“Look, I get it. I don’t want Anne within fifty miles of that thing right now but Grace is the only one who would recognize if something is out of place.” He sighed. “I called in all of the reserve enforcers. The entire territory is on high alert. Hell, every territory in a two state radius is on high alert. I have our core team out here. She’ll be safe.”
“Until three dozen rogues show up with whoever is commanding them and we all get slaughtered.” Jack was not going to budge on this. He was going to keep Grace safe. Screw everything else.
“You don’t have a say in it.” Grace stood at the foot of the stairs wrapped in a blanket, looking furious. Jack could have kicked himself. No doubt his screaming had woken her up.
“You only heard half of the conversation, Grace,” he explained.
“The half where my Alpha said that I was the only one who could help and that he was doing everything in his power to keep me safe.”
“Of course I am, Grace. Anne would pelt me if anything happened to you. Oh, and I’ve known you since you were born.” Ben added after the fact.
Grace just rolled her eyes. “Good to know that I rank lower on the scale than Anne being mad at you.” She squared her shoulders and look at Jack. “I can be ready in fifteen.”
He snarled a canine lengthening against his lip. “There is no way you’re leaving this house.”
A spark lit behind Grace’s eyes. “You said that I had choices. I am making a choice.”
Jack heard his jaw crack. Grace lifted an eyebrow daring him to go back on his word. He was tempted. She could be angry all she wanted so long as she was still alive to be angry.
“I’m hanging up now,” Ben yelled from the other side of the phone. “I’ll see you at the cabin.” Jack resisted the urge to throw the phone at the nearest wall.
Grace was still wrapped in his blanket giving him the evil eye. “Grace…” Jack started.
“No,” she interrupted before he could start. “You heard Ben. I am the only one who knows that cabin. If they left something there I’m the best one to find it.”
He really didn’t care that she was the best one. He cared that a legion of rogues could be headed their way any second. “Let the enforcers do their job, Grace. If there is something suspicious in that cabin, they’ll find it.”
“How? By sniffing it out?” She threw her arms up. “We are wasting time by arguing.”
“I’m not risking you!” Grace reared back at Jack’s sudden outburst. “I’m not letting you get hurt the day after you almost died.” He couldn’t do it. His body was ready to revolt at the thought of Grace in danger. He was about to lose his skin. He felt his bones shift ready to change.
The startled expression on Grace’s face softened. She walked to him until her hands rested on his chest. “You won’t be risking me, Jack.” Her voice softly reassured him and he wanted to believe her. “I’m not asking you to let me take on the rogues alone. I want to help in this small way to make things easier for you and Ben and the other wolves. Once I do my part, I’ll step aside.” She cupped his face. “I completely expect you to be glued to my side the entire time.”
Jack searched her face thinking it over. “And you’ll follow all of my directions.”
“And I’ll follow all of your directions.” She repeated.
“And not argue at about it.”
“Insufferable,” she grumbled but finally said, “and not argue about it.”
Jack wrapped his arms around her pulling her close for a hug. He sighed as her body warmth seeped into him. He held her away from him making sure she was looking at him. “You’re shifting before we go. Dr. Jensen said you needed to this morning.”
Grace shimmied her shoulders wincing as her ribs moved. “Yeah, I need to. Nothing feels broken anymore but I’m still tender.”
Jack kissed her forehead before letting her go. “Alright, you shift and I’ll go get the shower ready. Not to embarrass you or anything but you stink.” He ducked just in time to miss the punch she threw. Jack laughed the whole way up the stairs.
He text Paul to let him know that they’d be there late and went to put clean towels out for Grace. He heard the soft rustling of paws on the carpet.
A light gray wolf sauntered into his master bath. Jack checked her stride for any limping but didn’t see any. Good.
Grace was smaller than the average female shifter. He assumed it was because she was only half wolf. He didn’t have a lot of experience with half breeds.
There wasn’t anything remarkable about her coloring. When they had Pack runs she blended in with everyone else. Jack noticed a patch of darker fur along her spine that he hadn’t seen before.
“You are looking a lot better than the last time I saw you, wolfie.” She trotted right to Jack leaning against his legs. He rubbed the fur between her shoulders. She groaned making Jack chuckle. “Get changed so you can shower. They’re expecting us.” Jack left to give her some privacy.
He still had a bad feeling about going to the cabin.
People were milling around the cabin when they pulled up. Grace could see three wolves sniffing around the outside. She assumed they had a few inside trying to scent whatever the rogues had left behind. Ben stood at the bottom of the stairs talking to someone on the phone. More like yelling if the waving arms were any indication.
Jack parked the truck but kept the doors locked. Grace crossed her arms and waited.
Jack turned to her. “You don’t leave my sight. If something goes wrong you shift and stay behind me.”
Grace leaned forward, eyebrows up, “Is that all?” Jack growled. “Spit it out. I’d rather hear it now than get in trouble for some rule you’ve neglected to share.”
“Don’t let anyone touch you.”
Grace shook her head completely exhausted by possessive wolf bullshit. “Yeah, okay, I won’t hug anyone.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But it’s what you’re getting,” Grace shot back. She knew if she didn’t put her foot down now he would run roughshod over her. “Now, can we unlock the door?”
