Jesaiah shook his head, his teeth snapping at me once before he was able to speak. “I cansmellthem on you.”
I spread my hands wide, shrugging. “No pack. No last name.”
It was a common enough refrain. People who lost their pack often lost their family. No last name meant that no matter what it said on my ID, I had no claim to my family.
Not that my ID said Castillo, anyway.
“No,” Jesaiah growled. He leapt forward, but I had been ready for him to attack. I dodged out of his way but stumbled over a pallet of fertilizer behind me, falling backward onto the springy green plants. I scrambled for a second, springing to my feet as fast as I could.
“You’re desperate, old man. Who do you think Cade is going to believe, you or me?” I moved backward, even as Jesaiah leapt, shifting in midair, coming down as a massive wolf.
Jesaiah was the sort of alpha that made anyone sit up and take notice. The collar around his neck shifted, growing with his size until it fit his massive throat.
I backed away, almost bumping into a golf cart. Jesaiah circled, his eyes focused on me.
What did I say? I wasn’t sure there was a way to de-escalate the situation. It would be idiotic to admit anything. To say something like, “Sure, I’m from Flores, but I was never in the Castillo Pack.” No. Say nothing. That was my best bet.
He roared, the sound shaking the plants around me. My whole body tensed, my heart thrumming in my chest. I screamed back, the wolf inside me straining.
But it couldn’t get free. Even as it pressed up against my skin, as though I was trying to drag it out of myself, itcouldn’t get free. The anger that made my blood run hot, my vision narrowing to the alpha whodaredchallengeme, flipped to a cold, prescient terror.
I had barely been able to fight JD. I couldn’t fight Jesaiah. Which left me with one option, even though it made me want to let him rip out my throat: I had to run.
No, I hadn’t let Declan kill me, and I wasn’t about to let Jesaiah just because playing the roadrunner to this coyote made something in me curl up in shame. I would survive. I turned tail and fled.
Quickly, I darted through the trees, trying to find one I could climb.
“I don’t want to fight you. We are on the same side here,” I said, even though we were very clearlynoton the same side. Right now, Jesaiah’s side seemed to bekill the rival alpha. My side wassurvive this fight.
“I promise.” I grunted, finding a tree with some low branches. I began scrambling up them, scratching my palms as I gained a few feet off the ground. “I’m only here to help.”
Jesaiah howled, just far enough away that I knew it was a hunting call.
I climbed higher, losing sight of the ground as the foliage grew thick. When I thought I was in a safe spot, I settled against the trunk, wrapping my legs around a branch.
So, Jesaiah was worried about losing power. The question was whether or not he actually knew about my connection to the Castillo alpha. Or whether he was guessing in the dark, trying to find an accusation so horrible that I would be immediately killed. If he had given me the note,I know who you arewas vague enough that he was probably just fishing to see what he could dig up and thought he had something by accusing me of being a member of the Castillo Pack.
At least he hadn’t accused me of being one of the Castillo heirs, one of my mother’s children. He’d saidpack. Meaning he was guessing.
Another howl answered Jesaiah’s.
Then a third. I swore.
There was a crackle beneath me, the sound of something heavy stepping on dried leaves. An alpha as old as Jesaiah wouldn’t make that mistake.
I breathed in slowly, exhaling silently. I let my heart rate fall. He was trying to scare me. He was going to find out I couldn’t be scared.
The only thing I had been scared of in eleven years had already happened. House Bartlett had found me. If he thought that I was going to be terrified of some geriatric alpha, he had another thing coming.
Even as I thought the words, I knew they were a mistake. They tempted fate. There was a growl, then scrabbling of claws on wood, and Jesaiah’s sharp teeth closed on my leg, dragging me out of the tree.
I hit my back and then my head as I fell, reaching for branches that slipped through my fingers, scratching my palms. When I landed in the dried leaves underneath the maple tree, I was panting, woozy. Blood trickled across my forehead, and a heavy paw landed on my back, pressing me down into the damp ground.
I could barely breathe, and black spots slowly overtook my vision.
No. The part of me that was a wolf reared up, roaring through my body. I expected to grow claws and fur and sharp fangs.
Instead, I found a strength I hadn’t thought possible in human form. I pushed onto all fours, then lunged forward, startling Jesaiah at the sudden movement so he stumbled backward, off-balance as one of his paws slipped askew. I turned and faced him. When I howled, it was pure wolf coming from a human throat. I felt my vision begin to shift, but my body stayed human except for sharp claws sprouting from my fingertips.
