by Laura Taylor
But not for the first time in his life, Caroline had surprised him. She was somehow able to neatly compartmentalise their training sessions, obeying him as a diligent student during the lessons and holding no grudges for any criticism he levelled at her once they were out of the classroom. And he would readily admit that she’d improved considerably since their training bouts had begun.
Oddly enough, it was he who had more trouble keeping the two parts of their lives separate, and he’d had to acknowledge that no small part of that was because with every training session, with every new move he showed her, with every tactic that could help her defeat an enemy, he was forced to picture her in battle, bleeding, injured, facing down one of the Noturatii bastards who were still trying to wipe them all out even after six hundred years of failure, and the unbidden thought kept popping into his mind that each battle could well be her last. The Noturatii were getting stronger, smarter, slowly closing in on the estate, and Caroline was the female alpha of the Den. If the shit hit the fan in any real sense, honour and duty required her to put her life on the line in order to defend the weaker members of her pack.
Wanting to banish these darker thoughts, Andre tightened his arms around the wolf, burying his face in her fur again. “You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on,” he told her softly. She stared back at him with her vivid golden eyes, then licked his face, nuzzling her muzzle in under his chin.
Sitting on top of Andre, Caroline was grateful she wasn’t in human form or she would have been blushing like a tomato. While she knew that Andre loved her and was as sure of his loyalty to her as she’d ever been of anything, open displays of affection from him were rare. He’d spent too long shutting down his emotions to do his job, and while she would never hold his sometimes cool demeanour against him, it was both a pleasant and somewhat unsettling surprise on the odd occasions he did let his guard down.
Gaining control of her wayward emotions, she shifted where she lay, returning to her human form sprawled all over him. It was late at night, and they were both sure that they were alone in the forest, otherwise neither of them would have let themselves linger in such a vulnerable position. The forest around them was still and quiet, a welcome cocoon as they hid from the rest of the world for a few precious minutes.
“I’m getting quicker,” Caroline boasted, pressing a kiss to Andre’s chin. A day or two’s worth of stubble prickled her lips, and she gave a slight nibble at his jaw. Returning to the topic of her training was a sly sidestep around his last comment, but Caroline herself wasn’t particularly smooth when it came to expressing affection – another reason she would never hold Andre’s failings against him – and she was far more comfortable with battle-side banter, which could easily turn into battle-side flirting, than with more direct ways of stating her feelings. “You’re slowing down in your old age.”
Andre barked out a laugh. “Old age?” he said, pretending to be offended. He sat up a little, rolling his hips in such a way that Caroline could feel every inch of his hard, muscled body beneath his clothes. “And here I thought you appreciated a man with some experience.” This was what Caroline wanted. Flirting and various suggestive comments would follow, and by the time they got back to the manor, they would both be eager to closet themselves away in their bedroom and-
A long, keening howl echoed up the hill, startling her out of her heated thoughts. Caroline and Andre both sat up, tense and alert. “That’s Heron,” Caroline said sharply, even before the howl faded out. There were strict rules about howling on the estate, and while one of the younger wolves might slip up now and then – and be firmly told off for it – Heron was far too experienced to make that sort of mistake. If she was howling, there was a reason for it, and Caroline leapt to her feet, shifting even as she moved, and then she and Andre were racing back down the hill on agile paws, ready and willing to kill whatever it was that was threatening their home.
“What the hell is going on?” Caroline demanded as she marched into the foyer not five minutes later, Andre a silent shadow behind her.
“I tried to call your phone,” Heron said, not at all put out by her sharp tone. “I take it you were in wolf form?” She went on, not waiting for an answer. “Miller’s in the library. He’s got something important to tell you.”
Had it been anyone else, Caroline would have had some choice words to say. Breaking the general ban on howling because Miller, their newest, greenest member wanted to have a chat? Caroline didn’t like Miller on a good day. Admittedly, he had certain skills that were of benefit to their Den, and Caroline felt the same loyalty to him that she felt towards everyone else on this estate; she would lay down her life for him, but she didn’t like him.
However, Heron had been a shifter for longer than Caroline had been alive, converted when she was just sixteen. And given that she was now in her sixties, that depth of experience earned her some serious respect.
So without waiting for any further explanation, Caroline spun on her heel and marched towards the library door, eager to find out just what it was that had interrupted her romantic interlude with the sexiest man on the estate.
A wolf’s body was a truly remarkable thing, Genna thought as she ran. A miracle of engineering, her canine side was built for endurance. It was possible for a wolf to travel anything up to one hundred kilometres in a single day. For short bursts, she might be able to reach a maximum speed of around fifty kilometres an hour, but for long distance travelling, a slower trot was the norm. Now, as she didn’t know how soon her disappearance was going to be discovered or how much of a head start she was going to get, she was opting for an in-between speed, an easy lope that would get her out of dodge quickly, but wouldn’t tire her out too soon.
