Cloaked in Secrecy

by T. F. Walsh

  I kept glancing over my shoulder, expecting police cars to appear any second.

  Kalina’s eyes narrowed at Mila, who pushed her muzzle into Nicolai’s side.

  Alena faced me, dread clear behind those pale, gray eyes. We had to get out. I morphed into human form. The moment my fur vanished, a chill closed in around me.

  “Finish her, Alena. We should have left five minutes ago.” I scanned the road for my clothes and retrieved them in haste.

  Quick to get dressed, I returned to Alena. Kalina continued dragging herself away from the group on her butt.

  “Alena,” I said.

  She marched after the human, Mila by her side.

  “Nic, get Maxim in the van, now,” I said. “Blackie. I-I mean Damir, you take Maxim’s car. Take Lutia’s body and put her in your trunk. We can’t leave it behind.” All the prisoners had fled the scene, rushing toward the city. Hopefully, they’d be caught by the police, slowing their approach.

  Damir climbed to his feet first and offered me a confirming nod, the kind that a pack member gives another. Despite past encounters with the wulfkin, I saw him now for what he really was—caring and loving when it came to his alpha, his family, his pack. That, I respected.

  The sirens and the snowfall intensified as I approached the girls, eager for us to leave. I couldn’t work out how Alena had managed to warp the trees on either side of us. Had the recent Lunar Eutine changed Alena as much as it had Daciana, when it had given her the new ability of being able to tell if someone was lying with one touch?

  A sudden crack resonated from the bus. The fire had spread across its belly. Another spark. Hell, it might blow.

  “Alena, we have to go. Right now.” The jitters captured my limbs.

  “Kalina,” Alena said, standing over the human, her voice soft and slow, yet strong enough to be heard over the breeze. “My brother might have taken your father’s life, but I’m giving yours back.”

  Kalina stopped her fidgeting and stared at Alena.

  I gasped. “You’re letting her go?”

  Alena’s focus remained on Kalina, seemingly calm and in control of her emotions, until I noticed the whiteness of her knuckles fisted at her sides and the shakes snaking up her arms. Snow was falling horizontally now, slamming against her back, and yet she stood there immobile, frozen in the moment.

  I reached across to Alena, cupping her hand in mine, pulling her away. No words were exchanged—anything I said would have been empty of meaning. At times like these, knowing you weren’t alone was what mattered, or at least that’s how it had been for me when Sandulf passed.

  Alena withdrew her hand from mine and wiped her eyes. She patted down her torn and tattered jacket and hurried toward the van, her boots kicking snow, Mila on her heels.

  Kalina watched her, gripping her bleeding arm against her chest. Her expression froze somewhere between shock and confusion.

  The sirens were close. Nerves crawled up my spine. Leaning in to Kalina, I said, “If I get a whiff of you near Alena, the circus, or me, you won’t even see me coming. I won’t be as generous as Alena. Count yourself lucky.” My hands curled into fists. “And that applies to telling the police anything about who we are or our involvement in any of this.”

  Kalina curled her knees into her chest and bowed her head. I took her submissive response as confirmation that she believed my threat.

  Red and blue lights flickered through the mass of trees behind us. I sprinted toward our van, climbed inside, and turned around to see Mila and Nicolai in the back with Maxim’s body. Alena belted herself into the passenger seat, her face pale and tears trailing down her cheeks. The BMW inched closer, with Damir at the wheel.

  “Let’s go.” I sped past Kalina and the overturned bus. Damir was behind.

  The first full glow blue and red lights emerged on the road in the distance.

  I left our headlights off a while longer. Once we were farther down the road and clearly concealed by the forest, I flicked the beams on and drove my foot into the accelerator, further increasing our speed. Damir kept up.

  An explosion erupted behind us.

  “Shit.” Alena covered her mouth.

  “Must have reached the fuel line,” I said, not voicing the fact of how close we’d been to the vehicle minutes earlier.

  Alena placed a hand on my thigh but kept her gaze on the road ahead. Judging by the inferno burning in her touch, I figured she was continuing to heal me. How could I ever repay her?

