Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Wings flapped overhead, and I tore my gaze from the dead man. I wiped away my tears and stood, knife in hand.
My mind still felt fuzzy from whatever drug remained in my system, so being able to fight as well as I had was a godsend. My breathing became labored as I scanned the area, waiting for whoever was coming to appear.
At least, the adrenaline was helping ward off the fogginess threatening to overtake me again.
With my luck, it'd be that damn crow that got away yesterday from the battle scene. He must have reported straight to their leader in order for them to have sent more people to capture me so quickly.
As the flapping grew louder, my body tensed. Whoever was coming wasn't trying to be quiet. Instead, they were announcing their arrival.
When a familiar rose scent wafted toward me, my heart started beating once more.
Rosemary.
As if she’d heard her name, the dark angel flew between the two large trees and landed several feet away. Her long, straight mahogany hair was pulled into a low ponytail, emphasizing her piercing purple stardust eyes. She wore a black shirt that matched the color of her feathers and contrasted with her fair skin.
Her forehead wrinkled as she took in the scene.
I blinked a few times, trying to wrap my head around the fact that she was here. "How did you find me so quickly?"
"I've been flying around ever since I was alerted that someone had kidnapped you." Rosemary pulled in her wings, which then disappeared into her back. "I was about to turn around to head north when I heard squealing tires. I thought I’d better check it out."
"Well, I'm glad you did." I ran my fingers through my tangled hair. "Luckily, he was alone, or I might not have gotten the upper hand."
She strolled to the bear and squatted next to him. "He killed himself?" she asked in surprise.
"Yeah, he did." I was still reeling over that fact, too. "I took him down, and he went for his belt. I thought he was getting ready to fight again, but he took a pill."
"I swear, things have gotten even more interesting since you showed up." Rosemary stood. "We need to get out of here before someone finds us."
"Yeah, but how?" If a human pulled up right now, we would have a huge problem—but it wasn't like I had a shovel handy. "There's no way we can hide the car and him." It was daylight, so anyone driving by would be able to see us from the road. "But we need to check the car out before we leave. He might have left something important in it."
"Fine. See if you can find anything incriminating. I'll deal with the bear." She bent down and picked up the huge man all by herself.
"What are you going to do with him?" I got that we needed to divide and conquer, but that bear was huge—and dead weight, now.
Her wings appeared behind her once again. "I'll figure something out." She took off, flying low and using the trees as cover.
I watched her disappear—gaping and shocked at her show of strength—before reality snapped back around me.
There was no time to stand here idly.
The driver’s door remained open, and the engine was still running. The bear had been so focused on reaching me that I was almost surprised to find he'd put the car in park.
Rosemary found me. I linked with Griffin as I surveyed the tan interior of the sedan. The car looked to be several years old, but in good condition. I ripped off a piece of my shirt, using it to avoid leaving fingerprints, and leaned over to pop the glove box.
Where is she? Griffin asked. Are you hurt?
No, but the bear shifter who kidnapped me killed himself. I filled Griffin in on everything as I searched the car. There was no registration, which didn't surprise me. They could've stolen the car, for all I knew.
A shrill ringtone came from the backseat, and I glanced over my shoulder and saw a phone. I reached over the seat and grabbed it, but before I could answer, the ringing stopped.
This had to be a burner phone, which would come in handy. Maybe when things settled down, we could call the person who was trying to capture me. At least I hadn't come up empty-handed.
Rosemary stepped from the trees again. She hurried to me, alarm etched on her face. "A few cars will be passing by soon—we need to go. Otherwise, you'll have a ton of questions to answer." She stretched her arms over her head. "Unfortunately, I can’t carry you after dealing with that bear. We’re going to have to take it by foot."
"No worries." I appreciated that she’d handled him by herself. She’d managed to do it faster than if I’d tried to help. And she was right, we had to move. But unfortunately, I couldn’t shift into my animal, which would make everything take longer. There were already enough people who knew that I was a silver wolf; I didn't need to add more to the equation. And I didn’t want to take the possibly stolen car, so, walking it was.
