The little girl—who looked so much like Mateo that Cat had thought for a second he was hiding a daughter—ran to the shouting man and hid behind him.
She’d hidden from Cat. That cut deep into a half-formed picture of a girl with dark hair, whom Cat wanted to be a prophecy but knew was only a meaningless wish.
She met Mateo’s eyes as she was plunged back into the cold and the dark, looking at the world from all fours, and wrenched herself out this time by biting down on her arm.
“Hey! Whoa, what are you doing?”
She gripped her teeth against the vision. “He’s closer.”
“We’re going.”
“Nothing’s getting through Nico,” the man protecting the little girl said with a shake of his head.
“Do you know how big a hundred acres is?” Mateo asked. “He’s a werewolf, not a god. And the attacker knows these woods.”
“You would trust her over your own pack?” someone else shouted from the back.
“It’s not one or the other,” Mateo said, sounding a hundred years old. “We are not enemies.”
“I want to help!” Cat added, and they winced at her voice.
She cried out again as the vision took hold.
“Come on!” Mateo shouted and plunged into the night, her hand in his, which only made the vision stronger.
When they were off the porch and in the dark, she couldn’t see a thing, but Mateo didn’t hesitate. He leaped off the porch, looking this way and that and breathing deeply.
“I got nothing,” he said. She realized he wasscentingthe air.
Another wolf said, “Me neither. I don’t smell a thing.”
She realized the girls’ father had followed them outside.
Mateo turned to her. “Where?”
She was about to protest. How should she know? Then almost of its own accord, her finger rose.
They headed off. She could barely keep up, and she felt vaguely resentful of his fitness. Most people took months to adapt to the altitude, but even the wolves slowed down as they got into the forest. The snow wasn’t as bad as what they had waded through in the blizzard. The trees were more sheltered here, so the drifts weren’t as high, but it was still deep. The other wolves split off after a few moments and disappeared, but Mateo didn’t comment.
“Which way?” Mateo asked, and she was about to point when a wolf materialized in front of them. She could barely see it in the snow because its fur was pure white. It was huge and stepped forward with a growl until it caught sight of Cat and froze.
“She is not yours,” Mateo said, sounding far from human.
The wolf morphed into a tall man with blonde hair almost as white as the wolf’s. He stood entirely naked in the snow.
Cat chirped, and Mateo cursed. “Per l’amor di dio…”
He shoved out of his coat and threw it at the man, who wrapped it around himself like an apron with a smirk that faded when he met Cats’ gaze.
“You don’t look at her,” Mateo said in that otherworldly voice.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“Do I know you?” Cat asked just as Mateo said, “Do you know him?”
She gasped, summoning a memory of high school. The pack had attended the regular high school at the edge of Silver Spring for a few years before they disappeared completely into the woods. It was also when they stopped wearing jeans or other commercial clothes or going into town for food. The twins had called it a victory. Cat was never sure if they played an active part in the decision.
There had been a blond boy in her year…
