Jack and the others look towards me, startled by the sudden change, but I’m already gone. The momentum carries me through the woods and brush, swerving around every obstacle in my path.
The intensity in her silent call to me rings in my mind, along with their voices.
Lila and Astrid.
I surge forward with the cold clarity of a predator, rippling with nothing short of purpose.
There’s no room for fear or doubt when they’re involved.
Branches whip past as I follow the signatures of distress, and the mental link thrums between us while her every emotion seeps into me. That anger and desperation tell me everything I need to know.
Swift and silent, I navigate towards her. She needs me steady, not frantic.
Lila’s panic spikes again, and I can hear her shouting Astrid’s name in her mind, then calling for me. Those words pierce through the distance between us, hitting me again andagain, making my heart pound from the exertion of running as fast as I can.
I hear them before I see them. One wolf snarls while two others surround the girls.
Wraith Peak, as predicted.
Bursting through the trees with my jaws wide, I slam into the man closest to Lila, closing my teeth around his neck before he can move, silencing his cry.
Astrid screams as Jack comes out next, rolling the shifted wolf over and pinning it with a sharp snarl. The other man only manages to back away from her when I’m on him, looming with tight muscles as I growl in his face.
The two of them freeze, eyes wide with recognition.
They know who I am and what I am. Good.
I snarl at them both in warning, ears pinned back while my teeth are an inch away from the man’s neck. The threat is there, and they’re well aware.
Before I can do worse, I step back, ease off enough to let him run off, barreling into the woods as he shifts and hurries off. The other wolf yelps, then frees itself from beneath Jack’s paw.
They retreat, fading into the forest. Then, the tension slowly lifts, leaving behind Lila’s ragged breaths and my steady heartbeat.
Finally, I turn, looking towards Lila while she clutches Astrid, who’s still shaking with her face tucked into her mother’s shoulder. Her clothes are dirt-streaked, and her cheeks are flushed from the struggle.
That rage still burns inside me, even if they’re gone.
They touched my family.
The words hit me with unexpected force, but I don’t question them.
Instead, I step between them and the dead Wraith Peak man, blocking his body from Astrid’s sight, and I reach for our mental link.
Take Astrid back to the house. We need to talk.
Lila flinches as I reach her mind, but even through her daze, she nods. Despite being safe now, that lingering fear still eats away at her, and at me in return.
I’ll follow from the trees.
She doesn’t question me. Instead, Lila gets up, picking Astrid up before moving on stiff legs through the woods.
Jack and the others stick around to handle the body, while I follow at a short distance, keeping hidden as I track the girls.
Without severing it completely, I pull myself back from the connection long enough to shield my thoughts from her. I don’t like secrecy, but I don’t want her prying, even by accident, right now.
That’s the second time Wraith Peak wolves have surrounded them, risking being seen and caught by me. This time, they closed in further, fully prepared to take them.
But why? Why do they want them so badly?
