Chapter23 #2
“Good.” Heath nodded again. “That means Connie is probably right—the Alpha wants to keep him hidden.”
“Okay, so we go check the Alpha’s residence.”
We didn’t talk about what would happen if Callum wasn’t there because we didn’t know. Connie hadn’t been able to tell us much, seeing as he’d never really interacted with Callum. According to him, Callum was mostly kept in his room whenever Otto didn’t drag him around by the collar.
My stomach soured at the thought of that thing, the feeling of heavy iron around my throat a weight that pinned me down for a moment. A short memory. Not real.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then sat up, a groan escaping as pain shot through my body. Lying in the bed of a truck for almost six hours straight was fucking uncomfortable.
“Stay together!” Heath said as he stood up.
I nodded, extending the shield around us that kept us from view. Angelo was the last one to get to his feet. He stretched his muscles, letting out a hiss as something in his back audibly popped.
“You owe us for this,” he whispered, rubbing his lower back.
“Want me to make it better?”
He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
“If it still hurts after we’re done, you can do your magic. For now, you need all the energy you have.”
I nodded.
“Let’s go.”
We stayed huddled together as we climbed out of the truck, so I could keep the shield around us going while the barrier stayed where it was. Barriers weren’t something I could take with me. They were static, tethered to the ground—or, in this case, the truck.
“Which direction?” I asked.
Heath nodded to the right. “According to Connie, we need to follow the road we came from until we get to the main road and then head to the left. The road will lead us right into town, and then we apparently can’t miss it.”
Angelo snorted. “Yeah, I bet you can’t. Anyway, let’s go. We don’t know how quickly this thing will be over, and I really don’t want to be stuck here without our ride.”
We walked along the side of the driveway. No one said a word. Heath and Angelo kept checking the woods, occasionally nodding at something.
A howl stopped us dead in our tracks. More wolves chimed in, a haunting tune that made my heart rate spike. Goosebumps spread along my arms, nerves that weren’t my own fluttering in my chest.
“Fuck,” Heath breathed. “They’re getting ready for the fight.”
“Already?” I asked, nausea settling in my stomach.
He nodded grimly. “We need to hurry. Hurrying means we need to shift and run.”
“Oh.” I nodded. I’d get a workout today. I was out of shape, but I had more magic than I’d had in months. “Okay. Go ahead, I’ll turn around.”
Angelo snorted. “Heath isn’t worried about you seeing us naked. He doesn’t want to come out and say it, but we’re faster than you, so… uhm… we’ll need to figure out how to keep you with us.”
“I can keep up,” I said.
Heath snorted. “Yeah, sure. You have super speed, or what?”
Rolling my eyes, I jumped up, using a bit of magic to catapult me a couple of feet into the air. “No, but I have magic. You might think I’m some kind of weak kid, but I was on the run for months. When I first escaped, I had thirty wolves chasing me. Trust me, I can keep up.”
Heath huffed out a breath but didn’t say anything. Instead, he swiftly started stripping, throwing his clothes at me.
What a fucking asshole!
How was it possible for him to be such a prick one moment, then nice the next, only to turn into an asshole again five minutes later?
I used more force than strictly necessary to shove his clothes into the backpack I was carrying, then graciously accepted Angelo’s clothes. Within the blink of an eye, I was standing between a giant wolf and an even bigger lion.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. I’d seen Angelo as a lion yesterday, but hadn’t been as close to him. “You’re fucking scary.” His head was as wide as my shoulder span, his fangs long enough to snap my neck in half with a single bite.
He’s pack, that voice inside me said. He’s not a danger to you. You’re pack now too.
What a strange thought. Me being part of a pack. Would I ever get used to it without it feeling odd?
I turned to Heath, whose eyes were trained on me, head cocked as if he was waiting.
Oh. Right. He was probably waiting for me to get going.
“Ready?” I asked. They both nodded. “You set the pace. I’ll keep up.”
Another nod, and off we went.
Cold air hit me in the face, stinging me like tiny needles. My lungs burned, my legs burned, and I was beyond the point of exhaustion.
I was out of shape.
So out of shape.
Fuck.
Maybe I’d been a bit presumptuous when I’d told Heath I could keep up. Then again, I didn’t want to have to face the embarrassment of being the one who was holding everyone up. Didn’t want to admit that keeping up with them was more than a bit of a challenge.
