Page 20 of The Witch’s Daughter

Maybe this whole thing was a little reckless of me, but I was getting sick and tired of everyone treating me with kid gloves. I was a full-grown female wolf-witch. Darn it.

“This will be good,” Mom said, standing on the porch beside me. The worry creasing the lines by her eyes made this seem like it’d be anything but good.

But that was Mom.

“Mom’s right. Let’s hurry up and pack so we don’t keep Alpha Kera waiting,” Meg said.

“Kiss-ass,” I called her over our mental pack link so Mom wouldn’t hear.

Meg glared at me, but turned to our other sister instead. “Where are you going?”

“To pack. Like you said.” Alec put her middle finger in the air.

“Language… or… gesture!” Mom scolded.

I let the screen door close behind me and rushed to the safety of my room. As if seeing Jaxon and the rest of the wolf-witches I’d grown up with wasn’t enough, I’d gone and thrown myself right into some fray—dragging my sisters with me. Because, of course, I wasn’t trusted to go by myself.

I really didn’t mean for any of this to happen.

It was all Jaxon’s fault.

What?

Seriously. If he hadn’t shown up with his stupidly muscular body and his macho warlock powers and the dumb alpha hero complex, then Alpha Kera wouldn’t have asked him to go—in my place—and I wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

I threw my travel bag onto the bed and yanked two dresses off the hangers from the closet. Neither was appropriate to spend a week camping at some festival where I’d no doubt be ridiculed and made fun of, and that was if I didn’t burn the whole place down.

But I’d be spending the time in human form since most witches and warlocks weren’t wolf shifters. Even if they were, telepathic communications between wolves were limited to familial packs and fated mate pairs. That meant I needed clothes.

And Jaxon would be there to see them.

Go with the black dress.

I didn’t care what dress Jaxon would prefer anyway. I’d be avoiding him like the plague. But maybe, just maybe, this would be good for me.

A small hope took root.

It was about time I left this pack for a bit and saw what else was out there. My sisters and I had traveled a little after Gram died, searching for our fated mates, but none of us found them. Would this be another opportunity to meet our matches? I didn’t know. As wolf shifters, we’d grown up with the knowledge that there was one match out there in this whole wide world for us.

My wolf whined softly as I shook my head, ignoring that ache in my chest.

It didn’t matter.

At this point, my sisters and I were practically old maids. Mom hadn’t matched with Dad until she was almost thirty. She thought we might be late bloomers too, but I thought we were proving her wrong.

Still, I did want to meet someone, someday.

You have Jaxon.

I rolled my eyes. She’d been hung up on that little crush since we were kids. Obviously, we weren’t mates, or something would’ve happened by now.

My wolf started to growl.

“I like the white dress.” Dad’s deep voice pulled me from my thoughts.

I whipped around, holding both dresses up. Dad had built this cabin with his own two hands for Aunt Kera and Coral when they were still young. He stood hunched over in it now, not quite entering my room, but filling the doorway with his massive size.

I lifted the white dress higher and studied it. Ruffles lined the bottom, coming just above my knee. “You hated this dress the last time I wore it.”