Page 18 of The Healer and the Wolf, Part One

18

LEO

T his can’t be real.

“Leo, you okay?”

I swallowed hard, reminding myself that I needed to blink. I did so, slowly, and tried to pull my thoughts together.

“That’s him,” I barely managed to breathe, my brain consumed by a maelstrom.

When Ven had called me over to her computer to see what she’d found, I had expected maybe a tiny lead about large wolf sightings in a quiet neighborhood, or an illegal animal hoarder being busted. The last thing I’d anticipated was the face of the smug bastard who’d taken Ricky away like some kind of pet.

Seeing his face triggered a release from my brain, and dozens of memories rushed through my head.

The man’s too-white teeth as he laughed, as if enslaving sentient beings was the most hilarious thing ever. His dark hair, dutifully coiffed with products that no doubt cost more than the average person earned in a month. The suit so painfully designer that even years of saving wouldn’t be enough to afford it. The malevolent glint in his eyes as he locked a shock collar around my beta’s neck.

And he wasn’t alone.

Five figures in all, gloating and celebrating like they were having the time of their lives.

The hand on my shoulder jerked me out of the surge of memories, and I looked into Ven’s dark brown eyes. She had the most beautiful gaze, and it calmed the storm trying to consume my thoughts.

“Leo, are you all right? You’re shaking.”

“I’m remembering,” I ground out, trying to focus on the screen in front of me, but it was so incredibly blurry, like I was a wolf who couldn’t read again.

“Remembering what?” Ven asked. Her voice was so full of concern, it anchored me back in the moment. She really had a knack for saving my skin, but I couldn’t be pulled out of the deluge of memories yet—not when I was so close to remembering something that seemed so goddamn important.

Closing my eyes, I tried to picture those five figures to remember anything I could about them. Some of their features came into focus, like auburn hair or dark curls, bright yellow eyes or even shining purple, but no full faces. Other than Chadwicke, of course, who looked every bit of the smarmy asshole I’d envisioned him as ever since I remembered his name.

But who were the others? I knew that somewhere, locked deep within me I knew, and it was vital information. I dug for it, scouring through my mind, trying to figure out what group of four would want to hurt my pack on such an intimate level.

That’s when I remembered that there should have been seven.

Fuck!

“I remember who cursed my pack!” Adrenaline poured through me like I hadn’t felt in years. I grabbed Ven by her arms and spun the two of us around, so happy I could cry. Who knew, maybe I was.

“I thought you already remembered that it was this Chadwicke douche I found.”

I shook my head. “He was only a part of it. It was an entire group. Wait, no, not a group—a family. ”

“A family? What do you mean?”

Ven had an adorable habit of repeating what I said in the form of a question. I found it endearing.

“Seven sons. They were the seven sons of a powerful witch,” I said. My voice trembled, but I didn’t care. My thoughts flicked between the present and the past, but instead of feeling overwhelmed or confused, I was having a revelation. “I… I can’t remember her name, but I know she’s someone you wouldn’t want to mess with.”

“So, you and your pack decided to mess with her sons?”

I paused, frowning at that logic. That didn’t seem right. “No, that’s not how it happened.” My mind was still trying to process exactly what did go down. I closed my eyes, letting the memory trail lead me. There were still plenty of gaps—deep abysses I just couldn’t navigate. However, the path was clearer than it had ever been before. “It’s the curse. That’s what this is all about.”

“I know that probably makes sense to you, but I’m not really following.”

Bless Ven and her endless patience. “The seven sons were enslaving shifters across several states. It started off as a rumor, then a boogeyman tale, before they did it to one of our pack.” I paused, letting more scenes and images wash over me in rapid succession. “Her name was Amy. She was barely sixteen. When she first went missing, we feared the worst.

“But Ricky, Charity, Lawlit, and I all put our noses to the grindstone and chased down every single lead we had. We were sure our search would end up in recovering a body for her family to bury, but eventually, we figured out she been bewitched and where the warlock was keeping her.”

I could see it all playing out in my head, the faceless images of my pack suddenly solidifying in my mind. It made me want to sob, it made me want to dance, as the people I had loved slowly returned to my mind.

What a cruel thing, to steal away my family in the most violating way possible, not even leaving them in the vestiges of my mind. How could those warlocks be so insidious? It went far beyond anything anyone deserved.

