about that… I’m not helping you because this is what the Goddess wants right now.”

My head snaps back, her words a harsh slap to the face. “Excuse me? What the Goddess wants?”

Mary shrugs, her eyes scanning the room around me. When she speaks, her tone is bored, like she has better things to do than have this conversation. “Yeah, I’m only here to give you this.” She roots through a pocket beneath her cloak and hands me a pendant attached to a rope.

What is the meaning of this? Wariness fills my thoughts as I turn it over, examining the pendant. A single tree topped with a full moon is imprinted on the thin metal.

“What is this for?”

“You’ll be needing it soon. Tuck it away until you get home.”

“Home—What?”

Then she’s gone, only a faint outline, like she was never here, left behind.

I fist the pendant, frustration coating my nerves. f**k, Mary. I jam the necklace into my pocket—thankful these leggings are equipped with them—at the same time the door reopens. Expecting the female wolf again, I’m surprised when it’s one of the males from yesterday—the one who pretended to be alpha—who enters, bowl in hand.

“Hey, Mia had to run off for something, so figured I’d deliver.”

Mia. Finally a name to the face.

“And you are?”

“Lucas. Ryder’s beta.”

Beta. Makes sense.

He hands me the bowl and my bound hands grasp it the best they can. The brown pieces of meat appear dry and dreadfully unappetizing. I feel my expression ripple in disgust, which I force myself to swallow and instead, tightly but politely smile. “Thanks.”

He nods once, but his gaze is faraway, already drifting back to the door. His body remains angled and ready to leave.

“What’s happening?” I brave myself to ask. “Where’s Ryder?”

When Lucas turns back to me, he winces through dull eyes and understanding lands on my shoulders. Oh. “How bad?”

His eyes flicker and for a second, I’m sure he’s not going to tell me, but then he says, “Bad. The alpha… It’ll be a while until Ryder returns.”

Is dead or dying are the missing words. Tears prick my eyes and I blink. I may not know these people, but in the short time of being here, I’ve found them to be a loving family. A guy who’s desperate to help his father, and a dying man who had nothing but kindness and compassion for me last night. Compassion for a witch, when he’s the one who won’t be making it.

There’s a spell I’ve only used once, on a patient who was dying with no one by their bedside. It’s a spell I wish I could use more often, but humans don’t react well. It’s not a concern here though.

I lay the bowl down on the table beside me. “Take me to him. I can help.”

Lucas moves into my way, his eyes widening. “Um, no, Carina, it’s better if you remain here. The pack is saying their goodbyes.”

Their goodbyes. All more reason to get there now. I step to the side and push past him. “You seem to think I was asking. Trust me.”

Lucas’s eyes bore into me. “Carina, you seem nice and all but the pack won’t want you anywhere near his cabin right now.”

Because I’m the enemy, simply because my kind is at fault. Still, I’m the medicine to the alpha’s ache and I refuse to sit here knowing he’s in pain in his last few hours. “I get it, but do you care for Ryder? I can ease his father’s pain as he dies. Trust me.” I lower my hope-filled voice. “It’ll be easier on Ryder in the end. Unlock me please.”

His mouth drops flat and he huffs, stepping aside. “I suppose even if you take off now, it won’t make a difference.” The cuffs fall to the ground with a clang, but I’m already pushing past him and heading out the door.

The camp is abuzz with misery. It hovers like a dark cloud over the shifters, but I don’t stop to examine the heartbreak and sobbing noises of the wolves nearby since there’s only so much time for this spell to work.

I continue on, pushing into the cabin, stopping short at the sight. The alpha is in bed, aged a decade from when I saw him last. The blanket hardly moves; his breath is barely here. His life is barely here. A child holds his hand while pressing his forehead into the man’s side. A woman, presumably the boy’s mother, stands over them both, her hand lightly resting on the boy’s head as she observes with a pinched expression.

I pull my eyes away, scanning the cabin until coming to rest on Ryder. He remains pressed against the far wall, as far as possible from the scene in front of him. His arms are crossed over his broad chest, seeming every bit like the bodyguard he is. His mouth remains flat, his eyes dead. I’m not even sure he’s truly seeing what he’s observing.

Two other wolves stand against the far wall. A woman and a man, both older in age. They watch the scene as well, but lift their eyes to me at my entrance. The woman opens her mouth, her forehead furrowing at my arrival, but I continue on until I’m in front of Ryder.

For the longest second, his eyes remain pinned on the scene behind my back, as if he’s seeing through me to them.

“Ryder?”

