All Chapters of Wolf shifter romance with murder mystery: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

The emergency call comes at three in the morning.I'm awake before Adrian reaches for the phone, my consciousness already stretching toward the disturbance I've been sensing for hours—a wrongness in the fabric of the pack network, like a wound that won't stop bleeding."Hope Whitmore," I answer, already moving toward my closet."Elder Whitmore." The voice is tight with panic. "This is Marcus Chen, Denali pack. We need you in Alaska immediately. Elder candidate James Riversong is—" His voice breaks. "He's fragmenting. Completely. We've tried everything."My blood goes cold. I know what complete fragmentation means. I've seen it once before, felt the edges of it myself when I was fourteen and drowning in three hundred consciousnesses that weren't mine."How bad?""Worse than the reports about you. Worse than Sophie Moonstone. He absorbed fragments from a consciousness mage who'd been collecting minds for two centuries. Now James is—" Marcus's breath shakes. "He doesn't know who he is an

They give us a guest house at the edge of the compound—a small cabin with a stone fireplace and windows overlooking the forest. Adrian carries me the last hundred yards because my legs finally give out completely."I can walk," I protest weakly."Humor me." His voice is tight, controlled in the way that means he's barely holding himself together. "You just absorbed the consciousness of a two-hundred-year-old monster and several hundred of his victims. Let me carry you."I don't argue further.Inside, Faye is already setting up. She's cleared the main room's furniture to the edges and laid out a circle of crystals on the hardwood floor—clear quartz for clarity, amethyst for spiritual protection, black tourmaline for grounding. In the center, she's placed a meditation cushion."We need to start integration work immediately," she says, not looking up from her preparations. "The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to maintain boundaries between your core identity and the absorbed consc

The Council chamber is exactly as imposing as I remember—a circular room with a domed ceiling etched with the history of wolf packs across North America. Twelve seats arranged in a perfect circle, each one occupied by an Elder whose judgment could reshape our society.I've sat in one of those seats for three years. Today, I stand in the center, being judged.Adrian and Faye sit in the gallery behind me—not allowed to speak, but present. Their consciousnesses brush against mine periodically, reminding me I'm not alone.Elder Thomas Riverwind calls the session to order. As the longest-serving Elder, protocol dictates that he chairs emergency sessions. "We convene to address the incident in Alaska involving Elder Hope Whitmore and the consciousness mage James Riversong. Elder Whitmore, you stand accused of reckless endangerment of yourself and potentially the broader wolf community through the absorption of a predatory consciousness. How do you respond?"I keep my voice steady. "I respon

Three months after Alaska, I integrated the final consciousness.Her name was Rebecca Stormwind. She was nineteen when Ravensbrook consumed her in 1902, the last victim he took before the Council caught him. She'd been a student of consciousness magic, bright and curious and full of potential. She spent one hundred and twenty-three years trapped and screaming.I give her peace on a Tuesday morning, with Adrian sitting at the edge of the meditation circle and Faye monitoring my vital signs.The integration is gentler than I expected—Rebecca's consciousness sliding into mine like a key finding its lock. She brings knowledge of old teaching methods, techniques that were lost when consciousness magic fell out of favor in the early twentieth century. But more than that, she brings gratitude so profound it makes me weep.Thank you, she whispers as her separate identity dissolves into integrated wholeness. Thank you for ending it.When it's done, when Rebecca's consciousness has settled peac

The aftermath is harder than the act itself.For three days after destroying Ravensbrook, I barely leave the apartment. I sit on the couch or lie in bed, staring at nothing, feeling the absence where his consciousness used to be like a phantom limb.Adrian takes leave from his diplomatic work to stay with me. He doesn't try to make me talk or convince me I did the right thing. He just sits beside me, a steady presence, making sure I eat and sleep and don't spiral too far into my own head.On the fourth day, Faye comes to visit."We need to talk about what you're feeling," she says without preamble, settling into the armchair across from me."I killed someone.""Yes."Her bluntness surprises me. I expected rationalization, justification, comfort. Instead, she just agrees."I destroyed a conscious being," I continue. "Ended his existence permanently. That makes me—""Complicated," Faye finishes. "Hope, you want me to tell you that what you did was purely heroic, or purely monstrous, so