Page 7 of Wolf Marked

Erec walked past her, heading for the woods again. “Why were you following me?”

She spun around and went after him. She sped up to match his longer strides. “I wanted to bring you back to talk to my father. He can be hardheaded, but maybe if we spoke to him together, we can make him understand we can’t run from Jerrick forever.”

He sighed. “At least someone gets it.”

When he didn’t say anything more for a few more steps, Astrid continued, “I saw what was left of Mikel’s pack when we found you. I know we’re next if we don’t do something soon.” She wasn’t sure where he was leading her, but when she peered up at the canopy of naked branches, she could see the crescent moon peeking through and Vallor, the brightest star in the night sky, twinkling just ahead of them. They were moving north.

“I think you should come back with me,” she repeated. “Now that Mikel is gone, and you don’t have a pack anymore…”

“I never had a pack.” His tone was quick and sharp, but his face was unreadable as he marched forward. “Not really.”

“What do you mean, ‘not really’?” she pressed. “I thought Mikel took you in.”

“He did. Well, more like he tried.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Maybe I wasn’t a very good fit.” His jaw clenched in annoyance. “It’s complicated. Can we leave it at that?”

Astrid bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t getting anywhere with him this way. Her father had said Erec’s parents had died, and that’s when Mikel had taken him in. She had lost her mother ten Blue Moons ago, too, and that was the worst time of her life. She couldn’t imagine losing both parents at the same time. The heartache would be unbearable. The loneliness…

Debating on what she should say next, Astrid strode alongside him in silence. The encroaching uneasiness made her skin crawl. If she couldn’t get Erec to help them, there was no hope in saving her pack.

“Please, come back with me,” Astrid sputtered as fear rushed forward. “Our pack is full of children. I couldn’t imagine more deaths like the ones I saw in the valley. I can’t convince my father on my own. You know how Jerrick fights. You saw it. We need to convince him—”

“Weren’t you there? Boden doesn’t want to hear anything other than his own voice.” He didn’t even turn to look at her as he plowed ahead.

“We’ll make him listen.”

“Make an alpha wolf listen? Do you hear yourself?”

Anger mounting, Astrid snatched him by the arm and pulled him to a stop. She lifted herself onto her toes to meet his gaze head on. “What would Mikel say?” she snapped. Father had always seen him as an ally and a friend. “He’d want you to help us, wouldn’t he?”

Erec’s face fell, and his gaze drifted toward the trees. She recognized that weighted look of sorrow and guilt; she’d seen it on him before, when her father had first mentioned the old alpha’s name. Her heart ached for him. There had to be more to him abandoning Mikel’s pack than what had been said.

Her grip loosened on his arm, and her voice softened. “I didn’t know him, but from what my father said, he was a man of loyalty and peace. A man that believed there was more to family than blood.”

Erec’s brows pinched, and when he looked at her again, pain lingered behind his eyes.

“My pack is my family,” she whispered. A heaviness tugged at her heart. “We don’t all share the same blood, but they mean everything to me. I’ll do anything to protect them. Please, help us.”

Erec’s arm came out to stop her. “Don’t move,” he grunted. His face drained of all color, and his gaze skimmed the trees in front of them. “Listen…”

Astrid’s knees locked her in place as she peered into the dark forest. What was going on? Were they in danger? She saw no movement among the shadows, only floating snowflakes on the breeze, but her inner wolf jumped up into high alert. She rubbed her lips together, reminding herself to stay calm, and leaned forward. Erec’s quickeningbreaths drowned out all other sounds, and the smell of a smoldering fire laced with cedar and a twinge of perspiration—his scent—surrounded her.

“What is it? I don’t—”

Then she heard it. A muffled whimper in the distance.

She paused. Another wail, louder this time, pierced the silence.

The stunned look on Astrid’s face told Erec she was thinking the same thing he was. A baby this far out in the woods, miles away from Boden’s pack or any other neighboring territory? Impossible. But the cries continued to shatter the forest’s silence.

A shiver of warning ran through Erec. He didn’t like this. Not one bit. He and Astrid were alone. If things went wrong, all he had was the knife he’d grabbed from the cave and hidden in his boot and the minutes they had left before dawn. Those marked with the curse could only shift under the moon.

Their waning time increased his worry. Whatever was going on, it couldn’t be good. He touched Astrid’s arm. “We should go.”

Her green eyes widened. “It could be another survivor of Mikel’s pack.”

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