27
Jaxson
Dawn softened the sky above the tall trees that lined the dirt road. I drove along until I saw my father’s old blue pickup. It was weathered, worn out, and perfectly suited to this place—just like the man.
I’d known where to find him first thing in the morning: his favorite fishing spot. After he’d stepped down as alpha, my parents had turned their backs on the city and all its problems. They lived in the lake lands in central Wisconsin, as far as they could get from anyone else.
I tightened my grip on the wheel. I had to be very careful what I asked. Laurel said Savannah’s parents had fled Magic Side because of him. I wasn’t certain why, but for some reason, I believed the old witch.
I shut off the truck, opened the door, and dropped down from the cab. He’d know I was here by my scent, if not the telltale sound of the engine.
Pushing overgrown branches aside, I followed his smell through the woods.
I hadn’t seen my parents much since my father, Alastair, had stepped down, even though they were only four hours out of Magic Side. I’d come up a few weeks before to tell them about Billy’s death. That hadn’t gone well, and I hadn’t planned on coming back for a long time, but none of us had that luxury anymore.
I stepped to the shore. My father, sporting rubber waders, stood up to his thighs in the glistening water. His back was to me, and he didn’t turn around. “Alpha.”
My neck grew warm, and my muscles tightened. “Father.”
He flicked his pole, making the fly dance across the surface of the dark water. “Don’t scare the fish.”
So I stood there, silent as a ghost. Frustration churned inside my gut, but I kept my composure and scent even. I wouldn’t take the bait, even if the fish did.
Finally, he looked back. “Your mother misses you.”
I crossed my arms. “I know. It must be hard for her to be away from the pack.”
After he’d stepped down, they’d moved north to the lakes. He said that it was to give me space to lead, but I knew it was to get away from the wicked city that took my sister.
They were bitter at the world and everything in it.
My father returned to casting. “It’s not too hard. We’ve washed our hands of pack life. She misses her friends, of course, but we gave the pack our daughter, our son, and our lives. We don’t have more to give. You’ll understand that feeling one day.”
The man had never been the same after my sister’s death. He’d groomed her from birth for the job and simply taught me how to do her dirty work. When she died, he was done. He’d held on for a few years, but he’d become a ghost of the man he’d once been. In the end, he dumped it all in my hands and faded away.
His fishing line flicked in the air. “I’d tell you to come up more, but you and I know that’s not going to happen.”
I leaned back against the tree. “Things are busy right now.”
“They always are. And you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need something. What is it?”
I watched his motions alertly. I knew he was measuring me, even with his back turned, just as I was measuring him.
“We had a run last night,” I said.
He laughed at that. It was just a short exhalation of air, but from him, it was a surprise. “I admit, I do miss the lake run. But there are other lone wolves out here. We run with them when the moon is right.”
“After the run, the loremaster told the story of the Dark Wolf God.”
If I hadn’t been watching like a hawk, I would have missed the subtle tensing of the muscles in his neck. His casting didn’t lose even a scrap of fluidity, but I could tell that had surprised him. “Not a story I wish to remember.”
Even though he was no longer alpha, my father tended to keep his cards close to his vest. Even with me. I focused on every movement, every scent, every twitch. “What can you tell me about Victor Dragan?”
I hadn’t needed to be so attuned.
He stopped short, and the fly dropped to the water. I held my breath as he considered his words. “Dragan was a monster. A twin-soul.”
“That I know. Half sorcerer, half wolf.”
He turned suddenly, his eyes blazing gold. “No. All sorcerer, all wolf—just trapped in one body. Two souls vying for control, ripping his mind apart. It drove him mad…drove him to do unspeakable things.”
The hatred and anger in his voice could have boiled the river dry. I’d rarely seen my father react to anything with such ferocity. He was typically measured. Tactical.
My mouth turned to sand as memories of Savannah arguing with her wolf flooded into my mind. I’d told her not to worry, that her wolf was just a different aspect of her personality…but what if it wasn’t? What it she was like Dragan, a twin-soul, two spirits trapped in the same body?
Would she go mad? She talked about a darkness in her…
I shivered and realized my father was studying me intently, so I cleared my throat. “What did Dragan do?”
“Dark magic. Rituals. Sacrifices. He pursued forbidden knowledge and turned his own abilities to perverse spells. He seduced good wolves with power and the promise of vengeance on a world that despised and feared us.”
All things Dragan had done while possessing Kahanov. All things we suspected he was trying to do again with the bikers.
I shifted my stance as curiosity pulled me in. “Why?”