Chapter One Dash #2
I’d guessed because of how he acted around the full moon, and because of a few little hints he dropped without meaning to.
I’d been into him before that, and in my deluded, too-much-reading brain, I’d figured becoming what he was would give us a chance to be together. It hadn’t. He’d denied any attraction to me at all until that full moon night when we’d both given in to what we felt…and everything went to shit.
“Dash.” Malcolm sounded pissed. “We have to get you out of pack territory by sunset. Get moving.”
“Sure.” What the fuck was I going to do?
I had nowhere to go. Werewolves weren’t allowed to stay in touch with family or friends, because there was too much risk of giving away what we were.
Like Jamie had done with me. I couldn’t just show up at my parents’ house, or either of my older siblings’ places, after a solid decade of being considered a missing person.
Especially when I was still a werewolf, even if I wasn’t part of a pack anymore.
They drove me to Annabeth’s and followed me inside, watching intently while I packed a couple of bags and a single box with the few things in the house that belonged to me.
It wasn’t until I started carrying the stuff out to the car that I realized I was going to be out on the streets, or in the woods or something, with two bags and a box.
Nowhere to keep anything, so why the fuck was I bothering?
I dropped the box. “She can sell that shit or something.”
“She doesn’t want anything of yours left here,” Malcolm said.
Zachary shot him a look. “Ignore him, Dash,” he said apologetically.
Ignore? Hell no. The way Malcolm said it, and the warning expression on Zachary’s face, told me Annabeth was more than just pissed off at me. “She did this. She talked to the Alpha, didn’t she? Told him to get me out of here.”
“I can’t answer that.” Zachary looked down for a second. Long enough to confirm that I was right.
I didn’t see any point in questioning him more. For all I knew, not telling me the truth was part of the bullshit compulsion the Alpha had set.
“We were friends,” I said quietly. “Annabeth and me. We were together, and we were friends.” We hadn’t been together, not really, but she’d gone along with the fiction in front of the rest of the pack. Or at least I’d believed she had.
“I know.” Zachary glanced at Malcolm and tugged me to the side.
Malcolm started to follow, but Zachary narrowed his eyes, and Malcolm stayed where he was.
In a low voice, Zachary said, “Listen. The Alpha didn’t declare you packless, just no longer a Cascade wolf. You can get help. Contact the Arkhon.”
He pulled out his phone, and after a moment, mine beeped.
“I just sent you his number. He can help. He’s a good man.”
“I thought the Alpha was, too.” Which brought up another point. “The Arkhon is the one who instated the Alpha.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know what’s really going on.” Zachary pressed his lips together. “Just contact him. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded and shoved his phone back into his pocket. “I’m sorry, Dash. We have to bring you to the neutral zone now.”
“Yeah.” I looked at my box and bags. “What about these things?”
“You’ll have to bring them.” He walked over and picked up the box. “Let’s go.”
Half an hour later, I was standing on the side of a back road somewhere in eastern Oregon, with the two bags on top of the box on the ground beside me.
I didn’t even know exactly where the fuck I was.
Zachary had driven us to the neutral zone between Cascade’s territory and the territory of Snake River Pack, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
I’d lived in Oregon my whole life, but until I was changed, my whole life had been spent in and around Salem.
And then, in and around Cascade territory.
The Alpha—the old one—had strongly discouraged pack members from wandering aimlessly around the area to get familiar with it.
The sun was setting in front of me, and the sky behind me was darkening, which at least gave me a sense of direction.
West was in front of me. Toward Cascade’s territory, where I couldn’t go.
East, behind me, would bring me into Snake River Pack territory, where I also couldn’t go because I didn’t have their Alpha’s permission to enter the territory.
A werewolf couldn’t enter any pack’s territory other than their own without permission, and I didn’t even know who the Snake River Alpha was, let alone how to get in touch with him to ask if I could be in their territory.
The Arkhon could grant permission, though.
