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‘Enough. We need to focus. I’m going to show you what to do on this board here. You need to copy me exactly or Reynard is dead.’
‘No pressure then,’ I muttered.
Amber changed the camera setting, flicking it to show her notepad rather than her face. On a clean piece of paper, she made a delicate downward slash. ‘You need to draw this on the biggest section of unmarked skin you can find,’ she instructed.
Kneeling next to Reynard, it was hard to find any section that was unmarked. He was such a mess; blood was everywhere, and it was hard to believe that he was still alive. In desperation I unfastened his loincloth, and I found a section of clean skin on his hip. I opened the purple jar, dabbed in my paintbrush then copied Amber’s downward slash as best I could. ‘Done. What next?’
‘Now a loop, like the top of a P.’
‘Okay.’
‘Now draw a line through that loop.’
‘Got it.’
‘Draw the downward slash again exactly over the initial one.’
‘Christ.’ I’ve never been good at crafts; I struggle to cut out things neatly, and now she was asking me to draw the same line precisely. I did my best and hoped it was good enough not to kill Reynard.
‘Now draw a semi-circle anti-clockwise, starting from the bottom of the slash.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Draw a semi-circle clockwise, starting from the bottom of the slash.’
‘Okay.’ I did as she said. ‘Now what?’
‘Now we pray you drew a stasis rune correctly.’ Amber hung up.
‘God damn it, Amber, how do I know if I’ve done it right?’ I glared at the screen, cursing her vociferously.
‘His chest has stopped moving,’ Mrs Dawes noted calmly, ‘so either you did it right, or he’s dead.’ Her tone was matter of fact. ‘You’d better turn wolf and calm this lot down. Someone broke in, smashed down the gates, dumped the body and left. We couldn’t find you – we feared you’d been taken. For a moment we thought that mess was you before sense prevailed and we spotted the grey. Regardless, the pack was getting ready for the hunt.’
‘The hunt for what?’
‘For you.’
I was feeling far too emotional after all I’d been through. Despite that, the fact that the pack had gathered to try and find my kidnappers, rather than writing me off and immediately electing a new alpha, gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. If we hadn’t been in the middle of a huge crisis, it might have been a nice moment.
You’re up,I murmured to Esme and surrendered to her. In my haste, I didn’t even remove my clothing. She could feel the urgency too, and she started the shift without a pause. There went my favourite pair of jeans. I sank back to the passenger position in our head.
All is well,Esme barked to the gathering wolves.The pack is safe. This victim is not one of ours, but we will get justice for him all the same.
The wolves turned and gathered at our feet, nuzzling close to reassure themselves of our safety.
They do care about us.
Of course they do. We are their leader, their mother and their protector.
Erm, I haven’t given birth to anyone.
You are alpha,Esme said, like that made sense.
One of the wolves stepped closer, nuzzled and then growled. Greg. I wanted to whine, to put my tail between my legs and bow my head, but Esme wouldn’t let us. Instead she growled back a warning. Greg ducked his head a little in acknowledgement and stepped back. Esme relaxed. He wasn’t challenging us.
Of course he’s not challenging us,I thought indignantly.
Until we’re mated, it remains uncertain.
