Page 69 of The Wulver's Bond
On the twelfth ring, Arran finally answered, with a very hesitant tone to his gruff voice. ‘Hello?’
‘Hey,’ Cam said coolly. ‘I just need to ask you something. Is—’
‘Hi, Arran!’ Meredith cut in excitedly. ‘It’s Meredith! And Lachy’s here, too! How are you, hon? We’re all missing you, back here!’
Cam was sure he could feel the Wulver’s thousand-yard stare from the other end of the phone. It was a reasonable reaction, when faced with the standard Meredithian outpouring of love.
‘I’m… fine,’ Arran replied slowly.
In the background, another voice drifted over the speaker. ‘Who’re you talking to, wolfie?’
Cam shared a glance with the others. Meredith’s surprised expression spoke for all of them. She was the first to say it out loud, too. ‘Who’s your friend, Arran?’
Arran took a minute to reply. ‘His name is Moss.’
No further explanation was forthcoming, and the Wulver appeared content to sit in silence on the phone if he wasn’t being asked a direct question.
‘Okay, cool,’ Cam said. He held up a hand to stop Meredith from blurting out anything else. ‘Look, Arran, we just need to get a quick opinion from you. Meredith’s found a report of some giant green man walking around the Shetland Mainland. You’d have seen it, right?’
Arran gave a stuttering growl, like a splutter. ‘Seen what?’
‘A green giant,’ Cam repeated evenly.
‘I—it—No. No, I have not seen that.’
Cam locked eyes with Lachlan. Lachy’s mouth twitched into a brief frown. They’d both heard the woodenness in Arran’s reply.
Lachlan took the lead, gently probing with his next question. ‘Hey, Arran. Is Moss a friend of yours?’ He added a doubtful inflection to the wordfriend, offering Arran the opportunity to hint back if he was being held under duress.
There was an audible, hoarse gulp from the Wulver. ‘He’s my… We are…’
‘Just tell ’em we’re shagging, wolfie. They’ll get it.’
Meredith squealed a gasp—she slapped a hand over her mouth, too late and to little effect. The statement had rather sucked the air out of the room. Cam held the phone at arm’s length, hit by the fact that he didn’t want to contemplate the mechanics of the Wulvershagginganyone.
Lachlan, however, seemed unperturbed, if a little surprised. ‘Oh, that’s nice. So everything’s well with you at the moment, Arran?’
‘No giants?’ Cam added gruffly.
The Wulver cleared his throat. ‘There are no giants you need to worry about here, Walker. Moss and I will continue to keep the islands safe.’
Moss and I,Cam noted. Someone else to keep track of, potentially. He wanted to press for more details, but suspected Lachy would have words if he did.
‘Cool,’ he said. ‘Well, if you need anything, you know where we are.’
‘Yes.’ The Wulver’s stony voice softened, just a little. ‘Thank you.’
‘Tell them bye from me, wolfie! Your friends sound like a hoot.’
‘Moss says bye.’
Cam, Lachlan, and Meredith responded with an awkward chorus of goodbyes, and Cam hung up the phone.
‘That was weird, right?’ Cam demanded, still glaring at the screen.
‘The Moss thing?’ Lachlan raised a sly eyebrow. ‘Only about as weird as sleeping with the Loch Ness Monster.’
‘Sure, but whoishe? Why didn’t Arran ever mention him before?’ Cam couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about Moss’s voice was nigglingly familiar, and he had a bad feeling about it in the pit of his stomach. He’d learned not to ignore his intuition.
