Page 23 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)

Lorenzo nodded at Duncan and me when we stepped into my mother’s cabin, but he didn’t follow us inside. She sat in a chair in the living room, wrapped in a blanket and holding a mug of tea. Every time I saw her, her cheeks were more hollow, and I wondered if she was eating at all.

In case her taste buds would like a treat, I lay a bar of dark chocolate on the table near her elbow.

“Chocolate enhanced with reishi mushrooms?” She made a face. “Are you falling for all of the health-nut propaganda?”

“Only two-thirds of it.”

“Can’t you bring me something delicious without any supposed nutritional value or cancer-fighting properties?”

I delved into my jacket pocket and withdrew a half-eaten truffled caramel and dark-chocolate bar.

“That looks more promising.” Mom pushed the mushroom bar aside and pulled the other close to her chair, then eyed me, or, more likely, my borrowed clothing.

Her nostrils twitched a couple of times as she sniffed, and then she looked at Duncan.

He appeared perfectly normal—after all, he’d taken his clothes off before shifting—but whatever Mom saw—or smelled—caused her to nod in satisfaction. “You’ve finally mated.”

I barely managed to keep from rolling my eyes. “Yeah, I was overcome with ardor and aching desire for Duncan.”

“I assumed he would prompt such feelings in you eventually.”

Duncan arched his eyebrows but didn’t offer any hint of disagreement. He even gave me a slight smile.

Mom sipped from her tea. “He’s handsome and powerful.”

I sighed at the suggestion that a guy’s power was what would attract me but didn’t want to quibble with her, so I offered, “He ripped a bunch of cars to pieces for me and left their dented fenders in ditches and bushes alongside the road.”

“I heard there was some carnage on the way up here,” Mom said. “We assumed the vehicles belonged to the real estate developers, and many of your relatives were disappointed that they’d already been destroyed.”

“The early bird gets the worm. Or the fender.”

“Indeed.” Mom pointed to our medallions, which we again wore around our necks. “What did you learn in the cave? From the vision I had… Well, it seemed that instruction might be given to the chosen individuals about how to protect our people.”

“Ah.” I glanced at Duncan. “We haven’t been yet.”

Mom’s lips pressed together with disapproval.

“Life has been a little chaotic back in town. An enemy… well, we’re not sure exactly who was responsible yet… kidnapped a visiting werewolf. I think they meant to get me.” I waved toward myself. “And now they have Jasmine too.”

Mom nodded. She probably had more news about that than I did. “We suspect it is part of some plot. The real estate developers haven’t been pleased that we’ve fought them when they’ve tried to force the sale of our land.”

“Rude of them.”

“They’re loathsome. I wish I’d seen the destruction of their vehicles. Did you, perchance, ruthlessly slay any of them?” Mom looked hopefully at Duncan.

“They would have deserved it, but I did not. Luna asked me to only scare them.”

“At the time, we didn’t know they might be involved in the kidnappings.” I still didn’t know if they were. “I don’t suppose you have any idea where, if they were involved, they would have taken Jasmine?”

“I know very little about them except that they are conniving parasites.” Mom set her mug on the table, took a slow breath, and leaned her head back in the chair.

I sensed her weariness, and it saddened me. Even this conversation was tiring her. Her days of hunting or even changing into the wolf might be past.

“We’ll find Jasmine, Mom.”

“You must visit the cave,” she said without opening her eyes. “You should have already.”

I thought about pointing out that we’d had sex without being lured into the cave by her and the medallions, but she’d mentioned protecting our kind more than once. Maybe my assumptions were wrong, and this wasn’t simply about her desire for me to mate with Duncan and have offspring.

“We can give it a shot,” I said.

“Tonight.” Her eyes opened, her expression firm as she held my gaze.

“I don’t know what it will share with you, but I believe you will learn something important.

When I had my vision, I had the inkling that if I’d been hale and capable…

” She grimaced. “I think it would have told me more. But the moon knows I haven’t the strength to combat villains these days.

Wear that.” She pointed to the female medallion.

“The magic will know that you’re my successor. ”

“Okay, Mom.” I fought back a yawn at the thought of traipsing off into the woods. It was getting late, and my activities with Duncan had worn me out, but I wouldn’t admit that to her. Besides, if there was a chance the cave would help…

“We’ll go now.” Duncan nodded.

“Good.” Mom pointed toward the back door. “I look forward to hearing what you learn.”

A knock sounded at the front door, and Lorenzo leaned in. “Some of us are heading to Shoreline to see if we can pick up tracks at the apartment complex and find where the kidnappers took Jasmine.”

I wanted to ask them not to go, since a pack of werewolves roaming the premises might alarm the tenants, but maybe they would find something Bolin hadn’t been able to. It wasn’t as if he had a wolf’s nose, after all. “Just don’t let anyone eat my tenants, please.”

“Unless they taste like salami, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Lorenzo stepped aside to let someone else walk in. Rosaria, the wise wolf.

“I’ll take care of you while Lorenzo is gone, Umbra,” she said.

“I don’t need a caretaker. I can still walk and toilet myself.”

“I meant to say I’ll keep you company during this trying time,” Rosaria said.

Mom’s lips thinned again.

“She’s still a dreadful patient,” Rosaria told me, turning to close the door.

Before it shut, I could hear Emilio ask, “Did I hear someone promise there would be salami on the adventure?”

“That boy has a singular focus,” Mom murmured, then pointed Duncan and me toward the back door again.

“I guess that means she’s not going to offer us any cured meats to sustain us on the long journey to the cave,” I told him.

“Take the mushroom bar.” Mom’s lip curled.

“What about the caramel truffled one?”

“Absolutely not.” She removed it from the table and laid it in her lap.

As Duncan and I walked out the back door, the sounds of engines starting up wafted to us from the front.

As many of the pack drove off, heading to my home in Shoreline, I felt I should be with them, not only to keep them from creating any chaos at Sylvan Serenity but because, if it turned out Abrams was behind everything, it was a problem that Duncan and I should handle.

Maybe he was thinking the same, because he gazed pensively back toward the driveway as we headed in the other direction.

“I hope they don’t find Lykos and object to him… existing,” Duncan said.

Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. Of course that would be a concern for Duncan.

The kid had practically moved into the woods out back.

My family would sense that Lykos was powerful, with old-world blood, but they might not realize that he was Duncan’s clone brother.

What non-sci-fi-reading werewolf would guess that?

And if Lykos started talking about laying traps and assassinations…

the pack might deem him a threat, someone who should be dealt with.

I stopped walking. “Do you want to go back and warn him to beat it?”

“I—” The medallion around Duncan’s neck flared with golden light, bathing his face with it.

Mine responded by brightening as well, the magic it could emanate growing strong, warming my flesh through my clothes.

“I think your mother isn’t the only one who wants us to visit that cave,” Duncan said.

“Apparently.”

“Lykos is good at hiding. I think he’ll be all right for a few hours.” Duncan nodded with determination, clasped my hand, and we walked side-by-side into the night.