Chapter Eight - Wolfsbane

Mark wiped his face and stood up from the table, calling out “Black jeep coming in fast!” Everyone in the pack house froze, catching the image from the mind link. Then they jumped up, rushing to the windows to see what was happening or to the door to get to their posts. Jake’s long strides got him to the front steps quickly. He mind linked with Jake, sharing the full image along with the scents that the border patrol had sent to him.

“Is it the one you told me about from the buffer zone?” Mark asked, “That Lone Wolf’s ride?”

Jake nodded. Most black jeeps would look, smell and sound the same, but somehow he was still certain this was David’s.

“Seems like it, but there must be something wrong. Just yesterday David said he didn’t have any use for the bush, now here he is coming fast, apparently all alone.”

“They’re Lone wolves, that would make them alone by definition,” Mark scoffed in disgust, his dislike for the idea of lone wolves obvious.

“I suppose. But they’ve been there for a decade or more and never come to the pack house at all, let alone drive in here fast and loud. It seems very out of character.”

“Do we send someone out to block it or let him roll up to the house?”

Jake stood for a moment with his hands on his hips, staring out toward the vehicle, even though it was still out of sight. The guy really hadn’t seemed to have a beef with his pack. No reason whatsoever he knew of to attack them or challenge him. This made no real sense. “Let him come.”

“Really?” Mark asked in total disbelief.

Jake nodded. “He knows Liana’s mine and seemed to respect my claim to the bond. He made sure I knew her age and that she wasn’t going anywhere, said he’d keep an eye on her, and… I know it seems weird, but I got the feeling I could trust him. Like I said last night, he claims they have no interest in a coup or anything like that, they just need to live near the woods. Any werewolf would. I can understand that. Living in the city while I got my degree was really hard, even with weekend trips to back here. I’m willing to let him come and see what’s going on. There can’t be many in that jeep. We can take them”

“It’s your pack, man.” The warriors of his pack were all lined around the edges of his lawn, anxiously awaiting his orders. Some on foot, some as wolves, some in vehicles. One word from him and that jeep and everyone in it would be torn to bits. The only thing that could go wrong was if the guy was sitting on a bomb, planning to blow the place sky high. Then, they’d all be dead.

Jake felt himself tensing as the vehicle got closer and closer without slowing down. He should be slowing down. It was a strange road to the man, and not at all straight. The speed he was going would make crashing a real possibility. Rocks flew out as the jeep turned the corner and he heard it slide a bit, but it still didn’t slow. Something was definitely wrong. As soon as the jeep broke onto the clear part of the drive, where the driver would be able to see the house, the brakes squealed and the vehicle swung sideways. Wolves scattered back a bit, avoiding the spray of pebbles and uncertain of what was happening. The front driver’s side door swung open and David jumped out, the scent of terror reached the watching werewolves a split second before he yelled “Help! A healer! We need a werewolf healer! Four females have been poisoned including our healer! Please! Help me!”

“Wolfsbane!” The call came from one of his own men nearest to the open door. “I smell wolfsbane!” A chorus of agreement erupted from the crowd who all began to scurry backward to be sure not to come in contact with anything that might have touched the poison. Suddenly, Jake caught the smell of his mate through the stench of the vomit.

“Liana,” he breathed. A deep growl rumbled from his chest as he leaped down the steps and sprinted across the lawn. A few men grabbed him to stop him from approaching the vehicle, but he would not be held back. Normally they’d be right, it wasn’t his place to risk his life by touching the poisoned victims, but this was different. Someone had tried to murder his mate! Jake snarled, throwing the men away easily as he continued towards the vehicle, warning others away with his growls. He reached in passed David and lifted Lia up from the back seat of the jeep. David bent in next and lifted out a grey wolf who smelt enough like him that Jake knew it had to be the lone wolf’s daughter.

“Timberwolves?” Jake asked in surprise.

“Half Timberwolf half Irish Grey. I told you, none of the lone wolves are from around here.”

Two older pack members stepped up to help. One got another grey wolf from the back seat, and the other picked up a half-shifted old woman from the front. The bystanders gasped. Nobody stopped half-shifted unless they were dead, or nearly so. “Inside,” Jake growled to David and the other men holding the nearly unconscious victims. “Mark!”

“Already on it.” His beta responded from a few feet away. “Cots are going up in the main hall and your mother is seeing to the other indoor preparations. Border patrol is increasing its presents just in case anyone tries to follow them. We’re blocking off this area next. We’ll tarp the jeep where it is until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Jake nodded, then rushed past all the bystanders and up the stairs into the pack house. He stepped in and surveyed the room, satisfied with how much had been done in such a short time. The lunch tables and chairs had been shifted to one end of the room, the food and dishes from the pack’s half-finished noon meal had disappeared, and the omegas all seemed to be here, scurrying around the great hall and getting the room set up as an infirmary with good speed. Buckets of water and carts full of herbs were being wheeled in. Four cots were already in the center of the room with fresh linens being pulled tight across the tops as the men strode across the distance with the poison victims in their arms. As soon as the men got to the beds they were able to put the women down. His mother and another healer were there and instantly took over. They headed to Selene first, but Jake stopped them.

“This one first,” Jake said to his mom as he brushed a strand of soft white hair off Liana’s fevered red face. “If she survives, she’ll become your Luna.” His mother gasped a little and everyone in the room froze for a heartbeat, then the hustle and bustle continued as though he hadn’t said anything the least bit out of the ordinary.

