“He knows what?” Seung looked at Johnathan when she said it.
Johnathan rubbed his forehead.
“He knows what, Johnathan?” She shoved him by his shoulder. “Tell me, goddamn—”
“Like you said, little sister. I should not be alive.”
The anger in Seung’s expression became confusion then horror. “No.”
“I had no choice.” Caspin coughed.
“You promised you wouldn’t.” When she reached for the phone, Johnathan let her have it.
Seung sat in one of the wicker chairs. “You promised, you promised….”
“I know. I’m sorry. But after I saw the Sarvari and… I knew I couldn’t live half of a whole anymore.”
“Your wolf?”
“It is here. It is still Fenrir. But casting is painful. I cannot do it for long anymore.”
“That’s why I haven’t seen it,” Seung said.
“Yes.”
“Do you know why the curs were there?”
“They could have been after Isaiah,” Johnathan said.
“When he fled, they did not follow,” Caspin exhaled a wheeze.
“You?” Seung wiped the tears from her eyes. “Why would they come after you?”
“I think someone knows Johnathan, and I have been talking.”
“How?” The only people Johnathan had informed Seung was Caspin’s sister were the ones he trusted the most. The majority of people who knew Seung had joined Johnathan’s team were from his meta-pack. And most Varu just knew her as a rogue pack leader who’d abandoned their Clan.
“Either Isaiah spoke to the wrong person when trying to find me, or someone figured it out on their own.”
“How did they even know where you live?” That was information even Johnathan didn’t know. Not that Caspin hadn’t offered to tell him, it was just another layer of protection for the White Wolf.
“Merle Hawkins,” Caspin said.
“You promised you wouldn’t mount any of his people anymore.” Seung’s grip on the phone turned her knuckles white.
Johnathan held out a hand. “You can’t strangle him through the air.”
She gave him the phone and crossed her arms.
“If you needed more bedmates, you should have said so.” Johnathan would have flown out a dozen to the drop-off point.
“I haven’t mounted any of Merle’s people in years. I even moved my den to keep them from tracking me down.”
“Then who would know how to find you?”
“Merle himself. He’s stealthy but not nearly as much as he thinks. He tried putting in cameras he could view with his cell phone, but they were easy to find and easier to destroy. So he started coming once a month, then every other month, until now it might be once a year.”
“If you’re not mounting his people, why would he care where you are?” Seung returned to Johnathan’s side.