In charge of all of the packs in the Northwest Region, he had more power than any Alpha.
And I had his phone number, thanks to Zachary.
Assuming Zachary hadn’t fucked me over by giving me a fake number or something, but I doubted he’d done anything like that.
He and I were friends, or at least had been until today, and he’d seemed genuinely upset about the whole kicking me out of the pack situation.
I believed he legitimately wanted to help me.
I took out my phone and opened the text he’d sent.
I didn’t try to reply to it. By now, he and everyone else in Cascade had probably blocked my number.
I just clicked the phone number in the message and listened to the ringing until a deep voice answered, “Who is this and how did you get this number?”
“Arkhon, I apologize for disturbing you.”
I didn’t know a hundred percent that this was the Arkhon, but it seemed reasonable to assume.
“My name is Dash Wozniak. I am—I was a member of Cascade Pack until this evening. I have been ejected from the pack, and I was given your number as someone who might help me find a new pack, or at least safe lodgings.”
I didn’t know where half of that explanation came from, since it didn’t sound much like my usual way of talking, but I didn’t question it. Sometimes weirdness happened between werewolves.
“Why were you ejected?” the presumably Arkhon asked, his tone softening just enough to give me hope.
“I am not entirely certain, to be honest, Arkhon.”
I ran the whole confrontation through my mind again, trying to remember the Alpha’s exact words.
“I have not met the expectations of the pack. The new Alpha does not believe I am a beneficial pack member and feels that I am taking advantage of and taking resources from packmates. He ordered me to leave and has severed all connections between me and the pack.”
“Did he declare you packless?”
At least thanks to Zachary, I knew the answer to that. “No, Arkhon. He did not.”
“Where are you now?” His tone finally relaxed into something that didn’t make me worried about him smiting me or whatever arkhons did when they were displeased.
“In the neutral zone between the territories of Cascade and Snake River.”
I looked around, hoping to spot some kind of sign or landmark, but I didn’t see a damn thing besides trees, brush, and the road.
And the sunset, which was admittedly pretty spectacular even with the trees obscuring some of my view.
“I’m sorry, Arkhon, I don’t know where exactly. The Cascade Beta and head tracker drove me out here and left me.”
“We’ll find you,” he said. “I will send one of my guards to pick you up and bring you to my home.”
Startled, I stepped back and almost fell over my luggage. “Your home, Arkhon?”
“I won’t leave you out there without shelter, and I need time to find a pack to take you in.” He paused. “You will stay at my home for the time being. I will help you, but I expect you to give me more information once you arrive.”
“Yes, Arkhon.” My heart leapt, and I almost did too, except then I probably would have fallen over the bags and box. “Thank you, Arkhon.”
“You’re welcome. The phone you’re using belongs to you?”
“Yes.” I’d bought it on one of my rare trips into town with my earnings from the restaurant.
The pack did provide phones for its members, but something had stopped me from accepting a pack phone.
Now I was glad of that little instinct, because if my phone had belonged to the pack, I would have been up a creek without a phone.
“Keep it where you can hear. I will send you information about the guard who will be picking you up.”
He lowered his voice slightly. “Dash, when you arrive, I will give you space to get settled. You’ll have food. A place to sleep. Tomorrow, however, I will have questions. Not only about your situation, but about Cascade Pack, both under your previous Alpha and under Stewart Colrain.
Be prepared to answer me as honestly as you’re able.”
“Yes, Arkhon.”
“I’ll text you shortly. Stay safe, and stay out of sight as you’re able. If a human stops for you, decline their help.”
“Yes, Arkhon.” That kind of went without saying. Humans might want to help me, but all they could do was drive me to a place where I couldn’t be without permission. Or back into Cascade territory, which would have been worse.
The Arkhon hung up without saying anything more. Feeling simultaneously like a brick building was on my shoulders and as if something heavier had been lifted from me, I sat on the ground, my back against my box, to wait for my ride out of here.