Erin wished she’d gotten a chance to see the notebook for herself. It would have been nice to know whether or not there was something special she needed to do. The last time had been such a haze of pain and peril after she got shot that it was hard to remember much of anything. Yet she still felt that Annie and probably some of the others expected her to be better prepared because she’d “done this before.”
She followed Becca up to the washing station that they’d set up near the campfire and helped her wash their dishes and cups as well as some of the cookware. Once everything was set out to dry, though, there were no more delays. Some of what she was thinking must have shown on her face because Becca squeezed her arm reassuringly. “It’ll be okay. We’ll do the best we can. It’s not like we can control it, so there’s always going to be some random stuff happening.”
Becca smiled up at her and Erin’s stomach did a leisurely flip. She hoped that she’d have a chance to tell her that she was gorgeous and kind and sexy and had the most kissable lips some time very soon. If Kari confessed and she was no longer on the run. She bit back a quiet groan.
“Shoulder still hurt?” Shelly asked from her other side.
“Yep. I’ve been getting hammered on a lot lately.” Erin gave her a mournful grin.
“You have! Let’s lay off the werebears and the shootings for a while, shall we?” Shelly gave her a twisted smirk of her own and they exchanged fist taps. Once Howling High Girls Basketball, always Howling High Girls Basketball, Erin thought as she turned to face into the circle. Annie was in the middle, her breathing strained, but audible, as Lin and Adelía both got up and joined the others.
Carla and Lizzie glanced at each other, then at Shelly. Lizzie nodded and Carla trailed Lizzie outside to go sit around the campfire. Erin watched them go and hoped that the magic was planning on calling Lizzie in time. She’d be a terrific Pack member. So would Carla if…well…here her thoughts trailed off. It had picked Annie after all, so maybe better choices going forward were the best any of them could hope for. She turned her attention to Shelly.
Shelly looked at the battered book in her hand for another moment, then handed it back to Robin. “There’s a chant and we need some volunteers to drum.” One of the Circle House women, who looked as if she might be Shelly’s aunt or cousin, stepped out of the Pack circle and grabbed her pack. She pulled out two small hand drums and gave one to Lin, but kept the other. Once she was back in the circle, Shelly continued, “Thank you, Sarah. You and Lin can drum while we walk the circle and use the chant to rouse the magic. Erin, I think you know what to do”
Sarah nodded and walked to the entrance to the crude labyrinth, Lin and Erin at her heels. The other women grabbed some of the blankets that weren’t being used to keep Annie warm and the two sat on those. Sarah flipped her long black braids back over her shoulders, picked up her drum and began to pound a steady rhythm. After a moment, Lin began to follow her while Erin walked nervously over to stand at the entrance.
Shelly started chanting in a language that she didn’t recognize, not at first, but as they all began to move forward to the drumbeat, she thought she recognized some of the words. They went to her head, along with the candlelight and the sound, until she felt as if she was drifting above them, watching her body follow the Pack around the cave. She stepped forward and began following the curved lines on the floor, moving like her feet knew what they were doing.
Some of the others had begun to do small dances as they walked around the circle to the drums and Erin enjoyed watching them from her new aerial perch, hovering above her body. Becca murmured softly, “You okay? Still with us?”
“Barely, but yeah. Checked out for a minute there.” Erin spoke softly. Her vision was still hazy, her mind elsewhere, as the drumbeat sank into her bones and blood. She had closed her eyes when Becca’s gasp made her open them again. The paintings were starting to move. It called to the wolf in her blood and made her skin ripple like it was growing fur. Glancing at the others, she could see it having the same impact on them. The whole atmosphere was charged and heated now and they were all responding to it.
She took five more steps and found herself in the center of the labyrinth, standing next to Annie’s pallet. Her eyes closed and something took over her body. She could feel her lips part and sounds in the language that she had heard in her dream began to pour from her mouth.
Annie opened her eyes, lifted her head and gave a weak howl, and the sound sent chills through her. A moment later, Robin tilted back her head and howled back. Then, one by one, they all did it, the sound ricocheting off the stone walls and filling all of the cave’s nooks and crannies. Erin could feel chills run down her arms, right under the fur that she could almost feel.
