Wolfs Magic

Chapter Thirteen

Leah felt as if she burned from the inside out. She had felt it—like a butterfly flapping its wings on her eyelashes—the second Az’s soul had left his body. She’d reached out and grabbed it with her metaphysical hands. Now she had to hold it in place.

Her whole body buzzed and her ears rang. It wasn’t easy keeping his soul earthbound when it wanted to move on to the next place.

“Almost done, Ash?” She must have asked ten times already and she didn’t care if it annoyed anyone, she was just going to keep on asking.

“One more minute.” Ashlee looked pale, her hands over Az’s body as she quietly chanted words Leah couldn’t understand. Hells bells, she didn’t care if the woman was reciting her grocery list as long as it healed Az’s body enough to put his soul back into it.

Tristan placed a strong hand on her back. She wanted to flinch but supposed it wasn’t a good idea to recoil from the Alpha’s touch.

No, we love our Alpha.

Her wolf was, at least, resolute.

“He always thinks of himself as so unworthy.” Tristan’s voice sounded rough, like sandpaper being pulled tightly over a wall of wood. “We could hardly run the pack without his skills. Now we find out he’s hiding this magical ability, one he technically couldn’t have, but gods know we need.”

Didn’t the man have any idea how hard it was to speak at this moment? He wanted her to discuss emotional issues on top of that? “Tristan, my Alpha…”

He interrupted her. “Don’t talk. I just want you to listen.”

Okay, she could do that. “As if he hasn’t done enough, he takes on our father and a contingency of his wolves all by himself as he manages to collect pivotal data for the pack’s survival.”

She nodded. He had done all those things.

“I want you to know that whatever he thinks of himself, how little he values himself, we think him integral. He’s my brother. I was grown when he was born. Theo and I are close in age but Az was, in some ways, like my first child. I think he’s extraordinary.”

She knew he didn’t want her to speak but felt she had to say something to that huge statement. Opening her mouth, she never got the chance as Ashlee finally finished.

Exhausted, the other woman slumped to the floor caught easily by her mate.

Leah’s job wasn’t quite done yet. Closing her eyes she willed her hands to move Az’s soul from her keeping back into his own body. It was like carrying lead. As her arms sagged under the pressure, she promised herself she would never volunteer to do this job unless the situation was dire. Messing around with souls was more than she wanted to handle.

Placing her beloved’s soul back in his body, she stared at his face for a moment before she let herself fall over his prostrate form. It was okay, she decided, if she just took a little nap…

Leah moved slightly to the left to get a better view of Az’s profile. She’d been working on getting him in all the different poses she could come up with. It was difficult considering he’d been asleep for twenty-four hours in a bed. Maybe she saw him through the eyes of love but she thought every movement of his REM sleep fascinating.

As if on command, his eyes flew open. Clearing his throat, he looked at her sideways. “How long have I been out of it?”

“For twenty-four hours. You woke up briefly when we first brought you back here and then you were out again.” It had been hell. For the first few hours she’d thought his soul was about to take off again. She didn’t want him to know that so she stood up before he could get too good an idea of her thoughts.

He cocked his head to the side. “You dyed your hair. It’s not multicolored anymore, just two of them.”

“You’re so articulate.” She laughed. “Yes, it is ash brown and Kool-Aid red.” Hell, making the Kool-Aid and rinsing her hair with it had eaten up an hour of her worrying.

“You like it?”

“I’d like you with a bag over your head but yes you look gorgeous, as always.”

Standing up from her chair, she moved to the side of the bed. “You do know that you’ve probably turned the tide in this war. We know so much more now because of you. Tristan and Cullen have been strategizing all day and because of you the pack didn’t needlessly go off to Texas leaving Westervelt unprotected.”

He sat up in the bed. She didn’t miss how he winced. “Is there a reason you are telling me how wonderful I am?”

“Because you thought you were going to die and all you could think was that you’d failed everyone. Tristan says he couldn’t run the pack without you.”

She kissed his nose loving the way his big brown eyes glowed in the light. “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, except you. I know how smart I am, the things I value about myself are not the things that other people necessarily find important in this pack, but I’m still proud of doing them.”

“Az,” she rolled her eyes. How could he be so blasé about what he’d done? “You took on half a wolf pack and your father all by yourself.”

“And you held my soul here on this plane of existence. I guess we’re both extraordinary.”

She kissed him for his arrogance, loving that about him too. “What happens now?”

His eyes twinkled as he pulled her back down on him again. “We could go away together for a few months and come back when you’re pregnant.”

She nodded. “Or we could stay here and help the pack plan for the end of this nightmare.” Moving slowly she reached out with her tongue and licked his bottom lip.

“And just see what happens with the pregnancy. If the others have managed to get knocked up while they hung around here, I’m sure you and I can find a way to accomplish that as well. We seem to do that just perfectly.”

He laughed aloud and the sound warmed her inside. “All right. Sounds like a plan. Every day with you, wherever we are, is magic.”

The End