Wolves of Black Pine (The Wolfkin Saga Book 1)

by SJ Himes

  He met River’s eyes, the shaman watching him carefully, eyes and thoughts guarded. His light blue eyes glittered, and Ghost felt like the shaman was staring into his very spirit, sifting through the parts of him that made him who he was. He pushed back at the sensation, and River blinked, breaking eye contact and picking up his glass. The weird feeling went away, and Ghost eyed the shaman warily before returning his attention to his now empty plate.

  Sarah had his glass, the orange juice obviously hers now, and he reached out for Kane’s glass, drinking from that instead. His alpha gave him a fake glare and faint grumble, his eyes twinkling.

  KANE SAT beside Ghost, watching as he went on with eating breakfast like he hadn’t just performed a major piece of magic. The cub sat in his lap as if they were best friends, talking away about everyday things. Burke nudged his arm, and he leaned back in his seat, turning to his lieutenant.

  *He’s a man less than an hour and you indulge in shower sex?* Burke said, and he choked back a growl, anger rising at what the Speaker was implying. He was about to grab Burke by the throat and throw him out of the room, right up until he saw his eyes. Burke was laughing at him, and he curled his lip at the other alpha, going to grab his glass, but found Ghost had finished his juice.

  *You can’t be cranky. You just had kinky shower sex. He’s really cute.*

  *Mine!*

  *Easy, brother. I would never try to poach on a soulbond, I don’t feel like getting struck by lightning,* Burke assured him, chewing slowly on a piece of toast, sitting back casually in his chair.

  Kane felt like he was just struck by the aforementioned lightning, his eyes widening as he realized what Burke was referring to. Burke was watching him and started to cough, choking on his toast at the look on his face.

  Kane fell back in his seat, jaw slack, and turned his head slowly and stared. Just stared at the young wolf beside him--every motion of his gorgeous body enchanting, every tilt of his head adorable and erotic, the way he watched the other wolves in the room, all of it the most wonderful thing Kane had ever seen. Even the way he held the cub on his knee made Kane’s heart melt, and the power he could summon as easily as he chewed on a piece of bacon was sexy as hell.

  He was soulbonded. As soon as Burke opened his mind to the knowledge, he saw it. The link, the connection between them, a mix of red and silver-white light that glowed with a subtle flame in the not-space of their souls. It shifted in and out of his sight, as if he was trying to see something that wasn’t wholly real and occupying the same place as he was in the world. He breathed in and tried again, and suddenly, he saw it, he saw everything.

  He saw an orb of light, glowing like a star in the night sky, burning with an intense and intimidating silver-white fury, in the center of Ghost’s body. It spun out thin lines of light, pulsing against the inside of his skin, and he looked down, and saw a cord of the same light that burned Ghost’s heart coiling out, and it was connected to him!

  He looked further down, and saw a star, this time dark crimson, burning in his own chest, the color of the setting sun after a day of storms. His was just as big as Ghost’s star, but its color was so radically different he knew it must be because he was an alpha, and Ghost a shaman. A line of dark red, a wicked and dangerous-looking shade, spun out from his core, and met in the space between them, where it joined with Ghost’s light. Pulses of red traveled down the cord to Ghost, and pulses of silver-white traveled into him, and where the two shades mixed was a vibrant hue of rose red and silver.

  Kane put out a hand blindly, and grabbed Burke’s wrist, and he pulled the other alpha’s mind into his. Burke was surprised, but entered willingly, and Kane let him see through his eyes. He felt Burke’s arm stiffen as he looked, and Kane knew he was seeing exactly what he was.

  *Oh, Great Mother, you’re using Ghost’s Spiritsight! You’re seeing the soulbond with his gift!* Burke whispered in his mind, and Kane had nothing to say. He couldn’t think of anything to say at all, so flummoxed was he, that all he did was sit in his chair and watch.

  He gathered his wits, and made a conscious effort to relax, and slowly the Spiritsight faded. The world returned to normal, and Ghost saw him staring, and gave him a sweet smile, his silver eyes glowing with what he knew was the power of the soulbond between them. He gave Ghost a smile, and his little wolf went back to talking to the cub, who was still on his lap, chattering away as if her life hadn’t been hell the previous week.

