Free A Shift in the Water by Patricia D. Eddy Page B

have to finish his sentence. Not when the end is almost here.
    The wolf growled and forced his body between them. Mara wasn’t alone and the wolf seemed hell-bent on reminding her of that. “I love you and Lisa. And the kids. You know that. But this is my home and I’m not ready to leave it yet.”

    Katerina hadn’t stopped screaming for two days. When she couldn’t find the wolf down by the shore, she’d ordered Jeremy to search the entire island for him, but the boy had returned empty-handed. Katerina prayed in front of the hearth, but the Goddess refused to tell her where the wolf was. After nearly forty-eight hours of searching the island, talking to locals, and even sending a message to the sheriff, she entertained thoughts of giving up and going back to Arizona. At least in Phoenix, she’d be able to draw upon her element without all this cursed rain dampening her charms.
    “I’m sorry, babe,” Jeremy said. He brought her a glass of wine and cowered across the room, braced to absorb some of her anger.
    “I know,” she said. “But you’re the one who forgot to renew the charm on the earth. You let him get away. If you’d kept the charm active, he never would have been able to stand on the ground long enough to dig. You screwed up. And now you need to figure out how to fix it.” Katerina stormed out of the room and up to her bedroom on the second floor. She’d barely managed to keep her temper with the IRS agents and then to return to the coast and realize that Jeremy had let the wolf escape—it was too much. She didn’t think he could have found his way off of Orcas Island, but she had no way of knowing for sure. She couldn’t locate him using her charms. Only air elementals could send out locater charms. Bella had the ability to do so, but she was in Phoenix and unable to assist Katerina with her task from there. It was Thanksgiving tomorrow. Perhaps Bella could fly up for the weekend.
    Katerina paced the small bedroom. Jeremy felt suitably guilty, and she hated that she was so angry she couldn’t manage to be nice to him. He wasn’t all that smart, but he was loyal and devoted to her. If only she hadn’t been called back to Phoenix. The wolf would be dead—or nearly so—and she would be planning her trip home.
    She picked up the phone and called Bella.
    “Hello?”
    “I lost him,” Katerina said, dropping down onto the bed. “Jeremy let him get away and I can’t find him.”
    “Ya searched everywhere?” Bella asked. Every once in a while, Katerina thought she detected a slight accent from the air elemental, but she’d never been able to pinpoint what it was. Something vaguely European, but it was so faint and transient, she was never sure.
    “Jeremy hasn’t slept. He drove around the whole island at least a dozen times. The wolf fell into Puget Sound. The last I saw him, he was headed for shore, but other than a patch of blood on the sand, there’s been no sign of him. I need you to try to scent him.”
    “I’ll never get a flight. It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow.”
    Katerina stifled her grumble. She couldn’t be angry with Bella. The woman had done everything she’d asked of her the past seven months. Managing Flaming Objects was a full time job. Tending to the coven was less onerous, but still wasn’t easy. Fire elementals tended towards quick tempers and Bella was soft-spoken and timid. “I know. See if you can come out in the next few days? I can’t imagine he could have gotten on the ferry. No one would have let a wolf walk on the boat. We can keep searching the island until then.”
    “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    “Why do you put up with me?” Katerina asked. All of a sudden she was exhausted. The loss of the wolf, the failure of her revenge, weighed heavy on her shoulders.
    “Because ya saved my life. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I don’t know where I came from or what happened to me before I washed up on that beach. And I think if it had been