*Ella*
It’s raining harder than I thought possible. Outside, the day has faded into night–and whatever gods they worship in this strange kingdom are livid.
Thunder booms, shaking the small cottage. I curl my hands around a little metal mug full of whiskey and keep my head low as I listen to the conversations taking place all around me.
Ryatt has an entourage–every one of them young, each of them built like a brick wall and oozing with violence. At least, that's what it seems like at first glance. But as the men, and one other woman, in the cottage grow used to my presence, that icy, murderous feeling in the room fades, replaced by something I find shockingly familiar.
Ryatt and Granger left, taking Quinn, the only other female beside myself, with them to what sounds like a nearby town. Now, those left behind are playing drinking games and eating whatever feast the Magpie had laid out for his packmates before they all met a gruesome end.
In fact, there’s a pile of dead wolves right outside the cottage, right next to the road. A sign for anyone who passes not to stop here tonight to seek shelter from the storm.
I lift the cup of whiskey to my lips and grimace. I don’t like whiskey. But it’s all I was offered, and I’m not about to ask for anything else. I let it slide down my throat, warming me from the inside out, but I wince and set the cup on the rickety wooden table before me and gag.
Thorne, a young man roughly my age, turns his head from his conversation with two other men and looks me up and down. “Are you all right, Luna?”
“I’m not your Luna,” I choke out, my mouth burning from the taste of the whiskey.
“Ah… well, okay. I still have to call you that.” He runs his fingers through his short, tawny brown hair, his brown eyes glistening in the soft amber light from a lantern swinging from the ceiling.
“I’d prefer you not call me that.”
“I don’t have anything else to call you,” he says, standing in front of what I believe is a dining room table of sorts. “Alpha Ryatt wouldn’t be happy to hear we’d been calling you by your… given name. It’s very inappropriate, given your status.”
I grind my teeth at the thought. I want to tell him to just call me Ella. That’s literally my name, and I’m no Luna. But Thorne seems nervous to even be talking to me.
No one has dared to sit next to me. In fact, everyone hugs the outside of the room, leaning against the cracked and crumbling stone wall. Thorne, however, notices my discomfort and pulls out a chair, his eyes keenly fixed on my own.
“What makes the lights work?” I ask, my voice full of gravel. I’m sure I’m catching a cold now. I’ve been wet and freezing for what feels like days. I’d kill for a hot shower right now.
“What do you mean?” Thorne looks up at the lantern above us.
“There’s no light switches. I can’t hear that little… that little buzz of electricity that you don’t notice is there until it’s gone.”
Thorne gives me an odd look then glances back up at the lantern as he leans back in his chair, crossing an ankle over a knee. “I never really gave it much thought. They just turn on.”
“That’s weird,” I tell him, unease rippling over my skin. “Is it magic?”
“Probably, there’s plenty of it around.” He purses his lip as he turns his own cup in a circle. Across the room, the friends he left behind sit down to play cards.
“You should go back with your friends,” I tell him, curling further into myself.
“You seem out of sorts.”
“You think?” I hiss, hating how harsh the words sound leaving my mouth. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m not from here.”
“I know, trust me. It must be kind of shocking to you, I guess. You know, I went to your kingdom. I fought a little. We mostly just crept around and ended up finding your brother’s mate… the Luna Queen, right?”
“You were with Maddy?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says lightly, like it had been just another day for him. “Nice girl. Real sick when we found her, though. Didn’t make for great conversation.”
I open my mouth to say something, but the words don’t materialize on my tongue.
“All any of us wanted to do was go see your cities. Gods, I can’t even imagine.” His eyes go glassy with some distant dream. “I hear your kingdom has buildings that touch the clouds.”
“In some places,” I reply, something warm flooding my nerves at the dreamy, far off look in his eyes that makes him appear boyish. The room around us suddenly crackles with laughter as everyone plays their little games and drinks. The merriment and ease of the atmosphere reminds me of my days as a college student in the dorms at Wellington. It feels like a lifetime ago, but I graduated only two years ago now. I lick my lips and consider taking another drink but decide against it.
“The whiskey’s really young,” Thorne says, noticing my hesitation. “That’s why it tastes so bad.”
“I don’t like whiskey, period.”
“I can tell.”
I smile at him–just a little smile. A smile that says something like… thanks. Thanks for sitting here with me while I try to stop myself from shattering into little bits of glass and dust.
“Uh, our Alpha will be back soon. He said it wouldn’t take all night.”
“Where exactly did he go?”
“There’s a pretty big village nearby, right on the border of Alpha King Kane’s territory. That’s where the Magpie did most of his business and where our Alpha believes the auction is going to take place. They’re highly illegal in Alpha Ryatt’s territory. He’s scoping it out tonight, trying to find the auction’s location. That’s the hard part–they move around. If it’s on this side of his territory, he can walk right in and shut it down. If not…” he tapers off, hissing out a breath. “Then he’s dealing with his father’s territory, and his father’s archaic laws that say you can buy and sell women.”