  He sensed Burke sigh in the back of his mind, and Kane felt like he was about to be attacked on all sides. It was as if he was exposed, raw, vulnerable, and all because he got his little wolf back, just in time for him to be in more danger than he’d ever been in before.

  *I am an alpha, Burke, and I am soulbonded to a shaman. I just used Ghost’s Spiritsight, and it was easy. I conjured it up as if I was the shaman, with years of training behind me. Oh Great Mother, we are screwed.*

  *Yeah, I’d say you’re fucked pretty well. So far only Sophia and I know for sure, and maybe River. I know Andromeda knows for certain, she’s too crafty and old not to recognize the connection. I don’t think the other wolves who saw the reunion last night picked up on anything other than a long-lost cub coming home, so we might be okay. Cool it on the lovey-dovey shit around everyone else just to be safe.*

  *How do I tell him?*

  *He’s Gray Shadow’s grandson, Kane. He probably knows already that you’re soulbonded. I think he might’ve known it the second he saw you last night. He may not know that every fanatical wolfkin out there is going to want you two either dead, separated, or worshipped like the evil wolfkin-kings of old, so you may need to explain that part to him.* Burke paused, then put a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed, long fingers digging in, as if he was afraid to let go. *Or maybe our people will see the soulbond, and treasure it as the blessing it truly is, and no one will freak out. Maybe.*

  Kane let his head fall back, and he stared at the ceiling, thinking about how much he wished it was acceptable to drink alcohol with breakfast.

  When She Speaks

  GHOST FELT the draw on his power, and tilted his head, hearing a soft buzzing sound. It was Kane and Burke, speaking to each other mind to mind. He looked down, and blinked his double-vision up, and saw a steady stream of his silver-white light running from his star to Kane’s red. Kane was using his gift, the one that let him see the life-energy of living creatures.

  He blinked it away, and sat back in his chair, thinking. He focused on Kane’s presence in the back of his mind, and with a single push of power, he knew he could listen in to the conversation his soulmate was having with Burke. He didn’t need to, though. He could guess, and he had no reason to be so rude. Kane dropped the power drag on his gift, and Ghost knew he’d stopped using the… what was the word? Kane was thinking it… the Spiritsight.

  Kane only used it for a few seconds, before letting it go, and he didn’t mind. The sensation was like having someone tug on his arm or hand, much like Sarah was as she imperiously sought his attention, and pointed to another muffin. He gave it to her, thinking.

  “I’m gonna go give the muffin to my brother,” she said, and slipped off his leg to the floor. He gave her a smile, happy that he could erase her hurts. The burning hint of silver was gone from her body, the miniscule particles expelled through her skin, the wind carrying it away, where it couldn’t hurt anyone else, through the open window in the kitchen.

  When he first took her hand, he’d felt a sense of waiting, nearly impatience, his power rising in him almost as if it had a mind of its own. All it took was a second to see what was going on, and just like he had in the woods with his tracks, he’d found the portion of his mind controlling his gifts, and taken over, accelerating the healing process a thousand-fold, every bruise fading away as he expelled the silver from of her body.

  Sarah took his hand, and she smiled at him as she tugged. He didn’t even think to say no, a
nd got up, letting her lead him from the room. He licked his fingers, getting the last bit of bacon grease as she pulled him forward. He heard the scrap of chairs over the wood floor as several wolves got up, and the footfalls of many feet as he followed the cub. She was strong for one so little, and he grinned, feeling the new strength in her grip as she took him to the front of the house, to the stairs. She would find her wolf-form very soon, it was there in the way she moved, and how her green eyes glittered just the littlest amount.

