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“Why did those wolves attack us? Aren’t they part of your pack? Nero told me this was yourterritory.”
Oryn licked his lips, arms resting on bent knees, his shoulders slouched forward, yet my gaze traced the number of new cuts over the healed scars. He might have had a hard upbringing, facing abandonment, but something inside medidpity him. It was nothing I’d admit out loud, but for him to believe his only path in life was to never back down was a horrendous way to live. For his sanity, for his future, and for all the things he would miss out, I hoped he opened his eyes to doing more with his life. But then again, what did I know about how packs lived in the Den? Yet Nero didn’t have this world-against-him approach and he was an alphatoo.
“Those wolves that attacked us are from my pack,” Oryn began. “Over a week ago, everyone started acting strange. Aggressive, stuck in their wolf forms, and attacking each other. I was the same, locked as my wolf, but not as lost to my wild side as the others.” He glanced over at me, his lips pinched. “Until you touched me. It was like a lightning strike, and I felt the shift inside me, unlocking my humanside.”
He studied me, tracing the length of my body as I tucked the blanket across my chest in the style of a dress. “How did you dothat?”
“Don’t know what I did. I was panicked and just touched you. It’s never happened before.” The sensation had struck me too, just as it had with Nero, and I hadn’t given it a thought when my focus had been onsurviving.
He took my hand in his, studying my fingertips. “You’re different. Not like other humans I’ve seen. Cutting down trees, planting wolfsbane into ourland.”
I stiffened. “You’ve seen them too? That’s what I saw the priestess doing this morning and her guards chased me into the Den.” I huffed. “I didn’t know why she was transporting and replanting wolfsbane into yourland.”
Oryn’s upper lip curled, reminding me of when he was in wolf form. “I know what she was doing. Stealing our turf by extending the line of wolfsbane. Seen itmyself.”
I hugged myself. The priestess had always hated wolves, declaring them demons at every town gathering and threatening to eradicate them. But she’d been saying it for so long that everyone put it down to her obsession. No one had expected her toacton it. Except I’d witnessed her ordering wolfsbane into wolfterritory.
“What she’s doing is wrong. Can’t you stop her?” I asked, well aware that over a century ago, the leaders of each race in Haven had come together and agreed to split Haven for the sake of ending the bloodshed. And for years, everyone had remained in their own realms in harmony. So why was the priestess disturbing thebalance?
“That was the plan when I first discovered her actions. But then my pack acted weird, and my priority turned to helping them.” Shadows crowded under his eyes, darkening hisexpression.
“That’s why Nero and Oryn are in your cabin, isn’t it? To help with your pack. Are they yourbrothers?”
“Yes, they are helping me. The three of us have been friends since before we became alphas. We met at the annual hunter meet. I stumbled on Dagen cornered by a huge bear that had come down from the mountains. So I jumped in to help him and halfway through, Nero burst into our fight. We scared the bear off our lands and bonded eversince.”
That reminded me of the time I had wandered in the woods behind my place after my grandma had passed. I hadn’t been sure life was worth living, and I’d felt lost, alone. I’d slept for a week straight out in the forest. Bee had found me as she’d searched for ingredients to heal her father from a burn. We’d chatted about her potion, and I’d suggested using the aloe vera, as it carried strong healing properties for burns. I hadn’t cared that she’d seen me use my ability on the plant, and that was when she’d told me she practiced magic. So I’d joined her and together we’d healed her dad. Then we’d becomeinseparable.
“Sometimes,” I said, “when a stranger helps you for no reason, that action can ignite the most incrediblefriendship.”
He nodded. “So what did you do toDagen?”
Okay, his question had come out of the blue, but it wasn’t surprising. I gave him an explanation of how my citrus spray had gotten tangled with the wolfsbane and it might have been what had knocked outDagen.
“Wait!” His voice darkened, and he twisted to face me. “You brought wolfsbane into myhome?”
An icy chill captured me. “Didn’t you hear me? I didn’t enter the Den onpurpose.”
“How do I know you’re not working for the priestess? Over the months, I’ve seen you several times near the border of our lands pickingwolfsbane.”
“That was you? I knew I felt someone watching me. But I’m not working for the priestess. I’m an apothecary. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have used the wolfsbane in the cabin on all three of you and killed you already.” Hmm, okay, I hadn’t meant to sound threatening, but Oryn had driven myresponse.
His snarl hung in the air, and he trembled. “I was wrong to trustyou.”
“It wasn’t as if I had time to think when I was running for my life.” I leaned away from him. “You attacked me, remember?” My musclesflexed.
His fingers twitched against the stone ground between us. Would he transform into his wolf? What if he lost control like his pack and killedme?
I gulped for air but couldn’t get enough into my lungs. “Look, I would never harm you or any of the wolves. I want to return home and I pray the priestess hasn’t burned down my herbalstore.”
Oryn’s body shuddered, and his pupils vanished upward, leaving only the whites of hiseyes.
I scrambled to my feet and retreated. “Oh, crap, you’re turning, aren’t you? Please don’t.Please.”
Retreating to the entrance, where sprinkles of water struck me from above, I peered out from a tiny gap near the curtain of water. Two wolves fought over my pants. That could end up beingme.
I turned to find Oryn on hands and knees, his spinearching.
My heart pounded against my ribcage. If I was to ever experience a stroke, this wasit.
