Page 43 of The Awakened Wolf

“Wait. You knew about Marrak’s bite too?” I looked from his tight nod to Kiana’s furrowed brow. “You have got to update the curriculum.”

“I know,” Evan said, “you’re all getting sick of hearing me say this, but humans won’t survive Odin either, if we don’t spread the word that his shifter-killing disease is just rabies.”

“Evan, that’s enough,” Kiana snapped. “I’m 110% certain that this was something Mantel and his buddies cooked up in a lab.”

“I’m telling you,” Evan said, his voice rising, “I’m from the country. I’ve been hunting since I could hold a rifle steady, and I damn well know a rabid animal when I see one. The whole pack needs to be vaccinated and those who were bitten but haven’t shown symptoms need treatment, ASAP.”

“Impossible,” Kiana growled. “We will not subject ourselves to human medicine, not when we can’t know it will work, not when humankind sees us as animals deserving of extermination. I’m not marching my people into a trap. When will you start thinking like a shifter, Evan, and not like your precious human past?”

“Guys, stop fighting, please.” With legs gone stiff from my time spent as a pile, I stood. It was like balancing on two concrete pilings, but they held. “Kiana, we have to consider what Evan’s suggesting. If he’s right, think of all the shifters and humans we could save with something so simple.”

She opened her mouth, but I silenced her with an angry wave. “No, you don’t get to dismiss this so easily. Not when Jesmyn’s life hangs in the balance. Do you want to see her turn into…?” A quaver threatened to emerge in my voice, and I stopped, as the thought of a frothing, howling Jesmyn came to mind. “And if we can’t get rabies, then we can all face Odin as a united pack. Don’t you think that’s worth trying?”

“No.” My sister’s voice was granite.

“Then you leave me no choice,” I said, the words emerging as heavy as the thought that birthed them. “I’ll have to challenge you for the throne.” My Alpha was in there. She knew what had to be done. We had that in common. If I were honest though, she was pretty damn tired at the moment. We had that in common too.

Kiana laughed. “You’d never win.”

At this my wolf stirred, swirling with a buzz of new energy beneath my skin.

Try us.

Though my wolf—being an Alpha from snout to tail—relished this moment, human me did not.

“I’d fight until you killed me.” This was a statement of fact.

Her mouth started to drop open and then she clamped it shut, staring me down. How she thought my own eyes would make me back down, I don’t know, but I stared back at my other half without blinking.

Kiana had to accept that the prophecy had made us one.

“Okay, genius.” She whirled on Evan without saying a thing to me. “How are we going to pull this off, when the pack can’t even go outside safely?”

“Maybe we could we send pack members in small groups to doctor’s offices across the city.” Kenzo suggested. “They could say they had to travel overseas.”

“That’s too risky.” Kiana said. “If we’re going to do this, we need the vaccines to come to us.”

“Don’t you all have gobs of money?” Evan said. “You could probably order them.”

“Even if we could order safe prescription medications online,” Kiana said, “which I doubt, we can’t have suspicious mail coming to us. Doesn’t it need to be on ice or in special packaging or something?”

“Good point.” Kenzo said, sighing. “Well, that leaves us one option. We’ll have to steal them.”

“Right,” Kiana said. “Because getting caught stealing human medicine would be the perfect cherry on top of our crap sundae—”

“I can do it,” Sebastian said, grunting as he got to his feet. “I can use my Beta powers to make sure no one notices us.” Kiana started to protest but he cut her off again. “Let me do my job, Kiana.”

“Where are you even going to find enough of these to go around?” Kiana asked.

“Maybe at a medical school?” Evan said, looking at me. “Jayla could get us in.”

“Nooooo, sir. Elyse isn’t going anywhere.” Kiana said. “We still have a few days to wait to find out if you’re with pup.”

Sebastian’s gaze locked onto me, and I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“I’m sorry, Elyse,” he said, “but I have to agree with Kiana on this one. You stay here and hold down the fort. I’ll go with Evan and Kenzo to get Jayla. Assuming she’s willing to help.”

“Tell her I’ll kill her if she’s not,” Kiana said airily.

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