Page 130 of Claimed

“That happened because Jimmy kidnapped that super alpha’s mate and she was bleeding, sending him into a frenzy.”

Nobody says anything.

“So, Mal came back?” I ask. “Where is he now?”

“Mal came with us,” Luke says softly. “Got sucked up into the sky with Wyatt and the other guys.”

No. What? My blood runs cold.

Was Malachi one of the dead pulled from the lake? Is he the shifter in the holding cell? I never found out who they pulled from the lake. All I knew this morning was that the one survivor wanted to speak to me. But then we left to come here.

I’m overwhelmed with information, with the sights and scents of what’s going on around me. But I can’t just fall apart. I also can’tprocess everything in this minute. I need to help with these sick people.

“How many girls did Wyatt send off?” Grey asks.

Eloise looks like she’s mentally counting. “Eight. Not including Halla.”

Cat pipes up. “Sorry to interrupt but can someone please direct me to the person that is the most ill? I’ll assess and do my best to work in order from those most ill to the least as quickly as I can.”

“Here,” Martha gestures to Roger, who has his eyes open, but he looks so frail.

My heart squeezes. He was my teacher, taught most of us of my generation to read, write, and do math. He’s been going blind for years and he’s slowed down with age, so he hasn’t taught for the last four or five years. He’s on his mattress on the floor.

Cat moves in with a stethoscope and sets her medicine bag on the floor beside him.

Linc approaches. “Stacy?” He’s got a paper bag in his hand. He holds it open. “This is the same stuff as what was put in those pies, right?”

I look in the bag.

“Yes,” I croak out.

It’s not finely ground like the amount Wyatt gave me in a mason jar, but I know by the scent: this is that same stuff.

Linc angrily says, “Saw this same shit a few years ago with a pack out west. He’s had that fucker feeding this to people in your pack he wanted picked off. Putting it in their meals. Kills the weakest in about a week, those a little stronger in about two weeks. Suspected it was this shit.”

Bile rises, the acidic taste bathing my back teeth. I’m sickened. Completely sickened. Larry shuffles uncomfortably, looking at the floor.

Patsy, the lady that used to cook for the pack, back when she was in better health, extends her hand toward me from her mattress. “Stacy?” she rasps.

She always had pretty curls and bright blue eyes. Her blonde and gray hair is limp and tangled. Her complexion is almost grey. The whites of her eyes are nearly yellow now.

I shake off my emotions, move to her, and squat. “Hi Patsy. We’ve got medicine here. Food and clean water.”

“It’s all gonna be okay, now. I can sense it,” she says.

She looks frail. Pale. I grip her hand, but it’s hot and clammy.

“It will be okay,” I tell her through tears. “The Arcana Falls pack is a wonderful group of people.” My voice gets louder.

She smiles. “You found your fated mate, girl.”

“I did.”

“The delicious one with the silver eyes,” she says smiling. “He’s delicious.”

I smile despite the tears in my eyes. “You said delicious twice.”

“Am I wrong?” she asks sheepishly.

---