Page 3 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

“So?” Brandt scratched under his arm, squinting up at the sky.

I exchanged a glance with Graham. Graham shook his head, motioning the sign of idiot while Brandt’s eyes were elsewhere. I bit my tongue to hold in my grin.

“Pleasure, as always, Red, but we gotta go,” Brandt said as the sun eased into the horizon.

Graham raised a brow. “Tavern maid on your mind?”

Were Brandt’s cheeks red? “Shut up.”

“What’s her name?” I asked, a sly smile on my face.

Brandt narrowed his eyes. “Don’t,Curo.” He spat the name like a curse.

My grin grew innocent. “What? I wasn’t planning anything.”

His eyes narrowed into slits. “Last year you told Shiela my wife and two kids were languishing at home without me when you well know I have no wife.”

I clapped a hand to my chest. “Oh, what will Bronny and Lassie do without their father? They miss him so, but the only one who truly knows what a scamp their father is, is his wife, Lila, who knows naught but the dreaded perfume of other women by which he comes home?—”

“Stop,” Brandt growled. Funny how much he sounded like the werewolves we hunted.

A slow grin crossed Graham’s face. “Is that why Sheila slapped you? Twice?”

A low chuckle came from my chest before I could stop it. “She slapped you? Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have seen that!”

Brandt gritted his teeth and stalked off, dust poofing with each step.

Graham shook his head again. He glanced up at me, then his eyes darted away. “How’s your sister?” he asked.

My chest clenched at his question. “Anna is hanging in there. Mom has scheduled another healer to see if they can figure out what’s wrong,” I said.

He nodded, then shyly met my eyes before looking away again. “Would you like me to walk back to the tribe tonight?” he asked, his eyes once more darting to my face. There was a slight panic within, almost as if he were afraid of my answer.

I shifted my feet. “Sorry, but no. I’ve gotta infiltrate tonight. Only time I could bribe the gatemen. But thank you for the offer,” I said, smiling.

His face fell. “Oh. Ok.Audacia numquam amittere,” he said the typical Red goodbye, looking up with a tiny smile that didn’t reach his kind blue eyes.

“Audacia numquam amittere,”I said, giving him a tiny smile.

It wasn’t until I was halfway across the city and nearly to the nobleman’s house that my brain caught up to what Graham was really asking.

“Dragon breath and poppycock,” I hissed.

He was asking me to walk with him. As in, more than friends.

I was an idiot. More than an idiot, I was absolutely clueless about relationships. Give me a stick and a werewolf, and I’d fight any day. But social niceties were beyond me.

I turned my mind to my mission. I needed a werewolf to draw out Hood, and I had just the one in mind to do so.

A stately,sprawling, three-story mansion spread before me. The manor itself was whitewashed. Gold, vine-shaped filigree with ruby-red leaves trailed circular columns that upheld the second-floor balcony.

Glass windows were all along the three stories. Trailing cobblestone pathways webbed from the home, the meandering trails meeting statues, bubbling fountains, and even a mage-lit Ambrose tree—said to be renowned for their poison and their beauty with silken pink blossoms and green leaves with blue veins.

Shadows detached from beneath statues and towering bushes, their silent paws sending a trail of skittering nerves up my spine. So silent, so deadly. Long fangs which were designedto tear into meat, ears which can hear even the slightest change of heartbeat, a nose that can detect a squirrel from a mile out—none of these were the strongest part of the werewolf. If we found a lone werewolf, they were easy to put down. It was the pack you had to worry about. Injure one and a dozen were behind them to rip out your throat.

A dragon was stronger, but a werewolf pack could kill even the strongest elemental dragon.

I shook my head, focusing back on the house. And my target.

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