Page 2 of Alpha Exile

The land wakes suddenly from its peaceful, half-sleeping state, and calls out in alarm. I push away from the windowsill and stand up suddenly, tension rolling through the room as I interrupt the conversation going on to face the others. "Someone is here."

"Really? Who?" Finn takes a tense step forward. "Is it Delphine again? Or for real, this time?"

"I don't... know." Tilting my head, I stretch my senses out, but the land is unable to tell me who or what it senses. All it knows is that there's a threat somewhere along the road. "I doubt she would attack again so soon, and for no reason. It could just be a lone wolf coming to our borders. I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you," Kieran offers, but I shake my head, wincing when he frowns unhappily.

"Lance will come with me. Kieran, you stay here—you know the names of herbs and spell books better than the rest of us, since you've spent time with your aunt. Kerry may need you if something goes wrong with Delilah."

He eyes me skeptically, but nods his head in assent. As I head down the stairs with Lance, I reflect on the knot of tension in my stomach that's therealreason why I didn't want Kieran to come with me alone.

Ever since that moment in the abandoned warehouse, when we shared Delilah on top of the piano, something has somehowshiftedin the way I feel when I look at him. I can see the Kieran I've always seen, the one I've loved since I knew what best friends were, who hurt me when he was hurting himself.

But I can also see another Kieran. The flushed, aroused one who touched Delilah and was touched in return. Whose body is so much leaner, more muscular, and taut than I remember.

I can't stop wondering what we might've done if we hadn't been interrupted by the sound of chanting outside the warehouse. We were on the brink of something more, and there was a look in his eyes.

Some part of me thinks he was about to invite me to touch him, too.

Some part of me wonders if I would've done it.

And what if it changed things between us? Sharing Delilah is one thing. That's hard enough at times. But adding more than that is fraught. No matter how lightly Finn jokes about it—or doesn't joke about it, depending on the tone of his suggestions—two men being together isn't just fun.

It's... something more. Especially when the other male is your friend. Double that when he's yourbestfriend. Delilah being there wouldn't change what it would mean, and it scares me that I'm not sure that I would've had the self-control to stop us if it came to that.

Better just to avoid the subject entirely. Especially when we have something as important as hunting down Delphine to deal with. There's no time for other complications.

Reaching the front porch with Lance, we both shift into our wolf forms. The dark brown-black of my wolf's fur settles around me as I flow out the front door. Tilting my nose up, I catch a scent on the wind, and sense danger in the air.

Though I don't know yet where it's coming from.

Or why I feel it so strongly.

There's something out there.Lance's white fur glows in the eerie moonlight.I can't see it, but I can... I can feel it.

So can I. Through the land beneath my paws, and the senses of my wolf. I swing my head away from the battle scene we were in only hours ago, towards the distant line of trees.

Beyond them is the wilderness, abandoned cabins and untended hunting grounds, pack territory that hasn't seen a proper pack in years. The road stretches along the land, winding and gravel-covered. Few vehicles head down that way, and most take it on four feet.

I pace in that direction, an itch starting between my shoulder blades. My senses are telling me that the threat is silent, growing, unfurling like a banner in the wind. But I can't catch a specific smell, no matter which way I point my muzzle.

No doubt the scents have been dampened by the fog misting in the air. It thickens and rolls around us, wet and dense.

The closer I step to the predatory I sense, the more the fog grows.

Swinging my head towards Lance, I tell him,I don't like this.

Neither do I.

Do you see anything? Smell anything?

Finn is the one with the advanced nose. All I see is... the land, as it always is at night, quiet and full of small prey.He paces forward a few more steps, the hackles along his shoulders rising, white fur glimmering.I feel uneasy, and I don't know why.

So do I. But we shoulder on, continuing our advancing scout, eyes peeled open and ears swiveling around.

I look east. Then west.

Down the road again.

---