Bill took the lead. “Okay. We’ve got three Wolves to the north of us. They’ve just been pacing there for the last 24 hours, but we know they’re not feeble, we’ve seen them hunting small game as they’ve been waiting. They haven’t shifted, though, so we don’t know quite what or who we are dealing with. Bella won’t leave her shop, but Lila hasn’t been able to see anything about them from that distance. Harriet, I might ask you to go give them a look now that you’re here.”

  Lucas growled. No way was he going to let Harriet get any closer to these Wolves.

  Bill walked right to Lucas and looked at him directly, standing only slightly taller than Lucas. “Make no mistake, Lucas. I am the Alpha here. You can be her Alpha, just fine. But know this. I make all my decisions, at all times, for the safety of all my pack. I would never, ever, put Harriet in a dangerous position. Ever. If you are not going to be able to respect my orders, you will have to step out now. I cannot have dissension in the ranks. It will not work. There is only one Alpha here right now. Do we have an agreement?”

  Lucas stepped back. This is what he needed. This is what felt right. He nodded.

  Bill divvied up the adults to go about their tasks, leaving Mike to stay with Alice and the kids.

  “He’s the biggest and can fight the most at once. If the worst were to happen, Mike is the best one to protect Alice and the kids,” Bill said to Lucas as he saw him tensing up to argue. “That is my decision, and I’m putting my mate and my kids in his hands too, Lucas. God willing, it will not come anywhere near that, but Mike is who I want here.”

  Lucas nodded again.

  It was time to go.

  Chapter 27

  Harriet rode in the first truck, off to see what she could see of the Wolves. She really wanted to go see Bella and hear firsthand what Bella’s warnings were, but Bill was driving to get her impressions, and Bella would have to wait.

  They got to the edge of town and Harriet could see the Wolves pacing at the top of a ridge.

  “Stop here, Bill. I can see them just fine from here. You’re right, they don’t have that swirling darkness that the Wrong Ones have, but there is something still off about them. You can feel it, right?”

  Bill nodded.

  Harriet looked more closely at them. She squinted.

  “I think they’ve been spelled, Bill. I need to get closer. Can you get me any closer? I think they’ve got magic in them, or maybe just on them. If what Lucas has told us about the pack is true, maybe the experiments are starting to work, maybe they’re half and half.”

  Bill shifted next to her, and the shimmer caused her to step back. She hadn’t been expecting such a sudden shift and then she realized that the three Wolves were no longer on the ridge. She hit the emergency call button on her phone before she saw the first of the Wolves appear to her left. All three quickly appeared, in sequence. She dropped the phone and raised her hands. She’d dealt with Wolves in all stages before because of Max, but this was different.

  Bill was growling and trying to keep his body between her and any of the Wolves, so he was constantly shifting as they did.

  There wasn’t any way for her to move, Bill kept nudging her with his giant Bear body, and she could hear the Wolves growling and could see their teeth bared when she caught a glimpse of them. She knew the Lawsons would be here soon but knew it was a tight call that they’d be here before she or Bill was seriously injured.

  She felt a blast of air go by her right side and realized another Wolf had appeared beside Bill. This Wolf was enraged, she could feel it. The Wolf looked up at Bill and nodded. Lucas. It was Lucas. She put her hand out on his back and he turned his head to look at her quickly, assessing her for injury. He turned back to the Wolves and howled. Bill growled. The three Wolves took barely a moment before getting into an attack position.

  One of the three looked unsteady on its feet, and Harriet whispered, “The one on the far left is already weak. Improve your numbers. Go for him first.”

  Bill growled again and took a step forward. The world seemed to hang in the balance of quiet for one second. And then, all mayhem broke out. Lucas charged first into the center Wolf, knocking him down instantly in a snarl of muzzles and whipping tails. Bill swiped with his powerful claw and killed the weak Wolf on the left instantly, before spinning immediately to face the remaining Wolf. Blood dripped from his claws as he approached the final Wolf.

  Lucas looked up, with blood on his muzzle, holding his paw on the neck of his conquered foe.

