The Poison

LORELAI

The poison worked quickly, spreading through every pack member who had consumed the water. But it didn’t kill them; it was worse. It made them scream in pain for hours. They couldn’t shift; they were pale, howling messes that didn’t heal.

And there was nothing we could do.

I had pushed magic and shadows through them; I had tried to heal them, but it couldn’t find anything.

Whatever was poisoning them was undetectable.

I stormed through the hospital, my mouth dry, as it was every day now.

We had no water source, nothing to quench the thirst that wasn’t ale or wine made before the water was poisoned.

We couldn’t wash clothes. We couldn’t water the gardens.

We had found that out too late.

Half our crops were wilting and dying, our food sources dwindling by the day.

It had only been three days, and we had no water for our livestock either.

The humans were fine; they weren’t affected, which made us think whatever had happened, the vampires were at fault.

They attacked every day. They knew we were weak, knew something was wrong with the pack. They pushed against my magic border around the top of the city walls and didn’t stop for hours, keeping me strained and pissed off.

They were taking us down, and it felt like they were barely trying, losing nothing.

We had everything on the line.

If they won? We would lose the city, live as rogues, escaping into the forest to survive every day. It felt like we were doing that anyway.

I ran to the rooms with the wolves, rushing in with some clean pails. We had to wash them out using rope, sinking them into the trough, then letting them dry hanging before we could grab them. Or we burned.

I shook my head, overwhelming anger taking over me. My body shook as I dropped the pails in the room.

Fuck, this emotion stuff was impossible to control. I ran from the hospital, bursting out of the door and down the steps. I needed to breathe; I couldn’t look at the wolves while they were so sick.

It reminded me what a failure of a luna I was.

I was meant to protect them. And they were in so much pain we couldn’t even openly access the pack link because it brought us all to our knees.

I turned around the buildings of the city. All stone, wood, and thatch work with moss decorating the sides.

It was beautiful and ours. All we had to do was keep the evil out. But how could we do that when they knew every weakness to exploit, and we couldn’t touch them?

We couldn’t storm their castle; we didn’t have the numbers.

I could use my magic to get us in, but then I would be tapped out by the time it came to taking out Silas.

And that was who we had to end. He was the one orchestrating this entire thing.

And taking advantage of it.

I turned, looking at each part of the city, my heart swelling with pain and love as if the idea of saying goodbye to this home was enough to make my chest feel like it was being crushed.

I had never had a true home.

Sure, the village had been where I lived, and my mother had always been my family, but that place was full of memories that weren’t comforting.

I had been scorned, shunned, had eyes rolled at me more often than not, never picked for any group, always scolded. All because I was winter born.

There, it had been a curse.

But here in the city? It was a gift. One I thought could save the wolves and our home.

I was starting to think that wasn’t true.

I crouched to the ground, taking deep breaths as the anger and frustration rolled through me in waves of red. I tried to break through it with reason so I didn’t shift, but it was fucking hard.

I wanted to run, to feel the world through my wolf, let it solve my problems.

I was knelt on the cobblestone in the shadows of winter stretching between the flame torches and the city walls when I heard it.

A whisper.

~“The water,”~ it said.

I shot up, narrowing my eyes around me. My shadows and magic broke from me, swirling around me, ready to get whoever was whispering, not showing their face.

I scowled at the darkness.

~“The water,”~ it whispered again in a soft, broken voice.

I stepped forward over the cobblestone, my boots loud in the silence.

I checked down the alleys, walking between the wolves’ homes that in this area of the city were two-story townhomes.

There was no one there.

“I’m going fucking crazy,” I said to myself.

Then strong hands wrapped around my waist. I gasped, spinning to face the assailant. My shock melted into a smile when Kai grinned down at me.

He spun me, pressing me into the wall in the alley, smothering my mouth with his.

I kissed him back, raking my nails down his bare back as he lifted me onto his waist.

“We can go crazy together, Little Luna,” he breathed against me.

I nodded into the kiss. “Did you hear the voice too then?” I asked.

He pulled back and frowned. “What voice?”

I stared at him, not sure whether he was fucking with me or not, but he seemed serious. He got a cute little worry frown between his brow when he was being serious, and he wore that now.

“Nothing, keep kissing me,” I said, pretty sure I must’ve imagined it.

He hesitated, then did as I asked, kissing me again. His tongue pushed into my mouth, dancing with mine as I held his bulky shoulders.

