AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sure that will go so much better.”
“There’s nothing you can do now. So put it out of your mind. It’s not like you can confess to him. He can’t afford the distraction. I maintain my opinion he has little chance of success, but I’ve also no interest in making Alan’s task one bit easier.”
A sob-like shudder rattled through my exhausted, aching body. I couldn’t fall down and crawl into the bushes now. Had to keep the prey under control so it didn’t turn around on the pack. Didn’t matter if I was trampled, or tired, or injured. I had a duty, and the pack—and my mate—were relying on me to do it. Hadentrustedme to see it through to the end.
That’s what being a Harrier was. It was the promise you made.
I reminded myself of the coordinates to the island. Not that I could ever set foot there. Not after what I’d done.
Searle added, “If he survives, deal with it then. If he doesn’t, then you’ll know you did everything in your power to help him.”
His words, spoken in his usual soft tone, felt like petals under my paws. “You aren’t usually one to speak with any compassion for him.”
Searle shifted his shoulders in a very slight shrug. His amber gaze swept me up and down, cataloging, weighing, pondering. A predator very close to his prey. “No matter how we assign guilt, blame, or wrongdoing, you don’t deserve to carry the guilt of believing your heat contributed to your mate’s death.”
And hereallythought I believed that was him manifesting selfless nobility. Searle was a predator through and through. “More like you don’t want me taking additional damage.”
“You have enough emotional baggage. No need to acquire more.” He glanced at his bandaged hand, then back at me. “Perhaps, one day, you will come into heat for me.”
It Will Be Over Soon
The Greater Meeting was always held in a remote, rural area, usually in North America. Most often, the United States. Logistically, the United States leant itself to getting a large number of people into and out of remote, rural areas that also combined a serviceable highway system and actualremotenesswhile not being lawless and politically unstable. There were plenty of remote, rural areas to choose from, multiple points of entry for international wolves, and getting a visa was simple or frequently not even necessary.
Still, there was a limit to how many wolves could attend, and the actual location was kept secret until it was time to leave. For the past sixty or so years, the Greater Meetings were held on the fringe of human society—usually some smallish town with a few motels and some public campgrounds—but the actualMeetingwas held twenty, thirty, forty miles away. Many wolves opted to camp around the Meeting site, but others stayed in the nearest human town and took over what motels and campgrounds were available.
This year, the Meeting was being held in northern rural West Virginia, in, of all places, the Apharia Spread.
I’d been to the West Virginia location before a few years prior, not realizing it was on land owned by my future father-in-law. It was one of the most popular locations to hold the Meeting. Except with the RedRise coming from Australia, who didn’t appreciate the exceptionally long trip.
This year, instead of staying at the Meeting site like I normally did, I was staying thirty-five miles away, in one of the shabby motels at one of the small towns that dotted the perimeter of the nothing. There were two motels in that particular town, and the AmberHowl had claimed the second floor of one. GranitePaw, obnoxiously, had taken a chunk of rooms on the first floor, with the RedRise taking the remainder.
RedRise and GranitePaw on the same floor of the same motel. Was going to getinteresting.
I was made to wait in the SUV while rooms were sorted out. Emily and two other she-wolves who had no idea who I was had also ridden with us, and I hung out in the mix of them.
“Do we always have to wait?” one of the she-wolves asked Emily, somewhat petulantly.
Emily gave her a sharp look. “Yes. We do. When you’re at the Meeting, youdon’twander around in the human areas.”
“We’re going to roast in here.”
“Shut up. You aren’t dead yet. You aren’t even in the middle. Summer’s in the middle and she’s not bitching.”
“She’s about to get heatstroke.”
“Am not.” I tried to say it like Iwasn’tdead and gutted inside and just fine with a little heatstroke.
It was here. July. Beautifully bright and hot and humid and everything Greater Meetings tended to be.
And I felt barely alive. Maybe I was already dead.
The past few weeks had been nothing but an animated blur. I’d gone through the motions. Relied on that muscle memory Marcella had demanded I develop. Searle, probably having been spoken to by Demetrius, had backed off with the touching. Mostly. He still kept up with putting his hands on my legs, or brushing his knee against mine under the table.
And he watched. Not when we were in public, but in our rooms, on the lonely third floor, he was always watching. He was always close.
Emily reached over one she-wolf and grabbed my hand. “You okay?”
The sudden inquiry startled me. Dazed, I looked at her.