  He ran with her, careful not to stride on her smaller feet as they made the front entrance. He thought he perceived a murmur of sound, and looked around, out the front windows of the log cabin, but saw nothing, no other wolfkin. No one was in the large room with the fireplace, either. The other wolves were following them, and he cast a glance back, but none of them were speaking, just staring at him in a manner he couldn’t decipher. The cool brush of another wolf’s mental touch was absent, so whatever it was he was hearing was coming from somewhere… a swell of soft hissing, as if hastily hushed, found his ears, the whisperer seeming to be at his shoulder. He wanted to turn and look, but the faint sound of laughter and the rain of ice drops cascading over stone, silenced his curiosity.

  He knew that laugh.

  She is here.

  Sarah bolted up the stairs, still holding his hand, and he followed, enjoying the stretch of his legs and the way his body moved with a fluid grace around the turn on the landing. They reached the second floor in a soft blur of speed, and he laughed, catching up to her easily; so they jogged lightly side by side. Sarah took him to the end of one of the halls, and she was about to drop his hand to open the door when he flicked at the handle with a smidgen of mental effort, and it opened, swinging wide. She giggled and pulled him in the room.

  “Gabe, I found the shaman! The strange one the pretty lady told me about!” Sarah all but yelled as she tugged him over the threshold, into the midst of several wolves. He stopped, the scent of pain and fear thick in the room. None of it was overpowering, and he got undertones of surprise and nerves, and a sly burning scent that fled as he tried to focus on it, disappearing quickly under the others. There were six wolves in the room, a boy the same age as Sarah, several youths, and a slightly older female who wouldn’t meet his eyes. They all bore injuries much like Sarah had when she came down to find him. She’d known he was there, and she’d come right to him.

  “Sarah! Please stop this nonsense about the pretty lady already, it was just a dream!” He looked at Ghost and gaped a moment before turning back to the cub. “You can’t drag shamans around like that!” A young alpha stood up from a small loveseat and ran over to them, reaching out to grab Sarah. He halted and stared, his face going slack with surprise as his eyes traveled over her unblemished skin.

  “What? How?” he raggedly exclaimed, arms dropping. Sarah giggled and let go of Ghost’s hand, running around the young alpha, heading straight for the younger cub where he sat on one of the couches. She hopped up next to him and handed him the muffin, whispering in his ear as she stared at Ghost.

  “Hi,” Ghost said to the other young wolf with a small half-smile, and the alpha pulled himself together enough to really take a longer look at Ghost. This alpha was bruised as well, and Ghost was confused. He was grown, fully joined with his wolf spirit, but he wasn’t healing. He was covered in bruises too, a spectacular one blooming on his left cheekbone, blackening his eye and part of his cheek down to his jaw.

  “Oh! I’m sorry about Sarah, she said she was going to the bathroom and never came back. I was about to go find her….” The alpha shook his head, still mightily confused. Ghost gave him a full smile to reassure and breathed deep, his nose twitching as he got a hint of a sharp burning sensation in his nose.

  Silver.

  He held the scent of silver in his nose, his thoughts besieged by worry at the amount of poison he was sensing, and felt a rush of cold and damp air flow up his back, over his shoulders. It was as if he were outside, snow under his bare feet, the scent of frozen things and slumbering trees surrounding him. It took the bitter tang of silver to get him to focus again, and he realized the whispers were back. Saying something to him, conveying a sense of urgency, of purpose, flowing into his body and mind. He returned his thoughts to the wounded wolves in the room, and the alpha still gazing at him in confusion.

  They weren’t healing because they had silver in their bodies. Like Sarah had, just in higher quantities.

  “Why haven’t you pushed out the silver?” Ghost asked curiously and stepped to the young alpha, who stared down at him, about half a head taller than he was. He leaned in, just a little and breathed in again, this time through his mouth. Saliva burst on his tongue, and he felt a faint burning down his throat. He swallowed and it went away, as he dropped back on his heels.

  “The silver? What?” the young alpha asked, and he finally caught up, shaking his head. “I can’t do that, I’m not strong enough.”

  “I have a task or two for you when you get back, after you learn to walk as a man. All you have to do is listen, and you’ll know what to do.”

  Her words came back to him, as if she was there at his shoulder, and he was in her snow-covered meadow. She is here with me.

  He was listening. She was speaking to him.

