Chapter 22

Emory, Washington

Three wolf-kin of the Chelan Pack watched from the hide they had crafted in a dense blackberry and salmonberry thicket across the gravel road from Keeper House. The two younger wolf-kin, Timor and Luka were barely out of their teens. Bored and eager to get back home to Lake Chelan, they chaffed under the iron discipline of the eldest, a six foot twenty something, named Jarvi had the leanness of a long-distance runner. He had had to discipline them for breaking cover several times. It wouldn’t do to let that Keeper fellow see them. As a result, they both bore bruised faces and blackened eyes.

The Alpha had called and ordered them to proceed. Finally, it was time to act. Lev was relieved. He was just as impatient as the pups, just better disciplined. He ordered Luka go pick up their van that was parked in the parking lot of the Thriftway in Granite Falls. With a grin, the pup shifted and disappeared across the field. He’d be back soon; it was only fifteen miles.

When he returned. The older shifter gave the two of them a steady look. “Okay, you two, listen up. Luka, you come with me. We are going to cross over to the house and hide in that vine maple thicket. Timor, you wait here until you see the girls and the witch who accompanies them. You follow up behind them. The witch is supposed to cooperate, but if she doesn’t, take her out before she can cast. Don’t take any chances. If she gets time to cast any sort of spellcraft we’re dead. The Alpha wants this little wolf girl bad, so don’t fuck up. Do not let them get inside the house. If they do, we fail and the Alpha will kill us. Do not whatever you do, go into that house. You won’t come out. One more thing, you see that big old growth cedar behind the house? Do not go beyond that, that’s the border of the Opari. All the stories you heard about that forest are true. You go in there and you will never come out.”

Charlie was chattering away about a scene from Gilmore Girls to a listening Katrinka and the amused young sixteen-year-old acolyte who had picked them up at school. Jeffery was only half listening. He was watching. He was too soon out of a slave-torc to not be habitually hyper-aware of the environment.

He was the one who spotted the wolves hiding up by the house.

“Charlie, shut up. We have trouble,” he said.

“What do you mean shut...” Charlie replied, only to have her hands snatched up by Katrinka and Jeffery.

“Run.”

Elsa, the young witch who had picked them from school, hadn’t really heeded Althea’s order to be on guard. As a result, she wasn’t prepared when she looked back and spotted an enormous gray wolf coming at her with breathtaking speed. She tried her best to call up one of her attack spells, but too late. The wolf’s jaws snapped like a bear trap around her throat and crunched. It shook its head once—then again—and dropped her lifelessly to the road.