Page 71 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

“It really is an interesting building,” she said before her eyes widened and the smile fell from her lips.

Baer moved quickly, the candle in Rory’s hand blown out at the same moment he pulled her to his chest. I felt Ayden’s arms around me in the same way, his body tense as we all looked towards the closed door.

Dark magic wisped in the air just outside the windows, its scent strong and overwhelming. It extinguished the joyful feeling that had been so intoxicating only a moment ago. Reality now settled back into my mind.

‘How did she find us?’I asked my wolf, uncertain if I should speak out loud.

‘I don’t think she has yet,’my wolf replied.

I looked around at the others before calling through the mindlink to Rory.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, Baer says we should stay quiet. His wolf doesn’t think that she knows we are here.’She replied.

‘My wolf agrees,’I replied.

Ayden nudged me through the bond and my gaze moved back to him. His eyes were locked on the door as his arms tightened around me.

‘If she comes through, I want you to be ready to fight. No holding back. You’re a warrior, remember. Don’t forget that,’he said, his voice echoing around my mind with such firmness. Warning me to not give into the fear like I had with the griffin.

‘Don’t worry,’I said.‘I’ve been ready to fight her for months now. I won’t let anything get in my way, not even myself.’

A shadow moved past the window near the door, each of us sucking in a collective breath as we watched the shadowy shape of two people walk by.

“Do you really think they would come all this way, Minerva Love?” A male voice asked.

I caught the scent of decay mixed with the dark magic, and I knew exactly who the voice would belong to.

“If they are persistent, then yes. I do believe they would come this far. I don’t doubt that the shop keeper didn’t give away the portal. The master has been secretive, but he has that gleam in his eyes.” Minerva replied.

“What gleam is that?” John Thorne asked, amusement thick in his voice.

“The one that means he is about to get exactly what he wants. Finally, after all these centuries.”

They walked directly past the house. Neither seemed at all interested in the only maintained building of the city. It seemed they didn’t even believe that we would have arrived at this point just yet.

“This old city always depresses me,” John continued in their conversation. “What did you say it was called before the god’s took it away?”

“Just another forgotten city that fell into the sea,” Minerva said. “All because a princess wouldn’t let go of her own greed.” I could almost hear a smile in her voice, as if she knew the story personally, and it brought her joy.

We all stayed still, no one uttering a word aloud until their voices and footsteps were gone. Only then did we all let out our collective breath and relax our tense muscles.

“Probably best we don’t light any more candles,” Ayden said as he looked over at Rory and Baer. “And a fire is out of the question tonight. The smoke might draw their attention back to us.”

“Hope it doesn’t get cold tonight,” Rory said with a frown.

“Don’t worry,” Baer laughed as he pulled her closer to him. “I’ve got all the heat you need to keep warm.”

I smiled and looked back at Ayden, his face breaking the stern and serious expression just a bit as he looked back at me.

“All right then,” I said. “Well let’s figure out what we can eat cold then. And we should only get what we need for the night out. Minerva is here, we know that for certain now. We just need to rest and then we will go after her in the morning.”

The others nodded in agreement and began to open their bags to take out the essentials for the night. We were all careful to keep our voices low as we worked, each of our gazes turning to the door and window. Every sound putting our hair on end.

In all my focus on the outside, I barely noticed the shadows in the corners growing larger. The sun had fully set now, the light of the moon barely trickling in through the windows as we all worked in the dark. As I turned to set up my sleeping bag in the corner of the room, it didn’t occur to me that the shadows in the corner were darker than they should have been. Not until the hand reached out and grabbed hold of my wrist.

“Sasha!” I heard Ayden yell as another arm reached out and wrapped around my waist.

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