Chapter 7 #2
“Doesn’t matter now.” Jesiah refused to meet her gaze, and I promised myself that following this meeting I would find out all I could about their network of possible ‘buyers.’ I’d never had a deep need to change the world or improve it, but this shit was making me want to change everything, to remove this toxic group from the earth.
“Valuable is right,” Theresa hissed, venom coating her tone, “which is why it makes no sense that we received only ten thousand dollars for raising her for years! You got two hundred thousand for the bitch.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Gerald growled at her, causing the woman to flinch.
“Two hundred thousand dollars?” Effie paled.
“The rest of it is pack funds,” Jesiah bit out. “You’re a selfish cunt. The pack can barely afford to feed its children—we need the money. You two would just gamble it away.”
Theresa sneered but didn’t say anything, allowing us to return to the larger conversation.
I tried to not think about the numbers they were discussing.
Not right now when we still needed them alive.
I came from money, but the idea of selling another shifter for profit made me feel a sense of rage I hadn’t known was possible.
Jesiah shook his head and sighed “But yeah, it was a pretty simple situation.”
“What did you notice about Effie the night she arrived? Was there anything odd about her? Any weird marks? Personal belongings? Anything at all?” Ryder somehow managed to stay on topic without looking like he was getting upset enough to strangle any—or possibly all—of them.
The same could not be said about the rest of us.
“Besides the fact that she has hair like that?” Gerald offered a small chuckle, causing Effie to shrink further into me.
“This is your last warning,” I said in a lethal, low voice that caused Gerald’s face to redden. After a moment he offered a grunt and looked down at the floor. Theresa had a smug smile on her face but otherwise acted as if she wasn’t part of any of this.
“Stop, both of you,” Jesiah warned. His tone was filled with authority, and I could see both of their spines straighten as they tried to fade into the background as much as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jesiah kicked them out of their own fucking place.
“Tell them what you saw,” he instructed.
Gerald spoke, his voice slightly uneven.
“Her bite mark was bad, but it didn’t look like a normal attack.
I don’t know a lot about bitten wolves, but this seemed neat in nature.
The blood made it look worse, but there wasn’t extra torn flesh or any other signs of a struggle. At least that we could see.”
“She also had a necklace on her,” Theresa stated, looking confused. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“Where is that piece of junk? Did we toss it?” Gerald questioned.
Fuck. I hoped they hadn’t—it sounded extremely promising.
“No,” Theresa sighed. “I tried to sell it, but apparently it is worth nothing. Just costume jewelry. I think it’s in one of my dresser drawers.”
“Go find it,” Jesiah commanded. She sighed and stood, looking unhappy about having to do so. Ryder met my gaze, and I saw hope there, making it clear how interested he was in the pendant.
I just hope it was worth putting Effie through this bullshit.
When a sudden knock sounded on the door, Jesiah stood and walked over to see who was interrupting us.
I wasn’t focused on that interaction though.
No, I was focused on the way Effie seemed to be melting against me, clearly upset by what was going on.
I gently turned her into me and grasped her chin gently, tilting it up so I could examine every ounce of emotion on it.
I wasn’t fantastic at talking about my emotions or hers, but I was going to give it a try because I never wanted her to feel alone in this.
“Lil bit, I need you to listen to me.”
“I am,” she promised softly.
“What they think does not matter,” I explained as I placed her hand against my heart, keeping my larger hand over hers.
“They don’t matter. They are part of your past. A past where they hurt you.
I know they are still hurting you right now, and I know I can’t take away that pain, but just remember that your life is different now.
Once you leave here, we never need to come back.
They brought you to us, to your real home, to your mates.
After this, I promise you’ll never have to think of them again, okay? ”
I was rambling in an effort to keep her calm, but I didn’t feel ridiculous since I was so set on making her feel better.
“I will think of them again,” Effie whispered, her eyes filling with pain. “But that’s okay. It’s okay because every time I think about how they acted, I’ll remember how happy I am now. How happy I am that I found all of you.”