  “Yes, you are,” Ghost told him, half his mind listening to that prodding inner something that made him reach out, and the other half of his mind flipping the switch on his Spiritsight.

  He saw a glimmer, a dark metallic sheen, flowing with the alpha’s blood through his body, pooling in the bruises, the ones on his skin, and the ones deeper, in his muscles, and some along his ribs and near his hips. It was slowly, very slowly, being forced out, his organs trying to filter it, but it would take forever at the pace it was going.

  “I’m not… what are you doing?” the alpha asked nervously as Ghost moved right up into his space, inches apart, and he raised his hands, palms up, and waited. “Shaman River said no shaman could expel silver in such a quantity. What are you…?”

  “I’ve done it before. Can I show you?” Ghost asked quietly, thinking of when that male doctor had stabbed him with a needle back at the sanctuary, filling his veins with silver and poison, and how he’d forced it back out with his inner light. With Sarah, he’d pulled the silver out for her and healed her wounds, but this young alpha was grown and could do what needed to be done himself. He just needed to be shown how. Once the silver was out, he’d heal as fast as Ghost did.

  The alpha, he thought Sarah called him Gabe, sucked in a deep breath of air and carefully put his hands in Ghost’s, eyes wide with nerves and stress.

  *Watch me. See through me.* Ghost pulled on his Spiritsight and reached out with his mind, gently pulling the alpha—his name was Gabe—into his mind, and let him see what he was seeing. He felt Gabe’s alarm and an almost overwhelming awe. His mind relaxed quickly, and Ghost sensed a simple and pure thread of trust running through his thoughts. He trusted Ghost simply because he was a shaman, and that trust made Ghost’s heart hurt, a soft pang he felt to his very core.

  Shaman he may be, but it was her guidance, her prompting, that lead him to what must be done. Ghost listened, and the knowledge came with her whispers.

  The star that burned in Gabe was a light red and blue orb that flared sporadically, and it was dimmer, duller, than the stars that burned in the healthy wolves behind Ghost. With his Spiritsight up, he could see the constellations of the small crowd that was in the hall, the three brightest stars his soulmate, the other shaman, and the female clan leader. The other stars weren’t important, and after a quick mental scan of his surroundings, his focus returned unerring to the injured alpha.

  The silver traces in Gabe were lines of gray clouds that marred the perfect finish of a magnificent sunset. It ebbed and flowed on the wind of his pulse, covering the flares of light that tried to fight their way out from under the staining. />
  *Watch me,* he whispered again, and he reached, as he had with his own starlight that very morning when he called on his magic. He reached past the silver lines, with hands that were a scorching source of pure energy, and touched the dull star in the center of the injured wolf. He gave this time instead of pulling power from it; he had an endless flow of energy around them from which to draw. He could see the magic in the air they breathed, in the sunlight that poured warm and heavy through the large windows, and in the other wolves cowering on the couches, their own marred starlight aching to be freed.

  *Silver cannot abide the light of your star,* he whispered to the mind sharing space with his, and he felt Gabe’s wonder and trepidation. He gently batted the fear and nerves away, and as the red and blue star gained strength from his inner star, he sent out flicks of light, twisted strands of red, blue, and silver, arcing over the surface of the alpha’s star. With each lightning fast flick of light, the silver backed away, moving like particles of dust in a stream of clear water, collecting in the low and hidden places of the alpha’s body.

  Ghost let the silver collect, showing Gabe how to force the spread-out poison to come together, as it was in every muscle, nerve, and bone, and as stubborn to remove as ice collected on damp fur in the depths of a winter night. As the silver pooled, he guided Gabe’s light, corralling the poison in his stomach. He was forcing it through tissue and through organs, particles so fine they clung to the small, magic-producing sparks that Kane’s influence within his mind was saying were things called cells. Gabe moaned, feeling the poison moving through him, hurting and relieving aches at the same time. The silver raced ahead of the lights, and Ghost gave Gabe a mental shove, a gentle one, but forceful enough the alpha was taking over from him before he realized what was happening. He still gave Gabe energy, but the alpha had the gist of it now, and finally, he chased all the remaining silver to his stomach.