And if Jonathan mounted Dr. Dante, he wouldn’t stop until he collapsed from exhaustion.
“Talk to him,” Seung said.
Jonathan huffed. “You sound like Frost.”
“Frost is a wise man.” She smiled.
“Yeah, he’s that.”
“Then you should take his advice.”
Jonathan shook his head. “I can’t—” A thought occurred to him. “What about one of the betas on your team?”
Seung laughed. “No.”
“Why not?” They would be good to him, and they weren’t Mah.
“They don’t have their wolves. And even if they could run him, our Clan law forbids taking an Urja.”
“Since when do you follow Clan law?”
“When it involves an Urja.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I think you underestimate the impact they can have on a pack.”
“Urja make betas stronger.”
Seung drank some of her coffee. When she put the cup down, it made a soft thunk against the Formica. “An Urja changes a beta, and anyone bound to that beta.”
“You’re talking about metamorphosis.” The records they had about it were vague and leaned toward fantasy.
“That’s part of it.”
“Then what’s the rest of it?”
“After a beta takes an Urja, compliance with an Alpha is voluntary. Not all betas are cooperative.”
“Is that why you don’t have meta-packs?”
“Yes.”
“I’d think Mah would be more likely to form a coup.”
“I’m sure you are.”
Jonathan arched an eyebrow. “Is that your way of saying we have no control?”
“No, it’s my way of saying you’re not domesticated.” Seung held her cup with both hands. “My people have allowed the Senate to weaken us. It will be a long time before we’re ready to reclaim old customs. And honestly, after we turned our backs on the Urja, I’m not sure we deserve to have them back. The Mah took them in and protected them from the Senate when we weren’t brave enough to.”
Another sacrifice the Varu made to appear more human. Even before the Anubis, they’d pushed out the Urja, leaving them to merge into human society or die. Without a tie to a beta and his meta pack, they lived a human lifespan.
But it didn’t mean they hadn’t grieved the loss of their people.
And the voice of the Fenrir.
When word of the Anubis spread and the presence of the Mah as a people became known, the Urja had made the pilgrimage.