  “I’m so sorry about your father.”

  She nodded silently, and her next breath hiccupped. I saw her brother bow his head in the rearview mirror.

  Snow pelted our windshield, the wipers doing little for my vision. With no other cars on the road, I guessed we were safe to go a bit faster. We needed to put distance between us and the scene. The police would spend time trying to track the escaped prisoners first. By the time they realized Nicolai was missing, the rest of the pack should have left Bulgaria.

  My mind whirred with options. The complication of having Mila and two corpses with us meant we couldn’t return to the circus. Revealing a dead alpha would surely cause panic. But they’d hear the news soon.

  “Are you all right, Nic?” Alena asked.

  “In shock.” His words were smothered in sniffles. “I’ll survive.”

  Once we arrived in Transylvania, I’d have to convince Daciana that the army of refugee wulfkin I’d brought to her doorstep was in no way a threat. I hadn’t convinced myself of that yet, but I’d try. Even bringing Alena and Nicolai, the alpha’s offspring, promised little. When an alpha was killed, kin could step up to be the next in line, but if challenged by anyone in the pack, they had to fight for the position. One option was the pack merging with Daciana’s, which made more sense. I almost laughed to myself thinking about how Daciana hated being an alpha, yet I’d be offering her close to forty more members to join her family. How would she react? She wouldn’t be thrilled—I was sure. Of course, there was another option. With the predicament of my father and my twenty-fifth birthday being tomorrow, there was the possibility of me stepping up for the alpha position. But I wasn’t sure Alena and Nicolai would accept my takeover.

  Maxim was the kind of father I wished I’d had growing up. I’d overheard him tell Alena how Nicolai had no idea what he was doing. Maxim had protected his son from the truth. So, who was I to tell Nicolai what he’d done? We’d all made mistakes in our past, let our wolves take too much control. Now that Alena knew, she could find a way to ensure he never hurt another person again. And I’d gladly help her if she’d let me.

  “I’m thinking we should head straight to Transylvania as per your father’s original plan,” I said, “as long as the police don’t call the border to alert them of the prison break and ask them to search cars.”

  The soft sobbing from the back of the van could only be Nicolai. I glanced over to Alena, but her gaze remained fixed outside the passenger window on the dark forest passing by.

  “I know someone at the bridge checkpoint who might be able to help us,” Alena said, breaking her silence. “A friend of Father’s.” When she looked at me, her features were concealed by shadows. “Thank you. You owe our pack nothing, but you’re still helping us.” Her hand lingered on my leg, fire coursing through me.

  At first, I couldn’t find my voice. For too long I’d believed the Bulgarian pack was savage, ready to fight and kill us, but those were ideas put into my head by Sandulf. I should have known better than to believe anything he said after what he did to our own pack. These wulfkin were like us—trying to survive in a harsh world where running and hiding were our only options. Maxim had done what any alpha would—he fought to save his family—and I was fully convinced he’d been a reasonable wulfkin.

  I lifted Alena’s hand to my lips and sniffed her faint scent of lavender. “I do what it takes to help a wulfkin in need.” I glanced across to her. “Especially you.”

  She returned to staring out the window and
drew her hand away.

  Somehow, I would make our situation with Daciana work. Now that we knew what Nicolai was capable of during the full moons, I’d personally build him a cage he’d never escape. My future with Alena was still uncertain, but first we had to deal with the small problem of getting out of Bulgaria in one piece.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ALENA

  “We’re going to come to a T-intersection at the end of this road,” I said, my body still numb. I couldn’t believe that Father lay in the back of the van … dead. Still, my words poured out as if on autopilot. “Turn right. The road will take us to an old freeway that heads back into Ruse. Unfortunately, we’ll need to go through part of the city once we leave the park. There’s no other way to reach the bridge.”

  Enre nodded, his hands practically strangling the steering wheel as the vehicle swayed across the road from the wind and snow. “Hope this contact of yours at the bridge is the real deal.”

