Wolf of the Northern Star (The Wolfkin Saga Book 2)

by SJ Himes

  The gray wolf danced away from Ghost as he stood in excitement, turning to face his Goddess, a wide smile breaking across his face. She tilted her head to the side and curled Her long legs up underneath Her on the stump. “Is that all? Think.”

  “Caius.” She nodded, and the gray wolf whined, a low, sad sound that tore at his heart. “But why Caius? He is clan leader of Black Pine, and the wolves missing are Ashland. He has no connection to them. What is his purpose?”

  “His purpose is that he must go with you all when you track down Remus. He must be present. Do not let him stay behind while he sends his Heir, as has been his habit the last fifteen years. He has embraced his grief at last, and grows stronger within the pain he endures. He must go with you and Kane.”

  “Why?”

  She stood, moving to his side. She took his hands in Hers and met him eye to eye. Constellations flared and danced in their depths, and he breathed in, scenting flowers and blood and heat. “Three souls will need you when you find the missing wolves. Tragedy and a missed chance will destroy Caius and prevent a brighter future from unfolding if he remains behind. Do you remember what the human doctor told Kane?”

  “He made a hybrid, and did something called cloning.” Ghost replied. She nodded, Her grip on his hands tightening, urgency in Her words.

  “A wolf born not by my grace but the impertinence of man slumbers not far from the lost wolf. I would claim them both and call them home to the clans, but time is essential. The pack you have chosen must come together and find them all. Stopping Remus is only part of a greater whole.”

  “What?” Ghost shook his head, his heart aching. Doubts crept into his mind, but he banished them as fast as they appeared. Now was not a time or place for doubts.

  “A lost wolf, and wolf who slumbers, and your grandfather, will all die, and soon. If Remus learns what he has, the lost wolf will die before he bows to Remus’ will. All wolfkin will face exposure and war with humanity as Remus gives into rage and hunts our people openly. If you can make it in time but go without Caius, you can still stop Remus, but the sleeping wolf and Caius will die. What you bring back with you will break Caius past saving, because he will be too late when he learns the truth. If Caius goes with you, tragedy can turn to hope and all might be saved. You have what you need to save everyone, and stop Remus.”

  “I don’t know if Caius can survive anymore loss.” Ghost spoke quietly, the gray wolf’s ears drooping and his tail ducking between his legs. “Always duty before all else—and that left him cold and remote. Duty before all else has led to death and grief at every turn. Sending Kane in his stead will be his move because that is dutiful—the clan leader remains with the clan while the heir executes his will. And he will die for that choice.”

  “Yes.”

  So many futures, so many things that could go wrong. The thought of Caius dying, after losing so much, his life nothing but cold duty, grief, and pain, weighed on him the most. The gray wolf whined again, and Ghost looked down at him, sighing. Silver eyes pleaded with him to believe, to understand. He tugged again on an ear, and the gray wolf dropped his jaw in a wolfish grin, ears perking up and tail flagging with joy and hope.

  “You said hope for a better future?” He asked, wondering. “What do you mean?”

  “Find the missing wolves. Save the three who need you the most—the lost wolf, the one who slumbers, and your grandfather.” She looked down at the gray wolf, who with an oddly human gesture, nodded back at Her, once, firm. She turned back to Ghost. “Sacrifice, duty, redemption. It all comes down to one thing in the very end. Love. It can heal wounds, soothe scars, repair broken lives, and even right a wrong choice made for the right reasons in the depths of history. If you succeed, a wolf’s willing sacrifice from long ago will be rewarded, and the clans will have new hope to guide them forward. All choices have led to this point, this place, and the choices you have now. I have done what I can to rearrange the pieces, to return my children to the right path. All that is needed now is for you to begin.”

  “I will do my best,” he said, taking a deep breath.

  She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Pulling back, She smiled, a hint of fangs flashing in Her grin. “Your best has always been enough, my shaman.”

  She backed away, and with a bright flash, She stood before him as a wolf, grander than his mind could comprehend. A flicker of light and She was gone, bounding into the sky with a great leap.

