The Lost Wolf's Destiny (The Pack)

by Karen Whiddon

  This made her smile slightly. “If by regular people you mean humans, then you’re correct. We tend not to catch colds or get the flu or stomach viruses.”

  When he looked at her daughter, then back at her, she tensed, sensing she might not like what he was going to ask next. “Then why is Hailey so sick?”

  Taking a deep breath, she looked down. After a moment or two, she lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “Because she’s not a full-blood. She’s what’s known as a Halfling, the result of a union between a human and a full-blooded Shifter.”

  Frowning, he looked as if he’d been poleaxed. “Like me,” he said quietly.

  “Yes. She’s a Halfling, just like you are.”

  “But you’re a full-blooded Shifter?”

  Slowly she nodded. “Yes.” She knew where he was going with this. Though she didn’t like talking about it, he deserved to know the truth.

  “What happened to her father?” he asked.

  Even though she’d known it was coming, she winced, not bothering to hide her slight embarrassment. “I never knew him. I wanted a child and the time in my life was right. The only thing lacking was a man. There was no one in my life, no one like that at least, so I went to a sperm bank.”

  He looked shocked, which she’d expected. Then he laughed, which she hadn’t.

  “What’s so amusing about that?” she asked crossly.

  “I’m sorry.” He leaned forward, gaze locked on hers. “I thought I was the only one who couldn’t find the right woman and maintain a relationship. I figured that would come with time. But if someone who looks like you can’t, either, there’s no hope for the rest of us.”

  Amused, now she laughed, earning a curious look from him. “I take it you haven’t looked in the mirror lately,” she said dryly. “I think it’s more a matter of the right person not having come along. We’re like our wild cousins in that. Like wolves, we find our true mate only once.”

  “I see,” he said, though the cynical note in his tone told her he didn’t really believe it.

  She wasn’t 100 percent certain she did, either.

  “Anyway, the end result was I got Hailey.” She glanced toward the couch where her daughter still slept. “The doctors knew something was wrong the instant after she was born.”

  “What exactly is the matter with her?” he asked, his voice gentle as he watched her face. “I saw on the news it was something with her heart.”

  Though she kept a brave face, she knew he could see the heartbreak in her eyes. “She needs a new heart. Either that, or a visit with the Healer.”

  “The Healer?” His curious expression told her that this was the first he’d heard of this. “What do you mean?”

  Though she raised her chin, she knew her smile was tinged with sadness. “Every few hundred years, a person is born among our kind who can heal Halflings. A long time had passed without one, so long that a lot of the Pack believed it was simply a myth. Then a woman was found, in Texas actually, who turned out to be the Healer. Her name is Samantha.”

  His skeptical tone matched his expression. “That sounds a lot like the kind of claims Jacob makes. That’s how he drew you into his web, by making you believe he could heal your daughter.”

  Put that way, her hope that Jacob could help her sounded foolish indeed. She shrugged. “She’s nothing like Jacob. She’s the real deal, and she makes no claims whatsoever. She simply heals.”

  “How do you know?” He crossed his arms.

  “Word of her has spread among our people. As you can imagine, she’s in great demand. She spends much of the year traveling the world, visiting the most seriously ill Halflings.”

  “But you don’t know for certain,” he persisted. “Whether or not she’s real?”

  “No.” She sighed. “But the Pack comes down hard on charlatans and cheaters. She’s considered our most valuable asset. So I have to think she’s the genuine thing. A Healer.”

  “Then your problem is solved. Find her and get her to fix Hailey’s heart.”

  “I wish it were that simple.” He didn’t know how many sleepless nights she’d prayed for such a thing, hope and possibility making her dizzy as he sat back down. “But because of the demand for her skills, she has a long waiting list. She has a team of people who manage it for her. They say she prioritizes due to seriousness of condition.”

  “I assume you’ve already put Hailey on it?”

