“Yeah. ‘Fraid so.” Something Slade regretted every single day of his life.
“I see another practitioner tempered the original curse. I can enable you to enter the wards if the alpha agrees.” The healer rolled light brown eyes upward toward where the sheriff stood.
Mac nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll vouch for him. Now, I’ll leave you to your area of expertise. Noah, come with me.”
“Will you be okay?” Noah murmured into Slade’s ear.
Slade patted Noah’s hand, resting on his shoulder. “Yeah. You go on.” He gave the sheriff a hurt-him-and-you-die-slowly glower.
“He’s in good hands. Now, c’mon.” The sheriff nodded in response to Slade’s unvoiced threat, waited for Noah to climb to his feet, then marched off toward the largest building in sight, long strides eating up the distance.
Noah trotted to keep up. “Sir, I’d rather stay with Slade, if you don’t mind.”
“Fixing the wards is going to take a while. You might distract him. Trust me, Sam will take good care of him.”
Slade nodded for Noah to go ahead. He couldn’t protect himself right now, let alone anyone else. Still, if they did one thing wrong…
Sam laughed. “You’re growling, and you aren’t even a wolf.”
“Are you?”
“Heavens, no. Wolves and witches are mutually exclusive.” Sam ran his fingers over Slade’s hand, chanting quietly under his breath. He kept a pleasant, bemused expression on his face.
A million questions ran through Slade’s head. He dared not distract the healer.
They remained sitting on the ground, Sam chanting, Slade wishing he could find the bastard who’d cursed him and make him regret the day he’d ever laid eyes on Slade Slater. In the south, fire ants would’ve attacked the moment they sat down in the grass. They remained blessedly bite-free.
Minutes ticked by. The sun rose straight overhead, then began its downward journey. At last, Sam said, “There. That should do well enough. You have access to the compound, though some of our high-security areas are off-limits. Nothing personal. Most of our people can’t go there.” The pleasantness dropped from his face for a brief moment. “We have to be careful.”
They rose and started back toward the fence. Someone had moved the Durango to the side.
Slade gritted his teeth, stepping past the fence. Nothing.
Sam laughed. “You’ll learn to trust me. They all do.” Without explaining further, the healer trudged down the path toward neat rows of houses. The first house was bigger than the rest, with a large, wraparound porch—the place the sheriff had taken Noah. “This is the pack house where the alpha lives with his family and where the pack meets. We have a convenience store down the road, a few small shops, and the clinic is right there. Some of our people fear the outside world. They rarely wander off the compound.” A garishly pink building stood out from among more sedate neighbors. “My granddaughter chose the clinic’s color.”
Slade stopped walking. “Where is Noah?”
The healer looked back over his shoulder. “Most likely in the pack house, getting acquainted with pack rules.”
“Take me there.”
Sam shook his head, pleasant smile never fading. “The pack house is restricted to pack members and prospects. You’ve been through quite a shock. I’ll show you to a cabin where you can rest.” He started walking again.
Slade stayed put. “I’m not going anywhere until I see Noah. I also need to bring my truck down here.”
Sam’s smile dimmed somewhat. Slade got the impression smiling was the man’s default setting. “Let’s find out if you’re staying first, shall we? Barging into the alpha’s home is no way to win an invitation.”
“Won’t they take Noah in? He’s a wolf. One of their own kind.” They’d better the hell at least offer after all Noah went through to get here.
“We shall see.”
“Can you at least tell me a little about this place?” The buildings didn’t look very old, maybe built in the 70s, 80s, or later. Few cars sat in driveways. Maybe folks were gone to work at this hour.
“Not much to tell.” They ambled past well-kept homes, some brick, some siding, none new. “In the late 70s, hunters declared open season on shifters. Within a decade, they’d come close to wiping out the various shifter species. Many survivors found their way here.”
“How’d the pack wind up with witches?”
Sam slowed his footsteps to match Slade’s. “Our numbers have been dwindling for years. Witches bonding with humans, diluting the bloodlines. We still had some abilities. The wolves have their own talents. Together we withstood the hunters.”