Chapter 4

Emory noticed the sun rising when she looked up, realizing they had run nearly five miles. It was remarkable that only her aunt was able to hold off so many Lycans. The hard part now was getting aunt Kinshra back: she’d been right when she told her she not to leave Broiia.

Once they reached Kedar’s crossing, the wolves slowed to a halt, circled around her, and then sprinted back in the direction they had come. While she watched them descend the slope, Emory took a moment to catch her breath: hands on her hips.

From here, she could find her own way back to Broiia, but now she had to decide whether to go back for her aunt or return to Broiia. It would be easier for her if she could shift and not have to worry about that fucking Hendrick mind controlling her.

Her aunt would be furious at her for even thinking about going back, but she had to. The only choices she had were to either seek help from Trey at the Chavere compound or enlist the help of her Broiia friends.

It didn’t matter how she did it, she wasn’t leaving her aunt there.

Inhaling the crisp scent of sandalwood and orange, she stepped off the path and followed it along the fence along the border.

“You!” she blurted out when she saw him.

At the checkpoint, Rodyn stood alone behind the outhouse, hands folded over his chest, gazing into the distance. Seeing Rodyn shirtless almost made her drool, and she gulped as her eyes followed the glyphs that now covered his body: ones he did not have before. Then, after ogling at him briefly, she looked around, unsure of what he was doing out there.

Rodyn turned to look at her. “You’re late,” he said with a smirk. “Kinshra told me to wait for you here.”

“There’s no way in hell that you’re the one Aunt Kinshra arranged to go with me to Broiia.”

“I’m never going to measure up to your standards, am I?”

Rodyn walked up to her, making her feel both embarrassed and slighted. She shot him a dangerous glare, not particularly interested in rehashing the past with him.

There was something about his bare, tanned chest in her face that somehow made her forget how to breathe.

“How come you didn’t bother to tell Trey and me you were a hunter?”

The glyphs on his bare chest tempted her to look at them up close, but she suppressed her desire and kept her eyes on him.

“What does it matter?” she asked, moving away from him. “We have to go back for aunt Kinshra.”

“I’ve got to get you out of here!” A glare flashed across Rodyn’s face. “Things have gone to shit and I need to get you someplace the Lycans cannot find you.”

When he reached for her hand, she stepped back.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m getting you to Broiia. We shouldn’t linger here much longer.” He surveyed the area, while Emory watched his profile closely.

If the Lycans were seriously trying to capture her, she figured Broiia couldn’t keep her safe. Even so, she was ready to go back just as soon as her aunt was okay.

“Are you helping me get my aunt back or not?”

“I don’t know Emory. I can help you stay alive; that’s all I can do. There are too many Lycans circling around, and they’ve caught your scent. The only reason we haven’t been attacked is that they’ve got their hands full right now.”

Those words raised Emory’s eyebrows. “No sense having you around if you’re not gonna help me get her back.”

“If I do that, Emory, I’ll be taking you back into Lycan territory.” He wiped the side of her mouth with his finger, and Emory froze, watching his eyes focus so intently on the task of cleaning off the blood she hadn’t realised was on her face.

When his grey eyes met hers, she looked away. Then he slipped his hand off Emory but didn’t step back.

“I say we get out of here now with the head start we’ve got,” Rodyn whispered as he turned in the direction of Kedar.

Thinking about Kedar made her think of Trey, and she realized what trouble they might have if the Lycans attacked Kedar. It dawned on her that she couldn’t return to either Kedar or Broiia just to keep them safe.

“Your brother’s a few miles behind,” Rodyn said. “My duty is to get you out of here, safe.” After she frowned, he continued. “Why, in the name of Aworyn are you so stubborn?”

Rodyn took Emory’s hand, and Emory couldn’t help but glance down at it, remembering how whenever their skin touched it left an electric charge behind.

The warmth of his hand, as rough as it was, roused her stomach with butterflies. Rodyn made her nervous, and she couldn’t describe how she felt against his touch, his scent, and the way he looked at her.

“Do you… did you ever think of me?” Rodyn finally asked after a few heartbeats.

He tugged at her fingers tenderly as he waited for an answer. At first, she stayed silent as memories of his rejection invaded her mind and pricked at her heart.

