“We can be there for each other!” Rowan argued, but Mia’s mind was racing down a one-way street.
“Yes, we can. But it can only get us so far,” she said to him, her voice soft and pained. Mia leaned over and closed her eyes, pressing her lips against his forehead in a soft kiss.
"I love you, Rowan," she whispered. "I have always loved you."
She pulled her hand from his grip. She was suddenly plagued with determination. All this time, she had always believed that Rowan needed to be there to save her. But this was her battle to take on. She looked back over her shoulder as she pulled apart the flaps of the tent. Rowan stared blankly at her, and she thought about the pain he must have been feeling. But she knew as long as they had their shadows looming over them, they wouldn’t be able to be together.
“I love you,” he said, a look of deep concern on his face. It was as if he was looking at her for the last time, despite her promise that she would return. As Mia ducked back out into the cold forest, still buzzing with activity from the busy pack, she felt slightly afraid that perhaps she wasn’t so sure.
Regardless, she pushed those feelings aside as she strode up to the fire, where Josiah was sitting with Tex and several others trying to keep warm. “I need some help,” she said firmly.
“What do you need us to do?” He asked.
“I just need to know something,” she said. Josiah looked to the others, then up at Mia quizzically.
“Alright,” he said. “We’re listening.”
Mia balled her fists at her sides. The question burned at the back of her mind, and for a moment she felt like she couldn’t actually believe that she was going to ask it. The others looked at her, waiting with baited breath. Finally, she took a breath as she remembered that she was doing this for Rowan.
“I need to know how I can kill a shifter.”
CHAPTER 17: PREPARATIONS
Mia trembled as her feet carried her on her new mission through the forest. Brian had severely tried to convince her to stay, but she knew that if she did, it would only be a matter of time before she put the rest of the Lost Shadows in danger, including Rowan. With Josiah's words still in her mind, she thought endlessly about Grey and his pack. Every shifter had a weakness, and she was mulling over what Grey's was. Somewhere in her mind, she had already figured out the answer.
Rowan was on her mind as well, his somber face still etched into a ghostly figure in her vision. She desperately wanted to stay, but not while she knew Grey was out on the hunt. Who knew what he might to Rowan if they found him? Rowan was better off with the rest of his pack. If he had been alone, there was no way he would have been able to protect Mia, even though he had tried to convince her of the opposite.
Just moments before, Mia had prepared herself. To her surprise, she really didn't need to pack anything at all. She knew that there was another weapon she would have to yield, one that had to be sharpened. She sat for a while with Josiah and told him everything. He helped explain the tools that she needed to bring. She would not find herself cornered again, not like the last time she had tried to run from Grey.
She put her hands into the pockets of her jacket, one of Rowan's old ones that she had grown to like. She felt the worn insides of the pockets, and the pilling fleece fabric brushing against her fist as she clutched something folded inside. It was growing warm from her body heat, her thumb rubbing against the casing nervously as she continued her walk. A silver knife. She'd never really carried a weapon before. She knew Grey was into guns, but he had never let her carry one in case she thought about using it on him. This knife felt ominous and dark in her pocket.
As she grabbed hold of a tangled root to pull herself over a steep hill, she worried just how far she would have to go for this plan to work. She could feel the branch pulling out from the side of the hill, her fingers slipping over the wood. As she fell back, she felt something pressing against her back. She turned to see the muzzle of a wolf, pushing her further up towards the ledge. Another was beside her, and Mia felt a twinge of gratitude that she had decided to include them into her plan.
The wolves worked together to help Mia until she was able to find solid footing on the upper ledge. She was surprised to see how well they could understand her and figured that since they had more training, these wolves were able to use their human intelligence.
Mia desperately hoped that they were still there. If they were at the police station, then her plan would be much more difficult to carry out. She knew the geography here. After all, she had grown so familiar with it just by staying with Rowan for a few days. She had learned the nooks and crannies and hoped that she could use them to her advantage.
