Chapter 23 #3
My hand locks on the wheel. “How bad is it?”
“He’s not good. I can’t tell what she did.” Voices crowd his end. “There’s a healer here.”
“And what about Sloane?”
“She’s dead.”
I hiss through my teeth. “She’s the only one who could’ve told us where it came from.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I’m on my way.” I kill the call.
Jessa’s watching me. “What’s happened?”
“I have to go.” I pull up to the house. “Get inside, all of you. Lock every door. Cole or Adrian will come by.”
Once they’re through the front door, I cut around the side of the house, out of any window’s line, and strip. I knot my clothes into a bundle, shift, take my pants up in my teeth, and run.
It’s twenty minutes on four legs to his estate.
I come out behind the gatehouse and change back where the cameras don’t reach, dragging my pants on. Sloane’s body is already coming out the front on a board, a sheet drawn over her, one pale arm hanging loose. Deep cuts mark that arm. My uncle fought her, then.
Why would she come at him at all?
Adrian’s in the doorway. He spots me and waves me up.
“What was she doing here?” I ask.
“I was closing in on her.” He keeps his voice down. “She got wind of it and bolted here, thinking your uncle would shelter her.” His jaw works. “He told her to hand herself in. That’s all I’ve got. The line cut, so I broke the door down.”
“And she didn’t make it.”
“No. Your uncle was on the floor bleeding when I forced my way in.” He steps back inside and comes out with something cupped in a cloth. “There’s more. Smell this.”
I lean in. My whole chest goes cold. Wolfsbane.
“It was in his room.” Adrian’s voice has dropped. “It’s some kind of smoke dispenser.”
“He was being poisoned in his own house.” I stare at the thing in his hand. “Maybe that’s how my father and Daniel…”
“It looks that way.”
“It’s the hunters.” My voice scrapes. “They’re going for the alpha again.”
I head to the door. Two guards move to block it.
“The alpha’s being seen to,” one says. “No one goes in.”
“Step aside.”
“He’s with the healer—”
I drop the alpha into my voice, the weight no wolf here can refuse. “Step aside.”
Both of them move before their heads catch up, shoulders rounding, eyes dropping. I go through.
Uncle Nathaniel lies propped against a bank of pillows, gone gray in the face, a bandage strapped across his chest. The sight of him tightens something in me.
“How are you?” I lower myself onto the edge of the bed.
“I’m alive.” His voice is thin. “That’s something.”
“Why did Sloane come to you?”
He hesitates, and guilt crosses his face. “I loved that girl. You know I did.” His eyes shut. “She told me everything, thinking a confession would make me shield her.” A slow breath drags out of him. “But wolfsbane’s a crime. There’s no shielding that.”
“So you believe me now.” I hold his gaze. “About the wolfsbane.”
His mouth twists. “I didn’t want to. If it’s true, a crisis is coming for all of us.” His hand fists in the blanket. “It was near impossible to wipe out the first time. If it’s moving again, every pack in the world will tip into a frenzy.”
I look up at the healer by the wall. “How bad is it?”
“He’s mending,” the healer says, clasping his hands together. “But the healing’s slower than I’d like.”
At the door I find the two guards. “Search the whole house. Every room. If there’s another source of this poison anywhere in it, you destroy it and bring me what’s left.”
They glance past me to the bed. My uncle lifts a hand off the blanket. “Do as he says.”
Both men go. Uncle Nathaniel turns his head toward the healer. “Give us a minute.”
The healer slips out. My uncle waits until the latch clicks.
“Sloane came to me a few days ago,” he says. “She told me about the child. The hybrid living under your roof.”
I sit back down on the edge of the bed. “Mia’s my daughter.”
His brows lift, startled. “You’re certain?”
“What kind of question is that?”
He gives me a tired smile. “And her mother is the one I was so rude to in your kitchen.”
I nod. His eyes close. “I’m sorry, Marcus. I thought Sloane was good for you. She cared for you so much.”
“I know you meant well.” I keep my voice even. “But it’s time I took the seat back. Wolfsbane’s moving again, and you’re not as young as you were. The pack needs an alpha-born in the chair.”
He sighs and looks away. “I don’t want to give it up.” Quiet stretches between us. “But you’re right. It’s for the good of the pack.”
My uncle turns his head back to me, and a smile softens the gray in his face. “I put so much of my own life aside for this pack.” His hand pats mine. “Maybe it’s my turn to live a little.”
I smile back before I catch myself. “Once you’re on your feet, we’ll hold the ceremony, and you can hand it to me properly. Take care of yourself first.” I rise. “I’ll handle the rest.”
Outside, the night’s gone cold. Adrian falls into step beside me on the way out.
“What happened in there?”
I look out past the gate, into the dark. Kylan’s still out there. “We stop waiting for the hunters to come to us.” My jaw sets. “Now we hunt them.”