Sten eventually loosened his hold on Indigo, but she remained plastered to his chest even as the bear shifter went still, succumbing to death.
“Listen to me, all three of you,” he said, the plan forming in his mind as he spoke. “We’re going to go back to the den and tell Zane that the bear spoke to us before he died.”
“And told us what?” Henna asked.
“That there’s no chance of peace. That the meeting is a cover for them to gauge Siluit’s weaknesses, and they plan on taking the den with well over a hundred fighters.”
Indigo stiffened in his arms.
Henna rubbed the side of her face. “Shit. When did you find that out?”
“When Erik and Sylvestre came back from the southern border.”
Indigo pulled away to glare up at him. “Why didn’t you tell my brother that to begin with?”
Brynn came to his side. “The better question is why your brother didn’t already know it. You can’t blame Sten because—”
She was cut off by Sten’s hard look. He turned to Indigo. “Helping Siluit is not in the best interest of my pack. I’m helping you at the expense of my position in Amarok.”
He expected her to argue with him, but she only looked hurt. That bothered him more, and he had to look away from her to clear his mind and consider his next move.
The easiest solution, the one his brother would have undoubtedly taken, would be to leave now and let Indigo warn her brother of the danger to come. But that left far too many loose ends for his liking. If Siluit managed to get to safety and stabilize, then their animosity towards Amarok would be higher than ever, and entirely justified.
And then there was still the original problem. If Indigo couldn’t convince her brother to leave the den, then the pack would end up falling regardless.
He would have to go forward with the plan and hope that Indigo didn’t tell her brother the truth. If Zane knew that Erik had planned on betraying their alliance, there’d be no way for Sten to gain his trust.
Chapter 9
“Why did he tell you this?” Zane asked, his eyes glowing with suspicion.
Sten stood in the hall outside of Zane’s room, Henna at his side. Zane’s back blocked the doorway, but Sten could see Ginnifer peeking out from around the corner, her hand covering her mouth.
“He was gloating,” Sten said, allowing a flicker of disdain to pass over his features.
In an equally neutral tone, Henna added, “Even while sputtering blood, he had the audacity to tell us we were all going to die.”
For all of his suspicion, Zane would have no choice but to believe Sten. He hadn’t been there, and thankfully neither had Tallow. The only loose end was Indigo, and she was smart enough to recognize that he was doing what was best for her pack. Hopefully.
At the sound of a soft gasp from his mate, Zane turned and urged her back into the room. Ginnifer swatted his hands away, her plump cheeks rosy with indignation.
“No,” she hissed. “You’re not cutting me out from this. I have a right to know what’s happening and make decisions for myself.”
Zane sighed. “Can we at least sit?”
Not waiting for his mate’s response, he motioned Sten and Henna into his room. Like the rest of the rooms that Sten had seen, all of the uneven edges had been smoothed out of the floor and walls. The sitting area contained six cushions atop a stretched hide. Zane helped Ginnifer to sit down, but waited until Sten and Henna had sat before he took a seat for himself. He was quiet for a moment, his eyes distant with contemplation.
“We have no way of knowing that this is true,” he finally said.
“Perhaps not,” Henna said. She glanced at Ginnifer, and then back at Zane. “But is that really a risk you’re willing to take?”
“Don’t try to manipulate me,” Zane snapped, but his eyes were on Sten. “What’s your angle? You seem awfully fucking helpful, considering we have nothing to offer you. Or is it that you’re trying to drive us out so that you can take the den for yourself? Erik’s had his eyes on Siluit for years. Don’t deny it.”
The scathing response didn’t bother Sten in the least. If anything, he was glad to see that Zane had a bad side to get on.
“Even Erik couldn’t hold your territory,” Sten said frankly. “The only reason your forefathers have held it is because they had powerful alliances.”
“Alliances with packs your brother decimated.”