  She nodded. “Yes, of course. I added Hailey to the list four years ago, when she was a year old. Since her condition isn’t immediately life threatening, she’s not very high as priorities go.”

  He frowned. “But if it’s her heart...”

  She nodded, not wanting him to say the actual words. “Yes. In time, it will give out on her.”

  He pushed up from the chair, towering over her, the picture of masculine strength. The urge to reach out to him, to take whatever comfort she could glean from his broad chest and strong arms, was so powerful she nearly swayed toward him.

  He didn’t appear to notice. “Then we need to find this Healer, this Samantha, and make her understand how serious Hailey’s condition is.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve tried,” she cried. “You’ve seen firsthand how far I’m willing to go for my daughter.”

  Frowning, he stared at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t find Samantha.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The Pack has many enemies,” she said, then sighed. “There are other supernatural beings who are not our allies. So since Samantha is one of our most valuable assets, great precautions are taken to keep her whereabouts secret.”

  His frown deepened. “When you say other supernatural beings, what exactly do you mean?”

  “Let’s see. There are Vampires, and Fairies, and the Mer people, to name a few. And the Draconians, and those awful Snake People.” As she ticked them off on her fingers, she belatedly realized he might be learning of their existence for the first time.

  In fact, he looked downright dizzy. “Are you telling me...”

  “Sorry.” She reached out and squeezed his arm, by way of apology. “I forget sometimes how much of a sheltered life you’ve led.”

  When he laughed she stared at him, wondering if he’d lost his mind. “What’s so funny now?” she asked, confused.

  “Jacob thinks we Shape-shifters are demons,” he said, still chuckling. “Imagine his reaction if he were to find out about all these other creatures.”

  Shaking her finger at him, she attempted to look stern, which was difficult when she wanted to laugh along with him. “Which is why we must make sure he never learns of their existence. Humans honestly have no idea.”

  “Someone must have known,” he pointed out. “Otherwise all those books about this sort of thing would never have been written.”

  “Maybe. But I prefer to think that the writers had fantastic imaginations.”

  “There’s that possibility.” He didn’t sound as if he believed it.

  “There’s so much you have to learn,” she said, sighing. “I hate that your entire heritage was kept from you. That’s wrong on so many levels.” Though she’d sworn not to, she made up her mind to try and persuade him. He needed the companionship of his own kind.

  “You really should consider joining the Pack. You’d have access to so much information, much more than I could ever teach you. We have libraries online and videos you can borrow, and—”

  “Nope,” he interrupted. “That’s not for me.”

  Both disappointed and unsurprised, she nodded. “I understand.”

  “Do you?” He appeared unconvinced. “I doubt that.”

  She shook her head, recognizing the emotion flickering in the back of his blue-eyed gaze. After all, it was one she was intimately acquainted with. She’d lived with her own fear for so long, ever since she’d learned a certain faction of the Protectors wanted children who were genetically like Hailey.

  “What are you so afraid of?
” she asked softly.

  He recoiled as though he’d been stung. “I’m not.”

  The knee-jerk reaction had the effect of confirming her guess. Reaching for her wine glass, she twirled it around on the table before taking a small sip. She knew she should let the matter go. Drop it right now and leave it, along with her questions about his current life, for another day.

  She was surprised to find a look of fierce hunger in his eyes. Whether for her or for the knowledge she’d mentioned, she couldn’t make out. As her inner beast stirred in response and she pushed it down, she realized she didn’t want to know.

  Doggedly, she continued. It was either that, or her mind would wander to a place it had no business going. “The Pack is not all that bad,” she began, testing the waters.

  “I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.” Grimacing, he took a large swallow of his wine. “It’s difficult enough trying to wrap my mind around everything I’ve learned since I met you.”

  She nodded, deciding not to tell him that she’d only barely scratched the surface, including the truth about her own child. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it.

  “I’ve spent my entire life avoiding people, including your Pack, because I thought I was an anomaly. Weird, strange, put together differently from everyone else.”

