1 Chapter 1: Magical Ailment

*A/N: This story takes place one month after the end of The Alpha’s Witch Mate*

Azandra POV

The scratching on her door jolted Azandra Hemming as she sorted her herbs. For a moment she forgot she was in her bungalow in her parents’ compound that her mother fancifully named Byrdcliff, which sounded very pretentious in New Moon City. Azandra liked the name, but she knew what people whispered about her mother putting on airs … it happened to be true.

The insistent scratching made her wolf, Melina, immediately go on alert. Her parents would howl at the impertinence of someone scratching at their door so insistently, but so be it. That scratching meant someone needed help.

Fortunately, she had gotten used to the pack needing her at all hours, another reason why she had her own house in her parents’ compound.

Her hazel eyes glowing and her red hair tumbling in her face, she raced, barefoot, over the gently aged but sturdy pine wooden floor, which her mother had grown up with. The cozy bungalow was the oldest building in the compound and the floor felt cool and comfortable. She reached the door and opened it.

“Kyon?”

His muscular frame massive enough to fill her doorway, Kyon Cresta shifted to human form and panted hard, pressing his big hand against his ribs.

Kyon Cresta, big and tough, looking like he could fall over. She couldn’t believe it.

She had never seen him so shaken physically. Devastated, yes, after his parents died. But not ill like this. He never seemed to need her healing care, at least not for anything serious. Everyone spoke about his strength. Even his brother Dane, her ex-lover and the Alpha of the Evenhide Pack, leaned on him, and Dane was the most feared and powerful Alpha on the Northern Continent among anyone who knew about shifters. He was also loved, as all the Crestas were. And Kyon … everyone loved him, too. He was the beta, after all. But he was so much more …

His hoarse voice jolted her out of her thoughts.

“Azandra … for Fenrir’s sake, please … it burns like silver but it’s not …”

“Well, don’t just stand there if you’re in agony.”

She gripped his muscular arm that his brothers jokingly compared to a tree trunk. Not an insult in her view. Trees felt solid and reliable to her, and so did Kyon. His scent like sage and pine also smelled so beautifully natural to her. One of her favorite scents in the world ever since they were children. But it had a hint of something else.

Her nose wrinkled and she almost gagged. It was as if something foul polluted a sparkling, pure crystal river.

“You’re right. That’s not wolfsbane or silver.”

“Tell me something I … aah … don’t know.”

She dragged him inside. “Do your brothers know? Does Luna Lilia?”

He lowered his head in a telltale way.

“KYON!”

“They worry enough as it is,” he wailed.

She hauled him over to her healing bed, grunting with every step. “Hop up.” She ran to the copper bell hanging by the floor-to-ceiling window and rang it. Once, twice, three times, then another two rings. For good measure, she howled, mimicking the same signal. She called it the Cresta alarm.

Any or all of Kyon’s four brothers would come running when they heard that. She hoped Dane would answer the call first. Or Jiro, the middle brother. Other than Kyon, they dealt with threats to the family the best. And her friend Lilia, as Dane’s Luna, had a remarkably level head. For a human witch, especially.

“I hope Dane doesn’t hear,” Kyon muttered.

“Better him than Patch.” Her tone betrayed a hint of exasperation with Kyon’s mischievous younger brother, even though she liked Patch, as most people did. The rest just didn’t want to admit that his playful ways and jokes had stolen their hearts.

Kyon grinned, even though his face looked pained. “The only thing he doesn’t joke about is us getting hurt.”

“True.” She darted back to him and pulled his hand away from his side.

Merciful Moon Goddess!

She bit her lip to keep from crying out in horror and rage at whatever or whoever did this to him. The wound … she’d never seen anything like it. Sickly orange, green and yellow, and angry red. Azandra rubbed some salve on it, but the angry, unusual appearance didn’t change, and Kyon still gritted his teeth in pain.

This was no ordinary wound. She could FEEL the dark magic coming from it. But who could have done it? No one in Evenhide Pack territory had that kind of power. An outside magical attack? She needed Lilia’s help. Azandra had only begun to understand magic. Lilia should be here soon. She would know more.

Could it be an attack from Cyran Sinsworth, the ex-Alpha of their rival pack the Crimsontail Shadows? He’d dabbled in dark magic and turned his back on the Moon Goddess, even though he didn’t know he was betraying her. Betraying his pack, too. Anyone who meddled in magic with bad intentions wouldn’t hesitate to unleash sickness on their fellow wolf shifters. Plus, Cyran had a personal score to settle with Kyon and the other Crestas.

