Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

“And what is it we’re supposed to be doing today?” he asks, giving the room a quick, sweeping look. “According to you, anyway.”

Marlowe nudges him, but Lydia doesn’t take offense. She just eyes her eldest son with a look that, had it lingered any longer, would have even made Rory squirm.

“I want you to take Sabrina deep into the woods. She’s antsy here. She might not be full shifter yet, but there should be some things you can show her already.”

I sit forward suddenly, eyes alight. “Do you mean …”

“I mean,” Lydia says, eying all three of her sons now, “I want you to show her the joys of being a wolf-shifter. Or start to, at the very least.”

“But since she hasn’t shifted yet, how are we supposed to—”

Marlowe doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before Lydia interrupts him.

“She doesn’t need to have shifted yet. She’s only one night away from her first shift and her body is already primed. She might not look it, but she’s already sensitive to the wolfish nature. Look at her,” she says as she waves her hand toward me. “Trust me. I know this better than anyone else here. And besides …”

She trails off a moment, one hand reaching out to brush a lock of hair out of my eyes. “She needs some comforting today. Turning isn’t for the faint of heart. Take her and show her a beautiful day.”

Even though she keeps her eyes on me, I know she’s trying hard to keep from glancing out the window. I know what she means. Get her away from here.

And I’m not about to disagree.

After a moment, Lydia winks at me and I have to stifle a giggle. She acts more like my mom than my own mother did, and I am honestly happy to have a day of revelry with the boys. Anything that will get me out of here and having to watch Remus and that awful wolf-girl cozying up to Romulus, will be a welcome reprieve.

“Okay,” Kaleb says as he hops up from the table. “Sounds good to me. Let’s go!”

He grabs my arm to pull me along, but I am still firmly gripping my coffee cup which sloshes around in my hand at the jerking motion.

“Wait a second,” I say. “I haven’t finished my—”

“Just go,” Lydia says. “You won’t need the caffeine when they show you all the wondrous things in the woods.”

“I’ve already seen the woods,” I say to her, a little confused and a little bit just trying to stall for time while I bring the cup back closer to my lips.

“Not like this,” she says with one of her secret smiles.

The boys actually seem super excited about our day galivanting off in the forest together. I’m happily surprised by their enthusiasm. With all of Romulus’ alpha emotions seeping into his pack, I thought for sure that the boys would rather stay at the house and intermingle with Remus pack as Romulus seems to be so smitten with doing. I guess maybe I have more of a hold on the boys that even their father and pack leader does.

That thought, above all, makes me smile.

“What are you smiling about?” Marlowe asks when he sees my grin.

We’ve managed to slip away from the packs gathered around the house without being followed. I expected it to be much more difficult, what with the way they’ve been watching me like prey over the last week.

“Just random thought,” I say. Even if they are more influenced by me, their allegiance to Romulus is strong and definitely not something that I want to get between.

We walk deep into the forest, deeper than I’ve ever been, I think. The further we get, the more excitement I feel. I can’t tell if the excitement is just coming from me or if it’s coming from the boys too.

“Is there a specific place we’re going?” I ask, wondering how much longer my feet will keep up and really wishing right about now that I had four paws instead.

“Yes,” Rory says with an extremely purposeful look on his face. I know that look. It’s the look he gets when he isn’t going to explain any further.

So I just nod, asking no more questions as we keep pressing forward.

It’s not just my own anxious energy driving us onward, further away from the house and the tension of the packs surrounding it.

Rory takes my hand and it makes it a little easier not to fall behind. I start to wonder why it is that I always seem to have trouble keeping up with them, even when they’re in their human form.

Even if Rory isn’t going to tell me where we’re headed, he can’t deny me this. Not now.