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“Then it was like the Anubis?”
“They were alike only in how they manifested. The Black Wolf was alive. The Anubis was created by the ichor when Ari died.” No matter how traumatic seeing the Black Wolf appear had been. It radiated a life force, unlike the Anubis, which drank it away.
“Why were you afraid of it?”
“No one had ever seen it happen before. Our wolves choose us. We are their vessel. What manifested in Ari?” Isaiah shook his head at the memories. A man twisting in agony, his body in knots, to hear him scream. Phasing for the first time was meant to be a joyous event, not a brutal one.
“Did you strip him of his wolf and send him off to die?” The edge turned to anger.
“The Clan leaders tried.”
“Tried?”
“They couldn’t separate it like a normal bonding.”
“Did you…” Luca’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He drank some water. The bottle dimpled in his grip.
“He escaped,” Isaiah said.
“But you were going to kill him.”
“We were scared of him, scared of what humans would do when they found out the Black Wolf existed.”
“Did they find out?”
“Occasionally, we heard stories of a black wolf running the hillside, but as far as we knew, they were stories.”
“When did they stop being stories?” Luca said it in a way that was less than a question and more of a dare.
“When Jia, a Cana, went missing.”
“The Black Wolf took him?”
“Jia had no idea what the Black Wolf was. It had manifested before he was born, and no one spoke about that day.” Isaiah swallowed against the lump in his throat. His eyes burned, and he had to clench his fists to keep his hands from shaking. “The Black Wolf might not have forcefully taken Jia, but it took him.”
“Or maybe you just tell yourself that because you were in love with him.”
Of course, Luca would know. As a Cana, Isaiah was practically a satellite dish of emotions for Luca to read. “Yes. We all loved him.”
“But you wereinlove with him.”
“I wasn’t the only one, I promise.”
“Doesn’t change anything.”
Isaiah shrugged. “No, I guess not. Yes, I wanted him to tie me. A lot of us did. He was strong. Being with him was wonderful, but Cana tended to be free spirits. And they tie with whomever they want or no one at all. All the wolves are theirs to call.”
“How did he find out about the Black Wolf?”
“I think Jia felt him.”
Luca rested his elbows on the table.
“A man went missing,” Isaiah said. “He was the son of a powerful family who was tight with the monarchy. They said a giant wolf attacked him while on a hunting trip. It may or may not have been true. Either way, they formed a militia and went after the wolf.” Isaiah had been barely off theAutemgrounds, his wolf new, himself young. He’d climbed one of the crumbling walls of an abandoned keep to watch the horsemen as they crossed the river a mile away on their return from their hunt, sunrise glinting off their weapons and armor.
“I saw Jia leave the city and head into the woods. I’m not able to cast my wolf far, so the only way I could follow him was on foot.”
“Did you find Jia?”
