Chapter 27

Robert Montgomery

I was very young when I lost my mother. So, I never really grieved the woman I didn't know. I know grief, but to lose someone so close isn't something I've ever experienced.

Quietly, I close the door of the dimly lit bedroom, then head downstairs.

It's been two weeks since everything went down at the shelter. Charlotte hasn't spoken a word since. She hasn't gone to work, not that I'm worried about her being fired. Jazz has given her an indefinite leave of absence. I don't care if Charlotte quits her job, but I know she likes that place.

She's not eating as well as she should. She barely touches her food, just wanting to sleep.

I can feel this hollow grief inside me, Charlotte's grief.

I also feel the mating bond between us now, a combination of the mating mark I put on her and the blood she drank from me. It is thrumming inside me, a sentient bond that nearly knocked me into a state of unconsciousness the night Charlotte was attacked by her father.

The guard I had assigned to her was found dead in one of the two dumpsters in the street, wolfsbane in his system. Ricky's phone call had been frantic. I didn't understand why he couldn't help her until later.

It was Jazz who told me about the conversation she had overheard. The woman who died was Angie; I remembered seeing her the other day at the shelter. I didn't know Charlotte had been close to her.

I enter the kitchen, and Aisha looks up. Cynthia is sitting across from her, and Morris and Adam are leaning against the counter.

"Well?" Aisha asks.

I shake my head. "I don't know what to do."

"Give her time," Morris says quietly. He lost his own mother last year, so he can probably relate to Charlotte to some extent.

"What's happening in the Nelo Clan?" Adam asks. "They've gone silent. I haven't been able to gather any information."

"I'm meeting their new leader tomorrow," I tell him. "What I know for now is that they want to call a truce. With Beruth dead, and the only heir also dead, the clan's in chaos. They've appointed someone to take over, but that's it."

"What about the drugs?"

"I'll ask him," I murmur. "But for now, don't retract any of your people from their positions."

Cynthia glances at her watch and sighs. "We should get going. Maya and Tony need a reprieve from babysitting all of our kids."

Everybody shuffles to their feet and begins to leave.

"If Charlotte needs anything," Aisha says softly, "let me know. Even just someone to talk to."

Morris nods. "And be patient with her."

I close the door after them and rest my forehead against it for a moment.

"Tea, Mr. Montgomery?" Mrs. Mallory has appeared next to me, her eyes concerned.

"No, thanks." I make my way to the living room, and Mano looks up from where she's sitting with her six kittens. "Hey, girl." I sit down next to her, watching her feed her babies. She makes a small sound and rubs her head against my hand when I pet her.

"She misses the madam," Mrs. Mallory says sadly.

"I know. I'm trying."

"I understand, but I don't think Mano has ever been away from the madam for so long. Perhaps you should let her into the room."

Beruth injured Mano to quite an extent. Ricky looked after her, helping her recover. Even now, the cat's voice is hoarse. If Mano had also died, I don't think Charlotte would recover. I've seen her love for her pet. Mano is like her child to her. Charlotte did speak one time, when she asked me about Mano; once she learned her cat was with Ricky, she went quiet again.

It's frustrating seeing the woman I love like this. I want to help her, but I don't know how.

I look at my housekeeper. "Yeah, I'll do that. Ricky's going to come by again in a bit to give Zeno a checkup. Can you leave out something to eat for him? I don't think he's doing too well, either."

Mrs. Mallory smiles at me. "I'll stay around and give you both a hot meal. Maybe between the two of you, you can convince the madam to come down and eat something."

"Thanks, Mrs. M. I don't know what I'd do without you."

She beams at me and is about to leave when she pauses. "A lot of packmates have been dropping by to see the madam. They heard that she lost someone important to her during her fight with Beruth Sanguinite, and they want to offer condolences. They've been bringing food and small gifts. I don't have the heart to tell them to stop."

"Thank you. I'll let her know."

