The Alpha's Oracle

by Merry Ravenell

  “Does it bother you I am a bastard lupine of unknown pedigree?” Gabel asked me, his voice steady but the menace real.

  “No, no, I don’t care about that!” I cared that suddenly the Moon thought this was so important She had pulled me into some weird Land-Beyond-the-Tides and shown me that shack again. A vision so important she had also shown to Anita at least once as well, and Anita had been so upset she had summoned me to demand I walk away from Gabel.

  What was so goddamn important about that shack and that ring? The ring. Moon, Luna, Mother, a pup-ring that hadn’t been meant to exist and cobbled together after the fact and some ancient rune marking the Moon’s vengeance and—

  I breathed, suddenly realizing everything as it all crystallized into one fine point in my mind. One tiny scrap of knowledge that explained everything.

  That the Moon needed me to know.

  Needed Gabel to know.

  That Anita already knew.

  The secret Anita kept.

  The secret Anita could never risk escaping.

  Balance. Justice. The point on which light and dark turned.

  “What?” Gabel turned the full force of his attention onto me.

  My skin burst into painful prickles, I trembled all over, my thoughts tumbled and sloshed in my head, but I knew what I was about to say. I knew it as clearly as I knew anything else.

  Gabel leaned over the table. He reached out and grasped my wrist with his hand, fingers curling into me.

  “I know who he is,” I breathed.

  “My father? Who cares?” Gabel growled.

  “The Moon cares.” My voice rasped out from my abused throat.

  Gabel released me. “I don’t care.”

  The Bond lashed under his anger. I held my bruised ribs, unable to deal with his dark emotions, and what I knew. “Gabel, it’s too much for me to carry alone.”

  Gabel tapped his fingers on the table, and the tapping changed slightly as his fingers tapered and extended under his rage. Had Gabel’s littermates died? How had his mother died?

  I held my aching sides and waited for Gabel’s anger to pass. I had to tell him, and he had to hear me.

  Because the future of IronMoon depended on it.

  The future of all of us did.

  He forced out in a low, guttural tone edged with a feral growl. “Buttercup, I do not make much of my past. I have very little of a past, and there are parts of it that I am not proud of, and have left in the past.”

  “When I tell you, you’ll understand why.” I whispered.

  Gabel’s anger flared again, and he growled at me, “Tell me.”

  “Alpha Magnes of SableFur.”

  Everything Will Be Fine

  Dark, roiling fury slammed into me. I couldn’t breathe, there wasn’t enough room for my lungs to expand.

  The geyser of rage burst upwards, and the table went with it. It shattered into a thousand splinters. I screamed and snapped into a little ball. Glass shattered, liquid splashed, silverware hit the floor, splinters bounced off me. I heard—or did I feel?—a beast breathing, deep and angry, like something from the shadows of the Moon, when Her rage came upon us all. Heavy footsteps crunching over the debris, moving away from me.

  Then it was still.

  Inside me still burned: a sea of dark, smoldering magma laced with shocks of red and yellow.

  Trembling, I peaked over my hands.

  Gabel stood rigid in the center of the sun room, hands clenched into fists, quivering all over with a fury his skin could barely contain. Blood stained his pant leg from the holes ripping open, and his left hand was not a hand, but a claw, elongated fingers curled around and the yellow talons digging into the flesh of his forearm. Blood trickled onto the carpets.

  Did I dare move?

  I barely dared to breathe.

  He was the son of Alpha Magnes of SableFur. The oldest son. And an heir to the SableFur crown, a threat to Magnes’ two other sons and his Luna.

  Anita was in her sixties. She had to have trained Gabel’s mother, or at least known her when she had been in SableFur. She had to have known when Gabel’s mother disappeared.

  Anita knew what I now knew: Gabel was Magnes’ son.

  Those visions hadn’t been Magnes’. They had been hers. The Moon warning the old Oracle that Her vengeance was upon the world.

  Magnes owed his son. He owed for the loss of a female, and if there had been any littermates who had not survived to adulthood, he owed for those, too.

