“Hey, beautiful girl.”
Shaun’s voice was low, calm, reassuring, and it reduced the tension in us a little, but then we felt Branwen surge again, so a small growl escaped our lips.
“Well, it appears we have quite the situation on our hands,” Ophelia said, frowning slightly as she looked over everyone. “Let’s move into the meeting room and talk this out. I get the impression I am not up to date on this issue, and we are going to sit down until I feel like I am.”
The guys recounted my stories for the table, and I sat there in wolf form, watching them all, catching their every reaction, while Ophelia stayed much the same. Nothing seemed to ruffle her, and Flora continued to look mildly amused, but it was Sylvan and the red-haired woman, Arelia, I found out, that had the most pronounced responses. He paid rapt attention to everything, seeming to suck up every word with a fervour in his eyes that was unnerving, which perhaps explained Arelia’s response. She was very quietly, very decorously, losing her shit. I saw it in the furtive twitch of her fingers that she ended up clasping tight to stop, the thin line of her mouth, the rapid shift of her gaze, looking at everything and nothing all at the same time.
Somehow, this was familiar.
It took a bit, that memory, of past me stepping free of the gown the seamstresses worked on, of walking past the overbearing stage mum, Lady Something-or-other, and her daughter? Niece? What was her name?
Jaya.
Arelia’s head jerked up at that, meeting my eyes across the table, frowning slightly before her daughter moved closer, pressing her head into her mother’s shoulder and staring me down. Arelia wasn’t the one who freaked me out. She looked worried, hurt, hopeless, but the little girl? She was like one of those horribly precocious kids you see in horror movies who then go on to kill their parents, but it wasn’t her mother that was her target. That was clear from the way she wrapped her arm around her mum’s and held her close. No, all that childish ire was directed at me.
The guys finished telling the table all the details. Well, Shaun did. Shade just watched everything play out, his hand sliding over to tangle itself in my fur periodically, but Ethan? He looked just as pale as Arelia. I pulled away from Shade, padding around the table, people following my progress but maintaining the conversation until I came to a stop at Ethan’s side. I sat down on the plush carpet, and he spared me a brief sidelong look, then a much longer one as we continued to stare. His eyes flicked from the conversation and back again, then settled on me, his hand reaching out to pat me casually like the other guys had.
But our lips, they pulled back into a snarl.
Why? I cried out in my head. I was probably the least connected to him, but everything I’d experienced had been positive. Seriously positive when, I thought about him and Axel moving to… But my jaw locked down, my muzzle twitching as I bared my teeth. He looked hurriedly down the table, wanting to avoid a scene, it appeared, but he missed that opportunity. Frowns formed, eyes asked questions as the rest of the table watched us, but the conversation continued. When Ethan shrank back into himself, we were finally satisfied, settling back on our haunches, waiting for all the blather to taper off.
“We were always going to have to pay the price for the peace we have enjoyed. We have had all of the Mother’s love bestowed upon us. The Great Wolf has watched our community grow and thrive,” Flora said. “There is no fighting this, only a management of the risk. Sanctuary will change, was always going to change, and we can choose to move with that or try fruitlessly to stop it.”
“But what changes and how?” Arelia asked finally. “Vague prophecies? I’m not afraid to say, I am well tired of them.” Her eyes slid to Sylvan and then back again. “Branwen fed Sylvan the last lot, which resulted in him…” She straightened up, then swallowed hard. “We have him back now—”
“Arelia,” he said.
“I have little use for more of Branwen’s machinations. We should find a way to neutralise her, remove her as a threat. Bec’s ancestors were removed from Sanctuary. Why? Perhaps there was a good reason for this?”
“Arelia.” Sylvan’s voice was definite this time. “That is not worthy of you. You, more than anyone, know how Sanctuary works. Has it not been exactly that for you and your sisters?” All the starch went from her spine as she curled in on herself. “Whatever we decide to do, we do as a community.”
“And you’re a particularly important part of that, boy who lived,” Flora said with a grin. Whoa, was the old biddy a Potterhead? “You have been the conduit for the Black Wolf and been in intimate contact with the conduit of the White Wolf since…?”
“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always heard Branwen in my mind. It was only when…” His voice trailed away as he traced circles on the desktop. “It was only when I was swallowed by the Great Black Wolf that I lost that. I lost everything, everyone.” His eyes slid sideways to the little girl, whose eyes blazed bright green right now. “I came back, reconnected with everyone else, but not her.” Those bright blue eyes found mine, studying my Tirian form, and even I could hear the faint sound of longing in his voice. “I’d thought that was done with, that I was free to move on with things, with my life.”
“You are the Black Wolf’s conduit,” Flora said drily. “You will never be free. You may have relationships, raise a family, create a life, but your existence, above all others, will be disrupted by the machinations of the gods. Balance must be restored. We have preserved the line for so many generations, across two different worlds, and now, we must bring the natural order back to our people. One you upset.”
I was sitting close to Ethan, so I caught the tiny suck of air in when Flora’s eyes swung our way. Did she mean me, my Tirian, or Branwen? That was the question, but for Ethan, there was another one.
Did she mean him?
In this form, I could catch scents, detect muscle tension, read a person much more clearly.
He feels guilt, my Tirian said inside our head. Why?
Why, indeed.
Chapter 28
“We need to deal with immediate threats,” Ophelia said, all business now. “Bec has taken Tirian form to hold Branwen back, and I’m still not entirely sure what threat she poses. Wasn’t she the founder of our community? Everything I was taught put her in a completely positive light.”
“And doesn’t that concern you?” Arelia said with a frown. A low hiss started in the back of my head, but it got no further than that. “She was the force that brought Sylvan to Sanctuary, that threatened to bring the Volken down on your heads. The only thing you can trust is Branwen’s self-interest.”
“You sound bitter.”
I watched the red-haired woman’s facial muscles fight, between scrunching up in frustration and smoothing to calm. Calm eventually won.
“Bitter? Perhaps I am. I didn’t have the benefit of growing up under her auspices, but I was a victim of her machinations.” She stared openly at Sylvan now. “I saw her effect on Sylvan, the way she twisted him. If her interests and Sanctuary’s coincide, then all will be well. But what if they don’t? You’re alpha here. Your head will be the first one on the block. You’d have to be aware of your opponents, others in the community that wish to take your position.”