average human’s Reviews > Edge of Steel > Status Update

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He tried again. Same result.
“What the fuck?” he yelped, his voice jumping up an octave. “Why can’t I feel my beast?”
Ian sucked in a startled breath.
Two puzzle pieces slammed together in my brain. The ground wobbled under my feet, and I gripped the dagger’s hilt tighter. “Aiden,” I said softly. “Will you please attempt a healing spell on this panther?”
Aiden frowned and bounced a troubled look between me and Ian, who was hovering over my shoulder. Ian tasted of horror and budding dread—a familiar flavor that I’d indulged in once before, back when I’d upset my dove during training and had been wholly unprepared for the basilisk’s reaction to it.
“Okay,” Aiden said slowly. “I won’t be able to do much under a waxing crescent.”
“Please try,” I said with as much patience as I could muster. My beast slithered under my skin, coiled tight, anxious.
Aiden dug into his pocket and retrieved a pen. He knelt next to Drew, who was hyperventilating as he continued to attempt to shift without success. Aiden drew a few hasty runes on a clean patch of Drew’s white T-shirt, and then he lay his fingers lightly across them. He began to channel what trickle of magic he could pull from our celestial source. Unlike Avery’s friend Mallory, Aiden did not have a healing affinity and couldn’t perform healing magic at will.
After a few seconds, Aiden swore and withdrew his hand like he’d been burned. “What in the wraith-infested hell?”
My heart beat harder against my ribs. “What is it?”
Aiden’s eyes widened as he came to the same realization I had. “His body is rejecting the magic. I can feel it pushing back.”
Ian made a choking noise.
“What is it, babe?” Brody asked softly. Urgently. “What’s wrong?”
My vision narrowed and the colors of the world slid into a monochromatic haze as my beast pushed to the surface. I climbed to my feet and turned to my mate’s brother.
He was in my face in a flash, the fearless little fox. “Where the fuck did you get that dagger, Harrow?” he snarled. “What did you do?”
I held it out to him. “This is the dagger that was used to murder my mother, Little Baxter.”
The rage melted from his body in a blink. He took the blade carefully from my hand. “Your mother. Whose body rejected the magic used in an attempt to heal her after she was attacked?”
So my dove had shared that bit of my mother’s story with her brother, which confirmed the suspicion I was rapidly developing.
The symptom was familiar, which is why she’d become so upset when I’d mentioned it.
“Yes,” I replied. “And tell me, Little Baxter—did your mother’s body also resist magical attempts to heal her after whatever happened that caused her death?”
He continued to examine the knife, rubbing his thumb across the hilt’s floral carvings, over the amethyst gems embedded in the bell-shaped blossoms and the large onyx pearls that looked like berries. “Yes.”
“And from the way you reacted earlier, I’m guessing she was also unable to shift into her beast?”
“Yes.”
He had Heath’s and Aiden’s full attention now. Drew, unimportant to anything, continued to moan and writhe on the ground.
“Was your mother killed with a dagger?” Heath asked softly.
Ian shook his head. “She was shot by hunters while out on a walk in the woods with my dad. The hunters weren’t shifters, just dumb humans who were supposedly aiming for my dad’s wolf but hit my human mother on accident. The bullets weren’t even silver, and they still killed her.”
I frowned and looked at Aiden. “Could it be a coincidence?”
He stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. That small bit of magic was unnatural to him and had taken some effort. “I really don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head.
“It’s not the dagger,” Ian said suddenly. “There must be something on the dagger. I can’t…. Why didn’t we think of this before?”
“Babe,” Brody said gently. “What do you mean?”
“The hilt has a belladonna flower carved into it. It could be…. I mean, I’m not sure, it would be nearly impossible⁠—”
“What?” I asked. “The design on the hilt is a belladonna?”
Ian gave me a droll look, so much more like his usual countenance that it loosened a knot of tension from my body. “You didn’t know what was carved into the hilt of the instrument of your mother’s death?”
I scowled. “Why would I know what that was?”
“Not everyone has an apothecary affinity, my love,” Brody added.
Ian blew out a breath and looked me right in my beast eyes. “I’d like to borrow this, Harrow. I promise I’ll take good care of it, and I’ll return it to you after I’ve done some research. Maybe I can get some answers for both of us.”