  The saddest thing was that up until the moment Magnes had chased her away, no crime had been committed. There was no prohibition against what had happened. A young unmated male knocking up a young unmated female with a litter of lupine pups was a massive scandal, but it wasn’t a crime.

  It wasn’t even as if Magnes had been the heir to SableFur, and the pack had moved to protect the honor of the ruling family. His Luna, Adrianna, had been the one bred and raised to rule.

  After a very long time, Gabel’s left claw dissolved back into human flesh, and he asked in a very low, forced tone, “Does Magnes know?”

  I steeled myself for another explosion of rage. “I cannot imagine he does not.”

  “That is why Anita summoned you.” He spoke very, very slowly, shaping each word with effort, teetering on the brink of a terrifying rage that kept me cowered in my chair. “But it does not make sense.”

  “Why not?” I ventured.

  “You do not have to be my mate for the Moon to reveal the truth to you. Anita offered you nothing from SableFur to win you to her side. What assurance would she have of your silence if you found out?”

  I knew the answer to that. “If I believed you were a monster, I’d have sided with the dishonorable Alpha. The lesser of evils.”

  “But I am not a monster?”

  “Six months ago I might have believed her and asked no further questions.”

  “Yes,“ he said mostly to himself. “Yes, you would have. But not now.”

  He cricked his neck one way, then the other.

  Very carefully, I uncurled my body. Every joint and tissue protested. Gabel turned all the way around. I froze.

  He kicked the debris out of the way with his bare feet. Little pieces dug into his skin and pricked it so that drops of blood welled up around them. He offered me his hand. “You should know by now, buttercup, that my violence isn’t for you.”

  “What are you going to do?” I looked at his hand doubtfully. His rage had gone to low tide, but it was still there.

  “Nothing,” Gabel answered. “You and I will tell no one.”

  His fingers curled around me and pulled me up, less graceful and more harsh than usual.

  “Nothing? You aren’t going to do anything?”

  Gabel drew me away from the splinters and glass. “Aaron is a bigger problem. Magnes cannot move against me openly. It will draw too much attention. He needs me disposed of quietly.”

  Maybe my brain was full of wool and exhaustion, but how could Gabel just do nothing? He was the son of Alpha Magnes of SableFur, who had condemned his mother to a life of exile, robbed him of his birthright and family, and possibly killed his littermates. And Gabel was going to do nothing?

  “Ignore it?” I laughed, without humor. “Ignore it? Like my father gave me to you without a fight? Why is it males are always so eager for a fight, and then when a real one comes along, they wither? The Moon didn’t show it to me so you could ignore it.”

  His tide of anger rose and flooded the banks. His hands caught me as I crumbled, my brain swimming in dark magma, and he growled, “I am not withering, Gianna. I am also not charging off into a fight like an enraged bull. Do you really think I can just waltz into SableFur and announce I’m Magnes’ son?”

  I couldn’t think at all with his anger suffocating me. Perhaps he should tell Magnes he knew the secret to keep Magnes at bay! Mutually assured destruction. Maybe he should grab for SableFur, or try to draw Magnes out. It all swirled around in my head, caught in a whi
rlpool of anger.

  “IronMoon isn’t ready to take SableFur, and when we are, we’ll only get one chance. I will not waste it. Only the mindless monster they believe me to be would charge off like a bull,” Gabel snarled. “Leave the war to the warriors, Gianna.”

  “You mean to the males.”

  Gabel gripped my chin between his thumb and forefinger. Blood dripped down his wrist from where he had punctured his skin with his own claws. “Patience, my Queen. Magnes is a bear in spring, and if we do not plan the hunt carefully, he will turn on us. You are so wonderfully bloodthirsty under the refined Oracle pelt of yours, but you will have to be patient for now.”

  He kissed me lightly. “I will take my anger downstairs. Perhaps the wolves in the basement will better appreciate their predicament when I am not feeling reasonable. You go upstairs and rest. In six days time we will have our unreliable vassals here, and I do not want them to think there is weakness in either of us. You may be angry. Let them think your claws are at my throat.”

  He left, and the waters of anger retreated after him, focusing on a different shoreline.

