Page 33 of So I Won a Werelion

“Yeah. I’m good.” My voice didn’t feel like it belonged to me. Like I was still in another body. “That thing is powerful.”

“What did you see?” Bibi had come over too. She kneeled in front of us, her purple lips curled in a frown.

“I saw my ancestors using the relic for a ceremony.” The rest of it was too raw to share. They’d trusted me with this information. I had to stay in control of this conversation, even in this weird space between the past and present.

I turned to Wendy. “What artifact did the other guy get?”

“It didn’t look so much like a…”

“A dick.” Bibi finished the sentence.

“Right.”

“Was it round?” I saw something in the vision that had gone with this.

“No. It was jagged. But a different shape.”

“So there’s at least one other piece out there.”

Wendy’s face lit up. “I guess there is.”

Bibi stood and paced in front of us. “This is all very exciting, but I’d like to take the opportunity to remind you both that finding these relics could cause some issues we aren’t ready to deal with.”

“But if two pieces have already been found, there are probably more out there. And if they fall into the wrong hands, they could cause even bigger issues,” Wendy reminded her. “I’ve done years of research on this. It’s not easy, as a human, but in the journals I’ve found, it didn’t look exactly like this.” She eyedthe phallic relic. “But it’s obviously broken, and I’m not feeling discouraged. Yet.”

“She’s right,” I said. Wendy wanted my help, and I was all in. “That thing is powerful, and there are a lot of shifters around here with bad intentions.”

Bibi tapped her finger against her chin. She was still frowning. It wasn’t like her to discourage anyone from following their dreams. “That was some powerful energy that channeled itself through Gabe. For a moment, I worried we might not get you back. This thing isn’t something to mess around with.”

“That reporter is gonna dig for information. He won’t find much. But if he does…” Wendy shook her head. “We have to bring this to the local shifters before they find out about it from humans.”

Wendy and I had known each other so long we didn’t need words to communicate. We needed to go back and look for more pieces.

“Where did you find this?”

“At a stupid construction site. Ranchero Hills.”

“You mean Wolf Rock,” Bibi growled. She waved a silver-tipped hand to break the spell. “I know what you two are thinking. Finding more pieces of the relic will be like a needle in a haystack. There’s no guarantee the rest of it is at the construction site. Or that someone didn’t place it there, wanting it to be found.”

“You think it was a setup?” Wendy picked up the Scepter and carefully placed it back in her bag.

Bibi shook her head. She was definitely freaked out by the thing. “It’s possible. We need a plan to keep you and the Scepter safe.”

“Maybe we could keep it at the office,” Marissa suggested. “There’s twenty-four-seven surveillance there.”

“That’s an excellent idea.” Bibi brightened. “Maybe Marissa can take it back with her. It seems to pack a punch when it falls into shifter hands.”

“Come on, Beebs, aren’t you curious?” Bjorn nudged her. “I am.”

“Of course I am.” She sighed. “But Gabriel looked like…he was stuck somewhere between human and animal. We shouldn’t mess with this until we know more about what we’ve actually found. Wendy, how soon can you pull up the research on the relic?”

“As soon as I get home.”

Bibi nodded. “Perfect. Maybe we can head back to HQ and come up with a plan?”

Chapter

Nine

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