22. Dirge

TWENTY-TWO

Dirge

I f I weren't lying down, I might have fallen down. The girl was an omega? Reed's pack had been harboring her from the ODL?

I was floored, though clearly, nothing terrible had happened to anyone close to her thus far. She seemed sweet and intelligent, not the type to go on a worldwide rampage of destruction and genocide. Brielle had only ever been kind to my mate and, by extension, me.

The Omega Defense League wouldn't care, though. They'd kill her without hesitation if what they suspected was true. Suddenly, the secrecy and urgency of all this made much more sense. I'd assumed this special audience was merely because she was the high alpha's mate, but it was so much worse than all that.

"Hmm," was all the elder said, staring through wizened eyes at the young shifter. "I need to see your wolf." He waved a hand to the edge of the forest, a small opening between our seats and the dense woods.

"Sir… Inuksuk. Respectfully, I don't think I can shift again so soon. I faced a challenge for mating rights to Kane and had to shift not long ago. If I try to shift now, nothing will happen."

The old man pursed his lips, squinting at her as if she were pulling his leg, even as Brielle lifted helpless hands.

Leaning heavily on the cane, and with both his children steadying one elbow from their seats at his sides, he rose on shaking legs.

A change came over his face. The silver glow of wolf eyes, yes, but it was more than that. His words were guttural, his face seemed to shimmer, and dominance buffeted us like a tidal wave, flowing from the deceptively frail man.

"Shift!" The command hit us all square in the chest, and I was grateful to already be in fur, immune to the order. The rest of my pack, however…

Yelps and yowls tore out all around the clearing as wolves were pulled out against our will, Kane the only one who managed to grit his teeth and resist, his eyes glowing green with indignation at the order.

But it served its purpose. For there in the middle of the circle of benches was a small, mostly white wolf with dark-tipped fur. She had sorrowful eyes and swayed on her paws. I didn't see anything wrong with her—certainly nothing so foul as a magical ooze—but it was still clear she was unwell. Her entire body shook with the strain of holding this form that was as natural as breathing for most. Shay's honey-brown wolf bolted past me to her side and leaned against her friend, bolstering her under the shaman's scrutiny. Leigh's tawny wolf was only a moment behind, hemming Brielle in from the other side like a sandwich.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Inuksuk stared, his eyes raking over the fragile little wolf in a way that even I wanted to stop. But eventually, he said, "Enough," and waved a trembling hand to release the pull on our wolves .

I shook like I was trying to shed water off my coat, the feeling an unpleasant one. But Brielle collapsed, a nude human appearing where her wolf had been. Averting my eyes, I waited until Shay returned to my side, wrapping her fingertips into my fur to anchor herself after slipping on a pair of borrowed sweats and tank top.

"Your wolf is indeed sick, but I can't say with certainty if you are as you suspect." There was kindness in his eyes as he examined Brielle. "But it is not an illness, not in so many words. Your sense of witch magic was correct. This was no accident of fate, but a multigenerational curse."

Fuck.

Kane looked grim as he spoke. "Can you tell the nature of the curse or who put it there?"

Inuksuk lifted one shoulder absently, looking lost in thought. "The curse is old, older than her. Someone in her family likely suffered from it before?" he asked Brielle for confirmation, and she nodded.

"My mother, sir. She died in my teens. We thought it was cancer."

He nodded solemnly. "It could seem so, I imagine. We are beings of immense power, but even we can withstand only so much loss. Even as some wounds are too great for our wolves to heal, so too are some curses too heavy for the spirit to bear. You are not in imminent danger of death"—everyone let out a sigh of relief—"but this situation cannot go unresolved indefinitely. You must find the witch who did this to your family line and get them to remove it. As for the other… I know of one who may have the answers you seek."

The other? Ah. Her omega status.

"Jada of the Kodiak bear sleuth. She is the only one alive who can say."

A bear sleuth? Interesting. I'd heard of the Kodiak shifters, but they were even more reclusive than this pack. They lived in total seclusion on an island, surrounded by actual Kodiak bears. The only way to get there was by seaplane, and to go without an express invitation was certain death. Even a small wolf pack at full strength would be hard-pressed to take down a single angry Kodiak, let alone an entire sleuth.

And with our females to protect, well, it would be insane to try it.

"I will let her know that you're coming." His eyes lifted then to the sky, and I could sense that his attention was elsewhere.

"We should go," Ilana whispered, sparing a reverent glance toward her father, whose hands were now lifted as he stared into the clouds. One by one, we followed her down the path, each wrestling with this new information in our own minds.

After the shaky Brielle was taken to her shared room with Kane and our hostess excused herself to handle pack business, the rest of us had nothing to do for the rest of the evening.

Shay looked down at me, a crease between her eyebrows. "Would you like to go for a run? Sometimes, when things get too heavy, I need to run them out of my system." The sadness around her was palpable, her sweet scent soured by a tinge of decaying rose. Sickly, and it made me want to sneeze in this form.

I dropped down on my front paws, wagging my tail in the universal sign for let's go . She laughed before turning her back and quickly shucking the borrowed clothing. In seconds, her beautiful brown wolf appeared, pouncing on me. We rolled head over tail for a few feet, yipping and barking before taking off into the woods.

She led the way, and I followed, nipping playfully at her heels as she dodged between the trees. Every now and then, she'd cut a tight turn and send a clod of dirt flying into my mouth.

But my wolf didn't mind. All he felt was free, and happy to be with her. By the time we finished running, all the worry was gone, and only contentment remained in its place.