“What happened?” Ven asked breathlessly.

“Every capable fighter in our pack stormed his fortress. It was an enchanted place underneath the lake, so it definitely wasn’t easy, but we did it and caught him off guard.

“He was powerful. But even a powerful fire magic user couldn’t take on that many wolves at once while he was in his stupid silk pajamas.” I paused yet again as more information flooded my brain and I had to sort through it. “Finneus Dis Pater; that was his name.”

I could practically feel the confusion coming from Ven. “But I thought he was Chadwicke’s brother?”

“Half-brother. Different fathers.” I couldn’t believe I remembered that. “We didn’t know that when we hunted him down. In fact, we would have killed him and left it at that, but he told us his brother had helped him bespell Amy.” Anger bubbled up inside me as I recalled more. “I remember now. We found an entire harem of young shifters all enchanted to worship him. Some of them fought like mad and had to be subdued, and others held a knife to their own throats, threatening to kill themselves if we hurt their master. They were the hardest to subdue, and we’d had to knock them out in order to defeat Finneus.”

Ven let out a shocked little gasp, and I couldn’t blame her. As my mind rapidly played through every memory, I couldn’t help but be horrified. So many vulnerable shifters, scantily clad and kneeling at the man’s feet only to lose their minds and attack us when they realized he was in danger. I could still remember the wild look in Amy’s eyes when she’d tried to tear out her mother’s throat. It had been awful, truly awful in a way I couldn’t verbalize.

“I was ready to rip him limb from limb, but then he told us it wouldn’t work, that he and his brother had concocted the spell so it would take the both of them to end it. I’ll never forget the look on that little weasel’s face when he betrayed his sibling. A wolf would never do that, but these warlocks, they’re consumed only by greed and power and having more. Always more.

“We told him we would let him live if he took us to his brother and convinced him to break the spell. We knew he’d try to double-cross us, and he most likely saw the journey as extra time to devise an escape or way to defeat us, but he underestimated us. It was clear he thought shifters were dumb brutes, little more than the animals we can transform into.”

I cleared my throat to ease some of the tightness. “He led us right to his brother, Kirklin Plutus. Kirklin has a knack for necromancy, as we found out. An unpleasant surprise for sure, since we expected him to use fire or another element like his brother.”

“I’m guessing Finneus didn’t try to convince his brother to break the spell once you were there?”

“Nope, not at all. We’d sent three of our fastest runners out to nearby shifter communities that had also been targeted. See, the warlocks were so bigoted that they couldn’t imagine wolves would want to help anyone but wolves. But most of us shifters know we need to stick together, especially when it comes to the encroachment of humanity and our enemies. So, once our runners were there, they delivered some burner phones. Ricky hung back and communicated with them.”

It was hard not to relish the thrill of victory that went through my mind as the entire scene played out. The look of shock on those smug assholes’ faces when they realized their magic couldn’t conquer an ambush from a massive family of wildcat shifters and a den of bear shifters.

“It was a hard fight, but we killed both of them. Thankfully, that ended their bewitchment of their harems, and everyone took their lost young ones home.

“Before, my pack was small and struggling. We didn’t have many diplomatic connections to any other groups. But that fight changed everything. Suddenly, we were known across several states and had representatives from multiple families visiting us. Even some lone wolf showed up, asking for clemency within our pack.”

“So, you think the remaining five brothers cursed your pack as revenge?” Ven asked, her voice nearly reverent.

“I know that’s what happened,” I answered resolutely. “I don’t know how they were able to pull it off—I still can’t remember so much—but I know it was them. I know they were the ones who locked my entire pack in their animal forms. They stripped away all our humanity and our memories.”

“Did they all take different prisoners like Chadwicke did with Ricky? And was Ricky the only one he took?”

Those were important questions. Trust Ven to keep her head on straight even after hearing such horrible revelations. I wonder if she knew how much her calm and comforting demeanor helped me when it felt like my brain was going to consume itself.

“I don’t know.” After so many sudden epiphanies, one right after the other, I couldn’t help but feel a bit like a failure. I had come so far so quickly, unraveling the mystery of everything that happened, only to stop short right before the end.