I reached for my magic and sent it through my veins, right into my burning muscles, repairing the tiny tears, soothing the aches.
Howls filled the air for the second time when we finally spotted the first houses ahead of us. The fight was about to begin. The second round of howls was the five-minute signal.
Slowly, the forest gave way to the town.
The occasional cabin in the forest turned into streets adorned with houses.
Then came the commercial spaces. They sat in a neat row along Main Street: a hardware store, a bookstore, a bakery, and a coffee shop.
Everything looked normal. Almost like Balwood.
But the air felt different. There was a tension here that made the hair on my arms stand up.
It might just be the fight that was happening at the packhouse right about now. Gray’s tension was palpable to me, his feelings bleeding through the bond.
The fight also explained why this was a ghost town. No one was out, and there weren’t even lights in the windows; however, I could feel the people hiding in their homes.
Were they expecting us? Was that why they were hiding?
We kept running, chasing along the empty sidewalk as the stores slowly gave way to regular houses again. Then Heath and Angelo came to a sudden stop. I stopped dead in my tracks, doubling over to catch my breath as the two of them swiftly shifted right in the middle of the street.
Not that anyone could see them even if they weren’t hiding in their houses. I kept the shield upright at all times.
“Curfew?” Angelo asked Heath while he took the backpack off my back.
Why didn’t he sound at least a bit out of breath while I was dying over here? I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart was hammering, anxiety spiking.
“Looks like it.”
They nodded at each other in silent communication while Angelo rummaged through the backpack and handed a set of clothes to Heath before he pulled out his own pair of sweats.
My heart was beating rapidly, lungs burning.
I closed my eyes and focused on the well in my chest. I pulled at the magic and directed it into my blood, following the pump of my heart, swimming along until it reached my lungs.
The magic spread like a cooling balm, and slowly, oh so slowly, the burning drained away.
“Not that easy, huh?” Heath teased. Opening my eyes, I found him grinning at me, a glint in his eyes.
I sighed and looked away.
Asshole.
A shiver ran through my body, tension seeping into my muscles, locking them up. My chest drew tight. I couldn’t breathe and then… “Holy shit,” I gasped, grabbing Angelo’s arm. I needed something to hold on to. Howling sounded in the distance, longer now, a symphony of blood and wrath.
“The fight has begun?” Angelo asked.
I nodded.
“Fuck.” Heath grabbed me and started running towards a gated house. No, not a house. A freaking mansion. It looked as out of place as a building could possibly look in the middle of a small Canadian town. White pillars, golden adornments, and marble statues on the fucking front lawn.
It was gaudy as hell.
“Guards?”
Angelo inhaled deeply.
“Can’t smell anyone. What about the mage?”
Good question.
Damn. I should’ve searched for him right from the start instead of healing myself. I could survive exhaustion. Getting Callum out was more important.
I reached for the well inside me and closed my eyes, focusing solely on the building in front of us as I sent my magic out, searching for a magic signature.
I briefly skimmed the first floor. No one in their right mind kept a prisoner at ground level.
The better options were either underground—but I couldn’t detect anyone there—or higher up.
That’s where I finally found it. An aura.
Muted, but there. At first glance, it almost appeared human, but when I brushed against it, a faint electricity ran up my arm.
I gasped, sending out another wave, stronger this time, and got the same reaction. Faint electricity danced over my arm until it dispersed. “Third floor.”
He felt…
Damn. I couldn’t read his aura. Couldn’t feel whether he was in turmoil or calm. It was as if his aura was hidden behind a curtain. I could make out a silhouette, but that was it. No colours, no swirling.
Angelo nodded. “Okay. That’s what Connie figured. How do we do this? I know we wanted to pick the lock, but we’re in a time crunch.”
Heath rolled his shoulders.
“You’re sure there’s no one close?”
I nodded, then grimaced. “I mean, there are people across the street, but I have the shield that’s keeping us hidden and…”
I didn’t get to finish.
Heath started in the direction of the mansion, swiftly ripping open the metal gate. I ran after him to keep him and the gate within the confines of my shield. Fuck. This wasn’t what we’d talked about.
“Wait…”
The shield stretched; Angelo watched us for a moment, then ran up to me while Heath continued running along the short driveway to the front door.
“Heath, you can’t…”
Wood splintered as Heath ripped the front door out of its hinges and threw it across the snow-covered front yard.