An Hour of Need Read Online Free PDF

werewolves in all of The Woodlands.”
    “And are you aware of any black witches meddling with them?” Aisha asked.
    Mona nodded again. “I was never directly involved, but I heard of plans to experiment with them while I was part of Rhys’ group. Morph the wolves into something nightmarish. Give them extraordinary powers that could match even a witch’s…” Her forehead creased as she frowned. “What’s this all about anyway?”
    I hurriedly explained to her everything that Aisha and I had just witnessed.
    It left Mona taken aback. “My, my… They still have their powers, all these years after the black witches’ defeat,” she mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else.
    “The she-wolf told Bastien that he was her son—that he is a Mortclaw, not a Blackhall,” I said. “But how could it be? He doesn’t possess the same powers as them… Well, he can shift at will from wolf to man. But he can’t fly or vanish.” Or shoot freaking lasers from his eyes . “And how is it that they still have their powers in the first place? And where do they live?” I need to find Bastien! It was bitterly ironic. Before Aisha and I had arrived in The Woodlands to check on him, Bastien had been fine. It was only after I’d acted on that note from “Cecil” claiming Bastien needed help that he really did need it.
    I was throwing far too many questions at Mona at once, but I couldn’t help myself. Every second that I sat here in this chair was torture as I imagined what was happening to Bastien. The she-wolf had mentioned Brucella. She was clearly behind all this. Knowing how crazy she was, and all that Bastien had told me about slighted werewolf mother-in-laws, I feared for his very life.
    “Let’s try to take this one step at a time,” Mona said, rubbing her temples and focusing on the surface of the table in front of her. “Bastien. He might not possess the Mortclaws’ powers because, well… I really don’t know exactly. I can only speculate that maybe the witches didn’t experiment on him in the same way they did with his family. And, as for the Mortclaws still possessing their powers: Yes, it is odd, but… Not impossible. It depends a lot on the exact method the black witches used to carry out their ritual… As for where the Mortclaws live—I have no idea. Absolutely no idea.”
    But Brucella must know. She found them in the first place!
    Oh, how I hated that woman’s guts.
    “So what do you mean by it not being impossible for the Mortclaws to have retained their powers?” Aisha queried. “How exactly would that be possible?”
    Mona glanced at the jinni. “I have an idea… but I would need to go on a journey to verify it.”
    “A journey to where?” I asked.
    Mona hesitated. She bit down her on her lower lip, as if she was having second thoughts. Then she replied in a far lower tone than usual:
    “To a place I have fought for decades to forget.”

Bastien
    A s the giant wolf who called herself my mother shot with me over the waves, away from The Woodlands, away from Victoria, I shifted back into a man, hoping that it would help me break free from her grip. I transformed suddenly, and the idea worked. No longer covered in thick fur for her jaws to grip, I slipped through her wide jaws and went hurtling into a freefall down toward the ocean.
    Colliding with the waves knocked all the breath out of me, but I did not have time to recover. I forced myself to swim deeper and deeper.
    This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening. What is this woman thinking?
    Ripples surrounded me, a disturbance in the water above me. I twisted my head upward for just a second and forced my eyes open to glimpse Sendira in the ocean. Still in her wolf form, it took her a matter of seconds to catch up with me, and then her body shrank and she resumed her humanoid form. I kicked hard to distance myself from her, but she grabbed my ankle, and the next thing I knew, the water around me disappeared and I was whizzing