I shook my head. “If that was the case, the royals would be all over the place, poisoning water sources and wells to keep us from using one of our main strengths. No, I think whatever they’ve developed only works to keep us as animals. It pushes Viola’s agenda—the whole feral shifter disease she’s managed to trick the country and government into believing. Like we’re some kind of existential threat that has to be dealt with.” They looked somehow both relieved and more worried.
“I remember what it was like,” Maddy said. “When I was trying to shift and couldn’t, it was like I was stuck. It was uncomfortable, God, it was terrifying. And that was when I was in my human form. I can’t imagine how scary it would be to get stuck as my animal. It’s wonderful when I shift, but my human form is who I reallyam, you know?” She shuddered at the thought.
The same thought was in my own mind. Half of all I was, rested in my wolf, and the other half was human, but as she said, that was the body I’d been born with. It would be scary not to be able to change back. “Yours was probably from having your wolf suppressed by drugs for all those years,” I said.
Tiago raised his eyebrows. “What?”
Realizing only a few of our inner circle in the pack knew the whole story, Maddy and I relayed everything that had happened—her adoption and the story of her birth parents, Kenneth, Europe, and everything in between. When we were done, Tiago was looking at us with newfound respect. He nodded once for emphasis. “You’ve all had a helluva year, haven’t you?”
Maddy and I looked at him dumbly for a moment before we burst out laughing. That was one way to put it. If anyone had come to me a year ago and told me where I’d be and what I’d be dealing with right now, I’d have had them committed. I’d always thought my life was fairly eventful and exciting. I’d never thought I lived a boring life, but since getting involved with the royals, things had become a thousand times more interesting.
“What about herbal poisons? Has anyone ever heard of something that could do this? Even old legends?” Tiago asked.
“No,” I said. “Never heard of anything like that. I mean, there’s wolfsbane, but that would kill us. Hell, it would probably kill humans, for that matter.”
“Silver?” Maddy said, venturing a guess.
Tiago and I shook our heads. “No. Too much would kill a shifter, a tiny bit would hurt like shit, but it can’t force you to shift and stay as an animal,” I said.
We mulled it over for a few minutes. Eventually, I looked at Maddy. Her brow was furrowed, and her eyes kept moving back and forth like she was watching a movie or reading. She was remembering something. Suddenly, she gasped and put her hands to her head. “Oh, holy shit,” she hissed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t think I am. I just thought of something. When we were in Germany.” She looked me in the eyes, and I could see a strange fervor behind her eyes. Whatever she’d remembered had her spooked. “The stone wolf’s head?”
That was something I’d rather forget. The mental image played across my mind. The way the stone teeth had pierced her flesh and drained the blood from her body. Then my face went slack as I connected the dots. “Your blood?”
She nodded. “I was stuck as a human. Viola knew that. What if, when we left, they went back and took my blood out of the vault? It was there. Could they be using my blood to make this poison?”
I thought about it. She had the blood of Edemas, the most powerful shifter ever, a werewolf king. Maddy was right about how difficult it had been for her to shift. Could the scientists and chemists who worked for the royals have found something in her blood to reverse-engineer this poison? It was far-fetched, but nothing else made a lick of sense.
“This is all my fault,” Maddy whispered.
“No,” Tiago and I said at the exact same moment. I leaned in close to her. “You can’t say that. This isn’t your fault. This is the royals’ fault.”
Maddy was pale and looked ready to vomit. I was sure she was thinking of the video on the news and the poor bear shifter who had been gunned down in the street. I understood. I really did, but it wasn’t her fault. I wished I could make her see that.
Without warning, Maddy’s face went hard. “I wonder who they tested this on?”
She was thinking again, but this time I couldn’t think where her thoughts were taking her. “Maddy?” I asked warily. Tiago also looked worried.
Maddy’s fists clenched. “What if they used this on my birth mother? What if they still have her? Or caught her again if she got away the first time?” Her body trembled with rage.
I’d never even thought of them using this on her mother. Maddy had been hopeful that her birth mom had somehow gotten away, but I’d had a more realistic view. If they had synthesized something, why wouldn’t they use it on a shifter they already had in captivity? It’s what I would have done if were a sociopathic nutjob like Viola.
Maddy’s fists began to shake, and her lips peeled back, revealing her teeth. Her anger started to boil up from within her. I could sense her rage and power building. It was emanating out from her body. I spared a glance at Tiago. The old alpha was looking at me with wide, surprised eyes. He frowned, and I could see his fingers and shoulders start to tremble. He bowed his head in instinctive subservience to Maddy. My own reaction came slower, probably because I was her mate, but an innate fear welled up inside me that I couldn’t hold back any longer. It was the kind of fear a child had when they knew a parent was mad at them, that same anxiety you got when you were called into the principal’s office. It came out of Maddy in waves. I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes to stay on Maddy. Her face was twisted in a mask of suppressed anger. Tears shone in her eyes. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through. If I’dlearned they’d tortured or experimented on my parents, I’d have been enraged. Her wolf was probably exacerbating things.
As her aura completely filled the room, I leaned forward and put my hands on her cheeks, holding her head. “Maddy? It’s okay. It’s all going to be all right. You need to calm down.”
She glanced up at me and bared her fangs, fangs that had grown long and sharp in her mouth. She growled through the wicked-looking teeth.
“Maddy, I know you’re angry, I understand it, but you have to calm down. You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack or something. We’ll figure this out, and we’re going to win. Do you hear me?”
The growl died in her throat, and the teeth retracted and became human again. Maddy leaned forward and pressed her forehead against mine. As she calmed down, her emotions changed, and I sighed with relief as her aura evaporated.
Tiago gave a heavy huff of breath as he looked back up, the aura of Maddy’s lifting itself off him. “Jesus,” he muttered. “Never seen an alpha that strong.”
Ignoring him, I pulled Maddy close, and she curled herself into me. She seemed exhausted as she slumped limply into my embrace. I stood, scooping her into my arms and heading toward the stairs.
