A Wolf in the Fold

by Tymber Dalton

  He rubbed at his chin. “Let me get this straight. The ritual involves me screwing my wife?”

  Lina nodded.

  “I’m not into public performances.”

  “Then think of goddamned England, whatever you have to, to get through it,” she said. “People could die if this curse gets away from her. It’s getting stronger every day. You yourself said her nightmares are getting worse. Imagine what happens if they break through. So suck it up, buttercup, and deal with it. Unless you want her killing herself because she’s afraid of hurting someone.”

  She turned her back on him and returned to the group. Then she dug a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Callie. “You can read that, I take it?”

  Callie frowned as she unfolded the paper and scanned it. “Um, yeah, but…” She stared at Lina. “Where the hell did you get this? This was never written down.” She looked at Gigi. “Did you tell her this?”

  Gigi shook her head and held up her hands. “Don’t ask me, sis. I don’t know.”

  Lina tapped her temple. “All my memories of all my lives came back, remember? Plus Zack and I went through Bertholde’s journals and the cockatrices’ crazy-assed cookbook from hell.” She pointed at the paper. “Mix them all together, and that is what you’re going to have to chant.”

  Callie stared at the paper again. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m not sure of anything at this point except we need to get that damn thing out of you sooner rather than later. The three of us will provide the power source. Remember the…thing I created way back when? By Rachel’s well?”

  Callie slowly nodded. “Yeah. I remember that.”

  “Same principle. But this time, instead of pulling dark energy from within the things that still wanted it and then planting it into something else, we’re evicting dark energy from someone wanting it gone, while rehoming that dark energy, all at the same time.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Gigi asked.

  “Stand watch,” Lina said. “Do whatever you can to be a buffer if the bison decides to stampede in our direction instead of away before we’re finished. The guys will go after it as soon as I give you the high sign.”

  Lina turned to the dragons. “That’s another thing. Do not kill the bison until I give the signal. The curse needs to be fully implanted in it before it dies.”

  Jan gave her a thumbs-up.

  Lina unshouldered her backpack and withdrew a lightweight flannel throw, which she spread out on the ground next to Blackie and Callie. Then she picked up a stick and drew a circle around the throw and Blackie and Callie, leaving them plenty of room. “Okay, don’t break that circle until I tell you to,” she said. “And get naked. Both of you.”

  Callie didn’t hesitate.

  Lina noticed Blackie didn’t immediately comply. “Come on. What are you waiting for?” she asked.

  “I told you, I’m not into public sex.”

  “And I told you to suck it up, mister.” She jammed her hands on her hips. “You want the truth? We’re going to be too busy with what we’re doing to pay any attention to what you’re doing. Jan, Rick, and Kael will be focused on four-legged crowd control, and the guys over there”—she pointed—“are going to be too busy keeping an eye on their buffet dinner.” She shook her hands at him. “Strip. Now.”

  Callie, already down to her bra and panties, put a hand on his arm. “Please, Sir,” she softly said. “It’s okay. They’re all friends.”

  “What about her?” He pointed at Gigi.

  Gigi smiled. “No offense, but I’m happy with Oscar. I’m more of a cat person than a dog person.”

  Blackie glared at her. “Wolf.”

  “Whatever.”

  Lina felt a fireball itching to rise out of her palm and squelched the urge. “Naked. Now.” She grabbed her backpack and pulled a few things from it before she directed Mai and Elain to their places. They would form a triangle around the inner circle. Blackie finally kicked off his sneakers and started working on his jeans.

  “Okay, and another point,” Lina told Blackie, “you need to wait to order her to climax until I tell you to. She’ll be both under your command and at her most vulnerable. That’s when we’re going to order the thing out. Okay?”

  He frowned as he worked on unfastening his shirt buttons, but he nodded.

  Lina took that as assent. “Great.”

  Callie was now naked and standing on the throw with the paper in her hand.

  “Are you okay with this?” Blackie asked her.

