***
I found the office in the town hall where I was supposed to meet the Oracle and came to a stop the second I opened the door, taking in the scene in front of me.
The Oracle sat facing the door. Her gray hair fell down below her shoulders. Gray eyes studied me as her wrinkled face gave a smile. There had always been something slightly unsettling about the Oracle. It was the way she looked at everyone, as if she knew all your secrets. Could see into your very core and knew every little thing about you.
That wasn’t what unnerved me. What unnerved me was the fact that Elias and Sam were also here, also sitting, and neither of them looked particularly thrilled.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Have a seat, Rachel,” the Oracle said.
At first, part of me wanted to turn and run out of the room. My entire body seemed charged with unease. Exceptrunning wasn’t an option. It wasn’t as though there was a place I could go. It would only delay whatever was about to happen. Which, based on the expression on my brother’s face, was about as pleasant as eating an orange after brushing your teeth.
“Come on, Rach,” Elias said, using the nickname only he used as he jerked his head toward the one empty seat. “You need to hear this.”
I searched between Sam and Elias, but it was clear I wasn’t going to find out what happened until I sat down. I finally lowered myself into the chair.
“Did something happen to Mom?” I asked Elias, who shook his head.
“Nothing like that,” the Oracle said, lacing her fingers together as she leaned forward toward me. “But we do need to discuss your future.”
My brow furrowed. My future? What did the Oracle have to do with my future? She typically dealt with high-profile things that affected the entire pack. She didn’t take an interest in single individuals unless they were either very important, like Elias, or she saw something in her readings that involved them specifically. I was nowhere near important in the grand scheme of the pack, which meant that she must have seen something to do with me.
I waited, trying to keep my heart from exploding out of my chest from nervousness. No one spoke. The silence lingered. Neither Elias nor Sam would look at me. I squirmed in my seat, begging for someone to speak up, to shatter the tension.
Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer.
“What about my future?” I asked.
Instead of answering, she went on a tangent. “The sand wraith is still out there,” the Oracle began. “I have been following the signs. It’s only a matter of time before it strikes again.”
“I know,” I said. Everyone knew about the sand wraith and the chaos it had caused. Although Emma had managed to deter it and hold it at bay for a while, we all knew it would strike again. It fed off despair and had grown strong during the summer drought. Since then, it had started feeding on the despair of the pack, unleashing terror wherever it could. “But I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to do about it,” I added.
It wasn’t a secret that I couldn’t shift or was weak, particularly for a Thorn. If these three expected me to be able to fight the wraith, then they were insane.
Except that wasn’t what they were planning.
“It’s time for you to be mated,” the Oracle said.
The words rang in my ears, and I stared, dumbstruck. Mated? Me?
“What?”
The Oracle nodded. “I’ve read the signs, and fate has told me that the path toward defeating the wraith lies with you and your mate.”
“So I have to find a mate?” I asked. “I hate to break it to you, ma’am, but that isn’t going to be easy. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly desirable.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, dear,” the Oracle said with that grandmotherly smile of hers. “You have plenty of wonderful qualities, even if you don’t see them yourself. But that’s beside the point. We already know who your mate is.”
“You do?” A sinking feeling settled in my stomach. All my life, the one bit of solace I’d had was that I would be allowed tomate whoever I wanted. I wasn’t important enough to have an arranged marriage or to marry for any reason other than love. Apparently, that had been foolish.
The Oracle nodded.
“Who?” I asked, turning my attention to Elias and Sam. Elias’s jaw was tight, and his fingers drummed on the table as he stared straight ahead. Sam, for his part, looked at the table, then at the Oracle. When she gave a firm but polite nod, he took a deep breath and twisted in his seat until we were facing one another.
“Me,” he said.
I laughed without an ounce of humor. “Funny,” I said, not bothering to bite back the bitter edge to my words. “Great joke.”
