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“That’s it.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
When I stumbled out the back door, drunk on too much information, Magnolia was waiting for me. She appeared concerned, so I guess I must have looked as good as I felt.
“Are you okay?” She touched my arm as we moved towards the path back to my cabin.
“Are we ever okay?” I stopped walking in the middle of the trail and put a hand on Magnolia’s arm. “I need to go for a walk. If you see Lucas, will you let him know?”
“Of course.”
I walked past the houses and into the woods beyond. The forest here was unlike anything I’d ever encountered. In Manitoba, where I’d grown up, the woods were dense and populated with evergreen and birch. The trees were plentiful, but none of them radiated the age of these oak. In New York there were trees, but Central Park wasn’t a real forest. No matter how deep in you were, you could still see skyline.
Here, the space between the trees was wide open, but the oak branches spread wide and heavy, blotting out the moon. Their arms created a canopy of spring buds, making the area beneath feel warmer somehow. In spite of the darkness of creeping shadow, I felt protected. Once I’d made my way through, I found the creek on the edge of Callum’s property and sat on its bank, feeling the dampness of the grass seep into my jeans.
Holden sat down next to me.
“Have a nice chat with your uncle?”
“I have a sister. And a brother.”
The vampire whistled his appreciation for the bomb I’d dropped. “Instant family.”
“Right?”
“So, you are unhappy? You look like someone slapped you.”
“I feel like someone slapped me.”
“You were a fan of being an only child?” he teased.
“I don’t think I’m ready to make jokes about this yet.”
He didn’t apologize, but he did say, “Okay.”
“Callum wants me to find my sister. He won’t agree to my marrying Lucas unless I do.”
“So? She’s a girl. You’ve found girls before.”
“I don’t like it.”
“What’s to like?”
“If someone had come after me when I was young, I would have thought they were doing it to kill me. That’s what I believed Callum’s pack was capable of, and I still think I might have been right. If Eugenia wanted to come home, she would have done it by now. Why should she trust me? I don’t even know why Callum wants her.”
“Werewolf motivations are the most obvious things in the world. Everything comes back to pride and power. If the girl was part of your uncle’s pack and left without his permission, it makes him look weak. If he can get you to bring her back, he shows the pack he has made you loyal and he still has power over his own kin.”
I stared at him, mouth slack. “Did you pull that out of your ass?”
“Yes. But it sounded good, didn’t it?”
I nodded and looked back at the sluggish water made beautiful by the glimmer of moonlight dancing over its surface. “You’re right about one thing. It’s always pride and power. Pride, power and pack. The three things that matter to wolves.”
“They’re simple creatures.”
“So are vampires—blood, sex and subservience are all they care about.”
