Following instinct, I swung down from my horse.
“Etarla, get back on that horse,” Harthon demanded, peeling his eyes away from the animal to spear me with warning. “Now.”
Ignoring his threat, I stepped forward. “I will. After I show you that it isn’t here to eat us.” My voice might have wobbled with fear, because I was a human who didn’t want to be torn apart by a starved predator, but I didn’t stop.
“Etarla.” With a curse, he glanced at the wolf, which still hadn’t moved, before jumping down.
“I know this doesn’t make sense—”
He snatched my arm. “Get back on the—”
The animal growled.
We froze. Well,Idid. Harthon yanked me behind his body. The wolf’s paw landed on the ground, hind legs bunching.
I gripped Harthon’s arm. “It thinks you’re threatening me.”
“It’s a starved wild animal.”
“Harthon, please, just trust me.”
“Fucking crazy,” an unfamiliar voice muttered. Conrad.
Harthon waited for the wolf to spring. A breeze rustled the dead branches overhead, but the sound didn’t trigger the animal. It only watched.
It was no small effort for Harthon to peel his fingers off my arm. “You get three steps forward—smallones, and that is all.”
A quip about his controlling tendencies almost came out of my mouth.Almost.I was approaching an emaciated, pissed-off animal, a few of which had attacked us just weeks ago. I’d be snatching my arm, too.
The wolf relaxed as I edged around Harthon.
I took one careful step, then two. On my third, the wolf sedately sat on its hind legs.
“What is it doing?” Aric asked, still gripping his sword.
A damn good question. “Waiting?”
One of Harthon’s hands landed on my waist like he was ready to whisk me away. “Could it be a trap? A distraction from some clan here.”
Aric quickly dispelled the thought. “I doubt it. We aren’t close enough to First.”
“I thought you said there was no game in your Territory,” I pointed out.
“There isn’t,” he confirmed. “Which makes this even stranger than it already is.”
Unease poured from Harthon in waves, but as I regarded the wolf, sitting so calmly, I couldn’t find it in myself to feel the same way.
“I’m going to say something that sounds crazy.” The wolf cocked its head, as if daring me to follow through. “I…”Are you sure you want to say this?“I think itknows.”
“Knows what?” Harthon asked quietly.
I swallowed, shaking my head at the impossibility. “I think it knows that I can access the Domus and the resources there. I think maybe…maybe other parts of the natural world can sense it, too.”
When I voiced it aloud, it soundedsomuch crazier than I was anticipating. And I’d already been anticipating a lot of crazy. The responding silence to my claim just made it worse.
But then Harthon spoke. “Going to need more information than that,carella.”
He might not believe me, but he wasn’t laughing in my face, either. It was encouragement enough.
