“Of course it matters. Vince was trying to control you with it. I know it’s not a good thing.”
Rick seemed to crumple against her. “Don’t hate me. If I had just done what he wanted, we would have been fine.” His voice was muffled against her shoulder.
Shelly just rubbed his head. “I could never hate you. You are the other half of my soul.” She was quiet for a second. “But if you would have worked with Vince to ruin another Alpha for his gain, I know I wouldn’t have been able to look at you.”
Rick pulled back, confused. “You think I made the right choice?” He looked around. “Even with Abby? With everything that happened?”
“There are few things I would say mattered more than our daughter. None actually. But you didn’t know he was going to target her. You did the only thing to stay true to a friend, to yourself, and to the Goddess. How could I hate you for that?” She looked at me. “What does his rune mean?”
“Vince has traps all around the forest to trap wolves that get too close to the pack lands. He needed someone he could use to catch them, to overpower them. To use the power that he drained.” I turned to Rick. “Vince cut the rune into Rick for thequickening to push all the power that he drained from anyone into him. But-” Rick hung his head, but he finished the rest.
“But the power is too much. When ever he called me, I would have to go to search for the wolf. I could burn through some of the power fed to me, but not a lot. The rest burns through me.”
“Why didn’t you ever attack Vince?” Toya interrupted.
“Because he couldn’t. It was part of how they corrupted the rune. Rick couldn’t turn around and attack the one that branded him or else he would drop dead.”
“I couldn’t leave you and Abby in Vince’s hands. So I played the part. Pretended to come around to the thought of draining Abby for power.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.” I could tell he was struggling. Shelly shook her head. But Rick needed to finish it. “Please don’t hate me.” He grabbed her face and kissed her. “When we caught Amy watching us, Vince had Verity there. She is the witch that is working with Vince. She kissed me. I hated it, but I had to play along.” Rick dropped to his knees. “I felt so dirty after, but I could feel the burn coming on and I couldn’t move as the power funneled into me.”
Shelly stared down at him, and then turned to me. “Is he telling the truth?”
I nodded. “Verity went up to him. She kissed him. Then she left. Right after I took off and he could catch up with me while I was using my magic. The forest was pulling my power from me and funneling it into him. It was probably more power than he has ever felt.” I looked down at Rick. “The rune is killing him, but despite that, he did his best to help me. Even when I was just a random wolf, he didn’t know. But he refused to put you and Abby on the line. I can’t tell you if he’s lying or not. But I can tell you that no matter what happened, you and Abby were who he was worried about.”
Rick stayed on his knees in front of Shelly until she grabbed him and hugged him. A soft voice called from the living room.“What do our runes mean?” Alannah stepped into the dining room, her hands wrapped around the small swell of her growing baby bump. “Is it hurting my pup?”
I sighed. “Yeah, Alannah it is.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “But don’t worry.” I nearly laughed at my words. I just asked a woman to not worry about her pup. I jumped back to her question. “Abby’s rune was to drain her. Ricks is to give him power until it over loads his body, and yours…” I sighed again. “Your rune is a bastardized version of a mate rune.”
“What does that mean?” Shelly asked, touching her arm.
“I don’t know.” I blew out a breath. “I know the runes because of my father. He never went into detail about the mate rune.”
“That’s because he didn’t think you would need to know. The man has the forethought of a gerbil.” We all turned around and saw my grandmother coming out of the kitchen. She met our faces. “What? I love the boy, but he meddles too much.” She waved her hand. “Anyway, before mate bonds were a thing. So a very long time ago. Couples would have mate runes. It would create a bridge to each other. So they could speak to each other’s lycans.” She turned to meet my eyes. “You know why the mate bond was created.” I nodded. “But this was before that. It also links your power, your souls, and let’s you share between the two.”
“But none of us are mated to Vince.” Shelly stared between my grandmother and me.
She nodded. “Exactly. His witchling turned something sacred into something corrupt.” She walked over the Shelly. “Lift your arm, please.” Shelly nodded. “The original mate rune was two circles, one full and one empty. It represented the Moon goddess in her two forms. The full moon represented the person it was on, while the empty one was their mate. But do you see this line through it, and the sigil at the end?” Everyone leaned in.
“Yeah…” I furrowed my brow. “I’ve never seen that one before.”
She nodded. “That’s because that is one that the witchling made for Vince. This line.” She traced her finger over it. “This is how she is rerouting the power. Then she redirects to Vince.” She shook her head. “Disgusting.” She turned to me. “You are going to remove all these tonight?” She sighed and then turned on Rick. “This one will be the most difficult.” She sighed. “It has done a lot of damage, and his wolf is weak.”
I nodded. “I don’t even know how I am going to get all of them off.”
My grandmother came to my side. “The small ones will be easy. It is just a leech. Find it, kill it, and then will be free. Vince will feel it, but who cares?” She looked at Rick over her shoulder. “His is deeper. He is a dumping ground for Vince. You will face a lot inside of him.” She went to cup my face. “You do not run from ghosts. Teach him.” Then she was gone.
“What does she mean by that?” Rick sat back on his feet, and I sighed.
“I don’t know.” I stood. “But I guess we will figure it out together.” I pointed to Shelly. “You are up first.” I nodded to the table. “Lay down.”
Shelly kissed Rick while I cleaned off the stuff from Abby. “We will get through this.” Rick nodded, but even I could tell he didn’t believe her. She shook him. “Say it.”
He closed his eyes, and he blew out a breath. “We will get through this.” Shelly nodded and used a chair to get onto the table. She crawled to the middle and then laid back.
Chapter Twelve
She looked at me as I lit one candle. I sprinkled a few herbs inside of the bowl and lit some cotton. “What should I do?” Her question caught me off guard.
“Lift your arm over your head. Then relax.” She nodded. I grabbed the dagger and looked at her. “This is going to hurt.”
