Heir To The Pack (The Cursed Pack Book 1) by Laura Welling Read Free Book Online

his shirt and he pulled it over his head.
    She froze. “What are you
doing?”
    “I'm going to prove it.”
    “Oh for God’s sake,” Annie
said. Anger unlocked her words. “This is all such absolute, absolute bullshit.”
The word tripped off her tongue rather unnaturally, and she glanced in Jack’s
direction. He was absorbed in eating his cookie and appeared not to have heard.
“We’ve been embarrassed, chased by badly-behaved dogs—sorry, werewolves , for God’s sake—and
nearly abducted by strangers. No one can give me an explanation for any of
this. I don’t know what is wrong with you, but I have had enough. You are
either lying or deluded, and either way, you think that’s more important than my
child’s life. We are leaving now.” She tried to stiffen her spine but she
ruined the effect by stumbling as she swept Jack up into her arms.
    Daisy sat still, looking
up at her big-eyed. “Oh dear,” she said. “It's a lot to absorb, isn't it? And you
so rarely lose your temper.”
    “Mother. Get. Up.”
    Marjie stood, and met
Annie’s eyes square on. “Calm down,” she said. “We’re gonna help you. I believe
the boy is Dash’s son. You need to stay.”
    “I have had quite enough,”
Annie repeated. “Please move out of my way.” She would not be scared by a couple
of elderly aunts, even if they were claiming to be werewolves.
    “Guess I’m going to have
to show you,” the older woman said, stepping toward her.
    Annie took a step back,
her arms tightening on Jack. “Are you threatening me?”
    The big craggy woman’s face
lit up with a lightning smile. “Nope. I want to show you something.” She moved
so fast her hand blurred across Annie’s vision, and landed on Annie’s shoulder.
Annie felt a curious push inside her
head.
    She saw stars. There was
no other way to describe it. The world darkened before her, lit by a thousand
glowing points of light around them.
    Her gaze cleared, and she
blinked, trying to understand what she saw in front of her. Her eyes showed her
two Marjies, a sort of 3-D double vision. Superimposed over the tall woman in
front of her, there was a second image, smaller, darker, and covered in fur.
Dash had mentioned two souls. This had to be Marjie’s other spirit, inside and
outside and all around the human form it wore like a set of clothes.
    A voice in some quiet
corner of Annie’s mind tried to suggest that this couldn’t possibly be real,
but she knew in her heart, as truly as she knew anything, that it was.
    The world as she knew it
changed, irrevocably.
    From Marjie’s second self
radiated a set of vibrating cloudy lines. Annie followed them with her gaze. The
lines led to Elaine and to Dash.
    Each of them also had a
second self. Both wolves. Elaine’s was small and grey, and Dash’s, enormous and
solid black.
    Dash’s wolf had pale blue
eyes that met hers. A connection clicked between them, as it had in Cancun
three years ago. His presence filled the room. How had she not felt it before?
    His gaze traveled downward
toward where Jack lay in her arms, and Annie, too, looked down.
    Tremendous love for her
son rushed through her when she saw his soul. The shape was softly glowing but
unformed, filling Jack’s body with a cloud of light.
    His hair flopped over his
forehead, shadowing his face. Annie reached to brush it aside, but her hand
passed into it—not hair, but a shadow. Her fingers moved it slightly but
could not push it out of the way. She caught her breath and tried again, her
hand moving faster as she tried to unveil Jack’s face.
    “You can’t remove it,”
Marjie said in her ear. “There is a shadow on his soul.”

 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER
FOUR
    Annie clutched her son
close and closed her eyes, swallowing the urge to scream. She couldn’t, not
with Jack in her arms. When she opened her eyes again, the world had shifted
back to normal. Or as normal as it could be with what she now knew to be true.
    She let out a muffled
half-sob as she