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I’m tempted to go for a run or a swim, and I take two steps toward the door before I stop.“This isn’t pack territory, Dee.”Aramin’s words come back to me, words I know are wrong, but something about them nag at me. Pivoting, I head for the bookcase nearest the door, stooping to the bottom shelf to grab a book with gold lettering on its spine.
Pack Maps of the Country.
I walk over to my desk, flipping the book open and skimming to the page that relates to New England, then to my pack. The book is organized by area of the country, then by pack, since some packs are small and can be in the same area together. I unfold the spread, finding the X I placed over the bar and the other I placed on my house. Trailing my finger along the map, I find the blue body of water… outside my territory limit.
“What the hell,” I mutter.
I check it three more times, questioning the print right before my eyes. I tear into my desk, reaching into the bottom drawer and pulling out the documents from the council the day I took over the last bit of territory, half a century ago. The folder has every territory expansion I’ve accomplished contained within it, so I pull out my first map along with the most recent.
The first map, its paper thin with ink preserved by magic, shows just the town with a part of the forest, including the lake. Frowning down at the misprint, I compare the latest map from the council—with no lake included, making my territory lines farther east than they were before, ending just before the lake begins.
Technically, I should contact Rathmann about this to clarify territory lines since he’s the first point of contact for my pack, but the thought shrivels the minute it forms. Grant will just need to make time to handle this issue himself.
Spreading out the rest of the maps on the desk, I document every small difference that wasn’t agreed on over the course of my alpha reign. By the time the bar closes, I have a notebook full of problems for the head councilman to resolve and a raging headache. Anger blurs my vision when I realize how much has changed since I became alpha because of their underhanded tricks, slowly piling up overtime until it gave them exactly what they wanted—a free man territory just west of my pack, where ferals and outlaws could roam without cause or rule.
A fucking nightmare is more accurate, and now that’s exactly what Grant is going to deal with—his nightmare.Me.
Chapter thirteen
Adara
The bed shifts beneath me as Gideon crawls under the covers. I groggily smile as he scoots closer, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me close against him. He nuzzles into my hair and sighs, falling asleep within seconds. It’s late, much later than I expected him to come back, but I can’t remember anything from before I went to bed.
Yawning, my brows furrow as I try to remember what happened tonight. Thinking back to yesterday, I remember everything that happened… up until I got the phone from Gideon. My mouth goes dry as I remember leaving with Kaylus to find the Lockwood witch, but find myself unable to remember anything after that.
“Kaylus?”I reach out to him, his black feathers reflecting the moonlight as he sits on his perch on the windowsill.
“You’re awake,”he says, his head snapping over to me.
“Shh, don’t move. I don’t want to wake him.”The hair on my neck tickles as Gideon’s warm breath sighs against me.“What happened? I… can’t remember.”
Kaylus ruffles his feathers, concern lacing through him.“We found the path…”
“What?”It takes every ounce of control to not bolt upright.“How did I get back here? Why don’t I remember?”
“Because we didn’t find the well, Addy.”He sighs.“The witch yelled at us to leave, laughed at you showing up in person to a place you’d only accessed once in a dream. Her voice echoed all around us. You couldn’t smell her or hear her enough to track her. Your wolf… wouldn’t come out or talk to you until… well, until the witch said you’d lose everything if you stayed.”
My throat tightens, frustration rising inside me and mixing with my fear that I’ll never fix this. That I’ll bring suffering to everyone I love no matter what I do. Rolling over, I bury my face in Gideon’s chest. Swallowing back my tears, I force myself to go back to sleep, hoping that I’ll end up in the same place I’d searched for tonight. Lockwood Forest.
Smoke swirls around me, carrying the scent of burned paper. Orange glowing embers float in the air, the only glimpse of light in the darkened space. Coughing, I lift a hand to my face, trying to wave the smoke away, but it’s useless. The haze is too thick.
“I told you not to come back here!” an angry, shrill voice yells. Her words echo around me, and I spin in a circle trying to find her.
“I just want to find the well—”
Her cackling laugh cuts me off, and my mouth goes dry. “You want to give up the gifts the gods have given you, child. Don’t be foolish.”
“Gifts?” I say, incredulous. “You don’t know anything about me or mygifts! This life has been nothing but a curse.”
“You can’t see the forest for the trees.” The witch appears before me, her face too hazy to see any details, but her frame is small. Her hair appears to be moving like living flames, bright orange and flowing in the air around her.
“I need to get rid of this—all of it.” I try to take a step toward her, but my feet won’t move. Glancing down at them, I see thick vines growing around my ankles, keeping me glued in place. “Please! You don’t understand. They’re all going to die—”
“No,” she snaps. “You don’t understand the cost of the wish you’re looking to make.” Her blurry image darts forward until her face is mere inches from my own. Her deep blue eyes look like an inky night sky, the reflecting embers in her irises blinking and floating like meteors falling—shooting stars. “They only die if you let them,” she hisses.
I open my mouth to argue, because she has no idea what she’s talking about, no idea what my powers are or the danger they pose to those around me, but it’s pointless. She casts me from the forest—again. The hazy woods swirl around me, and I scream in frustration.
Gideon shakes my shoulder. “Adara!”
