“It’s also why we’ve been so careful to guard the existence of your magic,” she continued. “Because if other Packs knew of your existence, it could spark a war. Regions would fight to possess someone capable of increasing their Pack size.”
Pre-Dominant Harka glanced at Rafe. “Which is why we will continue to keep your abilities a secret outside the Northern Lakes Pack—though the rest of the Pack will be informed—for now.”
Rafe ducked his head in a sign of submission.
“How can you know I have this magic?” I asked. “Is there some kind of test?”
Greyson stiffened—the first movement he’d made since I settled down into place. (I wasn’t sure if this meant he didn’t like the fact that I could be a Wolf’s Kiss, or something else.)
Pre-Dominant Harka nodded. “A fair question. In reality, we’ve known since approximately your last year in high school and first year in college.”
I scratched my cheek as I tried to remember those years. Nothing special stood out. “Really? How?”
“Pre-Dominant Harka,” Greyson said. “There has to be another example.”
She waved her hand at him. “It’s the best one.”
“It’s not,” Greyson said, his voice taking on the sharpness he didn’t ever use in front of the Pack.
“We know, Phillipa, that you are a Wolf’s Kiss,” Pre-Dominant Harka continued, “because of your effect on the Pack. That was why Hudson had to re—”
“Enough!” Greyson snapped. “She doesn’t have to know this part!”
His power so thickly flooded the air, it was like breathing electricity.
Pre-Dominant Harka snapped her jaw shut, falling silent, while Ember and Hector stared at Greyson with wide eyes.
Wow. I also gaped at Greyson, shocked. Double wow. He just told off the Pre-Dominant, and she listened? That means he’s got to be stronger than her already? How is that possible?
I gawked at Harka, but she still was silent, pressed deep into her seat by Greyson’s oppressive presence.
This is real. He’s really keeping her silent. He’s more powerful than I ever thought—how can he do this? Wait…
Harka’s words finally caught up with me.
That was why Hudson had to re…? Why he had to what?
“Retire?” It wasn’t until I said the word out loud that the full force hit me. “Wait…Hudson retired…because of me?”
I turned my whole body in Pre-Dominant Harka’s direction, but she was silent.
“I have to be wrong,” I said. “There’s no way. Hudson left because Greyson needed a high position so he could be promoted to leadership within the community earlier. Everyone was talking about it.”
Greyson started pacing, and the death grip he had on the other wolves must have lessened a little.
Rafe was still choking, and Hector and Ember were a mixture of shock and awe—over Greyson, not me.
Pre-Dominant Harka actually had to move her lips twice before she could speak despite Greyson’s powers. “You were eighteen,” she said. “And your hold on the Pack was rivaling Hudson’s. Another few years…and the Pack would be entirely under your influence, and you wouldn’t know what to do with them, nor would they operate as well without proper wolf leadership.”
She glanced at Greyson, who was still stalking like a caged wolf. “Greyson was brought in…because we believed he was the only wolf with enough power to match yours. Anyone lesser, and you would have taken away leadership from them.”
Hudson had to leave…because of me? Lynn was ripped from the Pack she grew up with, all because of me?
“No,” I whispered. “No. That’s not possible. I didn’t mean to do anything like that!”
“You might not have meant for it to happen,” Pre-Dominant Harka said. “The majority of the effects of your rare magic are often unconscious. But…”
I didn’t want to hear any more. I couldn’t.
My throat closed, and I felt sick. I launched myself over the railing of my porch and ran.
Tears clogged my eyes, and I couldn’t see as I ran back up the path, hiccupping as I tried to hold my sobs in.
Everyone loved Hudson—I loved him! And because of me…
Greyson had to be brought in because of me. He’d left Colorado to take over a Pack he knew nothing about because of me.
Hudson—the one wolf who felt like family to me after Papa Santos and Mama Dulce—had left the Pack he’d grown up in and run…because of me.
My side burned, and a sob finally escaped from me, making my shoulders heave.
I tripped and fell, scraping my knees on the gravel path. I sat in the dust, and cried.
How could I? What was wrong with me?
I’d had my family ripped twice from me now.
That I was responsible for ripping apart an entire Pack?
Greyson appeared in my hunter senses, blazing like a white star.
I didn’t realize until he was standing in front of me that he was in his wolf form. I could barely make out his stark white body in the smear of the forest because my eyes were already swelling from my tears.
I wiped my face off with the hem of my shirt. “W-what?” I asked. “What is it?” I expected him to nudge me to my feet, or maybe growl in my face to get me up.
Instead, he leaned into me, pushing his furry head against mine.
There was something about the gesture. Even though I couldn’t communicate with him like other wolves could, I knew what he was saying.
I’m with you. You’re not alone.
Considering the lifetime of goodbyes I’d said, knowing that he was standing here—when he could very easily blame me for ruining his life—and was supporting me in my grief…it meant more to me than he could possibly know.
Greyson—who I had blamed for the loss of Hudson and Lynn when they’d actually left because of me—was here with me.
I felt like I’d learned a part of my life was a lie—that I wasn’t who I thought I was. In fact, I’d caused so much pain to the wolves I had loved dearly. And Greyson was still here with me, even though he was one of the ones I’d unknowingly wronged.
The last tiny remnant of the grudge I’d nursed against him evaporated, leaving me to acknowledge that trickster Greyson had somehow wormed his way into meaning more to me than I’d understood.
That he was here, with me—that he’d tried to protect me—meant a lot to me.
I started sobbing again and threw my arms over his muscled shoulders.
He didn’t pull away. Instead, Greyson whined and jabbed his wet nose in my ear, then scooted closer, curling protectively around me.
I rested my head on his chest and cried—for everything I had lost, for all the heartbreak I’d caused myself and those around me, for the unfairness of everything.
Epilogue
Greyson
I checked for the third time that Pip was really sleeping on the couch before I headed into the bathroom.
By the time she’d stopped crying and we’d come back to her home, Harka, her nephew, Hector, and Ember had left.
Someone—Hector, going by scent—had brought the cat food inside, and Ember had turned on the lights, so Pip didn’t have to fumble around in darkness as the sun started to set.
I’d waited until she’d made it to the couch and mashed her head into a couch cushion before I slipped outside to grab my clothes and change back into my human form.