Sapphire nudges him with her nose to keep walking.
“Go with your parents, that wasn’t a nice way to treat our guest.”
“Ugh, I know….but I was a super-wolf. I know, I know….gotta go face the music for my actions. Bye-bye Playstation.”
I nod at Patrick to stand and apologize for the misunderstandings of a child. He assures me there wasn’t any harm done. He said he’d probably try to recruit Storm when he’s grownup to work for him. I ask everyone to leave Brianna and me so we can run undisturbed for fifteen minutes.
****************
Her wolf is graceful as she runs between two trees. Her steps are almost silent along the forest floor as she pads along the frozen ground. I’m mesmerized at the sight of her beauty. She’s lost in her head as she navigates around the grounds and I’m content to follow her.
My pack is everywhere, I smell each one of them hiding along the clearings edge. They’re respecting our privacy without leaving us unprotected. I pretend not to notice although it makes me feel silly having people guarding me everywhere I go.
Brianna stops near a manmade pond and sits down. I take my place next to her and we watch as the morning sun begins to appear along the horizon. Since we’ve been in Ireland the sun has hidden behind overcast skies. This is my first sunrise without the gloomy ambiance of cloud-cover. Humans say animals are colorblind, but I’m not. The rich purples and pinks the sun is casting out over the pond are breathtaking.
I lean over and nuzzle her neck in a show of devotion. Birds are singing somewhere behind us, and the nocturnal animals are seeking out their beds for a day of sleep. This is the meaning of perfection, sharing the beauty of the world with the person you’re destined to be with.
My pack is getting restless with us exposed out in the open. “Let’s go eat,” I say, breaking the silence. We stand together and lazily walk back to the Inn.
****************
Chapter 15 Day of the Dead
The meeting with Patrick and the necromancer begins in five minutes. My dad’s at the door with Brianna at his side. I’m sure he’s been chatting her ear off about Oklahoma. She gives me a sideways grin making my heart race for a moment. For two seconds, it was only the two of us exchanging mental waves of trust and admiration.
We’re quickly brought back to reality when my dad’s prattling about zombies catches my attention. Ever since breakfast, dad has talked nonstop about seeing a real zombie. He’s always speculating what types of supernaturals are in the world and has convinced himself zombies are among them. He even had a zombie birthday party this year.
One of the bodies was brought in an hour ago and set in a conference room we haven’t used. My mom started wigging out, because at the Indian Reservation, they have protocol for the dead. Sapphire agrees with her and says we shouldn’t disturb the dead without expecting some type of backlash. She’s asked Dolly to get the witches to place a protection spell on the pack to keep any residual effects at bay.
I’m not sure how I feel about what we’re about to do. Of course I want to save Oakley and keep Pru from going crazy, but where do we draw the line? Resurrecting the dead is a disturbance of God’s will.
We all take a seat and wait for the action to start. This is Patrick’s shindig so I decide to sit next to Pru and be a spectator. Three Council members enter the room with Patrick and a petite brunette. She is thirtyish with long flowing dark hair with a grey streak in her bangs.
“Look at her eyes,” Brianna says.
She has one blue eye and one brown.
“All necromancers have two different colored eyes,” Pru tells me. She’s been anxious to find out who did the killings and get Oakley out of the Council’s custody. Her wounds are all healed on the outside, but her heart is still broken without Oakley.
“Have you ever known one before?” I ask Pru.
“I’ve seen one once when I was with my dad. I didn’t meet him or anything, I sat in the truck while they talked.”
“Oh, I wonder what he needed one for. You look a little pale, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
Dolly’s dressed in suit pants and jacket with a dark purple shirt. Her fingers glisten with her jewelry, including her wedding ring. Dolly rarely wears jewelry because as an alpha’s wife, you have to be ready to shift at any given moment. I want her to continue leading our pack when we’re at home. I’ll do my alpha duties as needed for the rest of the world, but in our home she is the Matriarch. It’s time for her to enjoy life and travel like she’s been talking about. We’re all going to feel growing pains for a while.
