Page 28 of Resurgence of the Pack

Something tight in my chest eased.

Greg nodded to Tristan. ‘Challenge me, and we’ll have a little roll around to first blood.’

‘Not here!’ Ben said hastily. ‘Dad can’t see any of that shit, not now.’

‘He’s right,’ I agreed. ‘We’d better take it to Black Park.’ We didn’t want to go home without the challenge being completed or Elliott might somehow pull the rug out from under us.

‘Well, I’m glad you’ve got all that sorted.’ Mum sighed. ‘But what am I going to do about Dennis?’ she asked unhappily.

‘Nothing.’ Greg gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze. ‘He’s made his choice and it’s not for us to undo it.’

‘But I’m the one who has to live with it,’ she argued grumpily.

‘Mum,’ Ben started, ‘you can’t blame him for this. It’s not his fault. None of it is. Just … don’t do anything hasty, okay?’

She gave him a wry smile. ‘I’m not throwing away three decades of marriage for one mistake,’ she assured him, ‘but it’ll take some getting used to. We’d just started exploring the Other realm together, and now…’ She paused then made a visible effort to cheer up. ‘Anyway, he wasn’t interested in learning about the healing potions and things like that.’

Her eyes narrowed as she turned to me. ‘Which reminds me – your miraculous survival. It wasn’t a new experimental drug, was it? It was magic.’

I stared at her for a moment; I’d forgotten we hadn’t revealed the full circumstances of my mysterious recovery from near-death. I’d told Mum that I’d been born a fire elemental and that I’d been turned into a werewolf, but we hadn’t actually gone through the ins and outs of the whole thing.

‘When I didn’t know about magic, I shagged an incubus,’ I started. ‘I thought I loved him.’

Mum slid a glanceto Greg before replying carefully, ‘That James chap? You talked about him before Greg came on the scene.’

I coloured. ‘Yep, that’s the guy. He broke some rules, and by sleeping with me and using his magic he was slowly killing me. In the end, Jess saved me.’

‘What does Jess have to do with it?’

‘Everything,’ I said wryly. ‘She also broke some rules but that was to save me. Werewolves aren’t supposed to be turned, we’re supposed to be born. You can only turn a werewolf when they’re dying from non-magical means. I was dying but because of an incubus, so I couldn’t be turned. Jess stabbed me with a magical dagger and brought me to Lord Samuel. I was dying from a non-magical malady so he turned me and saved my life. And the rest is history.’

Mum’s eyes were very wide. ‘So we really did nearly lose you.’

‘Nearly,’ I admitted. ‘But you’re stuck with me now.’

She pulled me into a hug, ‘Thank God,’ she murmured into my ear, giving me a fierce squeeze. Then she drew back. ‘You said Jess stabbed you with a magical dagger. What did it do?’

‘It gave me the ability to speak to animals – well, to anything that’s alive, really. It meant I could speakto Esme back in a time when people couldn’t speak with their wolves.’

She kissed me. ‘I’d like to talk to Esme one day. And Rohan. I should know the wolves that are living in my children’s skin.’

I would like that,Esme said warmly and I could tell that she would. She longed for a maternal figure to stroke her fur, and the depth of that longing took me off guard. I should have asked her earlier if there was anything I could give her that she really needed.

‘She would like that,’ I said aloud. Then I asked Esme,Is there anything else you’d like that we haven’t discussed?

I would like Greg to pet me one time,she admitted.

I tried to hide how much that surprised me.Of course. I’ll ask him soon.

We have a challenge to witness first,she reminded me.

‘We should go.’ Tristan interrupted our conversation. ‘We need to get this challenge wrapped up and the longer we remain here talking about magic, the longer we risk your father overhearing.’ He was right. We were going to have to be careful from now on. Ugh.

Ben went in to speak to Dad for a few minutes and then we took our leave. Archie, Liam and Mack were waitingfor us, talking quietly on the doorstep. ‘Everything okay?’ Liam asked.

‘Fine, but we’re going to Black Park so Tristan can challenge Greg.’

Archie’s eyes went wide. ‘What? Why?’

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