Page 92 of Wolf's Endgame

“He hasn’t come to see you, has he?” I guessed, watching as she shook her head briefly. “He will.”

She didn’t look like she believed me, but simply took another drink. “You regret what you said to her?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“Me neither.” Dropping the half-eaten cookie onto the plate, I leaned back. “Were you waiting for me?”

“I didn’t know that I was,” she answered honestly. “I too was restless. I knew I didn’t want to sleep, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere”—she gestured to her blouse and pants—“but I didn’t want to change clothes.”

“So you were restless waiting for me, and I was restless and came to you?” We both looked out the window. “It’s almost a full moon,” I murmured. When I looked back at her, I gave a wry smile. “Your pack wasn’t rogue, was it?”

Barbara didn’t smile, just watched me steadily. “Not always.”

“Your mate was a druid?” Cocking my head, I studied her. “Or you were?”

“I was.”

And I understood why I was here. “You sent Moonstar.” It made so much sense. “You knew Bale would never stop looking for Andrea, and you sent a guardian to watch over her.” Barbara sat straighter with her hands clasped on her lap primly. She looked like a schoolteacher. I couldn’t imagine her dancing under the moon, invoking the incantations of the Goddess.

“I sent a gift of protection.”

“She’s threatening Kezia’s very existence.”

Barbara nodded. “The spirit was never to enter the vessel, especially if the vessel was Kezia.”

“The vessel?” The milk sat sour in my belly. “You mean Andrea?”

“A protection spell, that’s all it was.” Barbara looked at me calmly. “When I met Kezia that day, I felt the other’s presence. So strong. I knew what she carried inside her.”

“How do I get it out?”

“You have a pack war to fight, Alpha. The spirit will not harm.”

“The spirit has harmed!” I exploded as I burst to my feet. “She takes over her body. She wants to keep her body, her wolf. She is no longer protecting her! She wants to eradicate her!”

Barbara looked up at me, still calm. “I can put a stop to that, for now.”

“For now? You mean not permanent?”

“I’ll need time. And the aid of a shaman.”

“A shaman, I can give you,” I muttered. “Although how that conversation is going to go beats me.” Druids and shamans served Luna, but both had very different approaches. Druids believed in the spirit world, reincarnation, and the Otherworld, and while they practiced the relationship with flora and fauna, they relied heavily on natural spirits and the sense of specific places. The shaman was the voice on earth for Luna. The spirit they sought was the Goddess herself, wielding the power of the Goddess through sacrifice and trance.

“We can work together if we have the same goal,” Barbara spoke reasonably.

“How will you get her out of my mate?”

“I will work on that with the shaman.”

So she wasn’t going to tell me. I knew not to push. I was ignorant of many things that concerned both practices, but I wasn’t so ignorant that I didn’t have respect for them. “Seems Luna had a plan for me after all, tonight.”

“I know why I was called here,” Barbara mused. “But I don’t think this is all you are here for.”

I was tired. Sleep suddenly weighed heavily on me. Looking at the milk and the cookies, I raised my head to meet her steady stare. “What did you do?”

“Trust me, Alpha, I do this for you both.”

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