Chapter 7 #2
But the young woman in the museum didn’t look like a prisoner. She looked every inch the high society bitch one would expect from one of the oldest and wealthiest families in New York. Like Catherine Adalwulf.
Then again, from the details Madi let slip, I think her mother-in-law was as much a victim of the family’s terror as my mother is.
Maybe it’s a misguided savior complex, but I have a fierce desire to liberate every female born to that pack. To dismantle the twisted underpinnings of the sick cult that breeds females and uses them like slaves in the name of religion.
Aster is one of those slaves.
No, I don’t know that. But it’s possible she could be flipped. She might be willing to tell me information about the location of Moonborn in exchange for the tiara. I left the tiara in a safehold in the city because having it close seemed to give me a headache.
My burner phone lights up, warning me of an incoming call from Moon Co. I left my actual work phone in my apartment but forwarded all messages and calls to the burner, so I wouldn’t miss anything.
I keep the drone hovering and free a hand to check my messages. A shock runs through me when I see the transcribed voice message is from Brick.
Noah. Answer your phone.
I can’t hear his tone, but I suspect he’s pissed.
Why is the big boss himself calling me? I grab my phone, ready to message him back right away, but…
I’m in the middle of a mission. I informed HR that I was taking a personal day.
Wolves don’t need sick days, so I can’t use a doctor's visit as an excuse, but I didn’t think I’d need to justify my absence.
Out of curiosity, I check my messages. There’s one from Brick’s assistant, informing me that Brick wants to meet ASAP.
Whatever’s blowing up at work, I can’t focus on it right now. But just as I’m about to turn off the burner phone, another message comes through from Brick himself.
Is this you?
Attached is a video clip. I play it and curse. It’s a video of my gray and white wolf running through the museum lobby with a dopey, doggie grin on my face.
Shit shit shit shit. Esme monitored the news to see if it got out, but other than some social media posts by some of the sixth graders, it looks like the museum was trying to hush it up.
Esme went ahead and commented on a few of the posts, claiming that “No way this happened, must be AI.” But someone–probably Sully–discovered it.
A shifter like him would recognize my wolf as another shifter right away.
Sully isn’t the head of security for nothing. He’s paid to be paranoid.
It’s also possible that Brick tagged me as a possible threat and is digging into my movements. One of Sully’s spies would’ve noticed I was late to work the same day of the museum heist and put two and two together.
Another text comes through from Brick:
CALL ME
I can practically hear his alpha power vibrating through the phone. Forget firing me, I bet he’s salivating to let his wolf out to rip me apart.
I’m busted, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I power off the burner phone and tuck it away. As soon as I obey Brick’s summons, I’m getting fired and exiled from the city. And that’s the best case. Worst case: Sully locks me up as a pack enemy and throws away the key.
But that’s a problem for future me. I have a pack princess to spy on.
I dare to bring the drone closer to her tower, moving in from the top and slowly lowering at an angle.
Is that window open? I inch the drone down a little further.
Esme helped me source the best military grade drone–a dark drone that mimics the shape of a bird and the quiet sound of an insect.
Still, getting it too close to the window could be a huge mistake.
I risk it, swooping in right against the cylindrical stone wall, then dipping below the top frame of the window.
I jerk in surprise, sending the drone on a wild wobble. Aster’s face fills my phone screen.
She was standing at the open window.
Her hand snaps out, lightning fast, and she must catch the drone because the viewer blurs, then her lovely face comes in close. So close I can examine the exact color of her ice-blue eyes.
I drop the useless controller and simply stare.
She peers at the drone, then turns to look past it out the window.
The viewer blurs again and then clears, but it takes me a moment to figure out what I’m looking at: Aster’s bare feet, kicking and jerking in a fit.
She must’ve dropped the drone and slumped back on a bed or chair.
I don’t think. If I were thinking, I would know that what I’m contemplating is the worst idea I’ve ever had.
I hop out of the car and sprint toward the entrance to the Adalwulf property.
It’s protected by an electric fence, which I clear in the best high jump of my life, thanking the Harvard track team for the lessons in catapulting my body in human form through space.
As I sprint toward the compound, images flash in my mind.
Aster on the floor, clutching her head, her eyes rolling back.
Another image flashes in my mind: the location of the transmitter for an invisible infrared laser that must serve as long-range perimeter security.
Recognizing the nearby stone hut from my drone surveillance, I swerve and head for it without a plan. I don’t know how to disable the alarm system, but I’m trusting in the visions.
When I arrive, I see the guard through the window. He spills his coffee down his front, curses, and gets up to walk to the kitchen. I take it as a sign and clap my hand over the laser transmitter to block it as I slip by.
Another image–some kind of underground tunnel–flashes in my mind at the same moment I trip over something and fall flat on my face. An iron ring protrudes from the earth. I wipe the dirt away to reveal the outline of a trapdoor.
The tunnel. I yank the metal trapdoor open and drop down into a dank tunnel.
Incredible. I’ve never experienced waking visions like this. Fate seems to be guiding me straight to Aster. No, to the Moonborn. To complete my mission.
Either that, or the wolf-witch is placing visions into my head to lure me into a trap.
Both possibilities seem equally likely. I know how corrupt the Moonborn are.
