As he says this Omar is knocked back by a large ginger-coated wolf. He rams into me and I dig my feet into the mud to keep him standing.
“Thanks,” he says, before pouncing forward and tackling the ginger wolf to the ground.
Safe in my circle of protectors, I focus once more.
“Jasper, why are you sorry? What’s happening?”
Jasper’s fangs are wrapped around the neck of an Axis Pack wolf, he snarls, tearing flesh as he throws the wolf clear across the field.
“We thought it would be easier for you if you didn’t know the truth. If you thought you were telegraphing real images to Walter.”
The fur along my spine stands in a creeped-out mohawk.
“You lied to me?”
“Yes, but only because we thought it was necessary.”
I think back to when we left the packhouse. The image of Tobias next to Jericho’s gurney as he was transported outside.His feet under the sheets of his bed. Was it all staged? A front to trick me into thinking Jericho was here?
“We couldn’t risk Walter knowing the truth,”Jasper says, not moving anymore, not fighting, just standing across the battlefield, staring at me, desperate and apologetic.“I’m sorry, Max. I hated not telling you.”
My wolf eyes roll back in my skull.“Ugh, whatever. We don’t have time to think about that now. Walter isn’t here, which means ...”
It means he knows. He must. That’s why he must have let me in, why he showed me his plan as well. And if Walter knows Jericho isn’t here, then ...
“Where is Jericho?”I ask.
“Max, we can’t think about that—”
“Where is he?!”A fierce growl rolls in my throat.
Jasper drops his muzzle.“Back at home. He never left the packhouse.”
Jericho is still in Manhattan. And Walter isn’t here. I need to find him, but with wolves attacking us from all sides there’s no way I’ll be able to focus for long enough to do that.
“Jasper, can you get me somewhere quiet?”
Jasper is fending off a new attack.“Yes, just let me—”With a grunt he flips his attacker, uppercutting the wolf with the swipe of his claws, and it lands nearby with a thud.“The clearing,”he says.“We run for it in three, two—one!”
Like a couple of furry bullets Jasper and I break with our formations and speed across the field. I leave Aisha, Omar, and the others behind, staring after me like I’m crazy, just praying that they’ll all be okay. I’m thankful that Katie is protected inside the lodge, and just hope we can keep the attackers at bay. Though now I’m wondering if Walter’s aim isn’t to breach the lodge at all, just to keep us as busy as possible and hurt us as much as he can.
So I push my legs to move as fast as they can, propelling me through the mess of wolf bodies mid-fight, leaping to avoid running directly into Axis wolves who snap their jaws and swipe their claws at me.
Jasper and I reach the edge of the woods at the same time, falling in sync next to each other and making for the clearing. The woods are pretty much empty now, except for a few errant wolves squaring off with lingering opponents. Our healers are seeing to the wounded and transporting them back to the lodge. There are more wolves lying still or just barely breathing as they sprawl across the soil than I’d like to see.
We race up a fallen log to leap onto the top of a boulder, springing from there to a rise and continuing on, splashing through shallow water as we cross a stream and onward, deeper into the densely packed trees.
Eventually, we leave all signs of the war behind, the sounds of fighting fall away, and I could almost believe we’re the only wolves in the forest.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me the plan,”I say, sort of angsty about it.
“We thought we were helping. I’m sorry I lied. But if you knew—”
“I know,”I say, because I do get it.“I understand, I just—it feels weird.”
“I’m sorry. I promise, I’ll never lie to you again.”
“Even if the fate of the pack depends on it?”I’m half joking, the urgency of our situation is helping me come to grips with the fact Jasper kept the truth from me. It was strategy, the stakes were high, Idoget it. But I’m also curious, because despite how close we’ve become, there is still that niggling little part of my heart that wonders if Jasper would choose the pack over me.
