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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

STONE

“What happened?” I asked Zuri, grabbing her hand and pulling her back toward the group of warriors that I had been speaking to prior to Zuri’s voice booming through the forest at Sapphire.

Zuri’s coiled curls blew backward in the slight woodsy breeze as the sunlight made her dark skin glow. She pressed her brown lips together and shuffled beside me, her nerves so intense that I could feel them through the mate bond.

Both Sapphire and Zuri didn’t look hurt or angry with each other. Which meant that something else must’ve happened, but neither of them spoke a word, no matter how many times I asked them about it.

“Nothing,” Zuri finally whispered when we approached the warriors.

The midday sun blazed down upon the forest around us. The warriors sat in a circle around a raging fire that we had started hours ago. Maybe it had been burned into our genetics, but we always brainstormed best around an open fire.

Flames flickered, creating grotesque shadows across some warriors’ faces. Some were still recovering from the battle yesterday, the light illuminating their bruises and scars. Others had healed completely but were still pissed that Derrit had hurt us this badly.

James tossed a log into the crackling fire. “What’s going on?”

Zuri paused in front of us and gazed up at me, a small layer of sweat forming on her forehead from the intense heat. The werewolf warriors all quieted down and gazed at their luna—and the woman who had saved them yesterday—which filled me with pride.

“Something happened, Z,” I said. “I’m here to protect you, so tell me.”

Zuri ran a hand across her face and blew out a sigh.

Sapphire stepped forward and took Zuri’s hand, squeezing it with a smile plastered across her face. “Zuri thought I was the Moon Goddess for a second. She saw her out in the woods.”

My eyes widened. “You saw her again? What’d she say?”

“Nothing,” Zuri whispered, her voice harsher than usual. After another low breath, she glanced up at me through those pretty brown eyes. “Sorry, but we can’t talk about it right here in front of everyone. It’s private.”

“What is it?” I asked through the mind link.

“A pup.”

“A what?” I repeated out loud. “Are you?—”

“No,” she exclaimed. “Not yet.”

“But soon,” Sapphire said with a smirk, as if she knew what we were talking about.

“I need to—” Zuri stopped short and glanced over my shoulder and into the woods.

“What’s going on?” James asked, peering into the woods. “Derrit?”

“No,” Zuri said, releasing Sapphire’s hand and walking toward the woods. “It’s the Moon Goddess. I need to talk to her.” She paused right next to me and placed a hand on my chest, as if she knew I would put up a fight about her walking through the woods by herself. “Alone.”

“Zuri—”

“Stone,” she said sternly, “I need to talk to her alone.”

After glancing over my shoulder at the empty woods behind me, I balled my hands into tight fists by my sides and growled through my canines, “Don’t leave the property. If you need help, yell for me, and I’ll be there to save you.”

Popping up onto her toes, she kissed me on the lips and smiled. “Thank you.”

While she walked toward the empty woods, I fumed in annoyance and hoped that this wasn’t another one of Derrit’s dirty tricks. He had been using dark magic a bit too much lately, and if he was playing the long game of entering Zuri’s mind, then …

We were screwed.

“Have you told her about the prophecy yet?” James asked once she disappeared.

I ran a hand across my face and blew out a deep breath. “Not yet.”

“Why not?” another warrior asked.

“It’s not a good time. She’s too stressed out about everything else right now. This will add to her stress, and if she’s not thinking clearly, then it’ll be easier for Derrit to slip into her mind and control her.”

If that happened, then this entire pack would fall apart. For more than one reason. But the biggest reason being that if I lost her, then I would lose all sense of myself. I would lose the very reason for my existence.

“Have you at least let your grandma talk to her?” Sapphire said. “I’m sure they’d get along quite nicely. And maybe your grandma will be able to see a bit more into the prophecy than she did the first time.”

I drew my tongue across the pricks of my canines. Grandma had told me that the Moon Goddess came to her in a dream, but she couldn’t make out most of what she had said to her. Or maybe it was that she couldn’t quite remember, as it was years and years ago that it had happened.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “Tonight.”