“Aaaand I’m not sure where we’d find some of the components for some of these potions,” Adrian said as he tapped his pen on his notepad.
“One of them even calls for the blood of the caster,” Shannon said.
Luciana had to give me her blood? Yeah, that would never happen. “Not in a million years would she give us her blood.”
We were quiet afterwards, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
I would’ve felt better about trying a spell if I could talk to Donovan. He knew more about dealing with this than any of us. It would be nice to get his opinion before attempting anything, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Screw it. I wasn’t going to try anything that would be even more dangerous for Meredith. “As much as you all might not like it, I think we drop the idea of breaking the curse, and instead focus on finding one that will work alongside the curse to quiet her wolf.”
Shannon’s face was red as she yelled a stream of curses at me. I sat there quietly, letting them vent their anger and frustration. When I had enough I stood up. “Stop.” The word had enough power to get them to instantly shut up.
“Here’s the problem. Anything we try to counter the spell with has big repercussions. Meredith is extremely sick. We cannot make it worse for her or she’ll die. Something made her wolf fight against her curse. The two parts that make up Meredith are at war after three years of being totally fine. So, we put the wolf back to sleep and she should go back to being fine.” I sat back down. “Maybe one day we can find a way to break the curse for good,” I said softly. “But right now, none of us know enough to fix this. So, we do our best to keep Meredith alive.”
“I agree.” Chris slid his chair back from the table. “It’s our best shot.”
“No! I refuse to believe that. It’s because she’s one of them.” The disgust was clear in Shannon’s voice. “Look at her. She hasn’t even accepted her own wolf. Why would she help one of us?”
I growled. My wolf surged faster than ever before. “This isn’t about getting Meredith’s wolf back. It’s about keeping her alive.” I slammed my hand on the table, and it groaned. Anger was not my friend right now, but I couldn’t rein it back. “You’re too close-minded to see what’s best for her.”
“What’s best is making her whole.” Shannon spat the words at me as she leaned over the table. “Her wolf wants out, and we should be helping to free her. Once that happens, she’ll be okay.”
“Don’t you get it? Trying to mess around with that curse could kill her!” Fur rippled along my arms. “Shit. Not now.”
Shannon pointed at me and turned to Adrian. “Look at that. Her wolf is begging to be set free and she’s too scared to let it. It’s unnatural. And she’d have us imprison one of ours. I’ll not stand for it.”
I turned my back to them as I tried to get myself under control. My stomach burned with the need to change. My knuckles popped.
I will not change. I will not change. I will not change.
I ignored their yelling. I knew I was right. It was the only way.
Slowly, my wolf settled down. I breathed a sigh of relief. Today was not a good day to change.
“As much as I hate to say it, Tess has a point,” Adrian said. “But maybe if we knew what happened to her, what the spell or curse was, then we’d know how to calm her wolf better.”
I spun around. “Does anyone know what happened?”
Shannon stayed quiet, while Chris and Adrian shook their heads.
Interesting. I wondered what Shannon was hiding.
“Well, we can’t let Dr. Gonzales wake her up,” I said. “The sedatives won’t work for long anyway.”
Chris bounced a pencil on the table. The tap-tap-tap made me more on edge than I already was, if that was even possible. I ripped the pencil from his hand, snapped it in half, and threw it across the room. Wooden splinters rained down on the gray shag carpeting.
Everyone in the room froze.
“Holy shit. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.” I’d reached the point where I was acting without thinking. My control was seriously slipping and I hadn’t even noticed it. The wolf inside me was gaining the upper hand, and that couldn’t happen. I sat heavily in my chair.
“It’s fine. I didn’t realize I was tapping my pencil.” Chris shrugged it off like it was no big deal. To them, maybe it wasn’t. To me, it was.
“It was the sound, but God—I’ve never just done that. It was incredibly rude. I’m so sorry.” My wolf wasn’t conflicted about it. Something was annoying me and she stopped it.
Oh no. I was starting to realize what my wolf wanted.
“This might be a crazy idea…” Chris started, then shook his head.