I’m glad when he falls asleep, and I can stay awake without his eyes on me, prodding into my every weakness and finding me insufficient.
I reject myself just fine every moment of every day.
That’s one thing I never needed him to do for me.
Chapter 8
Kieran
I spent the scant few hours of my pre-dawn watch waiting for the sun to rise on the horizon. The fae presence in this abandoned pack’s village coats the air and raises my wolf’s hackles. I’ve never wanted to leave a place more than I want to leave Pack Ruby.
As soon as the rays of the sun strike the foggy morning air, I wake Aurora up. “Time to go,” I tell her, watching as she becomes instantly alert and on edge. “Nothing bad. Just ready to get the hell out of here.”
“That I can agree with you on.”
Finally some common ground between us. Every moment of this trip so far has been a wild series of emotions, swinging constantly between relief and fear, agony and desire. When I don’t want her, I want her to just go away.
I’m starting to understand how some shifters wind up in no-win bargains with the fae.
We gather up our things, and Aurora hops on her motorcycle, looking strangely out of place amidst the fog. She cranks up the engine and turns on the fog lights, steering the bike toward the road.
“Follow close behind me,” I tell her as I strip off my shirt, my wolf thrashing just under my skin, desperate to be unleashed. “I don’t want to get lost in this fog, so I’ll lead. If I smell fae presence, I’ll give you a signal.”
I’ve stripped my pants off and let my wolf out before she asks, “What signal?”
There isn’t time to shift back to human form and answer. With my pack strapped across my chest, now tightly snug against my furred back, my wolf is ready to go and then some. Howling, I let him loose, the two of us somehow the same yet different at the same time.
Getting out of this place is my first goal. Thankfully the village is small, so it doesn’t take long until the wide-open road has narrowed out. An ever-present mist clings to the air, which is thick with magic.
My heightened senses are in overdrive. The wolf is irritable and on edge because of it, ears swiveling for new sounds, eyes constantly scanning for threats. I want nothing more than to tear down the path toward the next pack at full speed, but Aurora can’t keep up on her bike, especially in these conditions.
Soon enough we’ve come to the forest that stretches between us and the next pack. The path through is winding but mercifully flat enough for Aurora’s bike tires. Still, my wolf balks at the edge of it all, my nose insisting there are fae here even though my eyes and ears tell a different story.
Aurora idles behind me, her bike listing to one side as she flips the kickstand out. I can feel her trepidation and curiosity through our bond, even with the broken shape of it. “Something wrong? Is this the signal?”
I don’t know yet. Lowering my head, I sniff the ground intently, sifting through each scent that greets my nose. The magic is overwhelming, blanketing it all, and yet beneath that I still pick up the scents of those who have come down this pathrecently. Wildlife, mostly, but a few shifters as well, none of them familiar. It’s impossible to tell if they were fleeing from the fae threat, journeying into the forest to beg the fae for a favor, or refugees seeking a new home.
I shake my head, fur flying, ears twitching, then move on. Aurora’s bike engine kicks it up a notch, and she follows.
The forest stretches for miles. I lead us down the winding path and unmarked forks by memory. There’s a map in my pack, but this close to home, I know the way. Even if I didn’t, my wolf does—his instincts tell him when another pack is nearby, and his nose can sift through even stale scents. It’s a consolation, if small, that at least some of the shifters seem to have survived and managed to leave the abandoned village.
Although I can’t help worrying about the fact that my father didn’t tell me about Pack Ruby. That means that either it happened very recently, he didn’t know because his scouts didn’t tell him, or he simply kept it from me.
Why would he do that, though? He may disagree with the elders’ reasons for sending Aurora along, but I know that he wants the fae threat neutralized just as much as anyone.
No, it must mean that his scouts never found the abandoned village. It wasn’t a large pack, after all, and they don’t have the nose for fae magic that I have.
I’ll send him a message to let him know what happened. As soon as I’m in human form… and my phone picks up a signal. Magic has a funny way of stopping 5G from getting through. Failing that, I can send a messenger back the long way, assuming our next stop has one to spare.
And assuming they aren’t half-mad like Pax, who my father tried to murder.
That’s a lot of assumptions. Frustration at the entire situation makes me push my pace to the very edge of what Aurora can keep up with on her bike. I never wanted to havethis much responsibility on my shoulders, especially without the authority todoanything about it.
If I had my way, we’d be doing this with an entire group of warriors, bringing supplies for stragglers and refugees. Hell, I’d even talk to the local covens to see what they know and how much help they’re willing to offer. Shifters and witches aren’t friends on the best of days, but none of us want the fae hanging around causing trouble.
My father doesn’t believe in “my way.” So I’ll just have to try to send him a message through whatever channels I’m able to, and hope for the best.
We take the long road through the forest, sticking to paths that the bike can make it down. I review my mental map of everything as we break out of the trees into the land beyond.
