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Rue didn’t have any immediate knowledge about Duncan’s curse, but she found it fascinating and asked him to wait while she looked through her books for information on ways that magical artifacts could be linked to people.

He wore a less-than-delighted expression when she took out a magnifying glass to examine and measure his scar but waved for me to return home when I started yawning, the long night having caught up with me.

“Get some rest and something to eat,” he said.

He might have heard my stomach growl earlier.

“Okay.” I stepped toward the door but paused when Rue pointed at the medallion around his neck.

All except part of the chain was hidden under his shirt, but she could doubtless sense its magic.

“What is that?” she asked. “A new ornament, yes? It does not have the power to protect you from this curse?”

“If it does,” Duncan said, pulling it out from under his shirt, “it’s not been inclined to use it on me yet.

I’ve even rubbed it and asked it to, though I don’t know if there are command words that summon its power.

Before, it automatically protected me from some orange beams that would have made me double over in pain.

But it might only defend a person against acute threats. ” He looked toward me, eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know.” I hadn’t thought to ask him about the medallion earlier but wasn’t surprised he’d attempted to elicit its powers. “All Mom’s medallion ever did for me was glow when I touched it. It didn’t stop Radomir’s goons from attacking us. Or a weirdo bipedfuris from chasing me.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. As far as I knew, Duncan hadn’t told Rue that he had old-world blood and could become a two-legged werewolf as well as a regular wolf.

But she, with her magnifying glass now pointed at the medallion, didn’t seem to hear my words.

“Unlike with that case,” Duncan said, “there aren’t any inscriptions on it that I noticed. It does warm slightly to your touch if you sleep with it under your pillow and brush against it in the night.”

“When my mom said you could borrow it, I doubt she had pillow cuddling in mind.”

“I feel obligated to keep it somewhere secure.”

“You don’t have a safe in your van, huh?”

“Just a few strongboxes that hold magical equipment. And the glovebox.”

“Where you keep your eighties cassettes?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“I guess I’m glad you don’t sleep with them under your pillow.”

“They’re not as irreplaceable as a magical medallion.”

“Perhaps,” Rue said, “if you nattered less, your magical items would have more opportunity to assist with your ailments.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you’d charmed her.”

“With my handsome face and charismatic smile, not my words.”

“Books,” Rue announced, setting aside her magnifying glass and heading toward one of the many shelves in the living room. “I must spend some hours doing research. Oh, and I’d like samples of the area.”

“The, uh, area?” Duncan asked.

“Around your scar. Are you afraid of needles?”

“Not at all. I even gave Luna a sword in case she desires to stab me.” After the words came out, he must have remembered that the sword was currently missing—and I blamed myself for its loss—because he lifted an apologetic hand toward me.

“All mates with tendencies toward nattering should be so conscientious with their gift giving. Here.” Rue returned with a wooden case that looked like it would contain chess or backgammon pieces. When she opened it, numerous antique needles and syringes lay mounted inside. “Let’s take that sample.”

Duncan bared his teeth but didn’t step back. I would have.

After he’d suggested I get some sleep, I’d been halfway to the door, but I asked, “Do you want me to stay?”

“That depends,” Duncan said. “Will you hold my hand and lend moral support or mock me if I shed a tear when that giant needle slides into a vein?” He pointed to one that looked like it should be applied to a horse rather than a human.

“Given my nature, it might be a little of both.”

He smiled and waved me to the door. “Get some rest. I’ll be fine.”

“Well, don’t scream. Quiet hours here start at ten.”

“I’ll keep your regulations in mind while I’m enduring my agony.”

“You’re a good werewolf.” I gave him a thumbs-up before stepping out, glancing at my phone to see if Jasmine had sent any updates.

She hadn’t yet. There probably weren’t any images on the internet that matched the hand device. It might well have been in the back of Abrams’s safe for fifty years, long pre-dating the internet.

On the way to my apartment, I picked up some garbage on the grounds and grabbed my mail.

A letter from Austin at the Air Force base in Mississippi surprised me.

He hadn’t written anything to me on physical paper since his fifth-grade teacher had made him practice addressing letters during handwriting class.

My first thought was that it was a Christmas card that he’d mailed before flying home, but he’d come in person, so he wouldn’t have sent one. Besides, this had a recent postmark.

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach as I reached for a letter opener in my kitchen junk drawer.

After the night of our battle—after learning that his mother was a werewolf —Austin hadn’t said much, giving only brief answers to questions and looking relieved to head back to the airport.

