I swallowed, glancing away for a long moment as I tried to figure out a way to explain everything and realized that I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to stop protecting Rachel, not with everything going on, and she was just going to have to deal with it.
“How does Emma handle it?” I asked. “The guards, I mean.”
Elias snorted. “Some days are better than others. I used to overdo it, to be honest. She eventually told me I had to ease off so that she could actually get her work done.”
“And you just did?”
Elias shrugged. “We came to an agreement that there would always be someone nearby, just in case something happened. But there isn’t someone breathing down her neck all the time.”
“That’s what I was trying to do with Rachel—”
“Emma knew about it and agreed to it,” Elias countered. “Rachel didn’t.”
I stayed silent as I mulled that over. He had a point. That didn’t mean I liked it. I didn’t care if Rachel wanted my protection. I had to give it. Because any second I didn’t know there was someone looking after her was a second my wolf and I were thinking about her and what might be happening, and how much we wanted to be by her side.
I just wanted Rachel to understand that I was doing it for her, for the baby. I knew she didn’t think I cared about her, but she was all I could think about. It honestly made things distracting. Knowing she was safe was the only thing that let me focus on the rest of my day. I wanted her to understand, but every time I tried to tell her, the words wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t admit how I really felt about her, because that would open up an entirely new can of worms that I wasn’t ready to address.
“What about Grace?” I asked, still trying to keep my voice neutral.
Elias barked out a laugh. “That girl could take on an entire army all on her own,” he said, not bothering to hide hispride as a broad grin spread across his face. “But at the same time, Emma was more adamant about Grace having someone keeping an eye on her while she’s running around than I was.”
We came to a stop maybe a mile away from the formation, far enough away that the car wouldn’t raise too much suspicion. Elias unbuckled his seatbelt as he killed the engine.
“Let’s talk more about this later,” he said, sliding out of the car. “Right now, we have a lair to find.”
We shifted the second the car doors had slammed shut. My wolf dug his paws into the dirt, scraping along it, enjoying the warmth in the pads of his paws. I stretched, first one way, then the other, relishing the strength in my muscles. It had been too long since I had gone on a run as a wolf, and I hadn’t realized how much I had missed it.
Elias, now a large, dark wolf, shook his entire body. His eyes met mine, and he jerked his head. There was a clear invitation there, one that I recognized from our time as kids.
Let’s race.
We took off. Wind blew through my fur, carrying the scents of the desert as we ran along. The sun baked down, but I welcomed it. I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to let loose until I started racing. Elias matched me stride for stride as we sprinted toward the mountain. Eventually, though, I pulled ahead, pressing forward as I increased my speed, leaving him in the dust.
In time, we reached the formation and slowed. I turned around to see Elias trotting up, his tongue lolling, sides heaving. He gave a wide grin as his tail swished, then he jerked his head toward the base of the formation.
We started roaming the area, searching for anything that might indicate the entrance to some lair, a tunnel, or some crack in the formation that might lead to something beneath the mountain.
After some time, though, we still hadn’t found anything. I was beginning to give up hope when I caught the acrid stench of sulfur. To my wolf’s senses, it assaulted my nostrils, nearly making me gag on reflex. But I remembered that smell. It was the same one I smelled whenever the demons were around.
Elias came to stand beside me, his nose twitching as he raised his head, catching the same smell that I had. We followed the odor, tracking it around the corner until we came to a large crevice.
I moved forward and took a sniff, recoiling when the stench slammed into me even harder than the first time. I looked back at Elias and nodded. I didn’t need to go in any further. This was it. We had found it.
Elias thumped his tail, then nudged my shoulder, indicating we should head back to the car and back to town to tell the others what we had discovered.
***
Elias summoned Oz and Drake to a private meeting the second we got back to town.
“I’m going to guess that this means you found the lair?” Drake asked once the door was closed in Elias’s office.
We told them what we had uncovered, giving a brief overview of the route and precisely where on the mountain we had discovered the lair.
“Finally,” Oz breathed once we had finished.
“It’s the best news we’ve had in ages,” Elias said, reclining in his chair as he gave a relieved smile. “We know where its lair is. For the first time, we have the upper hand.”
Drake’s face wrinkled as he frowned. “I’m just going to point out that those words are typically a curse,” he said. “The instant you think things are going to go well, something bad happens to ruin it.”
