Page 20 of Veradel
I cling to Lucan’s fur as he barrels back toward town, summoning all of the remaining pack to shift.
One by one, their presences coil through me. Flooding my nervous system, I can tell every werewolf carries a unique feeling, like a mental fingerprint, but it’s hard to pick out who’s who without knowing them.
One hour, Lucan tells them.Pack meeting.
Their thoughts go haywire before Lucan shutters off the unfamiliar voices for me.
Thank you,I say, tucking myself into his fur as he streaks down the mountain with lightning speed, weaving between tree trunks with seamless grace.
Lucan doesn’t even sound winded.You’ll get used to it, he assures me.
Maybe so, but right now I’m thankful for silence because I need to think, and my mind and stomach are twining into knots.
Malcolm. Gaia. Walter. Eleni. Claudia. Even Tristan.
They’re all caught in the middle of a riot—that I technically started. Or at least contributed to.
My distraction worked, and Eleni and Claudia succeeded. All of the citizens must have heard my last conversation with Arad, where he admitted everything. I don’t know whether my nerves are pride or the need to vomit.
Xantera wants to fight. And I want to help.
Though I don’t have long to stew on the fact that I can’t help. Not while that Wall is still standing.
And certainly not when we turn back on the main dirt road to find Soren, Merrick, and Vivian already waiting, standing in a row in their werewolf forms like some sort of shield.
Lucan’s mental block melts, and there’s a tense shift in the air. I’m clueless, eyes churning between these enormous wolves. For a second, I wonder if Lucan has cut me out of whatever is going on.
But as soon as my feet hit the ground, a werewolf I don’t recognize, with reddish fur and a long, pointed snout, stalks up from behind them with his teeth bared.Let’s talk now.
Lucan steps in front of me, and a deep growl echoes in the air and inside my head. The hair on the back of my neck raises along with everyone else’s as they all crouch defensively.
I said one hour, Gabriel, Lucan replies, voice hard.
But the male named Gabriel doesn’t retreat.You’ve been acting strange for months.Keeping us out of the loop. And now a human woman miraculously shows up without any explanation.
Gabriel’s disdain for me seeps into my bloodstream, almost hot with hatred. I’ve never even heard of him before, yet he already seems to despise me.
Lucan flicks his eyes toward me before cocking his head toward Vivian.Go with Vivian.
I blink uneasily, very aware that they can all hear my thoughts and any response I offer. I don’t want to leave Lucan alone with someone who’s obviously angry about my existence.
Are you sure?I ask.
Gabriel seems to sneer at me.The human doesn’t even follow orders, Lucan.
The air goes frigid rapidly, and before I can register it, Lucan is mid-air, clashing with Gabriel. Then it’s a blur of werewolves tangled on the ground. Limbs flailing and kicking, teeth snapping and snarling.
With two yelps, Soren and Merrick jump into the fight, and now it’s a blurry cloud of brown and red and black fur.
Vivian, in human form, sidles up next to me with a roll of her eyes and places her hand on the back of my elbow.
“Bunch of children,” she laughs, but does a double take when she sees me staring, eyes wide, like someone’s about to get their head ripped off. “Don’t worry. They’re fine.” She assures me with a gentle squeeze and then leads me past the growling twist of werewolf bodies. “They’ll work it out.”
I nod, trusting her, and follow her up the sidewalk past two abandoned houses until she opens a small, white picket fence and motions up at the mostadorable house I’ve ever seen. Ivy climbs up the white-washed brick, kissing the wooden shingles hanging from the roof.
As Vivian unlocks her light blue door and I step over the threshold, the street goes silent behind me. Lucan’s presence cuts out of my necklace so fast it startles me. Looking over my shoulder, I see Soren and Merrick both pinning a now whimpering human Gabriel down by the arms and throat, while Lucan looms over him.
“She answers to no one,” Lucan tells Gabriel, dragging him up to his feet and glancing back at us one last time.