  “He works nights, and anyone from our pack can cross the bridge into Romania without a passport.” Father used to send wulfkin across the Danube River to spy on the Transylvanian pack. I remember how excited he was about finally finding us a permanent home. And now he wouldn’t even get to experience it with us. Tears flooded my cheeks again. I couldn’t stop them or the splintering in my chest. Every part of me shook as I hiccupped my next breath. Hold yourself together. A bit longer. But Father was dead, and it felt as if someone had stolen everything I’d owned while I wasn’t looking.

  Enre glanced my way, sorrow and concern burrowing behind his eyes.

  I willed away the rush of grief clawing up my throat. We had saved Nicolai. That was something. No, it was everything. Maybe I should have listened to Father about tonight and stayed back at the circus. If I hadn’t tried to rescue Nicolai, would Father still be alive? Moon goddess, give me strength. Lifting my feet up onto the seat, I hugged my knees to my chest and laid a cheek on them, staring out at the blur of forest. Each time I closed my eyes, I pictured Father lying on the road, struggling to keep his eyes open. He stared at me without a hint of blame in his expression. I bit my lower lip, failing at keeping the tears at bay.

  Enre touched my shoulder, and his warmth spread through me.

  Once we reached the intersection and Enre turned right, the sound of sirens found us. I gripped the door handle as my heart slammed into my sternum. With my feet back down, I stared into the side mirror. No sign of flashing lights.

  Shit. I had to warn the rest of the pack. Even though Enre said the police would be busy rounding up the escaped prisoners, I couldn’t count on that. Grabbing the cell from my pocket, I dialed Sonia’s number. Please pick up.

  “Hey, girl.”

  “Sonia.” My voice wavered. “You need to get everyone to leave for Romania as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the morning. Do it now if the circus is packed.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “Cops will swarm the area looking for Nicolai. Leave now before they try and stop you.”

  “You’re scaring me, Alena. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” My next inhale hitched as tears threaded down my cheeks. “Please, Sonia. I’ll tell you everything when you and the pack arrive in Transylvania. Call me, and I’ll give you directions once you’re in Braşov.”

  Her shallow breaths sped up. “Of course. We’re almost packed. We can leave very soon.”

  “Love you.” I hung up before I blubbered more and completely lost it. With the phone back in my pocket, I wrapped my arms around my stomach.

  Enre accelerated, and we fishtailed; he steadied the van, and we raced ahead. Damir maintained his distance behind us in the Beemer.

  I glanced into the back of the van at Nicolai and Mila. “We’ll be fine.” I had no idea if we would be, but it seemed like the right reassurance to give. Father had always spoken such kind words whenever we battled other problems.

  “How far to the bridge?” Enre asked, his voice tense.

  “About twenty minutes.” Fear swept through me once more. “If Kalina tells the police it was us, the pack will be arrested.”

  Enre’s gaze remained fixed on the curvy road we sped along. “She’ll keep her mouth shut, I made sure. Plus, by the time the police track down all the runaway prisoners and finally realize Nicolai is missing, we’ll be long gone. And if the rest of the pack leaves soon, they should also make it out before they are suspects.”

  “You sound awfully confident in that,” Nicolai said from the back. “Who are you, anyway?”

  “I’m Enre, a pack member from Transylvania helping you out. When you’re neck-deep in shit, you take help from wherever you can find it, no matter who’s offering.”

  “How would you know? Were you stuck in a bus, battling for each breath, convinced you’d never see your family again?” Nicolai’s tone was sharp and sarcastic.

  “Nic,” I butted in. “He’s with me.”

  “It’s okay,” Enre said. “My whole pack almost got killed because of our ex-alpha. He raised a dracwulf. But I never stopped fighting to survive, so I do understand.”

  I gasped, knowing too well what a suicide decision that was for the whole pack. It was well documented in wulfkin history that one of those berserk animals had once slaughtered an entire village of humans. They were illegal, and any wulfkin caught rearing one had their whole pack sentenced to death. Courtesy of the Varlac, of course. Our leaders were fearful of them, and for good reason.

  “How could he have risked your lives like that?” I asked.

