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More of the villagers came around as I ate. As soon as I’d tried one thing off my plate, someone had brought me two more tidbits. They watched me eagerly, so I did my best to try everything, but before too long my stomach was protesting from being stuffed and from thepressure.
“What do you say we take a little stroll and walk off some of this feast?” I said toKylie.
She nodded. “Yeah, I can see a breather might be a good idea. Being famous ishard.”
She elbowed me playfully as we stood up, but she cleared the way through the crowd, giving our excuses. “Just taking a little walk. We’ll be backsoon!”
We ducked between a couple of shops that had closed for the evening, hurried past a short line of houses, and rambled out along the edge of the tree-spotted hills that surrounded most of the town. As soon as the sounds of the feast had faded behind me, I exhaled in relief. Kylie linked her arm aroundmine.
“It’s weird, yeah?” shesaid.
“Soweird.” I laughed, glad there was one person here who understood that. I might be a shifter by birth, but after all those years in the city, living like and believing I was only human, I didn’t belong here. Notreally.
“But hey, at least that weirdness comes with four super-devoted and extra-super-hotguys.”
I gave her a little shove. “Three devoted guys and one who’s not sure I deserve the time ofday.”
She snickered. “Oh, no. I’ve seen the way the Big Bad Wolf looks atyou.”
“We’re still bonded,” I muttered. “He can’t help feeling something. That doesn’t mean he wants it to stay thatway.”
“Oh, so you might only have three super-hot mates? I guess you’ll survive somehow. When you’re queen of all shifters, maybe you can find some extras to send myway?”
“You’d really want that?” Kylie hooked up with guys now and then when she was in the mood, but she’d never seemed all that boycrazy.
She shrugged. “Why not? If they look like that and worship the ground I walk on, I don’t see how it could gowrong.”
“I don’t know. You could find out that the entire future of the shifters depends on you. I was only just getting used to the responsibility of having rent to pay.” I glanced back toward the common, hidden beyond the houses. “All those people think I’m going tosavethemsomehow.”
“Okay, I can see how that would be a bit much.” Kylie dropped her hand to squeeze mine. “You don’thaveto do it, right? I mean, your wolfman is always going on about having a choice and making his own decisions. You get to do that too. If you really don’t think you’re up for the whole shifter queen gig, couldn’t you tell them you’re out, that they should go find some othermate?”
I paused. I hadn’t really considered that possibility before. “I guess so. But then the kin-groups will be on their own, nothing uniting them. From what they’ve said, it’s always been the dragon shifter doing that. And I’m the only one around.” Maybe the only one atall.
What would have happened if my older sisters had survived? Would I have taken on this role at all, or just watched from the sidelines? I hadn’t thought to ask that before, but now the question itched at me. I’d have to ask the guys the next time I had thechance.
Kylie waved her free hand in the air. “I’m just saying, you didn’t sign up for this. It’s your life too. Maybe when you find your mom, she’ll be able to help you figure thingsout.”
“IfI find my mom. I still have no idea why she sent me down into that subway tunnel.” I dipped my hand into my purse and tugged out the crystal slab. It was the closest thing I had to a connection to Mom, so I’d been keeping it with me. But looking at its glossy surface only made me more annoyed. “Why couldn’t she at least have left me a note or something telling me what the hell I’m supposed to do withthis?”
Had she meant to tell me more? Thinking back to the voice I’d heard in my head, she’d stopped so abruptly... Because that’d been all she had to say, or because she’d been interrupted? Maybe she’d had to tangle with vampires down theretoo.
Maybe she hadn’t made it past them, without a squad of alphas to fight besideher.
No. I couldn’t think likethat.
I turned the circle, watching the light play off its faintly etched surface. “Let me see?” Kylie said. I handed it to her, and she held it up over her head as if examining the sky through it. She wrinkled her nose and passed it back to me. “Nope. Still not getting it. It’s a really nice piece of abstract art, though.” She waggled her fingers over it. “Maybe you need a little voodoo toactivate—”
I registered the moving shadow from the corner of my eye only an instant before a black-furred wolf leapt out of it. That instant saved my life. The wolf lunged straight for my throat, and my reflexes kicked in just soon enough to spinsideways.
The beast hit my shoulder instead, teeth raking my flesh though my shirt sleeve, paws pummeling me to the ground. Pain splintered through my arm. With a gasp, I lashed out with the only thing close to a weapon I had on me—the crystal slab in my hand. I smacked it into the wolf’sskull.
The creature jerked back a few inches, blood dribbling from its mouth. With a snarl, it smashed its paw against the slab. The thick crystal didn’t break, but it jolted from my clutching fingers and tumbled across thegrass.
A blur of motion whipped past me. Kylie shrieked. I caught a glimpse of flailing arms and two gray-furred bodies looming over her. Then the wolf snapped at me again. I kicked at its heavy body, slammed my elbow into its jaw, and screamed with all the panic and pain rushing throughme.
“Help! Somebody helpus!”
The wolf cuffed me across the temple, growling. My head spun. I jabbed out with all my limbs. As long as I kept moving, as long as I kept fighting back, I had a chance. It sank its teeth into my blocking forearm, and a sharper pain radiated through my flesh. A whimper broke from my throat. I kneed at the creature’s belly, but I couldn’t budge it. It scraped its claws across my abdomen with another sear ofagony.
