Safe Haven

Chapter 26

Is it possible he might've been one of us? A wolf?

Olive gaped at him, her mind churning at his question.

"I don't...I don't know."

Her eyebrows drew together as she filtered through the few memories she kept of her stepfather. Most of them weren't good. Yelling at her mother, yelling at her, threats, punishments. Things she'd never told anyone, even that day back at the cabin when she'd told Benjamin what she'd been running from.

"He was awful. I don't have many good memories of him. He drank, a lot, went out all the time, especially at night. Was gone a lot, sometimes for several days at a time, and then he'd be in a better mood when he got back for a day or two, and then it was back to normal. He screamed at us, all the time. I don't know what answer you're expecting from me, Benjamin. I don't know what you're getting at."

It upset her, having to relieve the days where she'd been afraid, both for her own safety and her mother's.

"It says supernaturals may be more receptive to spells. The only way I can think of someone being able to get inside your head like they are is if it's some kind of mind-linking that's been...magically enhanced, I suppose. Only a werewolf would really understand how to use it. It's hard to explain but for myself, for example, I have to concentrate on whoever I'm trying to link with, and I have to keep them in my mind while I'm communicating. It's harder for me if it's a pack member I'm not as close with. It's easiest with Ren and Donovan, because we've known each other our whole lives and we've been friends since I can remember."

He paused again, and Olive thought she could see what he was getting at.

"You think my stepfather was a wolf, and that he's been using magic to track me..."

She trailed off as another idea bloomed.

"Oh my god. Benjamin. That's why it was so easy for them to track me. If my stepfather was a wolf, he was probably using what little connection we had to follow me, and then telling them where to go. I could never figure out how they could find me so easily. I mean sometimes it would take a few weeks, but it always happened. Even when I didn't know where I was going and just randomly hopped off a train at a city without looking at where I was."

"Every time he's spoken to you and you've heard the voice in your head, you haven't been alone, have you?"

"I don't think so, no." She hesitated. "I never heard the voice before until after I met you and Ren. It wasn't until after I knew what you were, and you told me we were mates. Why now? Why didn't he do that before? It would've scared me even more, being alone and hearing voices."

"Maybe because he thinks I can't protect you, or he likes the challenge of trying to get to you inside a pack of werewolves."

Olive sank into one of the chairs in front of his desk. Her whole body was trembling. She flicked her eyes back up to Benjamin.

"What do we do? How will we know if it's really him?"

He stood and came around the desk.

"We figure it out, that's what we do. Together."

He slid his arms around her and pulled her close, his lips brushing gently against her forehead. Olive closed her eyes and leaned into him, resting her cheek against his chest. She pushed her love towards the Bond and felt it pushed back twice as hard from Benjamin.

"I need to send a messenger to Alpha Patrick, see what he thinks. I'll request he ask around to his elders and see if they can find out more info about projection, and spells to hide scents."