The rain hadn’t let up, the ground boggy, the slopes of the hills slippery and unstable, but her paws were wide and soft, ideal for travelling over uneven terrain. She wasn’t sure how long it took her to reach the road, but it seemed like hours. Every nervous glance over her shoulder, every pause to listen for signs of pursuit through the drumming rain caused her heart to kick up a notch, sure she was only moments from being discovered.
In reality, it was probably less than an hour. But now that she’d finally reached the road, one small but vital detail in her plan that she’d somehow overlooked came screaming into her mind. She’d been convinced that all she had to do was reach the road and she’d be able to find a car to flag down. Then she could hitchhike to Penrith, find a hotel, borrow a phone and call Tank. Quick, simple, easy.
Except that in the scant amount of planning she’d actually done, she hadn’t taken into account the time of day. It was well past sunset, and this far away from any major towns, the chances of running into random passersby were slim to none. Damnit. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
She paused at the side of the road, weighing up her options. Running about the countryside in wolf form – even if it was at night and in the middle of a storm – was a recipe for disaster. She’d been drilled often enough on the need to keep their species a secret from humanity, and if word got out of a wild wolf roaming about the British countryside, it wasn’t just regular people that would be a problem. The Noturatii would rain down on them like fire straight from hell.
But if she spent any length of time in human form, with no shelter and woefully inadequate clothing, she’d either die of hypothermia, or catch pneumonia.
But she couldn’t stay here. Sempre would be after her as soon as she realised she was missing, with or without finding Feriur’s body. And once that death was discovered…
Turning left, Genna trotted off down the road, sticking to the edge of the trees as she tried to keep her grey body as hidden as possible. In the dark, any stray observers would just assume she was an ordinary dog, and-
A faint glimmer of light lit the road from behind Genna, and she took one quick glance over her shoulder, confirming that the approaching car wasn’t yet within view, and then shifted. An SUV rounded the corner
a moment later, and knowing she had exactly one chance here, Genna dashed out into the road, heedless of her own safety as she waved her arms, yelling at the driver to stop.
The car swerved a little as the driver jammed on the brakes, and it stopped well short of where Genna stood. She dashed back up the road towards the car, then peered hopefully in the passenger-side window.
The occupants of the car weren’t clearly visible from her viewpoint, the interior dark, but she could make out enough to know that there were two of them.
After a moment, the window opened a crack and a pair of pale eyes peered out at her. “What the hell are you doing?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Please help me,” Genna said, arms wrapped around herself as she shivered. “They’re trying to kill me. I have to get away from here. Please, please help me!”
“Who’s trying to kill you?” the woman asked, and then a curse sounded from the driver’s seat, deeper, and unmistakably male. There was a shuffling sound and the rear door swung open.
“Get in,” the man ordered her, and Genna did. She had no idea who was in the car and could very well be putting herself in grave danger by climbing into random cars in the middle of the night. But in the end, it was all relative. The wolves pursuing her would almost certainly kill her anyway, so as far as risks went, this one wouldn’t likely make things any worse. She’d no sooner shut the door than the driver put his foot down and took off, throwing Genna backwards.
The woman flicked on the interior light of the car, glancing around and gaping at Genna with a look of shock, but then the man swore and flicked the light off again. “Leave it off,” he said sharply. “Don’t draw attention to us. What’s your name?” he asked Genna.
“Genn… Jennifer,” she said. Shifters were never supposed to use their real names in public, but with her mind racing and her body all but numb from the cold, she couldn’t think quick enough to come up with a better alias.
“Is someone seriously trying to kill you?” the woman asked, and she pulled out her phone. Genna glanced down at herself. She couldn’t see herself very well, but it was possible that she still had some of Feriur’s blood on her and goodness knows how much the woman had seen in that brief moment in the light.
Genna thought frantically. Was she about to call the police? That was the last thing she needed. “Well, no, probably not,” she said, looking out the back window, as if she expected some macabre, axe-wielding figure to leap out of the trees into the road. “Not actually kill me. Sorry, I’m just…” She made a show of taking a deep breath, wiping the hair out of her face. “They were trying to stop me from leaving, and… Maybe I should start at the beginning,” she said, trying to calm down, and to calm the woman down in the process.
“Are you okay?” the woman pressed. “I can call the police if you want.”
“No, you don’t need to do that,” Genna said firmly. But then again… “But if I could use your phone?”
“What happened to you?” the man driving the car asked sharply, and Genna glanced up to see him looking at her in the rear vision mirror. He was more under control than his girlfriend, and she took a slow, calming breath, inventing a plausible story in her head as she bought herself precious seconds. “I was camping,” she said, weaving a story out of thin air. “My friend and I were just taking a few days off, going on a camping trip. And then when we get there, she says she’s invited some of her other friends along too, so I figure heck, why not? The more the merrier. But then her ‘friends’ show up, and they look really weird, like wearing robes and shit.” Genna plucked at her own clothes uneasily. How odd she must look to regular humans. “At first I thought they were kind of cool. They were into meditation and chanting, and there was some cool stuff about nature worship. Like old druidic stuff. But then it got weird.” She shuddered, not having to put on much of a show as very real emotions surfaced at the memory of what the Watch had been trying to get her to do. “One of the leaders pulled out a rabbit and sacrificed it in some weird ritual, and they made me put on this robe and took my clothes, and when I said I wanted to leave, they wouldn’t let me. And my so-called friend was all like ‘this is fine, just go with it’, like they’d totally brainwashed her or something.” As Genna listened to herself, she heard her own speech patterns lapse back into the teenage lingo she’d used before the Watch had recruited her, and a small part of her mind was fascinated with how easy it was to slip back into old habits. “I just wanted to leave. Sorry if I freaked out back there, but I’ve been running through a forest in the middle of the night, just trying to find a road so I can go home.”
