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“None. They never treated me like pack,” I admitted.
“You’re in the right place, then,” she said.
A lump rose in my throat. I thought maybe I was in the right place, but my time was limited. I took a sip of the espresso and reveled in the bitter sweetness as it coated my tongue. It was delicious. “This is perfection.”
“It really is,” she agreed. “You’re a good fit here. Nobody would know you’re from Wolf Creek.”
“Thanks,” I said, not really sure what else to say.
“You should know that of all the packs, Wolf Creek is seen as the worst. They’re violent, controlling, and carry a big stick. A really big stick.”
“They were that way with those of us who lived there too,” I said. “Is the toxin the stick?”
She nodded. “It’s one of a kind. Nobody else has the recipe, though gods-know nobody else would want to use such a terrible weapon.”
“What does it do?” I asked.
“It takes our ability to shift, and with it, our ability to heal. While it’s in our bloodstream, we’re essentially human. We have all of their weaknesses and none of our usual shifter strength,” she said.
My lips parted and I stared at her in disbelief for a moment. That was my life. Everything I’d ever known was the pain of being human. But as far as I knew, nobody else in my pack experienced that aside from my mom. How could they have had something like this and never told us?
“How is it applied?” I asked.
“They use a dart, shoot it at their victim,” she said. “Most of the time the shifter doesn’t survive.”
“That’s awful.” I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Okay, that’s not true. Something like that would be very fitting for certain people I’d left behind in Wolf Creek.
“How do you cure it?” I asked.
“You don’t,” she said. “You have to wait for it to leave your system and hope that you can heal from the wounds they give you before you die. That’s the part that makes it so terrible. They use it first, then they attack and leave you to bleed to death.”
“Only Wolf Creek has this?” I asked.
She nodded. “When it was invented, the high councils all tried to get the recipe and destroy it but the inventor fled. Wolf Creek welcomed him with open arms.”
“Sounds like something Wolf Creek would do.” My throat felt tight. How could such a horrible thing exist? Of course Ace would use it against other wolves.
I tensed. “What happened to Justin? Why did they use that on him?”
She shrugged. “That’s the part I can’t figure out. He was just going to trade for supplies with the High Key Pack. They knew he was coming, and they claimed they had nothing to do with it. I don’t know why he was attacked.”
I swallowed hard. If someone from Wolf Creek had attacked a feral shifter, did that mean they knew I was here? Were they waiting for me or were they right outside town, waiting to attack us all? This had to be what Alec was talking about.
“Thank you for the coffee,” I said, setting the unfinished cup down. I had to find Alec and figure out what was going on.
I walked away from the common area, toward the woods, hoping I was following the correct route. Squirrels darted in front of me, running when they heard me approach. Birds called warnings to each other, but other than that, the woods were silent.
It was still early enough that a chill hung in the air and dewdrops clung to the pine needles. I rubbed my arms with my hands to get some warmth. The deeper I walked into the woods, the cooler and darker it got. I wasn’t sure I was going in the right direction, but I had to find Alec. This couldn’t wait. There were far too many questions circling my mind.
Growing up, we’d been taught that the Wolf Creek Pack was powerful. A favorite pack of the wolf shifter king, a model pack, blah blah blah. It got old fast. All the crowing about how excellent we were while keeping strangers out and never allowing us to explore the rest of the world.
I’d grown up so isolated in my pack, that I no longer knew what was true and what had been hidden from me. Why didn’t I know about a toxin that could prevent a wolf from shifting? Was that something the others knew about? Or was it only Ace and his crew?
It was odd that there was a toxin that existed that could cause the exact problem I had. If not for the fact that you had to be shot with it, I might have worried it was used against me. But why bother with me? I wasn’t important enough for them to care about. Plus, there was that whole mated to the alpha’s son thing.
I stopped walking as a strange sensation washed over me. Longing, desire… there was a tiny part of me thinking about Tyler.
Fuck no.
