Page 50 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

Helping Lawlit bury his mother after she contracted lycanthropy and died. Most people used that as a catch-all term for werewolves, but it was actually a horrible disease that affected wolf shifters. The closest comparison was rabies, and like that disease, it had no cure. Thankfully, it wasn’t infectious, but all that meant was that we didn’t know how it was contracted.

“Here you go,” Ven said, putting her hand on my shoulder as she handed me a steaming mug. “This should help you calm down.” Then she placed a water bottle on the desk in front of me. “And that’s for quenching your thirst.”

By all the shifter spirits, this marvelous, wonderful woman took really good care of me. It was insane to think I’d showed up at her door as a giant monster, and she’d looked at me and thought,yeah, I’ll make friends with that.I would never forget how incredibly lucky I was or take it for granted.

“Thank you,” I murmured. While I would love to launch into an eloquent soliloquy about how much better she made in my life, my vocabulary still wasn’t there yet. So, instead, I sipped at the hot, pungent tea and tried to collect my thoughts.

“Do you want to read the articles?” Ven murmured. “Or do you want me to read them? Do you want to take a break? These will still be here later.”

I was already in an emotional state because of everything I’d remembered, so it wasn’t surprising how much fondness welled up in me. She really was so considerate. “I would like you to read them for me if that’s okay.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it.”

And that was very true. Unlike what I remembered from other humans, Ven never had a hint of duplicity about her. She said what she meant and meant what she said. I appreciated that immensely.

“Do you mind rolling the chair over just a bit? That way I can bring one in from the kitchen.”

“No, you don’t have to. I can stand.”

But then her hand was on my shoulder for the third time, and I found I didn’t want her to let go. “Nonsense. You stay there and work on your tea. I’ll be right back. Just make some room for me, please.”

I did because it was truly the least I could do. She came back a few moments later with one of the wooden chairs from her kitchen. Sitting down, she cleared her throat and began to read.

I listened, but her profile distracted me. The way the column of her throat bobbed up and down when she swallowed. The way her nose crinkled when she read something she didn’t like. The way her brows furrowed when it made her outright angry. She was so expressive, so genuine. Although a terrible misfortune had definitely befallen my pack, I would forever be grateful it had put me in Vanessa’s path.

It took quite a while for her to go through everything. Chadwicke was doing so much damage to the mortal world, I struggled to think what he was getting away with that they had no idea about. Even without his crimes against shifters, his accusations were lengthy.

Corruption. Smuggling. Drug use. Drug trafficking. Witness tampering. Kidnapping. Fraud. Yet every time he went to court or got into trouble, he walked away unscathed.

“I can’t believe you found him,” I said, once again marveling at what Ven was able to do with an old computer. It wasn’t like I was completely techno-illiterate—I remembered having a smartphone—but I didn’t think I’d ever had a laptop. I vaguely remembered borrowing Ricky’s a couple of times, but that was really it. Granted, it wasn’t like my memory was a steel trap.

“Well, with a paper trail like this, it wasn’t exactly difficult. Do you know what his powers could be?”

I waited a moment, racking my brain to see if that memory came up, but it didn’t. And unlike other times where I could feel something was missing, this felt like I’d truly never known. “No. We don’t know any of the other brothers’ abilities. I would assume they’re all different, though.”

“Fun,” Ven said in a way that told me she meant the opposite. Originally, I had struggled with sarcasm and facetiousness, but after spending so much time with her, I had a good handle on both concepts. “So, what now?”

“What do you mean,what now?” I retorted with a mildly manic chuckle. It was a sound that might have concerned anybody else, but I figured with everything that had happened, I was justified. “I’m going to find where he is, make him show me where he’s kept Ricky, and then I’m going to rip his own throat out and feed it to him.”

Ven grimaced, and I wasn’t sure if it was from my tone or my description, but surely she had to understand.

“What if he’s at some super protected compound like his brothers? I mean, this guy’s managed to get away with so much without any human authorities touching him, so he’s gotta have plenty of protection.”

She was being reasonable, but I was in no mood for that. I finally had a direction for all my confusion and anger, as well as answers for some of what had happened to me and the people I loved.

It was time for justice.

It was time forrevenge.

“Then I’ll raze that compound to the ground. I’ll kill anything in my path if it’s standing between Ricky and me.”

I was confused when Ven’s face grew grayer, and the smell of stress and fear emanated from her. I didn’t think I was saying anything out of pocket. Surely she had to understand.

“Look, this guy is likely hiding in the human world. I’m sure if I do some digging, I’m going to find him at some sort of mega estate or McMansion. There are probably a ton of civilian and innocent people there, much like that harem you found with the other two brothers. If you go in guns blazing, so to speak, you might risk all their lives.”

She had a point, but it grated against the bloodlust building in my chest. I hadn’t earned the status of alpha within my pack by sitting by and letting others get away with hurting those I loved, and it felt like she was asking me to do that.

“What are you saying?”

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