“Your husband, actually.”
“Ooooo.”
“Not forthatreason.”
“No one ever visits my husband for much of anything else,” she said. “He’s very good at what he does.”
“Shouldn’t he be running the town instead of a sex dungeon?”
“Powerful people multitask, Cody,” she said, dragging me closer to the restaurant. “Come. Stay with me for a while.”
“I really need to talk to Mosavi.”
“About Austin?”
I nodded.
Willa led me into the restaurant, which was a lot brighter than last time. Red curtains had replaced the black fabric that had previously covered the windows, and were drawn to let light stream inside. “Unfortunately, Darius is going to be tied up for most of the day.”
My shoulders slumped forward. “If he’s going to be in meetings all the time, why bother offering to give me advice?”
“Oh, you misunderstand. He had to be punished for seeking you out yesterday after I told him not to.”
I tossed her a narrowed glance.
“Don’t look at me like that. He loves it when I demoralize him.”
“Did I wander into some kind of vortex of depravity when I moved here?”
“Once you get to know him better, you’ll see beyond that alpha male veneer, and you may even find some common ground with him.”
“I doubt that,” I said as we slid into the same booth as last time. “What do you know about Austin?”
“What you are doing to him is something he needs,” Willa said in a gentle, less teasing tone. Sometimes she could sound almost… motherly if she wanted. “Some werewolves rely on it to work through past trauma. I don’t know what your friend has been through, but when I saw him in person after you moved here, I felt something dreadful around him. It has since dulled.”
“I can’t do this for the rest of his life. This isn’t going to fix him permanently.”
“You won’t need to. Think of this as a form of therapy that only works on werewolves. When you give him commands and use that magic within you, it rips away the scar and allows him to heal the way he should have from the start.”
“So, this is normal?”
“Is it normal for a half-turn to possess such an ability? No. But this is a normal technique all leaders can do for their pack. You may not understand how you’re doing it, but sometimes you don’t need to.” She took a sip of hot tea with a slice of ginger floating on top. “This is going to sound really corny, but as long as you’re doing this out of a place of compassion and not control, he will get better, and one day he won’t need it anymore.”
“So, I’m not screwing him up?”
“Hardly,” she replied, shaking her head. “I think I may have been wrong in our meeting last time.”
“What do you mean?”
She frowned. “You’re nothing like my Darius.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” I waited for her to respond, but she sat silently before giving into a soft smile. “What?”
“You came seeking his guidance, but he just may turn to you one day.”
“And pigs will start to grow wings.”
Her eyes seemed to shimmer as she gazed into mine.