  Blood on the carpet, coffee and water splattered on the floor, smashed jars of jelly, food, ruined plates and cups, the splintered remains of the table. There were even pieces driven into the ceiling.

  I did the best I could picking up the worst of it, but I was forced to find Violet and show it to her, as I didn’t know how to get stains off walls or blood out of carpets.

  “What happened?” she asked as she absorbed the destruction.

  “Gabel’s temper.” There wasn’t any further answer for it.

  But she did give me a very sharp look, noting my black eye and battered face. My heart sank. I had fallen down stairs twice, beaten up Gardenia, had Flint use me as a training dummy, and everyone’s first thought was Gabel beat me.

  Violet surveyed the damage again, then put a hand on my arm. She hit a bruise, and I flinched, which she also misread. “I’ll clean it up.”

  “I’ll help.” I hadn’t summoned Violet here to clean up the mess, just to tell me the right way to do it. Blood soaking into antique carpets and splatters on ceilings weren’t my forte. Baking soda? Club soda? No idea.

  “No, it’s fine. You go have a nice, hot shower. Did you get to eat breakfast before it ended up on the walls? I’ll have something brought up to your room.”

  She meant my rooms at the far end of the house, away from Gabel’s rooms. My heart sank even lower.

  “Yes, just didn’t get that third cup of coffee.” I tried to sound cheerful. “I should go see how the Solstice preparations have been going.”

  “Oh, they’re fine,” Violet assured me. “Gardenia has it under control.”

  “That’s what worries me.”

  “Macy and I are watching her.” She sighed. “I tried to tell Gardenia this is a chance for her to start over. Start fresh.”

  “How do you mean?” I frowned.

  “Everything being publicly explained as her being a decoy. Just say yes, she was willing to play a part, serve the pack, plan the party. It’s a chance to start new. Change things.”

  “You mean change her reputation.”

  Violet shrugged, then sighed again.

  “Has she tried to cause trouble with the party?” The last thing I needed was for Gardenia to wreck the IronMoon Solstice. If we couldn’t even command respect in our own den...

  Maybe giving Gardenia the party had been too hasty on my part. But what the hell did I know about planning huge parties on short notice? Or any notice.

  “No, we’re keeping an eye out, but she’s too busy figuring out how to pull it together to figure out how to ruin it.” Violet grinned a little bit.

  Small comfort? My stomach squirmed and shuffled the toast inside it. How had Violet ended up here? But that was a rude question in IronMoon, even though learning Violet had some background as a super cunning, bank-robbing grandmother type would have made me feel better.

  “Don’t worry. Your wedding will be beautiful, and everything will be fine.” Violet shoo’d me out of the room. “Everything will be fine.”

  Six days to go.

  Pieces, Puzzles, Panties

  Gabel was still in an utterly vile mood the next morning. Vile enough that when someone knocked on his office door, his snarl of “What?” shook the windowpanes.

  Hix, Donovan, and Ana were on the other side. Hix came right on in, while Donovan eyed the destruction, and Ana looked downright skeptical. She made sure to stay behind Hix. Their timing, as far as I was concerned, could not have been worse. Gabel snarled, then clicked and growled in his throat. I found my own voice, since his would fail him just then. “I didn’t realize you were back, Donovan. Good hunting?”

  “Informative hunting.” Donovan scratched his beard.

  Hix, never one for small talk, got right to the point. “We have information on the wolves who came for Ana’s office.”

  This instantly mollified Gabel.

  Ana handed over a wad of papers. “I’m claiming I’ve never seen them before and don’t know a thing. Here’s the police report. We got the name of the guy that the truck is registered to. Donovan did a little scouting, and we found two mug shots. There were three guys, but I recognize these two faces.”

  Gabel was still not inclined to speak, so I asked, “Do we know what pack they’re from? GleamingFang?”

  “No,” Hix said, “MarchMoon.”

  Gabel roared his fury and ripped several books in half. Ana squeaked and hid behind Hix. Smart girl.

  Hix flicked a piece of paper off his chest.

