"Obstupefacio!"

I stopped in my tracks.

In the few seconds that I had disappeared, Alrik either managed to piss Grandma Ester off or Grandma Ester was off her rocker and had just been waiting for me to leave to make a move.

And that spell she had just barked made my heart drop to my stomach and a bitter taste fill my mouth.

I found myself racing down the hallway, my breath coming out in harsh gasps from the intense burning in my chest that formed out of fear for what I would find when I made it back to the living room.

"AL–"

I skidded to a stop, the rug on the floor scrunching up around my feet.

Grandma Ester was standing a few inches away from Alrik with her back to me, and her body was trembling furiously.

But much to my relief, Alrik was perfectly intact and towering over her with an eyebrow raised and a broken wand in his hand.

"You broke my wand!" Grandma Ester exclaimed with disbelief.

Anger bubbled in my chest like lava rising in a volcano. I marched forward and snatched a poker from the fireplace, "And you tried to hurt him, you dumb bitch."

I didn't give her a chance to retort before smashing the heavy metal rod against the back of her head. She wavered back and forth for a few moments then fell to the ground unceremoniously.

I stared at her body, waiting for satisfaction to hit me, but it didn't. For some reason, I was still seething even though she was knocked out. I wanted to smash her skull to pieces.

My grip tightened around the poker, and I lifted it with the intention of hitting her again when Alrik's hand shot out and seized the end of the poker.

I raised my eyes to look at him and blinked incredulously at the small smile on his face, "At least I know you have some sort of feelings for me."

Of all things to think about at the moment, he was worried about my feelings for him?

"She could have killed you!" I blurted, trying to shake his grip off the poker, "And all you can think about is that I have feelings for you?"

He rolled his eyes, "She's harmless, Jaslynn. I snapped her wand in half. What else was she going to do? Kill me with a cookie?"

His words extinguished the flames of fury in me, and a deep sigh left my mouth as I let go of the poker and wrapped my arms around his torso. He stiffened in surprise before he relaxed and curled the hand with the broken wand around my waist.

I shouldn't be getting attached when I didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle that composed this complicated Alpha wolf.

But my reaction to everything that had just occurred made one thing clear to both of us– the parts that I had put together were parts that I was starting to like. I couldn't even hide it even if I wanted to.

"What was the spell for?" Alrik asked, pulling away so he could see my face.

I let go of him and took a piece of the wand from his hand to study it, "It's a freezing spell. You would become immobile and probably die soon after because your blood would stop flowing to your heart and that causes you to go into cardiac arrest."

"Then it's a good thing I dodged it."

"Yeah, about that," I started, giving him a pointed look, "How did you avoid it? It's almost impossible to dodge a powerful spell like that one."

He shrugged, "Reflexes. Training. It would be an insult to everything my grandfather taught me if I did get struck by the spell."

"Yes, I'm sure," I muttered, feeling slightly envious of his physical capabilities, "Now use that training to help me turn this place inside out. I don't think Ester is waking up anytime soon so we're going to have to search for clues ourselves."

I stepped over the unconscious old lady and walked down the hallway in search of an office or library.

As she turned away, I couldn't help but notice the glint of sadness in her eyes.

Whether she was aware of her emotions or not, I knew that deep down, a part of her was upset because this meeting did not go at all like she had expected.

This was her mentor's mother, someone she thought she could trust. And based on what she had told me about her family, perhaps she was hoping to find a motherly bond with her. Instead, she got the exact opposite because the old woman was not right in the head.

It was no wonder why Amos stopped writing her.

"Alrik, are you coming?"

I threw the poker on the rug and followed Jaslynn's voice to a room at the very end of the hallway. She was standing in the middle of an extremely messy office with stacks of papers all over the floor and old coffee cups lining the edge of the desk.

"This is going to be easy," I muttered, stepping over the overflowing trash can.

Jaslynn sighed, "You start on that side. I'll start over here. Just read through any letters and notebooks for information and take whatever you think is helpful."

With an incoherent grumble, I grabbed a notebook from one of the makeshift shelves and skimmed through it as Jaslynn went through the desk drawers.

"She has so much random shit in these drawers," I heard Jaslynn mumble behind me, "I don't understand how she keeps track–"

She let out a loud shriek, and I rotated my head to see her holding up a disturbingly large black dildo by the tip with a complete and utter horrified expression on her face.

I snorted, "At least we know she has a healthy sexual appetite."

Jaslynn couldn't look more terrified as she dropped the dildo on the desk and shivered in disgust, "Who knows if she even washed it?"

"By the state of her office, I highly doubt it. You should wa–" Jaslynn was rushing out of the office before I could finish my sentence and managed to knock the trash can over in the process. An ocean of crumpled, coffee-stained napkins and old Kleenex tumbled out along with a few wrinkled pieces of paper and envelopes.

I tossed the notebook I was skimming to the side and kneeled to pick up a few of the envelopes. There were no addresses on them, just Grandma Ester's neatly printed in the center.

I opened the flap and pulled a small slip of paper out.

I have confirmation that they are coming to you. You know what to do.

-M

ALSO: I'm thinking of having a Q&A session, either on Instagram or by video. (My Instagram handle is penguinlover4life). Do you guys have any questions for me? It can be anything Wattpad or writing related or even a few personal questions.