Robb
I can’t help it. I am not going to just stay here like a lost puppy.
I stand.
The cat runs over and places her paws on my feet. Where do you think you’re going?
“I need to go.”
“You can’t.”
“I can, and I will.”
The cat sniffs and rubs against my legs. “You shouldn’t.”
“Why? Don’t tell me you’re on Bellanore’s side, that you’re going to do her bidding.”
“Nice try. I’m not doing her bidding. I want you to stay here.”
“It’s not safe here.”
“Safer here than out there.”
Maybe that’s true, but I’m not going to give the cat any credit for that.
“All I want is for someone to not leave me.”
“I can’t be that someone. Go find an old lady who has a dozen other acts already.”
“I’m not a multi-cat cat.”
“What?”
“I’m more of a clan of two. Me and you. This is the way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pack of two. That better, wolf? I thought you were smarter than that.”
“I’m not smart.”
“Clearly not if you’re leaving.” The cat shudders and arches her back.
“What is it?”
“So much hatred and anger here. I don’t like it.”
“Then leave.”
“If I leave, you’ll die.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I might not have magic, but I’ve been around it enough to know that your time is coming. Cats know death.”
“Why aren’t you familiars of grim reapers instead of witches then?”
The cat shudders. “We know death because the world likes to try to kill us. Witches bring us back. Grim reapers let us die and cross over.”
“Ah, so you want to cheat death as much as possible.”
“I thought you did too.”
I swallow hard. “I do.”
“If you leave, you have a death wish.”
“Not true,” I protest. “I want to try to ensure that there are no deaths. No more deaths.”
“Werewolves are hunters. You kill to survive.”
“The werewolves lately have been killing for other reasons.”
“No, it’s for survival. It’s also to try to make the vampires extinct, but it’s because, bottom line, you want to survive.”
“Roald and the others…”
“They must view you as a threat. Clearly, they’re idiots because if they wait long enough, you’ll die without them having to lift a claw.”
“Geez, thanks.”
“Welcome.”
I roll my eyes and step over her and accidentally land on her tail. She shrieks, and I hop to release her and then almost fall. My palm scrapes against the harsh stone wall, but I manage not to fall.
“You want to go out there and do what exactly? Because if you say fight…”
“I just want to talk.”
The cat snorts. “You might want to talk, but they want you dead so…”
“How about you come with me?”
“And what? Be your guardian cat?”
I chuckle. “Why not?”
“I don’t have magic. I can’t bring you back.”
“No, but you can go and tell Bellanore what happened to me.”
“You think this will kill you.”
“It’s possible. I can only outlive this curse for so long.”
“You want me to tell her what exactly?”
“That I love her and I’m sorry.”
“And you didn’t tell her this already because…”
“I wasn’t sure I could even say it,” I admit.
“I’m sorry is hard to say.”
“Not the apology. The love part.”
“Love isn’t a bad word,” the cat meows.
“No, but my emotions…”
“Wolf, you’re stupid. She isn’t. She might be a bit hotheaded, and I get that she’s passionate and cares about you and all, but wanting to go after witches… I like her, and I don’t.”
“Isn’t that how cats always feel about people?”
“No. Some people we don’t care for. Some we hate. So that I like her at all is saying something.”
“Ah.”
“She knows you love her.”
“I still want her to hear it.”
“Then tell her yourself.”
I roll my eyes. “You coming?”
“I guess. Think there will be food there?”
“Doubtful.”
“Rats.”
The cat races off, and I head to the edge of the cave. The cat trots over and slurps a tail.
“Did you just… Forget it. I don’t want to know.”
We keep walking, the cat rubbing against my legs every so often, maybe to remind me that I’m not alone. I feel all alone, though. Worse, I’m terrified. This talk might not be a talk. Roald might want to finish what he tried to start several times now. I have no reason to think he’ll want to hear me out or that he’ll engage me in conversation, but I have to try.
The scent of Roald is one that I can smell even in my sleep, courtesy of all the times the guy came swinging at me. Musky and oranges. I guess there are worst smells, but I’ve never liked oranges. Clementines, though? Those I like, though. I can eat three or four of them in one sitting, but I hate that my hands smell like the fruit all day.
Roald’s scent leads me to his castle. He’s pacing out front. The moon isn’t full tonight, but she’s almost there, casting a silver halo around the wolf. Elliot and Decker aren’t anywhere to be seen.
“That the guy?” the cat meows softly.
I nod.
“That the—”
“Yes,” I hiss in a whisper.
Roald’s head jerks up, and he stops pacing. His gaze locks onto me, and he cracks his knuckles.
I hold up my hands. “I’m not here to fight. I just want to talk.”
“About…”
“Gayle. Is she…”
Roald closes his eyes briefly, and when he opens them, I’m shocked to see guilt.
“I tried to stop her,” he mumbles.
“Gayle?”
“Nia,” he snaps.
“Nia’s assumed command, hasn’t she?” I ask.
Roald nods. I never realized the movement could be filled with such bitterness.
“I can already feel my wolf,” he says, his voice seeping with agony. “My wolf wants to respond to her as if she’s my alpha. I don’t understand! Why? She’s gone off the deep end. She’s lost her mind!”
“You aren’t sure if you can fight her.”
“I can take her on in a fight,” Roald says.
“Are you sure about that?”
Roald grinds his teeth.
“It’s now or never. You said you wanted to be an alpha to Elliot, Decker, Nia… Either be an alpha or submit.”
“It’s not that simple,” Roald protests.
