Page 7 of Cast in Shadow (Drenched in Darkness #1)

7

The grandmother’s cabin was a place straight out of a fairy tale. Just not one of those watered-down, safe for modern children, kind of fairy tales.

Green moss slicked the bowed wooden shingles, and the whole roof sagged dangerously. The squat stone walls looked sturdy enough, if a person ignored the way the mortar between the rocks was chipped and cracking, at least where it was visible. It was hard to tell when most of the thing was covered in climbing vines that stretched up the full height of the wall and disappeared beneath the eaves.

Not exactly promising.

Stepping out of my Jeep, I closed the door quietly. I wasn’t trying to be sneaky, just polite. Adult wolf shifters had keen senses, even in human form, and I had no doubt she already knew I was out here. She’d probably heard me turn onto the dirt path leading up to this decrepit little place a quarter mile ago.

At least she was home. Well, someone was home. The magic surrounding the place felt feminine enough, but there was an underlying current to it that raised my hackles. No wolfish pun intended.

I made it to the foot of the porch before the front door flew open, and a fiery woman with gorgeous cinnamon hair stepped out with a shotgun aimed at my chest.

“You are trespassing on private property. Get lost or get shot.” Power rolled over me with the words, and all at once, I understood why she’d secluded herself out in the woods.

“You’re an alpha,” I said, holding my hands up to show her I wasn’t armed.

Her eyes narrowed. “And you’re a witch.” She sniffed the air, inhaling deeply. A new emotion flickered across her face before it hardened again. “An old witch who doesn’t look old.”

I gave her a little shrug. “You don’t exactly look like grandmother material to me.” The scowl twisting her mouth and pinching her brow aged her some, but she still could have passed for a woman in her mid-thirties.

The average lifespan of any magical being was a hard thing to pin down, and it varied with the species. Wolves could outlive humans by double on the high end. Bears weren’t quite that lucky, but despite their animal’s size, they were still more likely to break the century barrier than a human.

The barrel of the shotgun dipped a little, and her features softened. “Did Naomi send you?”

“Put down the gun and we can talk about it.”

“Talk first,” she said, raising it again.

I motioned to the Jeep, glancing over my shoulder. “I have a file in there. Mind if I get it?”

“I do mind. You’ve got three seconds to tell me why the hell you’re here before I riddle your body with birdshot.”

Ouch. Birdshot from that distance would embed small projectiles through my entire body, head to toe. It was a vicious way to get rid of trespassers, but I supposed it wasn’t necessarily fatal.

I rubbed my hands over my face before leveling her with a tired stare. “My team tried to extract Naomi from her pack after we got word that she was being abused. The alpha sent his people after them, and she slipped away in the chaos.”

The worry in her expression warred with the anger simmering beneath it, but she held that damned gun in hands that were as steady as ever. “She was abused?” Her already husky voice took on an unnatural rumble.

I had to be careful with this. It was one thing to deal with a domestic shifter who felt secure in her pack and home. Bridget was a lone wolf. A female alpha who’d cut herself off from the rest of her people. And from the look of it, she was just this side of feral.

“You suspected what she was when she was younger, didn’t you?”

She stared at me, giving nothing away.

“We found the letter you wrote to her. She kept it. That’s why we think she’s headed here.” I tipped my head back toward the Jeep again. “I can show you, if you like.”

The shotgun stayed exactly as it was for another beat before she let the barrel dip a few inches. “Fine, but if I get a whiff that you’re up to something, I’ll bury you behind this cabin with the other idiots who made the mistake of crossing me.”

“Cheerful,” I said, filing away the information about those potential dead bodies for another time.

The woman had a right to defend herself on her own property. As long as that was how things had gone down, I wouldn’t be the one to turn her in.

I moved slowly, keeping my hands where she could see them until I got to the passenger door. “I’m going to open the door and grab the file off the seat, then I’ll hold it up over my head where you can see it and shut the door. Okay?”

She motioned with the shotgun. “Get on with it.”

I grabbed the file, made my way back to her, and tossed the folder at her feet. “I’ll wait.”

“One false move, witch…”

“And you’ll blow my head off. I get it. Threat received.”

She glared at me, the corner of her lips twitching up. “You’re not afraid of me.”

“No reflection on you. I’ve just seen enough that not much scares me anymore.”

“Hmm.” She studied me until I dropped my gaze to the folder on the porch, and she let out a huff.

The power inside me wanted to take up the challenge she was issuing with that huff, but respect was the best way to ensure her help. Since she was our only real lead for finding her granddaughter and getting her to safety, I kept my eyes on the folder. “Let me know if you have questions.”

I turned my back on her and walked back to the Jeep, hauling myself up so I was perched on the dented black grill guard. It wasn’t the most comfortable seat, but it was better than standing around or sitting on the damp ground.

Bridget kept her shotgun trained on me until I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. “I’d love to tell you I have all day, but the pack is probably out there combing the woods for her right now.”

That got her moving. She leaned the shotgun against the railing and scooped up the file before taking a seat at the edge of the porch with her battered tennis shoes in the dirt. She sifted through the pages, lingering here and there. When she flipped the folder closed, the glimmer of wildness in her eyes made me wish I’d parked a little further back.

