50. Shay

FIFTY

Shay

B y the time we made it back, the sun was already kissing the horizon. The twilight was fading into soft lavender, the deep orange of sunrise hot on its heels.

As beautiful as it was, though, I couldn't look away from the man standing outside our lodgings. He stood tall and proud, but quiet, patient. He looked exactly as I remembered from my childhood, as if time hadn't touched him, the same hint of silver at his temples, the same laugh lines at the corners of his eyes.

Brand.

He'd waited. I'd tried to run from the past, from the shame and hurt of a little girl's memories, but he'd waited.

Suddenly, I was really glad we'd stopped at a cache at the edge of the woods to pull on sweats and weren't walking up buck freaking naked.

"Shailene," Brand said, warm familiarity in his tone. "I'm so glad to see you again."

"Everyone calls me Shay now." It was an asinine thing to say, but it was all I had.

Well, not all that I had. Dirge was holding my hand, his solid presence at my side an easy reassurance. I wasn't alone and scared anymore. I had a mate, and a pack who had my back.

I had a family . The realization nearly knocked me down. All my life, I'd wanted a family. And now I had one. I'd thought back then it would be Brand and his pack, who was my family. But it was time to let that go. He had saved me from a feral life in the woods, and that was enough.

"Shay." He said the name like he was testing it, rolling it around on his tongue. Then he nodded. "I wanted to give you something." He held up a coin, waiting to see if I'd take it.

I closed the distance, accepting the weathered and ancient-looking piece of metal. "What kind of coin is it?" I asked, looking up to meet his eyes.

"An Etruscan coin. Very old, from ancient Italy."

My eyebrows shot up as I turned it over in my hand. There wasn't a date stamped on it, but it seemed weathered enough to be ancient, and it was heavy. Nothing like the newly minted thin coins we had nowadays.

I closed my fist around it as if it was going to vanish from my grip like he had from my life all those years ago. "It's cool, but why did you want to give it to me?"

"It's a token. A way to call for help, if ever you need it again. It can only be used once, but if you kiss the coin and say, ‘In time of greatest need, I call for greatest might.' Help will come."

"Umm, okay." I was confused. So very, very confused.

He smiled then, the look oddly wistful. "I wanted you to have it before I left."

"Thank you," I murmured.

He looked down, and I realized his hand seemed to waver in the burgeoning light.

"My time draws to an end, and I must go. Fare thee well, until we meet again," he said with a soft smile, and then faded away, right before our eyes .

"Okay, that was weird as hell," Dirge said. "Is the coin still solid?"

I opened my fist, and there it was. Solid and real, glinting in the sunlight even though the mysterious man who'd given it to me was long gone. Suddenly, I had all new questions about why he hadn't kept me all those years ago.

"Huh. Well, can't hurt to hang onto it, right?" He squeezed my shoulder, and I nodded.

Couldn't hurt, indeed.

We crashed for three hours before the noise from the living room woke us. Dirge was up and out of bed first, using the bathroom and heading to his suitcase to pull on fresh clothes. He froze in front of it, then spun to face me.

"Did you leave this here?" he asked, holding up a piece of folded parchment. His name was scrawled across the front in swirling calligraphy that I didn't recognize. The back was sealed with ruby-red wax.

"No. What is it?" I sat up, clutching the blankets to my chest as curiosity won out over exhaustion.

"A note."

"Who's it from?" I prompted when he didn't say more, scanning the inside.

"I don't know. It's only one line: ‘The Fetya have been paid.'"

What the fuck?

"What does that even mean?" I asked, reaching for him to hand me the letter. He was right. One line, and it was unsigned. I didn't recognize the handwriting, but it was sepia ink on heavy paper, a little scratchy, as if someone had written it with a quill rather than a modern pen.

"I think it means they're not going to exact another price. But… who even knows about that? And why wouldn't they just tell us if it were true?"

"I have no idea." I paused, hesitating before I passed the note back to him. "Dirge, does this impression in the wax look familiar to you?"

He accepted the note and stared at it long and hard before answering. "No? Does it look familiar to you?"