Once she leaves, I run my fingers through Mano's fur and sigh. I didn't think the pack would welcome Charlotte so easily. When I announced who she was to me during that pack meeting, aside from the few angry faces, the rest of the pack accepted her. Because they didn't want to lose me. But it's one thing to accept her and another thing to look after her like a packmate, reaching out to her in her loss, trying to offer comfort. Word of her fight with the leader of the Nelo Clan has spread like wildfire, not to mention her relationship to him. I don't know how the last part was leaked, but it has convinced the pack that Charlotte is one of them now.

Soft footsteps have me glancing at the stairs.

Charlotte meets my gaze; there are circles under her eyes. Her physical injuries have healed, but her heart is still raw and bleeding.

Her voice is quiet and hoarse. "Mano."

Mano dislodges herself from her babies and leaps off the couch, racing toward her. Charlotte slumps on the stairs, letting her cat climb all over her, sniffing and licking her anxiously. Her grip on Mano is gentle, and she buries her face in her fur.

I walk over to her. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I heard Mano's cry. I wanted to see her," Charlotte says tiredly. "I needed to see her."

"You haven't met her kittens." I hold out my hand. "Come on."

When she looks up at me, the sadness in her eyes kills me. It's almost like someone has thrown a bucket of water over the fire that once burned inside her. But she accepts my hand, holding Mano in her other arm.

The kittens mewl, and Mano jumps down from Charlotte and runs over to them. Grabbing one of them with her teeth, she proudly presents it to Charlotte, placing the wriggling baby at my mate's feet.

"She missed you," I whisper to Charlotte, who crouches down and picks up the kitten. She pets it.

"Good job, Mano."

I guide Charlotte to the couch, where the rest of the kittens are, and watch her immerse herself in them as they clamber over each other to sniff her.

"I'm glad you got out of bed," I say, taking Charlotte's free hand.

"I wasn't trying to worry you." Charlotte lets one of the kittens curl up in her lap, tuckered out from all the exertion. "I just—"

"You're grieving." I touch her face lightly, making her eyes lift toward mine. "I understand that, sweetheart. Tell me how to help. I don't know how to fix your heart or make your pain go away."

Charlotte covers my hand with hers. "I never told you about Angie, I guess. She was wonderful to me. She's the one who found me on the street, alone, when I was fourteen. She brought me to the women's shelter. She let me sleep with her, comforted me. And she became a constant in my life. She wouldn't let me take care of her, but whenever I needed someone, she was there. And now she's gone. I have to reconcile with the fact that I will never get to talk to her again."

Charlotte's voice cracks at that part, tears forming in her eyes.

"I'll never see her again, in the park, with her crows that always followed her around. When I—" Two fat tears roll down her cheeks. "When I graduated high school, Angie took me out for a meal. It was just a hotdog and a Coke, but it was nothing short of a celebration for me. She came to watch me cross the stage to get my diploma. She knew it bothered me that all my classmates would have their parents in the audience, but there would be nobody to clap for me. When I looked at the crowd, I saw her sitting at the back of the theater. She was always there for every milestone. She never let me feel like I was alone." Her shoulders shake with broken sobs as she buries her face in her hands. "And now she's gone, and I don't know where to go looking for her to tell me it's going to be okay!"

Her cries are brutal to hear. I gather her in my arms, my heart aching, my wolf whining in misery. "It's going to be okay. I'll be the one to tell you that. And you're not alone, Charlotte. You're never going to be alone from now on. I can't replace Angie, but I swear to you that I will be by your side from now on, for every milestone, every wish, every dream."

"Angie left her most precious gift to you, Robert," comes a voice from behind us, and I look over to see Ricky walk in. "Your housekeeper let me in."

If I thought Charlotte was a mess, Ricky is right there with her. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, his hair standing up, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen.

"R—Ricky?" Charlotte looks just as taken aback by his appearance as I am, and it shocks her out of own state for a moment. "What happened to you?"

