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“There’s a mountain goat below us I’ll try to come around so we can get a better look at him”
It was all the warning he had before they dipped and his stomach dropped like he was on a rollercoaster he fought hard to remember what not to touch while still searching for something to hold on to.
His wolf didn’t care for the weightless feeling and made that displeasure known by raking his claws along the inside of Clay’s ribs making him squeeze his eyes shut and grit his teeth to maintain control.
His wolf was getting harder to deal with. Meeting Jade hadn’t improved the situation any. The animal didn’t understand why the man hadn’t secured their mate yet and the longer Clay delayed the more insistent the lycan side of him became.
She was theirs he felt it in his bones. He could feel the caution that she exerted over their interactions. It tore him apart inside that she didn’t trust him until he reminded himself that she wasn’t a lycan and without the blood bond she wouldn’t feel the attachment to him the same way that he did to her.
He was in uncharted territory uncertain how to claim her as his mate and reveal what he was to her.
Clay knew there was one person who could help him. His cousin Jace had mated a human and would help him if Clay asked for advice.
There were vague references to other human mates in the pack records and Clay knew he’d read about them during his research, oddly though they were difficult to remember even after just having read some of the entries. As though his mind wouldn’t retain what he’d just read. When he asked Kelly about it she hadn’t remembered reading about any human mates. A fact that he found strange since she had scoured the records before mating his cousin Ryan.
It made him wonder if the records were authentic, and question if they could have been altered somehow.
He’d visited every pack and was ashamed to admit he hadn’t made much more progress in person than Kelly had made just by reading the records, other than the strange reference to human mates Clay had only expanded on Kelly’s original timeline for the fertility issues. He felt it was bringing them closer to an origin but he still felt that he hadn’t made enough progress.
Once he could see the whole picture each pack’s records painted it became obvious that the problems had started with the Coldridge pack with Jace and Ryan’s family. From there the problem seemed to spread slowly at first but if Clay was interpreting the data correctly things had sped up recently and now impacted the lycan community like an aggressive cancer strain it was spreading like a disease infecting the packs.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jade wasn’t looking forward to seeing her great aunt. Deliah had always made her uneasy growing up. Her grandmother’s sister had been one of the coven’s strongest members in her youth. While her power had grown with age as was typically the case with a witch's health wise she hadn’t been as lucky.
She was frail the bones of her hands twisted like gnarled branches locked up with arthritis. Her complexion once fair like Jade’s was now paper-thin and etched by time. It was her eyes that made Jade pause they were darkly shadowed with something Jade couldn’t name and held a knowledge that made Jade’s blood run cold.
“You smell of dog, girl.” Deliah’s tone was sharp and bitter. “I’ve told you a million times to keep away from those mongrels they are nothing but trouble.”
It was true she didn’t like the pack. She’d never had a kind word to say about the lycans when Jade was growing up and as the years passed her distaste for them had only gotten worse.
“Aunt D stop, you know my job means that I have to deal with the public. I can’t refuse to serve members of Martin’s pack it would draw too much attention to us and that’s the last thing I would think you’d want.”
Jade moved into the room to gather the laundry she’d come to help with, ignoring the loud sniff that her aunt gave her. If Jade didn’t know better she’d have sworn that her aunt was part lycan herself.
“That’s not one of Martin’s fleabags that I smell all over you.” Her eyes narrowed carefully.
Jade moved away from her aunt again uncomfortable with the energy that she was putting out. She’d always been a bit intense but never to the point of scaring Jade like she was now.
“They have a visitor. He’s been in the diner a few times. I don’t know which pack he’s from though and it’s not as if I can ask without revealing that I know about the packs.”
The details they had on the packs weren’t much they knew there was more than one pack in the area and when they were close to the member it was relatively easy to tell them apart from other people.
It seemed her aunt had an even greater ability than she’d ever let on she had before. It seemed as if she could tell the difference between specific packs. Though it was possible it was something else Jade thought as she watched the play of emotions that crossed her aunt’s face.
“They aren’t bad people.” She started to defend the lycans but the angry look Deliah gave her had Jade closing her mouth quickly realizing that arguing with her was pointless.
She refocused her energy on gathering the dirty laundry from the hamper in the bedroom and separating the clothing into their respective piles by color.
“I brought you a few meals for the week and pie from work. They are in the bag I put on the kitchen counter.” She said as she put the detergent into the machine and started the first load.
Whatever her great aunt muttered was drowned out by the sound of the water filling the basin.
“Do you have anything else around here that you’d like me to help with before I go?”
“There are herbs and some vegetables in the garden that need to be harvested.” Jade ignored Deliah’s bad manners and the way that her aunt barked at her without saying please or thank you, making allowances for her old age instead of calling her out on her bad behavior.
“Would you like to come out and keep me company while I pick them? It’s a beautiful day.” Jade knew but the set of her jaw that her great aunt wouldn’t be joining her.