“Not in my alleyway, you two. Go on, shoo,” an elderly lady came out of the tall stone house we were against with a broom. She brushed Kai with it, shooing him, literally.

“Sorry, Gloria.” He smirked, then put me down and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the alleyway.

Gloria was one of the few wolves that had stopped shifting a while ago and triggered the aging process. They were mostly left to their own devices and carried a wicked attitude, usually because they had been through a lot to get them to the decision to stop shifting.

Kai looked down at me, leading me through the streets.

They were somber streets and had been for a while. The darkness seemed thicker, the torches flickering in warning. There wasn’t as much music being played, and there were more fights.

Most gave up before it could become serious, though. Nobody had the energy to fight each other. Not over trivial things when the vamps were picking us off.

Juniper’s tavern was the busiest building other than the hospital. Not just the drinks, but the brothel.

Drinking and fucking was the only thing that seemed to help them control themselves.

“Which is exactly why I came to find you,” Kai smirked.

I grinned up at him, being led to the mansion.

He took me inside and up to the suite where Brax was. He had the twins lying down on the bed, playing with them.

“Derik’s at a council meeting that is going around in circles, and there’s nothing to do since I still can’t shift, so I thought I’d hang out here with the twins,” Brax said, then eyed mine and Kai’s locked hands. “Unless you need the room?” he offered.

I smiled and shook my head.

“Kai can wait. Patience is his best quality,” I teased, knowing that it most definitely was not. He knew that too and gave me a dry stare. Brax laughed, and I went over to the bed, sinking onto it next to him.

The twins babbled away, growing amazingly well for such a rough start to the world. I grabbed Zale’s little hand as he reached for me. My heart swelled at the way they trusted us so implicitly with their lives.

They didn’t doubt we could win this war for them; all they knew was that whatever they needed, we provided. We were their comfort, their home. I couldn’t imagine that being ripped away.

I wouldn’t let it.

Zale gripped my hand tighter, and I looked down at him.

He held Enzi’s hand.

I met his eyes and sucked in a breath.

Gold.

Both of their eyes flickered with gold, like speckles of it polluting their natural color. It looked just like the magic of the witches.

Realization dawned then: the same magic they had absorbed from the beast, which is why I was the only one who could see it.

I smiled and leaned down, kissing both their hands that glowed with the magic between them.

They were so special, so special. Miracles, if I’d ever seen any.

And they were ours to protect, which meant there was no way I could let the water being poisoned take us down. We were wolves. We fought back. We didn’t sit and wait to die.

I growled and stood up, heading for the door.

“Not a chance, Luna, not while you’re wearing that face. That means you are going to cause trouble that will get you hurt,” Kai said.

I shook my head at him as Brax watched. I knew he would use his shadows on me if I tried to get out without answering.

I would’ve done the same thing.

I huffed. “I’m not going to intentionally get in trouble. I’m going to see if I can fix this water issue. I think I have a lead, and I need to go follow it,” I said.

They looked skeptical. “I’m coming with you. Two sets of shadows are better than one,” Brax said, climbing off the bed.

“No, I have to do this alone. Look, I heard a voice, okay? I don’t know who it was, but they sounded desperate, like they were trying to help, and I think they were telling me what I have to do,” I said.

I should’ve known that would not help.

Kai growled and straightened so he was fully blocking the door with crossed arms over his chest.

“Sounds like a trap.”

“Gonna have to agree with Kai here, Spitfire,” Brax said in a much nicer tone.

“It’s not. Please trust me. I feel it; I have to do this. Whatever that voice was, it needed me to listen. I can’t risk not doing that when the pack are on the other side of the city in excruciating pain. Don’t you want to shift again, Brax?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Not if it means you getting hurt.”

They weren’t going to budge. But I wasn’t asking.

I pulled Kai into me and kissed him.

He let it distract him for a few seconds, then pulled back.

“Not going to work this time, Little Luna,” he whispered, then kissed me again and went over to the twins. He sat down and started playing with them. Brax sat down next to him, doing the same.

“Go out that door and my shadows will drag you back, Spitfire.” Brax smirked.

“I wasn’t going to,” I said, sitting at the other end of the bed to spend time with my family.

Biding my time.

It was well into the night by the time I could slowly creep out.

I had spent the rest of the day with the twins, had dinner in the hall with the pack that could be there, then fucked my Alphas into exhaustion.

Then I had waited until they fell asleep and made my move.

I grabbed my cloak and pulled it on, then grabbed my boots.

