by SJ Himes
“How many are left?” Gerald said, sorting out what he wanted to ask. He nodded, eyes wide, biting his lower lip as he waited for an answer.
“Your older siblings and cousins made it, along with a couple of your younger aunts and uncles on your daddy’s side. They’re all grown now, and spread around the territory, or apprenticing in other clans. Ezekiel, your cousin, is a shaman as well, and is in Russia on the last year of his apprenticeship. He’ll be coming home this summer during the gathering.”
Ghost cheered at that thought, even though he couldn’t recall his cousin at all. Not even a glimmer of a face, or even saying the name. His frustration must have shown on his face, because his uncle put a large hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “It’s okay, boy. Don’t be upset if none of it’s coming back. Got years ahead of you to know your family again. And you weren’t all that close to Zeke anyway, seeing as he was so much older than you when you got lost.”
Ghost sensed a lessening of tension in his uncle’s frame, as if the alpha grew easier with speaking the longer he sat next to Ghost. Something about the way he sat and looked at Ghost, eye contact fleeting but sure, and the pained yet pleased expression on Gerald’s face, told Ghost that his uncle rarely communicated with anyone as freely as he was now.
“And…. and my father?” Ghost asked, afraid to know the answer. His parents had been soulbound; the death of one usually meant the death of the other. This, more than anything from his past, he remembered with powerful clarity.
“Well… that’s a hard question to answer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your father is alive, but I can’t tell you more than that.”
“Can’t? Why not?” Ghost leaned in, needing to know. He had Glen; he had Kane; and he had now his uncle, but his father, the memory of Josiah, pulled at his heart like nothing else. Gray Shadow was gone, and so was his mother, but his father lived, and the little boy buried in his heart still wanted his daddy. He felt foolish for this need, one that was growing stronger and harder to control the more he experienced grief as a human.
“Your father got shot, three times by silver. The shamans managed to get most of it out, but he was severely poisoned by the bullets. He taxed everything that day, trying to heal, taking care of your surviving family, and then the funerals of your momma and siblings… He even tried to find you through the bloodlines, but he couldn’t sense you. I’m not surprised though; Josiah lost his soulmate that day. I’ve never seen a wolfkin disintegrate like that before. Josiah was always a strong wolf; man could’ve been an alpha if he’d had even a hint of command or the Voice. But that day, that day he was destroyed.”
“No…” Ghost groaned, and he could see it. Less than a day bound to Kane, and Ghost knew that if he was to lose his mate, he would be broken beyond repair, and it would take the meadow Goddess herself to keep him in this world and not follow Kane into Death.
“He held it together for a couple of days. Got your grandpa’s affairs settled, then he disappeared. Your other siblings were all seventeen or older, and they were set on their own paths. He just disappeared out from under our noses. We know through the bloodlines to his other children that he’s alive, but that’s it. No one, not even my father, knows where Josiah is now.”
“SIR, I have news you need to hear, urgently,” Kane said as soon as Caius answered his cell. He sat in what must be Andromeda’s private study, if the elegant yet comfortable décor and the Clan Leader’s heady scent over everything was a clue. He swiped his cell on to speakerphone and set it on Andromeda’s golden maple writing desk.
“What is it, Kane? Heromindes is set to arrive any moment with the human captives, I don’t have time for this.” Caius was impatient, and Kane feared his Alpha would hang up before he could tell him what was going on. He didn’t think Caius deserved to find out the grandson he gave up for dead was alive via text message.
“You’d do well to heed your Heir, Caius,” Andromeda spoke, her Old World accent coming through strong as she growled at the cell. River was by the door, and the shaman gave a thin smile at the sound of his sister’s growl.
There was a beat of silence, then the sound of a cautious breath could be heard. The White Wolf made everyone nervous, alpha or not; including Caius. There was a reason she was unchallenged for Red Fern these last fifty years.
“Andromeda, what a pleasure. I trust you are well?”
“As I always am, Caius. Enough pleasantries; Kane has news,” Andromeda admonished Caius, and Kane coughed into his hand. She gave him a tiny quirk of her pink lips and nodded at the cellphone.