“You’re totally within your rights to be freaked out,” the man said. “I gotta say, you scared the shit out of me for a minute there. The way you just leapt out of the trees, I thought you were some kind of ghost bent on claiming its next victim.” The woman scoffed at him, but the man was undeterred. “It was just like a scene out of some damned horror movie,” he insisted. “But if you really needed help, I didn’t want to just leave you there, either. So whereabouts is home for you?”
“London,” Genna said, feeding him a location that was far enough away that he would never think of offering to drive her all the way there. “But I know someone who lives in Penrith. Or near Penrith. If you could just take me in that direction, I’ll give him a call, and he should be able to come pick me up.”
“No problemo,” the man said. “Cindy? Can you lend her your phone?”
“What? Oh, yeah, sure.” The woman seemed a little more stunned by the whole situation than the man was, but she cooperatively handed over her phone, offering Genna a weak smile.
Genna dialled Tank’s number, chewing on a nail nervously. What the hell was she going to say to him?
“Hello?”
Genna felt a shiver run down her spine as she heard Tank’s deep voice, and she floundered for a moment as she searched for words. “Hi, Henry?” she asked, using the code name for the Lakes District Den. Every pack across Europe had a code name to identify them, both Il Trosa and the Grey Watch, and Genna had had to commit them all to memory during her training. She’d found it an endless bore at the time, but now she was starting to realise how useful such knowledge could be. “It’s Jen,” she added, hoping he would remember her. “Sorry to call you so late, but I’m in a little bit of trouble, and I could use some help.”
There was a pause, and Genna held her breath. Was Tank going to come through for her, or cut her loose?
“What happened?” came the curt reply, and Genna winced. He sounded far from happy about hearing from her.
“It’s kind of complicated,” she said, eyeing the two humans in the front of the car. Aside from the fact that no important information was ever discussed over unsecured connections, there were serious limits as to what she could say in front of innocent bystanders. “I was camping with some friends, and the trip went bad. Some weird people showed up. I think they’re some kind of cult, doing creepy rituals and stuff. I’m heading for Penrith. Can you come and pick me up?”
On the other end of the phone, Tank fought not to swear. He’d been lying in bed, reading a spy novel before he went to sleep, and the unexpected call from an unknown number had put him on alert even before he’d answered the phone. It had been months since he’d seen Genna, but even so, he’d recognised her voice, a surge of happiness racing through him before her words had registered and all emotion had been swiftly pushed aside.
“Where are you now?” he asked.
“In a car. I hitched a ride with a couple of people – they’re nice people, I’m okay,” she added hastily, “and they’re taking me to Penrith.”
Good girl, he thought to himself, even as he leapt out of bed and started rooting around for his clothes. She’d managed to tell him in a few simple sentences that she was relatively safe, for the time being at least, that she couldn’t say much because she was in the presence of humans, and that the people she’d hitched a ride with were not Noturatii. But there were a few
more pertinent details he needed to know.
“This ‘cult’ you got caught up with. Are they coming after you?” What he really needed to know, but couldn’t ask, was whether she’d run into trouble with the Grey Watch, or with the Noturatii. Either one could plausibly fit into her cover story, and depending on which one it was, his response would be very, very different.
“Not at the moment,” Genna replied, and Tank waited for her to continue. That reply by itself didn’t give much away. “They seemed pretty into their spiritual crap and forest worship and all that. I expect they’ve given up following me after I hitched a ride.”
The Grey Watch, then, and Tank let out a sigh of relief. That made the situation complicated in the long term, but easier to deal with in the short term.
“There’s a place in Penrith,” he said, tucking the phone under his chin as he fastened his trousers. “The Station Hotel. It’s just near the railway station. Get them to drop you off there, and I’ll meet you as soon as I can.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Caroline paced the library, feeling a cold weight settle in her gut. Miller had just spent the last ten minutes telling them, in intricate detail, about his meeting with the young woman who had sold him information about Il Trosa’s Den. He didn’t know her name, but he’d given them a good description, and the fact that she had known exactly who the Noturatii were and had been wearing a grey cloak confirmed she’d come from the Grey Watch.
Aside from the fact that one of their own had betrayed them, another troubling part of the report had been that the woman had wanted Miller to kill Dee. That was the primary basis of the deal, in fact. Caroline had known that the Watch objected to Dee’s presence, but she’d never thought they’d go so far as to involve the Noturatii to get rid of her, breaking the Treaty and risking war across their entire species.
