“Camber.” Judah was reaching for my hand. “I need your help. We need to make her shift. I’m trying to do it on my own, but I’m not… I’m having trouble.” His voice shook.
Oh. He was too upset to do it on his own. Of course I would help him. I took his hand, and then I reached out with my mind to feel for my connection to Tempest.
I found her, and I let my wolf out, just as Judah had taught me, to touch her wolf and to force the transformation.
It only took a moment, and then there was a wolf at the bottom of the gully, not a woman. I wondered at that. I thought it might be harder to force the change, because she was unconscious, but maybe not.
I didn’t feel any pain or fear when I touched her mind, either. That was probably because she was unconscious, though. That made sense.
But then I had another thought. A thought so terrible, I refused to think it anymore. I wondered if she were in pain at all. Maybe she wasn’t even hurt. Maybe she was down at the bottom of the gully because she had faked this entire thing.
No I wouldn’t think that. That was too horrible a thing to do. How desperate could she be for Judah’s attention? Besides, she couldn’t have bent her leg that way on purpose.
Well, maybe she’d been so committed that she’d—
No, I wouldn’t think like that.
“Thank you,” said Judah. “I can help her shift back, and she’ll be healed.” He turned to Lissa. “Give me the rope.”
I stepped back out of the way, and Judah secured the rope to a nearby tree trunk. He lowered himself down into the gully to get Tempest out of there.
Lissa and I watched, huddling into our clothes against the cold.
“So, you were here when she fell?” I said.
“Yes,” said Lissa. “It was awful.”
“I bet it was.”
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I was so worried. I didn’t even know where Judah was. I knew I had to find him.”
Why hadn’t I felt the panic radiating through my bond to the pack when Tempest fell? Maybe because she had done it on purpose? Or maybe because I hadn’t been in tune with them when it happened. I wasn’t really sure how it worked.
After all, when Lissa had come into the dance, I had felt how worried and frightened she was. She wasn’t faking that.
Maybe I was being too hard on Tempest, thinking the worst of her when she didn’t deserve it. I couldn’t see why I would do that to her. I wasn’t jealous of her. In fact, maybe it didn’t matter anymore. It was obvious that there was never going to be anything romantic between Judah and me. Maybe I should simply let the two of them be together.
Why not?
It wasn’t fair to me, because I couldn’t have anyone, not without breaking the alpha bond, but just because I was alone didn’t mean that they should be. They should be together. They were in love. I wasn’t going to stand in their way any longer.
If Tempest had been so desperate as to try to kill herself or to fake this to get Judah’s attention, then she was clearly never going to give up on him.
Judah hauled Tempest up out of the gully. She was in human form now, wearing his shirt. He was barechested.
Lissa hurried forward to help them both up.
In moments, we were all standing together. Tempest clung to Judah, shivering. He was shivering too.
Blood and fangs, I was shivering. It was cold out here.
“You should get Tempest home,” I said to Judah.
“No, Lissa can do it,” he said. He turned to Lissa. “Right?” He pushed Tempest at Lissa. “You’re not wounded anymore, Tempest. You’re okay. Go home.”
Tempest looked at Judah disbelievingly. “You’re sending me away?”
“I…” He looked from her to me.
“Go,” I said. “It’s fine. She needs you.”
“No,” said Judah. He went to me and put his arm around me. “Let’s go back to the dance.”
“You don’t have clothes.”
“Home, then,” he said. He started walking, pulling me along with him.
“Judah,” I said in a quiet voice, “I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I don’t think this is going to work.”
“What?” he said.
“You and I are alphas, and we’ll be that together, but nothing else. You should be with Tempest. You two are in love. I’m not going to come between you anymore.”
“That’s insane,” he said. “It can’t work that way. Our bond is important to the pack. If I’m with Tempest, it’ll weaken the magic that protects the village. It’ll weaken the entire pack.”
“Well, we can work on being bonded some other way,” I said. “I am never going to fall in love with you, and you are never going to fall in love with me. You feel that, don’t you?”
“I…” He stopped moving.
“Go back to Tempest,” I murmured. “She needs you.”
“But what about you?” he said. “Are you going to be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. I’m just going to head home.”
“I’m not saying that I agree with all this,” he said. “Because I don’t think it can work like that. But I will make sure she gets home all right. That’s all. Nothing more.”
“Fine,” I said.
We parted ways.
He disappeared back into the darkness, to find the woman he loved.
I walked back to our house, alone.
* * *
Judah didn’t come home. Hours passed, and I didn’t know why I bothered staying up, because it didn’t make any difference for me to do that, but I couldn’t sleep either.
Finally, I got up, got dressed in warm clothes, and left the house to go wandering through the dark streets of the village. I wasn’t going looking for Judah. I swear I wasn’t. But somehow, I ended up outside of Tempest’s house.
I had never been to Tempest’s place, but I knew it was hers because I could feel that Judah was there. I could sense his presence inside. I peered in one of the windows, and I saw them.
