``` Chapter Thirty-Three

“Close your eyes.” I had barely wiped the sleep from my eyes when my dad sat me down in his office with Uncle Ronnie. I settled deeper into the chair and closed my eyes. “Now I want you to pull Nix closer to the surface until your eyes shift.”

“The wolfsbane?”

“Won’t interfere. We waited the last two days to clear it from your system.” My father settled behind his desk. That made sense. I have been shut in my room for the last few days, doing my best not to shift. And staying clear of other wolves has been my saving grace. “Close your eyes, Amy.” I nodded. “Once Nix is close to the surface, I am going to have Ronnie scent you. Once your scent has shifted, we can work on the next step.”

“If Uncle Ronnie can scent me, won’t that screw me over?” I peeked out of one eye, and my dad shook his head.

“We won’t be shifting fully, just bringing Nix forward enough so we can tell when you manage cloaking yourself.” I closed my eyes again and shook myself.

“Nix, I need you to come closer,” I whispered, and Uncle Ronnie laughed.

“You know you can talk to her in your mind, right?”

“You know you can shut up, right, old man?” I shot back, and he chuckled.

Nix slunk out of the trees in my inner sanctum, and she slowly approached me. Amy, are you sure this is safe?

“Not at all, but we have to hide our scent, and this is the way we learn.” I shrugged and waited until she came closer. I felt my eyes shift as she got closer to the surface of my soul, and I opened my eyes to face my father. “Okay.”

My father cocked his head toward me, and Ronnie got up. Once he was next to me, he knelt down and sniffed around me. I held still as he scented me and waited until he pulled back to look me in the eye. “You’re hiding things, little pup.” Ronnie’s eyes had shifted to his wolf's gray eyes and leaned in again. “But I have her scent.” He leaned back and popped back to his feet.

“Okay, close your eyes again, Amy.” My father leaned down on his desk, and I settled back into myself. “Connect with your power.” I stumbled on what I was supposed to do, but then I remembered the pot. Nix, Megan, and I rushed to the clearing, and I slid to a stop in front of it. I placed my hand on it, and I felt a rush through my body. This was power. “Soon you will connect to it without a thought, but for now, you may have to touch your power source.” I nodded along. “Now I want you to picture a blanket.”

“A blanket?” I furrowed my brow and waited.

“Yes.” My father’s voice was amused. “It’s a huge blanket that you toss over Nix, and you tuck her in.”

“How does this help? Tucking her away? And how does it help when she is out?” Uncle Ronnie chuckled, and my dad growled softly.

“It’s just a metaphor that you can imagine helping with the cloaking,” he explained, but I couldn’t get past tucking Nix in out of my mind. I giggled and shook my head.

“It’s not going to work. I keep picturing her as a baby.” Nix prowled, and I laughed outright.

“I need you to picture a way to either change your scent or picture a way to keep it in,” my father explained.

“Like a scented candle or something?” I just stared at my dad, and he smirked.

“Something like that. We just need something your mind can picture and hold on to in the back of your mind, something that will come easily so you don’t have to focus on it.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Okay...” I trailed off and closed my eyes. “What works better?”

“Why don’t you try one, and we will check, and then the other? Whichever works the best is the one we will focus on.” I started with the scented candle since it was the easiest to picture. I walked back to my clearing and sat down by the pot. Nix dropped a candle at my feet, and I placed it on the stump.

“How do I light it?” I turned to Nix, and she chuffed before she leaned down and huffed out a soft breath, lighting the candle. The soft scent of vanilla and cinnamon wafted out. “How’s that?”

I waited for Ronnie to get up, and I heard him take big breaths in, taking in my scent. “You originally smelled of citrus and berries. Now you smell confusing, like you added vanilla and cinnamon. It’s weird.” ```