‘Tell me everything you remember about the wolf,’ Wyn said when we broke apart. ‘What size, what colour, anything at all.’
‘It’s kind of a blur.’ I closed my eyes to help me concentrate. It was difficult when all I saw was him. ‘Mostly grey, more white around the muzzle, maybe? And it, I mean, they were big. Really big.’
‘Bigger than me?’
‘Biggest wolf I ever saw.’
‘Did it come from inside the hotel?’
‘From the street,’ I said. ‘Jumped right up from the sidewalk onto the terrace of the DeSoto. I told them not to come inside the hotel but they lunged for me and Jackson got in the way, got clawed across the belly for his trouble.’
‘The wolf clawed Jackson?’ Wyn leapt to his feet, ready to bolt. ‘Did he get bitten? Is he OK?’
‘He’s fine, I healed him, and no, there was no biting,’ I replied. ‘If he had been bitten, would that mean …?’
‘He wouldn’t turn into a wolf, no.’ He drove the heels of his hands into his eyes before pushing his hair back off his face. ‘The phase is hereditary but any wound from a Were, teeth or claws, can be fatal to humans if it isn’t treated right away. He’s lucky you were there.’
‘If I hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have been in danger.’
‘You don’t know that.’
It was obvious from the look on his face he didn’t believe his own words any more than I did.
‘Would a Were bite kill a witch?’ I asked, absently running a hand over my scarred abdomen.
He ducked his head.
‘I don’t know how you survived after I clawed you. I was told a scratch would incapacitate. If it were deep enough, any injury, tooth or claw, would kill a witch instantly.’
‘Catherine told me the Weres act as kind of magical law enforcement, that they keep order in the magical world so they won’t be discovered,’ I said, trying to recall my grandmother’s exact words. ‘She talked as though Weres considered us to be a threat to their secret existence. But if the witches knew a single Were bite could kill …’
‘Then the witches would most likely try to eradicate Weres,’ Wyn finished for me as he sank back down into his seat. ‘It’s one of the reasons we all gather where we do, to keep people safe. Em, you have to swear to keep this to yourself.’
‘Who would I tell?’
There were no other witches. I was all alone while Wyn was part of a pack that could slaughter an entire city in minutes.
‘It doesn’t make any sense. Every wolf in the region was with us on the full moon. If there truly was a Were in Savannah on Sunday night, it was a lone wolf.’
‘And that’s bad?’
‘It’s not good. Once you’ve been initiated, the call to gather is so strong, Em, I can’t even start to explain it. I could feel the pull hours before the moon rose. If your grandmother hadn’t poisoned me, I would’ve done everything in my power to get to the pack before the first phase. To be part of a pack and not share the experience with them must be excruciating.’
The guilt that would bind the memory of my grandmother’s assault to me always pressed down on me and I curled my shoulders inward, cowering from the pain.
‘You’re saying this wolf ignored that call?’ I asked in a whisper.
‘You can’t ignore the call,’ he replied softly. ‘A wolf cannotleave its pack by choice, only by exile. It’s the most brutal and agonizing thing that can happen to a Were.’
I thought back to the wolf in the hotel ballroom, the waves of pain and rage that rolled off its body, the sickening disconnect between the school party and its violent desires.
‘It only happens if a Were commits one of the high crimes,’ Wyn went on, pressing his hand against his forehead as though feeling for a fever. ‘They’re locked in a silver cage the day before the phase, then, when the moon rises, the pack all turn their back on the exiled wolf and run without him. It would be an agony beyond anything you can imagine, enough to make you lose your mind.’
I opened my mouth but had no words, only the taste of ash.
Wyn pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and swiped through the contacts.
‘I need to talk to my mom. If there is a lone wolf running around the south-east, she needs to know.’
