Vanessa was shaking. She couldn't control that reaction anymore than she could stop breathing. Green sat up and pulled her closer to him, asking her what was wrong.
"Have you heard about the White Wolf Pack?" Mario asked her.
Had she heard about it? Memories she'd been doing her best to suppress for the last decade rose within her like boats on the tide. Wolves with their hearts torn out, her mother beaten to death for having disobeyed handing over her oldest daughter to the high priest. Her sister's broken body after she took the plunge she thought was her only way out of the pack. Her own hands covered in blood after she made the opposite choice.
"Vanessa? What's wrong with her? What did you do to her?"
Vanessa became aware that Green was shaking her. "I'm... okay."
"You're not okay! What happened?"
"Just took a trip down memory lane," Vanessa said and shook herself free from the memories. She wasn't that girl anymore and that place was no longer her reality. She'd left all of that behind. She'd run... almost as an echo she heard the high priest's voice in her ear. "You can run, but you can't hide."
Well, he'd been wrong about that hadn't he? She'd hid successfully for ten years. They'd followed her across several oceans, but they still hadn't been able to find her.
Vanessa straightened up. It wasn't the only thing the high priest had been wrong about, she reminded herself. Despite his close connection to the goddess and his prophetic powers he'd never seen the knife in his chest until she put it there.
"Vanessa?"
Right. Time to focus. She'd have time to freak out later.
"The blue powder is wolfsbane mixed with chalk, silver nitrate and crystal meth. There is no antidote except time. Make sure they don't take more and let their bodies push the poison out."
"You've seen this before?" Mario asked.
"Yes, that pack lived... they lived close to where I grew up."
"Did they make you take that stuff?" Green asked.
Vanessa nodded and thought it best not to mention that she'd been taking it regularly for three years.
"How long did it take you to get back to normal?" Mario asked while Green cursed.
"If they only got one dose they should be alright in a month or two."
She knew Green had noticed her evasion of the question from how his hands tightened around her, but thankfully he didn't point it out. She supposed they'd have a conversation about this when they were on their own again. But Mario heaved a sigh of relief and moved over to where the two guys who had been watching Green were regaining consciousness.
"Are you alright?" Green mumbled against her hair.
"Yeah," Vanessa said.
He kissed her cheek, then almost as an afterthought, he trailed kisses to her ear and down to her neck. The kisses nearly distracted her from the fear that had settled in the pit of her stomach. Oh, who was she kidding? The fear had always been there. Discovering that her worst nightmare had followed her to the US and were doing their best to poison their surroundings had only amped it up.
Being held by Green felt comforting and the kisses let her think about something other than the horror waiting for her in that encampment, the horror she'd almost wandered straight into.
"Ah... excuse me, but your clothes have arrived."
Vanessa pulled back from Green and ignored his growl when she shook of his hands and got up to accept her clothes from Mario.
"Thank you."
"I'll still make that phone call, if that's alright with you?"
"Of course," Vanessa said and handed Green his jeans.
"What phone call?" he asked.
"I told him he could call Thrall to verify our identities when you were unconscious," Vanessa explained while Mario used Green's phone to make the call. "You should really put a password on your phone."
"I guess I should," he muttered as he stepped into his jeans. "I've never hung out with people who don't respect my privacy before."
"Says the guy who stalked me across state lines," Vanessa said and succeeded with the near acrobatic feat of putting on her bra without taking off Mario's torn shirt.
"Here," Green said, holding out his t-shirt for her.
"Thanks, but I have my own," Vanessa said and pulled off the shirt.
"I know. Please wear this."
"Why?"
"So that I can forget what you smell like with his scent on you."
Vanessa refrained, barely, from rolling her eyes at him. "You want me to smell like you instead?"
"Yes," Green said emphatically.
"You're aware that I'm a person with my own scent, not a thing you can scent mark."
"I'm well aware," Green muttered.
"Then you'll understand when I decline wearing your clothes."
"I can always pee on you instead," Green threatened.
