Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,45
armchair. I had my own instincts, but I knew, after years of being honed as I sent him and Ethan off on challenges that were unique to the pack, anything from criminal investigations that necessitated liaisons with the humans, to business meetings I didn’t want to handle myself, I could trust his instincts too. He continued quietly, “Sabina asked you for your help.”
“Why did she bring me here? Do you know?” my sister-in-law questioned, her brow puckering as if she was in pain.
“She believed you could help Seth. He’s been living with us for a while, and he does very strange things,” I rasped.
“He will,” she agreed. “The power in him is causing a spiritual degeneration. He is only small, after all. He can’t withstand such a force.”
My brain flickered from thought to thought, processing her candor, her beliefs, because even though I’d been raised with the fear of invoking the Father, it was a tale told to terrify children into behaving… A myth.
It had to be.
Who was possessed by a spirit?
And if that was ever to happen, how?
Children weren’t invited to the totem circle until their covenant. Then, and only then, were they touched by the Mother. What could Seth possibly have done to have welcomed such a malignant force into his being? He was, as Lara had said, only small.
It made no sense.
None of this did.
I pressed a kiss to my mate’s hair, then when she sighed, her lips parting as she exhaled, “Eli,” we all tensed, but when she relaxed and slept again, I felt something in me, some inner ball of tension, ease.
She was here.
She was okay.
All was going to be well.
Clenching my eyes closed, I kissed her again.
“Eli?”
Lara’s soft voice caught my attention, and I rumbled, “Yes?”
“Maribel…there’s something unusual about her.”
My eyes popped open at that, and I sensed Ethan and Austin’s distinct interest. It was always strange to feel their mutual reactions, each processed in a similar yet different way.
Ethan processed things clinically, Austin was more hot-headed, handling emotion first, then fact.
Regardless, they both sat up, and I felt their focus narrow in on Lara.
“What about her is unusual?” I questioned, trying to keep my voice low so that I didn’t scare her.
She bit her lip. “If I see a shadow in Seth, I see a light in her.”
I tensed at that. “In Maribel?”
“Kind of.” A breath escaped her, and it was shaky and a little lost. “This is very stressful,” she whispered. “I’m so used to keeping these things to myself, expecting to be called crazy. I can’t even believe I’m telling you this when it sounds so absurd. Of all the insane things I’ve seen over the years, though, this has to be up there, and that’s why I’m telling you.”
When she gulped, I inserted, “This is a safe space, Lara.”
Her laughter was soft. “No, Eli. Nowhere is safe for someone like Sabina and me.”
My denial was instant, as was Austin and Ethan’s. “Sabina will always be safe from physical harm.”
“Abuse doesn’t have to be physical. To live is to hurt,” she muttered, her words dripping with sorrow. “Look at her now, you can’t protect her from this. You can’t protect her from what life throws at us. We’re magnets, Eli. We attract these things. These situations.
“You can’t protect her from her fate.”
The words resonated with me deeply, and though they speared in on a core of rage that flared to life at her statement, one that was forged in my wolf’s belly, which I longed to release onto her for daring to say that I couldn’t protect my mate, the proof was in my arms.
Sabina’s purpose was not like my own.
Mine was of the earth. Grounded and tethered to this place. To this time.
Sabina wasn’t. It was through her that we’d transported to that other world, that realm where we’d claimed her. She was how we’d learned our strengths and weaknesses, the ways in which we could grow to better defend her and our pack.
I couldn’t say that I understood the ties Sabina had with the Mother, because it wasn’t my place to.
“How do you know this is her fate?” Ethan asked, his seat creaking as he got to his feet and strode over to the foot of the bed.
“Because every gift we’re given is bestowed for a reason, isn’t it? Doesn’t it make sense that we’re not given it to be wasted?”
Her reasoning wasn’t exactly flawed, but it most definitely wasn’t soothing.