“Hey, that’s okay. Why don’t you take a seat, and I’ll get you some water. If you want, you can read the articles I pulled up, but it’s okay if you don’t. Take a moment to breathe.”

Breathe. Yeah, I could do that. Breathing was the basic function of life. Sitting in the computer chair, I rested my head in my hands and tried to come to terms with the floodgates that had opened.

I wasn’t seeing full scenes anymore; those had stopped. But I still caught snippets and flashes. Nothing about the brothers, but important things, nonetheless. I saw Ricky trying to blow out the candles on his ninth birthday cake, but his asthma stopped him from doing it. That’s when I’d stood behind him and subtly blown along with him. Of course, he had lost that particular affliction once he got his wolf form. It pissed me off that that precious memory had been stolen.

Charity losing her first tooth.

Helping Lawlit bury his mother after she contracted lycanthropy and died. Most people used that as a catch-all term for werewolves, but it was actually a horrible disease that affected wolf shifters. The closest comparison was rabies, and like that disease, it had no cure. Thankfully, it wasn’t infectious, but all that meant was that we didn’t know how it was contracted.

“Here you go,” Ven said, putting her hand on my shoulder as she handed me a steaming mug. “This should help you calm down.” Then she placed a water bottle on the desk in front of me. “And that’s for quenching your thirst.”

By all the shifter spirits, this marvelous, wonderful woman took really good care of me. It was insane to think I’d showed up at her door as a giant monster, and she’d looked at me and thought, yeah, I’ll make friends with that. I would never forget how incredibly lucky I was or take it for granted.

“Thank you,” I murmured. While I would love to launch into an eloquent soliloquy about how much better she made in my life, my vocabulary still wasn’t there yet. So, instead, I sipped at the hot, pungent tea and tried to collect my thoughts.

“Do you want to read the articles?” Ven murmured. “Or do you want me to read them? Do you want to take a break? These will still be here later.”

I was already in an emotional state because of everything I’d remembered, so it wasn’t surprising how much fondness welled up in me. She really was so considerate. “I would like you to read them for me if that’s okay.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it.”

And that was very true. Unlike what I remembered from other humans, Ven never had a hint of duplicity about her. She said what she meant and meant what she said. I appreciated that immensely.

“Do you mind rolling the chair over just a bit? That way I can bring one in from the kitchen.”

“No, you don’t have to. I can stand.”

But then her hand was on my shoulder for the third time, and I found I didn’t want her to let go. “Nonsense. You stay there and work on your tea. I’ll be right back. Just make some room for me, please.”

I did because it was truly the least I could do. She came back a few moments later with one of the wooden chairs from her kitchen. Sitting down, she cleared her throat and began to read.

I listened, but her profile distracted me. The way the column of her throat bobbed up and down when she swallowed. The way her nose crinkled when she read something she didn’t like. The way her brows furrowed when it made her outright angry. She was so expressive, so genuine. Although a terrible misfortune had definitely befallen my pack, I would forever be grateful it had put me in Vanessa’s path.

It took quite a while for her to go through everything. Chadwicke was doing so much damage to the mortal world, I struggled to think what he was getting away with that they had no idea about. Even without his crimes against shifters, his accusations were lengthy.

Corruption. Smuggling. Drug use. Drug trafficking. Witness tampering. Kidnapping. Fraud. Yet every time he went to court or got into trouble, he walked away unscathed.

“I can’t believe you found him,” I said, once again marveling at what Ven was able to do with an old computer. It wasn’t like I was completely techno-illiterate—I remembered having a smartphone—but I didn’t think I’d ever had a laptop. I vaguely remembered borrowing Ricky’s a couple of times, but that was really it. Granted, it wasn’t like my memory was a steel trap.

“Well, with a paper trail like this, it wasn’t exactly difficult. Do you know what his powers could be?”

I waited a moment, racking my brain to see if that memory came up, but it didn’t. And unlike other times where I could feel something was missing, this felt like I’d truly never known. “No. We don’t know any of the other brothers’ abilities. I would assume they’re all different, though.”

“ Fun ,” Ven said in a way that told me she meant the opposite. Originally, I had struggled with sarcasm and facetiousness, but after spending so much time with her, I had a good handle on both concepts. “So, what now?”

