“Kai,” I said, “what’s happening?”

  He sighed. “From the looks of it, I’d say the packs aren’t interested in integrating.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  The place looked like a barfight had thrown up in here.

  Actually, it looked a lot like the old Ridley Falls. The one that had greeted me when I’d first come to town.

  But I saw what he meant. The Asheville pack members had lined up against one wall, clearly marked in flannels and neatly trimmed beards, and Hawley on the other with their leather vests and facial piercings. In between them, in the center of things, were ours—Lone Wolves. And all of them looked like they were on the verge of starting round two.

  “Kai. Ash.” A familiar female voice caught my attention.

  I zeroed in on a face looking up at us from the center group. Even knowing her voice as well as I did, I had to do a double-take to verify the face that went with it.

  “Amberly.” Alarm shot through me as I made my way over to where she sat, holding an ice pack over one cheek. The cold pack wasn’t enough to cover the obvious swollen black eye she sported, and I leaned in close, horror and rage coursing through me now.

  “I’m glad to see you’re okay,” she told me.

  She looked like that and she was worried about me?

  “What happened?” Kai demanded.

  “Several pack members showed up at our door early this morning,” she explained.

  “Your door?” I asked. “Why?”

  She gave me a tentative look and hesitated a second before explaining. “Glenn Davidson wanted to report the Hawley pack for starting a barfight. But the Hawley in question,” her eyes flickered to two men in the far corner of the room, “followed them over and confronted them on my front lawn. I got a bit too close to the action and, well…” She lifted the ice pack away, and I flinched at the sight of the bruise already darkening her skin.

  It looked painful.

  “Wait. Report to who?” Kai asked.

  She met his eyes, an apology written there. “Warren.”

  Understanding dawned quickly. They’d gone to Warren—because that’s who they were used to dealing with when it came to pack leadership. They’d chosen him over us.

  And Amberly had paid for it.

  I tensed, but Amberly was already shaking her head. “Warren didn’t encourage it,” she said. “In fact, he told them to leave. But some habits die hard, you know?”

  I nodded before Kai could go off. “I know,” I told her. “It’s fine. I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

  “I’m fine.” She waved me off. “And the twins are fine too,” she assured me before I could voice the question.

  I let out a breath. “I’m surprised they didn’t come here with you.”

  “They don’t know what happened,” she admitted. “They’ve both been out before sunrise every day this week,” she said, which surprised me almost as much as seeing Amberly injured. The twins were not early risers. “And I knew they’d just worry. Besides, out of the two of us, Warren’s worse—”

  Along the far wall, a door opened, and Warren and a slender, middle-aged female in a white coat stepped out of an exam room. I knew it was Warren only from the scent I’d come to recognize, thanks to my wolf’s cataloging of our entire pack. The bruises and cuts covering his face made him almost unrecognizable. I stared in horror.

  Amberly clucked her tongue sympathetically at the sight of him.

  Kai didn’t say a word as Warren finished speaking with the woman and they both walked over to where we stood.

  “Kai, Ash, good to see you.” Warren’s words were muffled by his swollen lips.

  “Mr. Close,” I began, feeling the need for formality. Maybe it was the guilt tugging at me. If I hadn’t slept through those first crucial days as alpha, maybe the pack would feel comfortable coming to me. Maybe then, they wouldn’t have brought violence to the doorstep of two innocent people.

  And maybe it was your psycho-display of magic last night.

  “Sir, I want to apologize for what happened,” Kai began, but Warren waved him off.

  “Hazard of the job. Er, well, not a job anymore.” He laughed stiffly. Or tried to. It looked painful. “Anyway, I look worse than I feel. Kind of impressive, right?”

  I didn’t answer.

  This was all my fault.

  “Ash,” Kai said. “Do you think you could help them?”

  “What? Oh.” I hesitated. “Kai, this thing inside me is unpredictable.”

  “Sorry, help?” Amberly looked between us, confused.

