Page 71 of Wolf Tamer

He shakes his head, his annoyance clear. “There is more to sense, more to see and smell, as wolves. There is no need for us to patrol as humans when our senses are limited.”

“Then can anyone tell me why there’s a size fourteen or so boot mark over here?” she pushes. “Because unless someone is out for a midnight stroll without you knowing, you not only have a breach but you’ve got people on the inside, and they’re wearing some thick treads.”

Bullet glances my way, his fear all over his face.

The feeling is mutual. I narrowly avoid pressing a hand to the heartburn clawing its way up my esophagus.

A stranger inside the territory. How could I not have known?

I walk over to crouch next to her and notice the tracks immediately. They’re damn hard to miss.

My stomach flips and dives. With the fear comes anger as well.

This should never have happened.

“So unless one of our guys has taken upon himself to track as a human, then we’ve got an outsider who somehow managed to make it over the boundary,” I say.

“How is it possible?” Liam asks, voice shaking. “What kind of magic is powerful enough to tear a hole in our defenses?”

If I’m not mistaken, his tone borders close to accusatory. Much too close to my liking, and I have no idea how to answer him.

“The magic works by dissuading any humans—supernatural or non—from the area,” I say out loud for Tasha’s benefit. “If they come within several feet of the invisible line, they suddenly find themselves with a desperate desire to be anywhere else, although they’re not going to notice a difference in the area. There’s no distinct marking for them to notice. They just know they have to get out of here fast. And if one of us happens to be on the inside on patrol, they see nothing but the forest. Other shifters are able to sense us, and they respect the territory. Witches sense the magic, but we’ve never had an issue with them before.”

How things change.

“It seems they are nothing but a problem now. Doesn’t it? I feel it too,” Tasha admits with a shiver. Closing her eyes, she holds her hand out over the boot mark before pushing to her feet with a sigh. “It’s this force, this crazy crackling of energy like just before a lightning strike. Only there are a few places where it feels like… that blanket.” She cracks her eyes open and stares at me, her meaning evident.

Just like she described to me the sensation she’d felt before the portal opened.

I struggle not to let surprise show on my face.

“I’d say someone not only forced their way inside but they’re trying to cover what they did, and their magic isn’t strong enough to do it,” she adds.

“What do you know?” Bullet asks.

“She knows a lot more than we’ve given her credit for,” I answer.

I wonder…

I place my hand over hers, seeing if I can tap into whatever she’s feeling in the area. A slight jolt passes through me at the contact, and I half wonder if it’s because of her magic or because of her. Even knowing the others are watching doesn’t stop me from crowding close to her.

I need all the support I can get.

My own senses are going haywire being this close to the thin spot, and even if I didn’t know about the territory line, I’d have been able to sense the wrongness of this area. This is worse than I thought. Much worse than Bullet made it out to sound, although I can’t blame him for my distraction. For my stupid, thin hope that it was just a fluke.

I’m doing a piss-poor job as alpha, and I never felt the failure as keenly as I do now. The mate bond is there when I close my eyes, shimmering between us like a palpable thing and ready for me to grab a hold of and pull. I do so now, listening to her barely audible gasp.

She’s not used to this, and neither am I, because there’s no “owner’s manual” when it comes to the mate bond and what it entails. I never even thought to ask my mother about it when she’d been alive. We were too busy surviving.

So now I’m going on my gut and hoping it doesn’t fuck us up.

Another pull on the bond brings a clearer picture of Tasha’s energy to me, and I focus on the ties she has to her magic.

Soon enough, I see what she sees. I feel what she feels, even when it seems almost impossible. Just as I know without having to open my eyes that she’s curled her lip back, a seething comment for Bullet lodged in her throat and a million other things she wants to say trapped in her head.

The thin place coincides with the time of the portal opening in the house, and she thinks there’s already someone on the inside.

I shake my head to clear it and push to my feet, but before I have a chance to say anything, a body crashes into mine. Half a second later, a fist collides with my cheekbone and pain radiates through my face.

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