  Harriet was frozen as she watched the third Wolf pace toward her. She knew the chances were good that it would not get to her, but she had time to wonder what on Earth was wrong with it, when she was clearly the least threat it faced.

  Tim burst onto the scene and knocked the Wolf off its feet and onto its side. He growled in its face as he held his giant paw down on its throat. It had no chance to resist.

  Bill walked over to Lucas and put his paw on the Wolf.

  Lucas bounded over to Harriet and smelled her up and down.

  She smiled. “I’m fine, Lucas. Really. I’m fine.” She could feel all the adrenaline leaving her body and leaned heavily on Lucas as he stood by her side. Maybe she wouldn’t be so quick to long for a Lawson adventure next time. It was really pretty exhausting.

  The Wolf under Bill’s paw was trying to shift. But it looked like it was having a tough time of it. It seemed the man was stuck in a half-Wolf position. His face was becoming man, but he was still in fur.

  Harriet walked over, with Lucas lending her strength as she walked.

  “It’s definitely some kind of spell. We need Lila and Bella to be looking at these Wolves. How can we get that to happen if Bella won’t leave the shop? Can we drive them there? Maybe she can stand in the doorway, will she step out at all? What’s this all about anyways? Does anyone know?”

  She knelt down to look closer at him. He had some kind of amulet or charm around his foreleg or wrist, it seemed. She didn’t want to touch it but could feel that it was somehow involved in his difficulty.

  “Bill, I’m going to cut that off of him. I think it’s stopping him from shifting fully back. But I don’t know what else it might do. I’d rather do it out here, with you three here, than somewhere else. If we get the other one put away, we’ll have all three of you ready if something goes sideways. Sound okay?”

  Tim and Lucas moved to restrain and get the other Wolf locked away in Tim’s truck. Harriet went with them to get a large knife to cut the charm. She walked back toward Bill, with Tim and Lucas at her side, Bear and Wolf working together.

  She knelt down at the side of the Wolf-man, and carefully slid the tip of the knife under the thin string that was holding on the charm. She lifted and sliced slowly. The charm fell harmlessly to the ground.

  The shifter finished his shift to man and took a deep breath, looking around at the enormous Wolf holding him down with wide eyes.

  “Thank god,” he said. “Thank god.”

  Chapter 28

  Lucas had seen the strange colors around these Wolves but had not known what it meant. He was sad at the loss of the one Wolf but it only barely registered as he stared at Harriet in relief that she was safe. He shook his head and shifted, taking her in his arms as soon as he could stand. Harriet leaned into him fully, letting out a deep breath of her own relief.

  “I felt you, Harriet. I felt you like Kurt felt Lila’s fear that time. I shifted before the Lawsons got the alarm. I was already running. It really is you. You are really mine. You are mine.”

  Harriet snuggled tighter into his embrace. She sighed a long sigh. “It’s true, Lucas. I am,” she whispered. “But don’t tell anyone I belong to you. It’ll totally blow my feminist street cred.”

  Lucas laughed out loud.

  They drove back into the heart of Mossy Ridge, toward Bella’s. Bill left to check on all the kids and Alice. Tim was sitting behind them watching the two Wolves in the back. They hadn’t stirred since they’d been put in the truck. Harriet wanted Lila and Bella to view the Wolves they had taken prisoner, and she especially wanted them to look at the charm she had cut off the shifter.

  They’d been able to call ahead, and Lila was sitting outside the shop with Bella. Bella was literally in the doorway of the store, in a chair that had clearly been put there for this reason.

  Harriet stepped out of the truck with the charm in a napkin she’d found and put it down quickly when both women instantly raised their hands in alarm.

  Lucas looked at Harriet and then the two women. “Okay,” he said, somewhat confusedly. “Bella, my name is Lucas Sargent. I’m the cause of much of today’s current craziness. I’m sorry for it. I brought Harriet her poppet from her Nan, and now, these Wolves here, have come, probably trailing me and my kids. I’m sorry for all of it, and I’m sorry that we’re asking you to help us. I know you don’t know me, but I desperately want to solve this so the Lawsons can be safe again, and me, and my kids.”

