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“It’s best if you don’t think of him.”
“Stop saying that!” I gasped and closed my eyes against the full-body pain. Sterling was still alive. Where thefuckwas he? “Jun. Burian. Cye. What happened to them?”
Marcella waited until the spasm passed. Cold, clammy sweat trickled down my temples. Nausea sank through my entire torso and crawled up my throat, and I prayed I wouldn’t vomit, because that spasm contorting my tattered midsection would be a glimpse into a particularly deep section of hell.
The Elder Luna stood, took a damp cloth from the table next to the bed, and moved to sponge my face. I jerked my head away, regretted it as pain sliced through me and a stitch popped and fibers tore. An Elder Luna wasnotgoing to sponge me off like I was an invalid. Nobody hadeversponged me down. I’d crawled home after getting mauled by a bear and abandoned by the hunting party. I didn’t needsponging. Especially by an Elder Luna wearing thousand-dollar shoes and door badges from her human job, and I didn’t even know what day it was.
She ignored my feeble squirming and sponged my face and throat and between my breasts and along my arms.
She sat back down, checked her phone, then pocketed it again. “The GranitePaw are the ones who attacked the house in Clare.”
That wasn’t the question I’d asked. But…the GranitePaw?
“I can’t speak to their motivations,” Marcella said, not hiding that this troubled her. “It seems foolish, and Alpha Kyle isnotan idiot, and attacking Garrett Mortcombe is particularly idiotic. No one dares to do that. Not even an Elder Pack.”
No, the AmberHowl had just connived to use Sterling as either their messenger or their point of leverage.
And Kyle didn’t know about the situation in the arctic, with all the wolves terrified Garrett and Sterling were building an empire of remote, rural lands. Kyle knew all about how much land the Mortcombes owned. That’s why he’d come courting us to join GranitePaw.Hewas building a genetic ark, blissfully unaware that the same thing he wanted from the Mortcombes was exactly what the Elder Council feared.
AmberHowl clearly didn’t appreciate the GranitePaw situation. “The GranitePaw—”
“Yes. Sterling told us about the offer the GranitePaw made the both of you.” Marcella permitted herself to look troubled. “We had a spy in Clare, observing the Mortcombes, while evading the local wolves. That’s how we knew about the GranitePaw attack, but we weren’t able to get our own forces there fast enough. We arrived during the attack. Do you remember?”
I blinked once foryes.
“Winter Mortcombe of SnowFang is dead.”
“Odd, because I feel alive.” Notveryalive, of course. But alive enough to have this unpleasant conversation.
Marcella now permitted herself to step up to a short sigh. “Sterling sent you with us to save your life. GranitePaw wants you dead. You’re a witness to their ambitions and their plans. Neither GranitePaw nor FrostFur know about each other, and if they do, it will erupt in civil war. As a species, we will be torn apart while we continue to die out for lack of she-wolves and genetic diversity.”
Maybe it was the cobwebs and glass, but the story didn’t quite make sense yet.
Marcella checked her phone again. “You’ve been here two weeks. It’s now February. Sterling has renounced his place as Alpha of SnowFang, which means you are also no longer SnowFang.Youhave also been declared dead. Sterling is a lone wolf pursuing revenge against FrostFur for your silvering, and has formally accused FrostFur of trying to kill you. Alan of FrostFur, of course, has denied this and is furious, not that that means much with the challenge in July. GranitePaw is unaware thatweare aware of their actions.”
This was a lot of backstory that was irrelevant. My brain spun around doing its best sketchy roadside carnival teacups ride impression while it tried to figure out if I’d missed the point as it’d driven by. GranitePaw’s ambitions weren’thahahaha, I shall take over the world!Their ambitions were morethe world’s fucked, we’re out. It was just how they were going about it that would spark a civil war. Oh, and the disgrace of how they managed the wanderers of New York City, and kept a stranglehold over the wolves of the city like a bunch of shitty feudal lords.
So I was legally dead. Interesting. “If I’m dead, who am I?”
“We have crafted a new identity for you by borrowing some details from Cerys’ past. You are now a lone wolf of no merited pedigree who was orphaned at the age of twelve, found badly injured by rogues in West Virginia. Our First Beta, Searle, discovered you by scent while traveling for us, and realized you were his mate.”
This was when it started to sound too crazy to be real and I prayed it was the delirium and not some sad reality where we’d all slurped antifreeze popsicles and thought it was a good idea.
After an uncomfortable silence, I stated the obvious. “No.”
“You will remain here in AmberHowl, under your new identity, as Searle’s mate. You will be adjunct Chronicler MaryAnne’s new Apprentice.”
“A lone wolf becoming a Chronicler’s Apprentice?” I asked blankly. That and MaryAnne and I had ahistory, to say the least. “How are you going to sellthatto AmberHowl? That makes no sense.”
“I don’t have to sell it. I am Luna, I havedecidedit. You are a vast wealth of knowledge and experience and have been your father’s Apprentice for years. We are not wasting that.”
For the same reasons GranitePaw didn’t want to waste it, perhaps?
“If Sterling defeats Alan, you will be restored to each other. If he doesn’t, you will remain here as an AmberHowl and at Searle’s side.”
My brain was as empty as if I’d just been hit with an overly large and unexpected trout.
Marcella didn’t let me mull it over for very long. “You know you’re safer here. You know Sterling is safer if you’re here, you know your old pack is safer if you are here. You also know that you did not spend much time being social at Greater Meetings, and your chance of being casually recognized are very slim. You also know that the death of any she-wolf is a profound loss to our species.”
