Wolf Reborn

by Rebecca Royce

  Vaguely, he was aware of the fact that the growling and howling he heard in the background was Summer and Cullen following him. They wanted him to stop, afraid he would hurt himself.

  But he knew better. In no way was he suicidal. Not while he still carried Faith protectively in his own soul. There was still work to be done, and he could save her. They needed that book and then the demons would pull their influence from Faith. She would return to her wolf-shifter self.

  He would not fail. Reaching the cliffs that overlooked the Atlantic with no view of mainland Maine but rather the vast nothingness that was the blue sea, he whirled around and howled once more but not in pain or agony. No, this was a battle cry, and he would not lose.

  Chapter Twelve

  Faith pushed herself harder to reach the tops of the clouds. It was so damn cold on this plane of existence, so green, and so wet. Why couldn't she be home where it was warm? Where three red suns kept their body temperatures at a reasonable 103 degrees all the time? Sighing she moved more quickly. The second she crossed into the top atmosphere, she'd be closer to the Earth's measly one yellow sun and it would do for heating her body. Once she was warm, she would concentrate on either finding the others or finding another way to get home.

  Flapping her wings, she made one more surge towards her destination.

  "What are you doing, Faith?"

  Stunned, Faith fell a few feet down before catching herself. Her heart pumped wildly and she whirled around looking for the person who belonged to that voice.

  "Over here."

  In front of her stood a dark woman. Stood was actually the wrong description. Floating, that was what the stranger was doing. Arms crossed with small glasses covering prominent cheekbones, the raven-haired new arrival held a vague aura of familiarity to Faith, as if she'd seen her somewhere before but couldn't place quite her, as if they'd once sat next to each other an airplane or passed on the street.

  "How are you floating like that?" That seemed to be the most relevant question to Faith. It wasn't every day you saw a regular human floating above the earth.

  "I'm not--well, not really. Don't you recognize me?"

  Faiths gave the woman a long, hard stare confirming in her mind that she wasn't crazy, somehow she did know this person.

  "If you've forgotten me, then that is your own doing. You were certainly old enough to remember."

  Something about the woman's tone irked Faith and caused a tightness in her stomach. Why was she bothering with this? There were tasks to perform, members of her kind to find, and a home to return to and yet even as she floated above the ground she felt frozen to her spot as if she couldn't move even if she attempted to. It was like someone had attached dumbbells to her feet making it impossible for her to anything other than just what she did.

  "I'm not hallucinating. That much I'm sure of. My new superior abilities prevent me from doing that so I know you are here and you are floating so cut the crap whoever you are, and get to the point."

  The woman raised an eyebrow. "Is that how you speak? Did you just say 'cut the crap?' Charming."

  Faith sighed. She was not going to get out of whatever this was easily. Playing along might be best. "Alright, whoever you are, I'll apologize for my language but do you think you could get to the point? I'm cold. I need to warm myself for a while."

  "What you need to be doing, young lady is getting back on track. Stop indulging in this nonsense. You are not a demon; you're a wolf shifter of the highest degree. Your family was always amongst the strongest and right at this moment you're disgracing it."

  So not only did this presumptuous woman refuse to tell her who she was but now she lectured her on responsibilities and her family? Who was she to say anything regarding things she couldn't possibly know about?

  A sharp pain struck her left temple and Faith closed her eyes. An image appeared and for a moment she was pulled from her body and entered the scene in front of her. She sat on the floor of a cabin--she knew the cabin, or at least one like it, they were still on the island. Cullen and Summer, along with some of the other more reclusive wolves, still lived in them.

  What was she doing here? Looking down at her hands, she jerked upwards. She had small hands, tiny actually, like she was a child. Her head shot downwards as she quickly tried to assess the rest of herself. Her dark hair hung low, almost to the floor. Patting her face, she felt small features and her ears were unpierced.

