Page 30 of Moonmarked

Yes, I remembered that—but what I saw when my eyes opened was different.

The sky over me was blue, full of light with the new day. The werewolf I’d namedWolfiewasn’t sleeping on the ground, but she was standing there near the trunk, growling.

At the three men standing some twenty feet away from her, watching her passively.

Everything came to a halt. Even my heart didn’t beat for a long second as the view registered and I tried to make sense of it.

The men were big, bulky, and they wore shirts and pants, bags strapped to their backs. They had hair on the longer side that completely hid their ears, but they weren’t fae. I knew it deep in my bones—they were notfae. They werenotthe royal guard, and they were not Rune.

I released a slow breath, and the man in the middle looked up at me as if he’d heard it.

Then he took a step forward, and his friends joined him.

“It’s over, Maera,” he said, and he had some kind of an accent that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “It’s over. Surrender, and let us rid our pack from the curse of you. Step forth willingly. Do not cower.”

Every inch of my skin broke out in bumps as I watched, tried to process his words said in that thick, hoarse voice, but I couldn’t.

The werewolf growled louder and moved farther back, her hind legs almost at the trunk.

I moved on instinct. Ifshewas afraid of these men, that meant they were dangerous, possibly as dangerous as the sorcerers had been. I climbed down from the tree and jumped off the lowest branch and to the ground without an ounce of pain.

Fuck, the men were even bigger from closer up, their shoulders twice the size of mine, especially the guy in the middle. Tan skin, dark brown hair, pin straight, the tips reaching his shoulders, wide almond eyes that were as yellow as those of the werewolf…

My stomach fell.

I stepped forward, right in front of Wolfie, and said, “Who the hell are you?”

It wasn’t because I was brave. It wasn’t because I thought I could take these men—of course I couldn’t. But Wolfie had stepped in front of me when she thought that chained man last night was dangerous, and now I was going to do the same. Because she was afraid of these men—or at least wary of them. And they weremen,so theycould speak. If they wanted something we could give them, I could make deals until they were on their way. Anything it took—we’d made it this far, hadn’t we?

The men looked at one another, brows narrowed.

“That does not concern you,” the one in the middle finally told me. “Step aside. We’ve come for Maera.”

Maera.

I risked a quick glance back at the werewolf, who was still as tense, her chin almost to the forest floor as she waited, her eyes ahead, ready to attack.

Pretty name,I thought.

And she was really a werewolf.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” I said and tried to stand as tall as possible. Tried to seem unafraid. No idea whether I succeeded, though. “Maera here is my friend. She saved my life. If you want something from her, you can tellmeabout it.”

“A friend,” said the guy in the middle, and it was meant as a mocking.

God, I hated bullies. There was nothing in the world I hated more—but when he took another three steps closer, that burst of anger vanished in the face of fear.

“She is a curse—not a friend,” the man continued, and the closer he came, the bigger he appeared. Fuck, I was sweating. “She was supposed to be dead a long time ago. We gave her to the sorcerers, yet she still lives to plague us.”

What the fuck?!

That made my thoughts crash and burn to ashes. “Hold on a minute—yougaveher to the sorcerers?” Was he serious right now?

“We did—to rid our pack of her. Of her curse.” He nodded solemnly at the end, too.

I could hardly believe my ears.

Shaking my head, I put my hands on my hips.“What the hell’s the matter with you, man? She wasin a cage,wasting away, being used for magic spells and stuff!”

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