“Speak up, then, I only have a few minutes,” Caius snapped, and the echoing boom of the Clan Leader storming through a door could be heard clearly over the line. “What is it, Kane?”
“A few days ago, humans attempted to kidnap a lone wolfkin in New Brunswick. Luckily, the wolfkin was a shaman, and was able to escape the humans.” Kane would not mention Glen or Cat at this time; Caius was not so forgiving of their secret being revealed as Kane was, and the Clan leader had yet to learn that Luca, that Ghost, was alive. “The shaman in question escaped here to Baxter and is currently here in Red Fern. I have seen the shaman’s memories, and I can confirm that the man who attacked him was Simon Remus.”
The roar that ripped through the line was enough to make the cell’s speakers crackle and spit, the volume too much. Rage and anger and the unspoken promise of spilled blood hung in the air, and Kane was reminded for the first time in years why Caius McLennan was Clan Leader. He was a vicious and dangerous creature who was ruthless in the extreme, willing to do anything to keep his people as a whole safe, no matter the collateral damage.
Kane and Andromeda held still, even though they were miles away and safe. River had a hand on the doorknob, as if he was about to leave the room if Caius started yelling. They dared not make a sound, as they listened to the clan leader of Black Pine struggle to control his rage. Ragged breathing eventually cooled, and Kane risked speaking after a few minutes of wordless waiting.
“Sir?”
A faint growl came through, but it wasn’t an order to stay silent.
“Sir, the shaman who escaped from Remus… Sir, the shaman who escaped Remus is your grandson Luca,” Kane said softly, keeping all emotion from his voice. “Luca is alive, Sir.”
“Not possible,” Caius bit out immediately, words strangled, voice dry and cracked. “Your hope and guilt deludes you, Kane, as it has these last several years. My youngest grandchild is dead.”
Same damn argument, same damn stubbornness. Caius treated hope like a disease. The second Gray Shadow died, it was as if the future became something to be abided, not enjoyed.
“He speaks true, Caius. The shaman is indeed Luca, grown and fully realized in his powers,” Andromeda confirmed, steady and calm. “Your grandchild lives, my old friend. Luca is alive, and he’s come home.”
Where the silence before was charged with the threat of violence, the quiet now over the cell was heavy, weighted by an unspoken pain and the tiniest, faintest hints of a bitten off breath. A moment, no more, then Caius spoke.
“Kane,” Caius said over the line, his name clipped and hard.
“Sir?”
“Send my grandchild home to me, now,” Caius ordered. “Have Burke bring Luca to me without delay, I want to see him with my own eyes.”
Kane was ordered to stay here in Red Fern and protect the Suarez wolves, but they were healed now, physically at least, and Red Fern was equipped to guard them if Ghost must leave for Augusta. No one would take his mate from him, not even his Alpha’s orders, and Kane would take him instead of his Speaker.
“Sir, I will bring him to you instead, we can be there tonight if you wish…”
“No!” Caius interrupted. “You must stay there and protect the Suarez wolves. I’ll not explain to Heromindes that I pulled my Heir from guarding his bloo
dkin to play escort for my long lost grandchild. Stay and do your duty—Burke is powerful enough to bring Luca safely home to me.”
“No, Sir—,” Kane tried to speak up, refusing to countenance his soulmate traveling to Augusta without him. Being parted from Ghost, just the thought of it, sent a lance of pain across his heart and mind, and he tried to control his unreasoning fear that if Ghost left, he’d never see him again.
“Don’t refuse my orders, whelp, I’ll not stand for it! Disobey me again I will have you beaten bloody for insubordination!” Caius shouted through the phone. It was a hollow threat, but the anger behind it was not. Caius could no more defeat Kane than the humans sitting in the front room of the cabin. Kane didn’t want Black Pine, not for a long time, if ever, but he would not lose on purpose to avoid his duty… so that meant Caius must lose.
“Caius!” Andromeda growled, “Remember where your heir is and whose company he keeps! You will speak to no one in such a manner in my presence!”
Silence.
