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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

logan

“ S o, why are we here?” Torbin, the bear alpha gruffed with a trace of a Scandinavian accent still.

“I have news,” I answered.

“What news?”

“I’d like to wait until everyone is here.”

Torbin nodded. His people had been in Louisiana for centuries, working as trappers and trackers, and most alphas deferred to him as the oldest and most experienced.

Bears valued size over speed, and their alpha was largest among the large.

His shaggy white hair hung nearly into his hazel eyes.

Handmade beads had been braided into his unkempt beard.

Before I could speak, Phil appeared around the corner of the manor in his dark gray wolf form.

His ears swiveled back and forth before he darted away with two other wolves in tow.

My thoughts drifted to Rachel. I would be searching, if my bigger responsibility wasn’t here at this moment.

If Acheron had her or had injured her in any way…

I addressed the group. “We’ve had a development which is safer to discuss inside and in person. Please follow my beta.”

Olivia stepped forward. “This way.”

No one spoke as we marched toward the training room.

Olivia discreetly punched her code into the keypad and pulled the door wide, directing each shifter into the building.

Dr. Wise would be in a small, adjacent room where she could record the proceedings without impacting them.

The alphas agreed with her purpose of recording our history.

It helped that Dr. Wise had agreed to a death sentence if she was ever identified as an information source in the human community.

I ushered Olivia in with the others then scanned the surroundings before stepping inside the building myself and pulling the door closed until it clicked.

When I entered my code, the door latched, making it impossible for any shifters outside of our pack to enter.

Yes, it was dangerous to speak of the emergence in an unsecured location, but it was equally dangerous for all of us to be collected in one place together.

We numbered thirteen alphas, and we each had hundreds of shifters in our packs, some closer to four hundred, some with only one hundred. Between us, we represented a couple thousand magical beings and an incredible amount of magic .

We didn’t have much time before the gathering would be noticed and targeted, and I had no way of knowing which of them had heard about our mysterious arrival. Mincing words wasn’t an option, and my opening remarks would be direct and concise.

“Please find your seats so we can begin. Food is available, if you like. Plates there.” I pointed to the stack at the end of the folding table.

Phil and Olivia had organized everything else as a buffet line. Each could serve themselves, so we wouldn’t have extra sets of ears to hear what was said.

“I’d rather know what you have to say before I decide whether or not I’m hungry,” Torbin announced. He pulled out a large chair and dropped into it. The chair groaned beneath his weight.

Marcus looked as though he smelled the stench of something foul. “Well, I, for one, already suspect what this meeting is about, and none of the food looks worth plating. Please get down to business.”

A ripple of agreements ran through the others.

What an asshole. He couldn’t say anything without taking a swipe at our pack.

But Flynn, the fox alpha and Jasper’s brother, hopped up. “Suit yerselves. I’m hungry.”

“Understood.” I nodded once as the last two alphas and Olivia settled in their seats, and I stood at the open spot at the head of the table, never intending to sit down or eat while everyone else did.

They all adjusted in their seats to face me, and those who had chosen to eat returned to their places .

I took a moment. Ravens, bears, big cats, smaller cats, foxes, raccoons, and others were represented. Something my father had said to me when I was young drifted through my mind. All shifters are wildlife, but not all wildlife are shifters.

My responsibility was strongest to my own pack, but it took all of us to keep our world in balance, and I knew it would take all of us to defeat Acheron and keep Emma safe.

“It is an historic time.” My enunciation was intentionally dramatic and wholly serious. “The multimorph has emerged.”

All eating and all breathing stopped.

Several utensils clattered against plates and the table. Two or three gasped while the same number cursed in long strings of expletives.

The raccoon shifter at the end glanced all around and then back at me. Absently, she dipped her biscuit in her water before catching herself and taking back the control from the raccoon inside her. She tossed the saturated roll aside.

“You can’t be serious.” The lynx shifter scratched behind her ear and shook her head. Her yellow eyes flashed in warning as a gentle breeze dusted the back of my neck. “Who is he?”

Torbin stood, towering over everyone else at the dinner. “Suspicion or reality?”

“I observed her shift into two different animals,” I said.

“Are there any other witnesses?” he asked .

Olivia stepped forward. “I didn’t see her double morph, but she’s incredibly powerful, not easily tired, and a healer.”

“You can understand why we’re trying to keep this quiet,” I began.

Marcus scooted his chair back from the table and hooked a leg over one of the arms. “Because he thinks he can bed the multimorph.”

Olivia snorted and whirled toward Marcus. “How dare you.”

Marcus was unaffected by her indignation, and he shrugged.

My head shake kept Olivia from saying anything else.

Torbin considered me. “Of course, but her abilities must be verified. It’s the only way to truly unite the shifters. What is her name?”

“It’s Emma Carter.”

A murmur rushed through the alphas, each of them whispering to the one seated on either side.

“Who’s that?” the lynx whined.

Torbin’s bushy eyebrows caught in his shaggy white hair. “It’s the veterinarian in Willow Creek?”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“Where is she?” Marcus pressed. “Right now.”

“She’s in Willow Creek at her practice.”

