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They marched us out into the cold, back through the alley way we’d come when we first arrived and out into the center of the encampment where a large group of wolves had gathered around a ring of fifty-five gallon drums filled with split wood.
The silver haired, white bearded Satan Claus who’d ordered us to be kept in the kennels stepped out of the crowd, poured off road diesel on a chunk of wood. Red drops of the fuel fell onto the snow, staining it pink as it tunneled its way down to the earth below. He lit the accelerant soaked kindling with a cigar torch lighter and tossed it into one of the barrels.
A blast of warm air whooshed out from the barrels as the fumes from the gas soaked logs packed inside them ignited.
“My name is Bjorn. Alpha of the Deofol clan.” He raised his arms above his head and the crowd behind him roared. He gestured for his wolves to settle down and continued to make his introduction. “We don’t get many visitors to the town of Boot Hill. Least not uninvited ones. I’m sure you can understand our need for caution.”
The audience laughed and threw slurs and jeers at their unwelcome and unwanted outsiders. I scoured the crowd for any sign of empathy on the faces of the Deofol pack members but found none.
But something else besides kindness was missing in the group gathered around us - the kid from the kennel.
My wolf stirred, worry and anger churned within me, but I tamped them out before the dangerous combination caused me to combust. If something had happened to him, I would make sure the person responsible paid and suffered in kind.
“It might surprise a couple of soft, city dwellers like yourselves to know that we have 5G this far north, but lucky for you we do.” Bjorn turned away from us and gave his attention to the wolves at his back. “Brothers and sisters, I gathered you here in the town square for a celebration, not a public execution. One of our missing has finally come home.”
The alpha spun around, his silver hair fanning out around him, and pointed at Talia.
“Welcome, Sister Linetti.” Bjorn stretched his arms high above his head and the crowd echoed his words, welcoming Talia to the pack.
“Galen.” Talia gasped - a hundred words unspoken in one breath of air.
This was the pack we’d been searching for and hoped to gain information to use against the demons and save Talia from the demon mark. The same one who’d threatened to kill us and held us captive in deplorable conditions.
They were nothing like the wolves we met at the summit.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Valerie and Victor weren’t from a different demon clan. Maybe we hadn’t found the one we were looking for after all, but some dangerous, extremist offshoot instead.
But that was the least of our problems. Which said a hell of a lot about the situation we’d found ourselves in.
The Deofol Pack alpha had done his research and claimed Talia as one of their own. He knew something we didn’t.
And whatever it was, it did not bode well for either of us.
Chapter Eleven
TALIA
