DION
“Fate?” I snapped. “Your name?”
The woman knelt before me, saying nothing. She’d initiated the mating call, drawing my heart out, my wolf… until I realized it could be a trap!
She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She was luminescent. She was the image of complete beauty. I would die without her. And I didn’t know who she was.
And in her commoner’s clothes, something off the back of a wagon, she could’ve been a spy from Lassig! I didn’t even know if she was a werewolf. Would the Siren Singer be able to inform Lady Skol so quickly?Couldthey send someone so quickly?
But she’d initiated the call?
My heart remained guarded.
She stuttered but said nothing. She looked like she was trying to sink into the dirt.
“Who are you?” I repeated.
She blushed, covering her face with her hands then rose and ran. Joining another woman on the edge of the square, before disappearing.
The silence after she left was thick. Every man was still staring at me, and I was all too aware of what I’d done.
I’d shown myself for who I truly was.
Roman stared at me with a face of confusion. He was thinking. Then he looked away, nodded to himself about something, and ran off.
The silence deepened again; the men still rigid. Every other pack waited for the other to make a move. But none did. I was heavily outnumbered and outmanned.
But no man moved at all.
The Siren Singer’s screech sounded again. A hideous thing cutting through the air and into our brains, like prickles being dragged across flesh.
Then the silence was gone. The Sleep Singer was whimpering and nearly everyone was awake.
Everyone began moving at once, fleeing to leave the square and find cover. If the Siren Singer saw a trace of a shifter, it would stay and immobilize all of us. But if it saw nothing, we’d have a higher chance of it leaving.
I ran for the Firepaws that had kidnapped the poor Sleep Singer girl. A young woman that had been taken from her family in the desert. When I grabbed the hand of the man dragging her by her ankle, he turned white and let go.
He almost jumped out of his skin getting away from me.
“Trust me, okay?” I said to the young girl, kneeling down and throwing her over my shoulder.
We had to find cover.
I made my way through the throngs of people rushing for cover. Men from the visiting packs gathered at the wagons and climbed inside, sealing themselves in.So that was how they’d come.
I took a side alley and emerged at a crossroads, I looked towards Lassig. I could see the creature making its way from the wall through the air, its membranous wings glistening a sickly color in the sun. It was an enormous distance for a Singer to have sensed a wolf…
I shuddered at the thought of them and continued on. I came to the back passage that connected to Nicholas’s inn and slipped into the stables, closing the door behind me.
I set the girl down and looked around. There were other men and women hiding here, a few horses and stableboys, but mostly it was dark.
“Psst.”
I looked up, Roman was up in the loft. He motioned to join him. I bade the girl to follow, and we climbed up. The loft was empty of feed for the horses, a commodity still hard for Nicholas to buy it seemed.
But Roman wasn’t alone. Two girls were with him.
The girl I’d justrejected, and her friend.
