Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
C hance
“What type of pills have the power to do something like that?” Chael demands to know as we stand in Dr. Drake’s office.
He and Reese returned home this morning, just in time for the Supermoon Ceremony that will take place tonight.
These days are always full of a lively energy that’s difficult to put into words. It’s more of base, animalistic energy. Everyone’s wolf is on alert with the knowledge and excitement that we’ll soon welcome new wolves into our fold. Some are simply anxious to meet the next generation of wolves. While others go into protective mode, ensuring the safety of the new wolves as they make their presence and have their first run.
My wolf is always one of the latter.
It’s our job to protect the pack. To ensure the new pups are free to run, stretch their legs and learn to hunt as part of our wolves’ way of life.
Yet, as I pace Dr. Drake’s office, something is different.
My wolf’s anxious. He doesn’t like being away from Emery. Even though she’s safe, at Chael’s house with Reese and a few of the other women.
Nothing is going to happen to her while she’s here.
He pays little attention to my reassurance.
Mate! Mine!
He insists, ignoring me.
Brother?
I look up at my brother who just spoke in my head. The only human voice I’ve heard since I was nine years old.
His eyes narrow on me.
Your wolf is anxious .
I barely manage to keep from gritting my teeth. We’re not angry at him. It’s the distance from Emery.
“The pills,” I say out loud to let Dr. Drake in on the silent conversation taking place. “They were used to trap her wolf.”
Chael nods. “Yes, apparently.”
It’s my turn to narrow my eyes as I stare at him. “Apparently,” I repeat the word, as if he misspoke.
Chael doesn’t misspeak, though.
“We’re still not certain that’s the case,” he replies, looking at me as he talks so that I can understand. “She hasn’t shifted yet. And the tests Dr. Drake ran aren’t definitive.”
“But her blood did have traces of wolf’s bane.”
Wolf’s bane is a rare but extremely dangerous plant to us wolf shifters.
“Didn’t that son of a bitch Rufus use wolf’s bane in his experiments?” Chael asks.
“He did,” I agree, recalling the traitors’ attempt at creating a concoction that would separate us from our wolves. “He also was working with a few lone wolves. Like the ones that attacked Reese at her home,” I remind him.
My brother grits and bares his teeth, leading me to believe he’s growled out loud. An image of Emery pops into my mind and a growl emanates up my throat.
I don’t have to wonder if I’ve done so out loud. The way both Dr. Drake and Chael look at me, I know they heard it.
“Somebody’s been lying to her for years,” I say. “And poisoning her.”
She started taking those pills when she was eleven years old.
“Her parents?” Chael asks.
I clench my teeth so hard my jaw aches. “I don’t know for sure.”
I had Marshall look into the Clarkes, the couple that adopted Emery and Ashley. They’re originally from Florida where Craig Clarke went to medical school.
“Emery’s biological parents were from a small pack in Florida. Her father went to medical school with Craig Clarke. That’s how they met and became friends,” I tell my brother of the information I’ve gathered on Emery’s parents so far.
Though I haven’t told her what I know just yet.
“Ms. Cynthia texted me a couple of days ago. She finally remembered her parents from that picture Emery’s sister showed her weeks ago. We had a video call,” I tell him.
Chael and Dr. Drake listen intently as I tell them what Ms. Cynthia told me.
Chael cocks his head to the side
Though Rufus and the human doctor he was working with are dead, there is the possibility that there are more people out there. The fact that Emery’s been taking those fucking pills for years means this was a long-term plan.
Someone was behind those prescriptions. I don’t trust anyone from Emery’s past until I know what the hell is going on. I know eventually, I’ll have to tell her because this means her sister might be in danger too.
So far, all of the information I’ve been able to find on the doctor she told me prescribed her the pills has been on the up and up. He has no negative history in his career and by all accounts, is an upstanding physician.
But he was the one who gave her those pills for years, so I know his public demeanor is bullshit. It remains to be seen if Emery’s parents were involved in the lie as well.
A muscle in my jaw tics.
My brother doesn’t miss it either. He raises an eyebrow, turning his head to the side.
Is there something you want to say, brother?
Emery is my mate, I tell him, looking him in the eye. I have to keep her safe.
Unsurprisingly, Chael’s expression morphs until a huge grin spreads across his face. Your mate? I thought you didn’t have one of those.
I snort and roll my eyes.
“What’s that?” Dr. Drake asks, having not been a part of our silent conversation.
“Looks like my brother has finally found his mate.”
Dr. Drake squints as he smiles just as widely as my brother. “I sensed it from the moment you first brought her in here.”
Dr. Drake points at me. “I suspect that’s what’s also brought on her change so quickly. Her wolf senses her mate nearby and wants to come out to meet him.” He claps his hands together.
“This evening’s Supermoon Ceremony will be an eventful one for you,” he says, clapping me on the shoulder.
That’s if Emery does shift.
I’ve felt her wolf. It’s bursting to break free for the first time. If that happens, tonight will be the first opportunity I have to mate with her, bonding us forever.