  The gray wolf danced across the field, his coat shining under the starlight. Ghost gave in and chased the wolf, laughing as he ducked and wove around his legs, out of reach of his hands. The winter meadow began fade, darkening around the edges, but the gray wolf ran without hesitation, melding with the shadows perfectly, his eyes glowing in the night.

  Constellations

  Ghost sat up, breathing hard, the cool winter meadow giving way to a warm bed and a slumbering mate. It was fully night, the curtains around the bed tied off, a clear night sky shining full of stars visible through the windows.

  Constellations. The gray wolf. His Goddess.

  “Kane! Wake up!” Ghost shouted, tumbling from bed, tripping over the long hem of a pair of sweats slightly too big for him. He yanked the waistband up and dashed for the door, shouting over his shoulder. “Kane! I know how to find the missing wolves!”

  “What?” Kane sat upright, pushing tangled hair back from his eyes. “Ghost? What’s wrong?”

  Ghost threw open the bedroom door and ran into the main room. “I know how we can find the missing Ashland wolves!”

  Kane’s confused shout chased after him as he tore out into the main hallway and across the hall, banging on Burke’s door. “Burke! Wake up! Hurry!” He slapped the door hard a few times, and heard Burke’s startled exclamation from within. The door opened just as he was about to bang again, and Burke stared at him, wide-eyed.

  “What’s going on?”

  “C’mon!” Ghost grabbed Burke’s wrist and yanked, Burke’s shocked state the only reason he could move the bigger alpha at all. Kane came out of their suite, wearing a concerned expression and a pair of low-hanging sleep pants. “Kane, hurry! We need Gabe!”

  “Ghost! Slow down! What’s going on? Burke?” Kane asked, and Burke shook his head in confusion.

  Ghost tugged on Burke one more time before letting go and leaping for the stairs, dodging Kane’s outstretched hand. He took the stairs by three, following his nose to the rooms where Gabe slept. He reached the top of the stairs, the heavy footsteps of the two alphas right behind him.

  He found Gabe’s room, the plaque still bearing Sophia’s name, and burst through the door. Gabe must have heard him coming, as the young alpha stumbled out of his bedroom, half-asleep and confused. Ghost ran to Gabe and grabbed his hands, tugging him further into the main room.

  “What…what’s going on?” Gabe blinked, clearing away the sleep from his eyes as Kane and Burke burst into the room behind Ghost.

  “I know how we can find your family,” Ghost said, breathing fast from his rush up the stairs. Gabe’s mouth dropped open and Burke and Kane went quiet. “We can end this tonight.”

  “How?” Gabe burst out.

  “Your blood bond to your family. Burke’s mental range. Kane can access my Spiritsight. The four of us, a constellation of minds and gifts. We can do this.”

  Burke sat next to Kane, Gabe next to Ghost, and Michael paced behind them, his reflection blurring over the top of the glass coffee table around which the four wolfkin sat.

  “Do you understand what’s about to happen?” Caius murmured to Michael, who stopped his pacing and shrugged. Michael moved over to Caius where he leaned on his desk, and crossed his arms, eyeing the four wolfkin who sat quietly, hands joined together.

  His grandson had come charging into the study not long ago, dragging behind him a sleepy shaman and three very excited alphas.

  “
Kane can access Ghost’s Spiritsight, which is the strongest manifestation of the gift I’ve seen since…” Michael gave him a nervous glance, but Caius knew who he meant. “Since Gray Shadow.” Michael coughed, and continued. “Apparently, Kane shared it once with Burke. With Burke’s range as a Speaker, and combining the gift of command with Spiritsight, they can bypass the silver poisoning preventing us from reaching out to the missing wolves directly on a mental level. Gabe knows his family on a spiritual level, not just a mental one, and hopefully will be able to pinpoint which soulstars are theirs and not regular wolfkin.”

  “Why didn’t we think of combining shaman and alpha like this before?” Caius breathed out, rubbing at his face. It was rhetorical, and Michael didn’t answer. They both knew why. Alphas didn’t intrude on shamanic matters and shamans kept to their duties and rarely involved themselves in matters considered to be the purview of the alphas. Eons of tradition handicapped them. “Or even asking shamans with Spiritsight to search? The lot of you would have done so tirelessly.”