"Well, come on." She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the tree line.
We walked in silence until we were deep enough into the woods that no one could see us from the road. I kept an eye out anyway, thankful that the trees and bushes were in full bloom. I was moving slower than I liked, still impacted by the drug they'd given me. At some point, this stuff would have to wear off. It didn't help my paranoia that there was a tickle in the back of my mind, hinting that I was forgetting something important.
After a few minutes of silence, Rosemary said, "Tell Griffin that we'll be at Shadow Lake shortly. We’re about five miles away. He can pick you up there."
Being told what to do rubbed me the wrong way, but I pushed my annoyance down; she’d come and helped me when no one else had been able to find me. I followed her instructions—alerting Griffin to the plan—then paused, trying to determine the best course of action.
"Why are you here?" I finally asked, rather bluntly. The few times I'd been direct with her, she seemed to appreciate the straightforwardness, so I'd go with that.
"Let's see." Rosemary pursed her lips. "A girl went missing on Shadow Ridge University's campus in broad daylight."
"A wolf." If she thought just telling me facts that I already knew would halt my line of questioning, she would soon learn otherwise. "Not an angel."
"What?" She gasped and placed a hand on her chest. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Seriously." I wasn't in the mood for witty banter. "This is the third time you've helped me, and I have no clue why." When someone had spray-painted a silver wolf on the brick wall outside my place of employment in an attempt—a successful one, I was still annoyed to admit—to draw me out, she'd gone back to Shadow City to figure out who knew about me. She’d helped us fight the attackers yesterday and had healed Griffin from a near-fatal gunshot wound, and today she’d helped me with the bear shifter and was now escorting me to my mate.
"Maybe I want to stay on your mate’s good side." Rosemary kept her gaze forward, not meeting my eyes.
"Bullshit." I was done playing games. "You insult him at every opportunity, and you don't seem impressed with wolves, in general. What do you get out of helping me?"
She chuckled, her irises lightening in the sunlight. "You're right. I think Griffin is a tool. He's caused a lot of problems for Shadow City because of his reluctance to take his father's place."
"Among the wolves?" Apparently, there were random attacks on wolves pretty consistently. I had been the target of one such attack at Dick Harding's bar.
"No, not just the wolves." Rosemary inhaled sharply. "There's an order to the city. Each race has a handful of representatives, but the city itself has an overall leader. Griffin is supposed to be that leader but has refused to step up, and it's caused discord among all the supernaturals. It's just been messy."
"Which brings me back to my question." I arched an eyebrow.
"There are a few reasons." She wrinkled her nose. "And at this point, I don't want to explain them to you."
"Then why should I trust you?" That was the real question I needed answered. I didn't sense bad vibes from her, but I didn't necessarily get warm fuzzy ones, either. She was strong, which I respected, but I needed to understand where her loyalties lie.
"I know one of your secrets, so I guess it's fair that you know one of mine." She stopped and faced me. "But this stays between us, do you understand?"
"Of course."
"I grew up believing that the silver wolves were dead." She nibbled on her bottom lip. "But Mom would tell me stories of the past and about this special race of wolves."
"You grew up hearing stories about us?" That was a little surreal.
"Yes, and each story centered on the fact that silver wolves were special. And that if they were still alive, we would be doing anything we could to protect them like we should have done before." She shrugged. "So I figure, if Mom believes that angels should have helped the silver wolves, then there has to be something to it."
"So, you told her about me?"
"No, I did not." She shook her head and picked up the pace. "There's enough going on with the angel members of the council—I didn't want to add your secret to it. Mom already has her plate full. Right now, only the handful of us know, and it should stay that way."
I was okay with that. The fewer people who knew about me, the easier it would be to determine who might be working against me. "Well, thank you."
"You're welcome." She gestured to the right. "The lake is there."
Lapping water affirmed what she said, and I scanned the murky lake water, looking for any signs of people out here besides us.
The rest of the trek was made in silence, and soon, a familiar Navigator came into view.
