The forest clearing was deceptively idyllic. Placed right on the state line between Illinois and Missouri, it was illuminated by an early afternoon sun and covered by a fresh layer of snow.
Serene by any metric. As long as Maya ignored the fiendish co-Regent of Chains pacing along its center.
Natalyaneverpaced. She practiced control to a frightening degree, so the fact that her walking had created a melted path in the snow was one of several reasons to be on alert.
But Maya’s attention kept slipping.
Diana nudged her elbow. “Stay focused.”
Maya straightened. Her thoughts had been drifting, guided by a hint of citrus perfume clinging to her leather jacket. A reminder of the woman the scent belonged to and the teasing grin she’d been wearing when she drove off the night before.
Maya crossed her arms. “They’relate.”
“They’re just trying to put us on edge. If we pounce first, they have an excuse to respond.” Diana ran her eyes over the trees. “The people we’re meeting with might be late. But those woods are crawling with wolves.”
Maya scanned the tree line, seeing nothing of note. But that was the point. The Chains had hidden people all over their side of the forest, too. They had experience with supposedly harmless meetings taking a turn for the worse, so they weren’ttaking chances.
This had gotten out of hand way too fast. This was supposed to be an important buteasyjob; otherwise, Maya would never have been allowed near it. In the eyes of the Chains, she was barely a grunt. She had no business being at this type of meeting.
But Natalya wanted her there. And it hadn’t been a suggestion either.
The rumbling of a car engine mixed with the sighing wind. Natalya stopped pacing right as a cop car rolled down the narrow road cutting into the clearing. Two people were inside. A woman behind the wheel, and Kieran in the passenger seat.
Rage flared through Maya’s chest, memories of the previous evening coming through withperfectclarity.
Kieran sitting hunched in the shadows until Harper was too far away from any buildings to seek refuge. A sick desire wafting off him as he pinned her against her car, and she couldn’t get free from his grip.
She remembered the fear. Theterrorthat had flowed off Harper’s body, sudden and suffocating. And she remembered how it had lessened. How the dread instilled by this man had waned with Maya’s presence rather than grown.
That was a fear she wouldloveto give Kieran a bloody taste of.
“Dial down the killer eyes, Novak,” Diana whispered. Before Maya could obey, or at leasttryto obey, Natalya turned towards them, slitted violet eyes hard.
“No. If she feels like staring, she should stare.”
Natalya turned around with no further explanation. Before Maya could even think to request one, the police car rolled to a halt.
As Kieran stepped out his gaze fixed on Maya, and she was suddenly grateful that glaring was allowed. She couldn’t have stopped herself if she tried.
Kieran’s companion was more at ease. A woman in her late thirties with short dark hair, fair skin, and a sheriff’s star pinned to her uniform. A faint yellow glow shined in her eyes.
They went straight to Maya, narrowing as she sniffed the air. Therians could identify supernatural natures by smell alone, but that was another thing that made Maya unnerving. She didn’t have a smell at all.
“So… you’re the fiend the Chains are following around.” The woman approached Natalya until only a few feet of snow separated them. Natalya glanced at the woman’s name tag.
“And you’re Jackie Mayfield, Alpha of the Ironfang pack. I was surprised you agreed to this meeting. You’re not known to take the diplomatic route.”
That was putting it mildly. Less than a year ago, the Ironfangs had been a decently sized pack whose most notable characteristic was the archaic doctrine they followed.
While all fangers needed to feed on humans, lycanthropes required more than just blood to survive. They needed to hunt and kill their prey.
Most packs got around the issue by dosing a captured animal in human blood before chasing it down, but some considered that method an insult to traditions. Missing person cases around St. Louis had increased over the past year, coinciding with the Ironfangs growing from minor Court into the largest pack of therians in North America.
“Diplomacy can have its uses,” Jackie said. “When the Chains start rattling, it’s wise to find out why. Especially when they do so around my territory.”
“You must have misspoken,” Natalya said. “St. Louis is a neutral zone. No Court has claim over it.”
Jackie sneered. “Right. Slip of the tongue.”
