Page 13 of Wolf Heart

He can’t be undead or he wouldn’t be able to speak. A sorcerer then?

I close my eyes and inhale deeply, hoping to discern his scent. To me, the air smells fresh, like a new, uncut forest. I try again.

He has a musky smell, a scent of the forest and the crisp fall air. And there’s a flutter in my stomach that has me pausing in my retreat.

I open my eyes. “You’re a wolf? Wh-why are you out here and not with the other packs?” Unless they are rogue wolves and ostracized like me.

“Looks like the party is over," he says in a gravelly voice sending a vibration down my spine. It resonates in my chest, in my gut, condensing into a knot in my throat.

The howls of wolves and laughter echo behind me and my shoulders slump.

“No, they’re just getting started. You can make it to the celebration,” my voice catches, “if you head in.” And I had foolishly thought I would be one of the ones joyously partaking tonight. I should’ve known better. Should’ve known that I’ve had to fight for every ounce of anything I’ve ever had.

He smiles and a vibrant pucker of scar tissue stretches from the corner of his right eye toward his ear. Making me take another step back. “Looks like there’s a party right here.”

Shit. Not even half an hour banished and already I’m going to have to fight. Female wolves outside of a pack have no protection, no say if a random male wants to rut with them. No thank you.

I clench my jaw and raise my fists. There’s no way I can keep him off me, but I sure as hell am going to try whatever I can. “Touch me and you’ll regret it.”

“Oh?” he says in a mocking tone. Then he lifts his gaze and nods. “This one is extra feisty for a wolf who's banished.”

Spinning around, I come face-to-face or rather, face-to-chest with Aspen and Dex. Both of them are a foot taller than me. “You three know each other? What pack are you from?”

And why were they out here and not enjoying the celebration with everyone else. The beat of the drums echoes behind me, tearing holes in my heart with each thump-thump-thump.

Whatever these wolves were doing out here can’t be good.

Maybe it was a bad idea to agree to the banishment. Maybe I should’ve just claimed to be a witch like my mother believes and I’d already be dead and wouldn’t have to worry about dying just outside the barrier.

“We’re our own pack,” a stranger says, and I whip my head around to face him, my stomach clenching.

“Rogues?” I swallow against my dry throat.

When I’d met Aspen and Dex earlier, I thought they were roamies…wolves who travel across the land with no real territory to call their own.

Rogue wolves were worse with too many Alphas fighting for dominance and killing anyone in their way. Except they traveled alone, in pairs and certainly not in threes. And they were known for rutting any females they found until they died from the abuse.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Dex says behind me.

“Easy for you to say.” I take a step away from the three of them. Three wolves who look as different from each other as possible. Aspen with dark auburn hair and Dex with golden hair and now this third roamy with jet-black hair, dark skin and tattoos over his arms and neck.

Each of them looks like they could be the Alpha of a pack. So why are they together and why out here when they could take their pick of any of the available females.

“We’re not going to hurt you, are we, Raven?” Aspen grins, his blue eyes darken, and my breath hitches.

“A girl out in the wilds all alone?” Raven rubs his chin, looking me up and down in a way that makes my face heat.

His eyes are like an angry storm cloud, like an approaching thunderhead full of spite and foreboding. Everything in me says to run. That these wolves are more dangerous than anything I could face in the crowded, infected cities. But I can’t move. My feet have taken on roots.

“Nah,” he says in a voice that rolls through me like thunder. “We can’t allow that.”

“I’m fine on my own.” I lift my chin despite that I’m starting to shake all over. And for once, my wolf is utterly silent. Like she knows we’re facing off with three predators that we can’t possibly win against. “And I’m a woman, not a girl.”

“You’re what… barely eighteen?” Raven raises a black eyebrow.

My stomach twists with how much money is… was wasted on booze to keep my stepmother happy. I know I’m thin, but I can eat. “I’ll be twenty-one in a few months.”

“That so?” He smirks like he doesn’t quite believe me. “And you’ve never shifted?”

My stomach drops to the ground. Then a thought breaks through the gray clouds. All the stories I’ve heard of witches flicker.

If my real mom did spell me, then maybe that’s why I can’t become a wolf. I just need to unleash the magic she put on me and then I can go back. I can show Michael and Casey and everyone else that I am a real wolf.

“I want to hire you three to take me into the wilds.”

“To do what, exactly?” Dex frowns. “Go shopping among the undead? Think you’re better off staying near the other packs here in the woods.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I want you to help me find my real mother.” Not that I have a cent to my name to pay them, but I'd figure that part out later.

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