Page 61 of The Wild Moon
“Are you going to tell us what we’re doing? What the mission is?”
I stared at him. Was he stupid? Did he get hit in the head too hard by Byron yesterday?
“I already told you what we’re doing,” I said, obviously missing something here. “We’re going out to the mountains where you and my father went, northeast of Kellar. We’re going to explore the last area you guys worked together. Then we’re going to find the abandoned city hidden out there.”
Everyone was looking at me now. Most of them with mixed amounts of disbelief. I looked over the group, then back at Aaron.
“You didn’t tell them, did you?”
“I thought it would sound better coming from you,” he said blandly.
“You mean less crazy.”
He looked upward in thought, then nodded. “Yeah, less crazy.”
“You guys signed up for this without being told what we’re doing? Without even asking?”
The team shrugged in near unison. A sure sign of a group that’s worked together plenty of times.
“You all are fucking weird,” I muttered. “And crazy.”
“Don’t forget you’re part of the team now,” Aaron said. “So, include yourself on that list.”
“Oh, I’m at the top,” I said, shaking my head. “At the very damn top.”
I’m chasing a wild theory into the complete unknown, based on some vague hints and a gut instinct I got from reading my father’s book. I stole one of my race’s most important artifacts to do so. I’m trusting a man I’ve never met before, all while running from my Alpha and his son, the man I’m supposed to be mated to.
Yeah, definitely crazy.
“The thing is, I’m aware of my faults,” I added when nobody else spoke.
Alexi spoke up, his words heavy with an Eastern European accent but intelligible enough to tell me he’d been here for some time. “What information do you have?”
I sighed. “Not much. My father has been looking for this city for decades.”
“Yes. We have worked with him before. Never find city,” Alexi said. “Where is your father?”
“Missing,” I said. “I’m hoping that whatever is out there, whatever he wanted me to find, will help me locate him.”
“So, we are going in blind?” Alexi asked.
I nodded, confirming it. “Yes. Do you want out?”
He shook his head.
“Anyone else?” I asked, looking around.
Nobody spoke up. They were all in. Like I said, a bunch of crazies.
“Did you ever take this many out with my father?” I asked Aaron suddenly, wondering if he was bringing such a large group because I was there and didn’t really know what I was doing.
“Sometimes,” he admitted.
“Why? I don’t get it. How could you possibly need this many people out there?”
“These mountains are dangerous,” Fred said, looking at me with brown eyes that tracked my every movement with computer-like precision.
He didn’t elaborate, and after a minute of waiting for him to, I gave up.
