The larger male, the one I’d first seen, stood front and center, watching me. The others had broken their stances, were padding back and forth, noses to ground, tails out like rudders. Waiting for the alpha male’s signal. The leader stayed still. One of the females sidled up to him, bumped him, licked his chin. I could almost hear her saying to him, This is too strange, not worth the trouble, let’s leave.
His mate. An old married couple working it out. God, I wanted to see Ben so badly.
I met the big male’s gaze once, then lowered my face again. If that didn’t offer him peace and ask him for safe passage, nothing would. He wasn’t moving, and I knew what that meant.
“We have to leave,” I said, slowly rising to my feet and joining the others. “He won’t turn his back on us, so we need to be the ones to move.”
“But what if they come after us?” Tina’s voice was taut; she was right on the edge.
“They won’t,” I said.
“You can’t actually talk to them, can you?”
I sort of could. I let her draw her own conclusion.
With Conrad over our shoulders again, we moved off, as quickly as we could, into the trees and back toward the lodge. I glanced over my shoulder once; the wolves were watching us, the male in the center of them all. But he was sitting now, his fur flat, relaxed almost. Not getting ready to run and launch an attack. One of them flopped to her side and started licking a paw. They weren’t going to come after us. But this was definitely their space.
My nerves were tingling. Tina kept asking questions—“What was that? What the hell happened there?”—and I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t talk.
“Kitty!” she finally said, almost a shriek, and I looked at her. Her eyes widened in fear. I don’t know what face I showed her, but it probably wasn’t quite human. Something wolfish glared in my eyes.
I closed my eyes, shook my head, breathed slow. Told Wolf to settle.
We’re in danger.
I know.
Must flee.
It’s not that simple.
We kept moving.
chapter 19
We rested three more times. Conrad had fallen unconscious by the time we reached the clearing in front of the lodge. There, we stopped again. The house and everything around it looked quiet. I wanted to know what was going on before we moved any closer.
The shadows had changed, growing more washed-out, more surreal. The sky had paled—close to sunrise. Dawn had sneaked up on me. When was the last time I’d slept? After I’d shifted yesterday? I couldn’t remember how long ago that had been. The gray predawn sky didn’t improve the hazy fuzz I seemed to be moving through.
“I’m going to go to the house to find Grant,” I said, leaving Tina and Conrad sitting at the edge of the clearing in front of the lodge. Not much cover here. I moved along the edge, slow and watchful, taking deep breaths. Nothing smelled out of the ordinary. I didn’t dare call out to Grant, in case an enemy was close by and listening.
I felt like I had a target painted on my forehead. I scratched it, then felt like an idiot for doing so.
I’d reached the porch railing when Grant cracked the door and stepped outside. He’d been keeping watch.
“Kitty.”
I didn’t know where to start. “We’ve got Conrad. He’s hurt, badly.”
“I heard what sounded like an explosion—did you find the blind?”
I swallowed, a gulp of air, of courage. “We did. It was booby-trapped. We lost Lee.”
He nodded and followed me out to where Tina waited with Conrad. The three of us brought him inside and lay him on one of the sofas. Tina and I collapsed. Grant handed us bottles of water, then looked at Conrad’s wounds.
The big picture window in the living room was growing light enough to see by. I sat up.
“Where are Anastasia and Gemma? It’s almost daylight.”