I let go of her so she can get up and greet the man. I hear her say, "I didn't know you knew Angie."

"I did." He wipes a tear from his face. "I moved halfway across the world because she asked me to. To protect you."

Charlotte goes still. "What?"

Ricky looks at me and gives me a weary smile. "I guess I should thank you for keeping my secret. Angie didn't want Charlotte to know, so I appreciate it."

"Know what?" Charlotte demands sharply, looking back and forth between the two of us.

"I'm a witch, Charlotte," Ricky tells her. "I'm also a vet, but that's a human profession. Angie called me here for two reasons. One, she wanted me to protect you, and the other was that she was dying, and she needed me to help her live for as long as she could until you and Robert were finally together."

Charlotte's face goes white. "What? Angie was dying?"

"Yes. She was constantly looking into the future. She was scared something terrible was about to happen to you. She had been having visions in her dreams. It was a deadly combination for her, and she knew it, but she loved you and wanted to protect you. She also wanted to keep her promise to your mother."

"My mother?" Charlotte echoes. "What does my mother have to do with Angie?"

"Your mother was a powerful healer. That's why your father married her. He wanted powerful heirs—so long as they weren't healers, too. Angie and she were friends. When you were born, your mother asked Angie to look into your future. Whatever Angie saw, she never told me, but I can guess she realized you would be kicked out of the clan. Your mother made her promise to protect you. And she did. She went looking for you that night." Ricky's voice cracks. "She loved you, Charlotte. She absolutely adored you. So, when she—when she fought off your father, she happily died for you. I know my friend; there was no regret within her." Holding out a bag to Charlotte, he adds, "There are some things of hers that she left. I've brought them for you."

When Charlotte opens the bag, the first thing she draws out is a worn photograph.

"Oh!" She makes a choking sound, and I'm instantly by her side.

It's a picture of Angie with a younger Charlotte.

"Not yet." Charlotte puts the picture back in the bag, shaking her head. "I can't look at it yet."

"That's okay," I reassure her. "When you're ready."

"There's something else." Ricky looks miserable. "I can't shake off the guilt. I wanted to save her, Charlotte. I wanted to help you, too. But Mano was bleeding during the birthing process, and as a witch, if I cast magic with the blood of an innocent on me, that magic turns dark. I would have ended up draining Mano's life energy. I—I've been unable to sleep because I keep thinking—"

"You did the right thing." Charlotte takes his hands. "You didn't do anything wrong. I realize now that I'm not the only one who lost Angie. You lost her, too. You shouldn't be alone. Maybe you could go to your sister's."

"She and her family left for London last month," Ricky tells us. "She's also a witch, and she didn't want to stay here where our kind isn't safe, not with a child. Witches aren't welcome in this part of the world, and she didn't want to expose her son to any sort of danger."

"What about you?" Charlotte asks, and I can feel the tension radiating from her.

"I don't know," the witch admits. "I don't want to leave you, but this place isn't exactly safe for me."

"You can join our pack, if you are willing," I offer.

When Ricky looks at me, I clarify, "I don't want Charlotte to have to lose you, too, Ricky. You are welcome to join our pack. That doesn't mean I want to use your abilities. You'll just have our protection, and you'll be able to practice your magic more openly."

Ricky is silent for a moment and then mutters, "I can't say I'm not tempted."

"Think about it," Charlotte begs him. "You'll have your animal shelter. Your life will be undisturbed. Nobody will bother you. Stay with us for a few days and think it over. I'll understand if you want to go to London and be with your sister, though."

"Stay here?" Ricky shakes his head. "I don't want to intrude."

"I insist." Charlotte grabs his arm. "This is my mate's house. You can stay here if I say you can. I'll show you to your room."

Watching Charlotte lay claim to me so blatantly makes me smile. As I watch her walk away, I know she's going to be okay. In the end, she just needed to take care of somebody other than herself.

