Page 1 of Omega Haunting

Chapter One

Astral

Earthside, Appalachian Wolf Pack Territory

“And that’s how I can put you in contact with your true-mate,” Dern nodded and leaned back in his beat up lawn chair.

Meeting behind his house around his dirty firepit wasn’t the ideal place to conduct business but it was the only place the old hound would talk about anything serious. Whenever asked he’d mutter something about the crystals buried under it but never give that much of a committed answer. We all let him get on with being one of our oldest pack mates in the neighborhood in peace unless he asked for something.

“And this actually works?” I cocked my eyebrow at the old wolf shifter fortune teller.

I’d done my fair share of magic in my thirty years, but my nose wasn’t broken. Everything coming out of Dren’s mouth smelled like a scam. He was looking for moonshine or money. I didn’t have a lot of the latter on hand, but my family made more of the first than the average household. It wasn’t uncommon for neighbors, pack members, and travelers to show up at our front door and try to barter. Usually, we sent them packing. The moonshine wasn’t exactly for drinking. Its primary purpose was magic. There wasn’t a lot that moonshine couldn’t do with the right add-ins and intentions. It was only a decade ago that my family opened an official business selling the jarred spells, ‘spell in a shot glass’, and of course our Warden’s Secret Warding Spray. The latter was a Warden family secret passed down through the generations for as long as anyone could remember. There were other goods we made upon request but those wereour bestsellers. I was as magical as the rest of them, but I’d still put money on the warding spray mostly working because it burnt the nose hairs off any would-be intruder.

“I wouldn’t say it did if it didn’t,” Dren rolled his eyes. “Besides, you came to me not the other way around, Ast.”

“If you had this the whole time, why are you only whipping it out now?” I arched a brow and leaned back in my seat.

“This isn’t the first time. I just don’t mention it often because I believe meeting your true-mate causes more trouble than it’s worth most of the time,” Dern said, narrowing his eyes on me.

Everyone knew Dern had been a true-mate widower for at least the last five decades. I didn’t remember him as anything except a widower. Apparently, his alpha had been a huge guy with wings. The exact beast he shifted into was debated but Dern wasn’t about to spill the beans.

His explanation was only half true. I only came to him because he told Morgi who lived on the street between that he had information on my true-mate. Dern never took to liking the title of seer, preferring fortune teller, but he saw as well as any seer from the more prestigious packs and places. He didn’t talk a lot about how his messages came to him but the old hound was usually on the nose about what he saw. Only, this sounded like a scam. Smelled like one too. Dern didn’t exactly smell like a lie, but he smelled unhappy about what he was doing. Unhappy enough that he put my inner beast on edge. My wolf paced his inner sanctum sniffing the air as if he could out the problem before it grew too large.

“I only do this when it’s gonna benefit me or someone really needs my help. You don’t need my help but in the long run I need this to happen. I apologize now before the horse shit hits the fan. You’ll have a great time I’m sure, but it never starts out great, Astral. Remember that. I’m not even gonna charge you because this one is for Ormund. You haven’t met him. Probably neverwill seeing his door’s come and gone and you’re blind as the rest of these mangy hounds but it’s for him.

“Your alpha?” I cocked my brow.

“Yes,” Dern sighed. “My mate. The one and only.”

His grey eyes unfocused just over my shoulder as if he stared into the past.

“How will this help him?” I asked, finally sitting down in the lawn chair next to him.

“I can’t tell you yet. Eventually everyone will know. All I need you to do for me is not fuck up meeting your true-mate.”

‘I’ll try my best,” I said, but was already mentally writing an email to the local clinic to drop in and check on Dern. Maybe he was finally losing whatever was left of his mind. He spent more time alone than any one wolf I knew and that couldn’t be good for him at his age.

“So, here we go again. You’re going to go over to Morgi’s and pick up two apples. One for the spell and one for me to eat because age can ask favors of youth. Then you’re going to go home and I’m going to do some magic. Then I’ll show you tomorrow how it works.”

“Are you sure you just don’t want a couple of apples, Dern?” I asked, trying not to sound like a condescending smart ass.

“If I didn’t need your help, I’d whack you right on the nose. You’re not young enough to act like a pup anymore, Ast. You’re gonna have to man up and quick. Being a true-mate isn’t an easy job. Even if yours is half – no – dare I say a tenth as good as Ormund, it’s not going to be easy. Those sorts of relationships take a lot of work and you young puppers don’t want to put that in but you play your cards right and I think you’ll be sittin’ as nice as peach pie by the end of this. You won’t have to worry about me anymore either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never you mind what’s that supposed to mean,” he growled. “You leave that to me and Ormund. You just bring me the apples and then come back here tomorrow night after the moon comes up.”

“We’ll see where this goes,” I nodded.

“Oh, I know where it might go. Your alpha probably won’t be sending me a thank you card any time soon either. Bigger headache for him than you. At least you’ll know there’s magic under your paws. He won’t have that luxury.”

He turned his head away from me and grumbled something about scaley bellies that I ignored. I waited a few minutes before leaving but Dern continued his muttered conversation with the empty air. On my way down to Morgi’s, I swung by the Peach Creek Clinic and let the lady behind the desk know they may want to send a doctor out to check on Dern soon. He probably wouldn’t thank me later but sometimes you had to follow your gut.

***

That night I lay awake for a long time. Of course I hadn’t only taken Dern apples. I stopped in at Munchie’s Diner and picked him up a few burgers and some fries too. The Appalachian Wolf Pack hadn’t been fully incorporated into itself long enough to cover all our bases if you asked me. If we had, Dern would already have a nurse or some sort of aid that came in a few times a week to check in on him.

“I don’t think he’s full of shit,”my wolf sounded off inside my thoughts.

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