If I had a pack, I could probably take down a stag, but on my own I’d settle for a hare or squirrel. I just needed to fill my belly and make my sacrifices to the moon. The search didn’t take long, the creatures of this forest unused to being hunted.
As I licked the blood from my maw, I felt a strange spark within me. My ears twitched, searching for the sound as the rest of me went still.
“Calla?” a voice whispered.
I whirled, but no one was there. The voice echoed in the recesses of my mind. My gut clenched. It was Grae’s voice.
“How?” I asked. How close was he that he could speak into my mind? As Wolves we used to test it, see how far we could go before that bond would snap. The last time I’d tried with him, it had only been the length of the Allesdale woods before his words grew so faint I couldn’t hear them anymore.
Now, I couldn’t smell or sense him in any other way. Had he followed me this far already?
“Thank the fucking Moon.” I could feel the relief in Grae’s voice rattle through me. “Are you okay?”
“How are you in my mind?” I began trotting back down the hillside, unsettled by this connection. Maybe he’d be able to use it to find me.
“You’re my mate,” Grae rumbled, his claiming words making a thrill run through me even as I ran from them. “Our Wolves are linked always.”
My heart sank. Even my Wolf wasn’t an escape anymore. I couldn’t pretend to leave it all behind with Grae still in my head.
“Where are you?” he asked.
So he didn’t know. Good. I raced faster back toward the inn, needing to get rid of him. I couldn’t go back.
“Don’t come after me.”
“Calla—”
“Don’t,” I snapped. “I’m going to fix this on my own. I’m gone, Grae.”
“Then let me go with you,” he pleaded, his voice edging on panic.
I leapt over a fallen log, hurdling downhill so fast I nearly stumbled even on my stealthy Wolf paws.
“No,” I said. “You are a prince. You have a duty to your pack—”
“Fuck my pack.”
I sucked in a breath at his reckless proclamation. No one said that. Ever. The pack was all that mattered. Individuals died, but the pack lived on, and now Grae and I both were flirting with that very dangerous line.
“You don’t mean that,” I said.
“I do,” he seethed. “I should’ve said it before. You’re my mate, Calla. Nothing else matters without you. If you die, I die. My life is your life. We are one now.”
The lights of the inn flickered through the dark forest. I was getting close. “You’ll drag me back to Highwick.”
“I’m not my father,” Grae gritted out. “I would never do that to you. To anyone.”
“But he will,” I insisted. “He will force your hand, Grae. You can’t help me and stay loyal to him. He is your King. He’ll kill us both for your disobedience.”
That was if I hadn’t signed our death sentence already by fleeing myself. I was meant to pledge my loyalty to King Nero that night, but I ran. If Grae came with me, he’d be picking sides. I’d take away his family, his pack, and ultimately his life.
I didn’t trust him in the moment, but I also couldn’t bear to think of him dead, either.
“Twenty years, little fox.” His voice filled with barely leashed restraint. I could feel him in every corner of my body, straining to control it. “I didn’t want the crown or the glory or any of it. There’s only one thing that ever mattered to me, and now I finally understand why.”
My chest heaved. I pictured his tortured expression, knowing exactly the crease of his forehead and slope of his eyebrows. Even in my defiance, I wished I could soothe away that torment.
But I couldn’t go back.
Olmdere lay in ruin under the wrath of a sorceress, and Briar lay alone in that tower. I couldn’t go back and live out my days as if she wasn’t there. I refused to walk by the stairwell that led to her room day in and day out until time and practice made me stop caring that she was there. I wouldn’t abandon her like that.
I spotted my discarded dress on the tree in front of me. My paw hovered in the air as I debated what to say. Tell him he always mattered to me, too? That would only spur him on. But I couldn’t lie to him, either.
Pain lanced through me again as I began to shift. “Goodbye, Grae.”
“No!”
Fourteen
The sound of Grae’s shouts disappeared as the bond severed. My hands trembled as I returned to my human form. The things he had said . . . they hurt. My blisters were healed and my legs felt strong, but my heart still ached. Nothing in me felt right.
I snatched the dress off the branch and pulled it over my head with a huff when the snap of a stick made me freeze. I peered over at a tree at the edge of the forest. A man leaned against it, relieving himself as he whistled. I curled my lip as I crouched down behind the sparse bushes.
He wouldn’t spot me in the shadows. His eyes were still trained to the bright tavern lights. I waited as he buttoned his trousers, ignoring the rustle of leaves behind me until it was too late.
“What’s a fair maiden doing alone in these woods?” a deep voice called from above me. I shot up, turning to see two men emerging from the other side of the clearing. This drunken man hadn’t been alone.
“Waiting for a lover?” the larger man behind him jeered.
They were both incredibly tall, nearly twice my size. Their faces hid in shadow, but I could make out their silhouettes. I stumbled, my back colliding with the tree trunk. As the third man approached from the other side, the three of them circled me like wildcats.
Think. I could shift and outrun them easily, but that would reveal my identity, and then Grae would be back in my head. Within an hour, everyone would know there was a Wolf in the village . . . and then King Nero would come looking for me.
No. I’d have to fight them in my human form.
I wished I had thought to bring my dagger or even my knife into the woods. In my exhaustion, I hadn’t thought about anything but shifting. I wasn’t as helpless as I might have looked, though. I pushed a little of my Wolf magic into my muscles. My eyes dilated and I could make out their shapes in finer detail.
“Go back to the tavern,” I said, trying to sound neutral. It was a delicate balance with drunken men, one I’d only had a few occasions to practice in Allesdale. Be too aggressive, and it would provoke them. Be too sweet . . . and it would provoke them. They were just as temperamental and brutish as the Wolves in that regard.
“I think we could have more fun out here,” the tall one said, taking another step toward me.
“I can promise you, you won’t,” I snarled. “Look, I’ve had a really bad few days and I have no patience left.”
The first man chuckled, reaching out for me. The second his hand landed on my shoulder, I grabbed it and twisted, forcing him to drop his face forward until I could smash my forehead into his nose.
“You bitch,” he hissed as the two other men rushed toward me.