  “I had the ability to heal,” I said, “Before… But not anymore.”

  Kai gave me a look but didn’t say anything.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Amberly said with a smile. “We’ll be good as new in no time.”

  Beside Warren, the woman cleared her throat. Underneath her white coat, she wore a blue blouse with a necklace made of blue quartz. Wire-framed glasses sat perched in her wavy hair as if she were constantly pulling them down and pinning them up as needed. Her skin showed the faintest beginning of wrinkles along her eyes and mouth as if she smiled often. I had her pegged for fifty, maybe sixty. It was hard to tell, considering the way aging slowed for shifters when they hit adulthood.

  “Kai, what brings you by?” she asked.

  “Doc, this is Ash, not sure you two have formally met.”

  At Kai’s words, a pair of sharp brown eyes met mine, and I found myself suddenly feeling as if I were under a microscope. It should have bordered on creepy, the close, intense way the woman studied me, but the detachment of her medical curiosity only felt…thorough.

  “Ash, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Cherise. Or Doc Borden if you prefer.”

  I blinked.

  Cherise?

  As in, the “friend” who’d been there for Kai while he’d been in jail? The mystery girl I’d kind of wanted to stab in the eye for no other reason except irrational jealousy?

  Whoops.

  I felt my cheeks heat as I put the two together, and all the while, Cherise studied me politely. Her curly hair framed a face that was nothing but honest—and completely platonic as she glanced at Kai questioningly.

  Ugh.

  I was an idiot.

  And now I could practically feel Kai’s smugness reassuring me he knew exactly what my silence was all about.

  “Uh, hi,” I said.

  “So,” Cherise said, “what brings you in today?”

  Kai cleared his throat, giving me time to get my bearings. “May we talk in private?”

  “Of course.” Cherise turned to Warren. “Take all the meds I gave you,” she told him. “It’ll help stave off infection. And shift, as soon as you can for as long as you need. That’ll do the rest.”

  He nodded. “Thanks, doc.”

  She looked at Amberly. “You too,” Cherise told her.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Amberly took Warren’s arm, leading him toward the door. “Good luck, you two, and let us know if there’s anything we can do.”

  “You’ve done enough,” I said, the words coming out a little shorter than I’d meant them. I winced, but Amberly patted my arm as she passed.

  “Let’s speak in here,” Cherise said, leading us back toward the exam room she’d exited earlier.

  “Are you sure?” I began, nodding at the crowded waiting room. “We can wait our turn.”

  “Nonsense. These wolves are all here for fighting,” she said, letting her voice rise higher as she cast reproachful stares in their direction. “Their own idiocy got them injured, and they can sit here a while longer to think that over.”

  I blinked.

  The other wolves in the room had the good sense to look guiltily toward the floor. Even the Asheville and Hawley pack seemed chagrined by her admonishments.

  Cherise had a way with people—or wolves, it seemed.

  I followed Cherise into the exam room with Kai close behind me. He shut the door, for all the privacy it offered, which wasn’t much considering everyone in the other room had wolf hearing.

  Cherise turned to me. “What can I do for you?”

  I hesitated, trying to figure out where to start. Or what I was even asking.

  “Were you at the meeting last night?” Kai asked her.

  “I caught the end of it, yes,” she said, eyes flicking to me again. Despite her open expression, I cringed.

  “Then you know Ash has a bit more than she can handle going on inside her right now,” Kai explained.

  “Yes, that much was obvious.”

  “Is there something you can do?” he pressed. “Something you can give her to help her gain control?”

  “May I ask… Is it really Cohen’s magic inside you?” she asked me. “Are the rumors true?”

  “It’s…” I shook my head, unsure where to begin.

  “I apologize if it’s too personal. Kai and Oscar insisted I examine you while you were unconscious, but without your input, it was impossible to know for sure that magic had caused your condition.”

