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I swayed, shaken by the realization that my mother had died of her own volition in an effort to keep Kira from doing the same. Nearly as bad was the fact that I’d dropped the protective-guardian ball quite literally. Still, at least I knew how to begin correcting my mistake.
“Whoever bought Mama’s star ball must be here at the gathering.” In fact, I had a very good guess who the Master might be. I just didn’t want to speak the words aloud in front of Gunner until I had more evidence that Ransom was the one with the rotten core. “I just need...”
Gunner cut off my words before I could state the obvious—that I needed to ingratiate myself to the larger group of Atwood werewolves in order to sleuth out the identity of the ‘Master.’ The werewolf beside me, unfortunately, had a different take on the matter at hand.
“You and Kira need to be somewhere off the radar,” he finished for me. “But Ransom will balk at any of us going along to protect you. And we’ve already discovered that Wildacres isn’t as safe as we’d initially presumed....”
His over-protectiveness was sweet in a way, but it also raised my independent fox ruff like nobody’s business. “So you want me and Kira to run away while, what? While you do the hunting for us?”
The vision of Lucinda clinging to Gunner rose, at that exact moment, in my mind. Only to be followed by the more realistic image of Gunner trusting his brother, trusting someone who only wished him ill....
I wasn’t the only one irritated by our lack of like-mindedness. My flaring nostrils picked up Gunner’s burst of alpha aggression, and the loaded silence between us was so tangible I could have cut it with a knife.
Then Gunner—despite being a dominant werewolf used to getting whatever he wanted—backpedaled quite gracefully. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do,” he offered. “You’re your own woman. I get that. I just want to help.”
“So help by telling me what I can do to get a toehold in this pack without compromising my sister’s safety,” I suggested. “Help by promising that you won’t let Kira out of your sight while I’m gone.”
I rose as I spoke, my feet carrying me back and forth between the trees that surrounded us. I didn’t want to stand here arguing with my supposed ally. Instead, I itched to run back and check on my sister, while at the same time I also wanted to forge ahead and keep Kira from weakening further yet.
Luckily for my patience—or lack thereof—Gunner didn’t wait long before he made a suggestion. Apparently the high point of the gathering was a Solstice Hunt, a time to restructure pack hierarchy without killing anything except local wildlife. “You’ll be accepted into the pack if you do well in the Hunt tomorrow,” Gunner admitted, voice low and reluctant. “But to be part of the chase, you’ll have to swear fealty to my brother....”
“Fealty like the oath that sent you to your knees?” A bad idea if the Master really was who I thought he was.
Air currents swirled between us as Gunner nodded rather than elaborating. He didn’t have to tell me that a bond like that to his fickle older brother was the height of lunacy for a lone fox like myself.
Or was it?
For one split second, a very different image flitted through my head. Not me submitting to a power-hungry alpha and possible serial killer. Instead, I saw Allen, Crow, Tank, and Elle running beside Gunner in wolf form...with my fox tail leading the chase.
Shaking my head against the daydream, I pushed myself back into the dangers of the present. No, I didn’t relish the idea of pinning myself down beneath Ransom’s thumb willingly. But if an oath was what it took to save my sister, I’d figure out the specifics on the fly.
“Alright. I’ll do it,” I decided. “And you’ll watch my sister every minute? All of you? Everyone you trust?”
I tasted the electricity of Gunner’s displeasure. Smelled his urge to gainsay me, to take over this hunt and manage it on his own terms...or at least send half of his trusted comrades along to guard my back.
But, again, the faintest breeze of a sigh flowed between us. “The pack will meet at dawn on a rounded hill west of here. It’s open to the air, grassy. You can’t miss the spot.”
Of course I couldn’t miss it when Kira and I had come from there that same morning. I shivered, suddenly remembering the dream of blood on grass that had been set on a hill so much like that one. Then I shook my head, thinking three steps ahead.
It would take half the night to return to the hilltop. And I needed food in my belly and at least a few hours of sleep if I hoped to win a place in the Atwood pack....
Still I lingered, not wanting to leave while a barrier hovered between me and Gunner. I was shunting the male aside through my own fox nature as much as to protect my sister, and we both knew it. But I couldn’t quite turn myself into a wolf and act like any other pack mate.
So—“Thank you,” I told him one second before shifting into my fleet-footed animal. But I heard no answer before I lost myself to the darkness of the night.
***
SITTING DUCKS WERE, indeed, easy to slaughter. Their feathers, on the other hand, took an eternity to gnaw off with vulpine teeth. So I ended up shifting into human form to skin the waterfowl, shifting back to fox form to chew raw meat off bones, then collapsing in exhaustion not far from the spot where Gunner and I had split up.
Kira’s court date is tomorrow. I woke hours later into instant alertness. And if I’d had human vocal cords to swear with, I would definitely have used one of the words Kira’s social worker hated so much.
No two ways about it, I was burning bridges back in the city. And I was running late for my intended goal of making a good impression on Ransom’s pack as well.
Luckily, I was a fox and my animal instincts left little room for self-recrimination. Instead, I rose, stretched once to ease aching muscles...then I ran like the fires of hell were licking at my heels.
Kira was right—sticking to the stream made the journey from campground valley to meeting hill far less strenuous. Meanwhile, the dim pre-dawn light was plenty sufficient to let me pick out easy routes I’d been unable to follow with a sick and weary human child dragging along behind. I scampered across a gully on a fallen tree trunk, listening to bird songs growing louder by the second in the woodland version of a bedroom alarm clock.
I was nearly there though. Meanwhile, the howl of excited wolves flowing downhill toward me promised that the pack hadn’t divided up into hunting parties quite yet.
So I wasn’t too late after all. I wasn’t too late...but I wasn’t paying sufficient attention to my surroundings either. One moment I was sprinting flat out to join up with the gathered werewolves. The next I was yelping as huge fangs cut into the soft skin of my flank.
Perhaps, I noted even as I spun sideways, the pack is no more excited to meet me than I am to meet them.