Panic blares through my every cell, and I’m too tense to even cry. Father keeps a quick pace, forcing me to trot beside him as we approach the main square. The council chamber is just a little whitewashed building, and there is already a crowd of people gathered out front.
“Shit, they’re here already,” Father hisses. “Get a smile on your face, girl. Get ready to charm him!”
As Father drags me closer to the group, I can’t smile. I can barely breathe. All these men look big, tough, and dangerous, with an aura of threat around them I’ve never felt before.
These guys have known real action, not just petty fights…and one of them killed Talon!
My heart hammers so hard in my chest that I can barely stay upright. I look around the circle in fear, wondering which one of these guys is going to be my new husband.
Chapter 3 - Shawn
When we enter the town, the place is quiet, almost to the point of being spooky. There is a heavy atmosphere to the place that is setting off every single one of my highly tuned instincts.
“Rex,” I mutter as we shift into our human forms. “What the fuck?”
“I know,” he says. “The place is reeking with bad vibes. I felt it when I helped the others bring the bodies back, and I thought it was just the preparation for the funeral.”
“Could it have something to do with the spirit?” Scarlett asks, emerging from the woods behind us.
“I don’t think so,” Rex answers. “But we can’t be sure.”
The three of us wait for the rest of the party to catch up—Alisha riding on Brad’s back because she can’t shift, Grace following close behind riding Cody, and Gen bringing up the rear.
Gen’s a tough she-wolf, and I’m more than happy to have her watching our backs.
“Okay, that’s us,” Rex says, taking some clothes out of a pack Alisha was carrying. “No one else following behind?”
“No,” Gen answers. “The other council members didn’t show much interest in coming.”
“I’m sure Eccles would rather annihilate this pack than help them,” Scarlett mutters.
Gen just nods.
“Well, Rose Hollow wants to see them prosper,” Rex says. “And that starts with getting rid of this creepy vibe. Let’s get moving.”
“It’s eerie,” Alisha remarks, holding Brad’s hand as we walk down the dirt track. “I can’t hear a single sound. I mean, I don’t have ears as good as the rest of you, but I’d expect to hear something.”
“You’re not wrong,” I say, following Rex with my head tilted to pick up any sound on the wind. “There’s just a hint from the center of town—low voices, a few basic household sounds. But no kids shouting or people laughing.”
“Maybe they don’t laugh much,” Alisha speculates.
No one answers her, and as we follow the wide dirt track into the center of town, the silence only deepens. There are a few narrow tracks leading from the main street towards little clusters of houses, but no paved roads.
The center of town is completely deserted. The sun has set, and the dim twilight rises around us, a light, hanging mist making the area murky. Rex leads us towards a steepled building at the end of the dirt road.
“This is where they held the funeral,” he says. “I assume this is where they’ll have the wedding, too.”
“Whoa, wait,” I say. “I thought we were here for some kind of meeting before we go full-on into the wedding?”
“It’s been decided, Shawn,” Rex says. “If the pack is in agreement, then they’ll be choosing a bride for you. Anything less could be seen as resistance to us and, therefore, an act of war.”
“Maybe that’s why it’s dead quiet,” Gen says. “What if they’re going to jump us?”
“We’d hear it,” Brad says. “Trust me, we black ops boys are all over this shit. If they were planning an attack, they wouldn’t be able to hide it from us.”
“It really is spooky,” Scarlett says, turning around in a little circle. “I feel like we’re being watched.”
“We probably are,” Grace says. “If they’ve been isolated, they might have no idea how to react to new people, so they’re scoping us out from a distance.”