I reached over to the nightstand, picking up the coin Brand had given me. Two faces pointing away from each other were etched into one side. But the other was a circle of numerals in some ancient language that I didn't recognize. And that was what was pressed into the wax.

I held them up to show him, and he looked surprised. "Brand? But… I would ask how, but the man literally disappeared in front of us, so he's clearly not all wolf, or he's mated to someone incredibly powerful." He shook his head, fingering the bit of wax thoughtfully. "How did he even know about the Fetya?"

"I don't know. But he said help would come, and he's saved me before." I clutched the coin a little tighter, as if it could steady the jumble of unruly feelings in my chest. Who was this man, and why had he appointed himself my guardian angel? "If it's true, that's a huge relief."

"If it's true," he echoed, tucking the parchment into his bag. "I guess we can figure it out together," he said with a crooked smile.

I froze, my eyes going wide as a thought struck me. "Do you think he was fae?"

"What?"

"I'm half-fae. Do you think… He disappeared. He knows about the Fetya without us telling him. He's oddly invested in me. What if he was my fae parent?"

Dirge sank onto the bed next to me. "That would explain some things, but I don't know how we'd verify it without calling him back here with the coin to ask. Is that what you want to do?"

Was it?

"No. I have a feeling that we're going to need this." I bit my bottom lip as I stared down at it. A tiny bit of metal, but somehow more. And I knew in my bones that now wasn't the time. My answers would have to wait a little longer.

But there was still a thrill humming in my veins that I might have just met my fae father.

He restlessly ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "Okay, then. Do you want showers first, or coffee?"

I didn't even hesitate. "Coffee, please." I tucked the coin into my pocket and made a mental note to get it put into a setting so I could wear it on a necklace.

Something buzzed before we could walk out of the room. "Is that your phone?" I asked. Mine was in my pocket.

He crossed to the nightstand and scooped it up. "Yep. It's one of the men I contacted from the old country."

"Good news?"

His face turned grim as he quickly scanned the message. "It's news, but it's not good. We'd better go fill in the others."

"There you two are! Did you have a wild night?" Brielle smirked as we walked into the shared living area.

"Something like that," Dirge answered.

"Well, hurry up and get in here. We need to work out our next steps, and we were waiting for you two sleepyheads. There's coffee."

"Thank the Goddess." I was anxious about the next steps, but taking a moment to fix a cup of coffee wouldn't change it.

We poured two oversized cups of black gold, then headed back to the living room, where the rest of our pack was waiting. They'd saved space for us on the love seat, which I accepted gratefully. I stifled a yawn with my palm as we sank into the cushions.

It really was a long night, and not in a hot way.

"So, Kane and I were up half the night talking," Brielle started, shooting Kane a smile. "And we've both agreed that as much as we want this curse gone, we need to be smart about it. Aunt Kari has said there's no rush, and we need a plan for handling the ODL before we just pull the plug and bring them down on our heads when we're not ready."

Reed nodded, clearly relieved by this decision. "I have an idea on that, actually. Kane, you're high alpha now. Maybe it's time to address the Interspecies Governing Council."

"To what end? The IGC doesn't even have a wolf shifter as a sitting member," Kane said.

"To the end of getting the law overturned. Why should wolves still be suffering centuries later for one pack's bad decisions? Fuck, wolf representation would also be a step in the right direction."

Kane nodded, but seemed tense. "I agree, but we all know what the outcome will be."

"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion, Alpha." Dirge surprised me by speaking up and leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees. "The ODL attacked the Kodiaks and showed up at the great pack gathering without real cause, but off a completely bogus tip. They're reaching, and that's a great reason to push back. Based on the Kodiak attack… other species might stand with us."

"Bears alone won't be enough," Gael commented. "We'd have to reach further, garner some support from other species."

"The goblins were opposed from day one. They had religious beliefs that the loss of omegas—of any one important magical species or subspecies—would impact the balance of power in the magical world." Reed offered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"I don't know about religion, but many species have been in decline in the last century. Everyone's chalking it up to human expansion, hunters." Gael vaguely waved a hand. "The point is, we'd have some major barriers to overcome. People have disbelief, and goodwill is in short supply among other species who're also feeling pinched by modern life."