I knew your time would come. Chael says, breaking into my thoughts. He sounds so certain that he always knew this would happen.
I don’t know why you spent years denying the existence of a mate for you. He continues.
I don’t bother explaining to him that it was drilled into my head. All of the recriminations from my father rush back to my mind. Him reminding me that my sole duty is to protect, to follow Chael’s lead, to carry out his demands, and to protect the pack.
Especially after I lost my hearing.
He let me know, in no uncertain terms, that a broken wolf like mine wouldn’t find a mate.
Mother Moon doesn’t allow brokenness to procreate. The weak die off, preventing their genetics from further destroying the future of the pack.
I swallow as I recall his words. The words that I long accepted as truth, as my fate. My father only spoke this way when it was him and me. Never in front of Chael or my mother, or any of the other pack.
Still, even when others were around, I sensed his deep resentment of me for failing to be the perfect beta. All because of a stupid decision I made when I was nine to defy his orders and go out in a rainstorm.
Things are different now, I tell my brother. I must protect my mate. Even after she shifts. I hesitate before adding, She may be our pack’s storyteller.
Chael’s eyes narrow. She doesn’t wear the streak.
I nod, knowing that all storytellers have a distinctive marking in their fur and in their human forms. Emery doesn’t have that. Or so most people think. But I’ve seen the gray hairs she tries to hide.
We’ll find out soon enough, is all I tell Chael.
Chael simply nods before turning to Dr. Drake. “Can you narrow down the type of wolf’s bane that was found in her system?”
Wolf’s bane. That’s one of the strange elements Dr. Drake found in Emery’s blood. We suspect it came as a result of those pills.
Wolf’s bane, in large enough doses, can be lethal to us wolves. However, Dr. Drake believes this was a special type of wolf’s bane, that in small enough doses, wasn’t enough to kill, but aided in suppressing Emery’s and possibly Ashley’s wolves.
Dr. Drake runs a hand across the back of his neck. “It may be a long shot, but I’ll give it my best. Wolf’s bane only grows in a certain number of places.”
“Like Upstate New York,” I suddenly say.
Chael nods at me, obviously having come to that conclusion as well.
“We need to talk,” Chael says to me before nodding at Dr. Drake and starting toward the door.
I give Dr. Drake a look, signaling that he put a rush on those tests, whatever they may be, and then follow my brother out of the medical office.
“I was able to prolong giving my answer to the Alliance,” he says. “Even if no one on the committee is connected to this threat, they’ll need to know about it.”
“There are a handful of lone wolves I’ve traced in connection with the attack in Florida,” I tell him. “Marshall hasn’t been able to trace any activity of this lone wolf uprising online. But there are rumors swelling offline.”
I pause before making my next comment.
“It’s possible that there’s someone Rufus Dalton was working with, someone we don’t know about.”
“Everyone who worked with that son of a bitch is dead,” Chael replies.
“Not everyone.”
My brother’s sharp gaze locks on me. Chael knows I’m referring to our traitor brother. The scowl that covers his face tells me as much.
“I could go to the prison to?—”
No! he growls in my head. That traitor is dead to us all. You will not speak with him.
Even if it has to do with the safety of our pack?
He has nothing to offer us, Chael replies. He won’t hear anything of my going to Christophe for help.
Truly, I doubt he would know anything anyway.
I’ll use my other resources to get the information I’m looking for.
We can do this without him, Chael replies. He steps closer. And there’s nothing I’ll let happen to you or your mate. As your mate, she is one of our pack as well. She’s a Nightwolf. He tells me at the same time he squeezes my shoulder.
I nod, my throat suddenly feeling too full for me to respond verbally. Yet, my brother won’t let it drop so easily.
“Brother, you’ve believed for years you wouldn’t have a mate.”
I press my lips together and turn my head away from him. For years, I’ve told Chael and anyone else who brought up my mate status, that I would never have a mate.
I never understood why , he says in my head because I’m not looking at him and therefore can’t read his lips.
That’s what I was made to believe, is all I say.
Who made you believe this nonsense? Chael demands, anger lacing through his tone.
I won’t tell him it was the same man he regards as his hero. The relationship Chael had with our father was different from the relationship I had with him.
I’ve long accepted it.
That’s not important. I step away from my brother. What is important is tonight’s Supermoon Ceremony. Afterward, we’ll know once and for all whether Emery is a wolf or not.
Though I don’t need to wait until tonight. I already know the truth.
Once we know the truth, I will go north to continue my investigation. I finish telling Chael.
I give him a nod and start to head back to his house to retrieve Emery. I’ve spent more than two hours away from her, updating my brother before tonight’s ceremony. I need to see her.
And if she’s our pack’s storyteller?
Chael’s question stops me in my tracks.
This time I’m aware of my fists clenching. I keep my back turned on my brother as I count down from ten.
Chael doesn’t wait for me to face him, though.
My brother rounds me until we’re face to face. What if your mate is our pack’s storyteller? he asks again.
I meet my brother’s gaze as I reply, Then Mother Moon helps whoever tries to hurt her.