Wolfs Magic

Chapter Two

Azriel Kane stopped walking and stood perfectly still. Could it be true? How was it possible that Theo could have known the lady wolf in his arms was his mate when he didn’t know it himself?

Well you would have known it if you ever listened to anything I said to you.

His wolf was pissed; he could hear it in the sarcasm travelling over their link. I haven’t been ignoring you. When did you tell me the little she-wolf was my mate?

You know I can’t just come out and say it. How many times have I asked you why she was still alive or why you were so fixated on her?

Azriel let out the breath he’d held and squeezed the brown and white wolf a little tighter in his arms. Might have been nice if you could have been a little bit more direct than that. You know I don’t ‘get’ relationships. Subtlety is lost on me.

His wolf laughed. And don’t I know it…

Pulling himself out of his daze, he ran forward to catch up to Theo and Gabriel keeping his unnamed lady wolf, who happened to be his possible mate, close to his chest.

Two of his five brothers, they were used to him occasionally drifting off into moments of deep thought and losing track of the ‘here and now’. If either of them had sensed immediate danger, they would have snapped him out of it but aside from that, they’d pretty much learned to let him be.

Theo, the shorter of the two, had mated about three months earlier to a recently rediscovered pack member named Faith. Their mating had been a gift for the whole pack as it had brought Theo back from near madness and eliminated a very serious threat from creatures called the fire demons. They’d first had to become demons themselves. Az really hoped he wasn’t going to have to do anything like that to complete his mating…

Gulping, he turned to Theo. “I think I’m in serious trouble.”

“I may not be a genius like you, little brother, but I’m pretty sure you’re right.”

Theo’s tone held way too much humor for Az’s liking.

“Can the two of you get your heads out of your mated asses long enough to focus on the fact that we were just attacked, again?”

Az winced. Gabriel might be harsh but he was usually right. It was just that they were always being attacked. It didn’t matter if they eliminated a threat—and they had destroyed a big one when Theo and Faith had sent the demons back to their own dimension—another one popped up to replace it. Since finding their preordained mates seemed to be part of the ‘game plan’ in ending the destructive chaos their father, Kendrick Kane, liked to drop on their heads, sometimes literally, it seemed important to Azriel that he get his version of the mating thing figured out.

Besides, it was no secret that Gabriel had proclaimed several times that he had no desire to find his mate and found the whole thing to be a huge waste of time. He preferred battles to romance. Az often wondered exactly how tough a woman was going to have to be to survive mating with his second oldest brother.

“I don’t think discussing Azriel’s mating issue is going to mean the destruction of the pack, big brother. Theo jumped to his defense. “We can’t really work through any of this without Tristan and Cullen with us anyway.”

Az nodded his head. He shouldn’t have let Theo defend him to Gabriel. It only made Gabriel think he could continue to tell him what to do. He laughed, causing Gabriel to roll his eyes. Who was he kidding? They’d been doing this routine for at least eighty years; it wasn’t likely to change anytime soon. In his human form, Az preferred to live a more cerebral life than his kick-ass-and-ask-questions-later brothers. The others seemed to understand. Gabriel never did and Az knew enough to know he never would.

That didn’t mean he didn’t love him. Gabriel had just beat down a door with a battering ram to get him out of a burning lab. There was a bond between them, whether they’d ever really see eye to eye or not.

As they passed through a clearing in the woods, he could see their home up ahead.

Every single window in the Westervelt lair was illuminated by light, creating a bright orange aura over the landscape. Much like a giant hotel, the lair had been constructed to house the entire pack until it was safe again for them to make their own homes elsewhere on the island. Az wasn’t sure, if today was any indication, that they’d ever get to that point.

In any case, it didn’t feel like home to him. As far as he was concerned, he’d had two homes in his life. The first had been the cottage he’d shared with his parents. He’d lived there with his brothers and, as it had turned out although the magic hadn’t worn off enough for anyone other than Cullen to remember her, their baby sister. The second one had been the building they’d called ‘The Institute’ until Tristan had burned it down.

He shook his head. Thinking about both of those things only gave him migraines.

How was it possible—his mother’s strong magic aside—to simply forget one’s sister?

Could he just be bespelled into forgetting Rex or Michael one day? It was an appalling reality he wished he didn’t have to live with.

The other place he’d thought of as home had burned to the ground during Tristan’s mating issues. Cursed into trying to kill his new love, he’d torched the Institute his father had built and they’d all watched it turn into ashes around them. The memory made him angry, and not at Tristan who had suffered more than any of them when he’d come back to his senses and realized what had happened, but at Kendrick and the pain—no, the hell—he’d put them all through.

Maybe his mating would finally put an end to Kendrick. Gabriel stalked forward, leaving the Theo and Azriel behind.

Azriel moved to follow but Theo placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let him go ahead. I want to talk to you—to the two of you.” Theo’s eyes stared down at the female wolf in his arms.

