Sam reached into his pocket and removed his wallet as Charlene answered my first question.
“So far, the humans who are compatible with werewolves are gifted.” When I looked at her speculatively, she said, “Yeah, I can manipulate people’s minds, plant thoughts in there, and make them do what I want.”
The idea of that scared me, but no one else in the room seemed too bothered by it.
“I learned at an early age what I could do wasn’t a good thing and started to fear people would come take me away because of it. So I ran and ended up here.”
Though her gift concerned me, it also gave me comfort because now I knew I wasn’t alone. Maybe she knew why my gift had suddenly changed.
“Did anything happen to your ability when you met Thomas?” I asked, absently accepting the picture Sam had plucked from his wallet.
If my suspicions were right, her ability would have changed when she met her Mate. But, without knowing exactly what these strange abilities were for or where they stemmed from, it was hard to say if my theory was right or not.
“No,” she said, disappointing me. “But when I Claimed him, he changed.” She looked at Thomas, and he nodded as if encouraging her to continue. “A pack leader can only hold together a pack size equal to his mental strength. His command needs to encompass the entire group. When it can’t, the members see weakness and leave. So by nature, the pack size remains equal to the power of the alpha. Once I Claimed Thomas, his capacity to control more members grew. Even now, we could welcome more members if they wanted to join us.”
So Charlene’s gift hadn’t changed, but Thomas had. Why after the Claiming? Could it be that her ability had changed before that, but she hadn’t noticed? Did this mean when...if...I Claimed Emmitt, my gift could change again?
Stumped, I finally looked down at the picture in my hand. I felt the same sense of recognition as I had when I first saw Charlene’s picture, but this time I had an explanation for it.
“This is the girl from my first vision. She was studying. College texts, I think. One of you was lying beside her. A huge dog with a long, shaggy brown coat. I saw her petting him.” I looked up and saw Sam’s surprised expression. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, no. It’s just...she tolerates coming here but doesn’t really have a fondness for any of us.”
I wasn’t wrong in what I’d seen. “I guess we just have to see what comes to pass. Maybe it was just a picture of a possibility.” I passed the photo back to him.
Sam stared down at the picture in his hand, a slight smile on his lips. The girl in the picture might not have a fondness for them, but Sam definitely had affection for her.
“Do you know of a way to reach Blake?” Thomas asked.
I started to shake my head no but then paused. “There’s a lawyer who seems to be in contact with him.”
“A lawyer?” Thomas said.
“Before I ran, my stepfather left me an envelope filled with documents and stuff, including a number for a lawyer. I looked the lawyer up online and sent him an email. He replied right away, asking for a meeting to read Richard’s will. But he mentioned Blake too, so I never responded.”
“Perhaps we could work through the lawyer,” Charlene said, hope buoying her words.
“If the Elders can’t communicate with him, the only chance we have to get the answers we want is face to face,” Thomas said. “Not through a lawyer.”
Sam nodded in agreement but looked troubled.
They were right. I doubted Blake would respond willingly to a phone call, email, or third party. If we wanted answers, Blake would need to be confronted face to face like Thomas said. And, I realized, I would have to do it. He had no reason to acknowledge anyone else in the room.
Ice formed in my limbs.
“I need to go back.”
Charlene and Nana Wini shared a worried look.
“No, honey,” Charlene said. “We’ll think of something else. Now that you’re here, and Nana put out a call about your protection, there’s a possibility he’ll come to you.”
Fear swamped me.
“No. I don’t want Blake here.”
I didn’t want Blake anywhere near my brothers. Yet, that’s exactly what would happen now that he’d found us again. He was probably already tracking us or trying to. If I left the boys here, surrounded by werewolves not controlled by Blake, and went back to Wisconsin to lead Blake away, my brothers would be safe. Well, safer. Still, I wasn’t willing to throw myself at Blake for the sake of a few unanswered questions—no matter how much I wanted the answers.
“Michelle, it would be better for you to stay here,” Charlene said.
“For me, but not for Liam and Aden. They are how he controlled me before.” I didn’t want to go back, but I would to keep them safe.