  “No, it’s fine. I guess I just assumed everyone knew. Yes, it’s Cohen’s magic. But it’s also everyone else’s.”

  Cherise’s eyes widened. For the first time since we’d walked in, her expression actually registered surprise. I suspected that didn’t happen often with this woman.

  “And when you say everyone else, you mean…?”

  “The hexerei lost their magic when the curse was cast,” Kai said.

  But I shook my head. “Maybe ‘lost’ is the wrong word. All of their magic ended up in a necklace. The moon pendant my mother left with me when she… Anyway, that day on the field after the alpha challenges, a gun went off, and the bullet hit the pendant. Somehow, when the necklace broke apart, the magic was transferred to me.”

  Cherise’s surprise smoothed out quickly; a professional skill no doubt. “An entire coven’s magic is inside your body right now?”

  I nodded.

  She pinned Kai with a look. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?”

  “We had to keep it confidential for security reasons,” he said.

  That dark, angry energy had returned, roiling in his eyes.

  “I’m her doctor, Kai,” Cherise said. “You should have told me.”

  “What does it matter? Magic is magic, right?”

  She rolled her eyes at him before looking back at me, her expression transforming from clinical and curious to warm and empathetic. “Oh, honey, no wonder you’re struggling.”

  Then she did the last thing I expected a doctor to do.

  She hugged me.

  I stilled. Then slowly, I wrapped my arms around her too. She pulled away, hands squeezing my wrists as she stepped back. “Okay, I don’t have much experience with treating magic users, but let’s see what we can figure out.”

  She glanced at Kai. “You’ll have to wait outside.”

  He frowned, looking at me.

  “It’s okay,” I assured him.

  He looked back at Cherise while something passed over his features. I had a feeling if it were anyone but her, he would have refused.

  “I’ll be right outside,” he said, and I knew he meant that literally.

  Reluctantly, he left.

  “He’s a bit protective, isn’t he?” Cherise remarked.

  I caught the gleam in her eyes and smiled. “Just a little.”

  She laughed and went to the cupboard lining one wall, rummaging through its contents. I caught sight of a few jars and did a double-take as Cherise came away with what she wanted. She closed the cupboard and turned to me, stopping when she saw my expression.

  “Was that… a bat’s wing?” I asked.

  “It was.”

  She spread her supplies out on the small exam table beside me.

  “Does it have some medical purpose?” I asked.

  She hesitated then glanced at the door. When she looked back at me, her brow was slanted with the look of a secret. “My mother was pack doctor before me and her mother before her. But it’s my father’s mother who taught me what I know about magic.”

  “Your grandmother had experience with hexerei?” I asked.

  “Child, my grandmother was hexerei.”

  Nothing could have surprised me more. “Wow.”

  She winked at me, eyes sparkling with her secret. “You didn’t think you were the only mutt around here, did you?”

  “I guess I did,” I admitted. “So, there are two of us.”

  She snorted. “There are a hell of a lot more than that.” At my shock, she said, “Twenty years ago, there was a lot more mingling, if you will, than most folks let on.”

  Mingling. That was one way to put it.

  But I’d had no idea.

  “But how…?” My brows furrowed as I tried to frame the question politely.

  Cherise smirked knowingly. “Hexerei are, as a rule, much freer with the idea of sex and multiple partners.”

  “Your grandmother told you that?”

  “She didn’t have to. I’ve seen it for myself. Samhain and the Summer Solstice are two of their biggest celebrations. Rituals are performed, and then there’s a party like you’ve never seen before.” She shook her head, clearly caught in some wild memory.

  “Did you…participate?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  She laughed, more of a cackle really, which was pretty much all the answer I needed.

  “Child, everyone did. It was the new millennium. And we were impossible creatures. Filled with the awe of our own existence. The mushrooms didn’t hurt either.” Another wink.

  My jaw fell open a bit.

