Avoiding Alpha

Page 25

Now it was time to share my crazy idea.
“We basically need Meredith’s wolf to not fight her anymore, right? But we’re thinking like wolves—about freeing Meredith from the spell. If we can’t do that safely, then why not try to put her wolf back to sleep? We wouldn’t have to worry about anything backfiring then. Or who’s stronger than who.”
“Might not be such a horrible idea,” Chris said. “I was reading about the dangers of breaking a spell, too, but this one says it differently. Basically, if you want to break the spell that she put on Meredith, then all you have to do is want it more. But it’s hard to quantify how badly someone wants something. It’s a huge risk. Do you think you want to break it more than Luciana wants to keep it?”
I slammed my book closed. “How the hell should I know?”
Chris rocked back in his chair. He ran his fingers through his blond wavy hair, making it fro-out a little. “Well, if you try to break it by will, and fail, then you could end up making her much worse. Not to mention that it could rub off on you, too. You could get sick in the process.”
Great. I didn’t want to make Meredith’s curse any worse than it already was, but I had to do something. Breaking the curse was still the option I liked the most, but it might not be the safest.
“How was the other book?” I asked Shannon and Adrian, stalling.
“We found a couple contenders that could maybe break a spell.”
Nice. I leaned toward them. “And?”
“Aaaand I’m not sure where we’d find some of the components for some of these potions,” Adrian said as he tapped his pen on his notepad.
“One of them even calls for the blood of the caster,” Shannon said.
Luciana had to give me her blood? Yeah, that would never happen. “Not in a million years would she give us her blood.”
We were quiet afterwards, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
I would’ve felt better about trying a spell if I could talk to Donovan. He knew more about dealing with this than any of us. It would be nice to get his opinion before attempting anything, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Screw it. I wasn’t going to try anything that would be even more dangerous for Meredith. “As much as you all might not like it, I think we drop the idea of breaking the curse, and instead focus on finding one that will work alongside the curse to quiet her wolf.”
Shannon’s face was red as she yelled a stream of curses at me. I sat there quietly, letting them vent their anger and frustration. When I had enough I stood up. “Stop.” The word had enough power to get them to instantly shut up.
“Here’s the problem. Anything we try to counter the spell with has big repercussions. Meredith is extremely sick. We cannot make it worse for her or she’ll die. Something made her wolf fight against her curse. The two parts that make up Meredith are at war after three years of being totally fine. So, we put the wolf back to sleep and she should go back to being fine.” I sat back down. “Maybe one day we can find a way to break the curse for good,” I said softly. “But right now, none of us know enough to fix this. So, we do our best to keep Meredith alive.”
“I agree.” Chris slid his chair back from the table. “It’s our best shot.”
“No! I refuse to believe that. It’s because she’s one of them.” The disgust was clear in Shannon’s voice. “Look at her. She hasn’t even accepted her own wolf. Why would she help one of us?”
I growled. My wolf surged faster than ever before. “This isn’t about getting Meredith’s wolf back. It’s about keeping her alive.” I slammed my hand on the table, and it groaned. Anger was not my friend right now, but I couldn’t rein it back. “You’re too close-minded to see what’s best for her.”
“What’s best is making her whole.” Shannon spat the words at me as she leaned over the table. “Her wolf wants out, and we should be helping to free her. Once that happens, she’ll be okay.”
“Don’t you get it? Trying to mess around with that curse could kill her!” Fur rippled along my arms. “Shit. Not now.”
Shannon pointed at me and turned to Adrian. “Look at that. Her wolf is begging to be set free and she’s too scared to let it. It’s unnatural. And she’d have us imprison one of ours. I’ll not stand for it.”
I turned my back to them as I tried to get myself under control. My stomach burned with the need to change. My knuckles popped.
I will not change. I will not change. I will not change.