I clenched my jaw to stop myself from an instant retort. It was a valid point, and one I would make to anyone who came to me if I were on the other side.
“Perhaps. But I don’t sense any malevolence from her. No evil.”
“Of course you can’t,” Germander said, shaking his head. “But make no mistake. Youknow who she works for and the purpose behind it all. Which you know I cannot discuss further in a setting like this. You aren’t ignorant, Lincoln. When you became alpha after your father, you learned the truth from Elder Jackson.”
“I know what he told me, yes,” I said, reminded of the session with Rome’s grandfather. “But what I don’t understand is thatit didn’t used to be this way, with us and humans and the bloodline. What changed?”
“What changed? Whatchanged?”
Elder Germander’s eyes opened so wide I could see the whites. “What changed is that a century and a half ago our pack was nearly wiped out because of it all. Because ofit
, andher bloodline. It took nine decades for us to learn and to withdraw from the humans. For the past sixty years, we have finally hadsanity. You know the history. You can’t dispute it. Alpha or not, Lincoln, if you continue to protest this, youwill have trouble.”
He growled.
My answering growl was louder, ripping through his like it wasn’t even there as I stood, towering over the elder.
“I have heard the stories. But
Elder Germander,” I said, stressing his title with dripping scorn, “something about this is wrong. And I intend to prove it.”
Germander glared up at me, but credit to the old man, he didn’t back down or step away. He sat in his chair and waited for me to make the next move.
“I’m on night patrol tonight,” I said at last. “I need to get some rest.”
The elder understood that our meeting was at an end and conceded the point with a sharp, short nod. “Yes. In these troubling times, we must all do our part to be alert and ready for what is coming.”
Lincoln
This is getting to be a bad habit.
Elder Jackson, or Germander for that matter, would have a fit if they could see me now. Not out on watch like I should be, setting an example, but instead at the edge of the forest.
Watching her.
Again.
I should be setting that example. Patrolling against danger, known or unknown, and keeping our pack safe. That was my duty this moonless night, and I wasn’t doing it. Not quite. In some twisted way, perhaps I could justify the surveillance as keeping my people safe by making sure the woman was not up to anything.
No. Not the woman. Her.
Sylvie Anne Wilson.
I knew her name, though she didn’t know mine. I watched her from the edge of the forest, confident that she could not make out my form, or my eyes, in the cloudy dark. I watched her as she sat on the porch, in the same chair her grandmother often sat. Looking out at the forest while it looked back on her. She was staring right at me without seeing.
What is this pull that drags me back to you?
In time with my thoughts, a frown creased the delectably smooth skin of her face, wrinkling around her mouth and eyes and reflecting the unhappy thought within. I leaned forward, fighting the need to go to her. To fix it. To make whatever was bothering her better.
I disliked the way her strikingly beautiful features were marred when she wasn’t smiling. It twisted the curves of her jaw and hid the wonder of her eyes under the scrunched-up brow. I wanted to see her smile again. If she did that, I could go, I told myself, go and return to what Ishould be doing.
Perhaps I am under her spell. The old me would never have dreamed of doing this. He would be on patrol, keeping his people safe from the things that have started to stir in the night.
The gloom deepened as the height of night approached. Around me, the forest was still, drawing breath and waiting for what would happen next. I almost expected a fog to roll in, creeping through the underbrush to reduce vision and foreshadow something big.
As if sensing the same unease permeating the forest, Sylvie got up abruptly and went inside, shutting the door behind her. Room by room, she went throughout the house, turning all the lights on. Driving back the dark.
Clever girl.
Knowing I could wait no longer, I turned and left, giving no thought to why a witch acting in concert with what lay at the heart of the forest would feel unease at such a night. My focus was now on everything around me.
The long legs of my wolven form carried me deep into the forest, confidently finding footing with every stride. This was my land. My home. Nothing was going to sneak up on me here.
I peered into the depths of every shadow as I passed, eyes of ice and light probing, testing, judging. But none were disobeying. They were just shadow.
Yet somehow the unease in my stomach did not fade. It only grew until my insides were twisted into knots to be wrung out like fresh laundry. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t see it. Couldn’t detect it. I could only feel it.
Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. A wild? One of my pack? One of the Lost? I couldn’t tell. The distance was too great. I hoped it was not one of the Lost. If one of the great beasts had strayed into our territory, it would be more than just an alpha’s job to take it down.
Right now, that was the last thing we needed. With the way things at the heart of the forest-
I stopped. I didn’t slow to a halt. One second I was moving, and the next I was perfectly, totally still. Something was wrong. I could sense it but not see it. Extending my other senses, I tried to detect what my subconscious was telling me. What was it screaming about?
Every bundle of nervous fiber was on edge, twitchy and unhappy. I could spring in any direction. I just had to knowwhere. Swinging my muzzle from side to side, I scanned the forest, analyzing every tree, rock, dip, crevice and bush within sight. Something was not right. My ears warned me first-not of what was approaching but of what was missing.
Sound. The forest was entirely silent. Not even the wind whispered in my ear. It was completely still. Crouching low, teeth bared, I waited, not knowing where the attack would come from. But it was coming. It had to be.
The wind crept up without warning, blowing leaves and bending branches as it rushed forward in a strange manner.
Right toward the heart of the forest.
I was off in a flash, trailing the wind, trying not to worry about what it might portend. Only darkness and evil lurked in the heart of the forest. We had long patrolled against its escape without fear, but years ago the elders deemed it too dangerous, and we had retreated across the Dyne River, relinquishing the heart to the evil. Content within the heart, it had not bothered us in decades. Until now. In the past few days, the forest as a whole had grown restless. A change was coming.
I prayed it was something simpler because I did not have a solution to what lay beyond. The Chained was beyond even an alpha. It was beyond all of us. Not that I intended to hide, as the elders seemed intent upon. I would fight, if called. It was my duty, the duty of the entire pack.
The elders were fighting me, as were other groups within the pack. All of whom thought they knew better than me. None of whom wanted to fight.
It was hard to blame them. Even as I ran through the night, searching out the source of the sour breeze, I could understand. Things were getting bad. Animals turning rabid without warning. Reports of shadows moving of their own volition. We could not hope to stop the Chained. We were but a roadblock if it got free.
But that roadblock could buy time for others to act. We could not continue to be defensive-minded. We had toact. To get ahead of whatever was coming.
Even if it was the Chained itself.
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