  “We didn’t think of it, either,” Michael replied, shame darkening his cheeks. “Not a lot of us have Spiritsight as powerful as your grandson’s, though, and we don’t use it in such an active manner. But we would have, if we’d thought to try.”

  “Hindsight is pointless now,” Caius said, and Michael nodded. “Is it working?”

  Michael’s eyes went distant, and after a moment, he nodded slowly. “Something is happening for certain.”

  Kane opened his connection to his mate, and the rush of awareness that met his mind almost broke him out of the mind link with Burke. The Speaker’s mind adroitly caught his, and the links steadied, growing more vibrant. Gabe’s awareness hovered just out of reach, but Burke gently reached out, and drew the young alpha into the meld. Kane was connected to Burke and Ghost, and Burke held the meld between Ghost and Gabe and himself. From Ghost came the Spiritsight, and Kane embraced the gift as it changed his perception. Where before he saw only the glow of minds, there was a new layer, and the whole world exploded with colors and vibrancy.

  The mansion was aglow, dozens of wolfkin soulstars burning with a kaleidoscope of colors, a rainbow of reds and blues and gentle yellows. Caius was a storm of dark red and smoke gray, and Kane knew him instantly despite never having seen this level of the other wolfkin before. He saw Burke and Gabe, and recognized them instantly as well—his soul knew them. Despite having limited mental contact with Gabe and none with Michael, his ability to recognize them transcended into this plane, this level of reality. It was as if scent, hearing, taste, and touch all became one and there was light deep within everything that lived.

  Ghost shined the brightest. Silver-white lighted that glittered and spun, a fiery inferno of brilliant energy that did not consume as it touched, but fed power into him. Ghost’s light traveled to his star, and from Kane into Burke and Gabe. He could feel the tension and alarm from the other two alphas as they experienced the full effect of Ghost’s Spiritsight. Burke’s brief exposure to it the day after Ghost returned wasn’t enough to prepare him for the unrestrained power of Ghost’s gift.

  *Easy—don’t fight it,* Kane soothed. *It’s just Ghost.* Gabe, oddly enough, settled down first. Kane could sense that Gabe trusted Ghost completely—there was a bond between the two younger wolves, it was similar to the one between Kane and Burke. Burke was hesitant, but soon the Speaker’s mind and emotions evened out, once again perfectly calm and in control. *Burke. See how far you can reach.*

  Burke’s range was immense. There was a reason Burke was courted by clan leaders every gathering. His skill and talent and power was singular, even among Speakers. And when he unraveled his gift of command to its full measure, the world opened around them further. The earth fell away beneath their feet and reality around them was shadow and shifting light.

  There was nothing holding Burke back except his willpower.

  It was dark, shadows for walls and roof, translucent darkness for form and shape. The earth below the mansion slumbered, a soft green awaiting spring. The forest around the mansion glowed green as well, with tiny flares of light for living creatures. A few wolfkin patrolled the grounds, betas who glowed rich dandelion yellows and soft, gentle purples and blues.

  Kane could feel Ghost’s elation, and Burke’s quiet surprise. Gabe was all eagerness and impatience, his mind tugging at Burke’s, trying to get him to move out further. When Burke let go, and his awareness spiraled out, Kane felt as if he were flying and falling at once.

  The melding settled, grew more concrete, and Kane absorbed the connections from Burke, leaving the Speaker free to cast his mind further into the night, Kane anchoring them all.

  Ghost chased after Burke through fields of starlight, Kane anchoring him. Gabe followed the same line to the Speaker as Ghost. Burke’s mind, his reach, was impossible to measure. They went up and out, somehow still in the mansion, but Burke’s mind spread out, and each new wolfkin mind flared when Burke used the Spiritsight that was communicated via Kane’s bond with Ghost. He fed as much of his ability through Kane as he could—this had to work.

  Weeks of captivity—the missing wolfkin would be weak, their minds dulled by silver. As would their stars—but that was why they had Gabe. His kinship would help the three of them determine if they had found the right wolves.

  Trees blurred into buildings. Paths in the forests became sidewalks. Fireflies of small beasts in the woods became the muted colors of humans, arrayed in soft palettes in large groupings.

