“It isn’t you,” Winter says. “We know that much. Do you know what the dream means?”
And the thing is, I do.
I lean into my friend, and I stare at the grotesque arrangement on my front door. I’m not sure they’re related. I’m not sure they’re not.
I think about the images that Winter saw. Clearly a betrayal. Clearly an attack from behind, the way a coward always comes.
I think about the night the darkness chased me all the way to Savi’s land. How I ran all that way with that terror thick and heavy on my heels and I didn’t sense another wolf around. Not in all the while I was running for the sorceress’s sanctuary.
I think about the number of times I’ve come back to this house, to my cottage, and found these terrible sacrifices. All arranged in such a way that it would have to take someone some time. Time no one should have been here without being discovered by wolf and vampire patrols.
I think about the number of times I’ve simply made my way through the woods and all the way to the cottage without ever scenting one of my own nearby. Sometimes I’ve scented members of my pack in the distance, and maybe that’s why I didn’t really notice that I’ve never actually encountered the guards that are supposed to be here all the time.
Not for weeks now, and I know that Ty ordered those patrols. That he insists upon them. It’s the only reason he allows me to live here. I know that hasn’t changed.
It’s like all the pieces fall together in my head with a decisiveclick.
I don’t like the conclusion I come to. In point of fact, it makes me feel sick, but that doesn’t change anything.
Winter’s visions are never wrong, but maybe, deep down, I already knew. Maybe I needed her vision to push me toward this conclusion that I would give anything not to draw.
Someone in my pack is a traitor.
And they’re gunning for me.
10.
New Wolf Moon
Wolf week proper starts off with its usual bang.
The new moon rises. The Wolf Moon. Our moon. All the packs assemble, crowding in on our own hilltop and spreading out onto surrounding hills. One by one, each pack leader climbs to the highest rock, asks his pack to follow him, and they howl their responses.
It’s like a rally. It’s always positive. Not least because you wouldn’t want to be the lone negative wolf in your pack on the first night of the gathering. You wouldn’t want that kind of attention.
I’m a little too aware that there are those who wish me ill, and I can’t get Winter’s warning out of my head. I make sure that there’s no one behind me when it’s finally our turn, and I also make sure that my howl can be heard above everyone else’s. Just to make sure there’s no doubt as to my commitment in the moment.
I’m also aware that a howl can only go so far.
But I make it through with my throat intact.
I’m more relieved than I want to admit.
Ty welcomes all the packs, standing high above us and making the hills shake with our cries. There’s never a part of me that isn’t proud of him, but I particularly love watching him do this. I love watching him be elevated the way he deserves, his voice loud enough to be heard all throughout these mountains.
And beyond.
There are a lot of kings here tonight, but there’s only one Ty.
He’s head and shoulders above all the rest without even trying hard, though I know that’s a dangerous line of thought.King of kings,I think, but I’m going to have to convince him of that.
If he doesn’t bite me for daring to say something so forbidden in the first place.
“It is an honor for me to welcome you here,” Ty belts out, letting his voice ring in the old language. “I know it’s been a tough three years in a lot of ways, but here in Oregon, we think we’ve cracked the code to the Reveal and figured out how to move forward. How to make certain that wolf-led priorities deliver the best possible outcomes for all of us.”
There’s a lot of howling at that, too. Whether some of it comes from jealousy, or all of it is purely aspirational as they contemplate becoming as powerful as we are, it doesn’t matter. Ty is very difficult to ignore. He’s charismatic. He’s compelling. He’s the alpha among alphas, and female wolves love themselves an alpha.
I can see more than one of them, mated or not, looking longingly in his direction.
