Page 21 of Veiled Fate
“You don’t think we’re going to lose him, do you?”
“We might.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“Not enough to potentially give the location of our main base to the Alphas. They’re the best hunters this world has ever seen. There are children at the base. I won’t be responsible for it,” he growled protectively. “Lycaonus wouldn’t hesitate to murder them all simply for being there.”
Lycaonus was the first Alpha, their leader, and he ruled from the imperial capital of Lycaon. A city twice the size of Arcadia. It would make sense that he was the most ruthless of them all.
“We’re going to have to run hard,” he said. “Harder than any run you’ve done before. You’ll have to keep up. You can’t slow.”
“Keep up with you?” I asked uncertainly. “Kiel, that’s impossible. You’re faster than any wolf I’ve met. You never seem to tire. You’re impossibly strong. I … I’m not. I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Nonsense,” he said sharply, waving away my protest. “You’re stronger than you think. The blood of an Alpha runs in you.Use it, Jada. You must.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about? I don’t have any Alpha blood in me.”
Kiel frowned uncomfortably. Whatever he was going to say was stalled by shouts behind us. The shore patrol. Though they were muted by the constant rumble of thunder, there was only one conclusion to make. They had discovered the boats’ remains.
“It’s time,” Kiel said, removing his clothing. “Run like your life depends upon it, Jada. Because it does.”
Then he was gone, shifting into his wolf. The giant, black-furred beast with yellow eyes stared at me. Waiting.
The blood of an Alpha? In me?
A fresh shout went up from behind us. Closer now. They’d found our tracks.
Kiel growled impatiently.
“This conversation isn’t over,” I told him pointedly as I disrobed, calling to my wolf. “You’re going to explain that comment.”
The black wolf’s reply was to trot off into the darkness.
Chapter Eleven
Icame to a halt as the last silvery strip of the moon dipped below the horizon to the west. Soft grass of the plains east of Lycaon rustled around under paw, the gentle evening breeze sweeping up the ridge we had just crossed.
That was about far enough.
All through the night, we ran. Outpacing the storm, which had veered eastward instead of north. Our fur was matted and clumped with dirt and mud. My flanks heaved, the long tongue hanging freely from my snout as I tried to regulate my body temperature. Despite the coolness of the evening, the exertion of our run kept the heat building.
And now, I’d had enough.
Exhausted, my wolf didn’t put up a fight as I shifted back into human form, bent over with my hands on my thighs as I worked to catch my breath.
Nearby, Kiel pawed at the ground. It was a sharp, impatient thing.
“No,” I said between breaths. “We’ve gone hours without a sign of pursuit. Nobody could keep up with the pace we’ve set, even if they could have tracked us across the rivers and streams, or through them, for that matter. You’ve driven us hard and harder. Any signs of our passage were washed away by the rains or obscured by your efforts. But we’ve gone far enough, Kiel. It’s time for some answers.”
Despite the grueling pace he’d set for us and the extreme focus it had taken to keep up with him, something I was struggling to believe I’d done, my brain had never slept. There was no retreating “into the run,” as some called it. Too much had been going on for that.
The black wolf bared its teeth, one giant paw again scraping the ground, its yellow vertical pupils drawn down near slits as he looked at me. I stared right back at him. If there was one thing I was good at, it was being stubborn, and he was about to find that out. I plunked my bare butt on the ground and looked at him.
“It’ll go faster if you just talk to me,” I pointed out after a minute of our standoff had passed. “Answer my questions. Then we can keep going. Instead of seeing who will give in first.”
The wolf snarled in my general direction. I picked up a tiny pebble from among the grass and lazily tossed it at him. Kiel caught it with his mouth. A moment later, he spit it out. I just sat there.
It took another pair of minutes, but I won in the end. As I knew I would.
