Page 5 of Fated In Winter

This was so not the time. It never was. I was ninety-nine years old and would turn one hundred this Yule. I didn’t know why my wolf was acting as if I’d never seen a naked man before.

“Where did Darren go?” Conner asked, and I met his gaze again.

“Into the woods. I’ve been tracking him for a few hours now; he keeps coming over the ward boundaries between the Redwoods and the Talons, but not towards the Centrals.”

“Because they’re such a new Pack, the wards are only bound with the moon goddess herself. It probably doesn’t draw the wolf like it does ours.”

“That makes me sense. It’s just not easy. Was he your friend?”

“Is. He is my friend, as well as his two young pups and his mate.”

I winced. “I’m sorry. I hope we find him. Without you going over the edge of a cliff again.”

He shrugged, winced again, and I glared at the blood seeping through his t-shirt.

“You need to get that healed.”

“I will.”

“Are you just going to walk down the mountain with blood seeping from your side?”

“I won’t have to.” He lifted his chin, and the scent of wolf hit my nose. Nico, a wolf that I recognized, who looked so much like Conner that he had to be his brother, came forward, a few of the wolves at his side. Some Talons, some Redwoods.

“You okay?” Nico asked. He turned to me. “Hey, Romy.”

“Hey. Your brother fell off a cliff. But it’s fine.”

“I told you you were going to fall off that fucking cliff,” he growled, then his gaze caught the blood too. “What happened?”

We explained about Darren, and Nico cursed under his breath as a smaller man came forward. I recognized him as Mark, the Healer of the Redwood Pack. “Hi. Let’s take care of this.”

“I’m fine.” Conner backed up, and Mark rolled his eyes. “You know you need to get it healed. You know why.”

They all met each other’s gazes, and I caught the confusion as it ebbed in with mine, but didn’t ask. Instead, I went to Quinn, a former member of the Talon Pack and now mate to the Enforcer of the Redwood Pack. “Hi there.”

“You okay?” He asked, his voice gruff.

“I’m fine. I need to meet with the Betas, though, since both of them wanted to meet with me.”

“You’re going to be late then.”

“Maybe, but I’m pissed off that I couldn’t catch Darren.”

Quinn reached out and squeezed my shoulder and then let go. Everybody was so awkward around me. Nobody knew who I was because, in the end, I didn’t have a place.

I was a dominant wolf but in the middle of the Pack. I wasn’t an Elder, though I was older than many of the wolves around me. I also wasn’t part of the hierarchy, or friends with the newer wolves, because every single wolf of my generation had been killed.

All of them.

The Brentwoods, the wolves that held the mantle of the Talon Pack, like our Alpha, were all fifty to eighty years older than me. The others are much younger.

I was right at the age where every single wolf had died thanks to our former Alpha or the war with the Aspens or humans.

There had been so much loss, so much blood, that there was no coming back from that.

I looked over my shoulder at the foresty scent that was far too familiar already and met Conner’s gaze. He tilted his head, studied me, and I turned my head away, breaking the connection.

I didn’t know him, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Everybody that I knew tended to die. It was hard to make connections when I was afraid that it would be the last time I saw them.

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