Page 65 of Enemy Wolf

There was another long pause.

“Damn it, Ruse. If you don’t tell me—”

“We haven’t seen Orson since that day either.”

While I remained in shocked silence, he went on. “Tryn found Orson’s truth thread to be intact, so the dragon was lying about him being involved, as we figured. But after that, the whole pack went out searching, and Orson went out on his own. No one’s seen either of them, and we haven’t found a trail yet.”

Even with an intense sense of wrongness in my chest, I was able to find my voice. “Well, where have you looked?”

“Everywhere in the main parts of the territory and the foothills. We haven’t gone up the mountains yet, but are planning on it. It just takes more coordination since we’ll be out there for days, if not weeks.” Ruse sighed. “Shiloh, I don’t want to say we’re expecting the worst, but...”

“But you are,” I supplied.

“I’m really sorry, Shiloh. We won’t stop until we find something, but no expectations on what that will be.”

“You expect to find a...a body.” I forced out the final word. “Or whatever the dragon left of him.”

“If the dragon killed him, I feel like we would’ve seen the dragon by now. So I really don’t know.”

It took effort but I was finally able to loosen my grip on the phone. “You think there’s a chance he’s still alive?”

“I hope so. We aren’t super close but it would be devastating to lose a packmate.” Ruse paused. “I don’t recall if you two were officially mated, but I can’t imagine how hard this is for you too.”

“We weren’t—er, aren’t yet, but thank you for saying that.”

Silence stretched over the phone until Ruse said, “I’m on the next search team, so I should get going. If we find anything, you’ll be my first call.”

“Thank you, Ruse,” I said. “I’ll wait to hear from you.”

I hung up the phone and immediately left the command center, heading back down the tunnel. With a quick stop to retrieve my barely-charged phone, I returned to the air mattress that had been my home for the last three days. I bundled up in a few layers of clothes, packed some non-perishable food in a bag, then threw a large coat on over everything. Once all bundled and packed up, I headed down a side tunnel, the one that ended in a metal staircase welded into the wall and the hatch leading outside at the top of the staircase.

Nobody was around or guarding anything. We weren’t prisoners down here. Everyone just assumed staying down here was common sense—better to do as the wolves said and stay underground while there was a dragon flying around our territory.

But I wasn’t operating on common sense anymore. And I would not be sitting around waiting for Ruse to call.

Pushing open the round, metal hatch, I sucked in a greedy breath of the fresh, cool air. Oh, how I missed the outside. Having air pulled underground held nothing on getting it straight from the source.

After pulling myself up to the surface, I closed the latch as quietly as I could. It wouldn’t take long for folks to notice me missing, but hopefully no one would be foolish enough to follow.

It was night out, and I stood to my full height and gazed up at the moon. She was a sliver now, growing thinner until she would be reborn as a new moon, and then her magic would ramp up again for the next cycle.

I closed my eyes in deference to her, to her magic that nourished this land and the people in it. To her will and the mate she chose for me.

The mate I would find, with the magic of our bond to guide me. Orson hadn’t bitten me to seal the bond in place, nor had I taken from his flesh, but the thread of our fate was still there, linking us.

I just had to call upon the magic, to find it. And then use it to find him. With the moon waning in power, it wouldn’t be as easy. But this was my only option. I had to make it work.

“Please, mother moon,” I whispered, tilting my head back with my arms limp at my sides in offering. “Please let me find him.”

The darkness behind my closed eyelids brightened into a dark silvery color, and a question was posed. Not with words exactly, but I immediately knew I had to answer for something.

“I accept him for who he is,” I told the night air. “It doesn’t matter his origins, his blood relations to the dragons. No matter what, Orson is a son of yours. Your magic runs in him, and he is a strong, capable werewolf. Fate has chosen him for me, and I accept him with all that I am. I…” My breath hitched as a sob threatened to choke my words, but I swallowed. “I was wrong to reject him. So very wrong. I…love him.”

A cool breeze picked up and caressed my cheek. When I opened my eyes, all the joy and hope I hadn’t dared to feel before now soared in my chest.

I saw a silver thread, delicate and ethereal as spider’s silk, stretching from the crown of my head into the mountains.

“Thank you, sweet moon,” I whispered in awe before hurrying to follow the path laid out for me.

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