Before we could reply, even though the three of us were annoyed at her keeping things from us yet again, Sabina rocked down so that she was no longer crouching, but was on her knees beside Maribel. She reached over and touched Lara’s cheek once more, then murmured, “Cyrilo was the one who forced the shift on me, Lara. I know I told you he was the one who tried to kill me when I was a teen, but that was only the first time he did so.”
She gaped at her. “Cyrilo? Our Cyrilo? He was a shifter too?”
Sabina nodded. “He was. He wanted to destroy me, but he didn’t realize he had the power to turn me into a wolf child. If he was special, and I am too, you must be as well. I can see my ties to each of the pack through my gifts, and I could sense Cyrilo. I don’t know if that was because he was a wolf or because he was blood. Can I try with you?”
Wondering why she was asking and not just doing it, I didn’t react when Sabina explained, “She’s sensitive enough to sense me seek her out. It would scare her, maybe even shock her, and I don’t want that. She might pass out, and it would cause her needless pain.”
I didn’t bother replying, because, as always, her reasoning made perfect sense. God, I loved that my mate was so smart.
Something she evidently felt, as she shot me a tender smile before she turned her focus back to her sister. “Do you mind, Lara?”
She bit her lip. “No. But will it hurt?”
“I don’t think so.” Sabina reached over and touched Lara’s temple as she closed her eyes. I had no idea what she was looking for, no idea whatsoever, and I’d admit that it killed me to watch her trying to do something without me being able to help.
I blew out a breath when her hand moved, and I didn’t think it was a coincidence that where her finger stopped, it was where, people who believed in chakras, called it the third eye.
She straightened up some as if she’d reached a connection, and it almost reminded me of the AirDrop features with Apple products, because she touched that ‘button’ and it was like they were wired together. Lara responded the exact opposite way to Sabina—she didn’t straighten up or grow tense. If anything, she relaxed. Not like she was passing out, just like sharing the burden soothed her.
I could feel Sabina’s powers seep into the room, much as I would if Eli’s wolf was dominating the pack, just like I’d felt it back in the forest where we’d all caught up with her.
It surprised me, though, because I’d never felt the tendrils of her power like this. They spread out in a way that was almost misty, like fog crawling along the road on a dull day. But when the tendrils collided with me, it was like a zap to the system. I jerked, feeling the power she was containing, and sensing that she needed to share it with me, with all of us, that she needed us to anchor her.
I sucked down a gulp of air, not overwhelmed by the bewildering sensation, but definitely overcome by it.
Nothing made sense though. It was like, deep in my mind, there was another channel that had been torn open. And that was how as well—torn open. Ripped. Not carefully cut. Not designed with precision like the link we used to communicate with one another. This was forged in a panic, in a fluster.
Whatever Lara could sense was overwhelming her.
The thought had me rushing forward, letting go of Seth, who darted off. I didn’t care, didn’t give a damn if he ran away, but I heard him scamper, then with an ‘oooof,’ fall to the floor, which made me wonder if Austin had tripped him, but I didn’t waste a thought on it. Just grabbed Sabina’s shoulder and jerked them apart.
When Sabina looked at me, my jaw clenched. Her eyes were white, filled with a gold mist. Just like that day back at the clearing. The day we’d claimed her.
She stared up at me, the moon in her eyes, as she rasped, in a voice that was not hers, “He takes. He plows. He forces. He will not stop. He will not rest. He will not sleep. Death will not change him. Acceptance will not come. Until the sun and the moon shine at the same time, there will be unrest.”
And with that, she sagged. Her body folded in on itself, falling down until she almost sank into the ground, face first, unaware even that Knight was in front of her. Eli caught her, barely, and twisted her around so that she didn’t fall on our son, who instantly started bawling.
I couldn’t blame him.
Whatever the hell was going on here, it stank, and somehow, we had to get to the bottom of it.
Eight
Eli
She slept for eighteen hours straight, and throughout that time, we panicked. The panic was fucking real. It had all of us on edge, and for the first time since I’d stepped up to the plate as alpha of the pack, I closed the doors to the packhouse and shut up shop.
Now wasn’t the time to be a leader.
Now was the time to be a mate.
I rubbed a hand over my face as I slumped on the sofa in my corner of the room. My gaze instantly went to her, and then and only then, did my heartbeat cease its pounding.
The second I looked away, the panic returned and the shameful feeling of failure would hit me.
I was the alpha.
I’d already failed my pack by allowing the parasites of my parents to hold sway over me, and now here I was, my mate in some kind of stupor, thanks to a bizarre trance that she’d been held in by… Well, we didn’t know, did we?
We had to assume it was the Mother.
But if it was the Mother, then how had she communed with us outside of the totem?
That was a gross impossibility, which meant my woman was somehow in touch with another spirit.
And to be completely frank, one spirit was one too many, never mind goddamn two.
As terrified as we were, I’d gone to the totem halfway through her sleep, hell bent on speaking with the Mother, but She hadn’t let me speak with Her. Hadn’t even let me in the damn circle, and my rage at Her was only equaled by my fear for Sabina.