  Bella looked at him from the doorway and nodded. “Lucas, can you see the colors?”

  Lucas knew exactly what she meant. “Yes, I’ve always been able to. The poppet makes Harriet go all soft green. I think there is something around these Wolves like that, and there is definitely something in this charm Harriet found. I just don’t know how to describe it, and I, for sure, don’t know what to do about it.”

  Bella nodded again. “Can you unwrap the charm and just leave it a little closer. It smells a lot like your poppet, Harriet. I still can’t believe you two can’t smell it. It’s overwhelming. Right, Lila?”

  Lila nodded, her eyes watering as Lucas moved closer with the charm.

  Lucas put two and two together. “You think the poppet and the charm have the same magic? Like, somehow, the magic from Harriet’s earliest memory is tied up in the charm we just found on this Wolf? A Wolf from my old pack?”

  Bella stepped back, saying, “Denanne.”

  Lucas looked at her. Harriet too.

  Lucas spoke slowly, piecing things together out loud. “My pack has been trying to force magic on the shifters, trying to make them all half-breeds like me, for the power of it. So many experiments that went wrong, but I never even thought once about where the magic was coming from. Where is the magic coming from?”

  Harriet opened the door of the truck. “Lila, Bella, these are the Wolves we subdued. I thought they were spelled but now I just wonder if it was the charm. Maybe the pack has moved on from trying to force the magic on them and is just spelling them. What do you think?”

  Lila moved closer to the Wolves. Tim was sitting between her and the subdued Wolves. They had their heads down, looking for all the world like they were sleeping. Lucas knew they were not; he could tell by the twitching of the ears.

  “Lila,” he said in a warning tone. “Don’t get close. They are not asleep, and they are not tame. Tim?”

  Tim had stood and was rippling with aggression and domination. It seemed as if a sigh went out of the Wolves at his display, and they sank even farther down to the floor. Lucas recognized a true submission now.

  “What do you see, Lila? What do you think?” Lucas asked.

  Lila answered thoughtfully, looking to Bella as she spoke. “I’m not completely sure, Lucas, but it is the same smell, Harriet. Bella, what could this mean? Is it the magic or the ingredients?”

  Bella stood in the doorway, holding on. “It’s the same magic. The reason it feels so strong, that we, Lila and I, can feel it so much is that it’s compelled. Whoever gave this magic did not do it willingly. That’s why it smells so wrong, Lila. It’s been siphoned. There is a witch in grave distress somewhere. If it’s Denanne, it’s a strong compulsion indeed.”

  Lucas looked at Harriet. If Denanne was ‘Nan’, if there was even a chance, he knew they would need to go, to find her. And it might be true that they would go anyways, just in case. They’d have to go into the heart of his old pack, and it had to be together, both of them.

  Chapter 29

  Harriet was nervous. Heading into a pack of Wolves who’ve proven themselves sadistic and willing to sacrifice their own people was a lot to plan for. The notion that they might be led by Lila’s mother, Carissa, a werewolf type, was something she couldn’t really get her head around. Carissa was especially bitter and menacing in her aggrievement but had found a real power play in her role in the shifter community.

  Lila and Bella were busy preparing all sorts of spells and concoctions for Harriet to take with her. For witches and for werewolves. Bill had been very clear that they were not to use or find or make any spells to be used on shifters. Very aggressively clear. The three women were working together to make up as many protective items as they could.

  It was still undecided who would be going in.

  Max was in, he’d brought his kids to Alice’s this morning, and was viciously certain he was going to rescue Nan, and Harriet knew how much he was hoping he would meet up with some old pack enemies.

  Lucas was certain it was a job just for he and Harriet.

  Harriet was terrified that something would go sideways, and they’d be captured or killed. There were so many unknowns that she couldn’t factor in. She was terrified more than nervous, really.

  Everyone was so certain of such different things. Lucas was trying to calm her down, but nothing was working. She laughed to herself more than once as she considered that a nice romp in the bed would help, but there wasn’t any time. She only mentioned it to Lucas once because she saw how immediately he considered it seriously, and there really, really wasn’t time. It did make her smile, though; he was a randy boy for a grown up.

