Page 61 of Entangled in the Woods
Everett snarled in disgust. “You follow my commands. You’re a member of my pack.”
“A member of your pack only in tradition! You’ve never offered to help me! To help me become whole!” Wilder was spitting mad. The tension in this relationship clearly ran deep.
Everett calmed a bit and spoke like a concerned father would. “I can’t help you get your fangs, Wilder. It was something you weren’t born with. You have other skills that help the pack. Hands down, you’re our best tracker. You don’t need fangs to be a real wolf.”
My heart thumped loudly, listening to his kind words.
Wilder smiled knowingly, as if he had Everett bested. “Oh, but you forget. You’re so wrapped up in your own she-wolf to realize that I can never be a real wolf without my fangs. I can never claim a mate.” Everett seemed lost for words at Wilder’sstatement. “Your father offered to help me get in touch with others who can help me become whole if I brought Elise to him. I did it to have what you have—a chance at a mate. I won’t ever apologize for that.”
In a way, I felt for Wilder. Even after his second attempted kidnapping of me. I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on the chance of feeling what Everett and I felt when we were together. Maybe my heart was too soft.
But his confession met deaf years with Everett. “Witches, Wilder? You’re going to the witches for help?” He laughed deeply. “What a joke that is. My father fed you that garbage about the witches helping our kind. Let me guess, he said he would put in a good word for you? Set up a meeting?” Wilder’s face turned red. “Let me tell you a little secret.” Everett’s voice lowered to a loud whisper. “My father doesn’t know any witches. Our packs haven’t seen one in a hundred years.”
Wilder stumbled backward at the words. It was not the rebuttal he’d been expecting. He looked to the True Alpha for confirmation of Everett’s words, and the True Alpha’s silence said enough.
Gray fur sprouted from his shoulders and black claws grew from his fingernail beds as he shifted. His clothing fell beneath him as he fully transitioned, sitting on his haunches. Lifting his snout to the sky, Wilder let out a haunting howl that sent shivers down my back. I must have shaken physically because Everett’s father tightened his grip. The sadness of the howl made its way deep into my bones, and I could feel the disappointment Wilder was feeling. Without a second glance, he retreated into the woods, picking up his pace as he fled.
“Why did you lie to him, Father?” Everett stalked over to his father and me. He held his broad shoulders high authoritatively. I guessed this wasn’t the first disagreement he and his father had had. “You know as well as I do—we haven’t had contact with thewitchesin decades.” He snarled as he spoke, his canines pushing past his lips.
“Preying on the weakest member of my pack to do your dirty work…” Everett spat at his father’s feet. “I always thought you were better than that.”
The closer he walked toward us, the better I could see the dark gold of his eyes. The swirls that usually spun idly around his irises were still. Black claws peeked out of his clenched fists; he was ready to shift at any time.
“You’re the one who keeps a wolf without fangs in your pack. Only as a favor to Beta Gavrill. It makes you weak, Everett,” the True Alpha said. “A son of the True Alpha cannot be weak. You should thank me for weeding him out. The pack is better off without him.”
The True Alpha’s grip tightened on my arm as he spoke. He seemed unaware that his own claws were extending, piercing my skin. I could tell Everett was continuing to get angrier with every single word he spoke.
“Your ineptitude embarrasses me. The land I gifted to you is dying.” The True Alpha motioned to the brown ground surrounding us with his free hand. “You have the Lifestone right under your nose.” I shrieked as he pulled me forward and shook me in front of Everett. “Your land is dying, yet you donothing!”
Everett’s nostrils flared as he tried to keep his composure in front of his father.
“A weak leader,” he said. “You’re a weak leader who’s done nothing to save your pack’s land. I’m ashamed to call you my son.”
Something snapped in Everett’s composure. His claws fully lengthened, and black fur started spouting from his arms. Canines elongated in his mouth. He lunged at his father, careful to attack him away from where I was being held.
Laughing, the True Alpha batted him away with a white-clawed paw, having partially shifted. “You’ll have to try harder than that.”
Everett’s voice was nothing but a growl. “I don’t want to hurt you, Father. Just give me my mate.” Crouched on all fours, he continued shifting. Large black paws held his body up, black shiny claws digging into the ground. His arms had black fur on them, as did the bottom half of his legs. He was shaking so hard with the effort to stay in his human form that it looked painful.
His father looked and sounded fully entertained. He hadn’t seemed so enthused even at the opening of the Deca Tournament. “Oh, I think I will keep your little wolf. You see, I know what’s best for the pack. I know we must make sacrifices.”
My breathing stopped and my body froze at the last word.
“This little wolf is not what she seems.” He lifted my body like I was a rag doll and held me dangling by my arm as I squirmed. A low growl emanated from Everett’s throat. “I smelled her when she entered your land. An old breed. Not a lot of wolf blood flowing through her veins, yet it is still there.”
“I’ve never smelled wolf in her.” Everett came closer and took a deep breath through his nose, smelling me.
The True Alpha lowered me to the ground, and I stumbled, trying to find my footing. “Of course not. You’re too intrigued by theothersmells emitting from your mate.” I gave him a disgusted look, and I once again tried to pull away. “But I can smell the small amount of wolf blood in her. I would guess there hasn’t been a fully bred wolf in her family for generations. But there is wolf in her.”
“I am not a wolf!” Screaming in frustration, I tried to pull away again. I didn’t get anywhere, just received more cuts on my arm from his claws. Everett prowled closer, growling at his father.
“You can’t help what you are, little wolf, but you can help me.” The True Alpha tried a different tactic, speaking at me slowly, in a soft tone. “Give me the stone. I can smell it on you.”
“I don’t have the fucking stone!” My frustration was reaching an all-time high. Everyone asking me for the stone, the one thing that would save me, the one thing I didn’t have.
“I’ve been searching for the stone for a hundred years,” the True Alpha said. “Ever since the witches took the stone from the tree, the land has been dying. The balance between life and death is crumbling. I’m sure you’ve noticed the surrounding death? The void of new life?” He gestured around the forest.
Walking toward Everett, the True Alpha dragged me along behind him. “Why do you think I continue the Deca Tournament? I send our best wolves to our many pack forests to search for the stone.” My body paused my struggle against the True Alpha, listening to his declaration. “I gave these lands to you, son. For you to rule and heal. Yet you did nothing, let the land continue to die around you. Soon there will be nothing left for you to rule.”
