by Jordan Deen
“I still feel like we should be out there helping them look for him.”
“It’s not like there is anything we can do that they aren’t going to. They’ll find him if he’s in these woods.”
Serena came into the kitchen and started to eavesdrop on our conversation. “You want to come help me?”
“With wh…” I grabbed her hand to stop her question. “Okay…”
We snuck down the hallway and stopped just before my door. “Brandon is well on his way to healing. I owe it to Lily to help find Matt. They are already bonded, so if he doesn’t come home, you know what happens to her.”
“Yeah, I know.” Brea looked back down the hallway towards the main hall.
“So, I think we should give the guys some help.”
“Lacey, there’s no way I can take you out there like this. The guys can track faster as werewolves. Our attackers will smell you from a mile away, and you won’t be able to keep up with me.”
I grinded my teeth, weighing my options to trust her ultimately or not, and I decided telling her was for the greater good. “Yes, I can.”
“What?”
“Come on.”
I grabbed my hoodie from my room with the supplies necessary to show Brea the new trick I learned from Emma’s journal. She’ll be the second person to know my secret, and the first to actually see it happen. It made me nervous to think it may go wrong since I’d have an audience. I rubbed a section of the candle, and my thumb, raw heading out into the woods.
“Okay, so what gives?” Brea said as I started pulling the candles and oils from my pockets.
“Just wait,” I said at her impatience, and dug small holes to put the candles in a neat line. “Sit and watch.”
“You’re kind of freaking me out now.”
“Ugh, okay already. Just chill. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
Catch walked up behind us, it was already dark outside so the crunching twigs beneath his feet gave him away. “What’s going on you two?” He joined Brea on the ground. It didn’t matter what we were actually doing, he just didn’t want to be away from her, especially after her fight against Liam earlier.
“Okay, here we go.” I pulled out the lighter and started the transformation ceremony just as Emma outlined for me in her journal.
“You aren’t going to make us drink anything, are you?” Brea asked.
“Shhh…,” I continued the spell, and lit the candles one by one.
“This is really weird. She’s not going to turn us into frogs or something… is she?” Catch whispered to Brea.
I blocked them out and thought of myself as the powerful werewolf that Brandon and Emma knew I’d be. With my back arched, and my arms stretched far in front of me, the power of the pack and the coven raced through my muscles, allowing me to control my destiny and finally serve my purpose. I stood there, poised against the trees, and stared hungrily at Brea and Catch with my newly formed onyx eyes. The woods called for me, and Matt needed us.
“OHMYGOD!” Brea screamed. Catch slammed his open hand against her mouth.
I pranced on the pads of my feet on the fallen leaves, and flicked my tail back and forth impatiently. Being in wolf form didn’t allow for much communication, and I hoped they would understand what I was getting at when I spun around and around and pointed my nose towards the path through the woods. I knew they were in awe, but their open mouths were just wasting precious time we didn’t have.
“How long have you known?” Catch asked, but it’s not like I could really answer him. I twisted around again in response and bounced on my paws. Howls and screeching echoed in the distance from the woods, bristling my fur and fanning my desire to leave them and embrace the freedom of the forest.
“Brandon doesn’t know…,” Brea said and looked toward the cabin. “We should go get him. He needs to know.”
Uneasy, I twirled around again and yipped at them. This was getting us nowhere, and it would take too long for me to go to human form, only to transform again. With one foot easily in front of the other, I trotted into the woods and prayed they would finally get the hint and follow me. If they didn’t, I could be attacked, but no one would know it was me, and that would be devastating.
It didn’t take long for Brea and Catch to join either side of me. We ran gracefully through the woods as one cohesive unit. When the path narrowed, we narrowed. When it spread wide, we spread wide. The feeling of the wind against my nose and fur felt like home.