I nodded in understanding and grasped her jaw lightly, brushing my lips against her own.
Her body almost instantly molded against mine as she let me take control of the kiss, surrendering control so easily, so damn sweetly.
Damnit, I loved this woman. There was no other way to describe how intensely I felt.
“Here it is.”
A solid thud on the coffee table had Effie turning in my arms to see the heavy necklace Theresa had dropped. My eyebrows went up immediately because I knew without even inspecting it that this was not a piece of costume jewelry. No, this was the exact opposite of that.
The chain on the necklace was a silver braided rope that was slightly tarnished.
I could see from here that there were markings on it, and while it had been through a bit of damage, there was a glowing vibrancy to the piece that spoke to magic.
Effie reached forward and lifted it, letting the pendant swing back and forth, drawing everyone’s eye.
I didn’t like the idea of her holding a piece of magic jewelry that we didn’t know shit about, but I could also tell this moment was important to her.
She was holding the one thing that she had brought from her old life.
An old life she couldn’t remember.
“What is it? The symbol?” Effie asked Ryder, her wolf causing her eyes to glow almost pink.
Ryder stepped forward to look over the circular pendant made of two gemstones.
One side was half a sun, made of a deep orange spessartite garnet with diamond rays coming out of it, and the other a crescent moon made of the lavender gemstone kunzite.
The piece seemed to glow silver, even underneath the shit lighting of the apartment.
Effie caught it in her hands and held it there, examining it with further detail.
“That’s impossible.” Ryder’s tone was filled with awe.
“What?” Dakota demanded.
“This is the mark of the sun god and moon goddess,” Ryder murmured before looking at Effie. “I have no idea how you would have come into possession of something like this, Effie. This type of artifact, with this type of magic, it’s…it’s not from here. It’s not from Earth. It’s not man-made.”
The room went silent as Effie’s eyes darkened with concern. “What do you mean? Where is it from?”
I had very similar questions. What was he implying? If not Earth, where would it be from, and what did that mean for Effie?
“It’s from the divine realm.”
“The divine realm?” I demanded.
“Yes, where the gods live. We haven’t had access to it for centuries.” Ryder ran a hand through his hair.
“So—” Effie’s voice caught. “Why would I have it?”
“I don’t know.” Ryder frowned before looking at all of us. “We need to talk now. Alone.”
I could see that, and it concerned me. The mythos of gods and goddesses wasn’t one I was extremely familiar with, but I knew Ryder wasn’t a bullshitter when it came to Effie’s safety or past, so if he thought this was important, or worrisome, I one hundred percent believed him.
“So it’s valuable?” Theresa broke the tension with her question, greed leaking from her words. Gerald made a frustrated noise at the new piece of information. Jesiah was oddly quiet, and it made me wonder what he was thinking. No doubt it was absolutely nothing good.
“If it is, we should get to keep it. It’s the payment we deserve for taking care of you,” Gerald bit out.
Effie offered him a look but didn’t say anything. We all knew we weren’t giving them shit—even they knew that.
“Can I see it?” Julian asked quietly. I hadn’t realized until this moment that Julian had been oddly quiet. I mean, he had been for most of the time we’d been here, but he had an odd look in his eyes, one I didn’t understand.
When Effie handed it to him, both of them holding it for a brief moment, something changed.
The room filled with an overwhelming amount of magic as his eyes went completely black, causing me to wonder if Coffin was present or if the change was due to the necklace.
In that moment, the space seemed suspended, and both of them seemed to forget we were here, their gazes a world away as Effie’s grip tightened on the stone.
I reached forward to shake her, but before I could do that, a small sound came from her lips and the lights went out in the entire room.
“Shit.”
Pink light began to emanate from the stone, and the mark on Effie’s arm began to glow from underneath the sleeves of her dress. Julian’s body jolted as if hit by something before his knees broke.
I had no idea what was happening, but when Effie began to sway, I knew she was about to pass out.