Page 16 of Betrayed By the Wolf

The unceremonious goodbye was just what Vera preferred. She’d had all the emotional tenderness she could handle in there, enough to last her for weeks. Now, she just had one thing to do, and it was what she was best at—tracking.

She drove too fast and made it to the meetup with five minutes to spare. Rami and Jonah waited a few feet away from Spencer, the Rosewood Alpha, and Adria, his mate. Her pack leaders. She dipped them a nod of greeting.

“Sorry for cutting it close. What are we doing tonight?” She focused on Spencer and Adria, forcing herself not to check out Rami. Hedidlook good in that shirt, though. It barely contained his muscular arms, the ones that lifted her with ease so she could wrap her legs around his waist and—stop and focus.

“At this point?” Spencer blew out a breath. “Anything out of the ordinary. All we have right now is a rumor.”

“That’s where your tracking will come in handy. If you catch the scent of anything unusual, send up a howl. Don’t try to track it on your own, okay?” Adria waited until Vera nodded in confirmation before shifting into her wolf form.

Vera followed suit, shaking out her inky fur and digging her claws into the soft dirt at the edge of the forest. The others circled around then, as one, they loped into the woods, fanningout to cover as much distance as possible while keeping each other in sight. Rami ran at her right side, and she took the place farthest to the left, leaving her side open. It was easier to track without another wolf’s scent filling her nose.

At first, she just let herself enjoy the run. Dappled moonlight danced on the forest floor, wind fanning through the leaves above. She smelled loamy earth and melting snow and Rami. His silver-grey fur caught the moonlight as hers didn’t, and she kept finding her eyes drifting toward him.

Come on, Vera, get it together.The pull toward her mate was stronger than ever as a wolf, but she snarled and dropped her head, picking up speed to put more space between them.

“Don’t get too far,” Rami cautioned, his voice deep and steady in her mind.

She ignored him, darting between the trees. He wasn’t even in her pack, and he’d rejected her as his mate, so she had no reason to listen to him and all the reasons to run. But he kept hot on her heels, refusing to let her flee.

“Dammit, Vera, it’s not safe.”

The smell crept into her nose. A faint scent of wrongness reminded her of the night Rami had picked her up in his car, like decay and ozone and spice, stinging her muzzle. With Rami at her back, she had no choice but to keep running, even as the smell grew stronger, making her snort and sneeze.

Even Rami smelled it eventually.

“What is that? Is something rotting?”

“It’s not just rot.”

She was certain of that. But what was it? Oddly, though the smell was so strong it flooded all other scents from her nosenow, even Rami’s, it had lost the repugnant tang. Now, it smelled like fresh meat and hot blood.

Vera stopped short. Rami skidded to a halt beside her, panting. Set into the woods as if it were part of it sat a cabin, moss covering its shingled roof and vines trailing over its walls, curling toward its windows. The windows were dark.

They should call for the others, but the scent had her dizzy, her feet moving toward the cabin of their own volition. Rami shoved his way in front of her, blocking her with the bulk of his body.

“Stop. Something isn’t right.”

He lifted his muzzle to the sky and howled.

Chapter 8 - Rami

Rami snapped at Vera, white fangs flashing, stopping her in her tracks before she could take another step forward. Whatever pull the cabin had, she was more susceptible to it than he was and the look in her eyes was dazed, vacant. Nothing like the focus he was used to seeing there. Was this how the curse found its victims?

Howls sounded in response to his from a surprising distance away—he and Vera must have gotten farther off the pack’s path than they’d realized.

The cabin sat in the clearing like a fairytale cottage, but the sweet scent and its storybook appearance were the juicy bait on the end of a lure, and he wasn’t about to let Vera get hooked. Her reaction to it was enough to tell him all he needed to know.

Anything that could addle Vera’s mind was not to be trusted, and he wasn’t going to let her get any closer to it. What was taking the pack so long? He couldn’t smell them, not over the scent drifting from the cabin.

After what felt like an eternity, Adria, Spencer, and Jonah blazed into the clearing. They slammed to a halt when Rami let loose a few sharp warning barks.

“There’s some sort of enchantment. It wants us to get closer.”Rami nudged Vera toward the others, pressing against her shoulder until she turned.

When she whipped around to snap at him, her tooth catching the corner of his ear in a flash of pain, he breathed a sigh of relief. That was the Vera he knew. Despite the sting in his ear, he was pleased to see her fiery reaction, a sign that she’d shaken off whatever compulsion had her in its snare.

“I’m fine. Back off.”She trotted over to Adria.

He’d take her ire if it meant keeping her safe. If only she could understand that he’d done the same thing by breaking up with her.

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