Chapter Seven

                                    

                                          




~Brigid~


Standing in the middle of the forest was not how Brigid planned for this afternoon to end. She certainly didn't plan to be left there while Torin walked further into the woods, disappearing from sight with promises of being right back. She was about to turn around and head home, cursing a certain Irishman as she went when a twig snapped to her right. Whipping to face that direction, her jaw dropped when a familiar wolf walked into view. The reddish brown of his fur stood out against the green of the forest; his head was held down slightly, as if he was trying to make himself look smaller. It didn't do much, considering his shoulder would probably come up to her hip. She knew it hadn't been a spirit trying to mess with her.
As the silence stretched on, Torin inched his way closer to her, a soft whine coming from him. She wasn't afraid of him — how could she be? She hadn't been afraid the two other times she'd seen wolves in these woods, why would she be now? But her tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of her mouth. Suddenly, the old stories her Gran used to tell her of Shifters played in her mind. She'd grown to assume they had been just that; stories. With another low whine, Torin sat down with a couple feet separating them. Sitting, his head almost came up to her chest. Meeting his yellow-green eyes, Brigid couldn't help but read the emotion in them. He looked almost sorry, like this was not how he had wanted to tell her. 
"My Great Uncle knew, didn't he?"
Torin dipped his head, the nod more human than wolf.
Of course, he had known. Her Gran's brother had lived on this land his entire life, of course he had known of the Shifters living in the woods. She wondered if they had been friends. Wondered if her Gran had known them, too. Blurry images raced across her mind from the only other time she had ever visited Ash Grove. She had been six, just lost her parents the winter before. She remembers a man coming to visit them with some young boys in tow, but she definitely didn't remember seeing any wolves in the woods.
"Do you know what's causing the woods to die?" Torin shakes his head, his ears flattening against his skull. Playing with the ring on her thumb, Brigid sighed. Looking around them, there was no evidence in this part of the woods that would suggest something was amiss. But she knew that whatever was causing it was going to keep happening unless they figure out a way to stop it. 
Looking back at Torin, finding him sitting in the same spot, Brigid gestured back towards the cabin. "Well, I'm guessing you have a lot more to tell me but you can't do that when you have a tail." The noise he made sounded so much like snort it made Brigid smile. "I'll meet you in the yard." She turned and left the wolf where he was, ignoring the slight grumble she heard as she did. He might not have wanted her to walk away yet but she needed to actually speak to him and she couldn't do that when he was in that form. Besides, she knew enough from the stories her Gran used to tell that the actual shift from one form to another is painful and not something outsiders ever witness. As the stone barrier of Ash Grove appeared out of the forest, Brigid ran a hand over her face, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment. Life just got so much more complicated.


~~~


"You're not taking me somewhere to lock me away so I can't give your secret up, right?" The look Torin passes her over the seat of his truck would have withered a laser person. "What? You're the first Shifter I've ever met! How am I supposed to know how this works."
The murderous look turns almost pained. "Have I really left that sort of impression on you? Coming to your home every day to fix your roof?"
The comment sobers Brigid up, making a blush rise on her cheekbones; she never meant to make him feel like he's made her feel unsafe. She might not have liked men particularly that much, but he had never once made her regret asking for his assistance. And not once while standing in the forest, with his giant wolf form staring at her, did she feel under threat. "No. No, Torin, I didn't mean it that way. I know you aren't any threat to me. I just...I know how close a witch holds her power."