Page 106 of A Wolf's Heart

“No.” She said it as if she had been saying it a dozen times a day for the last few days, which she had, but that was beside the point. I hated having her off our territory, even though she wasn’t far and we had a team close to her; it wasn’t enough. “Two more days.”

Weylin!

“Fuck.”

She leaned forward, giving me a quick kiss. “Tell them I say hi. Rainor was in a mood the whole way here.” She said it jokingly, but there was a hint of concern in her eyes.

That had me checking the link, unsure how I had missed Rainor’s anxiousness.

“I’ll be back.” I gave her one last chaste kiss before heading down towards the office.

“Oh, god,” Lila was saying in a hushed tone behind me. “I told you, if I’m not knocked up already, I would be surprised.” My ears twitched.

“Like I said…” Emma’s voice was even quieter, but I could hear her clearly. “You’re pure blood. I doubt you would conceive when you’re not in your heat. It just isn’t common with pure bloods.”

Was this what Rainor was anxious about? Lila was sick most mornings, but since she’d switched from coffee to tea, to her disdain, she had gotten better. I figured it was just the trauma of all she had been through recently. When I was in the orphanage, I used to vomit every morning, knowing what the day was about to bring me.

Kage would lose his shit. We didn’t have all the information about Lila’s pack, but it was extremely apparent she was of good blood. If he produced an offspring with her, the pack would be tripping over themselves trying to celebrate. Damn, that pup would be the fucking star of all the land.

The likelihood that my diluted blood would reproduce with her was low, but I’d rock the uncle gig. We’d attempted to trace my pack years ago. It was so muddled, there was no point. A typical rogue family blood—mix of everything.

I walked into the room, grinning and ready to whip out the cigars, about to congratulate my brothers, when I was met with the smell of fear and foreboding. Kage sat behind his desk, pushed away with his elbows on his knees and head hangingdown. Rainor was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the wall, as if he had slid down.

I searched the link, but my mind couldn’t keep up, couldn’t comprehend. “Did this happen now or—”

“Thirty-three years ago,” Rainor said.

“The images in your mind…” I questioned.

“Pictures. I have teams there now, collecting the remains.”

An icy chill traveled down my spine, and I fell into the chair.

Kage was the one to stand up, walking over to the territory map. This one didn’t have the blacked-out names of the packs we had overturned, but in his mind, he was staring at the map that hung in his home office.

“Thirty-three years ago, Lila was born. At the time, I was headed to my first hunt with my father, an important one, one ordered by the council.” He stared at the exact spot on the map where Scarab Pack had been located. “I see now why he brought me along for such a risky mission. They were powerful. We flushed them out of their homes, brought weapons with us, caught them off guard, and attacked during their transitions. My father had said it was not a moral fight; it was a necessary fight.”

“As were most of his raids,” Rainor whispered.

“We massacred Lila’s pack. Many died by my hand, and my father fed me my first heart. Their pack leader. Lila’s father.”

“How can you possibly know all of this?” I asked.

“We got the information from the council,” Rainor said. “Along with an order that, if we suspect any Scarab to be living, we are to check them for a mark.”

I shook my head, knowing where this was heading.

“A birthmark,” he continued.

“Yeah, well, we all have it,” I snapped. “What will they do, then?”

“This just got more complicated,” Kage said.

“Our marks are different.” Rainor looked up at me, his eyes wide. “We didn’t have them since birth. They were seared into us by the fates, the day Lila was born. The link was created the day she was born, the beast showed himself the day Lila was born, her pack was massacred the day she was born. This isn't a coincidence!” Rainor snapped.

“So, the fates are fucking with us, again.”

He shook his head, getting to his feet, “Do you have any idea what is happening? The mess this is? The absolute chaos that is about to fall upon Cridhe?” His face turned red with anger, his eyes flashing red. “We are cut from the council. We are demanding they tell us the ability Scarab Pack held, and they are refusing. They are demanding access to our pack member files, and we are refusing. It’s only a matter of time until they find her,” he yelled. “They don’t wish to talk to her, Weylin, they want to eliminate her. Eradicate her. Whatever the fuck her power is, they are scared shitless. And by prying them with questions and forcing their hand, we just painted a big red target on our foreheads.”

---