Thankfully, Dolly agreed to be the liaison for the meeting.
I take Brianna’s hand and lace our fingers together. She’s worried about saying her final goodbye to her pack. We’ve decided to leave tonight for the sake of Pru and Oakley. No one has told her about the agreement we made with Arien. The longer we withhold the promise, the angrier she’ll be with us. It will take Oakley’s touch to calm her down.
Arien hasn’t bothered us since taking Pru to the hospital. Allie called and told me that he’s put a bounty out on Tao. I’m guessing he’s out trying to find him. I thanked Allie for calling and asked her to get up with me if Arien catches him.
I stand up to do introductions with Patrick. He tells us the necromancer’s name is Ziah and she’s originally from Norway. It takes me a couple of times to break into her thoughts, but I finally do. If I didn’t know better, I’d wager she was trying keep me out. She keeps thinking about a soup recipe. Pru tried to block me out with thoughts of other things at the surface, it didn’t work. It was easy to break through by distracting her and causing her to drop the wall. Seems as though I’ll need a distraction for Ziah to find out what she’s hiding.
I take my seat with Brianna and Pru, and watched Patrick with Ziah. The Council members are standing with clipboards in their hands. One of them is from Germany and he looks like a grunge rocker with his black hair, facial piercings, and the ever-popular chained wallet. A woman who’s with them is so pale it looks like she’s never been in the sun a single day of her life. She has pale blond hair that’s cut like Pru’s. She looks like she’s fifteen but dresses like she’s six with her green and black thigh high socks and tutu.
“Her name is Wisp, she’s fae,” Pru thinks to me.
“Of course she is.” The third member of the Council has movie star looks and he’s possibly forty. Dolly is standing next to him and they keep whispering to each other. It’s nice to see her being flirty with someone. I’m not going to bother listening in to them to them privacy. Her eyes dart over to me, almost instinctively and gives me a knowing nod.
As Patrick blathers about serving the Great Wolf and helping to free one of our pack members, I sit and concentrate on Ziah. I don’t need to listen to my dad’s thoughts to know he’s thinking Patrick is just tooting his own horn. Ziah is walking around the body with a smudge stick of sage and chanting. It took me a long time to get used to the smell of burning sage. In the beginning I thought they were burning pot or something. Not that any of them would do drugs but the stuff stinks. Pru and Dolly burn it when they cast circles and if we have too much negative energy. She’s all about serenity now and the house gets cleansed. I halfway think they wish they were witches.
I don’t know how she’s doing it, but she’s able to chant and think about the damn soup recipe. No one loves soup that much. Not even a necromancer named Ziah. Over the last year, I’ve tried to figure out strangers thought processes. If I’m in the mall I’ll take a peek into random peoples thoughts. It became clear that very few people are focused on one thing. Most of the time, people show signs of A D D by their random thoughts. They’ll look at a dress and it might remind you to do a load of laundry or pick up the kids. Parker is probably our most focused wolf of everyone. His thoughts are straight forward, just like him. This soup thing is starting to piss me off.
I wonder if this guy is going to rise from the dead and be
all rotten corpse-like. That would be so disgusting. Dad is the only one in the room hoping to see this guy rise up.
Ziah nods her head at Patrick and he announces they’re about to begin.
“Ziah wants complete silence while she raises the victim. Please turn off any recording devices and cell phones,” Patrick says to us as he takes a seat next to Dolly.
MecKenzie lights candles that are suspended from the ceiling. The body is on an alter surrounded by candles and fresh cut flowers. Everyone clicks off their phones as Ziah walks to the head of the body. She places both of her hands on each side of his head without touching him. The victim had flaming red hair and freckled covered skin. He couldn’t have been much older than me. I wonder if they embalmed him. He doesn’t reek of rotten flesh for someone who’s been dead for close to a week. Maybe they have a special supernatural preservative for dead supers.
Ziah begins chanting in another language with pauses of sharp squeals. My ears pulsate when she yells out loud. She’d bring her hands in front of her in prayer. Her hands would go up above her head and out to her sides over and over again.