The wolves trotted behind her as she moved through the trees, ready to follow her orders. Mia wasn’t sold on letting the Lost Shadows help her at first, but she couldn’t help but think about Trent as he clutched the bars of her prison cell, his mouth practically foaming over the scent of her blood. She realized that she didn’t have another choice.
She had hoped it would be Rowan, but she knew he wasn’t ready yet. Sure he had led her out from the police station safely, but how would he feel once he saw Mia’s ex face to face? Grey hadn’t been there at all, and Mia knew that if Rowan were to see him, his shifting would be out of control and unpredictable.
She ducked down with the two wolves behind a rock to stay in hiding. The wolves lowered their heads, their bodies twisting quickly back into more human shapes. Soon, there were two women beside her. They both had an athletic build with defined muscles through their black, long-sleeved shirts. They were perfect guardians to accompany her, recommended to her personally by Josiah. There was Kara, with short black hair, a nose ring, and sharp eyebrows always intensely knitted. The other was Shay, who had her thick black hair twisted into a long braid. Her skin was bronze, and her eyes a piercing yellow.
"We're in luck," Kara said with a wicked smirk. "I can smell your target now." She sniffed the air again and screwed up her face in disgust. "Yikes, is that bear pee? God…what a smell."
"Calm down, Kara," Shay whispered. "We don't need you going into a frenzy just yet." Mia peeked up from behind the rock. In the distance, she could see the back door of the cabin ripped from its hinges. Smoke rose high into the starry sky. The fire was still going, which means that Grey and the others might be inside. A soft yellow glow emanated from the windows of the cabin, partially obscured by the thick curtains Rowan had placed there.
“Are you guys ready?” Mia asked, wondering how she would even be able to get her feet to move forward any closer.
“Whenever you are,” Shay said dutifully. As Mia stepped away from the rock, a hand reached out and clutched her wrist.
“Question,” Kara said as she held tightly to Mia, pulling her back down to the ground. “How do we know that your ex is actually in there?”
Mia froze, and for the first time, she questioned the configuration of her plan. She knew she would have been attacked by those men if she had stayed in the cabin earlier.
"You said you could smell them," Mia said. "Isn't that enough?"
Kara looked uncertain. She made a strange awkward face.
Mia was annoyed she wasn't giving her answers. "Is there something you're not telling me?" She asked.
Kara shrugged. "I mean…you didn't actually see him, did you? This Grey guy?"
Mia had never felt so foolish. She knew the men were trying to break into the cabin. They had pounded on the door and everything. She had even heard their voices outside, low and growling.
But she hadn’t seen them. How could she be so sure that it was Grey and the others? A dark realization crept over her as she lowered her head to the ground.
“I didn’t even think I could be wrong,” Mia said. Another hand reached for her, this time it was Shay.
“Hey,” she said calmly. “It doesn’t hurt to check. If they’re there, we’ll still be able to carry out our plan.”
Mia sighed, once again nervous as she stepped
out from the rock. Kara and Shay followed closely behind, their eyes darting around the woods surrounding the cabin. They emerged from the trees, passing by the tree stump used for chopping wood. Mia looked down at it, noticing the piles of wood neatly stacked nearby. Her eyes trailed to the empty slit marks pierced through the wood of the stump, and she stopped in her tracks. “What’s wrong?” Shay whispered.
Mia's eyes burned into a long, thick slit deep in the wood. She could feel the cold night air consuming her.
"There's no ax," Mia said as the color drained from her face. "It's always right here."
Kara and Shay exchanged nervous glances. For a moment it seemed like they were regretting what they had gotten themselves into.
"Here, let me," Kara whispered as she navigated herself in front of Mia. Shay followed suit, spreading out her arms to her sides as if something was going to jump out at them at any time.
