Chapter 57
BAILEY
Tingles in my nose wake me. The sun is rising but only just by the look of what’s filtering in through the open slats in the blinds.
I sit up and immediately sneeze hard.
As soon as I recover, I sneeze three more times in a row.
And suddenly I’m shifted.
What the heck?
My wolf sneezes three more times. I feel like I’m having an allergic reaction out of nowhere. But I don’t have allergies.
Jase has already jolted awake, sat up, and his nostrils are flaring as I, as wolf, sneeze again while he jackknifes out of bed, rushing to the window and throwing the blinds up, pushing the screen and sticking his head out.
I want to shift back, and on reflex try to tell him as much.
Weird. I’m verbalizing wolf noises, puffs, and yips at him. I’m commanding her to talk!
Not her. There’s not a separate her.
Oh my goodness!
There’s just more… me. Is my wolf becoming part of me, merging with instinct?
I’m confused, trying to cobble my headspace together.
I tell myself to shift.
Nothing happens.
I think about the slurping sensation of pulling my wolf back in, but instead of a shift happening, I sneeze twice more.
I’m thinking about asking what he’s doing as it’s clear he just knocked the screen out of the window so he can stick his head out and look at the riverbank, but a) I can’t talk and b) I sneeze again.
Holy shit! Make it stop!
He slams the window down.
“Let’s go look,” I want to say, but it comes out as more wolf sounds.
I lift my paw and look at it. Yes, I just did that! I’m controlling her movement. My movement. What a relief!
“Stay here,” he demands, opening one of the drawers of his dresser, grabbing, then yanking on a pair of sweatpants and storming out of the room, shutting the door behind himself.
Shit, I can’t follow him.
Shift! I tell myself, so I can get back my fingers, thumbs, and height to be able to open this door.
Nothing happens.
I back up, turn, then do a running jump, colliding with the dresser and seeing stars briefly minute before I back up and give it a second try, succeeding this time and managing to get up into the half-open middle drawer he abandoned.
I scramble through the clothes in it until I manage to climb onto the surface of the dresser.
Stretching, I can just barely see out the window.
I see him hop the back fence and stalk to the riverbank.
He squats, looking at the ground, then as if feeling my eyes on him, he twists his neck to look over his shoulder, up at me.
The look on his face, the sensation in my chest, those toxic seedlings are definitely back!
I’ve stopped sneezing, but probably only because the window is shut.
When he comes back in, he finds me waiting by the bedroom door.
“Shift,” he commands.
I shift.
“Omigosh, Jase. Are they back?”
“They’re back. No scent, I can touch ‘em, no sensation, no weakness, but they’re the same length as the grass and it looks like there’s way more than there was.”
“I shifted spontaneously,” I say. “And–”
“Your wolf’s trying to protect you. Let me wash my hands. Need to wash the doorknobs too; don’t want that transferring onto you.”
I follow him. “I tried to talk and it came out as wolf sounds. I felt like I was her. She wasn’t separate, though she’s still in there, if that makes sense.
You know what I mean? I didn’t shift on purpose, but I had control!
I wanted to see what you were doing and I got up on the dresser by myself. ”
Jase says. “Good news, babe. It’ll get better and better from here until it’s second nature.”
“I should test them. Shift and see if they’re still toxic.”
“They obviously are by the way you were sneezing.”
“Let’s just go try.”
We go outside, me in just my robe so it’s easier if I shift to and fro.
And as soon as I step outside, I’m sneezing.
Jase is about to call the test off, but between sneezes, I insist. He doesn’t have to command me to shift because I sneeze a few more times and my wolf bubbles in.
Jase calls me back to human form almost immediately because I’m yelping as soon as I’m shifted, the burn from the ground making my paws feel like they’re on fire.
He lifts me from the ground before commanding me back and it takes three shifts for the pain to go away and the rawness to heal.
These are stronger than they were last time, maybe because there are more of them.
I don’t know what stage of growth will mean they’ll begin to prevent shifting and will intoxicate everyone, but this is a matter of urgency.
And it’s clear that now that my wolf is part of me, once they flower they’ll stop me from shifting, too.
We go back inside, get dressed quickly, and I’m phoning Erica while Jase messages his council group chat to get the guys over here sooner.
Jase is absolutely pissed. Seeing me crying out in pain evidently makes him absolutely infuriated.
