Later.
He huffed, pointing a claw at the woman watching him with a hint of a smile tugging her lips. It didn’t quite hide the worry written in her witch’s gaze, but it was enough for Colt to think she was laughing at him.
Who was she?
“You look like Shea,” he said, stating the obvious. “You reek of baby powder and you’ve got her purple eyes. You’ve gotta be a witch.”
“No tact. Possessive gleam in your eye when you look at my granddaughter. The claws. That adorable t-shirt. You must be Shea’s wolf.”
“Granddaughter?” That single word pumped the brakes on Colt’s wolf. He sheathed his claws immediately. “You’re Shea’s grandmother?”
She nodded. “My name is Kallista Moonshadow. And, as you so astutely put it, I am a witch.”
No shit. The baby powder might’ve been his first clue, the purple eyes his second, but the heavy weight of magic that clung to this woman just screamed witch to him. The wards she was building crackled like static electricity against his skin.
“I thought Luciana was coming to build the wards.”
“She was. In the coven, though, family comes first. Since no one else thought to inform me that my beloved grandchildren had been attacked by Nightwalkers, the mistress of Coventry contacted me. Of course I had to come home right away. No one can build a ward better than a Moonshadow.”
Colt still remembered the sting against his palm when he tested Shea’s wards. Her grandmother definitely had a point there.
“Don’t I know it. One time I tried to open the door to Shea’s shop when it was still warded and it nearly singed all my fur off.”
“She’s one of the strongest of us all. Magic flows through her veins like blood runs through yours.”
He couldn’t stop himself. Kallista sounded so proud, and it was so at odds with the way Shea regarded her witchcraft, Colt had to say something. “She’s a witch, I know that, but I thought she didn’t… you know… have any real powers?”
The older woman narrowed her gaze. Her magic flared, the baby powder scent taking on a dark note, like it had been burned or something. Anger. Whatever it was he said, he’d pissed her off royally.
What a wonderful first impression he’d leave on Shea’s grandmother.
She took a deep breath, pulling in her aura, before nodding. Colt realized he’d just been given a pass by the powerful witch.
Huh.
And then Kallista asked him, “What do you know about our family?”
Colt’s stomach tightened. His wolf yipped and he knew that his animal was scolding him. Because, well, he didn’t know much more than that Hudson was her brother and that she had a grandmother in Europe. That was it.
And that was only it because Colt had been careful to keep his distance.
When he was convinced that he could keep her from mating him, that his will was stronger than that of fate, what was the point of getting to know her? It would only make it harder to break their bond if he let himself fall deeper and deeper for her.
Alpha, he was regretting his stubbornness—and his stupidity—right about now.
“Not much,” he admitted.
“My daughter was a good witch. A strong witch. But she always put her search for more power, more knowledge, more diamonds ahead of her family. Hudson came to me when he was two. Shea never lived with Vanessa. She felt the rejection all the same and, whether she knows it or not, she’s always blamed witchcraft for taking her mother away. Then, when my girl died at the hands of another witch when Shea was twelve… well, magic responds.”
“She calls it backwards.”
“Because she tried to hold it in for too many years. So, in a sense, it is just that. She never needed that kind of magic anyway. My Shea is a healer, the strongest Moonshadow that’s ever been. Not many would’ve been able to heal the damage that had been done to Hudson. She’s special.”
“Yeah.” He couldn’t keep his gaze from straying over to her. If he didn’t know any better, it was almost like she was sleeping peacefully. “She is.”
“Do you love her?”
His shock at her blunt question had him puzzled for a second. After he recovered, his answer was automatic.