“Done.” Even a far-fetched hunch was the biggest breakthrough we’d had in a long time. “Thank you.”
“I’d prefer….” He frowned, like he was wrestling with something, and then he lifted his chin. “I’d prefer if we didn’t mention this to my sister quite yet. She’s dealing with enough shit right now, and I’d rather not open old wounds if it turns out I’m wrong.”
Ah. None of us, including Ian, wanted to keep secrets from my dove, but I understood his hesitance. “You have my word,” I said.
“Thank you.” He carefully slid the knife through his belt and then grabbed his boyfriend’s hand. “Oh, and the potency of whatever is on the dagger that may be cutting off access to the beast has to have faded in the decades since it was used on your mother. Try forcing the panther to shift.”
With that, they left us.
As the most powerful feline present, Aiden did as Ian suggested. Using the force of his beast’s dominance, he threw everything he had left at Drew and commanded him to shift. The telltale turquoise rings lit up around his irises, and his muscles bunched under his rumpled dress shirt.
Drew bellowed in pain, his voice cracking under the strain. Black fur sprouted along his face and neck.
“Shift,” Aiden growled.
With one last hoarse shout, the panther emerged. The shift was slower than normal and looked painful as hell, but he managed to complete it, and he didn’t waste time after that.
He sprinted out of the parking lot as fast as his panther legs could carry him.
Heath watched him go with a resigned look. “I’ll have someone tap his phone, just in case.”
“Good.” I bounced on my toes, feeling lighter than I had in months. Handing the issue of my mother’s death to someone else—someone who may have just as much interest in finding the truth as I did—was freeing, even if it would be short-lived. “Let’s find our wayward bear and make sure our mate made it out of here safely.”
“Damn, where the fuck is Wyatt?” Heath said with another frustrated rake of his hand through his hair. “Surely Bernard wasn’t giving him trouble about what happened back here?”
“Unlikely,” I agreed. The barkeeper was a good friend of my uncle, and as the proprietor of a shifter establishment in a shifter town, he was used to this kind of thing happening on his property. There were no cameras back here for a reason.
We made our way inside. As soon as we’d slammed the door and stepped into the dim staff hallway, it hit us.
Heath let out a menacing growl.
Aiden made a noise like he was choking.
And I tasted the most luscious, sinful, decadent thing to ever grace my lips.
My dove. Her lust. Her pleasure.
Heath shot forward and shoved his way into Bernard’s office. Aiden and I jostled with each other to rush in behind him.
There, alone in the dark, sitting on the floor with his back propped against an old leather couch, was our fallen brother. He seemed dazed, like he wasn’t sure where he was, and he was gripping what appeared to be his erection through his jeans.
I licked my lips again. Avery’s deliciously amorous pheromones were thick in the air, and Wyatt’s earthy bear lust intermingled with them in such a harmonious way, I could only assume that was by the Moon’s design.
I knelt next to him. “Hey there, buddy. You doing okay?”
He grinned lazily. “Fuck yeah, I am.”
“Is this real?” Heath asked, his voice cracking, his nostrils flaring like a bull’s. “She let you…?”
“Yeah.” He sighed wistfully. “There were conditions.”
He explained what happened and exactly what Avery had demanded of him.
I could only blink at him. Aiden gaped like a fish, and Heath had the look of someone who’d been punched in the stomach.
Finally, I barked a loud laugh. “That’s our girl. I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”
“I’m just….” Heath blew out a breath. “Fuck, I’m ecstatic she let you take care of her, man. Deep down, she knows her body and her beast are only going to be satisfied if it’s one of us. It’s a start.”
I stood up and held out a hand to Wyatt. He grabbed it reluctantly, grumbling irritably as I pulled him to his feet.
I tossed an arm around his broad shoulders, squeezing as I led him to the door. “Let’s go, Casanova. We have a lot to talk about. You have until we get back to Gale Manor to will your cock to calm down.”
His grin was smug. “I’m never showering again.”
As we made our way to Heath’s car, every beast in our quad thrummed with anticipation, eager for the thrill of the hunt.
There’s more where that came from, Dove. Just you wait.