Chapter Seven
By Sunday, she hadn’t stopped thinking of Asher, which was a little maddening.
Her wolf wasn’t paying any attention to all the reasons why they couldn’t go back to him.
They agreed one time and one time only. This was non-negotiable and not wanted.
She and Clover were free and she had a nice nest egg in case anything unforeseen happened, or if she decided they needed to leave Sheridan.
Clover stumbled from her bedroom, arms down and eyes half open, looking like a sleep deprived zombie. She plopped down at the small kitchen table and propped her head up with her hand.
“Tired?” Juni asked, amused.
“School is tomorrow and it’s already kicking my butt.”
“Get used to it, kiddo, you still got nine years to go,” she said. Clover groaned. “And then college.”
She groaned again.
“Want pancakes?”
Clover immediately perked up. “Yes, please. With lots and lots of syrup.”
A world of flavor had opened up for them both when they moved into their new home.
Clover discovered a love affair with maple syrup and tended to be a little heavy-handed with her pours.
While Juni whipped up the batter and flipped the pancakes, Asher crept into her thoughts.
What was he doing right then? Was he waking up with another woman?
Did he kiss her? Lick her pussy? Bury himself deep in her body?
The thoughts were a punch to her stomach and robbed her of breath.
No. No fair. She refused to allow him to haunt her.
As they ate breakfast, Clover kept up a verbal tsunami of what she did while she spent the night with her best friend from school.
Even though she’d already told Juni everything.
She let her little sister talk because it was the best way to not only keep her entertained but let the memories of Asher float away. If only for a moment.
****
“That’s odd,” Keegan murmured. “Mrs. Smyth isn’t here.”
Juni looked over as she finished wiping down the tables. “She’s here every morning?”
“Like clockwork.”
Keegan stepped out and gasped, immediately running somewhere. Juni stepped out and saw a crumped woman. It was too young to be Mrs. Smyth.
“Is she alive?” Juni asked, eyes wide.
“Yes. Go get Savannah.”
She turned and ran toward the apothecary.
Savannah was an Other. An enchantress who doubled as the apothecary.
Shifters had a different biology than humans, and sometimes needed something different than Western medicine.
Just as she approached the shop’s door, Savannah opened it and flipped the sign around to read “open.”
“Hello, Juniper. What’s the matter?”
Juni pointed. “There’s a woman who collapsed.”
“Hold on,” she said. Savannah reached for an apron and stuffed some items in the pockets before turning back. “Okay. Take me to her.”
Because the coffee shop was only a couple of blocks away, they arrived quickly. The enchantress immediately kneeled down to examine the woman, pausing for a moment before glancing up at Keegan.
“I think you need to call Alpha Jericho. And Everett.”
Keegan nodded and pulled out her cell phone to place the calls as Savannah continued her examination. Juni leaned to the side and saw pointy ears on the unconscious woman. She’d never seen anything like it.
“Alpha, I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s an unconscious woman by Bitsy’s shop and she has ears like Brinnah. I don’t know. There’s blood. Savannah is here examining her. Yes, Alpha.”
She hung up and hurried back to Savannah. “He’s on his way. Is she going to be okay?”
“I think so. She’s dehydrated and severely malnourished, but the head wound is minor. I think she collapsed from exhaustion.”
“You think she came all this way from Canada?”
“That is a fair assessment. Brinnah can confirm.”
“The alpha said he’ll call Everett.”
It didn’t take Alpha Jericho long to show up. “Everett said he and Brinnah will be here momentarily. Does she have any identification?”
Juni stepped to the side to not crowd them as they examined the woman.
“Not that I’ve discovered. We can search the forest, but I don’t think she has anything.” Savannah lifted the hair to show him the ears. “Refugee maybe. Her eyes look bruised, but I don’t think from a beating. This poor thing must’ve run far with very little sustenance.”
“She escaped?”
“Possibly.
A truck came to a stop and Juni watched as a beautiful woman, Brinnah, exited the cab to run to the unconscious woman.
“Kadie!” she cried, falling to her knees. She grabbed her friend’s hand. “Kadie, please wake up.”
Tears rolled down Brinnah’s face and she leaned over to talk softly into her friend’s ear. Whatever she said, Kadie roused and blinked open deep blue eyes.
“Brinnah?” she asked, her voice thin and weak.
Juni felt sorry for the woman and hoped Savannah could help her.
