Mated

Summoning In Session

As the last pair arrived, everyone rose to their feet and gave gracious bows and greetings before getting themselves all seated. They looked to the oldest pair while waiting for the Summoning to begin. Gentle murmurs faded out and the silence was almost too much.

"The reason we are gathered here," Seymor—the oldest Alpha—began, "is very dire."

"We have been noticing a steady stream of killings in the bottom half of the state," his wife, Abigail, said. Excited murmurs erupted around the table. Both Alpha's waited patiently for silence.

"Is a Pack responsible?" Kieran asked after raising his hand. "Or is it rogue wolves?"

"Actually, the killings are being done by humans. There are Packs losing members left and right in lower Michigan," Seymor went on. This time anger bubbled up around the table. Rogue wolves killing humans trying to turn them was a common problem, but humans killing werewolves was absolutely unheard of. Everyone, even rogues, took the greatest pains to avoid being discovered.

"How?" Jett asked. "How are they being killed?"

"Our detectives found traces of silver in several of the wounds, wolfsbane stuffed into mouths, and many of them were decapitated with notes left behind saying 'Separate heart from head and a werewolf is dead.'" Abigail sighed as her mate spoke.

"Silver?" Samuel—a Beta—scoffed. "Wolfsbane? These are old folk tales."

"Actually," Maddox spoke up, "both are effective against Rarities. Silver causes a severe allergic reaction, enough to cause death. Wolfsbane will force them to turn. And honestly, taking any of our heads is enough to kill us."

"How do you know these things?" Norma—an Alpha mate—demanded. "Because you're mated to a Rarity?"

"I have accumulated many books on our kind and the Rarities," Kieran said. "I've been obsessed with learning all there is about our kind my whole life."

"Human culture is saturated with ways to kill our kind according to movies, including silver," Steven—an Alpha—said. "And if you look us up on Wikipedia," he drawled, messing with his cell phone, "wolfsbane was used to treat the affliction of being a werewolf, as well as exorcisms. And most of these so called treatments killed the patient."

"So there are humans running around, managing to overpower werewolves, and kill them in ways that they find on the internet?" Jett asked. Murmurs ran around the table. "How?"

"That's the million dollar question," Seymor said. "Our detectives found some traces of sedatives in the systems of some of the victims, but not all. So we aren't sure how they are managing to overpower werewolves."

The rest of the Summoning went on like that. Questions without many answers, confusion and anger, and it left Kieran emotionally exhausted—especially knowing that there would be two more days of this. The biggest question over the next two days was how humans were managing this and how to stop them.

*******************

Lyric had adjusted to Kieran's being gone as well as she could. She denied herself access to the study, afraid she would obsess over finding out about her people. She got to know more about Gram and showed her how to make flavored tea; not that she would continue doing it, but it had been fun to teach her. But now, on the day that Kieran was supposed to be coming back, she was nothing but a bundle of raw nerves. Her wolf kept screaming to be let out and it was a true struggle to keep control. Because of her wolf, she isolated herself in their bedroom for the entirety of the last day. She made it to midnight before she gave up and went to bed.

"—ic," a voice said, pulling her from the land of dreams of Kieran and running through the woods. "—ric. Lyric?"

"What?" she grumbled, rolling over and opening her eyes. Bright green eyes greeted her. "KIERAN!" she all but shrieked and threw herself into him, toppling them to the hard floor.

"I'm sorry we ran late," he grunted breathlessly.

"You're here now," she smiled, shyly slipping him a soft peck on the lips.

"Lyric, the Summoning--," he started.

"No. Not now. Bed now. We can talk in the morning over tea and waffles," she said with a yawn. He chuckled as she climbed off of him and back into the warm soft bed. "Come to bed. I've missed you." Apparently, he didn't need to be told twice, he kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed behind her fully clothed. She put her head on his chest and both of them were off to dreamland in a matter of minutes.