by Holly Hook
"Believe me, I will."
Closing my eyes, I pray the protective spirits come through. The curse will nail Cayden for hurting Lawrence. Hard. I sense darkness gathering around us, like a cloud of dark insects. The curse is licking its lips, ready to eat Cayden alive. They already sense his urge to protect me.
The light has to be there. And as soon as I think of the sun overhead, I feel it. The warmth, gathering around us and forming a protective sphere. It has to work.
The quad roars to life, and Cayden drives forward.
We have nothing but scent to follow. Lawrence, I'm guessing, must have left fifteen minutes ago at the most. He could be a few miles away by now.
How did he know about me?
"His scent's that way," Cayden shouts, turning to the right.
We flatten weeds and drive into the woods. Branches slap at me, dripping water, as the wheels kick up mud. The ground's slippery, but Cayden maintains control. Lawrence's scent mixes with mud, melting snow, and pine needles. He's left it on the ground, on the trees, on the underbrush. The scent's fainter than it was at his old territory border, which tells me he's in human form. Of course, a Wolf can't carry that box in his jaws.
And fresh scent rides on the wind. Fortune's in our favor. Lawrence is somewhere straight ahead, and I'm satisfied he knows we're coming. He must be running for his life.
Cayden speeds up, pushing the quad to the max. We duck together, dodging tree branches trying to impale us. It's a dangerous ride. The quad bounces up and down, trying to throw us off, but Cayden maintains full speed. And at last, I spot the form of a man running through the trees ahead. Lawrence looks back at us and ducks, upping his pace. He's fast—Olympic fast—but he's no match for the quad.
"Time to kill him!" Cayden shouts.
Something tells me that's not a good idea. A voice screams at the back of my mind not to hurt him. "Not yet!"
Cayden follows my words. He cuts past Lawrence and then cuts in front of him, spinning to a stop and throwing mud into his face. Good.
I jump down. Cayden cuts the engine.
Lawrence stops. He pants, out of breath, for a second before gripping a tree trunk with one hand and thrusting his other hand into his jeans pocket. Sweat clings to his shirt as it did this morning.
Something's wrong.
He doesn't have the box.
My heart leaps in panic as I take a step toward him. "You were in my house."
To my shock, Lawrence nods. "I can't really hide that, can I?"
"What's the point of this?" Cayden asks, joining me. We stand between him and the quad, and Cayden tucks the key in his pocket. Lawrence will have to fight to get it back.
"Where's the box?" I ask. It doesn't make sense. Lawrence couldn't have given it to anyone from the time he left to the time we caught him. We would have smelled whoever he gave it to or seen them. Something's not adding up. "I'm missing a box of stuff from under my bed. Where is it?"
Lawrence looks at the tree like he's thinking. "I'm not allowed to say."
"Not allowed?" I ask. The mystery is the only reason I haven't attacked him yet. "What do you mean, not allowed? Tell me. That's an order!"
Lawrence sighs like he expected this. And I don't like that.
"Tell me!" I shout.
He flinches, no doubt feeling the same power I once felt from Cayden. Lawrence has free will, but he has to bend. I repeat the order, and he blinks.
"I didn't take anything, alpha. I was just there to get my scent all over the place to mask who did."
My hearing picks up no lie. "Were you masking something?" I ask. "Someone?"
He bites his lip and stares me down. Hatred fills his gaze, but also confusion. "I threw off your trail."
"For who?" I demand.
Cayden balls his fists and does the same. I grab his arm, because despite the protective light shell I sense around us, the shadows still dance. There isn't much good here to feed the light spirits.
"For who?" I repeat.
Lawrence flinches like the answer's going to hurt. "My grandmother!" And with those two words, he drops his face to his now-open palms.
I stand there, shocked, as the birds start to chirp again. "Abigail? She stole my stuff?"
Lawrence pulls his face from his hands. It hasn't been easy for him to out her. "I don't know what she wanted or why she was there. Or why she wanted me to tear apart your house. But she promised me I'd be alpha again—"
"The box!" I shout, whirling on Cayden. "Abigail took it because she knows about me! She wants proof so she can turn everyone against me."