I let out a long breath and turn to look at Mano. She is standing beside me, stretching. "I don't know what kind of magic you cast on her to bring her back to me, but thank you."

Mano rubs herself against my legs in response.

******

My meeting with Terrence, the new leader of the Neo Clan, goes about as well as it could. He's looking into the situation with the drugs and plans to put an end to it. He's cordial to me, but it's obvious he's acting this way so I don't stop Charlotte from seeing him. However, I'm very confident in my mate's feelings for me. She already told me about the deal she made with Terrence in the park. I don't know if she has told him about everything her father did to keep them apart, but I know she will eventually.

She's meeting him today at the cafe. Jazz is going to be there.

To my surprise, Jazz was quite accepting of this whole other world that has been existing parallel to her human world. I have to wonder if it's because of a certain mild-mannered vet whom she has begun to invite to the cafe for coffee.

Ricky ultimately did agree to stay with us, and his presence has done Charlotte a world of good. She's still grieving Angie's loss, but she's returning to her old self bit by bit.

This evening, Adam has called a meeting of the Alphas at my place, and Morris arrives first. My thoughts are distracted, wondering what Charlotte is doing, when I hear the front door open and close.

Adam joins us in the kitchen. "Well, I managed to compile the report. Not a total waste of time, in my opinion. You're going to want to look at this."

He tosses me the report, and I catch it in midair. "Anything interesting?"

Adam hands Morris the other copy. "You could say that. This drug that we've been chasing down originated in Europe. Versions of it, anyway."

I flip through the report and see that Adam has highlighted the impacts of each variant. "This has been going on for close to a decade in Europe," I mutter.

"Yes." Adam brings out his laptop. "But you'll notice that the drug used here seems to be more refined than its counterpart in Europe. I managed to get into contact with the Silber Mond Pack in Hessen, Germany. They just relocated there and are willing to talk to us tonight."

He turns on his laptop and sets up the video call. After a couple of minutes, a man flickers to life on the screen. With blonde hair and blue eyes, he's handsome, but he looks worn out. His English has an accent as he greets us.

Adam makes the introductions. "This is Johannes Mond. Johannes, this is Robert Montgomery and Morris Wolfguard. They are the Alphas of the two wolf packs mine has allied with. We don't want to waste your time, so could you please share with us what you mentioned in your email?"

Johannes nods. "I'm the leader of one of the last surviving wolf packs from Tallinn, Estonia. There used to be seven packs in the country. We are traditional; our territories were in the surrounding mountains, but we shared the city of Tallinn as a common territory. We also shared the city with the vampires. Until a decade ago, we had no problems with the vampires. We had our separate businesses and were cordial with each other. It was an ideal situation." His expression grows tense. "Then began the problems with the drugs. Our youngsters are allowed to drink within shifter territory, but they were never allowed any sort of drug, mostly because human drugs make our kind ill. We are lenient with our juveniles. We wanted them to foster a good relationship with the allied packs, so they would meet in groups, drink, party…but only within pack territory. We didn't know about these new drugs till one of the juveniles wandered onto the streets of Tallinn in mid-shift, half-transformed. We did damage control, tried to get him to shift back, but he didn't make it."

I glance at Morris. His hands are intertwined, his brows drawn together. Morris lost a good number of people from his pack due to this half-transformed state. I stood with him as he buried those young bodies, his eyes filled with a broken grief. Now, I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looks at me.

Johannes is still speaking. "Over the next couple of years, the drugs grew more advanced, with horrifying side effects, but the one thing that remained consistent was that the shifters who took the drug, knowingly and unknowingly, were forced into a half-transformed state that was irreversible. There was nothing our healers could do. The drug they were consuming was toxic to our animals. We now refer to the events as Phase One, Two, and Three."

His voice is calm, but the amount of anger and pain in his expression is immeasurable. His eyes are those of someone who has seen such horrors that the trauma is deeply embedded within his soul.

