Page 11 of Wolf Bound

“You think someone in Forntida pack set this up?” My mind is spinning with the implications this has. I’m the last person to sing the praises of Forntida pack, but this seems way too far fetched to me. They’ll murder someone in cold blood before they stage a disappearance. Just ask Drayton.

“It’s a theory I’m working off of,” Wes murmurs, rubbing his hands together in front of him. “It would make sense, except it would have to be someone that knows our legends, but doesn’t know how each of our gifts fully work.”

“They didn’t hide their impressions,” I guess, running a hand through my short, messy hair. “How many people know how your gift works?”

“Not many that we know of. However, with the sloppiness of the cover up, I think it has to be someone who’s only heard about it secondhand, which means it’s still not narrowing down the suspect pool as much as I would have liked.” Wes walks forward a few feet before digging his hands into the ground again. “What did help me narrow the suspects down, though, was the algae.It left a deeper impression than anything else, but not in the traditional sense. The person who collected the water to use for the poison was also the person who covered up the scents of everyone.”

“You aren’t making any fucking sense, dude. I need you to give me the cliff notes version before I flip the fuck out and try to follow him,” I push out through clenched teeth. “I can’t take much more of your incessant rambling around this.”

Wes rolls his eyes, the annoyance falling off of him in waves. “The impression left from the algae water was stronger because in order to cover up their scents from us, they would have had to bathe in water that was blessed by magic. The magic used draws out the scents, eliminating them like a magical air freshener. However, the person who created the poison and the odour eliminator forgot to factor in that algae is a living thing and therefore it leaves its own scent and impression. As you know, we all absorb bits of each other’s impressions by being around one another. Therefore--”

“The algae absorbed some of the scent and impression of the person who created everything?” I interrupt, throwing out my guess based on the information dump he just threw at me.

“Exactly! The water is the key to all of this!” Wes exclaims loudly, his eyes like a fucking kid at Christmas. “Narrowing down the algae type then cross referencing that with sectors of people with magic that would target us, we can find the exact area that these people live.”

“You think that’s here?” I question, looking around at the shitty forest and the winding dirt road that leads to nothing but ruins. “Who the fuck would be out here?”

“Alaric and Drayton said that both the Solidaire Bear Pack and the Croisés are out in this area. Based on the impressions in the dirt as well as the scents and tracks around here, we’re looking at the Croisés as our kidnappers.”

“The religious cult that despises magic and shifters? That Croisés?” I look at him like he has six heads because he had me and then he fucking lost me again. “How would humans who despise magic, use magic to kidnap a shifter? That sounds fucking insane.”

“That same one! It’s almost genius of them, isn’t it?” Wes laughs, shaking his head. “My guess is that they’re experimenting on magic users, including shifters. Alaric and Drayton are confirming my theory as we speak and making their way to us with Alaric’s team. Let’s shift and head back to the car. I need to check my phone and update the others. I have no doubt in my mind, though, that we will find Penn in that castle behind the ruins.”

“You better be fucking right,” I grumble, shifting back immediately and taking off in a run towards the car.

Wes follows suit, quickly matching my speed as we fly through the forest. Letting my wolf have the entire driver’s seat, I move into the golden valley, trusting him to get us to our destination as I roll over everything Wes just threw at me.

As a pup, it’s difficult to master being in two places at once like this. You need to build a bond with your animal, one that allows you to be on the same wavelength as them. My eyes can still see where we’re going, my mind still present enough to keep my humanity when my wolf is in charge. At the same time, I’m able to go into the valley of the Goddess that only exists in a shifter’s mind.

This valley never fails to help me get my thoughts together. The magic of the Goddess Adessa is one of the only things I truly believe in anymore. Looking up at the golden sky, I replay the confusing conversation with Wes, picking out the important bits among the ramblings.

First, the people who kidnapped Penn fucked up when they chose sea water and didn’t distill it before use. Secondly, thealgae type in the sea water narrowed down where the water came from. Thirdly, while they used magic on the water to make it remove their scents, they forgot that algae is living and leaves its own impressions and scent. Last, the location of the ocean and the impressions left in the water points to the kidnappers being none other than The Croisés, previously known as the Crusaders.