That was mostly true. A decade ago, Erik had made a swift conquering of the west, annihilating any pack that tried standing in his way. Many had been close allies with Siluit, but at the time, Zane had been little more than a juvenile thrust into the role of alpha. By the time he’d made up his mind to defend his allies, it had been too late. Sten could have pointed this out, but decided to go for a softer blow.
“Perhaps, but you still had Sedna.”
“That was my fault,” Ginnifer cut in, her eyes downcast. “If I hadn’t interfered, Zane would have taken Coral as his mate and none of this would be happening right now.”
“Ginnifer…” Zane put a hand on his mate’s shoulder, but she brushed it away.
Looking up at Sten, she asked, “What are our options?”
“If you want any hope of remaining here, you’ll have to start by returning Coral to Sedna.”
“I’m not doing that,” Zane said obstinately.
Henna let out a whistling breath. “You don’t have a choice. If you’re ever going to undo the damage that’s been done to your alliance, you’ll have to begin there.”
Ginnifer shook her head. “If we send her back, her mother is going to make her take whichever mate suits Sedna’s interests, regardless of how Coral feels. No woman deserves that.”
“It’s noble of you to try to protect her,” Henna said. “But right now, you can’t even protect yourselves.”
Silence stretched between the four of them. Sten wasn’t sure if they were going to concede, and for now, it didn’t matter. Even if they sent Coral back, Sedna was far away. A round trip would take a month’s time, and the bears were likely to be upon the Siluit den before Sedna lifted a finger to help. They needed a more immediate solution to securing the pack.
Sten asked, “Are there any other caves within your territory that are large enough to hold your entire pack?”
“There might be a few places across the inlet, in the mountains,” Zane said.
That would only put them closer to the bears, and without the water to act as a buffer. “What about towards the north?”
Zane waved his hand in a sweeping gesture. “It’s all flatlands. I can show you better in the map room, if you’d like.”
Sten scratched his chin with one claw. Flatlands to the north, an ocean to the east, more bears to the south, and to the west…Amarok. If Erik weren’t already going to gut Sten for disrupting his plans, then taking to Siluit into Amarok territory would certainly be the final nail in his coffin.
Usually, once he made up his mind to do something, Sten stayed the course. He had decided to protect Siluit, and if it were only his own position in the pack that was at stake, he wouldn’t have thought twice about bringing Siluit to the west. But there was also his daughter.
There was very little that Sten would put past Erik, but he did not believe that Erik would ever harm Halley, regardless of what Sten did. Still, if Erik decided that an offense was great enough, he could order Sten out of the pack. Sten would have to choose between leaving Halley in the security of Amarok, or taking her away and into an uncertain future.
“In any case, it doesn’t matter,” Zane went on to say. “I’m not leaving my den. If I go and the bear clans take the den, it’ll be almost impossible to take it back. I’m not risking my home, not when there’s even the slightest chance that you’re wrong.”
Sten heard a rustle of fabric and the sound of light footfalls behind him. He smelled Indigo before he heard her speak.
“They’re right, Zane.”
Indigo padded over to sit
on the floor beside her brother. Sten found himself scrutinizing her face, but she seemed to be making a point not to look at him. For some reason, that made him want to growl.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to listen outside my door?” There was no bite to Zane’s words, and he tucked a lock of Indigo’s hair behind her ear.
Indigo ignored the admonition. “I was there. I heard everything that was said.” She looked down at her lap and wet her lips. “I know that with everything that happened this past year, you probably think I don’t care about Siluit. But you must know that I care about you, and Ginnifer, and Luken. If what I heard today is true, then we need to leave this place. We’ve already lost enough.”
There were tears in her eyes, and Sten felt the urge to comfort her. It was not his place, and he had to remind himself of that as Zane took his sister into his arms. The alpha peered at Sten over Indigo’s shoulder.
“What do you think we should do?”
Sten hesitated, though he wasn’t sure why. The moment Indigo had come into the room, he had already made up his mind.
