Chapter Twenty Nine - Lycan Visitors

A mental image of three very large wolves standing in the entrance hall was the first alert Jake had of strangers on his land.

He was not impressed.

There would be consequences to whoever had neglected their post. The snarl hadn’t even left his throat before Mark, Dylan and a few other men leaped from the table, shifting to wolf as they went, their clothes torn to shreds before their paws hit the floor.

The next mental message was sent to every werewolf in the pack but was not a pack link. The wolves all lay down on the floor, their necks bent in submission. The werewolves who were still in human form all knelt down facing the door and bowed their heads. Jake caught Lia’s hand and gave her a small tug and she knelt down too. He tried to share the idea of a Lycan royal family visit with her and hoped her wolf could get the message across. They really had to find a way to get more free-flowing communication. No sooner had Lia copied the others than the three large wolves and a tall-robed man walked into the hall.

“Alpha of the Cloud Lake werewolves, we are here to mend the injured one who can not fully wolf.”

Jake stood, pulling Lia up beside him. “Right this way,” he said, bowing and motioning to the hallway. His mother followed behind them.

“When did she first lose her ability to shift?”

“We don’t know for certain,” Jake answered. “Nobody has seen her as a wolf in about eighteen years. She has not woken, so we can not ask if she has shifted in private. Her wolf speaks to nobody, though she does seem to listen and sometimes responds to a few.”

“To whom?”

“To her daughter, to a mated pair whom she has known eighteen years, and once to a young omega.”

“The omega is the pup you call Zinnia?”

“Yes.” The Lycan nodded as if that explained everything. Jake glanced in surprise at Lia and then his mother. How did the Lyans know of the pup, let alone know her by name?

Lia watched in amazement as Jake and the entire pack seemed to freeze and wait for these Lyan to tell them what to do. They were frozen in the hallway until the Lycan motioned for them to move, and then they scattered quickly away. Jake was answering questions but asking nothing. Mother Luna was not even talking, which was very unlike her. Who were these people? Were the werewolves scared of them, or simply respectful? Were they royals? Why were they asking about her mother? The robed Lycan stopped and turned so abruptly that Lia almost bumped into it. She gasped and stepped back. “Sorry,” She said softly. Then for some reason, her wolf was insisting she lift her eyes, so she looked up into the face of the Lycan.

“You are the chosen Luna.”

“Y-yes?”

The Lycan nodded then, stared silently into her eyes for what seemed like a long time. “Your wolf is proud, gentle, spontaneous, and fierce. Your human is intelligent, logical, curious, and caring. The goddess has chosen well. However, your wolf must learn to communicate better. Speech is not natural for us, it is inconvenient, but we will speak aloud so that all present will hear us clearly.”

“Sorry? And Thank you.” Lia bowed her head, Jake squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Our assumptions were correct. There is silver in her,” the shortest of the Lycan said. “It poisons her blood and keeps her wolf trapped.” Lia hadn’t even noticed that while the one stared at her, the other Lycan had shifted to a more human shape, though they were still rather wolf-shaped bodies and covered in fur. They had pulled the sheet away from her grandmother’s scars and were examining them closely. “I have retrieved her memories of what caused this,” the short one continued, “I will share these privately with the Lycan council for consideration.”

There were a few moments of silence, then the lightest coloured Lycan growled, “the Bane willingly and unnecessarily tortured both the wolf and the human. It had no legal claim to do either. The punishment for each of these atrocities is death.”

“Agreed,” the others said in unison.

“The Bane also murdered her parents without cause and abducted her.” said the short one, “it was not her fated mate, nor was she gifted to it by her kin. It chose her and plotted to acquire her without consent of goddess, kin or law.”

“A third death sentence. We must see that it is killed thrice.” The lightest coloured Lycan said.

“Another nuisance.” Said the tall one. “The leniency of the bane’s banishment is a curse to us.”

Liana found herself wondering what law had been broken in the first place, but dared not ask.

“We will remove the silver on the morrow,” said the shortest, “We have brought all we require, except sleeping quarters and sustenance for ourselves.”

“Of course,” said Mother Luna, “we are preparing the guest houses for you now. The Omegas are waiting to be told what you would like to eat.”

“We have told them,” the Lycan said in unison.

“Then it will be done if they are able,” said Mother Luna.

“Once the silver is removed she will need to sleep in the light of the wolf moon,” The short one said as she drew the covers back over Selene’s feet. “See that a cot is prepared in a location where the moonlight will not be interrupted for several hours, the entire night if possible. Since she may still be human, heat will be required for the location as well. We can remove the toxin, but only the goddess can heal the trauma.”

“She can do that?” Lia asked, then bit her lip, not having meant to speak aloud.

“She can teach you as well naive wolf, all that you have been denied will be known to you if you wish to learn.”

“Our rooms are ready,” the Lycan said in unison, and then they disappeared.

“I hate when they do that,” said Mother wolf. “Well, I’m off to the kitchens to find out what we’re serving them and figure out how we’re going to manage it.”

“They don’t just message you that with the link,” Lia asked.

“We try to limit the use of the link when the Lycan are here,” Jake explained, “They can intercept it. They consider it normal, we consider it rude since they aren’t from our pack and we can’t hear their thoughts in return.”

“I hope it is something that actually lives on this continent this time,” Mother Lunca continued. “Even better if it is in our freezers.”

“Lobster,” said Zinnia, coming up quietly behind Mother wolf. “They want baked lobsters, and we just bought a bunch fresh this morning so we’re all set. The other image was a pie that Mrs. Rogue was holding, but there was no scent sent with it. We’re hoping Lia can tell us what kind of pie it is, but we don’t know how to show her since she isn’t linked to any of us.”

“She might be able to choose to link, the way other lone wolves do,” Jake said, “The Lycan said her wolf needed to learn to communicate better, not that she couldn’t. Think about the image, Zinnia, and look in Lia’s eyes. That’s how the Rogue wolves manage to crate random links.”

“Raspberry,” said Lia after a moment, “Though I don’t know if my wolf saw it and could actually discern that, or if I just know it would be raspberry because Mrs. Rogue always bakes me a raspberry pie for my birthday and my birthday is so close that I’m assuming that’s what it would be. I was actually thinking about raspberry pie about the time they arrived and wondering if she’d make me one this year.”

“Maybe your wolf was linking the questions to Marie and they intercepted it,” Jake suggested. “They often read thoughts without permission. They knew about the fresh lobster, likely someone in the kitchen was dealing with those. As for the pie David said you sometimes send incomplete messages, so if you were linking an incomplee message about pie they may have become curious about the scentless pie, not knowing the message was incomplete. The raspberry might be quite a surprise!