Pru shifts in the seat next to me.
Ziah yells out, “WELCOME FRIEND!”
Pru suddenly slumps over in her seat and Dolly yells out. Ziah shushes us. I put my hand on Pru just as her head lifts up and her eyes have gone completely white. Oh HELL NO.
“Silence. Everything is okay, your friend will return to normal momentarily,” Ziah demands.
“Everyone, just listen to her. We’re doing this for Oakley.” I tell the pack. What on Earth is going on? I think to myself.
“Tell us your name,” Ziah says to Pru.
“Joe,” Pru says with an Irish accent.
“Are you one of the men who died this week?” Ziah walks closer to us.
“I am.”
“Have you seen any of these people before?”
“Him, he was there,” Pru says and points at me.
As Ziah gets even closer, I notice that both of her eyes have a reflection of a fire in them. Instead of Pru, she sees fire. “Very good. Can you tell me who killed you?” Ziah asks.
“I didn’t see my killer.”
“Okay, I’m sorry we had to ask. Before we go any further, Patrick please come and put your hands on this man.”
Patrick gingerly walks over and sets his hand on Joe. Within seconds, he lifts his hand and returns to his seat.
“Joe, I have one more question for you. Where can we find the man they call Tao?”
Pru’s head tilts back and a crazed demonic laugh erupts from her mouth. No freakin wonder that woman didn’t want a recording device used. I wonder if my dad is about to crap his pants after seeing this. I am. Oakley would think twice about kissing that mouth if he just witnessed that insanity.
“Even in death, I will not betray Tao. Be warned, troubled times will plague the new Great Wolf.” Pru’s head snapped to face me.
I’m practically nose to nose with demon-eyes Pru and her rotten dead person breath. I take in a deep breath, which now I can smell the rotting flesh. I really wish she hadn’t just looked at me. I’m crawling in bed with my parents tonight. Great Wolf or not, damn Pru scared the crap out of me.
Pru’s body goes limp and she falls forward. I catch her before she falls all the way out of her chair. Please don’t have crazy eyes, I think to myself and then realize the pack heard me.
Ziah throws back her head and screams at the top of her lungs. I am never using a necromancer again. Ever.
Troubled times? Like we have had a walk in the park? I am never watching The Walking Dead with my dad again.
Patrick stands up and asks us all to hold hands. A current runs through us as Joe’s memory is shared with us. It was all very fast, like a slide show on high speed. Joe didn’t know the people either, he knew them by numbers and they only wore masks. The effort is futile.
I ask Patrick if Dolly and I could visit with him alone for a few minutes. Everyone clears the room with the exception of the dead body.
“Thanks for staying. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this the other day, why don’t you pull Oakley’s memories?” I ask.
“I did and it didn’t help. Whatever was given to him to make him forget, jumbled his memory. Trying to pull information from him was like watching water going down a drain. His memories literally blended into a swirling pool. Dolly’s aren’t much better, but she wasn’t in the area when it happened. Whoever did it was fast. Fast enough to pull something off so quick.”
Damn. “Okay, thank you.”
****************
THIRTY MINUTES LATER
The Council members appear after convening for the last half hour. They’ve decided to move forward with the case against Oakley. Pru picks at her cuticles nervously.
Everyone clears out, leaving Pru and I alone to talk.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I say to her.
“I know.”
She keeps her gaze straight ahead as we sit side by side. Her body was rigid as she tried to keep her emotions under control.
“If I find Shaynie first, I’m not going to let her live. She was trouble from the very first time we met. This is not the end of our story, they’re not taking Oakley away from me. Even if I have to run away and go rogue with him, I will,” she blurts out.
I nod my head. She would go rogue for him, I have no doubt. “I know. We will get to the bottom of this Pru.”
She opened her mouth to continue; instead she clasped her hands in her lap. “Let’s get out of this place. I want to go home,” she finally says.
“Okay kid, let’s go.” We stood up and made our way to our suitcases.