“Using her magic to heal your cousin’s cat.”

The alphas erupted.

“How dangerous…”

“Doesn’t she understand…”

“What if she’s discovered? ”

Marcus’s face twisted in a self-satisfied smile. His whole intention was to turn the meeting to his own purposes—namely, to get Emma into his pack.

Over my dead body.

Or his.

When I raised my hands, the noise died out. “She’s promised to return after her work week is completed. She’ll continue her training with Olivia at that time,” I said, but the explanation sounded weak to my own ears.

Marcus cursed, and he flashed his teeth. “Logan, Emma cannot be housed here with your pack. You’re the one who discovered her, and it’s already gotten out that you have a stranger in your midst.”

I cocked an eyebrow, crossed my arms, and placed my hands on the table, leaning forward. He could go fuck himself. Emma wasn’t going to be anywhere other than Six-Mile. “Is that so?”

“She can take up residence with the Ville Platte. No one would expect her to be in our territory, not based on the animosity between us. We’ll keep her safer than anyone else can.”

The leader of the ravens jumped to her feet with a loud caw. “Is that so? We can collect the multimorph.”

A rumble rolled through Torbin. “As though ravens were more skilled in protection than bears.”

I bit back a small smile. Torbin would be pleased when he learned she’d chosen a bear form to defend herself.

The keypad on the training warehouse chimed, and the entrance swung open. Phil burst in through the front door with a naked Rachel in his arms. Deep gashes covered her body. Either she didn’t have the strength to shift, or she was dead. The door banged closed behind him.

Olivia gasped and sprinted toward the door. “Is she…”

Phil shook his head, placing her in the center of the long table of alphas. Then he stepped out of the way. “Not dead but not far from it.”

“Do we have a healer here?” I bellowed at the collection of shifters at the long table.

The raccoon shifter darted to Rachel’s side and pressed her hands to the unconscious woman’s cheeks. Her mouth moved in spells as a breeze tripped through the room, and Rachel’s wounds began to mend. Beneath closed eyelids, her eyes moved, and she whimpered.

Phil gestured to Rachel. “It’s worse than that. They’re on our land, and they’re headed this way.”

“They?” I asked.

An explosion sounded outside the bulletproof window of the training hall, and sparks rained down over the windows. Then a half-shifted face slammed into the glass, head thrown back in unfinished howl, before slipping down, leaving a bright red streak behind.

The healer helped Rachel into the reinforced room, adjacent to the relic room, at the rear of the building, and then she dashed to a window. She snarled and hissed.

I sprinted to another window and peered out. Sorcerers surrounded us. Though, I didn’t recognize any of them, and the number of opponents eluded me. There had to be some kind of spell obscuring them all.

“Let us out,” Torbin roared. His snout elongated, and a massive influx of shift magic swirled in the air around him.

Yet he did not change.

Each alpha darted to the exit where Olivia joined them. She glanced at me as another explosion rattled the walls. At my nod, she entered the code and the thirteen of us poured out onto the lawn around the training warehouse, shifting one by one until Torbin was the only one who remained as a human.

Howls, yips, caws, and roars thundered through Six-Mile. Others of my pack appeared and shifted, joining in our fight against the attackers.

Dark clouds obscured shadowy figures. They had each been smeared in a dark red paint, so thick on some it had dripped down their arms and dried. They all held magic in their hands. A stream of balefire impacted the side of the building.

A fireball shot from one and slammed into Torbin who grunted and dropped to his knees.

With a roar, he turned into a large white bear, as large as a polar bear, and in one mighty leap, he clamped his jaw around the head of the sorcerer and ripped it from the shrouded body.

He spat the trophy aside, and the headless form dropped to the ground, the cloud camouflage dissipating.

Olivia and I galloped to the far end of the now-dozen sorcerers. Between us, we each caught one arm and quickly pulled the trespasser in two, tossing the leftovers aside.

A metallic scent punched me in the nose, the hint of magic still in the plasma. It wasn’t paint at all. They’d been doused in blood. Not just any blood.

Shifter blood.

The raven alpha dove toward one of the other sorcerers, flapping more as she entered the thinning cloud and dove toward the being’s eyes. She pecked one and darted into the air to reset for another assault.

Throughout the clearing, each alpha made short work of one mage until the twelfth one screamed a long spell with her dying breath. As her words faded, each of the sorcerer’s bodies turned bright white and disappeared, leaving no trace except scorched earth behind.

I huffed, and beside me, Olivia panted with her mouth opened wide. We’d beaten them all. Easily. A small fire burned on the side of the building where the balefire had been, but none of the damage had been permanent or even that bad.

A sobering realization slipped into my mind, and I whined before darting toward the manor house with Olivia close on my heals.

Acheron had sent one mage per alpha. He’d known how many would be here, and he had to have known his minions wouldn’t win. If he’d known…

We had a spy in our midst. My thoughts raced and ground abruptly to a halt, bringing me to a screeching stop on the porch so fast that Olivia tumbled into me, nearly knocking me over. Shit !

There could have been something worse. Much worse.

What if this had been a distraction meant to keep our attention here?

Fucking hell.

I had to check on Emma.