Claimed by the Pack

A two mile hike that ended with Broderick suddenly instructing us to crouch down and stay utterly still.

“When do we move?” I asked again. My body was getting cold. We’d been hugging the side of a hill for the better part of an hour, and I was getting worried my ass was going to freeze to it.

“Not until it’s safe,” said Broderick.

“And when is—”

“We’ll tell you,” both men said at once, in perfect stereo.

I sighed and pulled the thick jacket Broderick had given me tighter around my shoulders. It smelled like him. I loved that part, even if I didn’t know quite what we were doing just yet.

Eventually I saw Damien’s brow crease, and he ducked down a little lower. Of the two of them, apparently, he had the better eyes.

“There. They’ve left the cathedral.”

“How many?”

“Three that I saw. Could be more.” There was a pause, and then Damien added “Not her, though.”

By her, I knew they meant Karessa. The woman who’d been an ex-lover to both of them… at the same time. The one they’d been bonded to. The one they were so strangely reluctant to mention.

Whatever history existed between the three of them, I could tell it ran deep. There was more than just the normal residual feelings left here — there was bad blood, too. The kind that hurt so badly it never fully went away, at least not at first. Not until you’d gotten on with—

“Come,” Damien said, motioning me over. “Look here.” He pulled me close and pointed slowly. Leaning in, I followed his finger. “See it? Beyond the inner bailey?”

I squinted into the darkness. Honestly, I couldn’t see shit.

“What the hell’s an inner bailey?”

“The second wall.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Those aren’t walls, my friend. They’re holes with a few stones around them.”

“Fine,” he sighed, adding a little laugh of his own. “The second broken wall.”

I looked again, and this time my eyes adjusted. Through the trees, past the broken ruins of the castle’s protective walls, I could see the smooth facade of what looked like an ancient church or citadel.

“That’s the cathedral you’re talking about?”

“Yes.”

The place looked in decent shape. Much better than the rest of the castle.

“And you lived in there??

??

“In and beneath it,” Damien replied. “Not always, though. Only during the times we’d gather as a pack. The times when we’d—”

He stopped abruptly, and I realized Broderick was staring daggers at him. They’d trusted me with a lot so far, but apparently they weren’t going to share all their secrets.

That’s okay. I wasn’t exactly sharing all of mine, either.

“Anyway, what we’re looking for is in there. Or at least it should be.”

“And what are we looking for?” I asked, not bothering to hide the impatient tone in my voice. “We’ve come all this way and you still haven’t told me yet.”

Damien didn’t bother to get approval from Broderick this time. He just said it outright.