Page 37 of Mated By the Pack
“No, you didn’t,” he murmurs, taking a step closer. “You came back to me. I can smell your arousal, Calla. All of my brothers will have this scent soon.”
He circles me slowly, like a predator. Every brush of air as he moves sends heat across my skin. When he passes behind me, I feel his breath on the back of my neck. It’s warm, damp, and causes me to shudder. He puts a hand on my lower back, leaving a tingle across it as he moves in front of me again, much closer than before.
“If you listen carefully, you can even hear some of them call out for you here in The Aether—the eternal anguish of never finding their mate,” he rasps, his eyes fierce and hungry.
Then the howls begin. One. Two. Then a haunting chorus that makes it hard to tell how many are echoing around us. I see wisps of smoke forming ghosts that resemble wolves, and they start to circle us, but they never fully take shape.
“These will be the last of my brothers to cry out in anguish,” the man says. “Those that still roam The Tangle will claim you. Mark you.Breedyou.”
“Breed me?” My eyes get wide. “That isn’t even possible. If you and your brothers are after a Bride, then you picked the wrong woman. I’m… I’m not fertile.”
“You’ll see,” he rasps. “But for now, you should go. You don’t have the strength to remain in The Aether for long, especially after your journey today.”
The haze begins to dissolve around me, but I cling to it, even as it tries to push me away.
“Wait!” I call out. “Tell me your name.”
He looks up, his gold eyes flickering. “My brothers called me Silas.”
The haze vanishes and I gasp as I sit up. It’s almost dawn and Nara is sitting a few feet away, holding Brenna’s stick. She glances over when she hears me.
“Are you okay?” she asks gently.
No. Not even close. But I nod and shrug it off. “Yes, it was just a dream.”
I look up, taking in the position of the stars dawn hasn’t hidden from view. I make a mark in the dirt, pointing toward the route we should travel so we can get home to Haven North. I still don’t know how far away it is, but I feel better having a general direction again. Hopefully, we won’t lose it fleeing from the sounds of things we don’t want to encounter.
“I took a double shift, since you’ve been covering for me,” she says. “Figured you could use the rest.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” I shake my head, trying to regain my senses. “You’re hurt.”
“I’m much better today,” she says, lifting her tattered shirt to show me her ribs. “Most of the bruising has gone away. We should have brought some of those vines with us in case someone else gets hurt.”
“Maybe we don’t have to worry about that,” I say, shrugging a shoulder. “They appeared when we needed them, but I hope we don’t have to find out if that will happen again.”
After it gets lighter out, Nara and I wake the others. We eat some fruit, then break camp and I lead everyone in the directionI marked. Deeper into The Tangle. Closer to Haven North—I hope.
“More noises,” Nara cautions, pointing ahead.
“Let’s veer right,” I suggest, motioning in that direction until a loud howl stops all of us in our tracks. “Okay, left it is.”
We’re off course again. I try to find landmarks to follow that should line up with the stars. Rocks, trees, and ridges. It’s hard to trust the trees, since some of them move, so I try to rely mostly on the landscape.
By midday, I’m feeling like we’re lost again, but I don’t mention it to the others. I don’t want to take more of their hope away, especially since things have been silent for a while. The silence seems to stretch on. So much silence for The Tangle. The others don’t say it, but I can see it in their eyes. They’re expecting another growl, another anguished cry as a predator claims its prey, or the sound of one we need to flee from.
Instead, we hear… nothing. Not even the birds. The wind is gentle and warmer than it has been the last few days.
“The ground is a lot different here,” Nara observes. “This area has been well traveled.”
She’s right. The soil beneath our feet has changed. It’s firmer. Packed down, almost like a road, but not the broken highway we lost track of.
Tansy points ahead. “Over there. That rock. It almost looks like metal. It shimmers, like the wall around Haven North does at night.”
I feel a sense of unease and rub my thumb across my bracelet. It’s still pulsing, just like before. If there’s danger, it isn’t reacting.
We move carefully as we approach the shimmering rock. I brush aside a layer of moss and vines covering it, and sure enough—it’s not a rock. It’s a hatch. Old and rusted, but not broken. The seal around the edge still seems to be intact, and the faint impression of stenciled numbers is visible under the grime:Sector D-15 Bunker. Long-Term Containment & Survival Unit.
“What the hell is it?” Brenna asks, tilting her head slightly.
