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I WAS FEELING A LITTLE stir crazy, like my skin was too tight. My human skin was making me itch. I needed to go for a good, long run in the forest. That’s exactly what I was going to do. I ran upstairs to change into my yoga pants and loose shirt, leaving the bra and panties off. It was pointless to wear them.
Hawk was in the living room when I came back downstairs. “Going for a run?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, thanks.”
“Azalea, I’m going with you.”
“I’ll go too,” Ares said.
I frowned at Hawk. “I don’t need either of you.”
Ares raised an eyebrow, his arms folding over his chest. “Feeling a little snappish?”
“I want to go for a run. I don’t need babysitters.”
“We’re companions,” Hawk said.
“Companions that tell me the truth?”
“Let’s go,” Ares said. “Someone needs to work out some aggression.”
I glared at him. “Actually, I do.”
I headed out the back and up the trail to the cabin. I heard them behind me but ignored them. I was angry. I walked into the cabin and stripped, transforming without hesitation. When I walked out of the cabin, Ares and Hawk were waiting in wolf form.
I closed my eyes and turned my nose to the sky. I inhaled, appreciating the clean scent of the air. I missed the freedom of the forest. “Ready?” Ares asked.
“I am.” I took off at a steady trot before picking up the pace.
I felt the wind blowing through my fur. The soft pine needles under my feet and the occasional twig snapping as I raced under branches. It was good to be me. I ran for a good twenty miles, going nowhere and everywhere. I stuck to our territory. I didn’t want to start any problems for my pack.
When I finally stopped running, I was panting. I turned to look at Hawk and Ares and saw they were just as out of breath as I was. “You guys are losing your edge,” I teased.
“I’ll run another twenty miles,” Ares said as he pawed at the ground.
“We should head back,” Hawk said.
He looked uneasy. He was shifting back and forth. “Why are you acting like we have something to be afraid of?”
“I’m not.”
“Kya used her charms to push Decker away,” I said. “He’s not going to bother us.”
“I’m ready to go back,” he said.
I turned and looked to the outer edges of the forest. I wished like hell we had the run of the land like our ancestors had. The city was constantly growing. It was slowly encroaching on our territory. Soon, we would have very little room to run. It was depressing to think about. But that was a problem for another day.
“Fine,” I said and started back down the trail.
We stopped at the cabin and changed. When I walked back out, they had their heads together talking about something. “What’s up?”
They jumped apart. “Nothing,” Hawk said.
“Do you know something about Decker?” I asked. I figured it was best to be direct. I couldn’t keep beating around the bush.
They exchanged a look. It was a look that told me I was on the money. “Tell me,” I demanded.
“Hawk had a vision,” Ares blurted out.
“A vision?” I said.
“Yes. Your mom too. They both had the same vision. It was a premonition.”
I looked at Hawk. He slugged Ares in the arm. “You are such an asshole,” he hissed.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s not the asshole. The asshole is the guy lying to me.”
“I’m not lying to you,” he said.
“Yes, you are. Lying by omission is still a lie. Hawk, you and I have talked about this. I need you to be honest with me. If we are going to do this, we need complete honesty. Isn’t that what we discussed before? This thing only works if we are straight with one another.”
“I didn’t want to tell you because there is nothing for you to worry about.”
“Obviously there is something to worry about. You’re worried. My mom is pretending not to be worried, which means she is. I’m not an innocent little girl. This world is not perfect. I’m the alpha, and if there is a threat, I need to know about it. I can’t have you guys trying to protect me all the time. I have to know what I’m up against. We can’t be an effective leadership team if we don’t share all the details.”
Ares looked at Hawk. He waited for several seconds before looking at me. “He saw Decker kill you.”
My mouth fell open. “New or old vision?”
“What?” he asked.
“This is a new vision? Like in the present or the future?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“But Decker is gone,” I insisted. “He’s not a problem. Kya fixed it.”
“Will you just fucking tell her?” Ares growled. “I didn’t see the shit. You did. Tell her what you saw.”
I put my hands on my hips. “You can tell me, or I will never forgive you.”
“Don’t do this, Azalea.”
“I’m going to do it, Hawk. I want you to tell me what you saw. If it’s me dying, I need to know the specifics. If I’m going to fight this, I have to know what I’m up against.”
He walked to a downed log and sat down before patting the spot next to him. “Sit.”
I took the seat beside him. He put a hand on my thigh and gently squeezed. “You know I can’t see the whole story when I have a vision. I don’t usually get this clear of a premonition. I think it was your mother’s powers that amplified mine. It made me see a little more than usual, but I still don’t have the total story.”
