Chapter 16 - Rami

Spring’s warmth faded with the sun, leaving a chill in the air that even Rami’s thick fur couldn’t keep out. Vera padded beside him in the twilight, and up ahead, he could see Moira, Jonah, and Spencer moving between the trees. Despite his mistrust of the rogue wolf, Rami couldn’t deny that James had been helpful, laying out everything he knew of the curse.

It was on his information that the two packs worked together that night. That, and an old tale Evelyn had found in one of the storybooks. A story of a tragic romance. She’d stood up suddenly one night as they toiled in the library and started to read aloud, spinning a story of a romance between a human woman and a shifter.

The words hung in the air, given a life of their own in that close room. The shifter’s pack had been adamantly against the love affair, warning the shifter off of the woman and threatening dire consequences if he refused. It was a dangerous time for shifters. Hunters roamed the land, determined to stomp out anything they deemed an abomination.

A human woman caught with a shifter would not be spared. At the time, such a romance was considered unnatural. But their love was not so easily put aside, and the two snuck away, determined to live their lives together even if it cost the shifter his pack and the woman her home.

One night, as they set in motion their escape plan, they were discovered. The pack reacted swiftly, determined to wipe out the threat to their secrecy before it could put them all in danger. Acting out of love, the shifter leaped to his lover’s defense and fought against his own pack, ordering the woman to flee during the distraction he created.

Though it broke the woman’s heart to leave her lover behind, she knew there was little she could do to stop the violence and used the moment to run into the woods. The wolves let her go, knowing her scent would be easy to find and that hunting a single human through the woods was child’s play. But after they’d finished with their pack mate, they found the woman’s scent dispersed through the forest, leading them on one false trail after another.

They searched for her until exhaustion wore them down, and the sun broke over the forest, putting them all at risk of discovery by hunters. The next day, all traces of the woman had vanished.

Rami was about to speak up and tell Evelyn this was nothing more than a tale used to scare young wolves away from risky relationships with humans, when she went on. Her voice was low, and everyone watched her from the edge of their seats, hanging on to her words. Everyone was desperate for the answer.

Despite the woman’s disappearance and the death of their pack mate, the pack found that their troubles were not over. One by one, members of the pack fell into a disoriented state, as if they’d ingested a toxic mushroom—hallucinations, delirium, and eventually a sleep they could not wake from. When the pack leader was the last alive, he smelled the familiar scent of the woman, tainted by heartbreak. That night, he fell ill.

An uncomfortable look passed around the room as Evelyn shut the book. No one wanted to break the silence. Finally, it was Vera who spoke up, tapping the end of her pen against the notebook she’d been taking careful notes on. Rami could see the perfect bulleted outline.

“I think that’s a really good find, Evie. The scent, the connection to heartbreak, and the sickness even sounds similar. But that was a long time ago, judging by the state of that book.” Vera pointed to the book’s faded cloth cover, barely hanging on to the spine. “Even if that story is true and not just something made up to scare young shifters, that woman can’t still be alive, right?”

Evelyn shrugged. “You’re right. It’s an old story, but if this person has enough power to curse an entire pack, maybe they have the power to prolong their life.”

Rami rubbed his chin, watching Vera consider the information. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her, still in disbelief that she’d decided to give him another chance. The probationary period she’d insisted on didn’t scare him. He wasn’t going to mess up again.

She felt his eyes on her and looked at him, a half-smile tugging up the corner of her lips and making that single, irresistible dimple on her right cheek pop.

“What?” She mouthed, silently.

Rami leaned across the space between their chairs and kissed her, catching her by surprise. Evelyn and Moira gasped while Jonah gave a single, loud whoop and pumped his fist in the air.

“You two are back together?” Moira moved in next to Vera, setting her hand on Vera’s shoulder and giving Rami a piercing look that made him want to suggest she switch her career from baker to detective. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Two pink lines underscored Vera’s eyes. “Well, it just happened, and I didn’t think we’d be announcing it to the world already.”

