I flip him off and then grab Aurelia’s hand. “Come on. We’re going home.”
Aurelia tugs against my hold. “Not yet. I want to check on Meera,” she announces.
“Meera?”
Aurelia flicks her gaze toward Zeke, who posed the question, but she’s too angry with him to hold it. “My friend. Sort of.”
“She’s awolf, songbird. A wild animal. She can take care of herself. And her pups.”
“Fine. I have my bow. I’ll go myself.”
She starts to walk away when I catch her neck and use my hold to tilt her head back with my thumb pressed under her chin. “You are trying my patience,” I warn calmly.
My little wolf smiles a little. “I know.”
AURELIA
She moved it,” I announce in disappointment. “She moved her den.”
“Of course she did,” Zeke responds, sounding a little too pleased with my disappointment. “Didn’t you say it was a bear that did this?” He gestures to the destroyed den that Thorin is currently crouched in front of.
“Yeah.”
“It was likely a rogue male,” Thorin says as he inspects the den. “This is his territory now. The she-wolf will want to take her pups somewhere safer.”
Oh.Well, I guess that makes sense. “You can track her, can’t you? Where would she go?”
Thorin stands and comes closer until he’s standing right in front of me.
Weirdly, Zeke is the one who doesn’t seem to want to leave my side. He’s been hovering ever since we left the river. He probably thinks I’m leading them into a trap and his proximity to me will lessen the chances of it working.
“Songbird, the last thing we’ll want to do is disturb her and force her to move her pups again.”
“I understand. She doesn’t have to know we’re there, and I promise I’ll do whatever you say. I won’t make noise. I’ll stay downwind. I just want to make sure they’re okay.”
“Why is this so important to you?” Zeke asks in that word-vomit way that tells me he didn’t really mean to.
“I told you,” I say without meeting his gaze. “She’s my friend.”
“Khalil and Thorin must be sore company if you’re befriending the wildlife. You should know it’s one-sided, Aurelia. The she-wolf is a wild animal. She can’t be tamed.”
“You didn’t think so when you pet her.”
“I…” He blanches. “What?”
“Technically, Seth did. I wasn’t there, but Khalil and Thorin told me all about it. To be honest, I still think they’re making it up. Care to humor me with a replay?”
Zeke recovers from his shock and sneers at me, but it lacks conviction. “Hoping I lose a hand?”
“Don’t be silly, rabbit. I’m not unreasonable. A couple of fingers will do.”
Zeke’s lips part, and I brace myself for whatever vitriol he feels I’ve earned this time. Fortunately, Thorin interrupts before he can. “If you two are done flirting, we should get moving.”
“We’re not flirting,” Zeke and I deny at the same time.
“Let’s go,” he orders again.
Thorin leads the way, and it takes us two hours before we finally track Meera’s den to a small cave halfway between Big Bear and Maia. The cave is burrowed into the sidewall of a dried riverbed. The mouth of the den is small, though, making it impossible for a human to enter unless they’re on their bellies.
