Page 15 of Destined Bear
She doesn’t have the backbone to enforce my requirements, and I should have known someone would try to get around my new policy.
I open the screen door as quietly as possible, honing my fox ears to listen. At first, there’s nothing but the labored sounds of my mother’s breathing from the back room.
The silence alarms me. Where the hell is everyone?
Alessa’s tail flicks around me as I venture further into the house, my hackles raised. I didn’t even realize that she had shifted.
The first whispers of voices meet my ears, and I glance down at the gray cat on my heels, her luminous eyes shining up at me with caution.
She senses it, too.
The certainty mutually comforts and heightens my sense of concern.
“Go,” I mouth to Alessa.
The dull words in the background increase in my heightened hearing, and I stop outside the back hallway, leading toward the bedrooms.
Where is Millie?
It takes me a minute to recognize that one of the voices speaking is Millie’s.
“…much longer she can go on like this.” The healthcare worker’s voice is strained and lower than I’ve ever heard.
I peek around the corner and see her with a woman I’ve never seen before, but the medicinal scent surrounding her and the way she carries herself with authority tell me that she is, in fact, a healer.
I don’t know her to be one from the list I’d provided Millie before leaving the house. I certainly hadn’t called her.
“Circe is strong enough to hold out as long as need be.” Her sage words confirm my suspicions.
But alarm bells won’t stop ringing through my head. Who is she?
My impulse is to make my presence known, but I don’t; the need to hear this conversation all the way through keeps me at bay.
“The pack is weaker than it’s ever been,” the healer intones, and Millie nods, her eyes averted to the ground. “With Circe down, it only makes things worse.”
“Emeric’s failed mating created a rift within Willow Grove. They think he’s too inconsistent to lead properly.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise with Millie’s words.
“But Vivienne is back.” Why is Millie talking to this female like she’s an old friend?
The healer scoffs at Millie’s comment. “Everyone in Stonecrest has been laughing about how she came back kicking and screaming. I’ll be surprised if Vivienne lasts another week here.”
A fusion of hot and cold rushes through me as I lean against the wall, trying to make sense of what’s happening. Nothing they’re saying is overtly alarming, and yet…
What does Stonecrest have to do with our pack?
“She went to the council meeting today.” Millie finally looks up again, her eyes locking on the healer’s. “I think they intend to have her step into Circe’s role.”
My shoulders stiffen as the healer’s face pales at the revelation. “She wouldn’t. She was too humiliated after what Emeric put her through. Why would she endure that again?”
Millie bites her lower lip. “She might. For her mother?—”
“Millie!” Circe’s voice rings out weakly from her bedroom.
Damn. I won’t be able to get to the bottom of this conversation right now, not with Mom awake.
I step out from behind the wall, startling them both. In unison, they gape at me, the color draining from their respective faces.
