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.
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.
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