“We can take you to Amarok.”
Beside him, Henna stiffened. She cast him a quick, doubtful look, before schooling her features back to their previous neutrality. Zane looked incredulous.
“You think I’m going to lead my pack onto Erik’s doorstep?”
Sten gave him a mirthless smile. “I don’t anticipate that Erik will be extending an invitation into our den. There are other moderately defensible areas within our territory. Provided you bring your own food, I can take your pack to one of them.”
Zane still appeared skeptical. “You really think Erik is going to agree to this?”
“Let me worry about Erik. You focus on getting your wolves ready to leave.”
* * *
“Bandages, antibiotics, oxy-something or another…” Indigo continued ticking off the items as she put them into her bag, carefully at first, and by the end, stuffing them into any place they’d fit. Sitting on her bed, Ginnifer listened with one ear, nodding, but mostly paying attention to her mate, who was talking with Kuva by the door.
Before dinner, Zane had made the announcement that they’d be leaving for Amarok before dawn. Many of the older wolves acted as Indigo thought they would, their fear and disdain written all over their faces. But the majority of the wolves, especially the juveniles, seemed excited by the change.
Indigo could understand where they were coming from. She’d often thought that even living with Amarok wolves would be preferable to the monotony of her life at Siluit. Most of the other younger wolves had never been to another den before, and even the prospect of leaving behind their home couldn’t dampen their enthusiasm for seeing what lay beyond their familiar stretch of territory.
Not that she was particularly happy with leaving at present. Sten had lied to Zane, and then he’d made Indigo lie to her brother as well. She didn’t know enough about pack politics to understand why Amarok had been planning on betraying Siluit, but the fact that Sten had betrayed her trust was reason enough for her to hate him.
It was much easier to hate him now that she wasn’t in the room with him, silently taunting her with his beauty and his horrendously appealing scent. She tried her best not to think of him, or how it would be impossible to stop being attracted to him.
“I’m pretty sure this is all we’re going to need,” Indigo said, hefting the bulky bag onto her shoulder.
After dinner, she’d gone to Marl’s room and pored over the last of the medical supplies, taking only what would be needed for Luken’s birth, and what she might need in the event of an attack. Even still, the bag was full to bursting, and it pained her to leave so much behind.
“I’m not going to Port Trent,” Ginnifer said, confusing Indigo, until she realized that Ginnifer was talking to Zane.
“It was only a suggestion,” Zane said. “But if we’re already going as far as Amarok—”
“Amarok is in the opposite direction,” Ginnifer protested. “And I doubt you’re going to send your pack off without their alpha, which means I’d have to go to Port Trent alone.”
“Not alone. Kuva, Boaz, and Tallow will go with you.”
Ginnifer shook her head emphatically. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Crouching between them as they glared at one another, Indigo felt uncomfortable. Zane was usually the first to capitulate during their arguments, so Indigo was surprised when Ginnifer’s face softened.
“Besides, I’m looking forward to seeing my sister.”
They were hugging as Indigo excused herself, passing by Kuva and heading out into the hallway. She still had to pack her own things, and somehow try to get some sleep, but first she had to make sure that the younger pups were being tended to. When she’d last seen the pups in the main room, they’d been mingling with the adults, appearing either bewildered by the commotion or blissfully ignorant in the way only young ones could be.
She headed for the main room, her bare feet falling softly on the cold stone floor. Unlike the walls and ceilings of the Siluit den, the floors hadn’t been sanded down. They’d been worn smooth by over a century of footsteps.
The air warmed as she reached the upper corridor, but Indigo wrapped her arms around her torso, a shiver running through her as she caught Sten’s scent. It was accompanied by Boaz’s scent, and the chatter of pups.
Her footsteps slowed as she approached the room where several of the pups slept. The door coverings had been drawn up, and there were two lumpy bags sitting on the floor just outside of the room. Wetting her lips, she peeked around the corner.