She stared at the revolting wound and her heart hurt for Kyon.

Kyon’s eyes, hazy with pain, reminded her of a cup of tea with mist and steam rising from it. “I can see from your face that it looks as bad as it feels.”

Calm. Calm. Her heart raced like a human carriage out of control. “Who did this to you? What happened?” She headed for her altar to the Moon Goddess where she displayed her collection of crystals from Lilia.

“If I knew who did it, I’d tell you,” he said, every word sounding like an effort.

“Okay, no more talking for now. Even to answer my questions. I just like to think out loud."

He smiled despite the agony. “One of your more endearing qualities.”

She collected the right crystals for the job, including her pendulum, and heard her heart pound so loud it sounded like someone else banging on her door.

Kyon growled. “Tell whoever that is to stop knocking so loud because it matches the pounding in my head.”

Azandra flew to the door, crystals firmly in her hand, and opened the door to none other than her parents, Ransome and Titania. For a moment, her voice and her knees failed her, because of the overwhelmingly pleasant smiles on her parents’ faces.

“Azandra, is everything all right?” her mother Titania asked, looking at her with concern.

“Not really,” Azandra said, trying to sound calm. “I have a critical case on my hands.”

“And we have good news,” her father Ransome announced, and stepped forward so that Azandra stepped back out of habit.

She favored her father with her full head of red hair and fair skin, but she inherited her mother’s gorgeous figure and elegance. Clearly she didn’t get her love of healing from either of them, judging from the disapproval in their eyes when they stepped into her house. They didn’t seem to notice Kyon, but then, he kept out of their way. He was already suffering enough. She felt his distress and discomfort, and she wanted to hug him and shield him, then kiss the pain away …

This was no time for those thoughts. They were already enough of a distraction in her life … and Kyon needed her to be a healer, not a lover … if that was what this was.

It felt like the mate pull. And she felt a persistent ache in her ribs on the right side of her body, roughly where Kyon’s wound was located.

“Azandra, darling, isn’t there some other place you could do this healing before you’re mated?” Titania asked, distracting her. “It’s not going to be for much longer, after all, which is our good news. You are going to be a pack Luna, the way you were meant to be.”

Didn’t they understand how serious this was right now? Were they that blind?

“Not in this pack, despite our best efforts,” Ransome added, eyeing her healing table as though it came alive and thwarted her parents’ ambitions. “But another lucky Alpha is willing to make you his Luna. It’s all settled with Marcus Mond and the Wintertails. You’ll be so happy.”

The nerve of them!

“That’s news to me,” Azandra said, tongue firmly planted against her cheek. “And to my fated mate. Who already makes me happy.”

The words just spilled out, and the spark of an idea set her brain on fire.

Her parents had come here to announce that they’d arranged a betrothal behind her back, without consulting her. It would mean leaving this pack where she had friends, adopted brothers in the Cresta family, respect, a mentor, and a whole pack family. No more being a healer.

No more Kyon Cresta.

Both her parents froze, their mouths open. “Azandra, Alpha Dane took up with that outsider,” her mother said, speaking as if she were a backward child.

Azandra rolled her eyes and sprinted back to Kyon, who glared at her parents, without any of the respect he normally showed his elders. But then, his parents set the bar so high for parenthood that her parents could never measure up. Azandra remembered running with tears streaming down her cheeks to Mr. and Mrs. Cresta when her father told her to stop collecting herbs and start training to become a future Luna. As a child, Kyon no doubt heard some of those conversations in which his parents comforted Azandra with hot tea and hugs.

The adult Kyon looked disgusted by Ransome and Titania.

Fortunately, Azandra blocked their view of Kyon’s utter contempt for them as she concentrated her healing energy through one of the amethysts. It worked for poisons. She also used a black tourmaline and what Lilia called a witch stone or an alder stone.

“I’m not talking about Dane,” she said over her shoulder. “I think WE made a mistake on that score because he’s happy with my friend Lilia, who is his fated mate. And I’ve found mine, right in this pack.”

“Azandra, this isn’t funny,” her mother said.

Azandra wanted to laugh harder because NOTHING was ever funny or light-hearted where her mother was concerned. “I’m being entirely serious, Mother. Dane will make an excellent brother-in-law, though.” She ruffled Kyon’s soft, wavy hair with her free hand.

“Excuse me while I take care of my fated mate, Kyon.”