Page 63 of Shadow Blind

He’d noticed before that Wolf wore a pouch. Sometimes below his shirt, sometimes swinging free. Benioko had worn one, too, the day before. To his left, half a dozen spots down, O’Neill was kicked back in his chair, apparently napping.

There was no leather cord around his neck. Nor were pouches hanging off the former SEALs surrounding him. Those pouches must be a Kalikoia tribal thing. Which meant that O’Neill wasn’t part of the tribe. No surprise, considering his light brown hair and green eyes.

His gaze drifted back to Wolf’s pouch. What were those things? Some kind of voodoo magic?

Wrong culture, asshole.

Kalikoia culture wasn’t into voodoo. Although, how the fuck would he know? He knew nothing of Kali culture. For all he knew, those pouches could carry the ashes of their dead enemies.

“Aiden.” Wolf’s flat voice cut through the silent room, as effective as an RPG blast at drawing every eye. “Join me.”

The request froze Aiden in his chair. Did Wolf intend to ambush him with another request to join the Kalikoia tribe? Only this time in front of Shadow Mountain’s top warriors? Was Aiden’s inclusion in his brother’s plans to stop the apocalypse pursuant on bending to Benioko’s will?

“Your ears quit workin’?” Rawls asked. “Your big bro’s callin’ you to the head of the class.”

He sure was.

The question was why?

Chapter twenty-six

Day 10

Denali, Alaska

The coffee line had dwindled to one warrior when Benioko turned to Wolf. “Your javaanee must lead this meeting.

“Aiden?” Wolf’s voice rose until the name was more question than identification. Foolishness there. The Old One could be speaking of no other. Wolf had only one brother.

“Taounaha…” Wolf’s voice trailed off.

Kali tradition called for obedience to the Shadow Warrior’s mouthpiece. One who communed with the elder gods could not be wrong. Yet, tradition also called for tribal choice, and accepting the Kalikoia customs was at the heart of every tribe member’s choice. Such a decision should never be forced. One offered to show the eseneee the ways of the Hee’woo’nee. But one did not force the joining.

Yet, three rotations earlier, in this very room, Benioko had done just that.

Wolf still had trouble believing it.

“Your javaanee was there. He witnessed the wanatesa in its infancy.” Benioko’s cloudy gaze turned inward. “He has seen how it begins. He senses its ending. There is no other more qualified to speak to its danger. He must lead this discussion.”

Wolf relaxed, inclining his head in agreement. Perhaps he had overreacted to the Old One’s insistence on Aiden leading this meeting. The shaman’s explanation made sense.

He still didn’t understand why the Old One had been so demanding earlier. He’d never seen the Taounaha so…unyielding. Although, Benioko insisted often, that Wolf needed an official Caetanee. One eagle chosen.

Perhaps this was behind the Taounaha’s unexpected behavior.

Tradition called for a male chosen by the eagle spirit to lead the warrior clan. As Jude had been, and now Wolf. But the thae-hrata had selected few during Wolf’s lifetime. Indeed, he, Aiden, and Kait were the only eagles chosen within the past forty cycles. Female claimings by the thae-hrata came from the Blue Moon Mother, not the Shadow Warrior. As such, Kait could not assume the weight of Betanee.

Which meant when the elder gods called Wolf to the web of his ancestors, there would be no one to take his place.

His gaze skipped to Aiden, who was speaking with Zane Winters. From Kait’s description of their spirit claiming, they had been chosen by the thae-hrata at the same time. Although neither had realized it. Instead of celebrating their claimings, they’d dismissed the thae-hrata as an abnormality—a sick or injured bird.

The pair had not even known to search for their claiming totem after the thae-hrata took to the air, so the spirit eagle’s gifts had been left behind. The knowledge burned through Wolf’s chest like fire. To abandon the spirit gift was unheard of among the Kalikoia. The most heretical act conceivable. That their anestoo had left his children so unprepared was unforgivable.

Benioko claimed the thae-hrata favored both the maternal and paternal sides of Wolf’s lineage. But it must run deep in the Winchester lineage for all three of his anvaat to be eagle chosen.

Had the elder Winchester been eagle chosen as well? Had he hated his Kalikoia heritage so much he had rejected the claiming? Left the totem behind? Such a thing was inconceivable to Wolf—but his anestoo had rejected everything concerning his tribal heritage in favor of the woohanta’s ways.

Perhaps he’d rejected the thae-hrata as well.

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