It had always been this way for me, being a werewolf was my destiny. One I never consciously knew of, but it coursed through my veins stronger than any human DNA could. Yes, I’d embraced being an Amana and being their leader. Liam and whatever other cohorts he brought with him didn’t stand a chance. Why I feared this, I have no idea… because honestly—it rocked.
We raced through the forests, smelling at the wind for anything that would lead us to Matt. Broken branches, a smashed bush, and some blood where Liam attacked Brandon was all we found. Liam’s scent died at the river, and Matt’s faded closer to the cabins. It was like he vanished into thin air. Then, the strangest thing happened, Brandon invaded my mind. I could see through his eyes, images of Lily curled against him and how he comforted her in a gentle way that no one else could.
In turn, he watched the pathway we followed, and knew I shifted to search for Matt. I took his silence as validation of my decision. His presence gave my shaky legs the will to carry on when my stamina fell short. Being a werewolf—totally awesome; running in a hundred mile loop around the cabin—not so much.
A few times we crossed the scent of Michael and Thomas’s group, and then, Trevor and Dillon’s. I seriously hoped Brea and Catch’s smell distracted them from tracking us since they didn’t know about my ability. Although, they’d have to know soon; Brandon would want to tell them I’m sure. And honestly, I couldn’t wait to show off a bit either.
c h a p t e r
TWENTY
The three of us scoured the woods until close to dawn without any hope of finding Matt. When we returned to camp in human form, Lily’s wails radiated through the cabin and the valley. Even if Matt couldn’t hear her, I knew he felt her. Eventually, she’d die without him. Her incoherent sobs varied between agony for him and for herself. She begged for Serena to take the pain away by any means she could.
“What do we do now?” I asked Brandon and fought back the queasiness from shifting. He shut the door to my shared room with Lily and we walked down the hall, leaving Serena and Emile to comfort her.
“Michael sent Nicole and Dillon to bring her parents. He doesn’t want to move camp right now, but it will come soon. We will have to relocate.”
“Do they know? Did you tell them?” I threaded my fingers through his to touch our crescents to each other.
“No, they don’t know. Trevor said he smelt something funny in the woods, but it didn’t smell like wolf.”
“I don’t smell like wolf?”
Brandon grinned and laughed. He looked towards the great hall and back to the bedrooms before proceeding, “You’ve never smelled like a wolf to me. You are different; cleaner maybe?”
“Shut up,” I said when I realized he played with me. Even with the stress of the evening, I had to resist pulling his lips to mine and whisking him away to Haventon.
“Did you feel me? Were you able to see what I showed you?”
“Yes, it was strange. It felt like I was really in the room with you and Lily.”
“Just one of the perks. Too bad it couldn’t have been a better image.”
“Too bad my transformation didn’t come at a better time.” His fingers tightened around mine as thoughts of Lily coming down with the sickness grew in my mind. Brandon could feel the change in my posture, my body, and my emotions.
“She won’t,” he said and squeezed tighter. “We’ll have time before that happens to her. It’s just anything he goes through, she’ll go through. She’ll feel everything.”
“S
o if they kill him…”
“I don’t want to even think about that. Matt and Trevor are my best friends. I can’t imagine not having one of them at my side.” It never occurred to me how hard it was for him to stay with Lily, while I searched for Matt. Images of Matt flashed in my mind—memories of him and Brandon growing up and learning this life together. Matt had been there for him the entire time he searched for me, and shared in all of Brandon’s pain during all the failed hopes, the moves, everything.
“I’m so sorry.” I brushed both of my arms around his stomach trying to push back all the pain. We would get through this, but only if we were together.
“I’m going to talk to Michael and Thomas. Can you get your mom’s book and see if there is anything in there we can use?”
I knew what he was asking for—a cure for Lily if she got sick. I already knew that wasn’t in there because, not long ago, that had been my focus and my escape from hell…, I never imagined Brandon’s touch would feel like heaven. “The bonding spell isn’t in there.”
