Chapter Seven – Cade

The pull of his mate was almost too much to resist. He should be at her side, not out here with another woman. But Tally wasn’t just another woman, she was a kid, who had just seen all her hopes and dreams dashed at his hand, and more than that, she was his friend. A friend he loved, just not in the way she wanted.

“Tally, wait up,” he said, as he jogged after the young witch, who was striking off into the forest. “Let me drive you.”

“I’d rather walk.”

“Then I’ll walk with you.” Tally’s house was a good twenty minutes’ walk, even if they took a direct route. The journey back would be quick; he would shift and run back as a bear.

“Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

“I do.” Cade fell into step with her. “Right here.”

Tally snorted. “I meant with your mate.”

“I know.” He cast her a sideways glance. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” she asked bitterly. “You have what you want. Go make babies with her.”

“I’m sorry it wasn’t us.”

She stopped and wheeled around on him, fists clenched. “No, you are not. Don’t lie. I bet you and your family are so relieved it isn’t me who is their fearsome leader’s mate. After all, you would not want to introduce the blood of family where insanity prevails into your offspring.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Cade said. “Your mom isn’t crazy, she’s bound, or there’s some other spell on her.”

“Are you so sure?” Tally asked.

“Aren’t you?” Cade asked. This was not going in the direction he had hoped.

Tally swung back around, marching through the trees so loudly a degetty could have heard her two miles away. “I’m not sure of anything anymore.” She swallowed a sob. “Why can’t I catch a break, just once?”

“Tally,” Cade said, his hand reaching for her and resting on her shoulder. She shrugged away, but he caught her more firmly and turned her to face him. “You know how much you mean to me. I’m sorry we aren’t mates, but I have never led you on where that’s concerned.”

“I get that, you’re one of the good guys,” She yanked herself out of his grasp. “But that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t suck.”

“Tally, there is someone out there for you. I know there is.”

“Yeah, because I’m so special,” she said sarcastically.

“Yes, you are. I wish you could see it,” Cade said.

“I’m not special, I’m screwed up.”

“That is not true.”

“Really? Do you see my life?” She took a big shuddering breath. “You think this fits in at school…?” She pointed to herself. To Cade she was beautiful, like some ethereal creature, pale as the dawn.

“School doesn’t last forever.”

“Right, I forgot. When I leave school, I’m expected to get a job, while still leading a double life. Do you know what it’s like to have to constantly make up excuses for not being able to do stuff? And the bruises. Most people think my crazy mom beats me.”

“I’m sorry, Tally,” Cade said. He’d never appreciated how she felt. Tally was right, she should be out enjoying herself just like any other seventeen-year-old: parties, shopping, girly nights. Instead, she was surrounded by grown men who turned into bears.

“Stop saying you are sorry. It’s not your fault, remember?”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t feel some kind of responsibility.”

“Forget it.” She shooed her hands at him. “Go back to your mate. I’d rather be alone.”

“No. I’m walking you home. There’s another degetty on the loose and I do not want anything to happen to you.”

Her eyes flashed. “A degetty? That comes along right when this Octavia does.” She frowned. “Are you sure you can trust her?”

“Yes.” Cade left the exasperation out of his voice, just. “Don’t turn this around on to Octavia.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, just because she is your mate, does that make her Mother Teresa?”

“No.” Cade dragged his hand through his hair. “But it hunted her.”

“And she fought it off? Because it looked to me as if she’s more of a flight than fight kind of a gal.”

“She ran,” he conceded.

“And she is that fast the degetty didn’t catch her?”

“No.”

“She’s that fast. Or the degetty just gave up?” Tally asked, taking a step closer to Cade.

“Octavia said she thought the degetty was herding her.”

“Herding her where?” Tally asked, her eyes calculating. The angsty teenager had gone, replaced by a witch, who was every inch a professional member of the squad.

“Here.” His concern showed, and Tally’s expression softened. “To you.”

“To me?” Tally’s breath caught in her throat and despite all her bravado, she looked scared. “Why me?”

“I don’t know, but she had your name, Natalie Munroe, and your address on a piece of paper. She was told you could get rid of the degetty.”

“Oh, Cade, that’s not good.”

“I know,” he said hoarsely. “Something is coming.”

Tally slid into his arms. “We’ll fight it together, we always do.”

“I know. I hate that any of you are in danger. I hate it more that this might be to do with me. She’s my mate, that can’t be a coincidence.”

“They were going to find a way in at some point. A way to hit us hard. We’ve been on top of the Templars for too long. Now, each day they grow stronger.” She stepped back from him. “I will send this degetty back to the Underworld. Even if it is for your girlfriend.”

“What if it’s strong, like the one today… Zinan?”

“Then we get another Druid Box. Or we ask Lucas for help.” Tally shook her head. “If only my mom was in her right mind.”

Cade placed his hand on Tally’s shoulder. “Do you ever wonder, if she is bound, what she knows? What someone is trying to keep from us?”

Tally’s big gray-blue eyes stood out against her pale skin. “You think that is what happened?”

“It makes sense that she overheard something. Or saw something. Or found something.” He shrugged, rubbing his hand over his face. He was bone tired. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed. “She has to be connected to this.”

“Maybe. But I’ve asked her every question, every which way, and she gives nothing away. I know Locke is worried about her.”

“How is the old wolf?” Cade asked. Locke had been a victim of the Templars years ago, when Cade’s mom and dad had first met. He had lost everything to the Templars, and Helena had taken him in. There were rumors that Locke was Tally’s father, but Eva had never believed it. However, the rumor had rumbled on, maybe to throw anyone off the trail of whom Tally’s real father was. Her actions today, the opening of the Druid Box, meant she had to have druid blood in her veins, not shifter blood.

“He’s OK. Keeps the place tidy, puts food on the table. The usual.”

“How did you open the Druid Box, Tally?”

“I should go.”

“That wasn’t even an attempt at subtle.”

“I don’t know. I just did.” She looked troubled. “You know, I always thought when I was eighteen, I might come of age and my father’s genes would kick in and I would be a shifter. I have dreamed of that since I was a little girl.”

“We shift long before we reach eighteen,” Cade said.

“I know.” She looked up at him, her face white, pale eyes carrying so much baggage it made his heart ache for her. “What happened today broke more than one of my dreams.”

With that, she turned around and walked off toward home. She didn’t say another word to him, and he didn’t make conversation either. They were both lost in their own worlds. When they reached her house, he stood at the tree line and watched her go inside. He stood long after the door had shut behind her, and watched the house, deep in thought.

Tally was right, things were moving. Were the Templars trying to enact their end game?

And what did Octavia coming here have to do with it?

There was only one way to get answers, and it wasn’t standing there staring at Tally’s house.

Cade turned around, shifting into his bear in midair. When he hit the ground, his four paws dug into the forest floor and he ran, ran until his lungs felt as if they would burst, and his heart hammered in his ears. Ran until he sensed his mate and knew she was safe.

She held the answers. She must do. But would she give them to Cade? Maybe Tally was right to distrust Octavia. Unless he turned her, the mating bond only affected him. And he wasn’t about to turn Octavia by force. So he would have to talk to her, get to know her, and learn to tell truth from lies.

And that began now.