Wes’ gift for impressions has always baffled me to no end. For the most part, I can understand everyone else’s gifts, how they work, what they do. With his, I can’t fathom any part of it. It could be because while Wes is smart as fuck, he is far from articulate. Honestly, ramblings of a mad genius is what perfectly describes him.

Wes has always described his impressions as astral footprints, whatever that means. It’s some kind of mixture of scent, feelings, and essence of living that attaches to everything you come into contact with. If I hadn’t seen him track a rat based on nothing more than sniffing dust, I would think he’s fucking crazy. Most packs outside of ours do in fact think we’re all crazy. They don’t realise our history is longer and more complex than their pasts could ever fathom. We reach back to the beginning when Adessa herself blessed the earth.

A flash in my mind grabs my attention; the clearing where we left Wes’ car is coming up in front of us which means it’s time to pull back into reality. Moving in beside my wolf, I pull out of the valley and merge my consciousness back into my body. At the clearing, my wolf brushes me subconsciously, moving back to the valley as the shift takes over.

Wes shifts as well, his eyes zoned on the car and the clothes and phone inside. “I’ll notify Dray and Alaric. They shouldn’t be too far out from us,” Wes explains, furiously typing away on his phone. “I imagine we will be descending on the castle once the sun goes down.”

Instead of answering him, I grunt out a non-committal answer and grab my clothes to get dressed. After living with humans for the past thirteen months, it feels like falling into a shitty fantasy show coming back to all of this.

Castles, shifters, crusaders, magic, and more! Join us next week for a brand new episode featuring even more unbelievable bullshit!

Once my clothes are back on, I walk away from the car, ignoring Wes as he prattles on and on. At the end of the day, I don’t care about the little details like the history behind the fuckers who took Penn. I learned the same shit about them in pup school just like Wes did. We fucking sat next to each other as Ms. Ballader covered the Croisés. All I’m here to do is save my best friend from some psychopaths. There’s no reconnecting, no hanging out, nothing. I’m here for Penn, the rest can suck a fucking moose dick.

My phone vibrates three times in a row in my pocket as I step deeper into the forest on the other side of our vehicle. The top of my screen shows sixteen new text messages. A few are from coworkers at the bar sending well wishes for my family emergency. The majority are from the girl I’m casually hooking up with, Gretchen.

Rolling my eyes at the selfish, whining texts she’s sent, I send back a quick message just telling her I’m not in town at the moment. Gretchen is hot as hell, but for every point she gets in attractiveness, she gets an equal point for being an annoying bitch. We both understand that our arrangement is just sex, yet it doesn’t stop her from trying to demand my attention at any moment that suits her.

Ignoring the barrage of texts from her, I shove my phone back into my pocket and grab the tree behind me. For the most part, I’ve been doing well at keeping thoughts of Penn at bay. If I think too much about people attacking and kidnapping him, I’ll gofucking ballistic which won’t help him. My first goal is to make sure he’s alive and safe. After that I can make sure they never get the chance to hurt someone again.

Penn has been my best friend since we were barely out of diapers. Being part of the original bloodlines, we were pushed together as friends at every moment. He’s someone I trust beyond a shadow of a doubt. When he sided with Drayton after my father’s murder, it cut me deep. It’s a huge part of why I left the pack.

We remained in sporadic contact, a large part of me not ready to give up my best friend even if we aren’t seeing eye to eye on the events of that awful day that changed my life forever. Penn told me he would explain what happened that day when I was ready to hear it. The problem is, I know what happened that day, and I’ll never be ready to hear the lies my brother convinced everyone else of.

The sound of vehicles approaching catches my attention. Pushing myself off of the tree, I walk towards the clearing, cracking my knuckles and loosening the muscles in my arms. This is either the enemy discovering us or the pack showing up to help us infiltrate. Either way, it’s a fucking fight that I’m ready for.

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