It was a small gesture but a nice one. She could understand them—he was pretty sure that was true. He couldn’t even begin to dwell on the idea that she couldn’t. It was bad enough she was trapped in the wolf body and he was mated to a woman whose human side, or name for that matter, he didn’t know. What if her brain was actually gone, eaten by the ‘wrongness’ of her creation?

“Are you paying attention, Az, or did I lose you to your inner musings again?”

He smiled. “Sorry, man, I know it’s annoying.”

“It’s not annoying, it’s just part of the intricacies of talking with you. It’s not as if I can blame you,” Theo’s gaze fell to the she-wolf again. “You have a lot to think about but stay with me for a minute.”

“You’ve got my attention.”

Theo sighed. “I would say this to you telepathically except you want her to hear what you hear and I’m going to respect that. Faith would flip out if I ever tried to leave her out of conversations she should hear.” Az watched in amazement as Theo actually smiled at that thought. How was it possible that he would like the thought of Faith getting angry?

He might never understand relationships.

Theo continued. “Anyway, I’m worried about Gabriel.” Az turned to watch their brother up ahead. “I know he can hear us. This isn’t going to come as any surprise to him and maybe it’s time someone started saying this aloud.”

Why was this the first time he was hearing that there was some kind of problem with Gabriel? “What’s been going on since I’ve been down in the lab?”

“What hasn’t been going on since you went down in the lab?”

Enough. “Okay, all sarcasm aside, just tell me.”

“Tristan wanted to send Gabriel to find our sister.”

“So why did he end up sending Michael?”

“Ever since Gabriel and I got back from Arizona and our encounter with our father…Gabriel has been a little ‘off’. He’s very violent right now. It actually worked to our favor in getting you out of the lab just now but he goes from zero to crazy in under two seconds.”

This part of being in a family didn’t work so well for Az. There was sure to be an appropriate thing for him to say at the moment and he didn’t have a clue what it was.

Want me to tell you what to say?

In no way did he want that. No, you’ll just start cursing and screaming, which even I know is not necessary at the moment.

His wolf argued. I would not.

He cleared his throat. “Then why isn’t Tristan doing something about it?”

“Tristan is off-island with Ashlee and the kids. Cullen and Summer went too. They brought the baby with them, too. Technically, I’m in charge only Gabriel doesn’t seem to remember that.”

Now Az saw where this was going. “Okay, then what you’re telling me that I’m slow to catch onto is that when Tristan gets back he’s going to have to bite the bullet and rank us?”

That would put Az way at the bottom of the pecking order of Kanes. Maybe right above Rex, maybe below him depending on just how pissed off Tristan currently was at their youngest brother.

“Well that, yes, but also that I want you to be careful with Gabriel. I know you’re less volatile than the rest of us, only I’ve been where you are. You’ve found your mate; however, for obvious reasons, you can’t mate her. That’s going to make you really nuts. Gabriel is going to taunt you. Please don’t kill him.”

“You know, even as a wolf, I could never take Gabriel in a physical fight.”

Oh bullshit. We could, if you ever let me loose.

He ignored his wolf.

Theo raised an eyebrow. “You’ve never been mated before.”

“Are you telling me that mating increases physical strength and capabilities?” He was going to have to try to stay objective about this and observe the changes in himself scientifically. What was it about the mating exactly that brought on the physical alterations?

Because gods forbid you just enjoy finding your soul mate?

He sighed. Did everyone else have as contemptuous a relationship with his or her wolf as he did? This is fun for me.

“I’m telling you that if you wanted to, in order to protect your mate, you could fly to the moon using only a swat from your tail.”

“Theo, I don’t know if poetic references from fairytales are what’s called for in this situation.”

Theo only laughed, which made Az want to show him exactly what damage he could do with his tail. The thought stopped Az in his tracks. That was a fairly aggressive response, not something he usually bothered with where his brothers were concerned.

Maybe Theo was right, maybe he was out of synch and more…primal…due to his mate’s appearance and his inability to do anything about it.

He shook his head and looked down at the brown and white fur ball that he held in his arms. Narrowing his eyes, he realized she’d fallen asleep. This time he gave in and laughed aloud. Here he was obsessing over whether or not they were actually mated and what ramifications that meant for him and his future bride, the woman he was bound to for eternity, who he still had yet to lay eyes on, had fallen asleep in his arms.

Theo followed his gaze. “I guess she was tired after the fire. She’s probably not used to the chaos like we are.”

This sobered Az immediately. Was it a bad sign that his brother had twice now had to explain the woman to him? Why couldn’t he be as attuned to her needs as Theo?

“Theo, she dragged me across the lab with her teeth.”

“They’re all very strong, stronger than ‘normal’ wolves, maybe as strong as we are. You haven’t encountered one in battle yet. They really kick ass. Dad knew what he was doing when he created them.” Theo visibly shuddered. “It would be great if you could figure out how to turn them back so we could take away that advantage.”

“Are you under the impression that I’m not trying to get it done? Because I have been doing nothing else for months. All I do all day, every day, is work on the ‘man made’ wolf problem. You guys bring them in, I work on them, they die, and I burn their dead carcasses. Sound like a lot of fun to you? Sound like something you’d spend more than one extra second doing if you had the chance?”