****************
Chapter 16 Home Bittersweet Home
The farm has always been a place of solace for me and my wolf. Now I get the chance to share it with my mate. It’s been a week and Brianna is settling in nicely. She’s been spending time with every member of the pack to get familiar with all the personalities. As the female alpha it’s good for the pack to see she’s trying to know them. Despite having Violet with her, she’s bonded with Pru very well. Marc has been an asset to the dynamics of the pack. He’s turned into the Parker of the pack. The workouts have been intense since he started leading them. Parker and Bryon stayed in Ireland to gather information about Tao and try to find him.
“What has you so deep in thought?” Brianna asks.
I reach my hand out to her, pulling her down on the porch swing with me.
“Stuff….you know, the usual. Pru’s been at the safe-house visiting Oakley all afternoon. I haven’t heard from Bryon today and that worries me.” Her delicate hand feels so small as we lace our hands together.
“It’s nice they’re allowing her to be with him so much. The human world would never understand the bond of two werewolves and how our wolf needs the other wolf. We’re going to find Shaynie and Tao. I forget, did you talk with Kane?”
“No, the number I was given didn’t work. MecKenzie says he hasn’t called back. I Skyped with her earlier when you were in the shower.”
Brianna snuggles in closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder. “I need to go find a dress for the Handfasting. Sapphire and I are going to the mall. I hope I don’t sound dumb when I’m talking to people in the stores. I worry about that since I sound so different.”
“You won’t sound dumb. Everyone will find you fascinating like I do.” I kiss the top of her head and she looks up at me. My wolf stirs as I stare in her eyes. She lifts her face until our lips collide together. Our tongues mingle for a moment as I enjoy the silkiness of her mouth. I tug on her until she’s on my lap with her arms around my neck. All I hear is the creaking of the swing as we gently rock back and forth. Her fingers glide at the back of my neck as she presses her face harder into mine. Moments as these, are getting harder and harder to ignore. My wolf wants to possess her, feel her in ways a man shares with the woman he loves.
I pull back slightly and whisp
er, “Bri, we have to stop. When we get married, we’re not leaving our room for a week straight.” God, I’ll be so happy when I don’t have to have self control when I’m touching her.
She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “I know. I guess I’ll go put on some lip gloss since mine mysteriously disappeared.”
“I’ll help you solve the mystery when you get back. They say it will snow tonight, we can get up early and run in the virgin snow.”
“Really? That will be awesome.” She gives me a quick kiss and stands up to straighten her sweater. “See you later.”
“See you.”
****************
As I passed Dolly’s office, I heard Pru talking. She was talking about the Council and Oakley in the safe-house. I tap on the door.
“Doors open, come in Abel,” Dolly says. She sat down at the desk and motioned for me to sit. Pru is sitting in the other seat, and Jules is across the room on her laptop. “I was on the phone a few minutes ago and they gave me word that Oakley’s trial has been pushed forward. His trial will be in ninety days.”
“Can they do that?” I ask. I put my arms around Pru and give her a hug.
“Seems that way. Mom found a lawyer who handles cases like these. He’ll be arriving the day after tomorrow to go over the evidence.”
“Okay, what can I do to help?”
“I’m not sure. Arien said he has a couple of leads on Tao. He doesn’t care about helping Oakley, all he cares about is vengeance. I’ve asked him not to kill Tao and to turn him in to the Council. He didn’t make any promises,” Pru says defeated. She took the news about the agreement we made with Arien much better than anyone thought she would. She said she would have made the same deal for Oakley and doesn’t blame him.
“We’ll have a pack meeting. Jules will send a text to everyone that there’s a meeting tonight. I’d like to meet with the coven in the next couple of days and see if they can do a location spell to find Shaynie. Dolly, can you call down to the Dallas pack and see if they’ve heard anything from her? She lived there for 18 years; surely she had someone she was close with in the pack.” I walk over to the window and look out into the woods wishing I could magically fix everything.
The Great Wolf: A Legacy of Kilkenny Novel Book Three (The Legacy of Kilkenny Saga) Page 13