The door was still swung wide open, the hinges barely hanging onto the wood of the opening. They couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the inside of the cabin, but a sharp glow from the fire flickered wild shadows on the walls of the sitting room. Mia’s imagination would have gotten the best of her if she had come here alone. She stayed close behind Kara and Shay as they inched their way through the doorway.
"Maybe they're hiding elsewhere," Mia whispered. She felt Shay elbow her gently in the side and watched as Kara raised a finger to her pursed lips. As they stepped further inside, Mia's eyes widened at the chaos that lay before her.
The cabin had been torn to shreds, worse than when Rowan had taken off after he had shifted. The couches were ripped, their stuffing was strewn across the floor in large pieces that resembled snow. Thick claw marks covered the walls, etched forever into the logs of the cabin. A fire, one that Mia never lit, was dying now unkempt and glowing softly under the mantle.
A shadow flickered over the coffee table, now flipped over on its side. Mia had a startling realization, as she broke from the group and quietly bent down on the ground. She sorted through shredded papers and splintered wood until she found them. Her heart sank as she looked down at the remains of her and Rowan's ornament, both pieces smashed into raggedy chunks of clay. A white powder was clumsily covering the spot where they lay. Mia felt a void forming in her chest. How could they have done this? She sifted through the pieces, the painted letters no longer recognizable. It took everything inside of her not to cry, not in front of Shay and Kara. But it was the last remaining thing that she and Rowan had shared, a small piece of their history now crumbled in front of her.
Carefully, she swept up what she could. Shay and Kara watched her, while also keeping an eye around the sitting room. Mia stared down at the pile, wanting desperately to pocket it and try to salvage it. But the damage was irreversible. A hand clasped on her shoulder, and she was whipped back into reality. She remembered she was still in Rowan's cabin and enemies could still be lurking about. With a stabbing pain of regret, Mia stepped away from the shattered ornament. She couldn’t take it with her no matter how badly she wanted to.
The two shifters carefully made their way towards the kitchen. It looked worse than the sitting room, broken dishes covering the floor. Mia stepped on something that cracked under her boot. She stepped away, looking down at the sparkling shards of glass where the brick had landed after it had flown through the window. She knew then that it had to be Grey and his friends that did this to the cabin.
Kara looked at Shay, signaling in a made-up language to her. Shay nodded, understanding as Kara separated from them, creeping down the long hallway towards Rowan's room. Mia looked sadly at the destroyed kitchen. She remembered the small moments she had shared with Rowan here. How he had buried his face in her hair while she cooked. The smell of warm bread and stew the first night she had found him after years of subconsciously searching for him. She clutched her jacket closer to her. It felt colder in here now, all the warmth of the kitchen sucked out through the jagged hole in the window that Grey had made.
She stood quietly next to Shay until she heard Kara's voice from the bedroom.
"All clear," she said. Shay took a breath as if she had been holding it this entire time. Glass clinked as Kara emerged from the dark hallway back into the kitchen. "So, we were right," she said. "I can definitely smell this guy, and I'm picking up some others as well. He's certainly not alone."
"He should have three other friends with him," Mia said.
She expected Kara to agree but was shocked to see her shaking her head, her eyes suspicious. "There is more than that," she said. Mia took a step back, panic radiating throughout her body.
“I think you need to see something,” Kara said, her voice deeply concerned.
They made their way down the hallway. Mia could feel the darkness swallowing her up as she stepped closer towards the bedroom. Not too long ago, she was excited to enter this place, fueled by her desire for Rowan and all that he wanted to give her. But now this place felt as if it were under a curse, hollow and horrifying, torn apart from the inside out.
They spread out in the room, and the moon shone out on the wall above the headboard of Rowan's bed. Kara pointed up to it. "Found the ax," she said. "He's certainly made his mark." Mia had to squint to get a better look, but as she stepped closer to it, the ax was lodged into an image painted on the wall. She kicked aside an empty spray paint can, and stared in horror at the image dripping down like blood on the walls.
