Page 114 of Pack: Posy 3

Gamma Reuben Ford

Beta Tristan Harrington and his witch mate ran into the training center and right over where we were gathered. Spring sprinted to Thoreau, who fell to the floor and buried his wet face in the wolf's fur.

Shooing Alpha Wyatt and the rest of us back, Ariel dropped to her knees next to Landry's jerking body and went to lay her hands on his shoulders.

"Don't touch him!" I yelled.

She ignored me and held her hands a couple of inches above Landry's skin, making the air shimmer between them, and Beta Tristan glared at me for hollering at his mate.

"Sorry," I said to both of them, "but that's what started this. Luna touched his chest right where the center ofthatis."

"Did anyone else touch him there?" Ariel asked.

"Reau. Nothing happened," Alpha Wyatt said. "Rube, play the memory."

So I did, and included everyone in the room in the link so they could all add anything I didn't see. Meanwhile, alpha got to his feet and hustled over to luna, who Emerson had managed to calm enough to stop her crying.

"Posy! Are you okay?" Alpha yanked her away from the beta and buried her in his arms. "Did any of it get into you? Do you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine, fifth star," she murmured. "Stop panicking."

"I can't help it. After that scare with the parasite, all I could think of is some of it spreading into you."

"I'm fine," she repeated.

After he kissed all over her face a dozen times, he finally released her with a huge sigh. With one last kiss on her forehead, he tucked her under his arm and looked at Ariel as she worked.

"Have you seen anything like this before?" he asked her.

"Maybe."

Landry suddenly went still and silent. The pulsating black veins shrunk back into the bruise as quickly as earthworms diving into their holes when a flashlight is shined on them. The bruise faded to raisin, then scarlet, and then was gone.

"Okay." Ariel blinked, dropped her hands, and sank back on her heels.

"You cured him just like that?" Rio stared at her with wide, incredulous eyes.

"I did nothing." The witch shook her head. "I was running a check for evil, magic, and infernal elements when it withdrew all by itself. Is this the first time this has happened to him?"

"To the best of our knowledge," Nick said.

"Angelo, did your healing power seem to have an effect?"

"No,piccola uccella azzurra(little bluebird)." He shook his head and got to his feet and walked over to Beta Emerson, who draped an arm around his lower back. "It did nothing, not even ease his suffering."

"Tell me about him. All I know is his name." Ariel looked at me, probably because I was right next to her.

"Nothing out of the ordinary about him, except one thing." I scrubbed my hand over the back of my neck, hating to even say it out loud. "His mate rejected him."

"When?"

"On his eighteenth birthday in January." I looked at alpha, who had his fingers tangled in luna's hair. "Should you play the memory for her? Maybe she'll see something."

He nodded, then broadcast that horrible day right up until Alpha Ash dragged the bitch out of the cafeteria while Alpha Wyatt led Landry to the parking lot, where Landry passed out. Alpha Wyatt hauled him up in a fireman's carry, settled him into his precious Jag, and drove him home to Landry's older sister, Olivia, who was one of our pack's best unranked warriors.

"Hmm." Her witch-ness stared into the distance and tapped her index finger on her chin.

"Hmm what?" Rio demanded with a frown. "What did you see that we didn't?"

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