“I know, but you will.” He would. Isaiah knew that as sure as he knew his wolf. “You will too. It will start when you see the wolves as more than flashes of color in the corner of your eye. After that, you will begin to hear them. Then at some point, they will come to your call.”
“I don’t even understand wha—” Luca shook his head. “I’m telling you, I’m not a Cana.”
“You are, Luca. I swear you are.”
“Well, maybe you’re lying or confused or….”
“We tracked you.” Isaiah tried to catch Luca’s gaze but he wouldn’t lift his chin. “We tracked you because the wolves heard you. Cassie can send her Fenrir out thousands of miles. Through its eyes and ears, we learned who you were. Her wolf found you in Canada. You moved around, and we would lose you, but we always found you again. Then you came here and stayed for a few days.” It was all it took for them to catch up.
“I didn’t even know about your wolves.” Doubt weighed down his words.
“You didn’t need to for the wolves to know you existed. You simply had to get close enough for them to sense you.”
“I’ve been around for twenty years. Whyhearme now?”
“Something shifted in you. An awareness? I don’t know. All Cana experience it. Some very young, others, not till a lot older.”
“This is bullshit.” Luca looked at Nash like he had the answers.
And Isaiah had the strangest feeling something passed between them. But that wasn’t possible. They weren’t tied. He decided it had to be the kind of knowing people in love and in tune with each other possessed.
“Why should we believe you?” Nash said.
“If I was lying, you’d smell it. Even I can smell a lie.”
“I didn’t say you don’t believe it, but why should we?”
“When all the Cana died, I wrapped one of them in a blanket and carried him from the prison he’d been trapped in.” Not held with bars but a wall of black wolves. “I don’t know why, but I kept the blanket. When science advanced enough to map the human genome, one of my pack, Donna, acquired a job in a genetics research facility.” It had taken almost every penny Isaiah had to put her through college. “While she was there, she used the equipment to analyze the Cana genome, as well as ours. Doing so gave us a way to identify family lines and find Cana.” Some days Isaiah regretted what he’d done simply because of the life it had stolen.
But it had been the only way.
“I thought the wolves knew,” Nash said.
“They do, but only when the Cana is ready.” Isaiah folded his hands on the table. “Our plan was to cross-reference the DNA profiles with transplant donors, genealogy reports, even criminal records. But before we could, someone stole Donna’s research.”
“Who stole it?” The gravel returned to Nash’s voice.
“Who do you think?”
“New World Genetics.” Nash rubbed the tattoo on his wrist.
“That’s where it wound up. The one who took it is a man named Grey Dekker.”
“Dekker…” Nash rolled up his top lip flashing long fangs and bloodied gums. Green flecks threatened to override the grey of his irises. Threads of black slithered under his skin.
“Nox.” Luca shook him.
But what watched Isaiah was no longer the man.
“Nox, stop.”
Isaiah held his ground. Not because he was brave. He just knew if he ran, the Anubis would attack and there’d be no stopping it.
Again, Luca said the name he called Nash, and slowly the tension left his body, the burst of green faded, and the lines under his skin vanished, leaving behind a confused man.
“I’m sorry.” He scrubbed his face. “I… we… had a run-in with another man with that last name.”
“Paul Dekker.”