  A bashful smile curved her lips. “This isn’t the kinkiest thing I’ve ever done, Sir. Believe me.”

  His shirt joined her pile of clothes before he started working on his jeans. Once he was naked, Lina breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Okay,” she said. “The two of you, stand facing each other on the blanket. Arms around each other.”

  Callie held up the paper.

  “Hold it so you can read it. You won’t need it once we raise the power. Then you can drop it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Kick your shoes and socks off,” she said to Mai and Elain. “You both need to be barefoot. Lina removed hers and then grabbed a package of sea salt. She walked a larger circle around Mai and Elain, creating a circle that ended at her spot. She finished it, sealing herself inside. “No one break that outer circle until I open it,” she ordered.

  Discarding the salt container, she grabbed two large quartz crystals and gave one to Elain and one to Mai. She had a third, that she took and held in her left hand. “Wait. Put your crystals down for a second and clasp your hands together in front of you.”

  The women frowned but did as ordered. Lina looked at Elain. Her left thumb was on top of her right. Mai’s right thumb was on top of her left. “Mai, you hold the crystal in your right hand. Elain, hold it in your left.”

  “Why?” Elain asked.

  “I’ll tell you later.” Lina already knew her power hand was her left, even though she was right-handed, as was Elain. “No time. Just keep it in the hand I told you to.”

  Lina raised her hand, pointing it up but toward the inner circle. “Do what I do and repeat what I say when I tell you to. You’re going to be freaked out when we first raise the power.”

  She looked at Mai. “Whatever you do, don’t break position, okay? It won’t hurt you.”

  Mai nodded but didn’t look so sure. Both she and Elain raised their crystals, pointing them toward the inner circle.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Elain felt more than nervous. She felt absolutely freaked out. Less than a year ago, if someone had told her that not only did shape-shifters exist, but that she’d soon be having supernatural visions and participating in magick ceremonies, she’d have told them they were insane.

  Now, it seemed natural to be standing with a rock in her hand, her arm in the air like she was holding a lighter at a concert, and staring at two of her good friends standing stark naked in the middle of a dirt circle.

  Sure.

  But it felt right. And she was learning to trust her instincts, trust what felt right. Lina had more experience in this area, and Elain knew she would never do anything to put their friends at risk.

  She also knew they had to help Callie get rid of the curse if they were going to prevent bad things from happening.

  Standing there, she looked to Lina, as was Mai, and awaited her instructions.

  Lina closed her eyes and began speaking. “Goddess above, Goddess below. Goddess within, Goddess without. Power through love, power through hope. Power will gather, power throughout. We raise this circle with great care. Three as one, our powers share.”

  Elain felt a tingling sensation starting at the soles of her feet, more than just the cold grass and damp earth beneath her. Looking across the circle, she saw Mai’s eyes widen, but the woman’s arm didn’t lower.

  Lina dropped into a singsong voice, words spoken in a language Elain didn’t understand, but somehow, the meaning floated into her brain as
if an invisible translator was at work. In English it no longer rhymed, although in the language Lina now spoke, which Elain sensed was ancient, it did.

  “Evil dark, evil rank, into our sister settled. We call to it, raise it up, draw it into light now.” Lina pointed her free hand at Callie, who recited in that same ancient tongue, which also translated in Elain’s brain.

  “I call upon the Goddess to set me free. I call upon the Goddess to allow the Triad to make me whole. I am an imperfect being striving for my soul to once again be bathed in the light of the Universe.”

  The tingle now worked its way up Elain’s legs, past her knees, higher. Lina picked up the thread again. “Two souls have joined. No longer room for evil work. We’re calling to the Goddess to work through us, to pull the darkness from her soul.” She pointed at Mai and Elain with her free hand.

  Elain knew without needing more prompting. Apparently, Mai was now plugged into the same supernatural circuit, because she recited with Elain, “We’re calling to the Goddess to work through us, to pull the darkness from her soul.”

