Chapter 118

Olivia POV

As we entered the palace, I turned to Elroy intending to herd him to bed, but I gave me a stern look before leading me toward a suite of rooms I had never been to before. When I saw their occupant, however, I felt foolish. Of course, we would come here first.

“Sam,” Elroy said as he strode into the main room and grasped his Beta’s hand firmly. Sam looked healthy and whole, and I felt my heart warm at the sight. But even more, as they stood there before the lit fire looking at each other in mutual pleasure, I could sense a shift in their relationship, an openness that Elroy had never allowed before.

I was glad. Sam’s rare band of loyalty deserved a reward.

We ended up sitting together drinking coffee and eating sandwiches of cold beef while Elroy and Sam discussed the aftermath of the battle and Elroy’s desire to erect a monument to observe the fallen.

“You really think it’s a good idea to honor the Rogue and our own troops with the same memorial?” Sam questioned. “Some will see that as offensive, wolves on both sides, I imagine.”

“The Lunarian troops were protecting our land and pack, but the Rogues were fighting precisely because they had been denied both land and pack,” Elroy said. “We have to do better.”

A knock interrupted us at that moment, and Sam opened his door to see Iris standing there with an odd look on her face.

“Mother?” Elroy asked, rising from his chair.

She nodded to him absently, but she was obviously looking for something. After a moment, she looked at me, or rather, at my waist. She pointed at Denis’s pouch.

“What is that?” she demanded.

“Is it dangerous?” Elroy demanded back.

Iris looked at her son. “I don’t know what it is, so I don’t know if it is dangerous yet.” I smothered a smile. It was an oddly snide comment from the Apothecary.

She looked back at me while I was pulling the pouch off my belt. “But I can feel it’s important.”

“Powerful,” I said as I handed the leather bag to her. “Denis gave it to me before he died.”

Iris took the tiny satchel and opened it with care before pulling out the glass vial with its clear solution inside. She brought it up to her eyes to peer at it closely. Then, with infinite care, she opened the stopped and took a tiny sniff.

“There’s Calabar bean in this,” she said.

“Beans?” Sam asked.

“It’s medicine,” Iris explained. She looked at me again. “Please, Luna Olivia. Come with me.”

Iris turned and strode out with me right behind her. Elroy and Sam followed as well, and soon we were in a room I’d never seen before but still knew must have been Iris’s main laboratory.

“Don’t touch anything,” Iris warned as we entered the space of a thousand little bottles and a dozen open flames. The place smelled of flowers both fresh and rotten, and something metallic was dancing on my tongue.

I spotted Rodin in the corner with a young Beta I didn’t know, and though they turned to watch they said nothing. I nodded to them, and they nodded back.

Iris was soon busy missing ingredients in a large bowl to which she eventually added a single drop of the liquid in Denis’s bottle. It hissed and smoked, but Iris didn’t seem startled. But her eyes lifted to gaze at us in astonishment.

“You say Denis gave this to you?” she asked me.

“Yes. What is it?”

“I believe it’s an antidote.”

“For what?”

“For the poison given to your mother.”

I gasped, and considering how strongly my legs were trembling, I was glad that Elroy put an arm around my waist to steady me.

“My mother?” I asked.

“Claudia?” Elroy asked a beat later.

Iris nodded. “I believe so.”

“We have to go to her now,” I said. I turned to my husband. “We have to go.”

Elroy looked torn. “I cannot leave the Palace.”

“No,” I said, nodding. “Yes, you cannot leave, but I cannot stay here.”

Elroy nodded as well. “Yes, you and Iris need to go.”

Within the hour, Iris and I had left with a small company. There was no need for carriages and subterfuge this time, so we trotted in our fur and made good progress to Moonshadow Keep, though it wasn’t fast enough for me.

I sent a thought to Elroy when we passed a familiar little inn and received a Stay safe, and let me know as soon as there is news in return.

Iris changed into her skin, and I followed, while the guards stayed in their fur.

“What happened just now?” she asked.

I laughed slightly. “I forgot to say. Elroy and I can mindlink now.”

She put up her hands and called for a carriage from the omegas minding the luggage. When we were inside, she clasped her hands together and asked for details.

I explained the moment I was facing Denis, listening to him rant his madness and wanting so desperately to be heard by him. I described how I reached out with all my will and how I found Elroy responding to me.

Iris nodded while looking out the carriage window, obviously deep in thought. Eventually, she shook herself a little and shot me a kind smile.

“I’m so pleased you’ve reached this level of connection. You’re going to find it a bit of an adjustment, to say the least.”

“To say the least,” I agreed.

“You’ll have some new experiences to acclimate yourself to, such as feeling something and not being completely sure if it’s you or Elroy, and he will have the same. Sometimes, you’ll have a stray thought and wonder what caused it.”

“And it will be Elroy?” I asked.

“Probably not. The tendency of those new to their mindlink is to blame it for everything. Sometimes, we just have stray thoughts and unexpected emotions. You will need to concentrate your will to master the skill completely.”

She sighed. “I’ve known more than one wolf who thought their mindlink was more curse than blessing.” Her eyes grew sad.

“You were able to mindlink with Elroy’s father,” I suggested gently.

She nodded. “For a time, it was a joy, but as his ambitions outgrew everything else, it was a source of great sorrow. I think he only truly realized how greatly we have become enemies when I broke it.”

I sat there desperate to ask a question I knew was too rude to be voiced.

Iris sent me a knowing look. “Yes, it almost killed me to end his life, but it needed to be done. Had he lived, he would have had Elroy assassinated, and I couldn’t have that.”

I nodded, unable to imagine the strength of will it must have taken to kill the Alpha she had once loved. I never questioned her choice, though. I knew at the end he had been practically genocidal.

Iris and I both looked around as the carriage abruptly sped up, and we heard shouting outside. As one, we looked out the window and saw we were being set upon by Rogue werewolves, remnants of Denis’s forces.

They looked murderous.