I left the room, clicking the door shut as quietly as possible. I slipped on my boots and ran with a racing heart that matched my footsteps.

They’d feel me get further away, but by then I’d already be too far away for them to stop me.

I wasn’t an idiot; I knew it was dangerous.

But it was worth it to save the pack.

I had some of Mom’s werewolf toxin bombs for the vamps, I had blades tucked in, I had my magic, my shadows, my wolf. I was prepared for it all.

I even left the links wide open so the Alphas would know exactly where I was at all times. Same with the pack. They would be able to get to me, to help whenever they woke. I wasn’t stopping that.

But I knew I needed to follow the lead I had been given. I didn’t believe in coincidence, not anymore, and that voice coming to me on the bridge of despair as I tried to keep my shit together was not an accident.

It was giving me an out that I had to listen to because I was desperate enough to. No way would I listen to a random voice if I wasn’t.

I left the mansion and made my way down to the gates. The wolves frowned at me as I went through.

“I’m heading to the lake to see if I can stop what’s happening to our wolves; I’ll be back soon. If the Alphas wake and wonder where I am, tell them that,” I said.

The ones on guard, Kai’s guard, looked like they wanted to argue, but we could all hear the screams from the hospital.

They all nodded and let me go. I knew they’d tell Kai as soon as I was gone, but they wouldn’t be the pack I was trying to save if they didn’t.

I ran toward the lake, knowing it was going to take longer on foot, but I was not as good in wolf form yet. Wielding my magic as a wolf was much harder, so I stayed human.

I could’ve taken a carriage, but I wanted to have full range of sight and instinct with me. Being inside a carriage would have hindered that.

So I puffed and ran as fast as I could.

By the time I got to the lake, I was panting. My brow was lined with sweat, and I put my hands on my hips, inching forward.

The lake looked perfect. Still a glowing blue in the dark night.

The torches still flickered.

I swallowed hard at it. How could it look so beautiful yet be so destructive?

It didn’t even look poisoned.

But it was. That I could feel as I got closer to it.

How could the vampires do this? It was a direct attack on the realm. Did the vamps not need water? Did the poison not affect them?

That single thought had everything clicking into place.

I sucked in a breath as I got as close to the water as I could.

There was only one thing that affected wolves and no other race. The one thing that could poison the pack but leave the lake looking serene.

Wolfsbane.

A growl vibrated in my chest, and I peered over the edge, checking the water.

I could see far enough down to see the offending purple root. As if the whisper voice was there, helping me, a single petal floated to the surface.

I grinned. That meant I could save the pack. The realm hadn’t turned.

I couldn’t get in; the water burned me too, but I knew my magic could cut through.

I sent it straight down with a strained effort.

It was harder than I thought, getting the wolfsbane out of the lake. My magic was bordering the city off, inside the wolves to keep them shifting and alive, which was more taxing on my dehydrated body than I thought.

My magic was warm, the air changing around me as I ripped the embedded roots from the lake bed and threw them out of the water. I found every petal, every root.

But it ached in my body.

My magic was determined to get the task done; I made sure of it, my will strong but my body was tired. My soul exhausted.

I struggled as the magic poured and stretched. I gritted my jaw as it tried to take me down. My blood raced, my heart pumped.

My head was throbbing, and I panted as my body tried to collapse. I let it take me to my knees, then held tight. I would get this done.

I had to. For Zale and Enzi. For the pack. We couldn’t stay the way we were, slowly being killed off.

We were stronger than that. I was stronger than that.

I screamed out as the power exploded out of my body in a rush of will and adrenaline, blasting the lake with purple magic. It threw out every bit of wolfsbane poisoning it in one swoop.

My magic, proud of itself, snapped back into me so fast it knocked me off my knees. I collapsed on the ground, breathing hard, staring up at the dark sky.

My head swam, my body too tired to move.

I couldn’t hear my Alphas in the link, too disoriented and weak to focus, but I knew they were there.

I sniffed the air as another scent came close. It wasn’t my Alpha’s, and it wasn’t my pack. That much I knew.

I wanted to get up and fight, but my body was done.

My eyes fluttered, trying to close. I fought back that exhaustion with everything, but it was useless.

Whatever was out there was getting closer, and there was nothing I could do.

My eyes closed, and I smiled at the peace in me. The water was clean, the pack was safe.

Now I just had to hope my Alphas got to me before whatever was coming up fast on the lake and my unconscious body. I passed out before I got my answer.