*
I came to in multiple stages. Heatflushed my body, aches ravaged my bones, and sounds and voices came in and outof my conscious understanding. Finally I felt my awareness sharpen and the heavinessof sleep left me. With one eye cracked open, I saw my mom sitting with Nahuelat the edge of a bed.
“Gavin,” I croaked, sending my hand outonto the bed to reach for my mate. My fingers came up empty and panic flushedmy body.
Everything came back to me then, the birdthat attacked us, the mist. The pain that had felt like my skull was splittingin two.
My mom jumped up and came to sit besideme. “Anya, are you okay?” Her voice was soft but it still hurt my head, whichstill had a lingering throb.
“Where’s my mate?” I growled. Somethingwas horribly wrong. There was an emptiness in my chest but also somethingfamiliar. I couldn’t figure out what it was but something was gone, missing.
My mom looked back at Nahuel and thenagain at me. Her mouth opened to say something and then closed again as if shedidn’t know how.
“Mom!” I half sobbed in panic and beganto sit up. My entire body ached like I had been ripped in two. What the hellwas going on?
She sighed. “Your father left the pressconference and when he stepped outside he smelled Gavin’s blood.”
I nodded and made a hand motion to hurryher along.
“We found you both unconscious. Burningwith fever just like last time. But this time you were covered in a cocoon ofmagic.”
My stomach dropped.No. That damnbird. Maybe it was Mukesh, but then my spell would have revealed him. Andalthough it did attack Gavin, it didn’t seem evil. I didn’t know how to explainit.
Nahuel stood and approached me on theleft. “Little pup, Gavin awoke an hour ago. He was screaming in pain one secondand the next … he transformed into a large red-winged hawk.”
The room spun on its axis. I couldn’tprocess what Nahuel had just said so I asked again. “What?” Panic and anxietywere pumping through my body making me feel like I had just consumed tencoffees. The energy jolt made my aches and pains lessen a little as my shifterhealing kicked in and I had the urge to run out of here screaming.
“Anya,” Nahuel reached out to touch myshoulder, “Gavin was always the son of a Walker. The son of a Keeper. Youhelped save him when his body couldn’t find its power, but now …”
My breath was coming in and out in shortbursts and the room had black spots at the edges. I was going to pass out. Icouldn’t handle this. “Now what?”
Nahuel looked at my mom and a tearslipped from her left eye, trailing down her cheek and splashing into thepillow.
“Now what?” I repeated. Mama should havewarned me about this.
My mom was the one who spoke. “Now he isstrong enough to take his power back. He took one look at you lying on the bedand then flew out the open window.”
Everything inside of me exploded then, agrief like I had never known opened up and swallowed me whole. “He left me,” Ibreathed and wrapped my arms around my shoulders to stave off the chill.
Nahuel winced. “I think I know where hewent.” The tiniest sliver of hope sprang in my chest but also brought with it atrepidation. I reached out with my matebond and felt that Gavin had closed itagain. This time it was airtight.
“Mukesh,” I said and Nahuel nodded. “Why?Why would he go after him?”
I didn’t understand. When something waspsycho and dangerous I tried to stay away, why would Gavin go running toward it?
Nahuel looked sixty years old as he peeredat me with wrinkle-lined brown eyes. “Because he thinks he is the only one whocan stop him. Because Mukesh has been torturing him in his sleep and tauntinghim. Threatening you. Because Gavin wants a world where the Skin Walker isn’tin it and he knows that he has the power to defeat him now.”
I swallowed hard. “He does?”
Nahuel sharpened his gaze at me andscanned my body up and down as if looking for some unseen magic there. “Anya,tell me something. Do you feel your bear?”
It hit me then, with the force of a Macktruck. That weird empty feeling I had, yet the familiar one that also restedthere.
“Oh my God!” I jumped up on the bednearly cracking Nahuel in the face. “My bear is gone but my wolf is back.”
My old wolf stirred within me at thatthought, and tears began to spill from my eyes as laughter bubbled up inside ofme. I was having a complete and total nervous breakdown. I hadn’t realized howmuch I had missed my wolf, my inner beast since birth, until now. But my bear …I could feel her gone and the loss opened a hole inside of my heart.
“How is that possible?” my mom askedNahuel, clearly not one hundred percent sure of things.