"And that will be the last thing you do," Vanessa said and grabbed her own t-shirt.
The next moment Green had pulled it from her hands and torn it in two.
"What is wrong with you?" Vanessa growled, feeling her teeth and claws elongate.
"You would wear his clothes, but not mine?" Green snarled back.
"I wore his clothes because I had nothing else to wear!"
"Good. Now you only have my t-shirt to wear."
"I'd rather just wear my bra," Vanessa snapped and she knew without having to check that her ears had grown tufts of fur.
Green opened his mouth, either to bite or yell at her, but Mario got in between them and held out his phone.
"Thrall wants a word."
For a moment Vanessa thought Green would ignore the call from his brother-in-law and tear into Mario instead. She could see from the other alfa's expression that he was thinking the same thing and was considering how much trouble he would get into if he fought Green again, now that he knew who he was.
Then Green took the phone, scratching Mario's hand at the same time with his half-transformed claws and marched off.
For a moment they stood in silence, watching him raise the phone to his ear and explain to Ted Thrall why he had gotten a phone call in the middle of the night from Utah.
"Don't you think you should put on his t-shirt?" Mario eventually asked.
"No."
Mario sighed, but didn't press the issue. "I told Thrall that both of you are welcome to stay the night at our pack house."
"Thank you, but we should get going," Vanessa said.
She was doing her best to not remember that the people she'd been running from for ten years were living only a couple of miles away from where they were standing. The idea of staying the night in a house in the same area made her skin crawl.
"I thought you might say that. Please let us escort you across state lines. It's the least we can do after attacking you."
Vanessa nodded. She didn't normally like the idea of people involving themselves in her business, but the thought of accidentally running into her old pack without backup was too horrifying to contemplate.
"And thank you for telling us about the drugs."
"You're welcome."
"You said they used to live near you when you were growing up. Where was that?"
Vanessa hesitated, but she couldn't see what harm it would do to tell him.
"Australia."
"Aust... Jesus. You've come a long way."
Despite the pressing situation, Vanessa laughed. He was right about that.
"What is so funny?" Green snarled, regarding them with an expression of utmost suspicion.
"Nothing. Let's go," Vanessa said and moved over to their car that Mario's packmates had been kind enough to drive here for them. "Mario and his pack have offered to escort across state lines."
"There's no need."
"Yes, there is."
"But we..."
Vanessa threw the car keys at him. "If we leave right now, I'll let you drive."
Green hesitated. Then he climbed into the car, before he closed the door he snapped "put the t-shirt on!"
Vanessa turned to Mario who was grinning widely.
"What?"
"I can see the two of you are going to have an interesting life together."
"That's one way of putting it," Vanessa muttered and got into the car.
"One last thing," Mario said, walking up to her before she could close the door. "What do you think we should do about White Wolf?"
"There's nothing you can do."
"They must have a weak spot."
Vanessa shook her head. "You have to get real close to find that spot."
"We could infiltrate..."
"You wouldn't stand a chance, trust me."
"Then what can we do?" Mario asked, his voice ringing with frustration.
"Leave. As soon as you can."
"We can't leave! This is our home!"
"Not for long. Listen," she said when he opened his mouth to protest. "White Wolfers don't target other packs until they're strong enough to move against them and win. Right now they're biding their time, but sooner or later their high priest is going to pretend to get a vision and then they'll move against you with everything they've got. They'll kill everyone over the age of twenty five and the rest will be brainwashed and drugged until they've forgotten everything except the high priest's words."
Mario stared at her. "But we..."
"Do you think yours is the first pack they've taken over? This is what they do, they move across the ground like a host of locusts, consuming everything they pass. There are no exceptions and no mercy. Do you understand?"
She held Mario's gaze until he nodded and took a step back. Vanessa closed the door and turned to Green who was staring at her as if he'd never seen her before. She waited for him to ask her something. When he didn't she turned to look out the window.
"Let's go," she said and after a brief pause Green started the car.