Page 27 of Moon Guardian
“This way,” Althea said, resting a hand on my shoulder.
Her skin felt pleasantly warm against mine, but I shrugged her off and gave her a subtle nod. By the delicate frown on her face, she likely guessed what I was going through right now in some capacity, and she felt pity for me. The gold band around her irises gave her an ethereal beauty that reminded me of our differences.
I never wanted pity, especially not from a shifter.
“My village,” I said, pausing. “Will the alphas go there?”
She glanced past the glittering city toward the dark forest. The human lands hid on the other side, nestled safely away as far as we could be from drawing any interest to ourselves. “Perhaps,” she admitted. “They’ll be looking for you and our tracks run south.”
Glancing back through the river, I frowned. “Then we need to make our tracks go north.”
“That entirely defeats the purpose of throwing them off our tracks,” she deadpanned.
Ignoring her, I stormed back the way we had come. She snatched my arm, her strength surprising me as she squeezed, the force behind her grip capable of snapping me like a twig. “You don’t want to mess with alphas in the throes of the rut,” she warned me.
“The what?” I asked, blinking.
She sighed, releasing me. “It is a term when a wolf is in a state ready to mate. You have not gone into heat because you are not a wolf, but they have mated to you, and they will be overwhelmed by the need to claim you—or kill you. There is a fine line in our world.”
I chewed on my lower lip before replying. “They rejected me,” I said, my voice cracking. It still hurt in such an impossible way, lancing through me like a blade.
She lowered her eyelashes, dropping her gaze from mine. “Then you must be in a great deal of pain.”
“I am,” I said, “but not because of them. They killed my best friend. They have tormented my kind of years.” I ground my teeth together. “I want to kill them.”
Her gaze flashed up to mine, her white eyes stark in the moonlight, the golden band around her irises glowing hot with magic.
Magic that I could feel, too. It was as if the High Moon regenerated something new inside of me, building a delicate strength that I could draw on when in need.
“Killing them won’t accomplish your goals,” she warned. “Uniting the packs is the only way to bring about peace. We must evade them until they exit their rut, and then we can deal with what comes next.”
“Hmm,” I said, not committing to anything. I couldn’t kill them tonight, not without understanding what had happened to me and how to use it to my advantage.
I would have to corner the alphas one by one, alone, and fight them to the death.
After I killed them all, I would give their packs a choice. Retreat, or take orders from me.
“There are other ways to unite the packs,” I growled, working into a steady run.
Althea grew quiet, studying me as we crossed the river again.
I made sure to make my tracks visible, stomping on twigs and digging my heels into the dirt as I ran, kicking up rocks along the way.
“We run fast,” I told her.
“Fast,” she agreed, glancing over her shoulder as howls spiked through the air.
The other wolves would be wrapping up their own mating courtships, and then they would come looking for their alphas.
It was time to get the fuck out of here.
Vern
I thought you were clever, little goddess,I murmured inside my head, speaking to my wolf, although he was definitely not talking to me right now.
Her scent lingered through the air, heady and sweet. She had plowed her way through the ground, going against the wind so that her scent made us go mad.
I thought she had better instincts than that, but I looked south, the way she had initially gone, although those tracks had been harder to follow.
