Broken Trust (Broken Book 3)

23: Distemper

"What are we dealing with?" Isabel asked.

"It's a variant of canine distemper," Deaton answered.

Dominic pointed to the dead werewolf on the table. "Jack and the others had distemper?" he asked. "I thought werewolves were immune to disease."

"Most of the time they are, but this strain has been weaponized. A few years ago, an outbreak in Yellowstone killed forty percent of the wolf population."

"What's it going to do to our wolf population?" Melissa asked.

Satomi motioned to her beta. "This apparently," she said.

"And made to infect quite a bit faster," Deaton added.

"It infected my whole pack."

"Everyone except for you two."

"I would have been worried if it was avian flu," Dominic said. "Otherwise, I don't think it would have affected me like it did the wolves."

"Dominic's right," Satomi said. "It was designed for wolves, not Valkyries."

"Why didn't it affect you, Satomi?" Isabel asked.

"That is the real question," Deaton said. "Did you just not get infected? Or are you immune?"

"That can happen, right?" Melissa said. "It happens in humans all the time."

"But that's because of genetics," Satomi said. "I wasn't born a werewolf, so how could I be immune to this?"

"If your pack was infected," Derek asked. "Who was doing all the shooting at the entrance to the woods?"

"We found 308 shell casings everywhere," Isabel added.

Satomi crossed her arms. "Apparently another assassin. Personally, I'd rather face a gun than a variant of smallpox."

"Sounds like you're going to get plenty of chances," Melissa commented.

Satomi looked up at Derek and her eyes lingered on his face. Derek glanced over at her and she quickly looked away.

"Sorry," she said. "I just noticed how much you remind me of Talia."

Derek gave her a smile. "I actually get that a lot."

"I used to visit her a lot, you know. Do you remember me?"

"I remember the tea. You always brought that tea that smelled terrible."

Isabel scoffed a laugh.

Satomi smiled. "I brought that tea as a gift. Your mother loved it." The look on Deaton's face changed and Isabel could see the wheels turning in his head.

"What kind of tea?" he asked.

"What?"

"The tea with the smell, what kind was it?"

"Reishi. Wild purple reishi. It's very rare."

"It's also a very powerful remedy for sickness. Satomi, you didn't get infected because you've been inoculated."

"Okay, how rare is it?" Melissa asked. "Can we find it?"

"We won't have to," Derek said. "My mother kept some of it."

"I remember seeing a jar of what I thought was dried leaves in the vault," Isabel said. "When we put the... the heirloom back in it." She wanted to confirm her suspicions about Dominic and make sure he wasn't a Dark before she mentioned the Eye in front of him.

Derek nodded. "That's the tea. We have to somehow get word to Scott and the others to find that tea."