Chapter l325

Chapter 0325

I shook my head. “What we need to focus on is stopping Jane once and for all, and getting my wolf back.”

“Then let’s go,” Julian said.

“Go.where?” Nicholas asked.

But I knew where he’d meant. “Veronica.”

By the time thee three of us knocked on Veronica’s door, it was close to 3:30 in the morning. Yet she opened the door like she’d been expecting us. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before. Maybe she hadn’t been to bed yet.

She stepped back, giving us room to enter. “Come in.”

Her lights were on. A pile of books was stacked tall on top of her desk, with a second pile beside it.

She looked between the three of us. “Something happened.”

Quickly, I gave her a brief account of events. Julian nodded along, chiming in where he could. Nicholas stayed behind, frowning at her. He hadn’t liked being kept out of the loop with Veronica’s identity. I supposed I couldn’t fault him for not trusting her right away, considering.

When I reached the point in the story where Jane shifted into my wolf and attacked me, Veronica perked up. When I said, my wolf/held back, she stopped me.

“It was going to kill you,” she said.

“I think so, yes,” I said. I was proud of myself for keeping the tremor out of my voice. It quaked my hands instead.

Nicholas finally stepped closer. He came to my side and took one of my shaking hands in his.

Veronica didn’t so much as bat an eye at his movement. Her full focus was on me now.

“But then it backed off,” she said.

“Yes.”

Suddenly, she clapped her hands together. “That’s it!”

I’d never seen her emoté so openly, so I watched in shock for a minute. Julian did too, though he recovered quicker.

“That’s what, Veronica?” he asked.

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Nicholas k*ssed me again, on the forehead this time. I closed my eyes to enjoy the press of his l*ps.

“I’m heading up,” Julian said. “Going to send for the guard. You two going to be alright…?” Julian glanced at us, then rolled his eyes. “Never mind. Stup id question. Just try to separate before the bigshots get here, okay?”

Nicholas glanced down at me. The blood had smeared at his l*ps. I imagined I had a l*p- shaped blood stain on my forehead.

Maybe I should have been appalled by that thought. I wasn’t.

“No promises,” Nicholas said.

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“The wolf never fully bonded with Jane,” Veronica said. She spoke quickly with excitement. It still belongs to Piper in its heart. Else it would have followed blindly and killed Piper without a second thought.”

“And that changes things?” Julian asked.

“That changes everything.” In a flourish, she turned toward her desk and rushed over. “That makes all of this so much simpler. Whoever completed the ritual must have been such an amateur, or they were rushed, or… no. Likely the receiver of the wolf was not an adequate candidate.”

She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Did Jane have her own wolf?”

“A weak one,” I said. I’d always wondered what had happened to it, since she had claimed mine now. Surely there couldn’t be room inside of her for two different wolves?

“A foolish mistake,” Veronica said. “Instead of trying to cultivate the strength of her own wolf, she stole someone else’s. To do that, she would have had to sacrifice her own.”

I gasped. “Is it dead?” She could have given it to another.

“Most likely.”

compass,

I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. Someone like Jane, with such a limited moral might not see anything wrong with sacrificing that part of herself to make room for something she considered better.

“Your wolf never trusted her,” Veronica said. “It must have retained some of its memories. Ah, this is fantastic. You must have had a strong bond. This will help us.”

I could hear what Veronica was saying but I was afraid to surmise further. I didn’t dare hope.

Nicholas had no such inhibitions. “Does this mean you can give Piper her wolf back?”

“Yes,” Veronica said, so simply, like that didn’t change my entire world. “All we have to do now is trap Jane. And I can return Piper’s wolf.”

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