Page 90 of Wanted

I snort and roll my eyes.

“What’s that?” Dr. Drake asks, having not been a part of our silent conversation.

“Looks like my brother has finally found his mate.”

Dr. Drake squints as he smiles just as widely as my brother. “I sensed it from the moment you first brought her in here.”

Dr. Drake points at me. “I suspect that’s what’s also brought on her change so quickly. Her wolf senses her mate nearby and wants to come out to meet him.” He claps his hands together.

“This evening’s Supermoon Ceremony will be an eventful one for you,” he says, clapping me on the shoulder.

That’s if Emery does shift.

I’ve felt her wolf. It’s bursting to break free for the first time. If that happens, tonight will be the first opportunity I have to mate with her, bonding us forever.

I knew your time would come.Chael says, breaking into my thoughts. He sounds so certain that he always knew this would happen.

I don’t know why you spent years denying the existence of a mate for you.He continues.

I don’t bother explaining to him that it was drilled into my head. All of the recriminations from my father rush back to my mind. Him reminding me that my sole duty is to protect, to follow Chael’s lead, to carry out his demands, and to protect the pack.

Especially after I lost my hearing.

He let me know, in no uncertain terms, that a broken wolf like mine wouldn’t find a mate.

Mother Moon doesn’t allow brokenness to procreate. The weak die off, preventing their genetics from further destroying the future of the pack.

I swallow as I recall his words. The words that I long accepted as truth, as my fate. My father only spoke this way when it was him and me. Never in front of Chael or my mother, or any of the other pack.

Still, even when others were around, I sensed his deep resentment of me for failing to be the perfect beta. All because of a stupid decision I made when I was nine to defy his orders and go out in a rainstorm.

Things are different now,I tell my brother.I must protect my mate. Even after she shifts.I hesitate before adding,She may be our pack’s storyteller.

Chael’s eyes narrow.She doesn’t wear the streak.

I nod, knowing that all storytellers have a distinctive marking in their fur and in their human forms. Emery doesn’t have that. Or so most people think. But I’ve seen the gray hairs she tries to hide.

We’ll find out soon enough,is all I tell Chael.

Chael simply nods before turning to Dr. Drake. “Can you narrow down the type of wolf’s bane that was found in her system?”

Wolf’s bane. That’s one of the strange elements Dr. Drake found in Emery’s blood. We suspect it came as a result of those pills.

Wolf’s bane, in large enough doses, can be lethal to us wolves. However, Dr. Drake believes this was a special type of wolf’s bane, that in small enough doses, wasn’t enough to kill, but aided in suppressing Emery’s and possibly Ashley’s wolves.

Dr. Drake runs a hand across the back of his neck. “It may be a long shot, but I’ll give it my best. Wolf’s bane only grows in a certain number of places.”

“Like Upstate New York,” I suddenly say.

Chael nods at me, obviously having come to that conclusion as well.

“We need to talk,” Chael says to me before nodding at Dr. Drake and starting toward the door.

I give Dr. Drake a look, signaling that he put a rush on those tests, whatever they may be, and then follow my brother out of the medical office.

“I was able to prolong giving my answer to the Alliance,” he says. “Even if no one on the committee is connected to this threat, they’ll need to know about it.”

“There are a handful of lone wolves I’ve traced in connection with the attack in Florida,” I tell him. “Marshall hasn’t been able to trace any activity of this lone wolf uprising online. But there are rumors swelling offline.”

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