At the same time, though, I could wait, because I didn’t want to waste a single second with her. And since she was free for the moment, I didn’t feel bad asking to monopolize her time.
“Hey, do you wanna go on another walk? See if we can find any mushrooms in the woods?”
She smiled softly at that, which was exactly my intention. Mushrooms tied all the way back to that very first time we’d met, when she’d found me barely clinging to life after I’d managed to escape from the pair of enthralled bear shifters hunting me down.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Fantastic. Then, let’s go.”
For the second time in a few short days, we held hands as we strolled off into the woods. I might have been wrong, but it looked like there were even more tents than before, which didn’t make sense considering how many people we’d sent home. Had more supporters shown up? Or were our more long-term guests expanding their lodgings? I should probably ask Ricky so I could stay on top of things.
“There sure are a lot of people here,” Ven commented as we made our way to the tree line. Her tone was ambiguous enough that I couldn’t quite tell how she felt about it.
“Does it bother you?”
“Sometimes it’s a little loud, and it is definitely much more crowded than I’d like. But... it’s kind of what I imagine having an actual family is like. It’s nice, all of us being together, on the same side, working toward something important, knowing we have each other’s back. It makes the world a lot less lonely.”
I couldn’t agree more, and for a moment, I was struck by the realization that Ven had never truly experiencedpack.Because pack was more than a group of people hanging out together. It was even more than family. It was a spiritual connection that went right down to our deepest instincts, binding us all with a camaraderie that could rarely ever be broken. The closest thing humans had were their direct family, but from what I understood, Ven had never had that either. No wonder she’d been so lonely. I didn’t understand how someone so kind and so incredibly wonderful had spent so much time rejected by those meant to cherish her.
“It is nice,” I agreed, letting the conversation fade.
I resolved that as long as it was in my power, I would never, ever, let Ven be alone like that again.
33
VANESSA
That energy returned. It was nothing like the overwhelming, powerful deluge that had caused such chaos at the gala, but I could feel it simmering inside me, like a battery slowly charging. As the days passed, I became more and more aware of it. There were signs all over. My garden flourished like it never had before, even with all that free compost we’d stolen from the Chadwicke’s estate.
I also noticed that my healing balms and teas were far more potent. The burn salve I made for a couple shifters and mindwalkers had them healing within a day rather than three. My headache tea had the recipients marveling at how fast the storm in their head died down. Even my own period had been noticeably affected. Normally, I suffered from bad cramps, exhaustion, and a blinding migraine or two for days, but when I drank my soothing tea, took my supplements, and used my heating pad, I was right as rain a couple of hours later. Definitely different from the norm.
I didn’t say anything to anyone except Leo. I took immense comfort in all of his assurances, and it was helping me come to terms with whatever was building inside of me. As scary as itwas, and as much as it confused me, it was nice to feel more like an active part of something. I was no longer the single human who clung to the periphery of all the shifters around me. No, whatever I was, I was one of them in a way. Which was nice. I just couldn’t think too hard about the mystery of what the hell was going on with me.
Luckily, I didn’t have a lot of time to sit and marinate in it. I was always doing something. Between my cats, my garden, and work, I was pretty occupied. Occasionally, I was tempted to help chip in with the search for the two remaining brothers, but since I already had so much on my plate I figured it was time to let the more experienced folks take over. Still, it felt like there were never enough hours in the day to get everything done—and it wasn’t even like I was working forty hours a week anymore.
After some not-quite-so-careful consideration, I’d reduced my work hours to part-time, much to the chagrin of my manager. I’d told him it was nonnegotiable, and he could either fire me or deal with it. He’d chosen to deal with it, so I was now only working two six-hour shifts a week.
At first, I’d never thought such a thing was an option for me because I needed money to pay my bills. Even with all the food being handed to us, I still needed to pay my phone, the heat, the electricity, and perhaps most importantly,the internet.But the grateful families of those who returned had donated a lot more than food.
I now had a sizeable nest egg that would allow me to take a year off work if I wanted to. That idea was far too mind-boggling for me. I’d had a job pretty much since I was fourteen, and I couldn’t imagine being completely reliant on others, so the part-time transition was my compromise. And thank goodness for it, because there was an uncanny surrealness to being a grocery store clerk by day and an unknown magical entity hunting downa group of evil warlocks by night. To make it even better, Tiffany was leaving me alone, too.
I didn’t know if it was because management had told her to ease off, or because I radiated a new don’t-fuck-with-me energy, but I was grateful for the reprieve. Considering everything that had changed since meeting Leo, I couldn’t see myself rolling over and being the doormat I’d once been for her. Now, I knew my worth. I knew I was loved, and I was worth standing up for.
A screech sounded from the sky high above me, and I looked up to see a large eagle descending. While I was fairly sure it was a shifter and not a wild animal, I was still awed at the beauty of the creature’s wings as it cut through the golden light of the afternoon. I wasn’t surprised when it landed and shifted into a woman, but I was surprised when I didn’t recognize her. Not Alicia, and most definitely not Esperanza, who was apparently still chained to her studies. Honestly, good for America and her family for enforcing that. While college hadn’t been for me, Esperanza had mentioned a couple of times that she wanted to get her degree in journalism. Passion like that needed to be encouraged, and maybe if I’d had the support of a family like America’s, I’d have finished college.
“Are you the one they call Vanessa?” she asked, and the slight accent to her deep voice told me she was probably from the reservation. That was a pretty big deal. Leo had told me there were several different shifter packs hidden in the reservations across America, and they were even more insular than anybody else. They rarely came out or engaged with other magical communities. I couldn’t really blame them. From what Leo had said, they were long-lived, and some of them had parents who were around during colonization. I didn’t imagine that those wounds were much healed considering that they were only a generation ago.
“I am,” I said, standing and wiping my hands on my ratty sweatpants. It had gotten to the point where it was seriously time to prune my tomatoes considering I followed the one-stem method, so my fingertips were sticky with brown tomato tar. “Can I help you?”
I probably shouldn’t have been admitting my identity to any stranger who stopped by, but since the eagle shifter had landed right in front of me, she likely already knew who I was and was only asking as a formality.
“From what I hear, you already have. I have a gift for you from our family. One of our young men disappeared on his journey to meet his ancestors from a different tribe. Yesterday, he returned to us, and he told us how you and the people you gathered saved him and many others.”
“Oh, uh, we more came together as a matter of circumstance. It wasn’t like I went and recruited them.”
But the woman was already reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a beautiful necklace with polished-wood beads and what looked like several hand-shaped geodes. It was truly stunning in a very antiquated manner.
“This is for you,” she said. “If you are ever need help, hold this tightly and whisper your need into it. As long as our people live, we will come to help.”