He was pacing, and she was sitting on the bed.
They were arguing, but they were doing it quietly.
Suddenly, she got up from the bed and threw herself across the room at him. She kissed him.
He kissed her back.
I didn’t want to watch anymore.
Instead, I went into the woods. I needed to walk. I needed to be outside in the fresh air. It didn’t hurt to watch Tempest and Judah kiss, and I would let the two of them be together, but I suddenly felt very alone.
Even with the pack all around me, I felt alone.
And for some reason, I thought of Landon.
I knew he was watching me, and that he was out here in the woods. Was I out here because I was looking for him?
And then, without meaning to, I was looking for him. My senses were on high alert. I cued into my wolf smell and hearing.
And there he was, just there, behind that tree.
“I see you, Landon,” I called. “You can come out.”
He did, smirking at me the way he usually did. “What are you doing out here? You change your mind? You want to leave?”
“No, I’m not leaving the pack,” I said. “I’m never going to change my mind about that.”
“Kind of looks like you’re running away again.”
“No, I’m not running. I’m walking. I’m going on a walk.”
“Uh huh,” he said. “Just like that night out at Vivia’s. You really like walking in the frigid cold.”
I sighed.
“I don’t know why you won’t admit to yourself that the dog makes you miserable. You’d be much better off if you came with me.”
“You really have a thing for Fordham girls, huh? First my sister, then me.”
“What are you talking about?” He gave me a cold look. “Your sister enslaved me. I never had a thing for her.”
“Right,” I said, feeling confused about all of it again, remembering what he had said to me earlier.
“And as for you, I…” He looked flustered.
“You’re the one who said you were watching me sleep.”
“That was…” He clenched his hands into fists. “You know what I am. You know there’s no way that I could ever have any kind of feelings for anyone.”
I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t get it. He had pursued me. It had been obvious. He had followed me and tried to drag me off and been obsessed with my safety, and now he was going to deny that there was anything there? “Look, if you think you’ve been playing it coy, you haven’t, Landon. And what’s more, I mean, I think there’s something that I feel. I don’t know what, but sometimes, when I think about you—”
“Stop talking,” he said, and suddenly his face was inches from my face. “That’s not what this is about, Camber. I don’t have a crush on you. This isn’t some stupid high school TV show. Get over yourself.”
My lips parted in shock. I was hurt. That had stung. I backed away from him. “Whatever,” I said. Blood and fangs, why had that stung so hard? What did it matter, anyway? Landon was horrible. He was rude, and he didn’t have any real concern for me, or else he wouldn’t have tried to force me to leave my pack. I didn’t care what he thought of me.
Except, tears were springing to my eyes, and I didn’t want him to see, so I backed away as quickly as I could.
“Hell,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean… come on, Camber, you know I can’t.”
I had to get out of there now. I turned and ran through the trees, putting as much distance between us as I could.
He called after me, but I ignored him.
I hurried home as quickly as I could. Judah still wasn’t back, but I was glad of that. I didn’t want to face him right now.
It was all stupid anyway. I was a mated alpha, and I wasn’t giving up my pack. I couldn’t be with anyone else. I had to be alone. So, it was a good thing that Landon had rejected me, because I shouldn’t have pursued it anyway. I didn’t even know why I had. Probably because of that lonely feeling. Judah didn’t want me. I wanted someone to want me. I wanted to feel wanted.
Tears were still streaming down my face.
I dashed them away angrily and changed into my pajamas. I burrowed under the covers in my bed, where it was warm, and I willed myself not to think about any of it.
But Landon’s ice blue eyes haunted my dreams.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Neil Brightcoat stood at a table in the front of the main lodge. He spread his hands. “I think those girls made a decision when they left their packs, and they knew the risks.”
“Oh, come now, Neil,” said Henry Sharptooth. “If you’d seen the bodies, you’d know no one deserves that kind of a death.”
The main lodge was the biggest structure in the entire village, even bigger than the barn where the dance had taken place. It was used for various community functions. The entire town couldn’t fit inside or anything. Maybe a few hundred people could be crammed in if push came to shove. There were only about thirty people inside the room now.
We were at a council meeting.
The pack had a council of elders, werewolves who had been elected to represent the needs of the pack. There were thirteen of them, an odd number to ensure that when they voted, there wouldn’t be a tie.
That morning, Judah had informed me of the council meeting. I hadn’t even known there was a werewolf council. He said that he had told me about it when we were having dinner that first night, and maybe he had. I couldn’t remember, though. Anyway, as alphas, we were required to attend the council meetings. The council voted on important decisions for the pack, but the alphas did have veto power if we disagreed. However, the ruling body of the village was really the council, not us.
The council members were all sitting at a long table in the front of the room. Neil was standing. So was Henry.
Henry surveyed the room. Some people had come to watch the council meeting, but not very many. “There are girls who were killed who are daughters of the pack. They may have left because their mates deserted them or because of personal tragedy. Why, we all know that the Clasworth girl, who was the only one who survived the attack on her entire family wasn’t the same after she came back. I personally tried to talk her out of going to one of those houses, but she made her own decision.”
