Page 72 of The Witch’s Daughter

Liam nodded. “One of my pack witches told me there was some emergency, but she made a mistake.” He motioned to the two female witches that stood behind the backs of the wolf shifters accompanying Liam to the rendezvous.

Emily stepped forward, lowering the cloak from her head, and beside her, Sarah did the same.

“Sorry to bother you with this, Alpha Jaxon,” Emily muttered.

“I don’t understand.” I looked them both over, sending my wolf senses out to check for abuse or coercion, anything to explain what was going on.

“As I said, there was a mistake,” Liam grumbled. “Sarah is in charge of the festival, and asked for my permission to have this Vincent warlock run some sort of trials on my territory. She should’ve mentioned it to her coven that she was busy helping her guest.”

“I apologize for worrying you all,” Sarah said. “But as you can see, I’m fine.”

She’s lying.

But if her own pack Alpha didn’t notice, then maybe my wolf was wrong.

“Did you know that Vincent is building an army to attack the humans?” Kera asked. I forgot how straight to the point she could be sometimes.

Liam dragged a hand over the top of his head, glancing at Sarah. “That’s what they said, but I was assured there’d be no movement until we discussed this with all the neighboring Alphas.”

“And you support Vincent’s plan?” I asked.

Liam frowned at me. “I never said that.”

“If you’re allowing this to happen on your territory, then it seems like you’re showing your support,” Kera pointed out.

“I have no love for the purists, I’ll tell you that.” Liam shrugged. “But as I said, that’s a discussion for a later day. Today, I trust my witches can handle themselves and give them freedom to do what they think is best.”

Emily lowered her head, while Sarah beamed an appreciative look at her Alpha.

Still, something was wrong. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Sarah seemed different than when I’d first met her, but we’d only had a few interactions. I didn’t actually know her, did I?

Kera twisted her hands behind her back, standing up taller. “With your permission, I’d like to enter your territory and speak with this Vincent character myself.”

Liam glanced at Sarah. The witch nodded.

“As long as you stay away from the festival, we can set something up,” Sarah said to Kera. “No offense, Alpha. It’s just we have rules that magic-less beings weren’t to be invited this year and we need to remain fair to the other packs.”

“I’m assuming only I can attend.” Kera looked back at the shifters that traveled with her. They were busy pretending they weren’t listening to this conversation. All except for Meg and Alec, who didn’t bother to hide themselves or their blatant eavesdropping.

“You, and any witches or warlocks that came with you, of course.” Sarah offered a smile to Sage. Tisiphone’s mom stood just to my left, and she returned the polite smile.

“All settled. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Liam clapped his hands. “The borders have weakened with all this back and forth crossing. I’ll go ahead and strengthen my markers to make this trip worth it, and I hope you’ll join me for dinner before I return to my pack. It’d be good for us easterners to learn more about our western brothers. Who knows what alliances we’ll need in the future.”

*

Sarah set us up in one of the tents used for healing at the far east corner of the festival, away from the noise and other eyes, and slipped out before I could ask her any questions.

There were five chairs; three for Alpha Kera, Sage, and me, I assumed, all facing each other meeting-style. None of us sat.

“Something is wrong with—”

Kera held up a finger, cutting me off seconds before we heard footsteps approaching.

I sucked in a breath as Vincent opened the flap to the tent, holding it for the female behind him.

Gods, she’s beautiful.

Every time I saw her, I thought the same thing. It was always an effort to hold onto my wolf, who leapt at her arrival. Over the years, I’d learned to keep the possessive nature of the beast on a leash—barely stopping him from marking her and trying to stake his claim—but being in her presence always soothed his anxious worry.