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 sleeping.

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.