And then Osmond said, “Gordo, you should know. There was a… dampening. On the Matheson house. A powerful one. It didn’t just mute the bonds. It made it so that no one outside the house could sense any distress in them.”
Gordo said, “My father. The wards to the north. They were modified. And I never felt them change. He’s the only one that could have done it. It felt like him. But different.”
“Could you change them back?” Osmond asked.
Gordo nodded. “I’m better than I used to be. He doesn’t know that. He might have seen how complex they were at first, but he won’t know just how deep they go. It was like an infection on the surface. I healed them.”
Osmond’s wolves appeared out of the dark. “North,” one said. “They went northwest.”
“How many?”
“Ten or so. Maybe more. Maybe less.”
Osmond looked to Thomas. “What’s northwest of here?”
“A clearing,” Thomas said. “One we use often. He knows of it. We played there as children. It’s a sacred place for my family.”
“He’s spiraling,” Osmond said quietly. “Coming into your territory. Knowing the magic that’s here in this forest. It’s old, Thomas. And on the far side of a full moon? He can’t possibly think he’ll win.”
“He’s probably heard the stories of the fallen king,” Thomas said. His voice was bitter and dark. It was the first time I’d ever heard him sound like that. “He no doubt thinks me weak. That all he has to do is divide and conquer. He started with the humans because all he knows of humans is how easily they can break. He didn’t expect to find the strength in them.”
His words were proud, but I felt nothing from them. I couldn’t.
He looked at me and said, “If I asked you to trust me and stay here, would you do it?”
“No.”
“Ox.”
I said, “That’s not fair.”
Red curled into his eyes. I felt the pull of it, the need to submit blooming deep within me. “I could make you,” he said. “You know I could.”
“You wouldn’t, though.”
“Oh? And why wouldn’t I? I am your Alpha. You do as I say.”
“That’s not who you are. And I trust you to remember that. But I’m not staying here. Where you go, I go.”
He looked sad. “Sometimes we go places where others cannot follow.”
“He took her from me.” My voice shook.
Thomas said, “I know.”
He stepped forward then. Stepped forward until he was standing in front of me. He put his hand on my neck and pulled me to him, my face at his throat. A soothing rumble rose up from his chest and he whispered, “I am so sorry this has happened to you. I wish I could take away all of the pain you feel. But I wouldn’t, even if I could, because that pain shows you you’re alive. That you’re breathing. That you can take another step. And where you go, I will go too. We will finish this and then our pack will help put your mother to rest. You are not alone, Ox, and you never will be.”
The crowbar fell to the ground as I gripped him tightly.
I still didn’t cry.
alpha
THEY WAITED for us in the clearing. The stars were bright overhead, and the violet Omega eyes shone in the dark. I counted fifteen. All wolves. Omegas weren’t supposed to group like this. It was almost like they were pack. They didn’t have an Alpha, not yet, so they couldn’t be Betas. But they seemed united som
ehow.
Richard said, “Thomas.”