Chapter 1 - Damian #2
Connor places a hand on Dorian’s shoulder. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t think that anyone in the pack needs the stress. We just got you back. We just got Damita back…”
“Fuck…” Dorian grumbles. “Tonight is supposed to be a special one for Nightclaw. It’s Uncle Elias’s annual memorial celebration. We can’t go ahead if we’re putting the pack in danger.”
“If you cancel the celebration, you’re going to cause distress,” Flynn offers.
“Flynn’s right. You shouldn’t cancel, Dorian,” Theodore agrees. “Tighten your patrols, and we’ll leave some of the Blackmaw soldiers around to keep watch.”
“The same goes for Misty Creek. Since this has surfaced in your territory, we can’t just leave you alone to deal with it. We don’t even know what we’re dealing with yet.”
I nod and turn to my brother, noting how supportive everyone has become ever since Dorian was cleared of suspicion that he had anything to do with Finch Lycoan’s death.
Before he’d been kidnapped, and before Jackson emerged as the real threat and mastermind behind the rogue attacks, some of the council members were hostile.
“I’ll stay as well,” I add. “I’ll help you tighten security and ensure that the festivities continue as scheduled. Elias was my uncle, too.”
Dorian offers me a tense smile. “Thanks, brother. That means a lot to me.”
I nod at him, and the other council members begin rounding up their soldiers to return to their hometowns before lunch.
Sticking around in Fort Smit, I launch myself headfirst into plotting safety measures with my brother, instructing the group of Valley Walker soldiers who had accompanied me to the meeting to sweep the Nightclaw territory and look out for any new signs of threats.
By the time lunch rolls around, Dorian invites me to his house.
“Damita will be elated to see her favorite uncle again,” he winks, and I smirk.
“I am her only uncle,” I chuckle lightly, though I’m suddenly excited to see my niece.
“Well, if Jackson was around, you’d still be her favorite,” Dorian snickers, and I punch him playfully in the ribs.
“Don’t say that in front of Amelia, unless you want her to exile you.”
Dorian rolls his eyes. “I’ll have you know that she’d exile me for anything less abrasive. Her pregnancy has not been easy. Mom says it’s because she’s carrying a boy.”
“Well, Mom had two, so she’d know best,” I snicker.
Dorian laughs and shakes his head. “Well, we should get going before I end up on the couch for being late to lunch.”
I nod slowly, but then the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle with an awareness that snags my attention away from my brother.
Frowning, I turn toward the woods as goosebumps erupt across my forearms.
“Do you sense that?”
“Sense what?” Dorian asks. “Do you think it’s here again? Whatever did this?” He points to the shriveled side of the forest.
“If you can’t sense it, then it must be my imagination. You know these woods better than I do.”
“Let me get my men—”
“No,” I breathe, the uneasiness so stifling that I deduce I must be the only one feeling it. If Dorian can’t sense it, then maybe it’s all in my head.
Maybe it’s just being an overprotective uncle that has me feeling this way.
“You go on and check up on Luna, Amelia, and Damita. Mother will probably arrive soon, anyway. I’ll check your perimeters, then meet you there.”
“Are you sure you’re alright, Damian?”
I turn and nod, patting his shoulder with reassurance as I lightly chuckle. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just paranoid, that’s all.”
“Call me if you see anything,” he says, and I nod as I watch him leave reluctantly. Dorian glances over his shoulder twice before entering the walkway, then disappears beyond the thicket bordering the market area.
I turn back to the woods, shifting into wolf form to sweep the borders, when I’m suddenly hit by the intensity of a scent that would almost be suffocating if it weren’t so appealing.
My wolf paws freeze between the fruitful ground and the side that had been tainted by unknown cruelty, hackles rising, pointed ears perking up as I’m pulled toward the Nightclaw pack center.
The sounds of shuffling feet fill my eardrums, and I can distinctly pick out a pair of footsteps pattering on the paved walkways as if they were my own.
The fur between my eyes tugs like a frown, and I quickly realize that whatever is beckoning to my wolf doesn’t lie beyond the Nightclaw borders.
It’s coming from somewhere within the pack territory, and my instincts lead me toward the village square. I shift back to human form before turning the corner of the building, not wanting to cause alarm if the pack members see me in wolf form.
But when I do, standing on two human feet now, the feeling of unrest continues to churn in my gut, unfurling across my arms and winding around my neck.
Someone knocks into my arm, snapping me out of the trance-like daze, but the sensations don’t stop flowing through me. Unease. A type of restlessness I have only felt a decade ago.
“Sorry, sir!” a bubbly, playful voice chirps under my nose, and that’s when I realize that whoever bumped into me is only a child.
I look down to meet a pair of apologetic, fretful eyes, as richly blue as my own.
My wolf is losing his mind internally, clawing at my subconscious as if he wants to be let out. But it’s not because the young boy is a threat. It’s because this feels like staring into a mirror reflecting my younger self, and I’m stunned.
“My friends and I were just messing around. Didn’t see ya there,” the boy shrugs, running a hand through tight brown curls as if he’s nervous.
I chuckle as I’m brought back to reality, the wariness slowing down to a mild simmer beneath the surface of my flesh.
“No worries, young man,” I reply, nodding to the group of boys waiting for him a few feet away. “Shouldn’t you be headed to the pack center for lunch, you and your buddies?”
The boy goes ramrod straight as if he just received a command, and a blindingly hot flush spreads down my spine.
Who is he, and why is my wolf reacting this way?
“Yes, sir,” he responds matter-of-factly. “We should get going. My ma is gonna be mad if I haven’t found my seat in time.” He rubs a hand across the back of his neck sheepishly, grimacing as if he’s having war flashbacks, and suddenly, his eyes widen. “Hey, aren’t you the alpha’s brother?”
“Yes,” I chuckle again, frowning at myself for feeling so comfortable around the boy. “Yes, I am.”
The boy grins from ear to ear, and I gasp at the tug on my heartstrings, as if I’m supposed to recognize him.
But I don’t know anyone in Nightclaw except for my brother and Amelia.
“Cool.” The boy nods thoughtfully and rushes off to join his friends. The group shuffles into the pack center, and I’m left staring at the door, a magnetic pull beckoning me inside, that strange feeling of uneasiness growing stronger.
My frown deepens, but I feel so foolish that I hang my head, shaking it as I laugh to myself. I’m probably just unnerved by the findings on the border, and I have no reason to feel this way.
I’m just worried about Damita, Amelia, and my brother. That’s all.
But when I look up, I catch a glimpse of a face I thought I’d never see again.
A name I never imagined would cross my mind ever since she disappeared from Valley Walker.
“It can’t be…” I whisper, my heart racing as I realize there’s one more person I should be worried about.
She’s rushing into the pack center, tying a knot on her apron behind her neck, her blonde hair braided down one shoulder, her hazel eyes sparkling almost fiery red as the sunlight catches them when she glances over her shoulder.
My heart stops long enough for her to disappear inside the pack center, and my whole world crashes down in an instant.
I’m not worried about her because she’s in danger.
I’m worried about her because of the danger she brings to my inner wolf, and all the memories that surface in one single glimpse.
The agony of finding her cabin empty the night of my swearing-in ceremony. The excruciating physical pain that tore into my chest for months after she abandoned me. I feel it again, the dull ache of those buried memories, crashing into me as the pull yanks at my being.
I’m forced to face the fact that the woman I lost when I became alpha is right here, under my nose, in my brother’s pack.
How can it be?
How can Poppy Barnes be here?