11. Hunter
I have to hand it tothe humans, but they had good taste. Crystal chandeliers, wooden wainscoting, and renaissance paintings...
I’m right at home.
I walk with an extra spring in my step as I search every nook and cranny of the mansion. The library is exquisite, the detail in the golden moldings to die for.
Paddy is in the library right now pouring over every book, and I bet he could read every tome within the year.
But we don’t have that long. We need to be on the move again. Butch, the eccentric alpha, has given us free rein of his city. As much as I would love to explore all the human ruins, we have to find Raven.
It’s imperative that she and Ylfa are reunited. Anything to stop our races from going to war. We don’t need any more needless killing.
But when all is said and done, if we fail to come to some compromise, then I will lay down my life and protect my mate. No matter how many feathers I have to ruffle.
She comes first and foremost.
Just as I round the bend of a corridor by the statue of a naked lady, I stop. Brianna gazes out of a window up ahead. I know she senses me. Human hearing has actually improved in the last hundred years, but she still doesn’t look my way.
I saunter over. I may as well be polite and speak with her.
She still hates us. While she’s willing to work with us and take us to Raven, she’s understandably wary. And the feeling’s mutual.
The smirk on her face yesterday when we found the stuffed shifter still makes my blood run cold. Would she gladly make an ornament out of me in her living room? Not worth thinking about.
I go to open my mouth, but she cuts me off. “What do you want, wolf?”
I hold my tongue. I was only going to remark on the weather, but instead I say, “Hello...”
I offer her my most handsome, debonair smile, but Brianna scowls at me. At least she cares to look at me this time.
A shame she doesn’t smile often. She has a beautiful face: strong cheekbones, tanned skin, sparkling eyes, but I refrain from telling her.
I don’t think she’s the type of woman who cares much for being called pretty.
I move closer, and she immediately steps back. I freeze. They all do that. Each human has winced every time we approach them, but I don’t care to remark on their odd behavior.
Still, it is strange... I know I’m not the only one who has noticed, too. Ylfa and Paddy have, and I suppose I need to get to the bottom of this.
At once, I’m transported back in time. It was a long, cold winter. I was five years old, and there had been a nasty bug going around the pack. It killed off a lot of the elderly, but I recall wearing a mask for weeks. The entire pack did.
That bug was deadly...
Brianna acts as if we are walking bugs or something.
“Do you really think your mate can do it? Save us all?”
I peer at the woman. She’s tall, only a few inches shorter than me. I tie my hands behind my back, meeting my handsome reflection in the glass of the window. “I do. She managed to make a friend of Raven. I saw it with my eyes. They were forming a friendship. I think if some of us can learn to get along at least, well...”
She makes a sound of derision. “If only it were that simple. Even if we do learn to get along, there’s always...”
Her voice trails off, and Shadow’s ears perk up. She was about to tell me something. I’m sure of it.
Brianna closes her eyes, sucking in a deep breath. Then she meets mine with a faint smile on her lips. “It doesn’t matter now. I’m prepared to put my trust in you. But I swear... any misstep, and I will kill you all.”
She turns up the hall, her dread-locked hair flipping behind her, and I stare at her back. Something she said plays on my mind. Even if we learn to get along, there’s still the possibility of... what? What was she about to say? It’s something she’s afraid to tell me. Just proof she doesn’t completely trust us.
I retrace my steps down the corridor, deciding to pay my little bookworm of a friend a visit. When I last saw him, he had a big stack of books by his side, and I wonder if he has finished them all by now.