Yeah, tell him to go screw himself.

Theo put his hands out in front of him in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry, Az, I mean clearly you must be doing something right if Dad is attempting to destroy your lab. We all know how hard you’ve been working. Maybe after your mating, your mind will feel clearer.”

“Dad has been trying to kill me since I was born, remember? When I was two days old he tried to drown me in the bathtub and as for the mating, there is a big problem there—mainly that she is currently a wolf without a human body. I have no idea what to do about this very large problem.”

Az started moving forward, Theo followed next to him, his hands in his pockets. A slight drizzle fell from the sky, not unusual for Maine in the early spring, and Az after checking to make sure the blanket was fully covering his lady wolf, raised his head to the sky to let some of the light rain spray his face.

“I remember when Dad did that. It was horrifying…and in retrospect, probably the beginning of his decline into madness.”

“If Mom hadn’t come along when she did, I’d be dead.”

“Actually, I think it was Gabriel who saved you.”

Az stopped dead in his tracks. “What?”

“I know the story always was that Mom came along and stopped Dad but I’m fairly certain it was Gabriel who told Mom what Dad was up to, risking Dad’s wrath. She took all the blame to spare him.”

So now Az officially owed Gabriel twice for saving his life. “I guess I’ve always been a little confused as to why the pack didn’t throw him out of Alpha position for trying to kill his own son.”

“No one outside of the Kane family knew anything about it.”

He nodded. “That’s what I always figured.”

And if I’d been around back then he’d have been a dead man.

A thought occurred to him. “Why did Tristan and Cullen take their families offisland?”

“Ashlee and Summer wanted to get the babies vaccinated.”

“They wanted to what?” Why hadn’t anybody discussed this with him? One of his five degrees was in medicine. Granted, it was fifty years out of date…

“They’re concerned the pups might be susceptible to human diseases like measles or polio.”

“We don’t get sick like that.”

“I know that and you know that but the Morrison girls are still convinced the fact that their children are one quarter pure human might leave them open to those kinds of illnesses.”

“Theo,” Az scratched his head. “We have been marrying humans on and off for hundreds of years. There has never—ever—been a recorded case of anyone even catching a cold. Why on earth would Tristan let her think the pups could get sick?”

Tristan and Ashlee had three children. When Az was actually outside of the lab, he loved being with Braden, Virginia, and the new baby, Elizabeth. Secretly, although he suspected Tristan knew of the jokes, the pack liked to say that Tristan and Ashlee were trying to repopulate the pack all by themselves. Summer, Ashlee’s baby sister, and Cullen, the pack’s enforcer, had just had their first child, a son they’d named Jude.

Already whispers flew around the pack about a future Kane/Murphy mating. Shifters liked to gossip. Matings however, as Az knew, were left to the Fates and not the speculations of the wolf pack. Not to mention they’d be first cousins…

“Tristan and Cullen learned quickly that one does not tell one’s mate anything, one simply goes along to help them not get killed.”

“Alright, but an unnecessary vaccination…”

Az stopped speaking midsentence. Ideas always came to him like a car slamming into a wall on the side of the highway. Impact was rough but if he was lucky he lived to talk about them. Vaccinations, the doctor stuck a small amount of a dead pathogen, or maybe in some cases a live one, into you giving your immune system the opportunity to develop immunity to it instead of having to develop a full blown case. That way if you came into contact with whatever you were being inoculated against—say the measles—

you wouldn’t catch it because your body would think you already had as it had the immunities stored up.

Az’s head whirled. It was so damn simple. Why hadn’t he seen it before? Not all vaccinations lasted. Children—humans at least—had to sometimes be revaccinated for certain diseases. Sticking with the measles theme, he wanted to dance. Human doctors had to give the MMR vaccine at least twice during childhood and sometimes again if they knew a patient was leaving the country and going somewhere where there might be an outbreak.

That was what the drug was. It was acting like a counter-vaccine; it was stopping the bodies of the wolves from using its immune system to fight off the disease that was the wolf body Kendrick had given them. They weren’t supposed to be wolves. It was like a disease. Too much suppression and the body overreacted to the pathogen—thus killing the wolf.

He wasn’t any closer to knowing how the witches were hoisting the wolf on the poor souls to begin with but maybe he could keep them alive a little longer. Maybe he could keep his mate, and it was scary how fast he’d started to think of her that way considering he still didn’t know her name, from dying on him before he learned the cause of the initial transformation.

Theo stared at him. “You look like a kid in a candy store.”

Are you going to try to explain it?

He shook his head. No way in hell.

“I just figured out part of the puzzle.”

Theo narrowed his eyes. “As we stood here?”

Az squeezed the wolf in his arms tighter. “That’s right, and now I’m going to keep her alive.”

Now all he had to do was figure out how to get her out of her wolf body and into her human one. Then he had to hope they actually liked each other…

And that no one else tried to fire bomb them to death while he worked on the other problems.

But hell, it was just another day in his life and this sort of thing had long ago become commonplace.