Boaz was kneeling in front of Jada, holding a worn stuffed animal that might have been a bird, while trying to coax her into handing him a second animal, which she was clutching to her chest. What shocked her was Sten, who sat cross-legged on a pallet of furs, with Maia in his lap. Working around the pup, who seemed content to play with his hair, he carefully folded small articles of clothing into a neat pile.
“But they’re all my favorites,” Jada whined.
“Logically speaking, that isn’t possible,” Boaz said.
The pups adored Boaz, and after Marl and Breeze had passed away, he’d naturally filled in the roll of minding them. Usually, he had infinite patience for them, even Jada, who could talk circles around Indigo herself, but tonight his sentences were punctuated with frustrated sighs.
“Logically speaking, they’re all my favorites,” Jada chirped.
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“You’re stupid and mean and I want Kya.”
Knowing they could smell her, Indigo saw no reason to hang by the door. It was only after she’d stepped into the room that she wondered what she was doing there. Boaz and Sten were helping the pups pack, and her time could have been better spent elsewhere.
You’re here now, so try to act like you didn’t come in here just to see him.
“Is there anything I can help with?” she asked Boaz. She made a point not to look in Sten’s direction, though she itched to know if he was looking at her.
Boaz rocked on the balls of his heels. “You can ask your brother if Jada can bring two bags.”
Part of Zane’s speech had been that everyone was allowed to bring whatever they could carry in a single bag. The sleds were going to be loaded up, mostly with food, but also with practical supplies like furs, oil, and lamps. The only exception to the rule was Indigo’s medical bag, and Zane hadn’t made himself or Ginnifer exempt.
“I’m sure we can fit both of the stuffed animals,” Indigo said, kneeling beside the two of them.
Boaz gave a curt huff. “Her bag is already completely filled with toys. We’re trying to agree on which one of the animals she can carry.”
“I can carry both of them,” Jada said, tugging at the stuffed animal in Boaz’s hand. He relinquished it, throwing both of his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“Fine,” Boaz said, the word coming out as a
sigh.
“It’s not fine,” Sten said. “And it’s not a negotiation either. You can either choose one to bring, or else they’re both going to stay here.”
Indigo half expected Jada to burst into tears, but while the pup’s bottom lip did tremble, she relinquished her hold on the bird. When she looked up at Sten, Indigo saw that he was still folding clothes, and not paying any attention to her.
Pups shuffled in and out of the room as the three of them worked to pack the small bags. Sten and Boaz exchanged a few words here and there, but Sten made no effort to engage Indigo in conversation. She should have been glad for it, but all she wanted was to undo the past few hours and recapture the spark they’d had before.
She was disappointed when Henna came looking for him, asking if he’d be able to help her with a quick patrol. Disappointed, and a little jealous. Maia tried to follow after him, but with a few softly spoken words, he’d had her excited by the idea of bedtime. Indigo wished that he wasn’t so good with pups, because that made it harder still for her to hate him.
It was almost an hour before they managed to get all of the pups asleep, or at least, pretending to be asleep. As soon as the door coverings had flapped shut, Boaz’s shoulders sagged and he rubbed at his temple.
Half a head shorter than her, with curly hair and fine features, Indigo often thought that Boaz would have made a very beautiful female. More cute than handsome, many of the females around Indigo’s age had crushes on the human male. To Indigo, he was only a friend. Even if Tallow hadn’t claimed him for herself, Indigo had a hard time picturing herself with a male who had fewer muscles than she did.
“Are you okay?” she asked, putting a hand on his back.
Boaz gave her a small smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “I’m tired.”
“Why don’t you go get some sleep?”
He shook his head. “Not that kind of tired. I…” He trailed off, eyes fluttering upwards as he searched for the words. Indigo felt a knot form in her throat.
“You mean, you’re tired of being here?”
Chasing the Alpha: Shifters of Nunavut, Book #3 Page 8