The locks clicked open. Not wasting her chance Grace jumped down out of the cab.
“What the fuck are you saying, Ethan? We’ve got a group of rogues who are using our territories as some kind of playground and you won’t send enforcers to our border? Are you working with them or are you stupid?” Ben nodded stiffly like he had expected whatever response South Creek’s Alpha was giving. “So you’re stupid. I hope,” Ben stabbed the air as if Ethan Summerland was right in front of him, “that someone challenges you for your position. You’re a worthless leader and you’re going to get people killed.” Ben hung up and stared at his phone.
When Grace got close he lifted his hand in greeting. “I’m glad to see that Jack let you out of the house.”
Grace stopped in front of him. “Like you expected it to go any other way.”
Jack saddled up next to her. “Can we get on with this? I don’t want us to be here any longer than we have to.”
Ben gestured to the cabin. “We know whatever the rogues were looking for is in the main cabin and not the shed. I have people combing every inch of that building clearing out anything that doesn’t fit the description we got from Ezra and Ezekiel.”
“What’s the description?” Grace hadn’t heard that part of the conversation.
“It’s not much,” Ben admitted. “Whatever it is we’re looking for is valuable and has something to do with a deadline coming up.”
“So,” Jack drew out, “nothing. We’ve got nothing.”
Ben rubbed the back of his neck suddenly losing all of his energy, “Pretty much.”
Promising to do her best Grace headed into the cabin to get started.
Jack had warned her that the rogues had ransacked the place but Ben must have gotten the enforcers to clean up the mess because the cabin looked great. The blood from yesterday was gone. All of the ruined furniture had disappeared. Honestly, the rogues might h
ave pushed her finishing date up a week.
Mark stood arms folded watching as the younger Robbins boys carried out a bed. He smiled when he saw Grace. “It’s good to see you. You gave us all a scare yesterday.” Mark opened his arms to give her a hug but stopped mid-step. A confused looked passed along his face. His head jerked to look at Jack then back at Grace. “Are you guys…?” He trailed off.
Jack held his arm out as if to say “Really”?
“Yeah,” Grace answered, “we’re dating.”
“Dating?” Mark’s mouth hung open. He turned to Jack. “You’re dating her?” He obviously thought Jack was stupid.
“Yeah, I’m dating her. You got something to say about it?” Jack folded his arms sounding defensive.
Grace couldn’t help smiling.
Mark straightened, shaking his head. “No, nothing to say. That’s cool. Congrats.”
“Point me to where you want me to start, Mark.” Grace was getting impatient to find whatever the rogues had left at her house.
“We have the kitchen cleared out.” Mark circled the area with his finger. “You might want to go through and double check what’s left.”
Grace stepped behind the island. Mark wasn’t joking about it being cleared out. There wasn’t anything in the cabinets or drawers. They hadn’t left anything for Grace to look over.
Not sure what they wanted her to do anymore, Grace started opening all of the drawers and running her hands over the wood. She figured if the enforcers hadn’t found anything strange when they emptied out the kitchen then whatever they were looking for was hidden.
Grace touched every corner, panel, and wall in the kitchen. Jack stood behind her the entire time. He didn’t say much only greeting people as they came and went.
Not finding anything, she moved to the living room. She did the same thing. She kept searching for a hidden compartment as she moved through the room.
She didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Frustrated, Grace went outside with a knife and tore open the rest of the ruined couch. She threw stuffing all over the front yard but didn’t find anything.
While she was out there Patrick Robbins took a knife to the mattresses until they were nothing but bare springs. Grace watched him tear them apart. Jack looked like he wanted to say something but Grace stopped him with a hand on his chest. “They were shitty anyways. Besides, it’s fun.”
“Yeah, it is.” Patrick agreed a huge smile on his face.
Jack shook his head. “Come one, let’s get back inside. We’re almost done.”
Jack led her to the bedrooms. Going through hers only took a few minutes. She found a few forgotten toys but nothing else.
Stopping at the threshold of her parent’s old room Grace suddenly felt exhausted.
“I’ll go through the bathroom,” Jack suggested. “It will cut a little time off.”
Grace nodded, not bothering to turn around. She walked to the closet deciding to start there. The guys had cleared out the extra camping equipment that Grace stored there. Obviously, they hadn’t found anything in the boxes.
Kneeling, Grace pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight. A single wire hanger hung on the wood bar her father had installed for clothing. The wood panels in back looked old but not as worn as everything else in the rest of the house. With a sigh, Grace began running her hands over the floor.
“Ow,” Grace jerked her hand to her chest.
“Grace?” Jack yelled. “Are you okay?”
Before she could respond Jack’s hands were on her shoulders pulling her back. He saw her hand cradled to her chest and grabbed it. Turning it over, he looked for a wound but there wasn’t any.
“What happened?” Jack continued to twist her hand this way and that.
“Can you,” she ripped her hand away from him,” thank you. Something shocked me. That’s it. I was more startled then hurt.” Grace leaned around Jack, staring into the closet, confused. Nothing should have shocked her.