  How had this happened? She swung around wildly, nearly falling flat on her face even from her position on the floor. In the distance, she heard voices, she could make out they were two people but other than that she was still clueless as to what was going on.

  Rising to her feet, an event that took a lot less time than it would have if she were at her regular height, she crossed the room silently. A small, antique wooden mirror hung over what looked like a vanity. On tiptoes, she pulled herself up until she could see her face reflected back at her. Gasping, she covered her mouth with her hand.

  Her own reflection stared back. Just not the one she was used to seeing, although she'd once seen it all the time. Almost three decades ago, she'd sat by a stream in the backyard of her foster parent's home and stared at the little girl, whose face floated above the stream, looking back at her. Over and over she'd repeated the phrase 'there are not people who turn into wolves' until she'd believed it and something precious had died inside of her. Most of that had come back to life when Tristan had changed her into her shifter-self in the jungles of Mexico.

  The rest had reanimated the first time she'd smelled Theo in the woods and known she'd finally returned home.

  So what the hell was she doing back in her nearly ten-year-old body in a cabin on Westervelt?

  "Quiet, Maryanne, she's going to hear you." A male voice spoke harshly, his tone critical of whoever this Maryanne was.

  "Let her hear me, Abe. If danger is coming it affects her just as deeply as it does us."

  They discussed her. The people in the other room must be her parents. A lump formed in Faith's throat. Even returning to Westervelt, she had never allowed herself to think about the family she'd lost when Kendrick had cast his spell on the pack. It was a pain she'd overcome through sheer force of will as a child and she didn't need to reopen those wounds just because she was now back and living in what essentially amounted to her 'home town.'

  But now she wasn't being given a choice.

  Compelled by a will she couldn't deny, Faith snuck down the small hallway and turned the corner to the bedroom. In front of her stood two people, one of which she had just seen floating in the sky, and the other a tall, blond haired man she could only assume was her father. Well, she could do more than assume it. Truth was she had his cheekbones and bone structure. Despite their differences in coloring, there was no question she was related to him.

  Though she supposed most people would say she looked like her mother. The dark hair they shared was misleading. It would be all some people would see when they looked at them. To Faith, even looking at her with adult eyes, her mother was the most stunning woman she'd ever seen. It wasn't so much that she was glamorous or sophisticated, no it had something to do with her mother's inner confidence and a sense of self that just radiated through her pores.

  Faith sighed. What would it have been like to grow up with these people? Well, she guessed technically she had grown up with them--the first ten years of them, if you could call that grown up.

  "Abe, look at the child, she's as pale as a ghost." Her mother looked at her; even through the glasses the other woman wore, Faith could see her matriarch seemed sad. It was something in the way her eyes tipped down to the left and sparkled like they held back tears. She had never had children but she imagined it wasn't unusual for a child to be so in tune with their parents' moods that they knew them just from small visual cues. Whatever else she'd lost of her parents over the years, this she still retained.

  "I told you she could hear us."

  Her mother moved forw
ard and stroked the side of Faith's face with her palm. "Is that it, baby girl, did you hear us and get frightened?"

  Nodding, because she didn't trust her voice and the truth was so darn weird they wouldn't believe it anyway. Her father hissed a breath and pulled the two of them into his arms.

  "It's very unusual for your mother to not be able to see the future clearly. She's had the gift since she was quite young, like you do."

  Internally, Faith blanched. She didn't have the 'sight,' she was the only woman on Westervelt who didn't. Her talents only related to Theo, didn't they?

  "But as I've been reassuring your mother tonight, nothing nefarious has to be going on. Perhaps we, as a pack, are at a hiatus and the future will become more clear when our Alpha makes a decision or moves the pack in a direction it's yet to go."

  Maryanne pulled out of the group embrace. "Oh our Alpha...yes Kendrick and his wise choices."

  Snickering at her mother's tone and recognizing that she often sounded that way, Faith was glad to see her mother had held trepidations regarding Kendrick. Her father growled, his eyes turning wolf.

