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"Is he as kind a man as he is in the temple? I've never been one to trust a priest."

"He's... he is." Bryan looked away. He hoped his father wouldn't be able to see through the lie. If he'd had his strength, there would've been no hiding anything from him, but now...

"Then the arrangement was a good thing after all." His father groaned. "I should be out there. Damn healers can't do a thing for me. They say their medicine should be making me stronger, but I only feel worse. You shouldn't have been forced to take a mate."

Hearing him speak this way caused Bryan’s heart to ache, but he swallowed the pain and put a reassuring hand on his father's shoulder. "I'm fine, Father."

"The healers are useless. There's some insane part of me that's willing to go the Direlings at this point."

Bryan was horrified. "What? Father, don't say that. They'd kill you."

"Or maybe they'd grant my request and use their magic to heal me."

"You're not making any sense."

He coughed a hoarse laugh. "I know. Why would they accommodate an enemy?"

"Direling magic isn't real, Father." His father had always spoken ill of the Direling tribes, so to hear him speaking like this was alarming. Was his mind going now, too?

"Yes," his father murmured in a low tone.

Why did he sound so skeptical?

"Father," he said slowly. "Direling magic isn't real. You know this."

"I've... seen things." He gazed out the window, his eyes distant and his voice thin. "Things I couldn't believe. Refused to believe. I shared them with no one. Not even your mother. Not even my own men."

"What are you talking about?"

"My first encounter with them. I was about your age. Sent into the Grimault Forest with a scouting party. We thought that the Direlings had fled far into the Wild Lands after the last incursion, when we'd killed their clan leader. But they were still there, not far beyond the border. They'd cut this... thistempleinto the forest. I don't know what else to call it. There was this ritual. I'd never seen such vile depravity. And in the center of it all washim. The man I'd seen killed before my own eyes. They resurrected him. They'd brought him back to life."

Bryan shivered. "Father, certainly that can't be true. And wouldn't everyone else have seen him?"

"All were killed. Except me. They spared me, for some reason. To tell the story, maybe." His father seemed to slump further into the chair, becoming even more decrepit. "I kept the details to myself. You're the first to know." He sounded vaguely surprised, like he couldn't believe what he'd just said. And Bryan couldn't believe it either.

"But... afterwards? The other raids? No one recognized him?Someonewould've seen his face and known."

"I was the only one to see his face. I saw it was him."

"Father..."

His father pounded his fist on the armrest. "Dammit, Bryan, I know what I saw!" The sudden outburst sent him into a fit of harsh coughs. "Shit. I know what I saw."

"Okay," Bryan said, rubbing his back. "I believe you."

"Don't tell anyone. Especially Lukas. Or your mother. I don't want them to think I've lost it."

He agreed, but even he wondered if his father was all there. Not wanting to further disturb him, he didn't pursue the topic any further. The hour was getting late, and he needed to get to the temple to deliver Josef's lunch. He said goodbye to his family, promising them he'd visit again soon, and departed in wolf form.

He was worried about his father. His condition was obviously deteriorating and what could be done? Nothing. Just like so many things, he was powerless to help. He felt the shadow of death slowly creeping over his family's house, ready to slip its cold fingers around his father and drag him into the beyond. And he was worried about Lukas. What could he do to provide for his brother if he was unable to become pregnant? What would become of them?

As bizarre as it was, Bryan was unable to stop thinking about the Direling story. He'd grown up hearing all sorts of silly rumors about their supposed magic, like that they kidnapped people to sacrifice to their dire wolf gods in order to make the trees grow into monsters and take back the town, or they had the power to summon murderous wolf demons. The Direlings were frightening and dangerous, but they were just ordinary shifters. He knew that.

But his father had never been the kind of man to exaggerate what he'd seen. Or to fabricate. He'd always been no-nonsense, straightforward. Could he really have seen what he'd claimed to have seen? Bryan couldn't be sure. He didn't want to believe it, but also didn't want to believe that his father could be losing his mind.

"You're late," Josef said as Bryan walked into the temple. The great prayer hall was empty, the morning worshippers had long gone. Josef gathered the stack of handwritten prayers, raised them to his forehead to utter his blessing, and then tossed them into the flaming cauldron so that the wishes could be raised to heaven.

"I'm sorry," Bryan said, trotting up to the altar with the fabric satchel pinched between his fangs. He shifted back to human form and set the lunchbox onto the table. "It's lamb shanks."