  Cherise sighed. “After the curse, our kinds turned their backs on one another, and while I’m sure the hexerei continue their traditions, I’ve never been invited back. And I never saw my grandmother again.”

  Her voice turned wistful and sad. My heart ached at what she’d been forced to give up. It wasn’t just me. There had been others whose families had been ripped apart. Others who shared blood of both factions. And had to live with their secrets now.

  “What made you choose the pack?” I asked.

  She arched a brow. “You mean how did I end up here? Alive and on this side of the borderline?” She shook her head. “Lord knows I’ve wondered the same thing. Most other folks with hybrid children left for friendlier lands when the curse took hold. My parents decided to stay here, Lord rest their souls.”

  “And do people know?” I asked. “About your heritage, I mean? It doesn’t seem safe to be outed as a hexerei these days.”

  “Some close friends know,” she said. “And I’m sure a number of my patients have suspected over the years, given my proclivity for herbal remedies and the like. As for safety, I’m guessing it would have been worse on the other side. Hexes don’t take kindly to shifters. Word is they put them in cages.”

  I nodded stiffly. “They do,” I said quietly. And then, forcing the memory of my own cage aside, I added, “You’re lucky to be here. To be safe.”

  “I don’t know about luck. My grandmother said fate always gets her way in the end. Then again, so far, fate’s been holding out on me.”

  “I think fate’s sense of humor is broken when it comes to this town.”

  “We’ve definitely had our fair share, haven’t we? But then I think: What would it have been like if that curse had never been cast?”

  I studied her. “You think it would have been worse without the curse?”

  “Don’t you?”

  I didn’t have an answer for that one.

  Cherise patted my arm. “You’re still feeling responsible because of your parents’ role, but you shouldn’t. They did us all a favor. Bought us some time.”

  “Time for what?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.

  “To survive.” She shrugged. “To find another way.”

  “You make it sound like the curse was a good thing.”

  “Cohen’s hate has been stewing for twenty years, sure, but it was already there when your parents met and fell in love. Your mother falling for your father was just the icing on the cake. The excuse he needed.”

  “You knew them,” I realized.

  “I knew your father. Your mother, she wasn’t around enough, but when she came, she was fair and likable. That was the problem. It wasn’t just about a shifter mating with a hex. It was a shifter alpha mating a coven leader. It would have finally, truly united us into one faction, and that was something Cohen couldn’t stand. He would have destroyed us years ago just for existing if he could have. That curse saved our lives back then.”

  “I didn’t think about it like that,” I admitted.

  “You didn’t know.”

  “Does Kai know?” I asked. “He carries a strange kind of pressure about being alpha. I think it’s about his dad,” I explained then stopped, wondering if I’d said too much about something that wasn’t mine to share.

  But Charise nodded knowingly. “Victor blamed himself too. Runs in that damned family, the do-gooders with the sensitive hearts.”

  “I didn’t realize. Kai doesn’t talk about him much.”

  “And no wonder. Why do you think Victor’s heart turned so black and mean after it all fell apart on him? No one blamed themselves more than Victor Stone.”

  I sat silently, my thoughts connecting all the pieces properly. This history was still so new to me, and fascinating, but mostly it helped fill in the blanks. There were two clear groups in this pack: the ones who’d been around “before” and the ones who hadn’t. From the looks of things so far, the former were going to be a hell of a lot harder to bring around than the latter.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

  I looked up to see Cherise watching me thoughtfully.

  “Nothing, I… I want to apologize, actually.”

  She leaned back in surprise. “For what?”

  “When Kai first told me some woman named Cherise had helped him out when he let himself stay locked in jail, I kind of—”

  Her brow arched. “Wanted to rip my throat out?”

  My cheeks heated. “Possibly.”

  She threw her head back and laughed.

  “Jealous, huh? Oh, I bet Kai ate that up.”

  “You could definitely say that.”

  Her eyes lit. “Let me guess. That little punk let you believe I was some mate-stealing minx, didn’t he?”