  “Didn’t the Pack representative—”

  “I didn’t let him talk much,” he cut her off. “I figured it was pretty much the same story as the crap with my...with Jacob. If it wasn’t some kind of con, they’d be trying to convert me or something.”

  “You don’t trust anyone, do you?”

  “Nope.” The aching smile he gave her broke her heart.

  “It’s not wrong, you know. Being a Shifter.” She resisted the urge to reach across the table and cover his hand, clenched into a fist, with her own. “We can’t help what we are, in the same way that a sparrow can’t decide to be an eagle.”

  He nodded, still silent behind his hastily erected wall.

  Though she knew she should leave it alone, she’d already let too many questions go unanswered.

  “You’ve never talked to anyone about what it means to be a Shape-shifter? Anyone at all?”

  “I’ve never needed to.” Anger vibrated in his voice. Mingled somewhere in his narrowed eyes, she thought she also detected a hint of shame. Even now.

  “You sent away the Pack representative who contacted you, right?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m surprised he went that easily,” she mused, half speaking to herself. “After all, they’re supposed to be specially trained in dealing with Ferals?”

  “With what?”

  Inwardly cursing her slip of tongue, she gave him the truth. “Ferals are what we call Shifters who live outside the Pack. Some don’t ever assimilate into human culture. Some, like you, for whatever reason, were never taught.”

  “Taught?” he scoffed. “That sounds like the sort of thing Jacob would condone. He was forever trying to teach me the true—according to him—meaning of what he called the good word.”

  Damn. So many layers of pain and mistrust. Could anyone get past them to the man underneath? Did she even want to?

  Though she wasn’t sure she did, because he was plainly suffering, this time she gave in to impulse and leaned across the table. Bypassing his hand, she reached for his face, briefly cupping the side of his cheek. “Listen to me. You can’t honestly believe anything that man told you. You’re not an abomination. Neither am I.”

  For the space of a heartbeat, he froze. Then, recoiling, he moved away from her touch, pushing back his chair so hastily it clattered to the floor. Standing, he glared down at her. The power and emotions radiating from his muscular body felt like flames, searing her.

  “I’m... I don’t know what to say,” she began.

  He waved her away. “I tried to find out what happened to my mother,” he said, again surprising her. “I figured if Jacob thought I was evil, he must have felt the same way about her. I believed he might have killed her, whether accidently during one of his cleansing sessions gone awry, or on purpose in a fit of self-righteous rage.”

  She held her breath and waited for him to finish.

  “I couldn’t find out anything,” he finished. Despite the lack of inflection in his tone, she could only imagine how he must have felt. Believing his father was a murderer and then not being able to find proof. Without that, he’d never know the truth.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t help you with that. But I can help you with what it means to be a Shifter, if you want?”

  One corner of his mouth twitched. “Hmm.”

  Again, heat curled in the pit of her stomach. Determined, she tried to ignore it. “I promise not to push.”

  Eyeing her, he didn’t respond. Was it her imagination or had his eyes gone dark with matching heat? “Thank you. I’ll tell you one thing. I spent my entire life fighting my own nature. Until you started talking, it never dawned on me that I could just accept it.”

  She wanted to lean into him, to rub up against him and help him celebrate his newfound self-acceptance. As her thoughts spiraled into passion, she forced herself to stop. Wondering if she’d lost her mind, she simply nodded.

  They remained in companionable silence for a few minutes, there at the small kitchen table with their bellies full and the room growing warm from the heat of the fire.

  Hailey continued to sleep, unmoving. Since she had no choice, at least until the morning, Blythe prayed she wasn’t making a mistake doing as Lucas had suggested, by giving it time. Her daughter would wake, she had to believe. By this time tomorrow, she’d be watching Hailey eat and listening to her chatter.

  If not, they’d be finding a doctor first thing tomorrow.