Cayden's eyes widen. "She's old. She'd know the history of Breck better than anyone."
Lawrence flies out of my mind as I race for the quad. Cayden hops on and I hold him around his torso.
"No!" Lawrence shouts, rushing us. His eyes widen with terror and self-hatred.
Terror overtakes any guilt I might have. I won't feel sorry for him now. I shove Lawrence back as Cayden starts the quad, and even though he's bigger than me, Lawrence stumbles.
We let Abigail into our house. I welcomed her. She got in with smiles and understanding. Lawrence is just a jealous Wolf Abigail used for her own devices. We'll worry about him later. And I sense he'll never tell us where she went, no matter how much I try to command him.
Cayden revs the engine.
I know what our hope is and where Alex is stationed. We have to get there before she does.
"Colling!" I shout. "We have to reach Colling!"
Chapter Eighteen
"Hold on!" Cayden shouts.
As we scream through the woods, I realize I forgot to relieve Lawrence of his cell phone. We leave him behind, and over the engine, I can't hear what he's doing. He's already sent a message for sure. Going back would just waste time. Assuming Abigail isn't phone phobic like the Russells, she'll know we're coming.
But so long as she doesn't find Alex before we do, we'll make it.
The trip to Colling seems to take forever, even if it only takes half an hour. We cross out of our normal territory and cross the neutral zone. My ears ring by the time I spot the first exhaust fumes coming from the town. I smell cheap burgers. Greasy fries. Callie's back to work despite her injury. I have to reach her first. She's the one who can help.
"The restaurant," I shout. She'll know where Alex is.
I sniff the air, hoping for any trace of Abigail, but her stale scent mixes with the other Wolves at the border of the Colling territory. It's impossible to tell where she is or even if she's close, there's so much scent here. But Cayden drives the quad right past Earl's tree stand and stops.
I smell the other Wolves in the area, but not Abigail. I get off the quad, right there under Earl's tree stand, and look around. From here I can see Lawrence's house and smell his recent presence. But I hear no one there, either.
"We haven't told anyone where we are," Cayden says, pulling out his phone.
"If you can do that, great. I need to talk to Callie."
"Go. Nobody's around here right now. I'm a minute away if you need me."
I have to leave Cayden there to text people, and I run down the trail through the now-familiar empty lot. The restaurant, Maggie's, waits across the road, and two cars are parked there. I see a pair of old couples at a booth, but no one else inside. Despite her adventure, Callie's still working her boring small town job.
The bell jingles as I enter, and food smells—plus Callie's—overtakes me. "Callie!" I shout, drawing the attention of the couples. I sniff. They're very ordinary humans.
She emerges from the swinging doors, dressed in her pink dress and apron. It's a shock to see her like this. In the kitchen, Earl cooks away, but I hear him turn on his feet. He's heard me and knows something's up.
Callie's jaw drops and she waves me into the kitchen. I follow her to find Earl standing over a grill. Both eye me.
"Where's Alex?" I ask.
She pales. "A...Alex? Does he know about my—"
"He's go
ing to know about me if Abigail finds him." I sniff, but Callie gives off no Savage scent. Yet. "Where is he staying?"
"In the motel. Just down the road. I don't know if he's there right now. He's been out patrolling the woods around here." Callie looks to Earl with terror. "Abigail found out about Brie's parents. She's going to tell Alex and hire him to attack her. To put it nicely."
She and Alex know how dangerous and forbidden I am. Callie's just confirmed my fear.
Earl gulps. "I'll get these customers out as soon as I can. Go find him. I'll call for help." He flips the piece of meat and mashes it down to the grill, drawing steam.
Even in an emergency, he has to tend to his business. “Come on,” I say, hoping the look on my face shows Callie how much danger she's in, too. If we can't protect each other, we're both done.
“Let me grab my gear,” she says.
Cayden steps into the restaurant. “Texted people,” he says. “Hunters are hard to smell and I don't know if he's nearby.”
“Check the motel,” I say.
