Chapter 328
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Chapter 328
Tonight. That didn’t feel like nearly enough time, but I’d been thinking all night, and I had come up with some ideas.
I stood and faced him. “There’s something I need first.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“Herbs,” I said. “Special ones. To ensure that the… union is successful. That I conceive quickly.”
Gareth’s expression shifted to something hungrier. “What kind of herbs?”
“Rare ones,” I said. “They only grow in certain areas. I’ll need to search for them myself. You know that my people locate plants far better than yours.”
“You want to leave the camp?” he asked.
“Just to gather what I need,” I said calmly.
He studied me for a long moment. He wasn’t stupid. He knew I might try to make a run for it. But he also desperately seemed to want me for himself, and he wasn’t about to ruin our “wedding night” over herbs.
“Fine,” he said eventually. “But you can’t go alone. You’ll take a bodyguard with you.” He took a step forward. ” Until the wedding, you are still our prisoner.” He glanced at my wound. “You won’t heal until I mark you. Your wolf is too weak right now. So you can’t run like that.”
I had figured by now that keeping me just weak enough that I couldn’t heal had been the plan, but I forced a smile.
“Understood,” I said.
With that, Gareth called for my bodyguard, who was a large, burly male with a nasty-looking knife at his belt. I followed him out of the longhouse and into the forest.
About a quarter mile in, I stopped walking, crouching by a small berry bush while the bodyguard stood nearby and watched. I took a deep breath and shut my eyes.
“Come on,” I whispered, willing the strange power to come forward. I had felt it before, that uncanny, irresistible pull. When the boar broke my leg, and again when Dominic had been having that allergic reaction. I didn’t know how it worked or why, but I knew that it had to happen now if I was going to get out of here by tonight.
For a long time, nothing happened.
I began to lose hope. Perhaps whatever power I’d felt before was mere coincidence and not a power at all; or perhaps I simply had no way to tap into it willingly.
When nothing happened for several long moments and my bodyguard began to shift annoyedly on his feet, I opened my eyes and stood, cursing under my breath. Okay. Plán A was not going to work out. But plan B-
I felt it then.
The pull was gentle, so gentle I almost missed it, almost like a soft breeze against my cheek despite the still, hot air of the forest. I turned my head toward the sensation and felt a tug. Like a thin string had been tied to my ocular nerves and was being pulled from the other end.
I began moving in that direction. The pull grew stronger. My wolf stirred, lifting her head with interest. She felt it
too.
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Chapter 328
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Finally, I stopped in a small clearing. The ground here was different, darker and richer. Moss grew thick on the trees, and the air felt heavier.
I crouched down and started searching.
“What are you looking for?” the bodyguard barked.
“A plant I need for the ritual,” I said. “Mind your business.”
He grunted but didn’t press the matter.
I brushed aside fallen leaves and examined the undergrowth. The pull was stronger now, almost like something was vibrating in my chest. It was close. Very close.
There, growing at the base of an old oak tree was a small plant with pale, almost translucent petals. They shimmered faintly in the dappled sunlight, like they were made of glass. I recognized it immediately from one of the texts I had studied at the academy.
Ghost’s Whisper.
My breath caught in my throat. Ghost’s Whisper was one of the rarest plants in existence. The book had said it only grew in areas touched by ancient Lycan magic, which was why most people thought it was extinct.
The petals, when consumed, granted temporary invisibility. For about an hour, anyone who ate them would become nearly impossible to see.
My heart pounded as I reached for it.
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dor 329
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