Chapter 12: The Wolf

The doors at the back of the hall banged open.

"It's wolfsbane," Carrie said.

She strode up the aisle with a thermos in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other.

Heads turned all the way down the rows.

"More than a trace, and no accident. There's enough in every cup to keep a wolf's first shift buried for good."

She raised the paper.

"I ran it twice since the sun went down."

She slapped the paper on the head table in front of Ernest.

"It's Ernest's own thermos," she said. "He left it in the Alpha's kitchen on Sunday."

Nobody spoke.

One of the elders reached for the page and read it. His lips went white.

"Ernest?" he said.

"It's a sedative," Ernest said.

His voice was calm and gentle.

"She was a frightened child, and she had a gift she couldn't control. I gave her something to help."

"A gift?" Dane said.

"Her wolf."

Ernest said it plainly, and nothing in his heart moved.

I stood in the center aisle and felt the floor drop out from under me.

"I have a wolf," I said.

"You always did, dear."

"You told me I was wolfless. For twelve years."

"I told you what kept you safe," Ernest said.

"Safe from what?"

He looked at Dane.

"Ask him."

Dane's hand came down on my shoulder.

His voice, when it came, was a rough thing I hardly knew.

"Nan. Look at me."

I looked up.

His eyes had gone gold, completely, with no brown left in them.

"Do you feel it?" he said. "Don't fight it."

I did feel it.

It started under my ribs as a low pressure, and then it was everywhere.

The moon had come up over the pack hall.

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