Shifted Fate (Amy)

Rick stayed on his knees in front of Shelly until she grabbed him and hugged him. A soft voice called from the living room. "What does our runes mean?" Alannah stepped into the dining room, her hands wrapped around the small swell of her growing baby bump. "Is it hurting my pup?"

I sighed. "Yeah, Alannah it is." Her hand flew to her mouth. "But don't worry." I nearly laughed at my words. I just asked a woman to not worry about her pup. I jumped back to her question. "Abby's rune was to drain her. Ricks is to give him power until it over loads his body, and yours..." I sighed again. "Your rune is a bastardized version of a mate rune."

"What does that mean?" Shelly asked, touching her arm.

"I don't know." I blew out a breath. "I know the runes because of my father. He never went into detail about the mate rune."

"That's because he didn't think you would need to know. The man has the forethought of a gerbil." We all turned around and saw my grandmother coming out of the kitchen. She met our faces. "What? I love the boy, but he meddles too much." She waved her hand. "Anyway, before mate bonds were a thing. So a very ling time ago. Couples would have mate runes. It would create a bridge to each other. So they could speak to each other's lycans." She turned to meet my eyes. "You know why the mate bond was created." I nodded. "But this was before that. It also links your power, your souls, and let's you share between the two."

"But none of us are mated to Vince." Shelly stared between my grandmother and

me.noveldrama

She nodded. "Exactly. His witchling turned something sacred into something corrupt." She walked over the Shelly. "Lift your arm, please." Shelly nodded. "The original mate rune was two circles, one full and one empty. It represented the Moon goddess in her two forms. The full moon represented the person it was on, while the empty one was their mate. But do you see this line through it, and the sigil at the end?" Everyone leaned in.

"Yeah..." I furrowed my brow. "I've never seen that one before."

She nodded. "That's because that is one that the witchling made for Vince. This line." She traced her finger over it. "This is how she is rerouting the power. Then she redirects to Vince." She shook her head. "Disgusting." She turned to me. "You are going to remove all these tonight?" She sighed and then turned on Rick. "This one will be the most difficult." She sighed. "It has done a lot of damage, and his wolf is weak."

I nodded. "I don't even know how I am going to get all of them off."

My grandmother came to my side. "The small ones will be easy. It is just a leech. Find it, kill it, and then will be free. Vince will feel it, but who cares?" She looked at Rick over her shoulder. "His is deeper. He is a dumping ground for Vince. You will face a lot in side of him." She went to cup my face. "You do not run from ghosts. Teach him." Then she was gone.

"What does she mean by that?" Rick sat back on his feet, and I sighed.

"I don't know." I stood. "But I guess we will figure it out together." I pointed to Shelly. “You are up first." I nodded to the table. “Lay down."

off

Shelly kissed Rick while I cleaned the stuff from Abby. "We will get through this." Rick nodded, but even

I could tell he didn't believe her. She

shook him. "Say it."

He closed his eyes, and he blew out a breath. "We will get through this." Shelly nodded and used a chair to get onto the table. She crawled to the middle and then laid back.

She looked at me as I lit one candle. I sprinkled a few herbs inside of the bowl and lit some cotton. "What should I do?" Her question caught me off guard.

"Lift your arm o er your head. Then relax." She nodded. I grabbed the dagger and looked at her. "This is going to hurt."

She watched me with the dagger and closed her eyes. "I trust you. Even if I didn't act like it before with Abby." Isnorted and then cut into her. I cut deep, causing her to whimper. But I had to remove the brand before I could find the leech.

"Shelly?" I had to stop cutting because she was healing too fast.

"Yeah?"

"Tell your wolf to stop healing you. If she has to, tell her to go slowly. I need to remove the brand and then the magic before the skin grows back. She nodded and then I started

to cut again. But she was started

healing.

Command her. Nix offered.

"I'm sorry. She said she can't help it." Shelly whispered.

I leaned over her. "I'm doing this for your own good." I turned to Toya. "Get a towel." She nodded and turned away. "Shelly. I command you to stop healing."