As Jay caught up to me, he panted raggedly, struggling with the pace. Whatever he was, it wasn’t pure werewolf, but I had never heard of a halfbreed surviving or being able to shift.
Tyson and Coral had found the rabbit a few miles along the border of the wards. With a yip, I directed her to lead the way, keeping my nose focused and my ears twitching.
The foreign pack wouldn’t have stayed near their kill; all other prey would have been scared off. But it would provide us with a scent to guide our search. In the wild, wolves could go six or seven miles in an hour, but I wasn’t sure how trained the House Bartlett wolves were.
Declan kept his men in peak condition. We could run the whole length of Los Santos faster than most cars could crawl through city traffic. But consorts weren’t used to that sort of work.
I wasn’t surprised that some of the wolves dropped off, falling behind. They would catch up. Jay was able to stay with me, although I slowed when I saw frothy spit at the corner of his lips.
Coral yipped to my left, and we all turned, immediately following her. Tyson pulled in front, sniffing at the ground. He barked, and Coral sneezed, shaking her head and jerking it to the left again.
Tyson growled, but this was what an alpha was for. I stepped up, standing between them and sniffing the ground. I could smell rabbit blood, the sour stench where one of the wolves had nicked the intestines. Coral circled me, sniffing.
Underneath the smell of the rabbit carcass, I could smell another wolf. Several other wolves.
It was hard to tell who they were because I was surrounded by new wolves. If this was actually my pack, I would have been able to tug apart the scents quickly, but this wasn’t a real pack, even though it felt like one.
The strange wolves had split off into two groups, one going in the direction that Tyson wanted, one to the left, where Coral was standing. Were they just that smart that they were trying to muddy the waters? Or had something happened that had scared them off and they weren’t well trained enough to stay together? Maybe Tyson and Coral hadn’t been as far behind them as we suspected.
I inhaled hard, catching the scent. I trotted off in the direction that Tyson had started in. When he moved to follow me, I gave a sharp bark, pointing my nose at Coral. He and Coral needed to work together, following her trail.
He growled, but with everyone’s blood going, hunting in a pack was the only smart thing to do. They were clearly two of the strongest wolves, so I needed them together because, by nature, most of the pack, when they caught up with us, would follow me.
My mother and father used to play what they called war games, running with the pack, teaching everyone how to split up and come back together. My siblings and I always used to follow her, and when I asked my older brother, Jorge, why we never went with Dad, he said that it was natural for the pack to follow the alpha.
Nia looked between me and Coral and Tyson, already running off. I barked sharply.
She huffed out a breath but followed them.
Jay whined, panting so hard that his spittle dripped onto the forest floor. I probably should leave him here so he could direct the pack when they finally arrived. No, I needed someone with me, someone who could run if things got bad like I expected they would.
I jerked my head, then moved through the brush, slower as I followed the scent trail. Jay stumbled behind me, pulling up short when I growled at him sharply. He moved more cautiously, following me, but as I moved deeper into the forest, I lost him. He could follow my trail, though. And until the rest of the consorts caught up, I wasn’t about to take on a strange werewolf pack myself.
Running in the woods like this had brought up something I hadn’t expected. It was different from running in the city, where every scent was strange, rubbing against heightened senses like sandpaper against skin. In the woods, there were just as many things to attract my attention, but every part of it felt natural. Every part of it felt like this was what I should be doing every day.
I tried to ignore the feeling that wrapped around my heart at how good it had felt to be running as a pack, slowing for the weaker members, keeping pace with the stronger. Even Tyson had felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place.
Suddenly, the scent became brighter under my nose, lighting the way through the darkness. I followed it quickly, every instinct urging me to track it down.
Conversation broke the quiet night, a laugh that was muffled, cut off by a cuff to the head. Something flashed briefly in the dark, a lone flashlight extinguished just as quickly as it was lit.
They were barely older than pups; I could tell that from their voices.
I got low on my stomach, inching forward until I could see through the thick brush. They had found a cave, one massive boulder lying flat on top of two others. It protected them from the cool breeze, gave them something to sleep under that was more protection than the stars.
There were seven of them, none older than sixteen, and they were dressed in ragged clothing. The streaks of dirt on their cheeks spoke to how long they had been out in the wilds.
If some other house had sent them, they were the cannon fodder, just like the gargoyles. Disposable people who no one would care about.
I heard a crack behind me. The rest of the pack was catching up. In the distance, I could feel Coral and Tyson.
We weren’t a pack, but running together, howling together, it had made us close to one. This pack, forged by a loyalty to House Bartlett, was going to tear these children to shreds.
I didn’t have any time.
Pushing through my shift, I came out human and stumbled into the circle they made, lounging on the ground, enjoying a quiet night of peace after so long scared.
Barely human, I forced the words out. “Kneel.”