  Augusta. The city shone to Ghost’s mental gaze as a nebula of spinning stars. Colors of every shade, the humans did not shine like wolfkin within his perception, making it easy to see the smaller starbursts of wolfkin amidst the human population.

  There were family packs, easy to determine by the red stars of alphas the soft glow of betas. Burke dismissed those minds as quickly as they made contact; Ghost could sense Burke’s realization of their identities each time. Gabe’s awareness hovered with Ghost, the young alpha impatient. He dismissed stars as swiftly as Burke did minds, increasing Ghost’s confidence that they would succeed eventually. All they had to do was keep looking.

  Through it all, Kane bore the brunt of their connections—he gave them all an anchor from which to cast off from. His mate took the mental strain in stride, his strength immense. His gift of command was nothing compared to Burke’s, but Kane could handle a melding of four minds while channeling Ghost’s Spiritsight. The flow from Kane was smooth and uninterrupted.

  Suburbs fell away as Burke combed through a few hundred wolfkin. Perception narrowed. Burke guided them down among ethereal shells of tall buildings full of muted light. Apartment buildings and hotels flashed by as humans were dismissed in great swathes. The speed of Burke’s mind was staggering—all Ghost had to do was make sure Kane got complete access to his Spiritsight, and Burke adapted to it quickly.

  The passage of time was different. Odd. He couldn’t tell how long it had already taken, nor how much longer it would be before they found something. The only measure of time he had was Gabe’s growing impatience.

  *I can’t sense them!* Gabe’s strained mental voice whispered along the meld.

  *This will work,* Ghost whispered back.

  Burke kept on, swiftly dismissing each section of the city. Eventually they came to a heavily populated cluster of buildings. It was odd—to Ghost, at least. It did not look like the apartment buildings, but close. *What is this place?*

  *University of Maine, Augusta campus.* Kane replied, his voice echoing along the meld. *Humans send their younglings to school and they live on top of each other each semester. Those are the dorms. We have a few wolfkin younglings enrolled, and some out-clan younglings here, too.*

  Even as Kane spoke, Burke found and dismissed the mentioned wolfkin younglings, nestled in their dorm rooms or in buildings, one of which Ghost guessed to be a library, from the shadows of countless boo
kshelves and tables laden with stressed students studying through the night or sleeping on their notes. Gabe’s impatience grew, and the young alpha pushed and prodded, desperation beginning to stain the red-blue of his star.

  Ghost sent a wave of wordless reassurance to Gabe, hoping that the young alpha would calm himself. Michael was watching them from outside the meld—if Gabe lost control, Ghost and Kane would be safe, but Burke was susceptible to the Voice, and Gabe might cause the Speaker inadvertent harm in his impatience. Gabe settled, but Ghost doubted it would be for long.

  Burke led them past the dorms, down grassy flat spaces and parking lots. Humans still dotted the landscape, and Burke headed for a bright swath in the distance, most likely more suburbs where humans slept in neat rows of houses. Ghost followed behind the Speaker, Gabe alongside, the young alpha despondent.

  A building on either side of a narrow street and empty parking lots signaled the end of campus before a long strip of narrow wooded lots that abutted a large subdivision of human homes. Dull stars of humans were spattered about, and the building on the left had a couple dozen dull stars grouped fairly close together…in a sublevel.

  The other floors of the building were empty—only the tiny flares of rodents and birds nesting. Nothing sentient moved around at all on the ground levels or higher. Only the basement level that ran the length and breadth of the building. It was only two stories tall, the ground floor space cordoned off into separate rooms along a central corridor.

  Ghost stopped, and sent his awareness closer. The spectral shadows outlining a flat, pocked surface of an empty parking lot sprang up around him, and Ghost moved closer, Gabe trailing along behind him. Burke went past, but stopped when he noticed Ghost wasn’t moving.

  Human stars were similar to wolfkin soulstars, but the burned in softer, muted hues, and did not have the same size or intensity. The lights were more varied in colors, too, humans’ spirits sometimes a myriad of mixed hues instead of a couple primary shades like wolfkin. These human stars were odd, half of them moving in pairs, a quarter stationary in one section, and the rest not too far from the stationary stars, they were moving about, but not much.