NovelBookChapter 478
Before | could say anything, Alannah took off her shoe and lifted a foot, showing off the srune on the bottom
of her foot. Ternen looked a little green when he grabbed a fist of his hair and pulled back his ear, showing off his
own rune. My mom looked at all of them and then turned to me. "What are these?"
"Parasitic runes." | sank back into the chair. "Abby's was a draining rune. Vince is trying to drain all the children
of pack members who | can only asswouldn't blindly follow his plan to revolt."
My mom scoffed, but then she fell silent. "You are serious?" | nodded. "But how would he even know that they
wouldn't follow him?"
| raised my shoulder. "May be small things. Like with Rick." | pointed at him. "Vince wanted him to go against
daddy, Rick said no. Woke up with the rune on his neck. When that didn't make him fall in line, Vince turned his
sights on Abby."
Shelly stumbled back against the table. Her eyes were glossy with her unshed tears. "What does his rune
mean?" She turned to me. "Amy?"
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| reached out and snagged her hand. "His rune is a rune called the quickening. It's to enhance a wolf's power by
feeding them an extra boost. It was used in battles of old. To give a pack the leg up if they had lower ranked
members or fewer numbers." She nodded. "But his was poisoned." Her fingers tightened on mine. "What does
that mean?" Her question was soft. Rick grabbed her other hand.
"It doesn't matter." He leaned into her but she pulled away so she could look at him.
"Of course it matters. Vince was trying to control you with it. | know it's not a good thing."
Rick seemed to crumple against her. "Don't hate me. If | had just done what he wanted, we would have been
fine." His voice was muffled against her shoulder.
Shelly just rubbed his head. "I could never hate you. You are the other half of my soul." She was quiet for a
second. "But if you would have worked with Vince to ruin another alpha for his gain, | know | wouldn't have been
able to look at you."
Rick pulled back, confused. "You think | made the right choice?" He looked around. "Even with Abby? With
everyth that happened?"
"There are few things | would say mattered more than our daughter. None actually. But you didn't know he was
going to target her. You did the only thing to stay true to a friend, to yourself, and to the goddess. How could |
hate you for
that?" She looked at me. "What does his rune mean?"
"Vince has traps all around the forest to trap wolves that get too close to the pack lands. He needed someone he
could use to catch them, to overpower them. To use the power that he drained." | turned to Rick. "Vince cut the
rune into Rick for the quickening to push all the power that he drained from anyone into him. But-" Rick hung his
head, but he finished the rest.
"But the power is too much. When ever he called me, | would have to go to search
for the wolf. I could burn through sof the power fed to me, but not a lot. The rest burns through me."
"Why didn't you ever attack Vince?" Toya interrupted.
"Because he couldn't. It was part of how they corrupted the rune. Rick couldn't turn around and attack the one
that branded him or else he would drop dead."
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"| couldn't leave you and Abby in Vince's hands. So | played the part. Pretended top caround to the thought
of draining Abby for power." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. could tell he was struggling. Shelly shook her head.
But Rick needed to finish it. "Please don't hate me." He grabbed her face and kissed her. "When we caught Amy
watching us, Vince had Verity there. She is the witch that is working with Vince. She kissed me. | hated it, but |
had to play along." Rick dropped to his
knees. "| felt so dirty after, but |
could feel the burn coming on and | couldn't move as the power
funneled into me."
Shelly stared down at him, and then turned to me. "Is he telling the truth?"
| nodded. "Verity went up to him. She
kissed him. Then she left. Right after | took off and he could catch up withwhile | was using my magic. The
forest was pulling my power fromand funneling it into himdt was probably more power than he has ever
felt." | looked down at Rick. "The rune is killing him, but despite that, he did his best to help me. Even when | was
just a random wolf, he didn't know. But he refused to put you and Abby on the line. | can't tell you if he's lying or
not. But | can tell you that no matter what happened, you and Abby were who he was worried about."
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