  “It was Sandulf’s way of dealing with your encroaching pack. Except he lost control of the animal. The dracwulf claimed me, dragging me into its lair, and Sandulf happily obliged. He left me for dead in the dracwulf’s cave.” His voice deepened. “I had a severe bite from the dracwulf.” He glanced over at me. “That’s why it took me so long to heal from the bullet wound.”

  A tightness crawled through my chest.

  “I wasn’t ready to die,” Enre said. “Each day, I attempted to escape. And I always believed I’d get out alive. In the end, Daciana rescued me.”

  Silence filled the van. Only the distant sirens wailed.

  “I’m sorry you went through that,” I said.

  “If I didn’t perish while at the mercy of a monster, I sure as hell am not going down in this situation.”

  Shivers crawled up my legs. We kept driving along the darkened forest road, and the closer we got to Ruse again, the louder the sirens became. Emerging from the national park, we entered the main road. The flashing lights of a police car brightened the sky from a cross street ahead.

  My breath froze in my lungs.

  Enre lowered his head but didn’t change lanes. Smart move not to draw attention.

  “Shit, we’ll be caught.” Nicolai’s words were strangled.

  “Keep it together.” A growl rolled from Enre’s throat.

  “I’m fine, you look after yourself.” Nicolai’s voice deepened. His wolf instincts were kicking in. Tomorrow’s full moon was already affecting him.

  The police vehicle zoomed past us, then a second one. They were headed to the scene of the accident.

  “Take the next right,” I said, tucking my jittery hands beneath my thighs. “And follow the back roads.”

  No one spoke for the next mile or so as we drove between apartment buildings on one side and the frozen Danube River on the other. Stripped of leaves, the gnarly trees along the bank wore an icy skin, resembling an arctic forest sculpture. Up ahead, the enormous metal bridge came into view. Lights dotted its length across the frozen river that divided Romania and Bulgaria. I prayed Father’s contact still manned the bridge on the night shift. Usually, we gave him a heads-up when we were coming. Too late now.

  Enre glanced at me. “It’s your turn to shine and get us home.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ALENA

  Shuffling sounded from the back of the van.

  A rush of panic, guilt, and si
ckness swirled in my belly. My pulse drummed beneath my skin, and I took a peek over my shoulder to see Nicolai covering up Father and Mila, probably just in case we were searched.

  We curved toward the border crossing where only one of three checkpoints was open. A massive semitruck sat at the operational booth. The barrier lifted, and the truck moved forward.

  Enre inched our van toward the booth and locked us into park. Looking across to me, he asked, “You good to do this?”

  I nodded, though the rest of my body had different intentions—mostly not moving from the seat. When I spotted a young, pale-haired guy emerge from the booth, my stomach lurched. That wasn’t Father’s friend.

  Grabbing my wallet from my jacket’s pocket, I took out the wad of euros I had with shaky fingers, not paying attention to how much it was, and climbed out. Frost closed around me, the light splattering of snow an icy kiss each time it touched my skin.

  I plastered a fake smile on my face.

  “Hi, is Ivan working tonight?” Probably not a smart question, but my head wasn’t functioning.

  “Passport for everyone in the van.” He stuck out a hand and tucked the other into his pocket, shivering on the spot.

  I stood there, immobile, with no response coming to mind. We had no passports, only a wolf and two dead bodies. Oh, hell.

  The man’s eyes narrowed, his fingers wriggling toward me. “Hurry up, it’s cold.”

  “Ghiţă,” a man’s voice said from near the booth. “I’ve got this. Go inside.”

  I glanced toward the checkpoint and spotted an older, stockier man with black hair emerging from the booth in a huge duffle jacket and hugging himself. My muscles eased. It was Ivan—Father’s connection. Thank the goddess.

  Ghiţă grumbled under his breath and slowly walked back inside.

  Ivan offered me a knowing smile. Father had made connections with humans everywhere he traveled to benefit the pack, but none of them knew wulfkin existed.

  “Did I miss a call from your father?” Over my shoulder, he studied our van and the Beemer.

  My throat seized up, the words wedged inside me along with tears, and shivers claimed my legs at the notion of talking about Father as if he still breathed. I shook my head. “This is a last-minute crossing. Two cars for now.”