  Harriet held her poppet to her nose. She was thinking about her childhood, all the vague shapes and sounds of her earliest days with Nanny. She remembered Max’s wild runs through the woods and the times he had holed up, when Nan asked Harriet for help. Harriet had a whole six months on Max, so she fancied herself a much older sibling, able to ‘take care’ of the little ones. She sighed. She supposed Nan encouraged that in her. She really did need to find her and thank her for all the love she felt as a little kid. No matter what or who Nan might be, she’d taken care of them kindly and gently.

  Harriet sat up. “Lucas.” He didn’t turn around from where he was standing, listening to Bill outline a plan. “Lucas,” she called him louder and more firmly this time. He turned to look at her and she gestured to the poppet and pointed.

  “We’ve got to go, Lucas. Guys, just follow behind us if you’re coming. I know where she is. I mean, I know what direction she’s in, and you’re the backup, right? Be the backup. I know we have to go right now. Lucas, let’s go.”

  Bill and Lucas threw all the poultices and charms that Bella and Lila had put together into the back of the car and another convoy began its way out of Mossy Ridge. Two cars of shifters followed Lucas and Harriet as they wove their way north. They communicated with each other by phone as Harriet pointed here and there between dreams or memories of Nan.

  Lucas began nodding as they approached pack territory. He talked with Bill when they crossed over into pack territory, but the nod was the only tell that Harriet could see that showed his nervousness.

  No one had any idea what they would find when they found Nan. It even occurred to Harriet that the whole thing was a mistake. What if the witch who were being compelled were not Nan?

  She had to trust her instincts. She had to. She knew Lucas was good, through and through, even when she doubted their survival. She knew Nan was good, as a child, and there is nothing purer than that instinct. It was Nan, and they needed to go to her, and now. And that was that. She held the poppet tight to her chest.

  “Left,” she said.

  Left they went.

  Chapter 30

  The convoy rolled into a clearing. Harriet and Lucas, both, had everyone on high alert. Harriet knew Nan was here, and Lucas knew that this was the center of the Wolf pack territory, and Jock and Carissa were bound to be nearby, if not dozens of shifters.

  But when they began getting out of the cars, there was nothing. It was eerily quiet. Harriet looked around, the poppet clutched to her chest. “There,” she whispered, pointing straight ahead to a building in front of them. It had no windows that they could see, and when several shifters walked around it, they found none. The single door in the front side was it. One way in, one way out.

  Harriet felt the familiar tug that told her their quarry was inside. She rifled through the things Bella and Lila had sent along and found one bottle labeled ‘Break the Wards’.

  “Well, now, that’s handy. Lucas!” Lucas came over and Harriet doused his head with the tonic inside. She also splashed herself.

  “Okay, now. You and me, Mr. Sargent. We go in there, grab the old woman and get the hell out. I’m scared as hell that we don’t know what’s in there, but this should break all the wards that there are, magical or not.” She sighed. “Ready?”

  Harriet grabbed Lucas’ hand and the two headed toward the door.

  Bill held up his hand. “Wait. Lucas, shift. I want a shifter on full alert in there. Your eyesight will be better than hers if it’s pitch black, and you’ll smell anything she can’t. You’re stronger as a shifter in there, even if your size gets in the way.”

  Lucas shifted immediately, leaving his clothes in tatters around him.

  Harriet smelled him. He still had the ward breaker all over his fur. She smiled. All kinds of magic out here.

  They began walking again, Harriet and the Wolf, toward the lone building. “I feel like I’m in a bad western,” whispered Harriet. If Wolves could snort, she would swear Lucas had.

  They arrived at the doorway. Harriet paused, her hand on the knob. She sighed. Anything could happen now, anything. Beside her, Lucas was bristling with aggression. His hair was up along the ridge of his back and his teeth were bared. She looked back to see that all the men had shifted. She was surrounded by friends who were currently Bears. Her brother was directly behind Lucas, in Wolf form. The same level of aggression Lucas was showing was in Max. Anything could happen. She took a deep breath and held up her hand to everyone. She turned the knob and pushed.