  Elain realized after they spoke it that they’d said it in the same old language Lina now used.

  Elain didn’t have time to ponder that. Lina pointed to Callie again, who recited, “I beg the Goddess to release this curse. My soul is joined to an innocent. An innocent again so I wish to be.”

  Lina pointed to Blackie and switched back to English for a moment. “Start with the sexy time.” She motioned to Elain and Mai. “Keep your hands up, but we need to start walking counterclockwise. Maintain the distance and stay in your freaking lane. Do not break the circle. Start chanting with me.”

  They started walking, slowly, letting Lina set the pace and chanting with her. “Evil out and darkness flee. Calling out the darkness and trapping it now.”

  Within the inner circle, Blackie seemed to finally grow more comfortable with the situation. He held Callie in his arms, kissing her as they slowly sank to the throw, where he laid her on her back. Elain didn’t stop walking or chanting, but in addition to the tingle, which was now up to her hips, she felt an invisible red aura begin to grow around the lovers.

  Lina was nodding as she chanted, apparently happy with the progress of the spell. She changed their chant. “Power growing, flowing through us. True love banishing all darkness within.”

  They walked while lengthening shadows spread across their clearing. Elain was slightly startled to see a soft glow emanating from the crystals in their hands, yet they didn’t feel like they were growing hot. But within the inner circle, the red aura concentrated, growing brighter and visible, flowing out, bumping up against and contained by the dirt circle Lina had drawn around Blackie and Callie.

  Lina picked up the pace of their walking, after several rotations changing the chant yet again. “Power within, coming out. Joining with us, so mote it be!”

  Elain felt her panties grow a little damp. Apparently, the Maine wolves were blessed with hunky men. She watched Blackie’s hips rock back and forth as his tight ass rhythmically bunched and relaxed, Callie’s legs hooked around his, her hands pinned over her head by his hands clamped around her wrists as he made love to her.

  Yes, her own men would get a good fucking later, that’s for sure.

  Lina silenced them with her free hand, stopping them at their original positions. She switched to English. “By the Goddess of All, I make this call. Evil here, darkness out. Heed my words, thus I do shout!”

  The red aura, now restricted from flowing out any farther, began to rise. Outside the circle, Elain was vaguely aware of Gigi muttering, “Holy shit.”

  A globe of darkness, more a void than composed of color, began to rise and separate from Callie’s head.

  “Don’t stop, Blackie,” Lina ordered, her voice now taking on a thundering tone. “Mai, Elain, when that blob clears them, point your crystals at it.”

  The tingling had quickly risen to fill Elain’s entire body. Not sexual, but as if she’d stepped in a puddle with an electric charge running through it. The glow in her crystal grew brighter.

  “When we have it trapped,” Lina said, “when I give the signal, we need to force it over to the bison.”

  “Like in Ghostbusters,” Elain muttered before she could stop herself.

  “Yeah, that,” Lina said. “Don’t put your crystals down until I say so. Get ready!” she called out to the other shifters awaiting their cue.

  Lina looked like a woman possessed. Her features seemed to glow, enveloped by an orange aura Elain wasn’t sure if she should fear or envy. Despite the lack of a breeze, Lina’s fiery red hair had blown free of the elastic band she used to hold it, and whipped around her face as if she were engulfed by her own personal tempest. “In the name of the Goddess, I order you gone. Release your hold and now move on. Blackie, now!”

  His hips sped up and he nuzzled Callie’s shoulder before biting down. She let out a passionate cry Elain recognized all too well. The black orb suddenly rose up, the connection snapping as it hovered above the red aura surrounding the lovers.

  “Now!” Lina said. The three of them focused their crystals on the orb. It was suddenly trapped within a white glow that only served to emphasize how just how thick and black it was, as if it had real form and substance. As one, they moved their crystals, steering the orb out of the circles and through the air, to where the bull stood. It raised its head and snorted, but it was too late. Lina had already forced the orb into the bison’s head.

