“The Paladins do it too, I heard,” Sage piped in, and my entire body froze.
“Do what?” My breath was barely a whisper.
“Their alphas go off into the woods on a survival trip or something. I heard my dad talk about it once,” she said.
This was what my mom must have been talking about when Run disappeared when he was seventeen and she didn’t see him for four years. It couldn’t have been a four-year survival trip… right?
Walsh stood, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “I’m gonna take a two-second shower. Be ready to start walking when I get out. I want to cover the entire territory today if we can. I’m going to try to get us some horses.”
Then he disappeared into the bathroom and I spun on Sage.
“Tell me everything,” I whispered.
She grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I smacked her arm. “Come on. I’ve been shot and nearly eaten by a dark fey, you owe me something happy. I saw you two kissing.” I raised one eyebrow.
She peered over her coffee cup at the closed shower door and gave me a smirk. “It’s been a tense couple days trying to find you. We spent one night cutting across the Wild Lands and it was so freezing we had to share a sleeping bag to keep warm.”
I pumped my fist in the air. “Yes.”
She burst into peals of laughter. “The chemistry is there, but I feel like when we get back to Wolf City he’ll go back to being my cousin’s lead guard and my fellow coworker and we won’t be anything romantic.”
I frowned. “Is it against the rules or something? To date someone on your own security team.”
She shook her head. “It’s againsthisrules.”
Just then the door handle turned and we both quieted.
Walsh stepped out of the bathroom with slicked-back wet hair. Damn, he wasn’t kidding about the two-second shower. He turned and looked at me. “Demi, I’d like you to travel today with your wolf out. I think it’s safer for many reasons.”
Many reasons…
“Okay.” At the mere thought, my wolf surged to the surface and climbed out of my skin, solidifying beside me.
“That will never not be cool… and weird,” Sage commented, and I just smiled, reaching out to pet my wolf behind the ears.
“How’s your shoulder?” Walsh knelt beside me and I turned to give him my back.
“It actually feels a ton better.” It wasn’t a hundred percent, but didn’t feel like it did last night.
He poked it a few times and there was a deep throb like you’d have with a bad bruise, but nothing sharp and horrible. “Looks good. No infection, and it’s closing up. Those stitches will dissolve on their own.”
Sage slipped on her walking boots and started to tighten the straps on her pack. “One of the deer furs has blood on it so we had to burn it, but I found this.” Sage handed me a long black cloak.
I took it, nodding my thanks. “I’ll just freshen up and be right out.”
After going pee and brushing my teeth with a toothbrush Sawyer had packed for me, I draped the long black cloak over my shoulders and slipped into my new Converse shoes.
‘These shoes are too clean. I feel bad wearing them,’I told Sawyer.
I felt him stir through our bond, but he didn’t respond. He was probably still sleeping.
I stepped out of the bathroom and Walsh helped secure my pack in a way that didn’t press on my healing shoulder. He’d slung one strap over my good shoulder and then tied the rest around my waist.
“You still have that fey blade from last night?” he asked. “I saw you keep it.”
I nodded and tapped my pack.
