Page 40 of Way of the Wolf

“Touch it,” Mom repeated in a no-nonsense tone.

Since disobeying one’s mother was always a bad idea, especially one’swerewolfmother, I braced myself and lifted a finger. When I touched the tip to the cool gold, it didn’t knock me across the room. Its magic seemed welcoming rather than hostile, almost inviting me to lift the chain and put on the medallion. It even glowed faintly, though not as much as it had at Mom’s touch.

“Iknewit.” Her eyes gleamed in triumph. “At least, I hoped this would be the case. Others in the family thought it wouldn’t respond to you, but I believed it would. If you stop taking that odious alchemical concoction, I believe it would respond to you as much as it does to me.” She lifted her chin. “It doesnotrespond to Bianca. Augustus’s mate.”

The significance of that wasn’t clear to me. “Did you have everyone in the pack touch it or something? Like a test?”

“Recently, I had a meeting and brought some of the pack in to tell them about the medallion and to see if it reacted to anyone’s touch. Female werewolves who might be acceptable… backups if you didn’t come back.”

I lowered my hand. “I’m not coming back.”

“You must.” Mom closed the lid. “You are the pack’s hope, and to be connected with your own kind is the way of the wolf.” Her gaze drifted to the kitchen, and she walked to a cabinet, opening it,then stepping aside so I could see inside. Containers of prescription drugs were lined up in front of a stack of bowls.

Uncertainty and dread crept into me. “Why did you feel compelled to have that meeting?”

“I have been ill. According to the human doctors that the pack’s wise wolf urged me to see, I have cancer. I’m dying.”

I slumped against the table. I’d been afraid of that.

“The wise wolf didn’t have that term for my disease but agrees that age has crept up on me and that my aura is fading. I seek to set my affairs in order and do whatever I can to ensure the legacy of our line, the continuation of the pack.”

Words wouldn’t come as I stared at her in distress. After so long, I shouldn’t have been shocked that she had grown older, and of course I’d known she would eventually die. But she’d always been so strong that I struggled to imagine her succumbing to a disease that afflicted mundane human beings.

“I won’t take their treatments, their medications.” She flicked a finger toward the cupboard. The row of pills did look largely decorative, like she might have briefly mused over taking them when she’d first removed them from the bag, then decided against it. “That is not the way of nature, of the wolf.”

“If you did receive treatment, would be it be possible to overcome the cancer and live longer?” I didn’t know if I should respect her wishes or try to urge her to reconsider the doctor’s advice. If she had something treatable, she ought to do that. What if it was only stubborn distaste for all things human that led her to shun the medicine?

“I need you to stop taking that concoction and return to the pack,” Mom said without answering my question.

“I… I’m very sorry that you’re ill, Mother. But I don’t think the pack wants me to return.” My cousin’s words echoed in my mind:You smell so human.“Did you know… do you knowwhyAugustus is trying to kill me?”

“Is he? I didn’t think any of the pack were having contact with you.”

“They weren’t. Until yesterday. Something changed.” I thought of the cameras and the magical case, but we’d found thoseafterAugustus had first called.

Of course, Duncan had shown up about then. He was up to something, but did it have anything to do with my pack? He was an outsider, and Augustus hadn’t seemed to recognize him.

“I am not sure what has changed for him,” Mom said, “unless my telling the pack about my condition prompted his actions. I don’t know why it would, however. And that was over a month ago. When did Augustus visit you?”

Visit. As if we’d chatted over tea and macarons.

“Just yesterday,” I said.

Was that right? It seemed like weeks’ worth of events had passed in the last two days.

“Perhaps, if you come on a hunt with the pack, you could get some answers.” Mom looked toward the window. “The moon is almost full. When it is, the pack will hunt together, as it always does. Emotions will be high, inhibitions lowered, as is always the case when we are in our true form.”

As I well remembered. Still haunted by Raoul’s death, I shuddered.

“Truths might be revealed,” Mom said, watching me.

“I…”

“Don’t take the concoction again. Let yourself remember what it’s like to be a wolf, to beyourself. And perhaps you will find what you seek.”

“I… I’ll think about it.”

“Good,” she said softly, closing the medallion box and holding it to her chest. “Good.”

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