“How sure are you that she’s coming here? ”

“Fifty percent. We’re assuming she hasn’t had any contact with you since that letter.”

“You’re assuming wrong.”

I hopped down but didn’t make a move to get closer. “You’ve seen her? Recently?”

Her eyes narrowed like she was measuring my worth. “It’s been a year and a half. She hadn’t shifted yet.”

“Does her pack know you’re out here?” I motioned to our surroundings.

“They do, but they don’t come sniffing around anymore.” She tipped her head toward the cabin again. “Too expensive.”

So, she’d killed the scouts the pack had sent to track her down. Good for her.

“Why did you leave the pack?” I had a pretty good idea, but it never hurt to fill in the details.

“After my first shift, the alpha at the time claimed me as his mate. He figured it was a way to consolidate power. And he couldn’t wrap his thick head around the fact that being female didn’t diminish the alpha instinct. Even a fool knows you can’t leash an animal like me and expect it to end well.” She set the file on the porch beside her. “I was pregnant when I killed him but didn’t know it at the time. Kyla—my daughter—always wanted to be part of a pack, and when she was old enough, she ran back to them.”

I knew that from the girl’s file. I also knew Kyla died giving birth to her, which was a rare tragedy amongst wolf shifters.

“Kyla didn’t carry the alpha gene?” That was the strange thing about alpha females. Males passed the gene on to the males in their line without fail. It was a fact of nature. But female alphas were an anomaly. There was no predicting when or where one might pop up in a pack’s blood line.

“No, she wasn’t an alpha. Wasn’t a beta. She was born a plain old, middle-of-the-pack wolf.” She leaned back on her hands and let out a heavy breath. “I couldn’t blame her for leaving. I miss having a pack too, some days, but it’s tough finding other shifters who won’t try to put a female alpha under their thumb.”

“I can imagine.” Strong females were always a threat to a patriarchal society, and wolf packs were almost always run by men.

“What can I do?” she asked.

“Watch for her. Protect her if she shows up.” I pulled a card out of my back pocket and walked it over. “And call this number if she does. With the heat on her from the pack, neither of you will be safe out here.”

“What are you planning on doing with her?” she asked, taking the card and flicking the edge with her free hand.

“I know of a group that takes in shifters who are in trouble. They keep to themselves for the most part, but they do take in special cases from time to time. The key is that you have to be able to control your unique gifts, or you have to be genuinely committed to learning how.”

“Unique gifts?”

“Like in your case.” I dipped my head. “If your alpha nature is so strong that you have to control everything, it’s not the right place for you. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a safe place to land and people you can trust, I can get you a meeting.”

“Does this magnanimous group have a name?”

I ran my tongue along the edge of my teeth. “Salus.”

Her bark of laughter bordered on animalistic. “Nice try, witch.” She flicked my card back at me, and I watched it flutter to the dirt. “I’ve been around too long to let someone like you sell me that dream. Salus doesn’t exist. I’m willing to bet it never did.”

She would lose that bet, but her reaction wasn’t exactly surprising. Salus stayed off the radar for several reasons, not the least of which being that it was a sanctuary for all shifter outcasts, regardless of breed. Keeping a low profile made it harder to convince the people who might actually need that kind of place that it was real, but it was a necessary precaution.

“Suit yourself,” I said, as I turned and headed back toward the Jeep. “You’ve got my number if you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

I got in and started it up, hooking my arm behind the passenger seat and backing down the dual dirt tracks nearly to the road before I found a spot I could barely squeeze into to get turned around. I’d done what I came to do. If she didn’t want my help, I couldn’t force it on her.

When I turned back to face the driveway, a large, cinnamon-colored wolf was blocking my path. The earthy reddish-brown of her coat darkened as it spread down her body, turning to a shimmering black by the time it reached her feet.

Bridget was pretty enough in human form, but her wolf was stunning. Not as big as some male alphas I’d seen, but she’d give just about any other male in a pack a run for their money.

I opened the door and stood on the footrail, propping my forearm on the frame. “It’s not a trick. Salus is real, and I’ve already told them about your granddaughter. She has a bed waiting for her. I can’t promise you the same, but like I said, I can get you a meeting.”

She stared at me for a long time with copper eyes that seemed to see everything, including the unease rising inside me at holding her gaze as the seconds ticked by. Facing off with an alpha was risky business. It was always a fine line between earning their respect and challenging them to a fight to the death.

Bridget’s wolf dipped her head in the barest acknowledgement, and I returned the gesture. Then I slipped back inside and shut the door, taking my time buckling my seatbelt. She would call. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But even if the woman didn’t believe what I said about Salus, her wolf did.

Maybe she wasn’t as feral as she wanted people to believe.

The first hint of a smile I’d felt in days graced my lips as I put the Jeep in drive and headed back to HQ. Next on my to-do list was tracing Megan’s steps. My team had been tracking news and police radios nonstop since Emerson’s interference. We’d gotten lucky so far, in the sense that there was no sign of her raising hell near Brynworth.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were standing in the eye of the storm. With the amount of power she’d acquired from the coven she’d slaughtered, there was a good chance she was working on something much bigger than creating chaos for the fun of it.