***
A Couple Hours Later
It turns out that the angel’s trumpet plants aren’t just regrowing along the riverbank, they’re also surrounding the houses of every alpha and council alpha in the village, including a ring of them growing around the perimeter of the clinic because Dr. Blakely is still there.
Those are spelled plants which are toxic to all shifters but it’s obvious they’re designed to disable every single alpha present here.
Ronnie again laid hands on them, trying at a few different locations, and couldn’t read anything from them.
Dani recognized them by sight and by my reaction to them, but not through the way she generally reads plants.
Erica feels neutral energy from them like before she magically pulled the other ones, but we know they’ll be anything but neutral when they’re full grown by the way they affect my wolf.
Cat brought Dr. Blakely up to speed last night. He confirmed he’s seen that Vivi reported our kidnapping in Rome, logging with the SCC that the abduction, imprisoning, and assault against both of us was related to Dani transporting the Starling artifacts to the archives in Bucharest.
He says Anya has been cooperative and indicated that power sanctions would be levied against Alta. She has not yet submitted her report of all the things Alta did and all the magic used in the course of kidnapping us, which is an SCC requirement.
“Are you following up?” Dani asked him.
“She requested an extension three days back,” Dr. Blakely told us.
***
Jase and me, the council, the three Young witches, Cat, and Dr. Blakely are all at Roxy’s, on the patio.
Grey says, “It’s clear that whatever sanctions were put on her, she found a way around them.”
I add, “Or… this isn’t her that’s doing this, which does not track.”
“Sure would be nice if we knew the endgame ahead of time,” Grey mutters, looking at the cousins.
“We’re on it,” Erica replies. “Aphra is coming over. She might be able to help. When she gets here, we’ll ask for help and explain our plan to everyone.”
“You’re absolutely sure she’s not in on this?” Jase asks yet again.
“We’re sure,” I state. There’s no way. Aphra is terrified of her coven leader and has been hiding since she got pregnant with Halla, who is four years old.
Jase looks dubious.
They decided not to pull the seedlings yet again.
Instead, they’ve cast a wellness spell over the pack, hoping to thwart whatever’s going on and I’m now only occasionally sneezing instead of doing it almost constantly, but I’ve also got a restlessness inside me that I suspect comes from my wolf who it feels like is on edge.
I’m kind of in awe that I can feel her restlessness simmering in me. More and more connections between me and my beast are forming, though Jase tells me she hasn’t done any growing yet.
I sneeze extra-hard and as if on cue by my thoughts, suddenly, my wolf bubbles in.
All eyes on the patio are on me with surprise. Most of these folks haven’t seen my wolf yet.
Mason busts up laughing. Joel is also chuckling.
“Oh wow. You’re so cute!” Ronnie says, leaning over and holding her hand out as if I want to sniff it, which is kind of comical.
“Fuck,” Jase says. “Everyone give us your backs a second.”
“Why?” Dr. Blakely asks.
“I need to command her for her to shift back, and she needs to get dressed.
There’s a hush as everyone looks confused by this.
My brother immediately turns his chair around, giving us his back, so the others follow suit.
“Shift!” Jase commands and I’m back, scrambling into my bra, underwear, and maxi dress as quick as I can.
Jase’s face is red and he looks furious. I shoot him a look and mouth, “Chill out.”
“Okay,” he grumbles to them, not me, and everyone turns back around.
“Oh my gosh, your wolf is adorable, Bailey,” Ronnie repeats as if I didn’t just hear her in that form.
“Thanks,” I say. “Next time I shift I should do it in front of a mirror because I haven’t seen her, err… myself.”
Some are amused by this, but not Jase. He’s far from entertained because I was naked here for a minute around the council and the doctor. I’m sure he doesn’t care about Cat and the Young sisters.
“Will they know the status?” Grey asks, attempting to get things back on track. “Would whoever cast the spell know you pulled all those plants last night, Erica?”
Erica clears her throat and replies. “No way to know for sure, but I don’t think so. If they could tell what was happening, they wouldn’t have needed the drone.”
“Good point,” Joel agrees.
Erica adds, “There’s protection over the village that prevents magical eavesdropping.”
I sneeze.
Jase straightens up, braced. I sneeze twice more and shift.
Oh, flippin’ heck.
This time I don’t even scramble out of my clothes, just poke my head out of my dress and look at Jase.
He looks irritated. “Gimme your backs again, everyone.”
“It’s really not a big deal,” Linc tries to say, but Jase is looking at him like he wants to beat him up, so Linc clamps his mouth shut.