Page 31 of Salvation

He smiled then froze. Wait a second. He wasn’t an alpha. He was just…

Tina shook her head at him, sending an audibletsk-tskinto his mind.

Obviously, the she-wolf didn’t know him as well as she thought, but now was hardly the time to push that point.

“So, it wasn’t one of the Blue Bloods,” Cody said, picking up the conversation where he’d left off.

“At least, not one directly involved in the attacks.”

“Maybe we got all of them,” Cody said, looking hopeful if not certain.

Ty shook his head. “Hard to say. But they might as well be out there, the way shifters all over the West are panicking.”

Just when Todd was about to ask what that meant, Lana supplied the answer.

“Mixed shifter couples living in outlying places have been contacting us, looking for a safer place. Looking to band together. There are rumors of new attacks, but so far, none we can prove. No one knows if the Blue Bloods are still out there or not.”

Ty shook his head and rapped his knuckles on a table, calling the conversation back to the main point. “Where exactly did this wolf show up?”

Todd cast his mind back to the previous day’s hike, because that was easier to handle than the distant past. “I think it’s called Sunrise Trail. It went up like this…” He drew the landscape with his hands, and the others nodded along. “There was a hollow, then a rise, and then a little ridge you don’t see from below.”

“I know the spot.” Ty nodded. “Good place to surprise someone.”

“You got any rogues around here I don’t know about?” Soren curved an eyebrow, and Todd could see the anger in his cousin’s tight lips.

Ty shook his head firmly, but the gesture slowly stalled out. “None. Unless…”

“Unless?” Soren demanded.

Ty, Tina, and Cody exchanged glances, and Todd caught the whisper of a name.

“Roy.”

“Who the hell is Roy?” Soren demanded.

Tina opened her hands in the air, a signal for the bear to cool down. Her face had gone from thoughtful to sad. “A member of our pack.”

“A rogue member of your pack?” Soren barked, enraged at the idea that his mate had been threatened by one of his allies.

The Twin Moon wolves shook their heads. “He’s not a rogue,” Tina said quickly. “It’s just that… Well…”

Cody continued where she left off. “We grew up together. He’s a good guy. But after… Well, after a tragedy—” Cody said, glossing over the details “—he started staying in wolf form for longer and longer periods of time.”

A hush fell over the room.

“How long has he been in wolf form?” Soren asked.

Cody looked at Ty, who looked at Tina.

“How long?” Soren demanded.

Tina gave a sad sigh. “Six years.”

Soren shot Todd a look that said,holy crap.Wolf shifters were like bears in that their human sides were dominant. To stay in animal form too long meant risking one’s sanity, as Todd knew all too well. He’d stayed in bear form for months, and he’d felt the strands of sanity unravel, one thin thread at a time. Who knows what might have happened if he’d remained a bear for longer?

And six years… Holy crap was right.

Ty ran a hand through his hair. “Roy wouldn’t hurt anyone — I think.”

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