AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This was an impossible choice, but one that I had to make by the time I faced Nortrix tomorrow morning.
Feeling heavy and confused, I grabbed the few items I had collected, put them in a box to be easier to carry, and walked out of the town hall.
My phone dinged again.
I held the box in one hand and checked my phone.
I started reading the text and halted.
Change of plans. Challenge at midnight. See you then. Nortrix.
I stared at the screen as if the words could suddenly change.
Tonight? I would barely have time to take Raika and Tyren to the inn, and check on Minsi and the other sick wolves, before I had to leave for the challenge.
By the moon.
I hurried my steps. On my way down Main Street, I glanced side to side. A handful of houses still had their lights on. Shit. If Dom and Vallin didn’t have to come with me to the challenge, I would have requested they come back here. Someone had to talk to these wolves and make them leave before they fell sick. Maybe I could ask Raika to do that. Most wolves had trusted her while I was gone. Did they still trust her?
There was only one way to find out.
When I arrived at my house, I found Raika in the driveway, carrying some boxes to the truck’s bed—my father’s truck had been totaled when the Whitecrest wolves attacked us a couple of days ago, but Kortan had had one. Since he couldn’t use it anymore, we borrowed it.
“Everything okay over here?” I asked as I approached her. I dropped the box I was carrying in the bed too.
Raika narrowed her eyes. “Define okay.”
I scoffed. “Fair.”
She gestured toward the house. “I feel this urge to pack everything, but I know we don’t have time for that.” She patted the truck. “But I’ve got a lot of Minsi’s things. Clothes, toys, books. I thought she would need them to make a better transition to wherever it is we’re going after all of this.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice, my words. It was one thing for me to go into a challenge with the intention to win—though I wasn’t so sure about that yet—but another to actually win. Nortrix was older and more experienced than I was.
“We’ll figure everything out.”
Raika looked at me. Her bright blue eyes filled with tears. “Right. Hm, we should get Tyren and go.” She walked away before I could see her crying.
An invisible hand squeezed my heart.
After a few more minutes and a dozen more boxes and suitcases, Tyren hopped in the backseat, Raika sat in the passenger seat, and I slipped behind the wheel.
Slowly, I drove down the driveaway and stopped the truck once we were on the main street. The three of us stared at the house. This could be the last time we saw it.
I inhaled deeply. “Ready?”
Raika nodded. Tyren stared at me through the rearview mirror, then put on his headphones and closed his eyes.
I put the truck in drive and drove.
26
SHANE
Dark clouds hidthe stars and the third quarter moon from view. In a handful of days, it would be full. Every day now, I could feel the Shadow Wolf growing more agitated, especially when I was angry.
If I won the challenge, we would have to find a safe place where I could be locked up, because I was sure the Shadow Wolf would show up at least one night sooner, and probably last one night longer.
It was happening as the Nightmist witches said it would. The Shadow Wolf was becoming stronger.
