Page 6 of Marked for the Pack

Brielle gave me an understanding smile. “I’m afraid your heat is very much real, and it’s likely days away, two weeks at most, if I had to guess. My shifter side senses it clearly, and my mage side sees no duplicity.”

Two weeks at most? She reached forward and placed her hand on top of mine.

“Since you’re going into your first heat out of season, that means it’s for the usual reason — your wolf met her mate.”

I shook my head, my mind reeling from revelation after revelation. I’d encountered several alphas shortly after Luka rejected me. Ironwood’s unmated alphas, the rogue alpha Flinthad killed… Could I dare to hope I actually was mated to Flint? But after him, I’d also met Heath and Gage…

Either way, my first order of business had to remain the same, simply based on the timeline — figuring out how to survive from now through my heat.

The Ironwood pack likely wouldn’t believe me about the fated mate bond being faked, especially since I was going into heat. And that very real heat would lead them straight to me. I had learned more about my situation, but I was still in trouble.

“Is there any way to suppress the heat before it arrives?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it, not with your magic also suppressed.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose it would be too much, especially with both my magic and my wolf bottled up.”

“What’s this about your wolf?”

I put a hand to my chest. Lately, even I could sense my wolf’s presence. She was in there. But…

“She still hasn’t shown. Which is why I can’t believe she recognized her mate.”

Brielle’s mouth thinned into a flat line, her eyes glancing me up and down. “This is no curse. I sense your wolf within you. How old are you?”

“I am twenty-four, well past when I should’ve first shifted.”

Wolves always shifted for the first time between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. After I’d failed to shift year after year, I’d eventually lost hope.

Brielle shook her head as though I’d finally presented her with a true puzzle.

“Pack Alpha Hugo of the Moonblessed Pack told me he once met a wolf who didn’t shift until much later, so I’m trying to stay hopeful.” Even though it seemed incredibly unlikely at this point.

Brielle nodded. “I myself have never met a wolf like that.” She gestured toward the front door, “Not that I meet many wolves, period. And if I do, they’re rogue alphas. Not good conversationalists, you know,” she smirked. “Most are practically rabid by the time they show up here.”

Living out here in the wildlands, far from where covens ruled, she probably seemed like an easy target to rogue alphas. The fact she was surviving alone made it clear she was anything but.

“But you could be a special breed, a rare type of wolf…” She eyed me again, as if searching for some other clue she might have missed.

All I could do was shrug. I wasn’t sure I dared to believe any of that. All my wishes for my future had been crushed so often before, I wasn’t ready to hope my wolf might truly appear.

I was having an even harder time believing I actually had magic. At least I’d felt my wolf inside me before. What did magic even feel like?

“Could the curse on my magic be suppressing my wolf?”

“That’s a good question. I suppose it could be possible, but I wouldn’t think so.” She paused to think. “No, I imagine if magic was responsible for suppressing your wolf, there would have been yet another, separate curse to do that.”

I grimaced. Bad enough that I was already twice-cursed. “Could you break the curse on my magic? Or perhaps help draw out my wolf?”

I needed some edge to help me survive the next few days playing hare to Ironwood’s wolves.

“Sad to say, my dear, both of those are beyond my power.”

“Beyond your power? Or is it because I’ve offered you nothing in return?” I asked, knowing all too well how the world often worked. If she could help, it would be worth a lot to me.

Brielle chuckled. “You expect me to bargain for your firstborn or some such?”

“Or maybe to send me on a quest to find some magical flower found only in… the Cascades,” I gestured vaguely.

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