“Yes, I’m here.” She wiped limp hair off Kadie’s forehead. “Did the alpha let you leave? Where’s Maggie? Oh, I’ve missed you so much.”
“They’re dead.”
“What? Who are dead?”
“Everyone. The alpha. Elder Agnes. M-Maggie.”
Standing away, it was slightly harder to hear their conversation.
“What... Oh, my God, no. Please. No. What? What happened?”
“Some disease. We didn’t know where it came from. Or how it spread. I ran after the alpha died, but I didn’t know where to go. I beg of you, can I stay here?”
Brinnah looked at Alpha Jericho. “Can she stay? Please?”
“Of course,” he replied immediately. “We should get her to the medical office.”
“Good idea,” Savannah said. “Everett, can you—”
She paused, looking at something beyond Kadie, and everyone turned their attention to what had captured her attention. An older woman staggered toward them.
“Mrs. Smyth?” Keegan asked as she stood. “Are you all right?”
The older woman collapsed against the brick and mortar. She was pale with beads of sweat on her forehead. Juni thought she looked very sick. When Mrs. Smyth collapsed, Savannah hurried over to her.
“Is she dead?” Alpha Jericho asked.
Suddenly, a red mist sprayed from her mouth and Savannah fell back.
“Oh, my God,” she muttered.
After she scrambled to her feet, she pulled Jericho and Keegan away from Mrs. Smyth’s body. When the mist evaporated, an unholy howl came from the old woman. Her head tilted and even Juni saw that she was dead.
“Stay back!” Savannah yelled. “Shifters, don’t go near that body.”
“Why?” Alpha Jericho demanded.
Savannah bent down to touch some of the fallout from the mist. “Oh, no. This is not good. No, no, no.”
“Savannah, what is going on?” Jericho demanded.
The enchantress pulled hand sanitizer from her pocket and quickly wiped her hands. “We’ve got a big problem, Jericho. It’s the red plague.”
Juni frowned. She’d never heard of that sickness.
“The what?” he asked.
“Humans had the black plague. Shifters had the red. It kills your animal. I’ve gotta call Niall.”
They all took a collective step back from the red mist fallout.
“What the hell is the red plague?” Jericho demanded. “I’ve never heard of this.”
“Consider it a magical virus. Like I said, it literally separates the animal from the human. That red mist was her wolf dying, and since a shifter can’t live without its other half, it indirectly kills the human side as well.
Even if you catch it in your wolf form. Jericho, it’s highly contagious.
Everyone needs to be extremely cautious. ”
“Is this what killed my old pack?” Brinnah asked, her voice thick with unshed tears.
Juni frowned. That was the pack her father had visited. He must’ve picked up the virus there and brought it back. She wondered if the alpha would put that together.
“From what your friend described, yes.”
Jericho ran a hand over his face. “Where the fuck did this come from?”
“This plague hasn’t been around for centuries,” Savannah replied. “I have no clue why or how it resurfaced.”
“Shifters are resilient,” Everett said. “What caused this?”
“A long time ago, there was a war between the shifter world and the magical world. Witches released the red plague toxin in the shifters’ water supply, and it worked so well that they were on the brink of extinction.”
“How did we survive?” Keegan asked.
“There’s only one cure,” Savannah replied in a voice filled with fear. “But unfortunately, it died out a long time ago.”
“What was it?” Jericho demanded. “I’ll send a call out to all the packs. Maybe someone has it.”
“They won’t.” Savannah shook her head. “The only cure is the horn of a unicorn. And there are no more of them.”
Jericho blinked. “Come again?”
Juni wondered if she heard that right. Unicorns? Like, actual unicorns? They were real?
“So, you see why this is a real problem,” Savannah said. “I hope Niall has knowledge of a cure because this is really bad, Jericho.”
All Juni could think about was Clover. Maybe she should take her and go. Leave Sheridan and run as far as possible to make sure her sister was safe.
The alpha called the human doctor, who arrived minutes later. He, along with his human assistant, moved Mrs. Smyth into a body bag. Then Savannah shooed the shifters away as she contained the area and erased the droplets of blood left behind.
Juni stood with Keegan outside the coffee shop, and she rather thought they were both shellshocked at what had just happened. Only ten minutes had passed but it seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I don’t know what to do,” Keegan whispered, fear heavy in her voice.
Juni stared at her. “I don’t either.”
What the hell were they going to do?