IV

The beauty of Blair’s inner city house was that it was exceptionally easy to get to without being seen. I used to think it was a secret only I knew, but over the years I had learned several supernaturals in need of her assistance used it frequently. 

I yipped halfheartedly at her back door, leaning against the wall for support. The adrenaline that got me up off the ground had long passed, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to carry myself into her house. 

The door swung open, as if she had been expecting me. I looked up at her, pitiful puppy eyes begging for assistance. 

“You better be glad you’re a runt,” she huffed, scooping up my small wolf form. “I’m a witch, not a were. I don’t have superhuman strength.”

Blame it on a napoleon complex, but I didn’t much appreciate being picked up - in either of my skins. However, I felt like I was on the brink of death, so my ego had to let that slide. 

As small as I was, wolves still weren’t tiny little purse dogs. Blair was as mindful as she could be, but it was still an endeavor for her to get me into the house and up on her kitchen table. She poked and prodded, confirming my suspicion that fractured ribs had punctured my lung. 

“You’re just dumb for thinking you could heal this yourself,” she grumbled. “These bones need to be reset.”

Witches and wolves were rarely friends. In fact, I thought it was in our DNA that we were wary of one another. Even now, after years of knowing each other, I was horribly uncomfortable when Blair put her hands on me and muttered something to pull the bones back into place. Still in wolf form, I begrudgingly lapped up the potion she presented in a special little dish she had gotten just to mock me when I couldn’t do anything other than beg for her mercy. 

It had taken her a few times to figure out that I couldn’t exactly drink her potions from a glass when I had paws and a snout. I think she had been looking forward to the next time I showed up at her door, desperate for her assistance, and she was able to present me with a dog bowl that had “Bad Dog” written all over it. 

That was a couple years ago, though, and we had fallen into a rhythm. I had stopped growling at the bowl, recognizing how quickly she would take it away, and she stopped trying to convince me to understand her creepy voodoo magic shit. 

Ribs aligned and potion drank, I shifted back. She shoved a stash of clothes I kept here for times like this and turned her back while I dressed. Witches, I had quickly discovered, did not have the same disregard for nudity that shifters did. 

“Thanks,” I sighed now that I had a voice. 

Blair turned, quickly returning to poke and prod at my side. “I really hope you’re not about to tell me the Lycan you called me about is behind this.”

“No.” I quickly jumped to his defense, trying to convince myself it was just the blood curdling in my stomach that brought on the nausea at her accusation. “He… he saved me.”

She took a step back, retrieving a glass of wine she had sitting on the counter. “Okay. You’re going to need to explain that.”

I hobbled over to her fridge to retrieve a bottle of water. I grimaced, partly in pain and partly at what I was about to say. “There’s… something. Maybe he should have been my mate or something. But there was this weird draw and all that.”

“Or he was stalking you,” she scoffed. “You wolves write off creepy behavior too easily. Not everything is okay just because of fate and possessive bullshit.”

I gave her that one. She wasn’t wrong. “Don’t tell Leah that. She thinks any attention is good attention.”

“She’s just insecure,” Blair promised, reiterating her common assessment of my only other friend. “But why are you thinking mate? I thought runts didn’t have mates.”

I sipped the water, thankful for something to wash the taste of the potion out of my mouth. “There’s no proof either way. But it doesn’t matter, everyone knows lycans can’t recognize their mate.”

“There’s no proof either way,” Blair mocked, wiggling her eyebrows. She stood up to refill her wine glass. “You staying here tonight?”

I shook my head. “I’m actually planning on leaving for a trip tomorrow.”

She cocked her eyebrow. “You’re going back to the royal pack, aren’t you?”

I nodded, knowing I couldn’t hide anything from her. It wasn’t a safe idea, but I needed more information. I had been seeking out a way to destroy the royal line for years, and this was an ideal opportunity. There was always discord when power shifted, and I couldn’t let this slip through my fingers.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want my birthright back. No, I loved my life now. But the corruption ran thick in my family, and their time was coming to an end. No matter what I had to do to guarantee it. 

“Make sure you shift while you’re there, at least. Get out for a few good runs.”

“I will,” I said with a smile. The shift tonight was out of necessity. It was so far from sating my need to reconnect with my wild. Hell, my wild didn’t even feel very wild anymore. 

I should have accepted Blair’s offer of a ride home. I should have felt nervous walking, but I didn’t. I had a strange sense of reassurance that the threat was no longer present. It was a cocky thought, seeing as I had several enemies, but as far as I was aware, that beta was the first that ever learned my name. An even cockier side of me hoped that lycan hadn’t killed him. I wanted to know how the beta got his information, especially as I assumed in one way or another, he was a former beta now.

I needed to know who had leaked my identity. 

The desperation for healing sleep played at the edges of my mind, but it was only a short detour that brought me past the place I had been attacked. The lycan must have been good at his job, because there was not a hint of the bloody scene that should have remained. I caught scents, though, and that was all I needed. 

I was familiar enough with the beta’s scent, but the lycan’s was so all consuming. I wasn’t sure which one I was tracking most of the time, or told myself that, at least. 

I wasn’t surprised when I found them. Or rather, the lycan carrying a body. He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, with the body slung over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. 

I didn’t announce my presence, hanging in the shadows. I could smell him from here, though. I could only assume he could smell me, too. So, I slunk down an alley, creating space. 

I wanted to hang around, see what his plan was, but my reasoning for following was to determine if the beta was somehow still alive, and I could interrogate him to figure out who shared my name, and how many people they told. The beta was dead, though, so any purpose I had to hang around was null and void.

I couldn’t let curiosity kill the cat. 

It took all the power in me to turn away and start my trek back to my apartment for one last night. I walked slowly down the familiar streets, ready to crawl into bed and recover from the busiest day I had had in a while. I hoped against hope that I would go to sleep and the lycan would just fade from my memory, but I had a sneaking suspicion that would not be the case.

I glanced down at my phone before walking into the apartment building, deciding between the front door or my window. Looking at the time, I gambled on the door. My ribs were beat to shit, and I honestly didn’t know if I’d be able to handle the climb. 

It was three in the morning, so I was fairly confident Leah was asleep. That, or she was binging whatever TV show had most recently caught her fancy. If she saw me, though, she would be exceptionally sad I turned her down but went out. 

Lucky for me, though, she was crashed out on the couch, the streaming service asking if she was still watching. I snuck into my room and fell into a much needed sleep. Not even concerns of returning to my home pack could keep me awake. 

It wasn’t a restful sleep, though, as my dreams pulled me into a field. It was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the full moon, turning the shadows into a dark, impenetrable abyss. It wasn’t a field I recognized from experience, but I had been here before. Almost every night for the past few years. 

The sense of eyes on me sent pins and needles across my skin. I whipped around, trying to find the onlooker, but knew I wouldn’t see them. I never had. 

This time, though, just inside the treeline, I caught the sight of bright hazel - no, golden - eyes that were nearly glowing. They drew me in, begging me to reveal all my secrets.

I took a cautious step forward, wanting to get a better look. That step, though, the crunch of detritus under my feet, broke our hypnotizing stare. 

I froze, refusing to blink. Blink, and the eyes would be gone. 

I watched, paralyzed, as the figure turned and fled. 

I jolted awake, covered in a cold sweat. The dream I had become so familiar with had changed, and I could only believe that meant one thing.

I glanced at my phone, seeing that it was nine. I had gotten nearly six hours of sleep, but it felt like nothing. 

Begrudgingly, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. It was only a couple hours to the royal pack from Burlington, but I had no time to waste. 

There were multiple things calling me home.