We find Callie in the back of the restaurant. Apparently, she now keeps weapons and her leather coat in the storage room, because we find her putting her gear over her pink waitress dress in the back. Callie's dressed in no time, like she's practiced for years.
But she looks at me with wide eyes. “I hope my uncle isn't willing to hurt you.” Her tone tells me she doesn't believe the better scenario to be true.
Because he's hurt his own family before.
The three of us run to the motel, which Callie says is the last building on the main road. It's tucked into the woods, surrounded by tall trees and with barrels on the wooden deck. “Which room?” I ask.
“One B.”
I run up to the door and listen, sniffing, but I hear no one inside. Heart racing, I pull the door open with all my strength, snapping the lock.
No one's inside. The bed has sheets pulled back and the mattress has an indent that tells me someone was sleeping here before. So does the pillow. Cayden picks it up and sniffs. “Smells like pine."
“Then he's out and about,” I say. “He might meet Abigail in the woods. Callie, do you know where he meets?” This is technically my territory—my main territory—and I don't even know it well yet.
“The woods have lots of clearings. He might meet on my husband's property,” Callie says. “Come on. I heard the quad, so maybe we can take that. We'll circle town.”
I don't question if three of us will fit. We'll make it work. Cayden hops on first, and then Callie, and then me. I balance on the edge of the seat, holding Callie to protect her from falling off, and we're off again. Callie shouts directions down trails and away from Lawrence's property, though I smell that we stay within Colling's borders. The trails turn narrower and the old quad tracks disappear, leaving us to crunch through weeds. And our gas gauge is flirting with empty again.
And then I smell Abigail.
"Turn right!" I shout.
Cayden does and we plow through pure woods. Sniffing tells me nothing. The Wolfs' scents are strong like they're meant to be confusing. It's a defense against Savages, but it's backfiring on us.
So I have to rely on my hearing. Which I can't when the quad is revving.
“Stop!” I shout as strength fills my limbs.
Cayden does. Silence falls, and even the birds have scattered, scared off by the quad. I hold up a finger, releasing Callie and Cayden, and cup my ear, listening. Callie's shaking, waiting for the verdict.
Nothing, at first, but then I hear faint footsteps coming from far in the distance, from the east. The air still smells of pine, but traces of dry grass, flowers, and fresh bark follow. Unlike the Wolf scents on everything around here, this scent is fresh, like it's coming off one of our kind. And the pine scent could be Alex and that spray. Another sniff tells me they're still apart, but approaching each other. And I have no doubt they've heard the quad. With luck, they'll think it's someone else out having fun.
“I smell them,” I say. “Maybe a quarter mile away. They haven't met yet, but they're closing in on each other.”
“Should we go on foot?” Callie asks. “The quad noise would tell Uncle Alex where to shoot.”
She has a point. “On foot,” I agree.
Callie can't mask her footsteps much, but her boots have soles that keep things quieter than they would be otherwise. Cayden and I jog lightly, taking care to avoid all the twigs that litter the ground, and at last, I spot a sharp dip in the land ahead.
“What is this?” I whisper to Callie.
She leans close to me. “There's a pond down there, though it's probably still frozen. Don't tell me that's where Uncle Alex and Abigail are meeting.”
“Sorry to bust your bubble.” I creep forward with Cayden, heart pounding in my throat. Someone paces on ice down below, and the ice is threatening to crack with each step. It's thawing and the person isn't aware. So it's Alex, then. Any Wolf would hear it. That might work to our advantage.
The ground does dip, like a worn-down crater, and below, Alex paces on a large, frozen pond that looks like an arena. He's decked out in Hunter gear, and he also wears his crossbow on his back. I hear silver daggers clinking on his belt as he walks, too, and his leather hat is silver-studded. Alex expects a fight.
A bad taste rises in my mouth. I was supposed to be trained in this art. Now I'll be at the receiving side of it.
My vision tells me there are plenty of thinning spots where dark water's showing, but a human probably can't see them. Alex looks up at the other side of the pond crater like he's waiting for someone. He expects his friend to meet him from the opposite direction.