Whatever was controlling her mouth said something in very stern tones to Annie, who lowered her head submissively. Then, without fanfare, it departed, leaving Erin with a dry throat and slightly itchy eyes. Shelly stepped inside the Pack’s circle and held her hand up while the others danced around behind her. She yelled a phrase that felt like a wave of sound flooded the cave, above and beyond the howls and the drums. The paintings on the walls began to spin, called fully into life by the magic they were making.
Becca stared wide-eyed as the painted circle spun off the wall, each wolf-woman following the one in front of her, and drifted over their heads to create an inner circle. Molly nudged Becca and they kept moving, dancing a little as they went and trying not to look at the paintings too hard. Erin walked out from the center, following her path inward to join the Pack’s circle. It felt like her starring role in this was over for the time being.
She still didn’t look directly at the paintings. Their motion made her queasy for one thing. For another, it felt like something their brains weren’t ready to really grasp. The painted circle spun tighter around Annie and Erin couldn’t see her any more. She wondered what final form they would turn the other woman into, but there was no way she was going to interfere. On the heels of that thought came a brilliant flash of light that made her close her eyes as she danced. The drummers kept on, somehow, but the Pack’s dancing circle got more chaotic, then stopped.
Erin cautiously squinted one eye open and looked around. Everyone was either looking at Annie or at the walls. The light had returned to normal so she glanced first at the walls, just in time to see the paintings step back up to their original places. Then she looked at Annie.
Adelía and Lin were helping her sit up; she looked a lot less battered than she had earlier so apparently the ancestor wolves thought she was worth some healing. She also looked older than she had before and more at peace than Erin had seen her before. Shelly walked over and squatted in front of her so that their eyes met. They looked at each other for a long time without saying anything until finally, Annie dropped her gaze, her shoulders rigid.
Shelly nodded and asked her a question that Erin didn’t hear. Becca poked her gently in the arm. “I think they changed her back to the way she was before she started changing. Look at her eyes,” she murmured softly to Erin.
Erin could see what she meant. They were still the same dark rich color when she looked back up and let Adelía help her stand, but there was nothing extra there, no hidden wolf looking out of them. She still didn’t look exactly normal. Annie always looked a bit unbalanced to her and the new hundred-yard stare she had going on right now reminded Erin of some of the former junkies she’d met at meetings.
She could feel the shock ripple around the room. None of them had ever really considered losing their wolves, even after they joined Circle House. Once a Pack member, always a Pack member. But here it was, and they’d all seen some portion of it happen. Erin felt a weird sense of loss that had nothing to do with Annie herself.
Adelía and Shelly took Annie outside and Lin followed them while the rest of them began to slowly clean up the cave. It took a few minutes for Erin to realize that Lin had come back in and she wasn’t alone. Carla trailed along behind her, looking nervous and puzzled.
Shelly met them near the entrance, her head tilted to one side the way it did when she was baffled. They talked quietly for a while and she was tempted to sneak closer to listen in. It wasn’t like Shelly would object, but she wasn’t sure how the other two would feel. They were looking pretty serious.
Finally, though, Shelly reached out and took their hands in hers. She smiled, though she looked a bit nervous, at least to Erin. “Well,” she said loud enough for everyone else to hear, “are you ready for me to tell everyone? Or would you like to do it?”
Carla looked like she was about to flee outside and back to town. Molly stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked from Carla to Lin to Shelly and her eyes got really wide. Her free hand went up to her mouth like she was trying not to blurt something out.
Lin smiled, her face nearly glowing. “I’m ready. How about you, dear?”
Carla closed her eyes and Erin could see her shudder a little. She walked over to join them, Becca at her heels. Finally, Carla nodded, her eyes still closed tight.
Shelly gestured to bring them all over. “As most of you have realized, the cave’s magic has changed Annie. She’s human now and Lizzie will be taking her to town to get her statement about Kari and everything else that’s happened. Or at least the parts that Sheriff Henderson is ready to hear. Then she’ll be leaving Wolf’s Point permanently. But that’s not all that’s happened.” She paused to take a deep breath before continuing, “We’ve just gotten some news. Lin is going to begin her transition to Circle House over the coming months. And we’re getting a new member. I’d like you all to meet Carla. She’s been called and she’ll be joining us as Lin moves into her new roles, both at Circle House and as one of the co-directors at the Women’s Club.”
There was a torrent of questions and comments and in the midst of it, Erin leaned over to Carla. “You okay?”
Carla looked up at her with tear-filled eyes, but she nodded and smiled. And after a moment’s hesitation, Erin grinned back and hugged her.