"Phase One was when they introduced the drug and we lost precious children. In Phase Two, the deaths were drawn out. It was almost as if the juveniles' wolves were fighting it. Our healers couldn't even give them peace in their final moments. We couldn't figure out where our children were getting these drugs from. We knew they weren't ingesting them willingly. At that point, we hadn't linked the vampires to the problem. They had been extremely helpful to us, you see, offering their best medical personnel, facilities. What we didn't know at that point was that they were taking samples of the blood of the infected juveniles for their purposes."

Nobody interrupts Johannes. It's evident that speaking of this is not easy for him. Having to admit that he failed his most vulnerable pack members is painful. I don't blame the Alpha, but I know how easy it is to blame oneself.

I watch the man pause to collect himself, and he picks up where he left off. "The third phase was the worst one. We discovered that the juveniles were being poisoned by the school's water supply. The vampire clan in our area had links to this school. The drug had no impact on humans, only on our kind. This discovery was made by accident, and it was soon followed by another. We found out that in the third phase, the vampires were able to control the affected wolves, who no longer died. They lived, trapped inside their bodies, their wolves broken and enslaved. Something in the drug made those wolves freakishly strong."

Johannes looks away from the screen, and everyone is silent. He has turned the chat on mute, and somebody hands him a stack of papers. He speaks to the person for about a minute and then returns to us.

"Sorry. Moving to another area isn't as easy as it sounds. The children aren't taking it very well. It was usually my mate who handled such matters, but she's—" He lets out a shuddering breath. "Forgive me. What was I saying?"

"The affected wolves who took the drug were being controlled by the vampires," Adam reminds Johannes.

"Yes." He blinks as if to clear his mind. "Five packs were wiped out. None of us were expecting this. The intent of the vampires was clear: they planned to subdue us and enslave us. In their view, we had always just been animals, and they wanted to become the apex predator. The city was thriving because of the businesses we brought to it, and the vampire clan resented that. They used our own people to kill us. We had to fight back. But the only way to kill the drugged shifters was to remove their heads. We did it with heavy hearts. We were weakened in numbers, though, and the vampire clan was getting ready to launch another attack, so we left in the middle of the night. It's only been a few months since we came to Germany. The last decade has destroyed us at the hands of the vampires. We don't trust them with anything anymore. We've kept away from the clans here."

I clear my throat, wishing I knew what to say to this man. "I'm sorry about what you went through. We're facing a similar issue. The drugs have been showing up here for a couple of years now."

Johannes's expression blanches. "Be careful. Their goal might not be your territories but to subjugate your kind. They already know they can do it."

"The clan leader was killed recently—" Morris begins, and Johannes scoffs at him.

"The clan leader? Unless he was preparing the drugs himself, he's not the one you have to worry about. You need to look for the chemist, the one who carries the recipe for this drug."

"Chemist?" I stare at Johannes, a nagging feeling coming over me. "Can I ask you something? When these drugs began to be distributed, did you notice anything about the vampire clan in your city?"

Johannes studies me. "Like what?"

"A new face, perhaps. Someone you saw in their midst that you hadn't seen before."

"A foreigner, you mean?" The Alpha frowns. "As a matter of fact, yes. A young man had arrived, late teens. He was there to study, but he was quite close to the clan leader, Jeremiah. Last I heard, he left three months ago, returned to his home country."

I already know the answer to the next question I'm about to ask.

"What was his name?"

"Terrence."

I'm on my feet, phone in hand, rushing toward the front door.

"Robert!" Morris runs after me. "What's going on?!"

"Terrence Balcom. I told you about him. He is Charlotte's childhood friend. Charlotte went to see him at the cafe. He's taking over the clan, the man who promised to look into this drug situation, as he called it. And he was in Europe when the drug started being produced."

I stop in my tracks to turn and look at my friend, my voice grim. "The background check I ran on him was clean, but do you know what he went to Europe to study?"

My question has Morris stiffening.

"Chemistry."