Aurora’s eyes go wide, and I see a memory flicker across her face. “That’s it! That’s what they’re saying. Pack Onyx wolves had a venom in their fangs that was venomous to the fae.” She stands up, excitement in her movements. “That’s why the fae feared them—us. It’s why they were targeted.” Looking at me with those mismatched eyes wide with hope and fear, she asks, “Do you think… do you think I might have inherited it?”
The size of the question staggers me. If Aurora is truly the last of her kind, then she’s the last Pack Onyx wolf with a bite venomous to the fae. That makes her important, not just to me, but to the survival of all shifters in the fight against the fae.
That’s if she ever learns to shift.
“I think it’s possible,” I tell her, wanting to keep the hope in her eyes alive. “Maybe it also explains why you’ve taken so long to shift. If your wolf form has a venomous bite, then?—”
“The fae may have suppressed it somehow with their magic.” I can feel through our bond, broken as it is, how big the implication of this discovery is to her. Emotions are swirling through her at a mile a minute. “Maybe if we do more investigation we can find out what happened. But Aurora…”
“Don’t get my hopes up.” She gives me a wan smile. “Don’t worry, I know by now. I’ve had dozens if not hundreds of moments where I thought my wolf was going to come and I’d finally be able to shift. I won’t make that mistake again.”
My heart hurts for her, but I keep it to myself.
We spend the rest of the day exploring this part of the ruins, looking for more signs of what happened to Pack Onyx. There are no remains here, part of what adds to the mystery of the disappearance of the pack. The theory for a long time has been that the fae took the remaining shifters with them, but now Iwonder if they destroyed them so the secret to their venomous bite would never get out.
Setting up camp in the middle of the abandoned great hall, we heat up the food we got from Jacen’s storage and discuss various theories. If what we’ve seen so far is right, the fae have returned now for a reason.
“Maybe the madness is something that my people would’ve known about, if they were still around,” Aurora theorizes. “I haven’t been able to cure anyone since Gage, but maybe I’m missing something. The secret to curing the madness could be in my blood, along with the venomous bite and the magic in these lands.”
We work through everything we know about the madness: how it starts, how it spreads, and what it does to the shifters who go mad. It weakens packs so that the fae can attack, as we saw at Pack Quartz. And it turns shifter against shifter.
“The fae are fighting us like they’re afraid of a head-on battle,” I point out to her. “They’re weakening us in advance and running as soon as they face us. Maybe they have a reason to avoid a full-on assault.”
“They could still be weak from taking on Pack Onyx, even after all those years.” Looking around, she muses, “It would’ve taken a shitload of magic to isolate all these lands, like you said. And there’s no telling how many lives they lost in the battle.”
The fire burns low, and still we keep talking, discussing theories and knowledge we’ve gathered so far. It feels as if we’re on the verge of figuring out the fae entirely—and once we do, we can bring that knowledge back home to my father.
For what purpose, though, I wonder? Ruefully, I admit to Aurora, “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be good enough. My father… he has such specific ideas about what makes a strong alpha. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be that person.”
Aurora’s expression softens. “What do you mean?”
“He thinks strength means never showing weakness, never messing up or admitting doubt. But me… I don’t know if I can do it. And I have no idea how to lead a pack if I can’t be honest with them, can’t admit when I’ve messed up or don’t know what to do next.”
“That’s not what strength is,” she says quietly. “Being vulnerable and honest takes strength. More strength than pretending.”
I look at her then, really look at her. The firelight catches in her ash blonde hair and turns it to molten gold. Her mismatched eyes see right through me, past all my carefully constructed walls. She’s the strongest person I know, and that’s one of the reasons why I love her.
Leaning in, I feel the mate bond thrum between us, urging us closer. Her lips part slightly, and my gaze falls to them. She smells so sweet and floral, so feminine and delicate, although I know without a doubt that she’s also incredibly strong.
“Kieran…”
I part my lips, my heart racing. This is it—this is the moment. I’m going to do it, going to?—
A sudden noise from outside the room has us both jumping to our feet. We move to the door together in perfect sync, Aurora drawing two daggers and handing me one. My heart races for an entirely different reason as we face the darkness together.
A goat ambles into view, chewing contentedly on a long piece of straw, ambling past the crumbling stonework down the cracked sidewalk.
The tension breaks. Aurora laughs, the sound ringing like a bell. I turn to her and grin, hyper aware of how close we are.
And I remember that I’m supposed to be staying away from her. Worse, I remember why.
So I back off, clearing my throat and turning away, putting some distance between us. There’s hurt in her eyes as I do, butI ignore it. I even ignore the twist of pain from the mate bond, a pain I’m used to by now.
I have to hold the line, even when it seems so easy to give in.
Aurora Blackburn will never be my mate.
Chapter 17