Kane sighed and was about to speak, to explain as best he could to his Alpha that Luca, now Ghost, was his soulmate, and that they couldn’t bear to be parted, not now, not ever. He had no idea how Caius would take it; whether religion and Law were about to fight for Caius’ reaction. Elation that his grandson was home and blessed with a soulbond, or horrified that an alpha was soulbonded to a shaman?
Andromeda made a sharp motion with a graceful hand, gesturing for Kane to stay quiet, as if she knew what he meant to say. He closed his jaw shut with a snap, and she nodded in approval. River shifted on his feet, but stayed silent as well, eyes intent on his sibling.
“Now, my brother, I know you wish for Luca to come home to you. Thinking him dead and gone these last several years was a burden of grief you never should have carried, and for Fate’s cruel treatment of you both I am dearly sorry. But Luca cannot leave Red Fern, not in his current state,” Andromeda said calmly in the direction of the cell, resting a slim hip on the edge of her desk and folding her hands neatly in her lap. She spoke to Caius as no one else could, as an equal and yet an old, respected friend. “If you wish to come here, my brother, then I will look for you gladly. It has been a long time since you visited me.”
“What state is Luca in? Was he injured by Remus?” Caius growled. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He is untrained in his abilities, Caius. He escaped Remus by instinct and pure power, not skill. He is currently under the watchful eye of my brother River, and he needs to stay here until he has better control.” Andromeda paused for a second, eyes darting to River where he still stood by the door. “Taking an untrained shaman with full access to his powers out of Baxter into the human world could be a disaster.”
Caius made no reply for several moments, and Kane hoped he was thinking clearly, without emotion clouding his logic. Andromeda hadn’t lied, not really; Ghost was untrained, and so far he had no issue using his powers where humans could see. He didn’t believe Ghost was out of control or a threat, not to innocents, at least. All Ghost needed right now was instruction to not reveal his magic and abilities to humans who didn’t already know about him and their people. Though Ghost was adaptable and smart; he probably already knew to be cautious. Letting Caius assume the worst of Ghost’s control might mean the Alpha would let Ghost remain here in Baxter, with Kane.
And he didn’t doubt for a second that River was watching Ghost already. The shaman couldn’t take his eyes off Ghost whenever they were in the same room.
“Fine,” Caius snapped. “I will think about how to best handle Remus, and you will do nothing but guard the Suarez wolves and my grandson. I will deal with Heromindes and the human prisoners, then once I have the names of the wolfkin traitors, I will come to Baxter. I will see Luca for myself, Kane. For your sake, he better be who you say he is, or I will not forgive your lapse in judgment.”
“He is, Sir. I will be expecting you soon, then.”
“And Kane?”
“Sir?”
“The day will come when you will not have the White Wolf to hide behind, or my grief to restrain me. I will not tolerate insubordination from you again. This is your second strike.”
“Understood, Sir,” Kane growled, and for the first time in a very long time he let a hint of challenge enter his words. He would not fight Caius out of greedy need to lead Black Pine; but to stay alive and whole for Ghost’s sake, Kane would fight the world. Even if the end result was leading it.
Kane leaned on the desk, hands in his pockets, distantly aware his stomach was demanding food. Wolfkin ate a lot, and it took something major to pull them away from their food. Sex usually trumped food. Thinking of sex brought Ghost to mind, and he fought off his body’s reaction. It helped he was in the beginning stages of a foul mood. He rubbed his face, trying to dispel the bad feeling left hanging over his spirit. Andromeda was watching him, but he hadn’t anything to say about the call with Caius.
“You’re not bothered,” Andromeda said out of nowhere, one pale brow raised in question. He frowned, unable to understand her non sequitor. She saw his expression and chuckled, “His transformation this morning. It didn’t bother you? Ghost was able to pull off a trick that hasn’t been seen since the wolves of Red Fang were born.”
“He’s perfect, completely glorious. Of course he didn’t bother me. I don’t know how he did it, since I couldn’t understand half of what I was seeing in his mind through our bond when he woke up from that dream of his. I’m confused, and concerned, but Ghost’s power and abilities don’t bother me at all.”
