Diya’s frantic eyes met mine. “I can’t fix this. Aurora, I can’t fix this!”

Mist leaked from my pores, saturating the room as the baby began to cry. “Kai, get the baby out of here,” I roared in a voice that scared me. It was only half human and it oozed with dominance. Kai looked frightened but listened and left the room. Emma was a limp figure draped over the bed. My best friend. No!

I held my hands in front of me and sifted through every healing lesson Gretchen had ever taught me. Hovering my hands over Emma’s belly, I whispered, “Heal.” I imagined a tear inside of her body. I had been studying the anatomy book Gretchen had given me and I imagined the uterus stitching itself together. The pink tissue fusing together. I refused to look at the massive amount of blood on the floor.

Diya gasped in shock. “The bleeding stopped.”

I continued to hold my hands out, breathing deeply, imagining all of the female organs in Emma’s body as healed. Sending mist to aid in fast healing. I opened my eyes. Emma was limp on the bed, skin white as the sheet that she rested on.

Diya put two fingers to Emma’s neck and whimpered. “Too much blood lost. Oh God. I’m so sorry.”

“No!” I roared and the window next to the bed shattered spraying glass all over the floor.

The witches told me that because I had two affinities it marked me a Devi. That one affinity was mine and one was the Devi. I had a hunch that I was the seer and the Devi was the healer.

‘Devi, I need you. I know you’re the healer. I know it! If Emma dies, I die too! I won’t help you kill Layla. So you need to help me now. Please!’ The second I thought it, mist poured from my hands, saturating Emma’s body. I was brought to my knees panting as my skin tingled like my blood was filled with carbonation. Black spots danced across my vision and I felt faint. Suddenly, Emma gasped, taking in a huge gulp of air and that’s when I passed out.

*

“Her hair!” I heard Diya’s voice.

My eyelids flew open and I groaned.

Emma was sitting up in a chair, nursing the baby, and I lay on the couch in the living room. Kai was hovering over me with yellow eyes.

“Still with us?” he ground out.

I had a raging headache and felt hungover. “Yeah,” I croaked.

“Her hair,” Diya said again with fascination.

Kai eyed my hair and shook his head in disbelief.

“What?” I touched my hair.

Diya handed me a mirror and I gasped. A black chunk of hair streaked my bangs as I looked at Kai in shock. He was pissed and I could only shrug.

“Witches,” Kai mumbled.

Emma cleared her throat.

I sat up quickly and grabbed my head again. Kai put a strong hand under my elbow and helped me walk over to Emma who had finished feeding and was now gazing at her daughter.

Squeezing my hand, Emma looked at my hair with fear. “Thank you,” she told me.

I nodded. “What’s her name? Can we repaint the nursery pink now?” I asked and everyone laughed.

Emma looked down at the baby. “Avery. Devon wanted that name if it was a girl.”

I nodded. “Avery.”

*

Kai made me shift to my werewolf form and fed me raw steaks. My vegetarian side would be repulsed, but I let my wolf come to the surface and I knew I needed the steaks to replenish the blood I gave Emma. That was a scary thought. I gave Emma my blood. Somehow, magically. Now I had this black chunk of hair that wasn’t going away.

Emma was asleep and Diya was watching baby Avery. We had all decided to take shifts to help her out. Alek and the kid, Jeremy, had spent last night in the basement; Jeremy in a cage, Alek on a couch. Layla was hell-bent on kidnapping female werewolves to use as baby incubators, and my best friend almost died during labor. It was officially the longest day ever.  The second my head hit the pillow, I was out.

Permanent

The next day I awoke in excitement. Last month, Sylvia and the coven had formally invited me to an exclusive event called the witches’ ball. It was a black tie, witches only, ball where you could mingle with all of the witch covens, buy rare and precious magical items, get psychic readings, and God knows what else. Even with everything else going on, I was so stoked! Kai? Not so much.

I rolled over and let my gaze roam over my mate, moaning lightly. Serious eye candy. He was lying on his back, one arm behind his head, shirtless. I must have done something really good in a past life to deserve to sleep next to this gorgeous man every night.

Suddenly, he popped one eye open, a yellow eye. His wolf came to the surface for two reasons: when he detected danger, or when he detected sex.

I ran my fingers along his chest down to the V-shape of his lower abdominal muscles.

“Good morning,” I purred. “I thought you were sleeping.”

He rolled over and quirked one eyebrow. “I was until your naughty thoughts filtered through the bond.”

I laughed and then crawled on top of him. “The witches’ ball is tonight. I am so excited!” I told him, leaning in for a kiss.

He groaned and pulled me off, sitting up quickly, eyes suddenly brown. “Tonight? Wait, I thought it was next week. You’re not seriously going after hearing about Layla wanting to capture female werewolves, right?”

I sat back. Mood kill.

“Kai, it’s tonight.” Was he serious? I told him about this a month ago and then reminded him weekly.

He looked worried. “I should be able to go. I’m your mate.”