Her mouth was a bright red from the lipstick she wore, which offset her rich mahogany skin to perfection. She had a wide, clear brow, and a strong nose.

All in all, she looked a lot younger than her years, because Claudette, whoever the fuck she was, was old.

She sounded young. She looked it too. But I scented the years on her like I would the scent of the years on an old book.

Women in their prime scented fertile. Of life. Older women didn’t. They had a different scent. Not a nasty one, it just wasn’t the same.

“What do you want from me?” I demanded, unable to stop myself from asking the question even as I carried on moving away from her.

“To right your wrong, not in the eyes of the law, but in the Mother’s eyes.”

I froze in place at her words, as a desire so strong hit me that it even beat out the need to be back home, to be with Sabina, my adopted mom, to be with my family, my mates, even.

My biggest regret was failing Her.

Claudette’s already gentle eyes, like liquid cocoa, gleamed with softness. She took a careful step forward as if she was a stone’s throw away and capable of grabbing hold of me. Not five hundred yards away by now.

I didn’t move, just stood there in place, quivering with distress as the need to repent, to atone warred with the desire to run.

As she moved closer, she raised her hands, a quiet shushing whisper humming along the sound waves as if she was trying to gentle me like she would an overwrought stallion who could scent a mare in heat nearby.

“She’ll never forgive me,” I whispered, but even I could hear the desperation in my voice. Even I knew that I was Claudette’s for the taking if she could follow through on her remark.

“She will. If you help fix the mistake you made.”

Claudette held out a hand. It was wizened, the one visible sign of her true age, scored with lines of the years she’d lived, but her fingers gently beckoned me forward.

And me, fool that I was, as desperate as I was, stepped closer and took that hand and followed her into the unknown.

Four

Knight

Six years later

The panic was real. It was overwhelming. I felt it hammering away inside me, overtaking all other thought processes—including breathing.

It was too much.

So much.

I struggled to get air in my lungs even as I was running through the schoolhouse, my feet thudding like hammers against the ground as my teacher hollered at me from our classroom.

Why did Cade’s class have to be on the other side of the building?

It was only small, but the corridor was squirrelly and it took too long to get up the stairs.

I had no idea how I knew he was sick, injured, but I did.

I just did.

I felt it like it was my pain. Just like the time Grace had fallen off the jungle gym and had broken her arm.

The need inside me to take away the hurt, to make her better had been both alien and natural. I’d wanted to, even as I hadn’t known how.

But this was different. This wasn’t just pain, this was… Cade was turning into a shadow in my mind.

The cabin was where my dads had lived before they’d met Mom. It was topsy turvy now there were more kids in need of schooling, with lots of extra rooms added on as need required.

Cade’s class was upstairs, and when I made it there, I heard the whispers, scented the tears.

Kids were crying in there.

I barreled through the door, and found a circle crowding around something.

It didn’t make me a genius that I knew who.

Shoving them aside, I made it to the middle and found him there, gasping, his cheeks bulging, froth coming out of his mouth.

He was clutching at his throat, but his hold was weak, frail, like he didn’t have the energy to hold on anymore.

The sight terrified me because I knew it meant he’d had some peanuts. I wasn’t sure how a kid who straddled two worlds could be allergic to peanuts, but he was. Deathly so.

It could kill him.

It would, and I refused to live in a world without him.

I didn’t bother skidding to my knees to reach him, I bent down and with a strength I borrowed from my wolf, I hauled him into my arms. Thanking the Mother my covenant was long in the past, and that I was stronger than most kids my age, I shot out of the classroom and headed down the stairs and toward the door.

The totem called me, and I knew why.

The knowledge was there when it hadn’t been before. It was in my memory banks even though I’d been a baby, too young to remember anything and certainly not carnage.

Behind me, I heard Grace calling out, and I knew she sensed something was wrong, something that had her following me, racing as fast as she could. Any other time, I’d have slowed down, let her catch up, but each second was precious. He didn’t have long left. I could feel him starting to wane…

But the totem was too far.

His eyes were on mine even as I rushed through the forest, relying on my beast to guide me, to stop me from tripping over downed logs and stones. As he passed over, the horrific gasps escaping him with horrendous finality, I felt sure my heart stopped beating for a snapshot of time.

Only knowing that I could fix him, only knowing that I could stop this prevented the chasm inside from swallowing me whole.

I heard a howl and knew Grace had shifted.

For the first time.

She was only eleven, on the brink of turning twelve, so she was young, too young, but it fit.

She’d sensed the passing of her mate, even though she didn’t know what we were yet. What we had didn’t have a title to her. It was just how things were.

To me, I’d learned otherwise at my covenant. I’d learned that I had three mates. Daniel, who was missing, Grace and Cade.

Now a she-wolf, she chased after me at a pace that was close to mine, and when we skidded toward the totem circle, I found my mother there.

Our eyes clashed, and she held out her hand. There wasn’t misery or commiseration in her eyes. No pity. Just resolve. Strong resolve.

Like we could change this.

Like we could make this right.

I snatched a hold of her hand, knowing that even if the power was in me, I needed her to make it work. That was how it happened before.

Together, we’d achieved a miracle.

I’d never needed a miracle again until today.

As we slammed into the totem circle, it spit us out just as air wheezed through Cade’s lungs like a balloon that had been popped.

Relief hit me, followed by Grace—she was close at my back, and she careened into me, knocking me over. Only instinct had me doing a somersault in midair to avoid landing on Cade, and Mom grabbed her to stop the same collision from happening with her.

As Cade spluttered on the ground, choking as he rolled onto his side, coming back to himself before our eyes, I grabbed onto Grace’s fur and clung to her as we watched our mate return to this world.

As his breathing started to regulate, a massive ‘CRACK’ echoed through the air.

Mom gasped, and I twisted around, wondering if it was a gunshot or—

I felt my skin pale when I saw the totem. Grace released a mournful howl as the split in it that had been six feet deep down its middle since I was a baby, nearly cleaved it in two.

Only by about four feet did it remain intact.