Page 11 of Fractured Fang: Omega

“We didn’t want to push. But we worry about you,” Jasmine said.

I rolled my eyes. “I can take care of myself. I don’t know that I want to live where mom and dad are. We’ve never really clicked, which is an odd thing to say about your parents.”

To prove my point, I picked up my sketchpad, flipped it open, and began doodling whatever came to mind just then. I needed to clear my mind as best as I could because these conversations weren’t easy and I imagined I would be having more and more of them.

Thankfully Jacob didn’t push. His son Logan, their oldest, came over and asked for help with his homework.

“I can have help from my dad, right, Miss May?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” May said. “You can have help from anybody.” She stood and dusted the dirt off of her pants. It seemed she was the teacher of the group. But how did a human come to live with a pack of wolves? “You can even ask me for help if you want.”

Logan wrinkled his nose. “No thanks.” He tugged his dad away from the table.

I set my notebook down so I could have a better range of motion. Kate sat down next to me. She looked down at my book.

“Is that the little basil plant I have on the windowsill inside?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think it is,” I said, looking at the image. Sometimes I got so lost in what I was doing I didn’t quite see the full picture until I took a step back. The sad little basil plant in a pot on the windowsill was droopy, wilted, and in need of some TLC. If it were my plant, I would have tossed it and considered it a failure. It had caught my eye at breakfast that morning, and I’d briefly wondered why someone bothered to keep it inside when there was a full greenhouse of plants doing quite well.

“Do you want to see it now?” Kate said, her eyes excited.

“I only just looked at it this morning at breakfast,” I said. “How different can it be?”

“Oh, you’ll see.” She pulled out her phone, navigated to the camera gallery, and zoomed in on the picture of the same basil plant, only this time it was several inches taller, its leaves at least twice the size they were this morning.

“Holy shit,” I said. “How did you do that?”

“Magic,” she said.

“No, really, do you have special nutrients or something?”

She gave me a quizzical look. “Magic. For real.”

That was how I discovered that the young non-shifters in the group were all witches. They had come to Fracture Fang unintentionally and now were considered fully part of the pack. When the three of them established their coven on Fractured Fang territory, and Wilder had established the pack officially, they’d been forced to take on the witches into the pack—something that proved to be a blessing. How I hadn’t pieced together their witchiness before, I wasn’t sure. My parents hadn’t mentioned it, nor did my brother or my mate. It made so much sense and also said a lot about the pack and the kindness and openness they held dear.

“So you just magicked that back into healthiness?” I went back to the catalyst of our conversation.

“The plant was in the greenhouse. But it didn’t get off to the right start. It was droopy and sad, and honestly, I thought about pulling it completely, but I think it just needed its own space to grow for a little while. So I put it in the little pot. I gave it a little nudge of help.”

“Really?” I said.

“Yeah, I can persuade things to grow. I say persuade because sometimes I can’t fix everything, but I can give it a magical nudge in the right direction.” She sounded proud, as well she should be.

It reminded me of how Levi talked about when he could hear others while they were in their animal fur. He’d mentioned that the voices of others didn’t always work, but if he opened up to them and gave them a nudge, he could understand. Not always in full sentences, but Levi could speak telepathically with them. He might not be able to hear in a sense most people thought of hearing, but he had a gift—a strong one.

“That’s amazing,” I said. I had a million more questions. I had no idea where to start. If they were this accepting of witches, how might they feel about Levi? The Forerunner’s main goal was to get Levi settled someplace where he could hone his gift. I didn’t see why he couldn’t do that here, something I had feared would be impossible.

“Yeah. Today I’m going to put it back with the others now that it can stand on its own two feet,” Kate said.

“Do you think it’s ready?” I asked.

“I think so. We can at least try it. If he doesn’t like it there, we’ll just take him right back out. But he should really be with the other plants. Plants are social creatures. They need others.” She said it as fact, and I had no reason to believe it wasn’t. But also, I never considered plants social or not social, so it was a bit perplexing at best.

“Oh,” I said. Kate made it sound so easy.

Allistaire sat down next with a steaming, fresh cup of coffee.

“I still can’t get over the layout in the new house. I swear I’ve spent three minutes looking for the bathroom again,” he said.

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