Magic Rises

missed out on the last trip. He blames himself for our abject failure. He got to stay home and run the Pack and he nearly broke everything Curran worked so hard to build. Remind me sometime, and I’ll tell you about what he did to the jackals. Mahon isn’t your friend. He’ll support you, because Curran chose you, but in his eyes the lowliest shapeshifter is more acceptable as Curran’s mate than you are. It’s not personal. Mahon had a lot of tragedy in his life, and it made him closed-minded where nonshapeshifters are concerned. He will never stoop to harming you, but if something unfortunate happened to you, he would breathe a sigh of relief and hope that Curran finds himself a nice shapeshifter girl.”
    Mahon and I had reached an understanding. We weren’t the best of friends, but I doubted he’d stab me in the back. It just wasn’t who he was. “Is there a cookie at the end of this lecture?”
    “You need a friend on that team,” Aunt B said.
    “Which is why I’m going with you.” Andrea stuffed some bacon in her mouth and chewed.
    “What about you being beastkin?” Andrea’s father began his life as an animal who had gained an ability to transform into a human. It made her beastkin, and some shapeshifters believed that people like her should be killed on sight.
    “They don’t care,” Aunt B said. “In some ways the Europeans are more reactionary, and in others they’re not. There are a lot of shapeshifters in Carpathians, and beastkin are rare but not an oddity. Andrea will be fine.”
    “And Raphael will be joining us,” Andrea said. “So you get twice the backup. Nobody will be killing you on our watch.”
    So that was what this was all about. I got a cookie after all. “Aww. I had no idea you cared. I’m touched.”
    “You should be.” Andrea bit another bacon slice. “I’m willing to abandon the tender embrace of my future mother-in-law for your sake.”
    “About that,” Aunt B said. “I’m coming, too.”
    Dear God, the cookie was poisoned.
    Andrea’s mouth hung open and I got a view of half-eaten bacon I wished I could unsee.
    “I take it that’s the first time you’ve heard about it?” I asked.
    She nodded. “That’s not what we agreed on! We agreed that Raphael and I would be coming with her.”
    Aunt B shrugged. “That’s the prerogative of the alpha. We can change our minds.”
    Andrea gaped at her. “What about the clan?”
    “Leigh and Tybalt can run it in our absence. They will survive by themselves for three months.”
    “Curran won’t go for it,” I told her. I wasn’t sure I would go for it.
    “He will, if you ask him, dear. What I say here must not leave this room.” Aunt B put her fork down. “Any Consort who is agreeable to Mahon is bad for us. If the bear has his way, you, Kate, will never carry Curran’s child. And you”—she turned to Andrea—“you will never sit on the Pack Council. You’re beastkin. He won’t kill you, but you can bet that he’ll do everything in his power to push you out. Your children—my grandchildren—will grow up knowing what it’s like to be one step lower than everyone.”
    In an instant the funny blonde vanished, and a cold killer with a thousand-yard stare sat in Andrea’s place. “Let him try.”
    “No!” Red, bright like backlit rubies, sparked in Aunt B’s eyes. “We don’t wait for him to try. There aren’t enough of us to be reactive. We think a step ahead of our opponents. We force them to respond. You’ll watch her back, Raphael will watch Curran’s, and I’ll look after our collective interests. You will need panacea, my dear. Trust me. I’ll make sure we’ll get it.”
    Andrea raised her finger and opened her mouth.
    “That is final, Andrea.”
    Andrea clamped her mouth shut.
    “Talk to Curran about it. Talk among yourselves. I will be packing. Thank you for a lovely breakfast.”
    Aunt B rose and left.
    We waited until the doors down the hall shut behind her.
    “That woman drives me crazy,” Andrea growled.
    “Is she for real?”
    “She’s been a bit obsessed lately,” Andrea said. “Ever since I became a beta and then Raphael proposed, all she’s been talking about is how she’ll retire and spend her years cuddling grandchildren. These are theoretical grandchildren. Raphael and I aren’t in a hurry. She says she is tired.”
    “Does she seem tired to you?”
    “She’ll outlive me. I’ll be an old woman, and she’ll be still promising to retire. I know that