Omegas rushed forward, using long metal pincers to take the clothing from the four men who had touched the poisoned girls, then the clothing that was being cut off the women and a few bits of clothing were slipped from the wolves. Obviously, the timber wolves had shifted in a hurry, it appeared they had removed their tops before the shift, but denim still hung off the back end of one and one still wore stockings. It all went directly into the fire, air purifying herbs were sent in after the clothing. Huge buckets of water were brought to wash everyone, and basins to keep the hands of the healers and omegas frequently washed. Omegas put on thick rubber gloves and face masks before they began washing down the four men from head to toe, each of whom took a seat near the wall as soon as they were cleaned. It would only take a couple of hours at most to see if they too had been contaminated. After a few moments, David shifted into his wolf form and began pacing the perimeter of the room, his eyes never leaving the werewolves on the cots.

Guards had stationed themselves at the door as soon as everyone was inside, nobody would be allowed in or out from now until they knew exactly what they were dealing with and who had been contaminated. The poison had to be contained at all costs. Once the crisis was over they would begin the investigation of how this had happened. For now, all Jake could do was sit helplessly, waiting and watching as his pack rushed to save the lives of his mate and her kin. The victims had stopped retching he realized, but he didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one, and he was too afraid to voice the question. He couldn’t lose her before he’d really met her. Surely the moon goddess wouldn’t be that cruel.

Lia blinked her eyes open, the room coming into focus very slowly. Her eyelids were scratchy and every inch of her throbbed. “The ceiling seems too high” was her first thought. It was followed by a familiar voice in her head saying “we should swing from the chandelier!” Gran called that voice the whispers of the moon goddess, but Lia had come to see the voice more as a fun-loving friend. Usually, its suggestions were silly and harmless. This one seemed...odd though. Swing from the chandelier? The cottage didn’t have one, and if it did she certainly didn’t have the energy to swing from it. She turned her head slowly, still having trouble focusing on anything or even thinking clearly. The voice in her head made a small whimpering noise so Lia stopped moving her head and let her eyes take all the time they needed to adjust to and focus clearly on what she was seeing. As soon as it registered she sat up yelling, “Ellie!” but her voice wasn’t a yell, it was a strange raspy sound.

“Shhhh,” said the voice of a strange woman, “you’re safe here. Lie down now and rest. You’re not done healing.”

“Ellie,” Lia protested weakly, reaching for her friend.

“Ellie and Elsie will both be fine. The fur protected their skin and their wolves are strong which helped them heal more quickly. They’re just sleeping now.”

“Their...wolves?” Lia scowled as a pair of firm hands pushed her back down onto the bed. She was too weak to resist lying back down, but she struggled mentally to focus, wondering what it was she was missing. Why did nothing make sense? Where was she? Who was here with her?

“Hush now little one,” Lia instantly relaxed at the familiar sound of David Rogue’s deep, gentle voice. She took a deep breath, the soothing familiarity of his spring rain and cleaned wool scent convincing her to let the drowsy feeling take over. “That’s right. Just rest. You’ll feel better next time you wake Lia, I promise. Gran’s here too. I got you out in time, everyone is safe.” The last thought she had before falling asleep again was relief that they had definitely made it out of Gran’s attic. She hadn’t been sure they would. She sneezed and muttered almost incoherently,

“Albert… aconitine... don’t breath.”

“What was she saying,” Jake asked nobody in particular. He’d been standing behind David, wanting to be near his mate, but recognizing that David, being familiar to her, was the one who could calm her the fastest.

“Well,” his mother said slowly, “I have no idea who Albert might be, but Aconitum is the Latin name for the family of plants similar to wolfsbane, so if Lia is studying plants and herbs she might be familiar with the Latin names. Aconitum napellus is the full name of wolfsbane. Usually, you have to touch it or eat it though. The root is the most potent part and the only part I know of that would cause such strong reactions so quickly. I’ve never heard of it being airborne so ‘don’t breath’ seems like an odd warning. I suppose someone could grind the dried root up and make a tincture with it, then put the liquid in a spray bottle. Even then though, the spray would be every bit as dangerous just by hitting your eyes, lips, nostrils, or even nick on your skin, you wouldn’t have to breathe it. I would think useful information like that should be remembered long before the Latin name of the plant.”

Jake’s eyes locked with David’s. “Do you think Liana is saying the hunter did this?”

“Not sure,” David said, “we shouldn’t jump to that conclusion since we still don’t understand why she said not to breathe. I was certainly breathing when I drug them down from the attic and out to my jeep, and I didn’t get sick. I don’t remember there being any sign of Albert either. We have, at best, one-third of the information, which isn’t enough to make any assumptions. We can ask my girls the next time they wake up. Maybe it will help jog their memories.”

Jake snarled and paced away from the group, “I am not good at waiting.”

“Maybe the goddess has decided you need a lesson in patience darling,” his mother called after him. “Making you wait to find your mate, making you wait for her to wake from an illness, making you wait until she’s of age, making you wait to find answers… It seems a bit too much of a coincidence to me.”

“Agreed,” Mark said from the doorway, “maybe we should help speed the goddess's lessons along and make him wait for his morning coffee too.” Mark was standing at the main entrance leaning up against the door frame with a tray full of mugs and a cocky grin on his face. The tone of his voice was unmistakably intended to irritate his Alpha. “Are you certain, Mother Luna, that the room is clear of toxins and it is safe for you all to be having a drink? Should I allow your son his cup or return with it later after we have it cleaned again?”

Before he finished talking Jake had traveled the length of the room and grabbed a large cup off the tray, the smell of it telling him that it was indeed the one fixed the way he liked. “I wouldn’t have called for it if we couldn’t drink it you jerk. And why are you doing the omegas’ job again?”

“They don’t believe me when I say your bark is worse than your bite,” he answered flippantly, “I’m growing tired of serving you though, so you might just get the next cup dumped on your head. Would it kill you to use a nice tone and the word please when you want something? Thank you wouldn’t hurt either.”