“You want to know what’s simple? You can continue to whine and complain and bemoan the fact that you’re too weak to stop Nia from taking over control away from your alpha. Because you have an alpha, don’t you? You’re just the only Jagger to attend here, like Decker’s the only Wind. He still has a pack. Nia, though…”
“If she thought she could take her alpha on, she would not hesitate to challenge him.”
I gape at him. “She has a full pack?”
“Yes. I thought you knew that.”
“I thought…”
“She’s the only Forge here.”
“But…”
I should have realized this before, but the deadness in Nia’s eyes… I thought she was shut off to emotions because of her lacking a pack. I thought she was like me.
Why is she so emotionless? Why is she able to separate herself from her pack as if she has none?
“She’s not going to actually go against her alpha, is she?” I ask. The thought of her being the alpha of a huge pack makes me want to howl. She’ll have far too much power if she has a ton of wolves behind her. She hates vampires, and she’ll use her pack to bring down as many vampires as possible. There’s no doubting that. Her actions will get countless werewolves killed.
“She clearly doesn’t need to go against him if my wolf wants to submit to her,” Roald grumbles.
“Why do you want to be away from the Jagger pack?” I ask.
Roald glowers at me. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. I have my reasons.”
“You might as well share if you want to have any help in preventing yourself from joining Nia’s new pack.”
“Elliot’s already submitted to her,” Roald utters in a low tone.
“But Elliot’s not even all alone here. There are other Snowblood members already attending here. His tie to his pack should be stronger than that!”
“It’s not. We’re all outsiders in our packs. I thought you knew that. Did you listen to anything I ever said to you?” he growls.
“I don’t like him,” the cat meows.
Roald stares at the cat.
“She said—”
“I know what she said,” Roald snaps. He actually laughs, his face relaxing for the first time in months. Maybe even since the first time I met him. “I’m a dog person, so I’m not surprised you don’t like me.”
“You don’t want Nia to be your alpha.”
“No. Haven’t you been listening either?”
“So don’t let her be your alpha.”
“It’s not that simple. You wouldn’t understand. You’re just a cat.”
The cat bristles. “Say something like that again, and I’ll claw you.”
Roald rolls his eyes but says nothing.
“You don’t want your alpha to be your alpha either.”
“Right,” Roald mutters.
“Why?” I can’t help asking again.
“My mom died when I was born,” Roald says gruffly. “My dad became a guard.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“It’s not your fault—”
“She didn’t die giving birth to me! She died because we were ambushed by another wolf pack. That’s why Dad became a guard, but the alpha grew lax. At first, Dad and the other guards alerted us to when that pack—Lunastar—would be coming around, but as the years went by without any attacks, the alpha said we didn’t need guards. The alpha stopped paying the guards, and Dad had no job, so he had to get a job in a human city. He worked at a bank. There was a robbery…”
“Your dad was killed.”
Roald nods. “All because the alpha thought we were safe, but not two weeks after Dad died, Lunastar attacked us. We weren’t ready, and three more werewolves died. The alpha… He’s not my alpha. He hasn’t been. He doesn’t deserve to be alpha.”
“So why don’t you go after him? Why don’t you challenge him? Why doesn’t someone, anyone in your pack rise up and force him to back down?”
“He has dire wolf blood in him. He’s not a normal werewolf. His wolf is three times the size of other werewolves.” Roald blows out a breath. “He likes to argue and pick fights. He also likes to drink, and that’s when he starts to insult people. I bet he insulted the Lunastar alpha. I’m sure he’s the reason why we’ve been attacked. He had a hand in the death of my parents.”
“You’re an orphan,” I murmur.
“Way to twist the knife a little more,” Roald snaps.
“You’ve rejected your alpha already. That’s why your wolf is keen to submit to Nia. Roald, you have to fight her.”
“I want to,” Roald admits, “but to fight a woman…”
“Nia’s not really a woman. She’s a monster,” I say. “I knew it from the first time I met her. “You need to stand up to her.”
Roald hangs his head. “I don’t know if I can.”
“If you don’t think you can do it, you can’t.”
“I didn’t ask you, cat,” Roald snaps.
“You wolves want loyalty, right? Why don’t you be loyal to your parents? Why don’t you be loyal to you?”
“A pack of one? That’s not possible!”
“This Nia needs to be stopped. Her alpha isn’t doing it. Her parents aren’t controlling her. Why can’t you turn the tables on her and get her to submit to you?”
Roald grimaces. “I don’t know if anyone can stop her,” he mumbles. “She killed Gayle. Gayle… We had her tied up. I didn’t even want to do that. I just wanted to talk to her some, maybe threaten her, and let her go. But not Nia. No, she knew she was a spy from the beginning. She waited for the perfect moment to pounce, and she killed Gayle without hesitating, without talking to us first. She just acted.”
“That’s why your wolf is acknowledging her,” I say.
Roald nods grimly. “No more. My wolf and I… We can do better. We need to do better.”
“If you want my help, you have it.”
Roald eyes me. “From the moment I saw you, I knew you looked like a wolf who could handle himself. I… I felt a little threatened by you.”
“Never meant for you to feel that way.”
“I know I’ve done wrong by you,” Roald says gruffly, “but if you mean what you say…”
“I do.”
Roald nods. “I’m going to need your help.”
“My help too?” the cat meows eagerly.
Roald hesitates.
“She’s going to come regardless of what you say,” I point out.
Roald sighs. “You can come.”
The cat purrs, but I don’t understand why she’s so happy. Nia’s unhinged. She’s a rogue wolf, and there’s no telling what she’s capable of.