“How can he kill me?” I asked.
“We don’t know.”
“You’ve talked about this with Winter?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. It was haunting. I didn’t like what I saw. I wanted to understand it and hoped she could tell me.”
“And?”
“She either didn’t know or didn’t tell me.”
“Gee, I wonder how that feels.”
“I didn’t intend to keep it from you forever. I wanted to try and have the vision again. I wanted to understand it better. I wanted to believe it was from before. I didn’t get enough of the vision to really understand what was happening. I was going to tell you when I had a better understanding of what it was.”
“Hawk, you can’t protect me like that. How many times do I have to tell you that? We started off on the wrong foot because of you hiding visions from me. Don’t do this again.”
He looked properly chastised. “We won’t let him get to you.”
I wanted to believe him, but I knew Decker. He was never going to stop. He wanted me dead. He wanted me to suffer. I didn’t know if I could ever truly defeat him. “She bought me some time,” I said with a sigh.
“Yes, she did, but we are not going to let him get to you. We are stronger now than we were before. Our bond is stronger and therefore we can draw off one another’s energy.”
“I’ll kill him,” Ares said.
“We all want to kill him,” I said.
“But I’m going to do it.”
I looked at him and smiled. “I hope you do. I want him gone forever. I want him out of our lives.”
“Me too,” Hawk muttered. “I do not ever want to see that man in my dreams again. I’m about sick of seeing him kill people.”
I did feel a little bad for him. I couldn’t imagine the horror he must witness on a regular basis. I leaned against him. “I get it.”
He put an arm around me. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Your mom and I were hoping it was wrong. We wanted to find a way to make it go away without you ever having to worry about it. We only wanted what was best for you. She loves you; you know?”
“I do know. It’s going to take a while before we are close, but I want to have that relationship with her. I want to be able to have my mother in my life.”
“That’s what she wants. I feel a lot of turmoil from her.”
“Me too,” Ares said. “And I don’t have the woo woo power. I just feel it. I think we all do.”
“I’m hoping we can help her feel settled. Once the pack opens up to her and accepts her as one of us, I think that will help. Right now, I feel like she has one foot out the door. I can’t lose her a second time.”
“This time you have us,” Ares said. “We’ll chase her ass down if she tries to run away.”
“I like that.”
“What are we going to do about the vision?” Hawk asked. “Your mom and I both had it. I think we need to take it seriously.”
“I’m not sure what we can do,” I told him. “This seems to be a trend with him. He always wants to kill me.”
“But he did kill you,” he said. I could hear the anguish in his voice.
“We won’t let it happen,” Ares said. “We ran his ass out before; we’ll do it again. The guy is worse than an STD. We’ll get rid of him once and for all. Then if you have one of your visions, we’ll know your wires are fried. If he’s dead, he can’t come back. Dead is good. Dead is all that man deserves.”
“Do you think he’s out there right now?” I asked.
“Yes,” Hawk said without hesitation. “I don’t know what kind of powers Kya has, but it makes sense Decker’s are stronger. He was weakened and maybe susceptible to her charms, but we know distance weakens the power. All he had to do was get away from her. He could be plotting his next attack right now.”
“What did you see?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “Nothing. I mean, nothing that makes sense. You were there and he killed you. It wasn’t like I could see the when and where. It wasn’t clear. The only thing that was clear was you were dead.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“It’s a warning,” he said and looked me in the eyes. “I plan on paying attention to that warning.”
“Let’s get back home,” Ares said. “We need to talk with the others and figure out our next move. It’s only a matter of time before Decker makes a move. We need to be ready. I’m voting for going on the offense. I’m tired of this fucker attacking her. I’m tired of sitting on our asses while he makes all the moves. We’ve given him too much power. I’m taking it back.”
Hawk got to his feet. “I agree.”
“This is so depressing,” I complained. “I just want normal. Why can’t we have normal?”
Ares wrapped an arm around me and pulled me against him. “Normal is overrated. We won’t let him get to you.” He dropped a kiss on top of my head and kept me close the entire walk down.
Everyone was out of the house when we returned. The guys offered to make something to eat while I showered and changed. It did make me feel better to have them downstairs. They would stop anyone from getting through the front door.
I knew the Decker situation wasn’t resolved, but it had been a nice reprieve. I should have known there was a chance he would come at me again. The man was hellbent on revenge. It was his life’s mission. He’d been going after my father and his legacy long before I was ever born. There was no way someone like Kya could just make him forget all about it.
I should have known better.