Brandon scanned the ground. A few women from the pack walked down the hall passed us. So, I took the conversation to our heads.
“I’ve gone through my mother’s book several times looking for it. I never found anything, but she implied her grandmother, Galena and her mother, Alaina, knew of such a spell. Serena said that they both had spell books too. Emma’s is just the tip of the iceberg. If we can find either of those, we may have a shot.”
“Lacey, Serena’s been looking for those books for years. Even she hasn’t found them.” More people walked by, breaking our concentration and our connection momentarily. “I want nothing more to say we’ll find them, but how can we? We don’t even know the first place to look.”
He may not have any idea, but I did.
“The old camp. I rushed when I found this book. There might be other things there, something that I missed.”
“It’s not safe to go there, and there’s absolutely no way Michael is going to allow you to be taken back there.”
I grinned. “Like he’ll have the choice.”
“What are you saying?” Brandon looked at me, confused. We were the leaders, and fully bonded, plus, I could transform now. The rules of the game were completely changed and in our favor. We were practically unstoppable now.
“We can do it. It won’t take us long to go and come back. We’ll take Brea and Catch only. The four of us can go and be back before anyone even knows we are gone.”
“If Michael finds out, he’d kill me for putting you in danger.”
“That’s why he can’t find out about it.”
“I’m not sure I like this idea.” His eyes drifted to the main hall again. We didn’t have much time to make this decision. Matt could be hurt or in serious trouble, and our hesitation only hindered his recovery. I stressed the urgency in my visions of waking up to Lily’s sobs and how tight she clung to me when she told me Matt was gone.
“What other option do we have?” This was the only way I knew to help Lily. Searching the woods for hours, plotting, and looking at maps for the slightest detail of where he could be, wouldn’t help anyone. We needed to be proactive, not reactive. Matt needed to be found, but preparations needed to be made if he wasn’t.
Our conversation was cut short when Michael and Thomas came into the main hall and threw maps and supplies onto the table. “How’d they get this close?” Thomas said and tossed tattered material onto the table.
“What’s going on?” Brandon said to Michael as we joined the group. Micah and Taylor walked in carrying more ropes, packs, and bags. Trevor followed shortly after; his eyes were red and puffy. He claimed from “allergies”. An allergic werewolf? Who would’ve thought?
“They were just outside the cabins. Micah found this.” Michael held up the tattered cloth. “I can’t place the smell.”
We both smelled it, Brandon described the scent as grease and oil, but all I could smell was twigs and dirt. “Smells like automotive fluids, something like gear oil. We sure it’s from them?”
“Pretty certain. It wasn’t there yesterday when the boys did their rounds, and it was tangled on a branch like someone running away.”
“Would they really come in human form though?” Brandon thought out loud and pressed the rag hard to his face again. “The scent is familiar.”
“Lacey?” Serena entered the main hall with soaked rags clenched in her hands. Rags she tried to cool Lily’s nerves with, but didn’t succeed. “Lily’s asking for you.”
I hugged Brandon and tried to memorize his scent so I’d have a piece of him with me always. With each step from the room, it felt like pieces of my body fell off and stayed behind, like a gruesome trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back to him.
Inside my room, I peeked quietly in Brandon’s mind to see what Michael and Thomas were saying, but they continued to focus on the rag, and the possibility that we would be attacked again soon. I feared that too, considering most of the camp was huddled into two of the cabins—Trevor’s and ours.
Lily’s fragile appearance made me shudder against the doorway. Her body lay painfully contorted on the comforter and pillows on my bed. The sweat soaked hair on her forehead seemed to swirl in a chaotic pattern, giving away the thoughts in Lily’s mind. At least, I couldn’t access the craziness going on behind her eyes. I could see the pain she was in; there was no need to feel it too.