“Sorry. Couldn’t resist once I saw the dimple.” Rami raised both hands in a shrug, letting them fall back onto his lap. Vera and Moira shot him near identical glares.

“Is this a good idea?” Moira rounded on Vera, not bothering to keep her voice down. The look she shot him over her shoulder told him she wanted him to hear it all. “After what he did to you, does he really deserve another chance?”

No, he wanted to say. He didn’t deserve another chance from Vera; he was lucky enough to be given one anyway. But he kept his mouth shut, letting Vera answer how she wanted.

“Probably not,” Vera agreed, smugly. “But he’s on extra good behavior because he knows that. One wrong move and—“ she flicked her hand to the side like someone shooing a bug away. “—he’s out of here. For good this time.”

“Come on, Moira,” Jonah stepped in, tugging Moira away with his arm around her waist. “We wouldn’t be here together either if you didn’t believe in second chances.”

If the reminder mollified her, she didn’t show it. She pointed her index and middle fingers at her own eyes, then at Rami. “Fine, but I’m watching you. Always watching.”

He laughed. “That’s fine by me. I don’t intend on doing anything that would put your fur up.”

“That’s perfect, actually,” Adria cut in, glancing at Vera.

Vera’s eyes were alight. “I know! Now, we can test if our theory was correct. If the scent in the woods doesn’t affect us like it did before, we’ll know it has something to do with the mate bond. Which would possibly support what Evelyn found.”

They’d discussed the matter well into the night. It was James who decided on it in the end. “My mate was human.”

The room quieted, and turned to him. His voice was thick with emotion, and pain was evident on his face. “Times haven’t really changed that much, at least not where I was from. My pack refused to accept the bond and threatened us both. Didn’t want to risk her life, so I told her it was over, that I couldn’t be with a human.”

He lapsed into silence. Vera pressed him for more information but the moment of lucidity had faded, the dazed look back in his eyes.

Now, they ran through the forest to the edge of the cabin’s clearing. The strange scent filled his nose. Vera bumped her head against his shoulder, reassuring him that she was there, that she wasn’t under the spell again. Her theory was proving correct so far.

At Jonah’s nod, they moved in closer to the cabin. Rami’s head spun. Something moved at the edge of his vision. He shook his head to clear it, but the fog remained, shifting the ground beneath his feet.

Vera whined. Whatever he was feeling, she was feeling it, too. Even Jonah stumbled. But Rami couldn’t reach his Alpha. The ground beneath him had turned to sludge, separating him from the others, widening the gap between himself and Vera.

He watched helplessly as shadow wolves descended on her. Their jaws stretched wide, and rows of black fangs dripped red onto the swirling ground. He couldn’t save her. Couldn’t help her. Fear tore at his insides.

Rami trudged toward her, and the distance between them seemed to stretch life taffy, dragging her farther away. His head filled with a sudden roar. It settled into a familiar sound, the back-and-forth arguments of his parents. He was ten years old again, watching them scream at each other in the kitchen, a pan flying past his head.

His vision shifted, and now it was Vera in his mother's place. The words were coming from his mouth, not his father’s, spewing awful, hateful things. It was his worst nightmare come to life. Rami struggled to keep the vision from overtaking him, from blocking out the sight of the real Vera, flesh and blood and inky black fur, from fading away while he drowned in the nightmare of his past.

The real Vera was there, and she needed him. That Vera would never cower as the one in his hallucination did, shrinking back from him even as her mouth flung insults.

“You’re so needy,” that wicked dream Vera sneered. “Everything is about how you feel. Are you going to cry again? So pathetic. I thought you were strong, Rami. I thought you were strong enough to be my mate, but you’re a sniveling little boy.”

For a moment, Rami was breathless. Her words cut to the core of him, targeted wounds that left a hollow gouge in their wake. He couldn’t stop himself from lashing out in the vision.

