Page 182 of The Lost Ones

Rustling in the undergrowth has us all turning in that direction and I’mhonestly not sure that I believe what I’m seeing.

“Where the fuck is your shoe?” Levi asks Kai incredulously making Kysen and Jax burst into loud laughter that they were barely containing.

“The bog demanded a sacrifice.” Kai answers seriously, “my boot was an unwilling one.”

That does it, we are all instantly in fits of laughter.

“I told you, you should do your laces up properly.” Maverick chuckles, “I meant because of the disadvantage it gives you in a fight but this works too.”

Kai sticks his middle finger up at him.

Fortunately he also got a pair of boots in his pile of clothes from Kysen just like I did but he chose to keep his other ones on. At least he’s not going to be riding barefoot tomorrow until we get to the next town.

We all settle around the fire and start to prepare our rabbits. I glance around just appreciating that all my guys are with me. It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come. As my gaze lands on Kysen I notice he has this glazed look on features before he smiles slightly and his face clears. Something about the look strikes me as familiar but I can’t put my finger on why.

“You know Centre’s don’t normally fight. Their bonded fight but they never do. Soulmate Bonded groups are so rare now that they protect them as much as they can.” Kysen says distracting me from my thoughts.

“Well we’re a team, we’re equals.” Levi starts, “Sage has our backs just as much as we’ve got hers.”

“I can see that. It’s impressive.” Kysen smiles.

The rest of the evening we spend talking before we decide who is doing the watch shift first and the rest of us all settle down.

Chapter Six

The next morning, we’re all up early wanting to get a good start on the way to get to the next town, we all help take the camp down and pack up the horses.

“So what’s the plan today?”

“It’s around an hours ride into the next town. It’s smaller than the last one but people tend to keep to themselves. Having said that I’m still hoping we might hear something that could help us with finding your parents.” Kysen answers Levi and then nods in my direction.

“Sounds good. I didn’t hear anything in the last town but then again I was a bit distracted trying to take in all the new things.” I admit.

“I didn’t even hear any inkling of anything if I’m honest. The only people I heard them talking about was us.” Maverick says.

“No I didn’t either. I know we picked up supplies in the last town and we’ve still got quite a lot left but we still need to pick up more in the next one. At least twice as much. The town after this one is more of a city than anything else and is known as the Cursed City. No one who doesn’t have a death wish goes there, so we need to go around and not through. It will take twice as long but its worth it, trust me.” Kysen warns his voice low.

“What’s so bad about the Cursed City?” Jax asks. “Other than the name?”

“Wait, be quiet.” Hunter orders.

We all turn to him in question, following his order without question. It’s so rare that he gives us an order that we all instantly listen.

“Do you hear that?” He asks, his voice hushed.

I shake my head, the others doing the same. Hunter tilts his head up and takes a long inhale which has him immediately wrinkling his nose. Kai opens his mouth to ask something or more than likely make a comment about how canine he looks but is interrupted by a chorus of grating howls that end in a hiss.

“That’s impossible.” Kysen whispers, his eyes wide with fear.

“What?” Maverick asks.

“They shouldn’t be this far down here. They have never been seen this far south before.”

“What?” Jax says, “What shouldn’t be seen this far down, we need information!”

“Thefurrure serpens canis viventem.”

“That is wildly unhelpful Dude!” Kai exclaims.