“What do you mean, what now ?” I retorted with a mildly manic chuckle. It was a sound that might have concerned anybody else, but I figured with everything that had happened, I was justified. “I’m going to find where he is, make him show me where he’s kept Ricky, and then I’m going to rip his own throat out and feed it to him.”

Ven grimaced, and I wasn’t sure if it was from my tone or my description, but surely she had to understand.

“What if he’s at some super protected compound like his brothers? I mean, this guy’s managed to get away with so much without any human authorities touching him, so he’s gotta have plenty of protection.”

She was being reasonable, but I was in no mood for that. I finally had a direction for all my confusion and anger, as well as answers for some of what had happened to me and the people I loved.

It was time for justice.

It was time for revenge.

“Then I’ll raze that compound to the ground. I’ll kill anything in my path if it’s standing between Ricky and me.”

I was confused when Ven’s face grew grayer, and the smell of stress and fear emanated from her. I didn’t think I was saying anything out of pocket. Surely she had to understand.

“Look, this guy is likely hiding in the human world. I’m sure if I do some digging, I’m going to find him at some sort of mega estate or McMansion. There are probably a ton of civilian and innocent people there, much like that harem you found with the other two brothers. If you go in guns blazing, so to speak, you might risk all their lives.”

She had a point, but it grated against the bloodlust building in my chest. I hadn’t earned the status of alpha within my pack by sitting by and letting others get away with hurting those I loved, and it felt like she was asking me to do that.

“What are you saying?”

She sighed. “I’m saying there will be no massacre. You can’t go in there and just rip and tear through anyone you find. Not just because you could hurt innocents, but because you could die. You said these brothers were incredibly powerful, and the last time you took them on, you had three whole groups of shifters fighting together. You, as incredible as you are, are just you. I don’t mean to be rude in any way, but you’re not even fully you yet. If you want to do this, we need some sort of strategy to ensure your success, and that also means a whole lot more research.”

My inner wolf was getting riled up in a way I wasn’t used to it. It was demanding action now. I was an alpha, after all. It was my job to be strong, to fight, and to give my life for my pack. I wasn’t supposed to strategize like a weakling.

I shook my head, surprised at those vehement thoughts. Strategizing wasn’t a weakness. Hell, I had used it to defeat two of the seven brothers, and we wouldn’t have succeeded without it. The chemical and emotional rush from suddenly regaining my memories had made my inner wolf more than a bit agitated. It had gone from being solely in control with no humanity to hold it back, to me not having shifted since Ven had kissed my nose and broken my curse. She still didn’t believe it was her who had done that, but I knew it without a shadow of a doubt.

“What would you suggest we do then?” I asked.

“Give me one week. I have some time off coming up, and I’ll research until then. With a record that long, I’m willing to bet I’ll be able to find where this guy is staying.”

“And then I?—”

“No, that does not mean you just go straight there and rain down hell. We need to do reconnaissance. Maybe I can get hired as a cleaner or even a gardener.”

I blinked at her slowly. Ven was amazing, but even she had her limits. “I’m really skeptical that it would remotely work out.”

“Hey, if it doesn’t, we can go with your plan. But when it comes to plants, no one has shit on me.” I still wasn’t certain, even with the earnest way Ven’s dark eyes bored into mine. “Please, just give me a week to get more info.”

“What if this crazy getting hired plan lasts longer than a week? Can you afford to miss any time at work?” I hated to bring money into it, especially since I wasn’t earning any, but I remembered enough about currency and the economy to know Ven wasn’t exactly well off. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was one of the reasons I wanted to get back to being able to shift without worry. I was well aware that the amount of food I ate was putting a strain on her budget, and if I shifted, then I could hunt for her.

“Honestly, if I get hired, I’m sure this kingpin-wannabe will pay better than my job at the grocery store.”

Still, I didn’t like the idea of her putting herself in danger, and honestly, the whole thing seemed entirely ludicrous. But after everything Ven had done for me, surely I owed her at least the week to do her research.

“Fine,” I agreed after a painfully long pause. “But the moment things go wrong, we do things my way.”

“Deal.” Ven extended her hand, and I took it, giving it a firm shake.

Clearly determined, she turned back to her computer and started typing furiously. I continued to sip at my tea, trying to capture the ghosts of my past and resurrect them into memories.