  Tears stung her eyes. Sipping her wine, she tried to focus on something else, anything else. She chose to study her surroundings, liking what she saw.

  The cabin was small, true. But it appeared well made, the rustic appearance of the log walls matching the wildness of its surroundings. A braided throw rug sat in the center of the living room, in front of the couch currently occupied by Hailey. The fireplace was made of some kind of stone, maybe slate, and the small but functional kitchen appeared to have top-grade appliances. She marveled at the homey feel of the place. She felt comfortable here, at peace, which was odd, considering the circumstances.

  Even stranger, though, was how close she felt to the man sitting across from her. She hadn’t known Lucas Kenyon very long, but she felt as though she’d known him forever.

  She’d need to be careful. That kind of attachment was something she could not afford. Taking care of Hailey already consumed her. She had no room in her life for anyone else.

  Outside, the wind continued to blow. Occasionally, the gusts were strong enough to shake the cabin and rattle the windows. Inside, she was glad of the warmth and the company, overjoyed that she had her girl back, and prayed Hailey would soon wake up.

  Lost in thought, she raised her head to find Lucas watching her.

  She gave him a slow, friendly smile, hoping he’d see in it how thankful she was.

  When he spoke again, it was to ask a question with a studied casualness that told her the answer was important to him.

  “How much does Hailey know about this? Being a Shifter?”

  His carefully blank expression made her smile. “She knows what she is, what I am. Though she’s a few years away from changing, she’s very aware of the wolf part of her nature. Where a human child might have an imaginary friend, our children have not-so-imaginary wolf pup friends instead.”

  He nodded. She couldn’t tell what he thought by his expression, which had gone all granite again on her.

  “Did you?” she asked, without thinking about it. The instant the question came out, she regretted asking it. “I’m sorry,” she began, her words trailing away as he began to speak.

  “I thought I was going crazy,” he said. Though he still regarded her inten
tly, his posture seemed to indicate he’d finally relaxed. “I knew the wolf was there, but I couldn’t sense it in anyone else. The one time I tried to put out feelers with my father I was blasted by several angry biblical verses. He prayed over me and tried to make me feel guilty for even having the desire to change. I had no one I could ask.”

  “That’s wrong.” She ached to touch him, to try and do something to erase the awful memories put there by someone who should have protected and taught him. “I’m so sorry.”

  But she did nothing, because she had another, more pressing responsibility to her small daughter still unconscious on the couch. She could barely help Hailey, the person she loved more than anything else, so how could she even think she could assist Lucas?

  “Don’t be. I’m not asking for your pity,” he said, sounding both resigned and angry. “I’m just trying to understand.”

  “I get it,” she began. “Really, I do. And I promise I don’t—”

  “Mama?”

  “Hailey!” Blythe jumped to her feet and rushed to her little girl’s side. Though her heart felt as if it could pound right out of her chest, she had to appear reasonably calm so she wouldn’t upset her daughter.

  Lucas followed, but kept his distance.

  “Hailey, you’re awake!” Smiling, she reached down and gently gathered her baby in her arms, raining kisses on her head.

  Immediately, Hailey began to struggle, pushing her away. “Stop it, Mama.” Squirming, she scrunched up her face. “I don’t feel so good.”

  Relaxing her grip, Blythe couldn’t make herself completely let go. “I know, honey. You’ve been sick. But you’re getting better now.”

  Hailey nodded. Then her caramel-brown eyes widened. “What about the bad man?”

  “He’s gone,” Blythe said firmly, aware she needed to downplay Jacob Gideon as much as possible. “We went far away from him, to a place where he can’t find you. My friend Lucas helped us.”

  At his cue, Lucas stepped forward into her line of vision. “Hi,” he said softly.

  Squinting at him, Hailey appeared uncertain. Then, she evidently spotted something that reassured her and she relaxed. “You’re Pack,” she said. “I can see your aura.”