My heart rate increased as my legs took on a life of their own. The connection between us tugged , and Griffin climbed out of the car, staring straight at me.
My breath caught as his hazel eyes met mine, glowing with his surging wolf. His sculpted face held a strained expression, and his honey-brown hair looked completely disheveled. He rushed toward me and caught me, lifting me up against his six-and-a-half-foot frame. He pulled me into his arms as his scent of myrrh and leather comforted me. His scruff brushed my face as he kissed me. Thank God, you're okay. I was so damn worried.
I eagerly responded to his kiss, trying to calm him down. I'm fine. We're back together now.
Rosemary cleared her throat. "You two aren't alone."
"Clearly," Griffin grumbled as he pulled away. He ran his fingers down my cheek and checked me over for injuries. "Thank you for finding her."
"No problem. Now, we need to figure out our next steps." Rosemary's jaw twitched.
"What do you mean?" Griffin wrapped an arm around my waist. "I'm taking her home where she belongs."
Rosemary huffed. "She was just attacked there yesterday. She's not safe there, or at work."
"I'll get more guards." Griffin puffed out his chest.
Rosemary lifted a hand. "Oh, because that went so well yesterday."
Great, they were already arguing, and it hadn't even been a minute. "She's right." I faced him and touched his shoulder. "Going back to your or Killian's house isn't the best idea. They know where I’m staying, and they have a lot of manpower."
"Then we’ll go to the alpha house in Shadow City." Griffin intertwined our fingers. "That's the safest place you could be."
"Not while we don't know who’s behind all the attempts to capture me. It could be someone inside the city." We had no clue who we were up against. "Before we alert anyone else that a silver wolf is alive, we need to figure out who's hunting me." A chill ran down my spine.
I truly was being hunted.
"She's right." Rosemary nodded. "I know for a fact that Azbogah and his angel backers wouldn't be thrilled about her existence. We need to focus on one problem at a time instead of having everything come to a head."
Her words resonated with me. "We need to go where this whole thing started." My heart sank, but there was no getting around the truth.
"What do you mean?" Rosemary arched an eyebrow.
"My pack was… slaughtered. " My voice broke, but I managed to keep it at least somewhat together. "That's how I ended up in Shadow Ridge, to begin with. My pack home is where we need to start."
"Are you sure about that?" Griffin cupped my face, ignoring the dark angel beside us. "I'll station fifty guards in front of our door at all times if that's what it'll take to keep you safe."
"But that's the thing." His concern warmed my heart. So much had changed between us in a short amount of time. "I wouldn't be truly safe. I'd be more of a prisoner." I refused to live like that, which meant I had to face my biggest fear. "For our future, I need to go back to the pack neighborhood right outside of Chattanooga and see if anything was left behind. The answers may be in the past."
My stomach revolted the entire way to my family home. Rosemary was going to meet us there later after checking in with her family, and Killian would be there a few minutes after us.
The memories of that day were crisp and clear. The sound of the guns firing, all of the dead bleeding out on the ground, and my own father being attacked while I slipped away to safety; nightmares that still haunted me whether I was asleep or awake. For the past month, with all the death and heartache that had come my way, a reaper might have been following me around. I’d heard that there were a few that got involved when life became unbalanced, but there hadn’t been any signs, so that wasn’t plausible.
"Are you sure about this?" Griffin's hand tightened on mine. "We don't have to go back there, or I could at least have some people go first and check everything out."
"No. I bet they gave up on me coming back, but we’ll be careful, just in case." Hell, I’d never expected to willingly go back. "And the more people we alert to the plan, the more likely the wrong person will find out. If we want to see if something was left behind, going now is our best bet."
Griffin took the all-too-familiar turn that bent around a section of woods leading into the pack neighborhood. The bright sun sparkled in a cloudless sky, almost as if the past few days had all been just a nightmare. But the pain that gripped me as I prepared to see the death and destruction I’d left behind reminded me that it was, in fact, reality.
When the neighborhood came into view, I sucked in a breath…and couldn't believe my eyes.