My jaw was tense as I turned to my brothers, and I caught them staring at her as well. Austin had even gone so far as to move his ‘throne’ which usually faced the TV on the mantelpiece, and now looked directly onto her, as if she were a game of football he was riveted to.
Ethan’s corner consisted mostly of books, and his window-seat faced the room anyway, so he could read and keep an eye on her at all times on a regular day.
Nothing about this day was regular, however.
That was why Ethan didn’t have a book in his hands.
Cracking my knuckles, I rasped, “Whose spirit did she invoke?”
Ethan blew out a breath. “Invocations haven’t happened since the sixteenth century. At least, as far as I know.”
“It would be recorded, wouldn’t it?” I queried, my voice husky with hope.
“I’d have thought so. It would be in the databanks for sure.”
I knew him too well, though, so any hope deflated as I groused, “You checked and there was nothing?”
He shrugged. “Like I said, nothing since the sixteenth century.”
I grimaced. “So what happened? It was an invocation, wasn’t it?”
“Had to be. Her eyes were like what went down that day in the circle,” Ethan replied grimly. “All misty white with gold swirls? Creepy as hell.”
Austin shivered. “I remember that. I was hoping it was a one and done thing.”
“Well, guess again.” Ethan scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“All that she said, all that shit about taking and claiming…was that like some kind of premonition? Or a complaint?” Austin whispered, raising his legs on the recliner so that he could rest his arms on his knees. His bare feet slipped slightly against the leather, making a squeaking noise that had Sabina flinching.
The sight of that faint movement had me jerking upright, and I glanced at her, watching every move she made until I recognized that she hadn’t woken up, had just responded to the sharp noise.
I frowned, wondering if an alarm clock would help, then I cast a look at the bassinet at the foot of the bed where Knight was s
leeping.
Since his birth, I could count on two hands how many times he’d actually slept in there, because he was always with us.
At first, I’d been scared that we’d squash him, what with so many bodies on the bed and all of us taking up a shit ton of room except for Sabina. But she slept with her arm at an angle so that he was tucked into her side, mother and child pretty much glued together throughout the night, until she had to breastfeed, with us tucked around them in a protective circle.
I was grateful Knight wasn’t responding adversely to the distance between them both, but equally, it was concerning too.
They were so attuned to each other… Had what Sabina experienced hurt him as well? His appetite was down that was for sure, and while we were feeding him formula, his desire for it was at a zero.
A knock sounded at the door, making me jump. I wanted to shake my head at myself, but I didn’t bother. Instead, I sniffed, inhaling deeply to discern the visitor’s identity, and called out, “Come in, Lara.”
The door creaked open as she peered inside. “How did you know it was me?”
“By scent,” I said simply, and though manners and politeness that was ingrained in me after years of tutelage indicated I should stand, I didn’t. I stayed where I was, watching my woman, cataloguing each flinch, hoping that she’d wake up.
“That’s a neat trick,” she whispered, which finally had me casting her a glance because she sounded as distressed as us. I wasn’t sure if that was possible, but I was glad for my mate’s sake.
“It isn’t a trick. Our senses are more developed,” I corrected, well aware I sounded like a wet blanket and not giving a damn about it as I watched her edgy movements, the way she played with her fingers, her nerves transmitting to me loud and clear.
I knew why, as well.
Blame.
She was scared we blamed her, and she’d be right. I did. A little. I figured my brothers did as well, but Sabina had forced this. She’d forced this moment, and it wasn’t Lara’s fault.
She’d brought her sister here after she’d actively urged us to seek her out.
She’d touched Lara, had started the snowball tumbling downhill… Even if Lara was at fault, it wasn’t as if I’d hurt her, but I understood her concerns. Both of them shared the same abusive past, after all. Why wouldn’t she be fearful of entering the den of three alpha males? She didn’t have to know we were alphas to recognize who and what we were. What defined us.
Wasn’t that what she could read in a person anyway?
What made them tick?
But she’d still come, she’d still wanted to see her sister, and that made me respect her more than she could ever know.
If she stared at me warily, I did nothing to ease that wariness, nor did I do anything to cause it. I kept my gaze averted, glued to my mate, and waited for her to wake up.
“Do you know what happened?”
Austin’s question had my brows rising, but I didn’t bust in and tell him to shut the hell up. Even if I really fucking wanted to.
“I know that she took some of the burden off my shoulders for a while,” was her soft reply, and her words were loaded down with a wistfulness that I couldn’t help but hear. You didn’t need to have skills with empathy to know that whatever Sabina had done, she’d appreciated it.
“Did you hear her give that prophecy?” Ethan’s tone was calm, which was BS, because I could hear his heartbeat from over here.
Just like mine and Austin’s, it was racing and rampaging, and would continue to do so until Sabina opened her damn eyes and could explain things for herself.
Until we knew she was okay, and we could see it for ourselves.
“I know what Maribel told me,” she whispered softly.
“Whose spirit did she invoke?” I asked, trying to stay calm when I was feeling anything but.
She cleared her throat. “I’ve always believed it’s Kali Sara. Do you know who she is? Did Sabina explain—”
My mouth dropped open at that, and I graced her with all my focus as I stared at her. “Your saint?”
