Chapter Eleven
Cat closed the novel on a sigh. The footsteps pounding up the stairs could only belong to one person, which meant the scene she’d been begging for all day would have to wait. The man headed her way had become her everything, her reality, and no novel could top the fact that she had her own sexy Alpha about to walk through the door.
Except he wasn’t alone.
Voices talked frantically on the other side of her bedroom door, one of them belonging to Killian.
“Take her in that room. I’m going to take Emery to Cat.”
Jamie’s voice was almost incoherent with rapid-fire whispers. “Killian, tell Cat to be careful with her. I’m not sure what’s going on—”
“Jamie,” Killian cut him off. “You know just as well as I do that Cat out of everyone here will be able to help them.”
Silence followed until the door shot open. Cat jumped, and the guilt of eavesdropping turned her face red. Until she saw Emery’s limp body in his arms, her hair draped over Killian’s tan arm in crimson curls.
“Oh, my God, Killian,” she gasped, stepping toward him.
“Cat, you need to use it.”
Her gaze shot to his. There was no question in her mind what he meant, and the rigid line of his shoulders and tight lips told her just how serious he was. She swallowed the anxiety that rose from within her.
“What happened?”
Killian walked around Cat toward the bed, where he carefully set the tiny teenager on their red sheets. Emery’s freckles contrasted starkly with her sickly alabaster skin.
“I was training Skylar and accidentally struck her across the face.” He looked down at the body shivering on their bed. “She just…froze. I couldn’t stop it. Skylar dropped, and then I was met with a very angry little she-wolf standing between me and her sister.”
Cat stepped forward, laying her hand on Killian’s shoulder. His skin felt cold and slightly sticky from the thin sheen of sweat. The stress that shook his voice disconcerted her. He was always so sure and confident. He exhaled heavily and looked up at her.
“I had to force her to change, Cat.” His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. “I had no choice.”
Cat closed her eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder. A forced change was hard on a shifter, especially the human side. Chances were that if you were forced to change by your Alpha, it was because you’d lost control. That meant the magic of a change was abruptly refocused from the wolf to the human, shifting the current so it gave control back over to the human. But the wolf, especially a strong wolf, did not like being pushed down so quickly. It would fight within the human, lashing out and creating immense pain. It was like a human’s worst migraine multiplied by eleven. And that wasn’t including the feeling of sandpaper scraping against the shifter’s innards.
Cat took a deep, shaky breath and released Killian. She walked across the room to their walk-in closet and opened the hidden compartment behind a tall standing mirror. There it hung, a green jade circle with the carving of a wolf howling at the moon. It looked so innocent hanging by its leather strap, but she knew what power it held. A power that other shifters would kill for. It hummed from the compartment, but it was a sensation she knew only she could feel.
She slipped it over her head and raced back to Emery. The little girl shook and mumbled under her breath, and Killian stood over her, his hands clenched in his hair and his face full of utmost shame.
“Killian, you said it yourself. You had no choice.” Cat sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch Emery’s skin.
“Cat.” He sighed, but Cat held her hand up. She shot him a look she hoped was full of the daggers she felt like throwing at him.
“You’re not allowed to blame yourself for being a good Alpha. Now get over it.”
His amber eyes burned at her command, but he nodded anyway. His jaw clenched, and he shifted his gaze away from Cat.
Cat held her hands out over Emery. She’d never used the amulet before. The Faol Geal, or White Wolf, so named after her ancestor many centuries ago. A magical amulet created at the request of her ancestor so she could control the quick-to-fire attitudes of her children. The first of the shifters. Cat wasn’t even exactly sure how it worked, but she was going to do her damnedest to make sure it worked on Emery.
“So…are you supposed to chant or something?” Killian asked, worry lacing his tone.
Cat glared at him, but didn’t even give him the benefit of a response. Instead, she shook her head and closed her eyes.
She tried to block him out, the strong scent of his spice and wolf, and focused in on the girl. She pictured Emery in her head, the sweet but feisty redhead with more freckles than white skin. The amulet hummed around her neck, and Cat listened to it. It pulsed in her mind like a beat fighting behind a barrier. She concentrated on it, desperate to pull the barrier away, to bring the beat forward, to bring the magic to the forefront of her mind. She imagined it like a door she had to open, and once it swung open, the magic came bursting forth. She gasped against the release.
Magic slammed into her like a pelting wind full of rain, littered with glittering stars and blue aura. The beat thrummed in her mind like another heartbeat. But somewhere in her mind was something unfamiliar. Yet her wolf recognized it, and the magic pushed her toward it. Pain. Visceral, excruciating pain surrounded the dark shadow in her mind. It screamed at her, desperate for some sort of release. Cat’s heart burst at the pain, so familiar yet so different from anything she’d ever experienced. Her magic battled to get closer, but couldn’t break the barrier. Not alone, anyway.
Cat imagined herself touching the being, willing it to feel something. To feel joy, to feel peace, to feel happy. She shoved magic toward it and sighed when the magic found its way. It wove through the cracks of the brokenness in front of her, pushing away the pain and replacing it with contentment. In place of the dark shadow was a beautiful red wolf, curled up on itself, resting.
She knew the moment it was finished. The darkness was gone, and all that was left was the steady beat and thrumming of the magic. So Cat opened her eyes and looked down at the body in front of her.
Emery had rolled on her side at one point and now seemed to be resting. Her mouth curved in the smallest smile. Cat sighed, relieved to see the peace on the teenager’s face. She’d put that there. She’d been able to take the pain away with one simple amulet, one simple action.
“To think you were about to throw that in the lake,” Killian whispered from next to her.
Cat looked up into the wide eyes of her mate. Strangely, the magic didn’t seem to only work on Emery. Even Cat felt relaxed after experiencing its power. She hadn’t felt relaxed in the last couple of weeks, so she thanked the goddess for the sweet relief.
“Killian, that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever done,” Cat whispered.
Killian knelt in front of where she sat on the bed until his face was at the same height as hers. He cupped her cheeks with both hands and ran his thumbs over tears she hadn’t realized were falling.
“It wasn’t too bad to watch either, little wolf.” He smiled a little, his eyes searching hers carefully. “Cat, we have to do more with this. After watching what you just did…” He paused, as if thinking about the right words to say. “Do you realize how many shifters we can help?”
The words stuck in Cat’s throat. Out in the shifter world so many were killed. They would go lone wolf and go crazy, or something personal would set them off, or maybe they were abused and unable to control their wolves. The power she’d felt once she opened the door meant a chance to end that. It would mean so much for their race.
Instead of speaking, she leaned her forehead against Killian’s and inhaled his scent. If she could help any wolf from experiencing the pain and suffering she had, she would do it in a heartbeat. So it was time to stop hiding the amulet and use it for what Killian believed in. What she believed in. She nodded and sobbed out a laugh.
“Yes, Killian. I think we might just be able to do that.”