Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,42

and jerked them apart.

When Sabina looked at me, my jaw clenched. Her eyes were white, filled with a gold mist. Just like that day back at the clearing. The day we’d claimed her.

She stared up at me, the moon in her eyes, as she rasped, in a voice that was not hers, “He takes. He plows. He forces. He will not stop. He will not rest. He will not sleep. Death will not change him. Acceptance will not come. Until the sun and the moon shine at the same time, there will be unrest.”

And with that, she sagged. Her body folded in on itself, falling down until she almost sank into the ground, face first, unaware even that Knight was in front of her. Eli caught her, barely, and twisted her around so that she didn’t fall on our son, who instantly started bawling.

I couldn’t blame him.

Whatever the hell was going on here, it stank, and somehow, we had to get to the bottom of it.

Eight

Eli

She slept for eighteen hours straight, and throughout that time, we panicked. The panic was fucking real. It had all of us on edge, and for the first time since I’d stepped up to the plate as alpha of the pack, I closed the doors to the packhouse and shut up shop.

Now wasn’t the time to be a leader.

Now was the time to be a mate.

I rubbed a hand over my face as I slumped on the sofa in my corner of the room. My gaze instantly went to her, and then and only then, did my heartbeat cease its pounding.

The second I looked away, the panic returned and the shameful feeling of failure would hit me.

I was the alpha.

I’d already failed my pack by allowing the parasites of my parents to hold sway over me, and now here I was, my mate in some kind of stupor, thanks to a bizarre trance that she’d been held in by… Well, we didn’t know, did we?

We had to assume it was the Mother.

But if it was the Mother, then how had she communed with us outside of the totem?

That was a gross impossibility, which meant my woman was somehow in touch with another spirit.

And to be completely frank, one spirit was one too many, never mind goddamn two.

As terrified as we were, I’d gone to the totem halfway through her sleep, hell bent on speaking with the Mother, but She hadn’t let me speak with Her. Hadn’t even let me in the damn circle, and my rage at Her was only equaled by my fear for Sabina.

My jaw was tense as I turned to my brothers, and I caught them staring at her as well. Austin had even gone so far as to move his ‘throne’ which usually faced the TV on the mantelpiece, and now looked directly onto her, as if she were a game of football he was riveted to.

Ethan’s corner consisted mostly of books, and his window-seat faced the room anyway, so he could read and keep an eye on her at all times on a regular day.

Nothing about this day was regular, however.

That was why Ethan didn’t have a book in his hands.

Cracking my knuckles, I rasped, “Whose spirit did she invoke?”

Ethan blew out a breath. “Invocations haven’t happened since the sixteenth century. At least, as far as I know.”

“It would be recorded, wouldn’t it?” I queried, my voice husky with hope.

“I’d have thought so. It would be in the databanks for sure.”

I knew him too well, though, so any hope deflated as I groused, “You checked and there was nothing?”

He shrugged. “Like I said, nothing since the sixteenth century.”

I grimaced. “So what happened? It was an invocation, wasn’t it?”

“Had to be. Her eyes were like what went down that day in the circle,” Ethan replied grimly. “All misty white with gold swirls? Creepy as hell.”

Austin shivered. “I remember that. I was hoping it was a one and done thing.”

“Well, guess again.” Ethan scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

“All that she said, all that shit about taking and claiming…was that like some kind of premonition? Or a complaint?” Austin whispered, raising his legs on the recliner so that he could rest his arms on his knees. His bare feet slipped slightly against the leather, making a squeaking noise that had Sabina flinching.

The sight of that faint movement had me jerking upright, and I glanced at her, watching every move she made until I recognized that she hadn’t woken up,