I take a moment to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. A sense of danger sparks all around me. I want to shift into my wolf form to run the length of the tunnel, but then there would be the awkward issue of not having clothes.
A dozen images flash in my brain, as if several movies are playing at 10X speed at the same time.
The image of Aster’s jerking foot spurs me back into a run. I don’t know why I care. I don’t care–but it feels like my body won’t let me remain still while she’s in need.
I sprint into the darkness, trusting my senses will keep me from running straight into a wall.
I run for four minutes straight, and then I hit the end of the tunnel and an iron door. It has a ten-inch rusted hoop for a handle and an ancient-looking lock. I grab the hoop and tug.
The door doesn’t budge. It’s locked.
I detect a slight vibration in the door when I press my palm against it. There it is again-a thud against the door from the other side.
I duck back, pressing myself against the wall, so I can hide if it swings open. It doesn’t move.
I press my palm against the door again to detect the vibration of any sounds from the other side. The inner part of the lock turns, but still the door doesn’t open.
I feel the thud again and frown. A third thud.
Is she… trying to get out?
It’s an insane risk, but something makes me grab the handle, put my foot against the wall, and heave with all my weight. The door swings back, and a slight blonde female stumbles out, doubles over, and throws up.
Aster
Oh fate, the visions. They came on again as soon as I caught that drone outside my window.
This time, I’m sure—it has something to do with the wolf I’ve been dreaming about. The young man on the periphery of the Blackthroat pack.
I saw him sitting in a car, looking at a phone screen that had my face looking back.
After that I blacked out—the visions too fast and intense to interpret.
When I woke up, I found myself here at a great iron door.
Somehow, I know that I’m at the entrance to the secret tunnel that leads from the Adalwulf manor out to the guard hut at the edge of the property.
It’s been in existence for over two hundred years. Oma once told me there was an escape tunnel dug in case the property was sacked by the Blackthroat pack. A way to get the pups and she-wolves out of danger.
I don’t know how I even found it. How I even got out of my locked chambers. I remember Oma telling me of the tunnel’s existence, but if she ever showed me this door, I have no memory.
But I trust the whispers of the Grandmothers, which tell me to go through it. I turn the ancient key in the lock counterclockwise and shove against the door.
It doesn’t move.
I put all my weight into it, but I’m too weak from the vision spell. My stomach lurches—I’m going to throw up.
I try once more in desperation.
The door seems to swing open of its own accord. I stumble through it just as my stomach decides to empty its contents on the dirt floor of the tunnel. I double over, holding myself up with a hand against the dirt wall. The visions come even stronger now. I can’t manage them. I can’t see anything.
I throw up again, and it takes me a moment to realize someone is holding my hair back from my face.
Noah.
The name comes to me, and it sounds familiar, like I’ve spoken it before, yet I’m sure I haven’t. Was it in a dream?
I reach blindly for him, and my hand hits a sturdy arm. Then I collapse to the floor.
No…
I’m not on the floor, but I am horizontal. I’m in a large wolf’s arms being transported at a rapid pace.
I struggle to slow my breath and see through the visions as we race at breakneck speed through the tunnel.
The wolf smells like pine needles and amber wood–a scent I want to wrap myself in for all time.
“Stop.” I finally manage to speak.
He doesn’t stop.
In fact, he offers no indication that he heard me at all.
“Stop!” I shout this time.
“I know you’re speaking, but I can’t hear you,” the wolf says in a flat tone.
Shock ripples through me
The pup with no ears.
The pup. With. No. Ears.
The memory of Oma and the Warden’s murmured conversation ten years ago returns to me in a flood. I’d forgotten about it until now.
Could this be him?
And more–could he be the same man I’ve been dreaming about?
His energy feels the same as what I sensed in the elevator at the museum. I didn’t see or hear him, but I feel certain this is the same man who held me on his lap while I had a fit. I’m almost certain that he’s the man from my visions.
But if he’s the wolf with no ears, that means he’s going to destroy the Adalwulf pack.
My survival instinct kicks in, and I fight him, twisting to pry my body free, even though I still can’t see anything. It’s like fighting a stone wall. He’s not hurting me, but I can’t escape his grip.
I’m weak from fasting and the vision-sickness, and everything in me wants to sink into his warm, wild scent.
“Sorry, princess, but you’re coming with me,” he says.
“Coming where? Why?” I ask then remember he can’t hear me nor can he see my lips move in the dark.
I hold my breath, reaching for guidance from the Grandmothers, but, like in the elevator, there’s too much at once. I go into convulsions again, unable to process any of it.
I succumb to unconsciousness as I’m carried off by the enemy, but the visions crystalize into stillness. I’m in my bedroom dreaming, and I wake to see a young man is dreaming with me. He’s in his bed but also somehow in the room with me. He sits up and looks at me.
“Noah.” I project the name without speaking. We’re telepathically connected.
Noah! That is his name. I know his name. And now I’m certain he’s the same man from the elevator. The same man holding me now.
Somehow, I feel I’ve had this vision/dream before; I just didn’t remember it.
I’ve been waiting to meet you for such a long time, I tell him, which I guess is true.
Who are you? he asks.
Disappointment jabs me in the chest. My dream self wanted him to know me. Thought that he would.
You don’t know? I ask.
He shakes his head. I want to.