Wolf Broken (Wolfish 2)

“Hello?” I say into the darkness. “I’m a friend of Romulus. I just came to talk to his brother Remus.”

Immediately, I hear a low growl that makes the skin on the back of my neck prickle.

This may have been a really, REALLY stupid idea. I thought I might find them here, but honestly, I didn’t expect to find them so soon.

If it is them. If it’s even Remus’ pack.

Who knows how many shifters are in the woods these days. Who knows how many packs—alliance or not—are hidden between these trees.

“Hello?” I say again. It’s too late to turn back now, and even if it wasn’t, it’s too important for me to give up.

There’s a movement in the woods and I prepare to see a wolf come lunging out at me from between the trees. Instead of a wolf, it’s a man.

And I already know who he is.

I’m immediately taken aback. There’s only one way he’d find me this quickly … and that’s if he was seeking me out as well. The thought should scare me further, make me quake in my boots … but instead, it emboldens me.

“Remus?” I ask as he walks toward me. He’s tall and broad-shouldered, resembling his brother.

“Did Romulus send you?” he asks. He doesn’t sound friendly.

“No,” I say. “I came on my own to talk to you.”

“That doesn’t seem like a smart idea,” he says with a deep sounding laugh. Despite the warning in his voice, he invites me to sit with him.

“You’re brave for a human,” he says as I sit on the side of the large fallen tree that sits up against the riverbank. “I’ve been watching you for some time now.”

That prickle alights on the back of my neck again, but he doesn’t give me the chance to respond.

“What is it you came to talk to me about?” His face looks menacing in the moonlight and there’s a slight indication in his eyes that my visit here without Romulus’ permission gives him devious delight.

I’d planned exactly what to say in this moment, but he’s caught me off guard. All my careful preparations, my planned speeches, my logic … it all disintegrates as I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Romulus told me about Sienna.”

And it’s the wrong thing to say.

His expression darkens and I immediately regret mentioning her name as fear starts to gnaw at my stomach.

“I came to see if you could help me.”

“Help you with what?” his tone has changed to a more suspicious and unforgiving one.

“I’m in much the same situation that Sienna was.” I’m really taking my chances mentioning her again, I can feel it. “I want more than anything to be with his boys. Marlowe, Kaleb, and Rory.” I’m hoping that the mention of his blood nephew will help support my case. “And they want to be with me too, which is why I’m begging that you help me try to convince Romulus to allow me to go through with the transformation and become a part of their pack.”

I can’t read his expression well enough to know whether he is angry or empathetic to my plea.

“You have feelings for my brother’s sons?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“And they feel the same toward you? All three of them?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“How interesting.” He sits back and eyes me for a moment. “History has a funny way of repeating itself.”

I straighten my posture. “It’s not the same,” I say. “Because we’re bonded.”