Hunted (Pack of Dawn and Destiny, #1)(90)

“You.”

I stared at the Pre-Dominant, but she didn’t go any further.

Is this a joke?

I tried chuckling, but when Hector and Ember stayed silent, my attempt at humor died. “You’re serious?”

Pre-Dominant Harka watched me with a critical eye. If Greyson was watching me intensely, she was trying to deduct my reaction and what it meant.

“I am,” she said. “It took Hudson several years to figure it out. It wasn’t until it became apparent that every wolf you interacted with before they made the change not only always survived, they also retained a stronger sense of responsibility to humans—something that is typically only attributed to Alphas.”

“What, so I’m like an informative textbook?” I asked. “Stay on the right path, lads, or you’ll be lost—that kind of thing?”

“No,” the Pre-Dominant said. “You make everything in the Pack more.”

“I make things more?” I blankly repeated.

What the heck is that supposed to mean? It sounds like a stupid riddle from the renaissance era!

“You have a very rare kind of magic that hasn’t been seen for decades,” Pre-Dominant Harka continued. “It allows its wielder to influence a Pack, almost to the point where their presence is as strong as a second Alpha. They can command all Pack members, make it easier for humans to make the change and become wolves, raise up wolves so they aren’t quite so subservient, and you can make the Pack mesh better, fight better, and make them stronger.”

She hesitated, then added, “That’s the magic you felt during the fight against the Fletchings. It was your magic, propping up the Pack so they could fight as one. It’s why those in wolf form grew larger and more lethal.”

I shook my head as I tried to take it in. “I get what you mean, but there’s no way. I’m twenty-four. Any magic I had should have appeared a long time ago. It wouldn’t just suddenly break free now. Besides, I should have felt it.”

“You didn’t feel any of your magic at all?” Ember asked.

“Well, I was in a fight. Yes, my magic was active, so I did feel it,” I admitted. “But I didn’t do anything with it!”

“It’s very possible you didn’t recognize the way in which you used it,” Hector said. “You’ve never been involved in a Pack fight. Most often you are pitted against wolves in a battle—something that had been done on purpose so your magic was never tempted to break through before.”

“It almost reacted the day you saved those kids in the park from the Low Marsh wolf,” Ember added.

I pushed my white hair out of my face. “You two knew?”

Hector slightly bowed his head. “Hudson told me when he first began to suspect you had additional magic. Ember was told after Chase made the change.”

“I love my little brother,” Ember said, “but he shouldn’t have the edge of Alpha abilities that he has. He is loyal to his leaders, and will follow them to the end—which makes his extra power and ability to survive so far away from the Pack particularly unusual.”

“Which proves just how long your magic really has been active,” Pre-Dominant Harka said. “You might not feel it, but it’s been oozing out of you since you arrived. Your magic is always active, it just took the fight with the Fletchings for the fighting-based side of your abilities to emerge.”

I dropped my head back on my neck and stared up at the cloudy sky.

Looks like rain, I thought, feeling weirdly removed from the situation.

This couldn’t be real. It wasn’t possible! There was no way I would have special magic and not know. They were mistaken—they had to be!

When I lowered my head again, I found myself staring at Greyson. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, which seemed weird for a wolf in the heat of summer.

“The way you speak of her magic…I assume there are historical examples?” Rafe asked.

“There are.” Pre-Dominant Harka slapped her knees. “I had some people research Phillipa’s family as soon as Hudson asked me about the possibility. I found this particular strain of magic in her father’s side, going back a few generations.”

My heart squeezed—I’d known the Sabres had some weird variations of magic, but no one had seen it in so long, it was assumed the unnamed ability had died out.

“This kind of magic is only found in hunters—and only in a few family lines. It’s surfaced so infrequently, it’s theorized that it only happens when there is a hunter with a particularly wolf-like soul, but there are several hunter families across the globe that have records of this magic in their ancestry,” Pre-Dominant Harka explained. “It has numerous names—tamer and trainer are the most popular translations from most languages, but the elves used to call it ‘Wolf’s Kiss’.”

I furrowed my brow as I tried to puzzle through that one. “Wolf’s Kiss? Why would they name it that?”

“Because if a hunter who has this magic becomes attached to a Pack, the whole Pack thrives—their survival rate increases, the ability to change humans into wolves increases, and the Pack in general has an increased capacity of competency,” Pre-Dominant Harka said. “In return, the Pack that bonds with the hunter reveres them, and treats them as they would no other. It’s said the hunters with this magic can bring out a soft side of wolves never seen otherwise—hence the title.”