Then she moved to pull away, but Rodyn held his grip, strong and comforting. With a stern squint, she warned him off and tugged her hand free.

When Emory felt a lingering presence, she took a step forward. It was Lycan and something about it was different in a way that was truly frightening. As soon as Rodyn stepped up to her side, she knew he sensed it too.

“It’s time to go. The Lycans are coming.” His eyes dimmed in a way that made her feel uneasy.

“You’re not telling me everything,” Emory said, trying to figure out if he actually knew something she didn’t. “This isn’t the first time a hunter rose. As a matter of fact, Aunt Kinshra is one.”

“You’re the only one who’s awakened this decade, and you almost slipped past the radar too,” Rodyn said with a shrug. “There might be something significant about it for the Lycans. Beyond that, Kinshra made me swear not to let them take you to King Hendrick’s tower.”

“I know my aunt is tough, but we both know no one can make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

He said nothing, only stroking her cheek with a small smile. “You should go ahead. I will mask your scent and follow behind you.”

It made her scoff, and she shook her head as she rejected the idea. “You mean you’ll stay behind, mask my scent, and die?” she asked.

“There’s–”

“Don’t be silly! If you stay here, you would be handing one of the last two Alphas to the Lycans on a platter, and I won’t allow that!” Emory retorted. “That’d be a death sentence for Kedar and the wolves. We might as well just surrender now.”

Trespassing on Eleadoí would be the silly excuse the Lycans would attempt to use against her. Her aunt had implied that the pompous Lycan king had led her here, but that didn’t matter since they were all now entangled in this. The Lycans had a good reason to take her, not that they ever needed one. Wasn’t that the problem? They could have taken Kedar or Rolan anytime, so why now?

“Why did my aunt send you, out of all the warriors she could have sent?”

Impatient now, he said. “Is that really what matters right now?”

Staring into his now dark eyes, Emory tried to figure out what he meant. “I don’t understand why you’re mad at me.”

“If I didn’t care that you’re… you, I’d throw you over my shoulder and be on my way.”

“I cannot leave if aunt Kinshra and Trey’s lives are in danger,” Emory said. At this point, she was becoming more and more irritated. “None of this would have happened if the two of you didn’t get together to plot a union between us.”

“As always, you blame me and put me in the most awkward position!”

In shock, Emory held her head as she stared at him with her eyes wide open.

“When did I ever do that?” she asked. “You complained about me wishing we were soulmates. You rejected me twice, Rodyn, and there was always something wrong with the way I saw things. You always blame me!”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” His eyebrows shot up in disbelief and he just shook his head.

“Why are you bringing this up now?” Emory huffed.

Her palms were sweating as she rubbed her eyes and then clamped them shut, but it wasn’t because of Rodyn that she felt so unnerved right now. She thought back to the last few months she had spent with him before she left Kedar, but nothing stood out.

Quietly he repeated those words stuck in her head:

“You never understood me.”

The words stung like a slap in the face. She had no idea what he meant by that and she had the feeling that it didn’t matter any more.

She could feel eyes on her, but couldn’t spot anyone more than a few curious seagulls perched on the roof of an abandoned shack down the road. Emory stood there for a moment, taking in her bleak surroundings and saw nothing that indicated anyone was watching her. Just a dark and mysterious feeling, which was oddly inviting at the same time.

Then she heard a throaty rumble: she felt it in her core in an ecstatic sensation that almost made her purr.

In stark contrast, Kinshra’s howl reverberated throughout the Mojave forest, loud with a message she knew all too well: run. Slogging forward, Rodyn grunted and his black glyphs moved like a chromatic painting in the sun.

“Emory, run!” he told her.

They heard their howls shortly before the Lycans broke through the trees, streaks of their brown fur covered in blood. The sight of it made her terribly afraid for Rodyn; though she did not want to admit it to herself.

The Lycans rounded the corner, mouths wide open, baring sharp pointy canines.

Rodyn looked at her and then shifted into his heavy black-furred wolf with long white fangs. He howled to give a summoning signal.

“Go,” Rodyn snarled.

Nodding, Emory turned towards Kedar and took off.