“And you’re a heartless bitch,” he spat, wishing he could snatch them back from the air before she heard them.

Her eyes widened, and she let out a cackle of delight. “Oh, it’s other one of your two emotions. Rage. Do you use that to make up for how weak you are the rest of the time? Even your anger is pathetic, Rami. Even your anger is impotent.”

The edges of the vision were blurs of smoke and shadow. He could smell the strange scent emanating from the witch’s cabin. It filled his head. But beneath it, so faint it was almost drowned by the cabin’s smell, was the sweet scent of his mate. Vera. The real one.

He could smell her honey and wildflower scent mixing with her fear. Was she struggling against her own vision, and if so, was he featured in it? Rami hated the idea of some monstrous vision of him tormenting her, and the thought was enough to shake his own terror from his mind.

Dream Vera heckled and taunted, drove the claws of her words into him over and over, but he resisted the urge to strike back. He walked closer to her, his heart breaking when she flinched back in fear from his lifted hand.

“I’ll never hurt you, Vera, no matter what you call me. No matter what curse this place has put upon this, there is no magic in this world that could compel me to be cruel to you. My mate. My love. I’m here.” He laid his hand against her cheek, and the vision broke apart around him, freeing him from the whirling world it had created in his head.

His legs buckled beneath him, and he hit the ground a few feet from where Vera lay. She shook her head back and forth as if it was to clear it, her eyes widening when they landed on him.

“Rami!” She spoke into his mind, relief evident. “It was… it was awful. I saw—“

“I know,” he interrupted, scrambling to his feet. They nuzzled each other, needing to feel the solid fur and flesh against them to believe the real world had returned. “I know. Where are the others?”

They found them scattered around the clearing in the shadow of the cabin. Adria and Spencer were standing tall, having shaken off whatever the curse had thrown at them with more ease than the others seemed to. Jonah and Moira looked shaken.

“Even with our mates, we’re vulnerable this close to the source,” Spencer sent. “Stick close together. If something happens, more intense than what we all just faced, we flee. Even if that’s all we’ve accomplished, we’ve learned something.”

He glanced at Jonah, seeking agreement from the other Alpha. Jonah inclined his head in assent.

Vera leaned her weight against his side, and he felt her breathing, the frantic thump of her heart in her chest. It was still racing. If they’d gotten caught in that, he wondered, would the curse have taken them? Would they have succumbed to it then and there and left Jessa an orphan? The thought was too dark to contemplate. He needed to be brave now.

Up close, the cabin was clearly abandoned. Vines pushed through holes in the windows and moss grew up the sides. Bits of the roof had collapsed in. What had looked almost idyllic from far away was rotten and crumbling.

Spencer and Jonah led the way in, bodying the door open. Moira and Adria followed their mates and finally, Vera and Rami entered. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He shielded Vera with his body, searching the corners for anything that might be lurking.

“Empty,” Vera said to the group, her delicate nose picking up no trace of another presence. “Or this damned smell is making it impossible to suss out anything else.”

Still, Rami kept close to her side while they scouted the place, nosing aside empty buckets and dusty books. If the vision was the obstacle they’d faced just getting near the cabin, he had little doubt something worse awaited inside.

“What if we’ve got it wrong,” Vera sent to him as they ventured into a side room.

A bedroom. Musty curtains hung from the bedposts like scraps of raw flesh. A vanity sat beside the window, its brushes and mirror covered in cobwebs.

“What do you mean?” Rami replied, crouching to look under the bed.

“What if the story was true and the woman’s pain is the source of all this, like we thought,” she went on, nosing a filigreed silver box on top of the vanity. “What if this curse wasn’t her intention at all, and just a byproduct of her anguish? A pain so great it lingered beyond her years.”

He snorted dust out of his nose and sat back to look at Vera. “So you think we won’t find a witch in here at all? How will we end this then?”

It was easier to have something to fight, something solid he could destroy. If there was no witch to kill then there was no end to the threat they faced.