I purse my lips and lift my cup, swirling the pale amber contents. I’ve been sitting here with these total strangers for several hours now, my clothes finally starting to dry. I didn’t feel like eating, not when my mind is torn between thoughts of Amanda and Hannah and their safety.
Did Hannah make it to the coven?
Is Amber alive and free? Or is she in shackles somewhere, about to be sold to the highest bidder?
Before I can ask Thorne anything else, the front door to the cottage swings open, and a dark shadow takes up the threshold. Ryatt steps into the light just as I set down my cup. Thorne stands, and Ryatt, Granger, and Quinn–the odd female warrior who went with them–enter.
Quinn gives me the creeps. There’s something about her that feels off. Maybe it’s because I’m not used to seeing women dressed in night black armor with their hair shaved down nearly to their scalps. Piercings cover her ears, and a serpent tattoo is just visible above the collar of her jacket as she enters the room.
Granger says, “Everyone up. We’re moving out.”
Muffled groans drift through the air. Thorne turns from me, and I quickly choke down the rest of my disgusting drink.
I meet Ryatt’s gaze as I set my cup down again. He looks me over from across the room, decides I’m fine, and turns away to talk to two of his men.
I stand but then Quinn is right beside me. “Can you shift?”
“Yes,” I reply, my voice cracking over the word. She startled me. My heart begins to hammer at her proximity. I barely heard her sneak up. With dark, depthless brown eyes and sharp facial features, she’s a real beauty but in an edgy sort of way. Like a finely crafted blade that’s so sharp it could cut through stone. But, she’s rather dainty, several inches shorter than me, in fact. She has to look up at me to meet my eyes.
“Good, you and I are teamed up tonight.”
“For what?”
She chuckles, exhaling in a laugh. “We found the auction. That’s where we’re going.”
I glance at Ryatt. “Why am I going?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” She motions to the men around the snug space. “You’re twice as powerful as this lot, and just as trained, from what Ryatt says.”
How would he know that?
“You’ll want to be in your wolf form while we travel. It’s about ten miles from here, and this storm isn’t letting up anytime soon. We have stashes of clothing near the village, it’ll be fine.”
Granger and Ryatt walk up to us as the men start to gather their things. Granger doesn’t even look at me. Ryatt says to Quinn, “That thing we discussed… I need you to be on guard.”
“On guard about what?” I ask.
All three of them look at me.
“What?” I repeat, crossing my arms under my breasts. “I have a right to know. Unless I’m your prisoner.”
Quinn’s brows shoot up, her mouth twitching into a smile as she glances between me and Ryatt. She seems oddly impressed, and apparently shocked I’m not groveling at her Alpha’s feet.
“You’re not my prisoner,” Ryatt says flatly.
“Then what the hell do we need to be–”
“There was a third scent in the clearing where we first picked up your scent outside of Granite Rise,” Ryatt says, cutting me off. Irritation and something else I can’t quite place cloud his voice. Fury, maybe, but not toward me. “We picked it up again where you and Princess Amanda were taken prisoner by the Magpie’s men, and here, at the cottage. We have reason to believe you were being followed by something.”
“You’re being hunted,” Granger deadpans with little emotion.
I furrow my brows at them. “A third scent? Where I fell through the trees after we left Crescent Falls?” My mouth twitches as I fight the urge to laugh. Ryatt looks so serious, so murderous right now. “I’m not being hunted.”
“You are. And whatever’s been following you isn’t a wolf.”
“Well, that’s odd, considering there were three people in that clearing near Granite Rise. Me, Hannah, and Amanda. She was the one who found me. I wrestled her into a creek. That’s why you picked up three scents in that clearing.”
Ryatt looks momentarily stunned, then deeply confused. He presses his fingertips into the table and leans forward. “What?”
“I scared her,” I explain. “I used my powers thinking she was some threat, but then realized I needed her and—”
“You didn’t just walk into the village on your own?”
“No, Amanda took me there,” I say tartly. “Do you think I know my way around this place?” I huff a breath, shaking my head. “So, you’re right about three scents, but Amanda was there. That’s her scent, and she’s a wolf, so, you’re wrong about something hunting us.”
Ryatt keeps his eyes on me as he slowly straightens up and looks between Quinn and Granger, a silent conversation passing between them.
“Stop it, I know you’re using the mind-link. I’m part of this conversation, too.”
Ryatt turns his eyes to me. “Oh, so now you’d like to be around and involved?”
“I’d like to find my friends. I need to find Amanda, and then I need to find Hannah and find a way to get her back to our kingdom. Amanda is supposed to take me to the witches, so yeah. I’m involved. What the hell is going on?”
Quinn sucks on her lower lip and crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, this would mean Amanda’s not a wolf.”
“Then what is she?” I laugh, finding the notion ridiculous.
Ryatt runs his tongue along his lower lip. His stunning gray eyes meet mine, holding my gaze with an intensity that makes me go a little weak in the knees. “A very serious problem if she ends up in my father’s territory.”