I’d wanted to talk about it, to explain why I’d kept it a secret, but I also hadn’t wanted to overload him with information he wasn’t ready for.

Or didn’t want? Had he even known werewolves existed before that night? I didn’t know.

My hands shook a little as I unfolded a yellow, lined piece of paper.

Hi, Mom.

I hope this isn’t cowardly or anything, but I wasn’t sure what to say if I called or texted.

What I saw that night didn’t make sense to me, even though I’d heard…

Well, I guess I didn’t believe the stories of vampires and werewolves and Santa Claus.

Not since I was a little kid. It was all… really weird and confusing.

I called Cam from the airport to ask if he knew.

He sounded skeptical when I blurted everything out to him and said I should have stayed off the ’shrooms. I wasn’t even having a beer that night though.

I tried to explain, but he said I was nuts and told me to call Dad for proof that you aren’t a werewolf.

I couldn’t keep from grimacing hugely at that line. Chad was such a loser that I hated any suggestions that my sons were keeping in touch with him. What if Austin had called? Chad knew my secret. Unfortunately. He would tell Austin what he knew.

But… that was okay, wasn’t it? After that night, it wasn’t as if I could hide my lupine side from my son.

I didn’t necessarily want to anymore, anyway.

It had mainly been when they’d been children that I’d wanted them to have normal lives.

And I’d done my best to be a normal human mother, not a paranormal weirdo that they would end up in therapy over.

I haven’t called Dad yet, the letter continued. I don’t know if you know, but he’s kind of weird when it comes to you.

“Tell me about it,” I muttered.

Anyway, I wanted to write to warn you that I talked to Cam.

I wasn’t sure if… Well, I guess you didn’t want us all to know since you never said anything, and that was also weird, but I should have talked to you before I left.

Next time, I will if you want to say anything.

Or if you don’t, that’s fine. I am… a little confused though.

Does this mean I could turn into a wolf one day?

Is it genetic? Like Huntington’s disease or something?

Write me back, okay? I’m kind of busy with training, and they take our phones sometimes.

Bye.

Austin

I read the letter a couple of times. A poet, my son was not, but I was glad he’d reached out.

That he wanted me to reply in a similar form made me think he still didn’t know what to say and didn’t want to talk on the phone.

But this was something. He was curious, if only about whether he’d spontaneously turn into a werewolf.

What would Cameron’s response be? Would he research it further and reach out to me? Or brush it off, believing, as he’d said, Austin was nuts?

I missed my oldest son and wished he would reach out.

If not for checking his social-media sites, I wouldn’t have known what state he was in, or if he was in the country at all.

We’d barely spoken these last two years.

He would be the more likely one to call Chad.

But Chad already knew, so it didn’t matter, did it?

As long as my ex-husband didn’t show up, looking for the wolf case.

He had been, after all, the one who’d originally brought it to the Seattle area and hidden it in the heat duct under my bed where it had lain dormant for months—no, years —until Duncan had arrived in search of it.

The memory of him smiling and whistling as he ran his metal detector over logs and leaves in the woods adjacent to Sylvan Serenity came to mind. I’d thought him terribly suspicious but also handsome. And I still thought him handsome. I wanted…

“For him not to die, damn it.” I thought about the translation on the wolf case.

Straight from the source lies within protection from venom, poison, and the bite of the werewolf .

Too bad nothing suggested it would help with curses.

The medallion might—if we could figure out how to draw upon its power. “Would Mom know more about that?”

Thus far, she hadn’t known that much when it came to her medallion, just that it had been passed down from one alpha female in the pack to the next.

Still, it might be worth consulting her on this.

Maybe if we brought together the case with its mushroom-shaped artifact and the two medallions and the witch talisman, they would have a magical powwow again, and Duncan would get another vision. One that told him how to fix himself.

I sighed wistfully, resolving to drag Duncan up to Mom’s cabin. Even if she didn’t know anything helpful, the pack’s wise wolf or archivist might.

It was late, but I texted Lorenzo. Since Mom didn’t have a cell phone or even a land line, he was my conduit to her.

Duncan and I have some questions about the medallions and what they can do. Will you ask Mom if it’s okay if we come up in the morning?

It didn’t take long for an answer. Your mother is always willing to see you and the one she hopes will become your mate.

I just call him Duncan.

Never one to be drawn into snark and sarcasm, Lorenzo only replied with, Umbra will be here when you come.

Thank you.