The words ‘Feral Blood’ stretched along the wall, and underneath that was a crude drawing of a skull, opened wide as a wolf’s head emerged from it.
“Your ex is a Feral Blood,” Kara said. She stared down at the ground, kicking her feet against more broken glass near the window. The air was cold in the bedroom too, whistling through the cracks in the glass and seeping over Mia and the two shifters as they stared at the ominous message.
“You know them?” Mia asked.
“I know of them,” Shay said.
“Me too,” Kara said. “And not exactly good things either.”
"But it should be just Grey and his friends," Mia suggested. "Maybe they're just trying to scare us."
To her surprise, Shay was also shaking her head. "Kara's right," she said," I'm picking up a lot more than just a few scents.
“No way,” Mia said. “How could there be more?” Her breath was shallow, and the room seemed to spin around her.
“Grey’s the alpha, right?” Shay asked. “He probably sent his two friends as scouts. Those police officers you mentioned. Now that he’s found you here, it looks like he’s brought his entire pack with him.
Mia suddenly felt like she couldn't stand anymore. Her knees gave out as she sat on the bed to keep herself from falling. "Where do you think he is now?" She asked. She looked up from her hands, to see Shay staring straight at the symbol painted on the wall.
"Shay…" Kara said in quiet horror. She stretched out her name as if time had suddenly slowed down.
Shay said nothing and turned quickly on her heels as she bolted through the doorway, down the hallway. Mia felt Kara's hand gripping her arm, urging her up from the bed.
"Come on, Mia. Quick!"
Mia looked back, taking one last look at the horrifying image as the red paint dripped from the wall and onto the knitted blanket that once belonged to Rowan’s mother. She felt lost, only feeling the pull of Kara as they rushed through the dark hallways, through the rooms littered with broken furniture and splintered wood.
The air whooshed around them. Mia barely had time to react, only following after Kara, clutching her hand as they slid gut-wrenchingly fast down a hill covered in leaves. They hit the ground hard. Mia felt a harsh spike of pain jolt from her ankles to her knees upon impact, but they had to keep running, ducking under tree branches.
Up ahead, Mia could see Shay in her wolf form far ahead of them. She ran, her head low to the ground as her body bobbed up and down with each step. Kara cupped her hand against her lips.
“Hurry, Shay!” he
r screams seemed to tear from her lungs, and through the entire forest. Birds were shaken from their nests at the sound, their wings beating against the night.
“What’s going on?” Mia asked, her head still dizzy as if she were in a trance.
“This was all a trap,” Kara said, her eyes saucer-wide.
“Grey is headed for the Lost Shadows camp!”
CHAPTER 18: COMPROMISED
Rowan couldn't fall back to sleep no matter how hard he had tried. His entire body felt heavy, as his memories floated above his head like ever-changing shadows. He had already caught word of where Mia had gone and had been stopped by several Lost Shadows from leaving his tent. He knew Kara and Shay were strong shifters and would be good protectors for Mia in case anything happened. But Rowan couldn't bear the thought of having to stay behind once again, while Mia fought for herself.
He thought about the night that he and Mia had shared together. It all felt so far away now, and the image of his feral teeth biting into Mia’s hand filled him with so much guilt. How could he have hurt her like that?
Josiah stepped into the tent, carrying a bowl of his special fall stew.
“You need to keep your energy up,” he said as he took a seat next to the cot, placing the bowl onto Rowan’s lap.
“I’m not hungry,” Rowan said; his body tensing. Josiah had always made him uncomfortable whenever he tried to help him. Rowan thought it was just because he didn’t like Josiah, but the more he thought about it, he realized what the true cause was.
He looked down at the steaming bowl in front of him. It smelled amazing, and his stomach growled violently as he stirred the contents. Pieces of pumpkin, fresh zucchini, and onion stared back up at him. All of them were most likely grown from the Lost Shadow's garden at their home base.
Wolf Pack Chronicles Box Set Page 12