“You’re aware, then,” she said, tilting her head to one side, her unblinking regard settled on his face.
“Aware of what?” he asked tiredly. He wanted to see Ghost. Hold his firm, slim body, bury his nose in the golden-reddish brown hair behind his ear and breathe him in, blocking out the rest of the world.
“That Ghost is your soulbonded mate.” So plainly spoken, and so calmly too. He couldn’t hear how she felt about that. She was a Clan Leader, one tasked with upholding the Laws and traditions of their people, and her brother was a shaman. Hard to say how she would react to a bond between an alpha and a shaman.
“Yes, he is,” Kane said, and he closed his eyes in relief as the weight of carrying that worry inside seemed to fall from his shoulders. He opened his eyes and gave Andromeda a measured perusal, trying to catch a glimpse of how she felt.
“Do you know what you’re going to do?” she asked, the faintest of growls in her lilting voice.
“I have hopes, but nothing concrete. No one knows beyond the few of us here. Burke, and Sophia since he can’t keep his mouth shut around her and she’s too damn smart not to notice. River for certain, considering the not so subtle stares he’s been throwing my way all day long. You, and obviously Ghost and myself,” Kane paused, and went back to rubbing his face.
“What are you going to do, Andromeda?” he asked in turn, dropping his hands, trying not to give in to his rising stress levels. “A shaman and an alpha are bonded in your territory. Every history we have says that’s sacrilege. You’re the Clan Leader. So what are you going to do about this?”
Andromeda gazed back at him, her cool blue eyes remote, her expression closed off and undecipherable.
“It’s not up to me, alpha, to interfere with the will of our Great Mother. I know better,” she finally answered, a small smile twitching her lips. Her eyes were still cool, the blue as sharp as shards of shattered ice. “But be aware, if I discover you are abusing your access to Ghost’s shamanic powers, you won’t have time to incur our Mother’s wrath—you’ll be dealing with mine.”
IN THE hall outside the Clan Leader’s study, a small, thin blonde beta hovered, listening through the crack between the slightly ajar doors. She leaned in as close as she dared, and gasped when the Alpha Caius spoke the name of her lover’s long dead nephew.
Luca, son of Josiah,
the youngest and last grandchild of Gray Shadow and Caius McLennan, was supposed to be dead, drowned the day of the tragedy almost fifteen years prior. She had followed Roman from Red Fern to Black Pine that fateful summer, and spent the long years since in and out of his bed and affections. So she knew, better than most, how much he would want to know about his nephew. She also knew, because she was there that fateful day, that Caius had never expected his grandchild to be found alive and had given him up for dead.
He was alive. And a shaman. Another of Gray Shadow’s heirs was a shaman, and in the state, within reach. Her lover would want to know. He needed to be told.
She heard the Clan Leader shout, and jumped back from the door, scurrying down the hall to the stairs, and she ran up to the second floor.
The beta slipped through the half-open door of the now vacant room of Roman McLennan, exiled son of Caius. She could still smell her lover, his scent everywhere, filling her senses with his presence. He was days gone now, but she missed him dearly. He had left, without a word to her, no promises to send for her once he found a new Clan, but she had hope that what she would tell him might change his mind, make him remember why he chose her the most above all his other lovers.
She pulled out her cellphone and dialed, hoping he would answer. It rang and rang, and she bit back a nervous giggle when he answered after what felt like the thousandth ring.
“Roman? It’s Claire… I’m sorry, please don’t hang up… Roman, your nephew? The dead one? The other one, the one who drowned! He’s alive…”
Part Three
The Ties That Bind
“PATROLS AROUND the clock. Doubled, no one goes anywhere alone. Restrict all cubs to their homes and the inner core of the park center. I need the food stores and our water supplies monitored at all times, and everyone is to check in with their head of family or their masters if they are apprenticed. Speaker Burke,” Andromeda gestured to the greater alpha where he stood beside her, “will be in the pack links. If anything happens, no matter how seemingly small or meaningless, if it makes you nervous, contact him, myself, or Alpha Kane. Any questions?”