Page 66 of Smoke and Lure

Her golden-brown eyes were ablaze as she smacked a fist against her core where her wolf burrowed inside of her.

She was gloriously beautiful to him at that moment.

Squatting, he snatched up a few blades of vibrant-green grass.He held them up so she could see it.“There was a time when all the earth beneath my feet was brown, smothered by soot and radioactive ash, and struggling to thrive.But it recovered with time, without being hindered by mankind.”

Lowering his hand, he absently weaved a single blade around his fingers.“However, it had become apparent over the years that something was wrong.With us.”

“Wrong?In what way?”She leaned back against a tree on the other side of the path.

“I can only speak for the Wolves.Even though we have discussed in the council meeting that all Preternaturals suffered in some way, even if it meant their kind was dying for a while because the Earth had been severely injured...that affected the Fae.Also, with many humans dead and the rest underground, there was a lack of access for a shifter to find a mate if they weren’t within their territory.This greatly affected the Ursine and Vampires.”

“For the Pack?”

Morlie was bright and seemed to sense he was holding something greater back.

“It was the nuclear wars for us.So much fallout, chemicals saturating the air...”He glanced up at the purple hues of the sky captured like a painting between the treetops.“Hiding our moon.For wolves, we can go insane quickly without the lunar pull, the tides that regulate the Earth.In the beginning, some did.Our old Alpha, my Uncle Kenneally, my mother’s brother, was one of those who gradually lost his sense of what was best for our people.”

“What did he do?”

“For a Pack, it is imperative for our kind to function that we follow our Alpha command and the laws that have governed us for centuries.However, we’d never experienced anything of the magnitude of the Global War, so when we were encouraged to continue to eat the meat of the land.Hunt down; even the animals there were burned, dead, and tainted with the harmful chemicals.A lot of us did it.”

Chanin brushed away the grass from his hands and rose.“Others, like my father, who is a smart man and a skilled anatomist, warned that even though the meat would not kill us, there could be long-term ramifications.My father had proof that mated female shifters were not going into ovulation heat and, after months of trying, had not conceived.Soon, our Pack numbers would dwindle because we would lose new generations.My father urged the Alpha to send out teams to go out and claim containers from ships that had been capsized and carried inland from the tsunamis.Many of them would have food that we could survive on until the greenhouse crops were ready and the population of rabbits in the underground farm had grown.Keneally called my father a weak kook who promoted fear.”

Feeling the rage in his core at his uncle’s words, Chanin shoved his fists inside the front pockets of his jeans.

“Your uncle seemed foolish and arrogant to me and should not have been leading anyone.I hope your father ripped his throat out.”Morlie lowered her hands, and Chanin saw the extension of her nails.

He grinned at the rage his mate exhibited on his father’s behalf. He couldn’t wait for Morlie to meet Conan, his father.He could guarantee his mate wouldn’t walk away with a bruise on her jaw as she had from her interaction with his mother.

“Rieka got to him first.”Chanin sighed, recalling the days surrounding his uncle's death.“She’d been the head of his security.”

Morlie gasped and stepped forward.She was close to him again but didn’t touch him.“Your mother?Did she get in trouble for attacking the Alpha?”

“Because they were siblings, no.Our laws do not interfere with family affairs.”

“That’s why your cousin has been able to skirt the law.”

“Farkas’s father’s death left the position vacant.Farkas believed he had the right to it because the old Alpha was his father.So, in a way, even though I beat my cousin fairly in the challenge for Alpha, Farkas contends I’ve stolen his birthright.However, his crimes have now spread into others’ territories, so I must handle him as Pack Alpha, not a relative.”

Morlie moved closer to him.Her soft scent stirred his blood.“You said your father was worried about the females in your pack not conceiving.”She licked her lips.“Has that resolved itself now that you all have a healthy food supply again?”

“No.Female Lupine cannot conceive.”He wouldn’t lie to her.“When we negotiated with your government to help them create an antidote to cure the widespread disease, I approved us giving our white blood cells for the serum mix.A big part of the agreement was your government would deliver those humans they thought were too far gone to save.We instructed them to mark the sick by placing a small amount of the mixture anywhere on the body before bringing them to us.It was so we could sense the suppressed gene.”

Chanin shoved his hair back with his hand.“I cannot allow my Pack to fade from existence.Ever.”

“If there are the Preternaturals on the council, are there others of a different kind?If so, what would have happened to someone brought out who didn’t match a Drahk, Fae, Vampire, Bear, or Wolf?”

“Yes, there are others.They reside on what’s left of the four remaining continents that have a similar arrangement.But to answer your questions, even if a human wasn’t connected to any on our council, one of us would have still taken them in and healed them and offered them a chance to live among us.”

“Has that happened?Are there unmated humans in the territories?”Her brow scrunched.

“No.Part of the reason is we have been lucky that those brought out have been one of ours.However, the other reason is that many sick people haven’t been sent out.We can sense the illness in the wind and know how badly humans still suffer inside the Wall.Until you...and Kai’s explanation to Aodh about the lack of help, we assumed it was either a distribution or a supply issue of the serum.But your government has been sly.They’ve only brought out one human a month when we expected multiple or a steady stream coming.They control it.”

“The bastards control it on the inside, too.We didn’t know of a serum.Evidently, only the rich in the Consumer Providence must have access to it.”Morlie paced as she grabbed a fist full of her short curls and grunted, her jaw locked tight as if she wanted to release a scream.

Chanin could understand her frustration.It was clear to him that she realized that her government would’ve let her die because she was of a lower class.

The silence settled between them for a moment.He allowed her time.Hell, he needed it himself to shake off the anger rolling through his blood.At this moment, there wasn’t anything they could do about it.They needed to cooperate with the human government as long as they upheld the agreement.

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