  “What were the MarchMoon doing in Gleaming Fang?” I asked, trying to sound completely innocent while Gabel slashed at the bookshelves, fingertips talons and splintering the wood.

  Ana watched him, transfixed with fascination and horror.

  “It’s all IronMoon territory, technically,” Donovan said. “The borders are all very porous now, Lady, and the low-status wolves move freely. The other Alphas are glad for it to be someone else’s problem for a while.”

  Relief started to loosen all my joints. MarchMoon had overplayed their hand. Now Gabel could deal with the traitor Marcus, independent of the Petitioner Wolf’s question. No one would ever link Marcus’ downfall to a violation of my Oracle vows.

  Donovan handed me two more pieces of paper. “I think these guys were also involved. They weren’t there, but known associates, as humans would say.”

  I looked at the two printouts. I didn’t recognize either face, nor the names.

  A growl by my thigh. I looked down, saw nothing, heard it again, like a memory from a dream.

  The world hazed over as if someone had thrown a sheet over my head, my insides burned from Gabel’s rage and the singed Bond, and my own brain wobbled from the painful vision. The growl came again, closer this time, and I saw in my mind the two RedWater wolves pacing at my feet. They were growling and their ears were slicked back.

  “Lady Gianna.”

  The wolves circled, and in my mind, one jumped and snapped at the papers, whining at me under their growls.

  Gabel’s fury sucked back from the shore. His hands caught my arms as my knees wobbled.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I tried to push his hands off.

  “You were supposed to be resting,” he said, as if he hadn’t realized I had been there at all. “What are you even doing in here?”

  I steeled myself for the geyser of pain his rage would cause. “RedWater. They’re the RedWater wolves.”

  “Who is? Which ones?”

  I pointed to the papers. “Two of the ones who fled and left the others to die.”

  “How do you know? We didn’t see their human forms.”

  I shook my head. Seeing visions of ghost-wolves wasn’t within the usual scope of an Oracle’s powers. Especially not waking ones where their souls came forward to growl about wanting vengeance against the packmates who had abandoned them. “I just do.”

  “Well
, well, well,” Gabel said, and I choked as the tentacles of his malevolent anger curled all around my insides. “Perhaps they were hoping to use you as a bargaining chip to reclaim their lost honor.”

  As far as I was concerned, there was no reclaiming lost honor for what they had done. Abandoning a packmate, running away like a coward, that was eternal damnation.

  Hix’s face stretched into a slight scowl, and his voice dripped contempt. “Or they know how careless you are with her.”

  Gabel snarled at Hix. “How careless I was, First Beta.”

  “I warned you we would pay for your games.” Hix didn’t back down. “This is your fault.”

  “If you want something from me, Hix, come and take it,” Gabel growled.

  Ana, proving her excellent survival instincts, carefully tip-toed behind Donovan.

  “I want you to treat your Luna the way she should be treated, and not some toy or some lure dangled in front of everyone just to prove you dare do so. Flint warned you this is what happens when a male behaves like a fool. This is your fault, and you are tearing up books and punishing her with your anger as if you have any right to be angry with anyone but yourself!”

  “And they are not mistakes I intend to make again.”

  “Enough.” I pushed between them. IronMoon couldn’t afford for Gabel and Hix to be at each others’ throats. “You both agree with each other, you just want to snarl. I don’t want to hear it. I am too tired.”

  The “tired female” card wouldn’t do much for Gabel, but it’d make Hix retreat instantly. And it did: Hix grumbled something, gave Gabel a final snarl, and Gabel growled back, and that was that.

  Donovan tucked the papers into his vest. “We don’t know that Alpha Holden of RedWater even knows these wolves were disgraced. RedWater isn’t part of IronMoon, so why would they admit any of what happened to their Alpha?”

  “Then why were they back in MarchMaw or whatever the hell the name is?” Ana asked. “If they were there trying to make themselves look good, then this Holden or whoever told them to do it. Which means how did he know she’d be there at all?”

  “They were an hour behind us, and not prepared for where Lady Gianna was going, so that means they were already in GleamingFang,” Donovan said. “But you’re right. Someone authorized trying to kidnap a Luna.”