  It reared up, pawing at the air with its front legs and letting out an eerie, human-like scream.

  “Drop your crystals,” Lina screamed.

  Mai and Elain did, while Lina still held hers.

  “Curse I banish to beast I see. As I spake it, so mote it be!” A final flash strobed from Lina’s crystal before it went dark. The bison turned toward them. “Now! Kill it now!”

  The shifters rushed from their hiding places. Oscar was the first to reach the bison before it could charge the circle. The tiger shifter leapt onto its back, his massive jaws clamping around the base of the bison’s skull. Doug, slightly smaller, dashed in and dove for its throat, while Wally charged in and clamped down on one of its hind legs.

  “Don’t break the circle!” Lina screamed. “We can’t move until it’s dead!”

  Horrified, Elain watched as the bison struggled for its life while the three shifters went to work on it. She couldn’t look away despite not wanting to see it. Rick and Jan, who’d now shifted, took up positions between the circle and the slaughter, but unfortunately, not blocking Elain’s view of it.

  Mai let out a sob from across the circle, tears streaming down her face as she hugged herself, also unable to look away from the carnage.

  Inside the inner circle, it looked like Callie had passed out. Blackie didn’t move from off his mate, but his head was up and watching the killing. The red aura around them had completely disappeared.

  The bison screamed, a completely unnatural sound that turned the tingle of power Elain had felt into a shudder of horror.

  When Elain turned to Lina, her friend met her gaze. “It’s okay,” Lina softly said. “It has to be this way.”

  With a sickening crunch, Wally’s jaws snapped one of the bison’s back legs. He let go and immediately latched onto the other one. Doug, his face now red and soaked with blood, let go of the bison’s throat and changed his grip.

  Oscar shifted his weight, shoving the bison off its feet and onto its side, where it landed, mercifully, with its back toward the circle. The tiger changed positions again, also clamping onto the bison’s throat.

  Wally jumped on top of the bison, his mass pinning the struggling beast to the ground. After several long, agonizing minutes, the bison’s struggles slowed as it let out one last haunting cry.

  “That’s the curse dying,” Lina whispered.

  The bison eventually stopped struggling, falling still. When Oscar and Doug let go of it and backed away, Wally reached out with a massive claw and r
ipped out its throat, just to make sure.

  Then the three shifters began to feed.

  Elain closed her eyes. She hadn’t yet hunted as a wolf, although her men had told her what it was like. She wasn’t into hunting. Running and chasing, sure.

  Killing something when she could just as easily open a can of soup or hit a drive-through?

  Not so much.

  Well, Paul Abernathy being the exception to the rule. And that wasn’t for food or sport, that was for revenge.

  Lina blew out a long breath. “Right.” She held up both hands. “The circle’s open, but never broken. Thank you, Goddess, for heeding our call.” She turned around and brushed away some of the salt, opening the circle. She did the same thing with the dirt circle around Blackie and Callie. “Is she okay?” she asked him.

  He nodded and looked down. “I think so. She passed out.”

  “We’ll give her a couple of minutes to recover.” Lina gathered the three crystals with a towel, careful not to touch the stones themselves.

  “What are you going to do with those?” Elain asked.

  “Toss them in the Firehole River. Flowing water will cleanse them and wash away any residual energy.”

  They both turned to Mai. She stood, apparently stunned, still hugging herself and watching as the three predators feasted on their kill.

  “Are you all right?” Lina asked her.

  She shook her head, tears coursing down her cheeks. “No. Can I go now?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  Mai turned and fled the way they’d come, not even grabbing her shoes and socks.

  Elain walked over to Lina. “She going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Should we go after her?”

  “Not right this second. Let’s give her a few minutes.”

  “I thought she said she’d hunted before?”

  “She has.”

  “Then what freaked her out?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll catch up with her once we’re sure Callie’s all right.” Lina grabbed Mai’s shoes and socks and stuffed them in her backpack. “You want to come with me to get rid of the crystals?”