“Why did they do this? How could they be so mean?” Lily begged. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her flaming hot skin against mine. Her sweat seemed filled with animosity that seeped into my core, terrorizing my nervous system and making me want to spring into action immediately, without thinking of the consequences or the dire situation we were in. If Liam and the rogue Amana’s took
Matt, then it was pretty obvious they planned to barter with him. He couldn’t have been the intended target, just a hapless victim in the fight.
Lily wasn’t strong enough to go through the battle ahead; and without Lily—Matt wouldn’t be either. Brandon, Catch, Brea, and I would need Galena or Alaina’s books. They would make everything better. If not, they would tell us what we needed to do to restore Half Moon Council to tranquility and be done with this stupid warring for good. Maybe then Brandon and I could have a normal life, one without fighting, without running, and finally have a permanent place to call home. Maybe we could move closer to the beach, and I could finally finish school.
“We’ll figure this out.” I don’t tell her we’ll find Matt. She couldn’t concentrate on that. Because the fact was, if he wasn’t coming home, she’d need to see past him to be mated with someone else. That much I knew was true. If she couldn’t let Matt go, the spell would never work; if we even found it.
“What if you don’t? He’s never coming home. I’m going to die,” she said muffled by my soggy, sweat soaked shirt.
“Stop that. I don’t want to hear that again. You aren’t going to die. I’m not going to let that happen.” I pushed her hair back to stare deep into her green eyes that nearly matched my own. “Brandon and I are working on it. I’m going to see if he talked to Catch yet. Okay?”
She silently nodded in agreement. I slid out from under her and off of the bed. A Barbie shoe wedged in my toes and sent a myriad of curse words from my mouth that got a chuckle out of Lily. But it was short lived. I tossed the stray shoe onto the bed next to her, and pulled out her favorite Barbie accessory tub from the closet. I set it on the bed, along with all of her spare Barbie’s, part of the mansion, and then a couple of cars. “If you ask Britney really nice, I bet she’d play with you.”
“I don’t feel like playing.” She pouted, crinkled my comforter, and tossed the covers over her head like a typical pre-teen. Although, I couldn’t remember every being that snotty. Then again, I didn’t have to face losing my soul mate at such young age. At least, I was eighteen before I had to deal with it. And while never knowing I had a soul mate looking for me was easy, Lily knew what she had lost. She
knew what was missing and how dangerous Matt being gone was. I had seventeen years of reprieve… I hoped we’d find him soon, for her sake.
Catch already shook his head in protest when I joined them in Trevor’s cabin.
“There’s no way.” He glared at Brea. Catch had no idea what danger she had put us both in before and he did not like it one bit. I didn’t blame him, but he couldn’t be pissed at her now. I needed him to be putty in her hand and agree to this crazy idea because it was all I could come up with.
“What other choice do we have?” Brea argued the point, mostly to stand behind me. She didn’t have a better idea either.
“Let’s look at the maps and try tracking the scent with Thomas. They don’t even know Brandon and Lacey are fully bonded yet! Leaving with her shifted would be a grave mistake on our part. I thought we were trying to be more honest with the leaders, not more dishonest.”
Brandon started to interrupt, but I beat him to it. “Catch, you know they didn’t hurt him near here. Lily would sense him, but she doesn’t. They kidnapped him and the possibilities of where they took him are endless. Those books could have any number of spells that will help us to either find Matt or help Lily.”
“I know you want to find the books, but things are volatile right now. We should focus on finding Matt, not the books,” Catch said and turned to go from the room with any hope I had of winning this battle. Debate never was my strong point, but armed with Emma’s knowledge, and the truth, I felt empowered.
“We are going with or without you.” I folded my arms and spoke for both Brandon and myself. The look on Brandon’s face said he’d go if I did, but he didn’t like it.
“Brandon wouldn’t be so careless. You are the future pack leaders, and quite possibly, the leaders of Half Moon. There’s no way he’d take you back there.” Catch’s tone was condescending and undermined my authority. Especially with the way he enunciated future, like it was still something up for dispute.