“Ben,” Jack yelled, “we found something.”
Ben, Mark and Paul walked into the bedroom. Jack picked Grace up and set her down a foot to the side. Taking her place, he pulled out a flashlight and gave it to her.
“Point the light at the place you felt the shock.”
Grace pointed the beam to a spot near the left corner of the closet. Nothing stood out. It was just a plank of wood. She couldn’t even see a nail that might have caught her finger. Jack ran his hand over the area. He didn’t flinch or jerk back.
Jack looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you sure?”
Grace nodded. “That is the exact spot I got shocked. My hand was right where yours is.”
Jack twisted to talk to the group gathered behind them. “Could someone get an ax?”
Paul walked out of the room without a word.
“What are you thinking?” Mark asked.
“I’m thinking we’re dealing with some kind of magic.” Everyone nodded agreeing with his assessment. “We’ve already decided that’s how they’ve been cloaking themselves but I don’t know shit about magic.” Jack lifted his chin towards Ben. “Black Bird has a few witches, don’t they?”
Ben grimaced. “They’re all garden witches. They don’t have much in the way of power, mostly healing and minor persuasion.”
Grace sucked on her teeth. “And they hate us.” She mentioned the major fact that Ben had left out.
The tiny Coven in Black Bird was reviled by most of the shifter population. They only lived in Black Bird because they had gotten cut off from the town north in the last territory squabble. And they were still upset about it.
“Would they team up with the rogues to take over Black Bird?” Jack asked.
Ben shook his head. “Their Coven consists of four elderly women. The worst they do is spit on us when we walk through Main Street. I doubt they could do more than that.”
Mark and Grace nodded.
Paul came back carrying a hand ax. He passed it to Jack.
Taking short swings, Jack chopped into the floorboards. Once a small opening was cut he started pulling up chunks of wood. Grace crowded him, trying to use the flashlight to see what was in the hole.
“Be careful,” Grace breathed when Jack reached in.
Nothing happened. Slowly, Jack pulled out a folded piece of paper and a plastic grocery bag. Grace took the paper from Jack while he opened the sack.
The paper felt strange. It was soft. Grace went to unfold it but it fell open. A strange scent wafted up from where she held it. Goosebumps broke out on her arms.
Thick, black writing filled the top quarter of the page. They were sloppy and Grace could barely make out each letter. She was pretty sure it was written in a different language.
She looked to Jack. He held five tea lights in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other. He gave her a questioning look. She showed him the paper.
“Spell components,” Paul stepped forward picking the paper from Grace’s hands. He sniffed it and huffed, sounding impressed, “Written on genuine calf skin too. Whoever made this was not messing around.”
Ben squinted down at the spell. “What does it say?”
“No idea,” Paul answered not missing a beat, “but I would bet it’s written in Latin.”
Grace shook her head. “It’s not Latin. I just tried to put a few words through a translator on my phone and it’s not registering as a recognized language.”
“We’re probably dealing with some witchy language that hasn’t been spoken in centuries.” Paul pinched his forehead. “Shit.”
“At least we can accurately guess that this has to be what the rogues were looking for.” Ben kept studying the spell. “The question is why would a group of shifters be hiding a spell?”
“We won’t know shit until we find out what that spell is for.” Mark pointed at the paper. “For all we know it could kill shifters and the rogues are trying to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.”
Jack held up the candles. “I
doubt they would have candles and chalk on hand if they didn’t want someone casting the spell.”
“We need to get this translated.” Ben glanced around the room, “Any ideas?”
“Do you have any witches on retainer who can read this?” Jack looked around the room. Ben shook his head. “Any who hate us less than the others?”
Ben turned to Grace silently passing the question to her. “No.” That was a definite no. “I am pretty sure Pearl has burned all of our good will with the witches.”
Everyone swore. They bent their heads trying to think of a solution.
“Our best bet is to bargain with the Black Bird Coven.” Mark suggested. “They won’t help us willingly, but we might be able to offer them something they can’t resist.”
“Never walk into a witch’s presence not knowing what you are willing to give them in return for their services.”
The entire group whipped around. Ezra and Ezekiel stood at the doorway. Grace’s heart pounded in her chest. She hadn’t heard them.
“Then what do you suggest?” Jack bit.
The brothers shared a look with each other. Neither saying anything. Ezra’s eyebrows furrowed for a second before he nodded.
Ezekiel turned to the rest of them. “We can get the spell translated.” He glanced at his brother, “For a price.”
Ben crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed to take in both brothers, weighing his answer. “What is the cost?”
“Pack membership for a person of our choosing,” Ezra answered without thought.
“And all protections that come with membership,” Ezekiel clarified.
“What’s your angle? Any wolf can petition for membership.” Mark checked everyone else’s face to see if they knew what they twins were playing at. “You’re throwing away your chance to have the Alpha owe you.”
“Deal,” Ben extended his hand. “You have the promise of the Black Bird Alpha to extend full membership to one person you, Ezra and Ezekiel Tate, present before me at the Full Moon Council.”
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