I was having trouble figuring out who these “girls” were, but from piecing together what people were saying, I was thinking they were werewolf prostitutes. I knew that sort of thing existed, usually right on the edge of the woods. It was the kind of thing that young human men did for a thrill. They’d venture over the fences, usually dead drunk, and go looking for werewolf women that they could pay to have their way with. It was a dangerous thing to do, though, because if the bloods found one of the houses, they killed everyone inside, even the human men.
Apparently, one of those prostitute houses had been hit by the bloods, somewhere close by, and some of the men in the council were up in arms about what had happened.
Of course, it had been a massacre. Everyone inside had been ripped apart. When the bloods went into rage mode, they were indiscriminate.
But the other thing that I was gathering from what the council members were saying was that the bloods didn’t hit these houses solely to kill. They did it for the same reason the human men did. They were there to have their way with the prostitutes. It was only that, apparently, when bloodhounds had sex, they went insane and destroyed the women they were having sex with.
Which was putting my conversation with Landon last night into an entirely new light and making me feel very uncomfortable.
“These bloods place no value on werewolf life,” said Henry. “They take their pleasure with those girls even though they know it will cost the girls their lives. And they don’t care. We can’t allow them to think that we stand for such a thing.”
“They kill us no matter what,” said Neil. “And I’d rather them raping those kinds of girls to death than coming into our villages and taking our wives and daughters.”
“We have protections on our village,” said Henry. “But the girls in the houses can’t hide themselves or their human clientele wouldn’t be able to find them. And besides, it’s one thing for the bloods to kill. We all know they’re programmed to do so. It’s another thing entirely for them to make sport of it. We need them to understand that if they choose to destroy werewolf life in that manner, that we won’t stand for it.”
“We don’t have a chance against them,” said Neil. “You and I both know that.”
“And no one is suggesting that we attack them,” said Henry. “We’re talking about an act of vandalism, a pointed piece of terrorism that shows them that we’re not pleased.”
“After which, they’ll retaliate and come after us.”
“And our spell will keep them out.”
“Or they’ll be twice as motivated to find a way to break the spell,” said Neil. “And they’ll kill all of us.”
“You’re repeating yourself,” said Henry. He turned to the other members of the council. “I think we’ve heard all the arguments we can hear on this proposal. It’s time to put it to a vote.”
“Any objections?” said Mary Jones, who served as the head of the council and called everything to order.
No one said anything.
“All right, well, then, I think we need a motion on the floor,” said Mary.
“I move that we strike on the bloodhounds headquarters in the Falls Sector of the woods,” said Henry. “I move that we destroy property and food and provisions, and that we leave a clear message that we are retaliating against the useless loss of wolf lives.”
“I second that,” said another council member.
“Further discussion?” asked Mary.
There was none.
“Well,” said Mary. “The motion has been moved and seconded. All in favor, signify by saying aye.”
There were several ayes.
“Those opposed?” said Mary.
There were several nays.
“All right, let’s do a show of hands,” said Mary.
The motion passed, eight to five, which was a very tight margin. In such cases, so Judah had told me, the final decision went to the alphas.
* * *
Judah and I were in the kitchen of the main lodge, which was quiet and dark except for a few muted overhead lights. I looked out at the six-burner stove and the deep stainless steel sinks. You could feed an army out of this kitchen. I guessed they did when they had big community events.
“We should probably go with the council majority,” said Judah. “Unless we have grave objections, that is. It’s good to stay in sync with the council. They’re in touch with the pack, and we don’t want to create unrest.”
“Well, what do you think about the risk?” I said. “If the bloods find us, we’re toast, that’s what everyone keeps saying.”
“True,” said Judah. “But we have the spell that hides us.”
“The spell that Landon says is weak. The one that’s supposed to be tied to our bond, and we don’t have a strong bond.”
“Landon, huh? You been talking to him lately?”
“Well, you didn’t even come home last night, so I don’t think you have any room to talk.”
He furrowed his brow. “Wait. You and Landon, that’s not… He’s a bloodhound.”
“I know what he is.”
“Then you know that one hint of, uh, excitement on one of them and their rage mode triggers.”
“One hint?” I said. What was a hint exactly?
“You have feelings for the bloodhound,” said Judah. “Great. Just great.”
“I don’t,” I said. “That’s stupid. I do not have… no.”
Judah ran a hand through his hair. “And I’m not even jealous. I’m concerned, because I don’t want him to kill you, but it doesn’t even bother me one iota that you might be attracted to another man. You’re right. Our bond is weak. It’s screwed up in some way. Maybe we didn’t mate right.”
“What?” I said. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I was so sure that if we mated, it would create feelings between us. I thought it would drive out anything I felt for Tempest. But I still did feel things for her, so my heart wasn’t in it. And, like you said, it was terrible sex. So, maybe we need to do it again—”
A Symphony of Howls Page 16
