His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 44

1:59 pm

Abby

Chapter 44

I almost turned around before I reached Kade’s office.

It wasn’t because I didn’t want to know what Tiernan had found. I had been waiting for news since Liam mentioned his call at dinner.

The problem was that this was an actual meeting

Kade and Liam had spent most of their lives in rooms like this. Tiernan was an Alpha. Cole was his Beta. They discussed borders, threats, alliances, and whatever else people responsible for entire packs were supposed to discuss.

I had never been invited to one.

Diana stirred inside me.

You’re nervous.

I’m not nervous.

You stopped walking.

I looked down and realized I had.

I’ve never done this before.

You sit down and listen.

I nearly smiled.

Very helpful.

Voices carried through the door. Kade, Liam, Tiernan, and someone who was probably Cole.

I took a breath and knocked.

“Come in.”

When I opened the door, the meeting had clearly already started.

Tiernan sat in one of the armchairs near the low coffee table in front of Kade’s sofa. Liam occupied the chair opposite him, a folder open across one knee. Papers covered most of the table between them.

Kade sat at one end of the sofa.

Cole, apparently uninterested in sitting at all, leaned against the edge of Kade’s desk with a cup of coffee in his hand.

1

1:59 pm

Abby.”

The warmth in his voice immediately made me feel less like I had walked into a room where I didn’t belong.

He stood and crossed toward me before I could decide whether I was supposed to shake his hand.

Instead, he rested his hands briefly on my shoulders and looked me over.

“You look much better.”

I laughed softly. “I feel much better.”

“Good. The last time I saw you, you were barely conscious.”

“That wasn’t my best day.”

“No, I suppose not.”

His expression softened.

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Thank you.”

I meant it. Tiernan had helped Kade and Liam find me and bring me home. It was difficult to feel formal around someone who had already seen me at my absolute worst.

Cole lifted his coffee toward me.

“Good to see you standing.”

“Good to be standing.”

Kade had been watching me since I entered.

His gaze wasn’t intense enough to make me uncomfortable anymore. It was simply there, warm and familiar.

Diana noticed too.

He likes looking at us.

Please behave.

Kade shifted slightly and nodded to the open space beside him.

“Come sit.”

That put me on the sofa between Kade and the armchair Tiernan returned to.

Close enough to the coffee table to see the papers clearly.

1:59 pm

Also close enough to both Alphas to remind me that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing here.

Liam must have noticed my expression because the corner of his mouth twitched.

I gave him a warning look.

He wisely said nothing.

Tiernan gathered several loose pages into a neater pile.

“I came light this time. This wasn’t worth dragging half of Ravenwood across the territory for.”

Cole looked into his cup. “Nice to know I made the cut.”

Tiernan ignored him.

“I wanted to get these here quickly. Most of what I found is incomplete, and some of it is probably folklore, but there are enough similarities that I don’t think we should dismiss it.”

Kade leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees.

“Start with what you trust.”

“Very little.”

Liam sighed.

“Excellent.”

Tiernan slid the first page into the center of the table.

“It’s a copied entry from an old Ravenwood healer’s journal. About a hundred and twenty years old.”

I leaned forward.

The handwriting was cramped and faded in places, even on the reproduction.

“What does it say?”

Tiernan pointed to a paragraph halfway down.

“The healer describes a female wolf whose coat appeared pale gray during daylight and silver beneath the moon.”

My attention sharpened.

“Actually silver?”

“That’s the wording.”

Diana went quiet.

Fistmas pulled another apart from the Jubbar

This vant from amer

from another gurb Biberent perhot, different amen: They called the wolf upon hireerd.”

HAL HOUHAUL HOFT

I could But the ar

all anything.”

Home united strength and counties alter auneet, sapoesially when the mun

Titan mutted tumuliately. “What?”

“What bund at the Tieman skel

Therma Thunght I was still wavering

“Thon hung has it been happen

“Pun mot sure. A how days, maybe. It was hard to notice before inseams I really was exhausted.”

I thought about the balcony the evening before. “I feel better”

“NE tried to find the right way to explain it. “Abie awake. Like my body finally catches up with me.”

Tretian reachest ho another sheet. “I found something similar here,”

He placed it on the table and turned it toward me. The writing was even worse than the first page.

leaned chrapt “Where?”

Piernan nodded, “Keep going.'”

I squinted at the next line. “The wolf required extended rest during daylight.”” I looked at him. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

The room went quiet.

Kade shifted beside me. “Even after sleeping well?”

“Yes.” That was what had been bothering me. “I slept better the other night that I have since the kidnapping, but by afternoon I could barely keep my eyes open. Then once it got dark, it went away.”

Tiernan’s gaze sharpened. “Did you notice whether being outside changed anything?”

“Last night.” I nodded toward the windows. “I went onto the balcony because I felt restless. Once I was outside, I felt even better.”

“What did Diana do?”

The question surprised me. “What do you mean?”

“How did she react?”

No one had asked that before.

Usually people discussed Diana as if she were something attached to me rather than someone I could actually talk

“She wanted to shift.”

Tiernan nodded. “Did she know why?”

“No. She just felt restless. Like she wanted to be outside.”

I still do.

I smiled despite myself.

“What?” Liam asked.

“Nothing. Diana has opinions.”

Tiernan passed me another page. “This one mentions the effect becoming stronger as the moon approaches fullness.”

I reached for it immediately. I shifted farther forward on the sofa, leaning over the coffee table.

Tiernan angled the sheet toward me. The line was nearly impossible to make out.

“What does that say after ‘increasing’?”

1:59 pm

Strength.

“No, the next word.”

He leaned closer. “Possibly resilience.””

I moved closer too, trying to follow the faded script. My elbow brushed the glass of water sitting beside the papers. It tipped.

Kade caught it before more than a few drops escaped. At the same time, his other hand settled gently against the small of my back.

“Careful.”

I froze. His palm was warm through my sweater.

I looked at the glass he had already moved safely to the other side of the table. Then at Tiernan.

Tiernan’s mouth twitched.

Oh.

Heat rushed into my face. I sat back.

Kade’s hand slipped away, and he picked up the page beside him with the calm expression of a man who had merely prevented a serious hydration-related disaster.

Cole hid something suspiciously close to a smile behind his coffee.

Liam didn’t even bother looking at Kade.

“As I was saying,” he said, “if her strength changes with the moon, we need to know how much.”

I stared at him.

He was enjoying this too.

Traitor.

Tiernan glanced toward Kade before returning his attention to the papers.

“The problem is that none of these sources quantify anything. One says the wolf was stronger. Another says unusually difficult to restrain. One claims a moon-blessed wolf defeated three warriors alone, but that account reads like someone telling a story fifty years after it happened.”

Kade looked at me. “Physical strength would fit what we already know.”

“Do we know that?”

“You healed faster than Daphne expected after the kidnapping.”

Twas also asleep for half of it.”

“That doesn’t rule it out.”

Tiernan tapped another page. “There are references to protection too.”

I leaned forward again, this time keeping a respectable distance from both Tiernan and my water.

“What kind of protection?”

“That’s where it gets vague.” He read from his notes. “One source describes a silver wolf standing between an Alpha and some kind of magical attack. Another says she ‘held strength around those beside her.””

Liam frowned. “Shielding?”

“Possibly.”

Cole spoke for the first time in several minutes. “Could also mean morale.”

Tiernan nodded. “Exactly.”