Alex scrolls through a smart phone, reading a message. From here, I see the bubbles of a conversation, but I can't read what it says. He's still fifty feet away. He must already know what I am: a danger to everyone. I'm forbidden. Tainted.
And Abigail approaches from the opposite side of the pond. I hear her limp now. There are no more surprises. Looking right at Cayden, I nod and wave him around the pond.
Alex doesn't hear us. I'm guessing Abigail is a still a few hundred feet away. If we can stop her quietly, and then Alex, no one will have to know. No one—except for Lawrence. And then I see her in the trees, covered in a dark brown robe with a hood over her head.
And she's holding my box of mementos.
Rage pumps through me, pushing away the terror, and I march through the trees and well away from the pond. Abigail doesn't have her phone out. But I hear it beep within her robe as she reaches for it.
“Abigail.” I square off with her. We stand fifty feet apart.
Her senses must be dulling in her old age, because she stops and faces me with shock. We're a few hundred feet from the pond where Alex waits. He shouldn't hear this conversation.
“What are you doing with my stuff?" I ask in a mock polite voice.
"You violated her space," Cayden says. "She has the right to kill you."
"Abigail. I can't believe this," Callie says.
Abigail looks to the trees as if they can save her. Her diversion failed. So she never believed Aunt May's story about my mother. Fine. But now I know there might be a chance we can all survive this.
“It's not nice to go through other peoples' things,” Callie adds. “Or to plot to kill them.”
Abigail glares at her like she's stupid. “You don't know anything about the world, do you?"
“She knows that people can suck,” I say. “And I know people can be cowards. Using your grandson to mask the fact that you entered my house. That's awesome. And stupid.”
Abigail turns her hatred on me. Her pupils dilate. “You and Callie revealed the truth while I was lying on the Lowes' couch, pretending to be asleep. Both of you need to work on your planning."
Callie and I eye each other. Her jaw drops. When she came to get Cayden's phone, Abigail was on the couch, and she blurted something that would have outed me.
Abigail continues. "Your aunt could hide it al
l she wants, but I knew of the rumors that your Wolf father married a Hunter. That ended the Noble Royals, not the Savages.”
“But I'm a Noble Royal,” I say. But as I speak, no power flows through me. Abigail's bucking it off. She doesn't even flinch when I stare her down. She's found a hole in my authority.
“You are not a Royal,” Abigail says. “You're dirty. Something that shouldn't exist. A threat to us all. Hunters and Noble Wolves were forbidden to be together for a reason, and your reckless parents broke the law. Lawrence doesn't realize the truth, but I do. And as a Guardian Wolf, it's my sacred duty to end that threat before—”
“Leave her alone!” Cayden leaps in front of me, fists balled.
I can barely breathe. Cayden stands his ground as darkness swirls just beyond the edges of my sight, trying to squeeze in on my mate. My heart races with terror, not just from Abigail spying on me, but from the fear that she might be right.
Please, I think to the protective spirits. They have to extend to Cayden and I both in this situation.
Abigail marches forward and seizes Cayden by the front of his coat. With a scowl, she lifts him off his feet so that his sneakers dangle over the muddy ground. She drops the box—my secret—to the ground, where it opens and spews my mother's dagger, her book, and her vials of wolfsbane to the ground.
“Cayden!” I shout, raising my fist and charging Abigail.
But he grunts in pain as the darkness tries closing in. I sense light pushing back, but our protectors aren't strong enough to fight both Abigail and the spirits. That's up to me.
I deck Abigail across the face. Her head turns and her brown hood falls back, revealing her snowy hair. But she doesn't cry out and instead throws Cayden back with a single shove. He lands on his back, grunting.
She's much, much stronger than I thought.
“Don't touch him!” I shout, swinging my fists and charging her. I strike flesh. A cheekbone. Abigail backpedals and raises her hands in defense. “Alex!” she shouts.
Her cry echoes off the trees. And far back, ice crunches and cracks.
He's coming.
Cayden swears as Callie dives at the fallen box. She seizes a silver dagger even though she already has her own. The pained look on her face tells me what she's going to do.