Her shoulders hunched high beside her ears. “Yeah.”
I cut Ethan a look and saw he was just as confused as me.
What the humans believed in, their God? He didn’t exist. He was a merging of so many fables of the Father of our culture. An aggressive God who smote and who sent plagues and who demanded subjugation.
Their New Testament God was technically our Mother.
A gentler being. One who believed in free will. Who gave with one hand and cast out more love with the other.
Kali Sara, therefore, didn’t exist because from what I knew, she was a saint who acted as the go-between with the humans’ God and the Roma. They dialed her up and hoped she’d pass on the word to God.
I reached up and scrubbed a hand over my face, almost wishing Austin hadn’t asked the fucking question in the first place. How did we have more information than before, but somehow, have less than ever?
“Do you know who she’s talking about?” Austin asked warily, and I knew his wariness was founded in my agitation.
He didn’t give a shit if he pissed me off. Didn’t give a damn if I chewed him out… He just didn’t want her to be frightened.
It was then I realized how little faith I had in Austin sometimes. As pack enforcer, I needed his brawn not his brains, almost as if he didn’t have them. Even if I’d always relied on Ethan’s smarts when they were both sharing the same role, I knew Austin was capable of more than just being a meat-head.
Hesitantly, Lara answered, “I believe Kali Sara was speaking of the spirit inside Seth.”
My mouth tightened at that.
“Where is the child?”
Ethan cleared his throat at her question. “Confined to his room until Sabina awakens.”
She sighed. “That’s probably for the best, even if I’d like to say it isn’t.”
I cut her a glare. “Not my finest moment, sticking a ten-year-old in solitary confinement, but I wasn’t about to have him wandering around when he was a danger to his mother.”
“Do you know what that was about?”
“I’m not a lie detector, Ethan. I’m not Sabina,” she replied gently. “I just know there’s a great source of energy in him, and it’s far larger than he is.”
“Meaning?” I rumbled.
“It’s ancient, and he definitely isn’t.”
My brow puckered. “So he’s possessed?”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of her answer had me surging to my feet in a smooth move before I stalked over to the bed and climbed onto the mattress. The need to be with her, to cosset Sabina, to hold her and be close, was one I could no longer fight.
We’d taken turns, off and on, for the time she’d been down to be with her, but now, I needed her in my arms, so I carefully wrapped myself around her, making sure she was tucked into the curve of my body.
As I did so, the way she flopped around like a rag doll was enough to make me feel physically sick. She was somewhere beyond sleeping.
Unease traveled through me as I thought back to those moments after our claiming—when a cougar had attacked her after she’d defended the beast from my challenge.
As her lifeblood lay gushing out onto the soil beneath her, she’d been as still as this. As silent.
And one thing I’d come to learn about Sabina? Silence wasn’t golden.
Silence was boring.
She brought with her the sounds of birdsong and the sensation of joy. She made me feel alive, even as she calmed and soothed me, giving me the strength to make the hard decisions when it came to pack life.
I rubbed my chin over her hair, uncaring that tiny wisps were snagged in my stubble, just needing her to be close, to give me something, anything, that told me she was close to the surface.
When the mattress jostled, I connected with Austin and Ethan and recognized that they were still in their corners of the room. It was Lara.
Lara, who I wasn’t sure if I could trust yet.
I shot her a glare, not appreciating her moving into my very personal space, but she didn’t flinch at that, just started stroking a hand over Sabina’s hair.
“She was the only person who ever tried to make me feel better, do you know that? Jana and Cyrilo never cared if our father hit me. But Sabina, she cared,” Lara told me softly. “And the first thing I do after years apart is knock her out.”
“Hardly your fault,” Austin rumbled, but I sensed his tension too—even if it wasn’t enough to make him move away from his armchair. I had my own instincts, but I knew, after years of being honed as I sent him and Ethan off on challenges that were unique to the pack, anything from criminal investigations that necessitated liaisons with the humans, to business meetings I didn’t want to handle myself, I could trust his instincts too. He continued quietly, “Sabina asked you for your help.”
“Why did she bring me here? Do you know?” my sister-in-law questioned, her brow puckering as if she was in pain.
“She believed you could help Seth. He’s been living with us for a while, and he does very strange things,” I rasped.
“He will,” she agreed. “The power in him is causing a spiritual degeneration. He is only small, after all. He can’t withstand such a force.”
My brain flickered from thought to thought, processing her candor, her beliefs, because even though I’d been raised with the fear of invoking the Father, it was a tale told to terrify children into behaving… A myth.
It had to be.
Who was possessed by a spirit?
And if that was ever to happen, how?
Children weren’t invited to the totem circle until their covenant. Then, and only then, were they touched by the Mother. What could Seth possibly have done to have welcomed such a malignant force into his being? He was, as Lara had said, only small.
It made no sense.
None of this did.
I pressed a kiss to my mate’s hair, then when she sighed, her lips parting as she exhaled, “Eli,” we all tensed, but when she relaxed and slept again, I felt something in me, some inner ball of tension, ease.
Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2) Page 11