  "That's blasphemy and you're teaching the child nothing but disrespect."

  Deciding enough was enough, Faith opened her mouth to speak but found she could not form words, or at least the ones she wanted to say. It was like her mouth wouldn't cooperate with her brain. Damn. Evidently, part of this experience was not warning the people around her of what was to come.

  Was it her destiny to constantly feel ineffectual? She wanted to stomp her feet.

  Her mother put her hands on her hips. "Someone is about to knock on the door."

  Sniffing the air, her father whirled around as a knock sounded. "Who is it? Why is it disguised from me?"

  "I don't know. They must be eating those herbs that are not supposed to exist."

  Storming toward the door, Abe threw one last glance at his family. "If they're trying to hide their scent, what are they doing here?"

  "You're acting like I have the answers to these questions, hon. Open the door, let's find out."

  Her father did as his wife asked and Faith waited with baited breath. The herbs they discussed were commonplace now; it was why it had been so difficult to identify the traitor. Why had they been secret and who had controlled them? Faith's mind whirled a mile a minute while she contemplated these questions and what the answers would mean.

  The woman who walked into the room like she had Satan on her heels was not someone Faith had ever seen before and yet she knew her as well as she knew herself. Theo's memories plowed into her mind, invading her own thoughts. It was Mary Jo. Gasping, she knew instantly what was about to happen.

  "Abe and Maryanne, I'm sorry I don't come under better tidings."

  Abe furrowed his eyebrows. "Does the Alpha require my assistance?"

  "I'm afraid it is too late for that. We may have to rise up against him." Mary Jo shook her head as if she couldn't believe she even contemplated the idea. Faith felt sick for her, butterflies that felt more like needles danced in her stomach. "I've come for Faith. It's not too late to save the unmated girls and women. It's all I can think to do."

  The room spun at Faith's feet and she closed her eyes in an attempt to keep her balance. Grabbing her forehead she watched as the room around her dissolved in manner similar to chalk washing off a sidewalk during a rainstorm.

  In no more than three seconds, she floated again over the Earth, the clouds at her feet. She whirled in a circle but there was no sign of her mother anywhere. Had the whole thing been a figment of her imagination?

  Her insides started to rumble as the demon inside of her pulled on her mind to gain her attention. She shook her head. No way was she falling back under the spell so easily. Visions from your past didn't just present themselves to you without a good reason. She had literally held no memory of her parents moments earlier and now she could recall Mary Jo coming to get her and take her away from Westervelt.

  What did it mean? Like the time she and Theo had been transferred to his near deathbed, there was obviously something she was meant to have seen or learned. But what was it?

  Her eyes flew open. The herbs. That was the key. They had been secret when her family had lived on the island but now they weren't. Now they were available, if one knew where to look for them in the greenhouse that had once been maintained by the women everyone referred to as the Aunts. These days it was sort of a group effort in keeping up the greenhouse. Most of the time it got forgotten. It was just a simple matter of going in and taking them if you wanted them.

  Theo had seen two traitors. Why had they forgotten that in all of the excitement? Nicholas Rice was in no way involved in this all on his own. There was someone else and the key to finding him, to saving Theo and anyone else who was going after Kendrick and the spell, was to bring that traitor to light.

  She needed to get back to Westervelt immediately before Theo left and walked into what was most likely a trap. Swallowing her fear, she turned and let her demon senses fill her only so far as they allowed her to target Westervelt and direct herself there. It was like she'd swallowed a homing beacon. Her eyesight changed and tunnel vision beyond which she could have ever imagined took over her senses. All she could see was Westervelt and as she nose-dived through the sky towards her old and now new home, she was vaguely aware of the cold sky air whooshing against her body and the way her skin was pulled backwards because of the speed of the flight.