"It's a place to start, though," Brielle said with a smile. She was far too calm for someone whose life was on the line.

"It's not just other species, unfortunately," Dirge said. "I got a message this morning from one of my contacts from Romania. He says there are rumors starting that the Hungarian pack has called back all their pack mates from around the globe, and that they're in talks with Poland about forming a new alliance."

"A new alliance?" I asked, confused. European pack politics hadn't ranked high on our list of priorities before meeting Pack Blackwater. Our pack was small, out of the way of most of that.

He nodded at me with his lips pressed into a firm line. "Yes. Currently, Kane is high alpha of the majority of wolf packs. Australia does their own thing, and some parts of Asia. But… probably eighty percent of the world's wolf population in some way or another filters up to him. Or they did to his father, at least. The Hungarian Alpha is talking about taking a chunk out of Europe, including those alphas that haven't pledged yet. They're shopping for new allies."

Reed kept a cool head, but it was clear the wheels were already spinning. "Any confirmation of that?"

"He got word from a supplier that they're ordering mass amounts of arms. Not just the usual, though. Silver bullets, crossbows, and wolfsbane."

Gael swore. "That's not just a new alliance, Alpha. They're prepping to come after their own kind. They want a full coup."

"We have to go back to Europe," Kane said. "We can't let the world fall apart, not now when we need the might of all the packs to enact change at the IGC level. The council will see us as a joke if we're not united."

"Agreed," Dirge murmured.

I studied the others in the room, dread tossing in my stomach as I took in Brielle's grim expression and Leigh's pale face. Our lives were changing fast. It was disconcerting at times, but there was nowhere else I'd rather be.

I drew in a deep breath, realizing this pause was all the opening we were likely to get to share our news.

"While we're talking about what's next… Dirge and I came to a decision last night." Every eye turned my way, and yes, it still made me pause, even though most of these pack mates were family. "We're going to bond under the next full moon. We know it's soon, but with everything that's going on, we don't want to wait. We love each other, and… whatever's next, we want to do it together."

Dirge reached up and ran his thumb down my cheek, sending a little shiver running through me as our eyes locked. That smile of his made my stomach flip for a much better reason and was one I wanted to wake up to every day for the rest of my life.

Leigh squealed in delight, and she almost knocked me off my seat with the force of her hug. Brielle was there a moment later, wrapping her arms around both of us. The guys all shook Dirge's hand, offering congratulations as well.

"OMG, we have another bonding ceremony to plan!"

"Do you want to do it here or in Romania?"

Romania? Oh, that's where Kane's father's pack mansion was.

"Umm, here? We don't want a big to-do, just us and the moon," I said, wincing at their crestfallen expressions. "Just our pack and the moon," I clarified.

"As if you could keep me away!" Leigh pinned me with a look, then shifted gears so quickly, it made my head spin. "Okay, so, we need to get you a dress, and flowers, and?—"

She was talking so fast, I could barely keep up. It was a little too much, and when I looked over at Dirge, the anxiety must have been clear on my face, because he squeezed my hand.

"It's all going to be okay, muzic? mea," he whispered against my temple before pressing a kiss there.

Even that simple touch grounded me, as my friends gestured excitedly and tossed rapid-fire ideas back and forth like a Ping-Pong ball.

"Okay, but bluebonnets are classic for a Texas wedding. You have to want bluebonnets, right?" Bri asked, turning to me for input.

"Umm, sure. Bluebonnets are nice." I didn't care what kind of flowers I held or walked over. Only that the man waiting for me in the circle was Dirge.

"See? Classic."

Leigh rolled her eyes but didn't argue. About the flowers, anyway. She'd moved on to dress fabric.

My life might have been changing at full speed, but as I held my mate's hand and listened to my friends argue about the details of our perfect bonding ceremony, I was deeply grateful to be exactly where I was.