I type.
He shakes his head. He doesn’t have a plan.
Do you think Brick will help us?
I don’t know.
He takes his phone and swipes back to the screen that shows the black map and green glowing lights of the trackers.
I lay my head on his shoulder. I can’t do much to help him, but at least I can give him comfort as we watch over his mother and sister, together.
Breakfast is on another tray, delivered to our room. This time, there are four stone-faced guards posted right outside our door. There’s more outside our window, patrolling the lawn.
Our reprieve is over.
By mid-morning, Noah is pacing. He’s run his fingers through his hair so many times it’s standing up. If we were at the cabin, I bet he’d be accessing the drones he left hidden in the treetops on Adalwulf land and flying them all over to see if there’s any weakness we can exploit. But he only has his phone.
I’m no help. Instead of visions and headaches, I feel strangely empty. Adrift. It doesn’t help that the room smells like sex and anxiety.
We need to get a message to Liora. But how?
Noah’s head turns to the door a moment before there’s a knock. Madi, he signs to me, and I open it.
The human stands outside the door, with even more guards crowded in the hall behind her.
“Good morning,” she says while signing. Her fingers move elegantly through the air, like she’s casting a spell. “How’d you sleep?”
“Well,” Noah says and signs. My cheeks heat a little, remembering that all the wolves present can smell evidence of my claiming.
But then I straighten. I’m proud to bear Noah’s mark.
“I thought you might need some clothes, Aster.”
I laugh, looking down at Noah’s shirt that I’ve been living in. At least it’s better than the tourist trap sweatshirt we bought on the way to the Berkshires. Even with the tense meeting yesterday, the howling moon on it got some funny looks. “That would be nice.”
“Noah, you come too,” Madi says, and even though she’s human, I catch a whiff of dominant alpha in her orange blossom scent.
With a ridiculous number of guards trailing us, Madi takes us to her rooms and gives us a tour of the house along the way.
We pass a stuffy-smelling room with a large portrait of an unsmiling man who looks like Brick.
“That was Bruce Blackthroat. The former Alpha. Brick’s father.” Madi’s voice softens.
I shudder, recalling some of the visions I’ve had of the man. Like Odin, he was a vicious leader. If he were in charge, I’d definitely be in the dungeon, probably being tortured.
“Let’s find you some clothes,” Madi offers, beckoning me into a large chamber. Noah lingers in the hallway, letting us have some privacy.
She opens the doors to a large walk-in closet and starts handing me clothes–panties with the tags still on, tank tops, leggings, sweaters.
“The first time I came here, I had no clothes, either,” she shares. “I was stranded here during a snowstorm. Trapped with the wolves for Thanksgiving when they didn’t want me here.”
I hold up one of the sweaters against my body. It’s a soft-knit azure with a scoop neck.
“That will look perfect on you.”
“Thank you. It must’ve been hard to get tangled in pack politics as a human.”
“I didn’t know what they were then. I didn’t even know it when I told Brick I quit and stormed out in a blizzard and then found myself surrounded by a pack of snarling wolves.”