A sense of life flicks in the depths of his gaze and he blinks, glancing down at me. His eyes darken, harden, and—

“Ryder—”

Breath bursts from me as my back hits the cabin wall behind me, his hand wrapping around my throat. I grip his wrists but my small muscles are nothing against his massive size and his hand tightens. White spots flash over my vision and I gasp, panic spiking my heartbeat and real fear consuming me.

“You did this,” he seethes. “You and your f*****g kind took my father from us.” His teeth bare, incisors popping out from his gum line, looking like the shifter he is.

This is it. This is where I die.

“R-R-Ryder,” I manage to choke out from behind his hand.

“Ryder, stop!” Lucas. He must have followed me in.

“Do not start this war.” A woman’s voice.

“Ryder!” Lucas repeats.

The voices finally hit his subconscious and he blinks twice, his long lashes fluttering above a dazed expression. Recognition narrows his eyes and he blinks again before yanking his hand away and my feet slam roughly to the floor beneath me, pain shooting up the backs of my legs.

“f**k, I’m sorry, Carina.” He stumbles back a step, his dazed and now wary eyes remaining locked on his hands in front of him.

I cough and swallow, thankful for feeling to be rushing back down my throat. “I’m all right,” I tell him.

“No.” His head shakes widely back and forth. “What I did is not okay.”

Every behaviour, reaction, and emotion he feels at this moment is linked in with the situation with his father. While I’ve often been the one to hate when the girl accepts the guy back in romance movies after he does anything unspeakable, Ryder and I are not in a romance story. This is real life. Messy, shitty, and traumatizing, and real life sometimes requires emotional responses.

With his composure regained, I can speak to him and know he’s listening. “I came to help. Like last night.”

His hands drop back to his sides and he straightens, horror sliding from his face and appearing more like the Ryder I met in the clearing. “You’d do that? Again?”

“Yes.” Unspoken reasons flit between us and he nods once.

I step aside, observing while three more shifters enter, say goodbye to the alpha, and leave. Following behind the last pack member are the two elderly wolves.

Ryder immediately takes their spot, dropping onto his knees beside his father’s bedside. He picks up the old man’s hand, who has no reaction whatsoever. He appears already dead, except the slow rise of his chest implies he’s not. Soon though.

I step beside the pair and quickly stroke a thumb along his weakening pulse. “It won’t be much longer.”

A shudder passes through Ryder and I know he’s heard me.

My hand rests on Ryder’s back at the place between his shoulders. Keeping one hand there and my other on his father, I act as the connecting conduit between the two and speak the words:

Before this soul travels to the Otherworld,

by the powers of nature, let it be.

Bring back his soul for this instance,

let him live his final moments

in the place where his love is strongest.

His father’s body jolts and a glow bursts from his chest, blanketing Ryder and me in a ball of warm and comforting spirit. The glow settles, like dust left behind, revealing a much younger version of his father—his soul in ethereal form.

He grants me a small smile and a head tip before directing all his attention toward Ryder, who remains still, his mouth gaped open.

“Ryder.” His voice is strong and melodic.

Ryder’s gaze whips between the two of us. First in shock, because this isn’t at all what I implied I would do, and then in gratitude. “Thank you.”

The single word smashes my own emotional barriers and I break my gaze, instead focusing on keeping the spell going.

“Be well, son,” his father says. “Lead this pack with the wisdom and strength I know you have. Take care of them. Create a family.”

“F-Father,” Ryder stutters.

“I love you. I’m sorry for what I did, but we both got your mother for a few more years. Now I will find her in the Otherworld. Besides, by no means was I supposed to be here forever. It’s your turn to take your place in this pack.” He pauses before adding, “I hope you find someone as wonderful as your mother was for me.”

Sobs burst from Ryder, vibrating through my own hand that still remains on his back. Unrestrained tears pour from him, creating a pool of heartbreak that I feel too. My chest warms, on the verge of shattering at the pure love between father and son. Love, my family has clearly never felt for me.

Ryder risked a fight with my coven to save his father. Mine wouldn’t even risk a fight to keep me. Jealousy stirs at the base of my neck, but I shake it away, focusing instead on the tender but depressing final moments of this alpha’s life.

“F-Father…”

Whatever the old man’s about to say is cut off by his physical body’s shudder. It quakes—the telling sign. His lungs expel the final bit of air it held onto and the alpha’s hand falls limp in my own.

The room shifts. His chilling death steals all the warmth from this room, leaving it a desolate embodiment of his body—cold and empty.

“I love… you so… much, Ryder,” the soul version says. His voice grows weaker, the edges of his body fading. His hand reaches toward Ryder but before he can make any contact, his soul disappears, leaving the cabin.

Leaving this world.

Leaving Ryder.