  But none of that mattered. If the demon was giving her anything useful at all, it allowed her to stay completely focused on a task at hand and not worry about anything she shouldn't be concerned with. Truth be told, she missed her wolf. Hopefully, there would be a reconnection between them in very soon. Until then she'd just have to do her proud.

  The ground approached quickly and Faith braced herself for a rough landing. Her feet hit first, jarring her knees, and she remembered too late that skydivers at least slowed down before they wrecked their bodies in the landing process. Sighing, Faith momentarily closed her eyes and waited for the pain to pass. If the demon hadn't usurped her wolf she would be able more quickly. Of course, she reminded herself, that logic didn't really work because if it had just been her wolf inside of her, she wouldn't have been flying in the first place.

  After a few seconds, her knees stopped panging and she moved forward at a fast run. Sniffing the air before she forgot that sense was not currently working, she still let herself growl in her throat. What could she say? It pissed her off that she was stuck like this when she was meant to be a wolf and there was nothing more satisfying than a growl, even a pathetic non-canine one.

  If Theo was already gone, and in her gut she knew he was because after thinking he lost her he wouldn't waste any time, then she desperately hoped Cullen and Az were still here. Reaching the main house, she ran inside and nearly collided with Tristan.

  He narrowed his eyes before he reached out and grabbed her arms. "Faith? You're back. Theo and Gabriel just went after our father to retrieve you."

  Nodding, she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I worried that might have happened. They're going to need help and I can do that but first we have to address a problem and there is no time to get it done." She held two fingers up. "There's more than one traitor."

  A roar ripped from Tristan's throat and a door slammed behind him. Ashlee ran out holding Virginia, Braden attached to her leg. "What is it?"

  "There are two traitors and my brothers are walking into a trap."

  Ashlee's eyes turned wolf and she gripped the children more tightly.

  Time was running out so Tristan and Ashlee were going to have to catch up if they wanted to help as she moved along. "Has Cullen put Nicholas to death yet?" There was no question in Faith's mind that would be the sentence. Even before Kendrick had betrayed the pack, death was the sentence for traitors on Westervelt. It was one of the few things Tristan had not altered when he took over.

  Her Alpha looked down at his watch. "It was suppos
ed to be sometime this afternoon so I'm not sure. Hold on." Faith waited anxiously for Tristan to communicate telepathically with the pack's oldest advisor. Seconds later Tristan shook his head. "Not yet."

  "Tell him we need to know about the second traitor and ask him to find out everything he can about the herbs that make you scentless. Meantime, I'm going to try to work out the problem with Az." Faith turned to run down the hall. "Oh and Tristan, your mother, she was fearless. I see where you all get it from."

  * * * *

  Faith found Az where he almost always was: his laboratory, tinkering with something she didn't recognize. She shook her head; she wasn't going to ask him what he was doing because there was no time to listen to the explanation. Running to his side, she grabbed his shoulder and startled him. Out of all the Kane brothers, Az always seemed the least wolf-like. Anyone else would have scented them when they approached.

  "Azriel, I need you to tell me everything you know about the herbs that make you scentless. Is there anything else they do?"

  Theo's brother sat back in his chair as he considered her question for a moment. "I've never taken them myself; I guess I never saw the point."

  Faith shook her head. She couldn't get upset. He didn't know the pressing nature of this situation. "Look Az--"

  "We need to know right now. Theo and Gabriel's life depends on it." Tristan interrupted, arriving behind her and she was grateful that he'd spoken out loud instead of telepathically. Since she couldn't currently communicate with her wolf, she wouldn't have been able to hear it.

  "As I was saying, I've never taken it myself but Dad used to have a lot of theories about it, which was why he stored it away and never let anyone--even Cullen--near it."

  "Your mother took some of it, that was how she snuck all of us unmated females off of the island. But we're getting away from the point, sort of." Faith's mind churned like a coal engine of a train. Kendrick had known there was more to it. That was key and it led credence to the idea that the unknown traitor ingested it to become invisible. Their former Alpha would have instructed him on how to use it.