Page 99 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

If they won’t hear us out and they won’t give us an opportunity to leave without a fight, then I want you to run. There will only be one—maybe two—running the perimeter. I’ll take care of them and then meet you back at the cabin. Run and don’t stop until you get there.

I’m not going to leav—

You agree or we walk away right now and forget this whole idiotic idea.

I simpered, holding back a snarl. Why did he always have to be so goddamned infuriating? Fine.

Good.

Great.

I followed him as he began to move toward the opening, grumbling internally about how I planned to punish him for this and what an absolute fucking pain in my ass he was.

You know I can still hear you, right? He spoke in my thoughts, and it was like I could see the sarcasm dripping from each consonant and vowel.

I growled. How the hell do I turn it off?

No reply.

I did my best to sever the connection myself, thinking about things other than Clay. It seemed to do the trick because by the time we crossed the imaginary line between the two lines of trees, there were only my own thoughts in my head again.

Clay paused about fifteen paces in, rocking back to sit on his haunches.

Now what? Now we wait.

It didn’t take long. Within less than five minutes we could hear the telltale sounds of another animal in the forest. Thudding footfalls sending fallen leaves scattering in their wake. The unmistakable heavy breathing of a wolf.

Clay moved, placing himself slightly in front of me while keeping our backs to the border crossing for an easy exit.

Let me do the talking, Clay said just as flashes of movement could be seen hurtling in this direction through the darkened wood.

The wolf slowed, catching sight of us, and lifted his head back in a long howl.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

How long would it take for all his eastern pack buddies to come running?

Clay?

I know.

Clay shifted in the blink of an eye, standing in a channel of moonlight. His naked body spotted with dirt and coated in a fine layer of sweat that made him glisten as though his skin was dusted with a metallic powder.

“We aren’t here for a fight,” Clay called at the wolf, who remained partially hidden in the shadows about thirty paces away. “We have come to request an audience with your alpha. Will you allow us entry?”

A silence so tense and thick hung in the air between them—the question going unanswered for so long that I had to quint my canine eyes to make sure the other wolf was even still there.

A low whine rolled off my tongue. I didn’t like this.

We should go.

I nipped at Clay’s ankle, trying to get his attention, imploring him to understand my plea. He needed to shift back. He was too vulnerable in his human flesh.

He held a hand out in an attempt to tell me to be still.

Like hell that was going to work.

But just before I could nip him again, harder this time, a flash of dark skin caught my eye, and I peered into the trees where the lone wolf had been hiding to find he’d shifted, too.

A tall black man with bright eyes and lips any god or goddess would kill for stepped from the darkness and into the light.

God. When was I going to get used to seeing people naked all the time?

I’d seen more dicks in the past two months than I had in my entire life before now.

“For what purpose?” The man called, his voice colored with a light accent. Southern, maybe? I was shit at figuring out accents. “Permission has not been granted for your entry to these lands.”

Clay clenched his fists and I braced myself, coming back to the surface.

My turn.

“Permission couldn’t be requested,” I said, my voice a tight groan after the shift left me with stars in my eyes and an aching back. I let those words hang in the air, trying to let this guy catch on to their meaning without my having to say it outright that we didn’t exactly trust our alpha.

The man’s bright eyes narrowed at me and then widened, recognizing who I was. I don’t know why the two tails hadn’t set him off, but somehow my human form did. Must be the turquoise hair…even though I had a good three inches of new silvery blond growth at my crown now.

Clay’s fist clenched at his side. I knew if I could hear his thoughts, I wouldn’t like what I heard, but he let me speak.

“You’re the twin soul wolf,” he said, speaking the name as though it were a moniker of legend or myth.

“The what?”

“The twin soul wolf. The girl who bonded to two of our kind. Who has two tails. You’re…you’re part of Ryland’s pack.”

“Bravo,” Clay said with an annoyed tone. “Your powers of observation are astounding.”

“Clay,” I scolded.

“Look man,” Clay pushed on. “We came for an audience with your alpha. If you don’t plan to grant us one and promise our protection for the duration of the time we spend here, then I’d rather get the fuck out of dodge before your buddies get here.”

The other man considered Clay, eyes flitting over his height and brawn before his gaze slid back to me. “I’ll grant it for the girl,” he said finally. “You may wait at the border for her return.”

“Not a fucking—”

“Done,” I chirped.

Clay whirled on me, his face turning from bright red to deathly pale and back again in the span of a single second. A vein in his temple jumped. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Allie—”

“I came here for answers, and I’m going to get them, Clay. This—hey, what’s your name?”

“Toby.”

“This Toby guy is offering me exactly what we came here for.”

It could have been a trick of the light, but I swear I saw his hands begin to shake.

“I can’t let you go alone. Don’t ask me to.”

“I’m not asking.”

His expression shifted, his face going momentarily slack as though I’d slapped him.

“If I told you I’d make sure he behaved, would you let him come with me?” I asked, calling the question to Toby without any hope of him giving me that request.

Toby didn’t even consider it. “No.”

I shrugged, sighing as I let my gaze fall back to Clay. “I tried.”

“You swear that she’ll be returned to me here,

unharmed in any way.”

“By the old laws and the new, you have the word of my pack that she will be returned unharmed,” Toby replied, none too politely, crossing his arms over his chest.

“There,” I said. “Better?” I brushed my hand against Clay’s biceps to get his attention and he reeled back from my touch, casting me a look I couldn’t decipher before he stormed away, back toward the border. My chest ached at his rejection.

Didn’t he understand that we had to do this?

The alpha of this pack may have wanted me dead a few weeks ago when I was still unclaimed, but he would be an idiot to try to cut me down now. He’d have a war on his hands. A war that he would have no hope whatsoever of winning.

“You have one hour,” he warned without turning. “One hour, and I’ll end anyone who stands in my way of getting to her.”

When Toby didn’t voice a reply, Clay paused and turned slightly, just enough to see Toby from the corner of his eye, but not far enough for me to catch his expression. “Is that clear?”

“There will be no need,” Toby said diplomatically, now clearing the distance between us.

Clay shifted back into his wolf and launched himself through the opening, vanishing on the other side, back into our territory.

I knew he wouldn’t go far, but without him there to bolster my courage, my pulse began to pound in my ears as Toby shifted back into his wolf form and nudged his head forward. Onward.

Time to go.

With one last glance back to see if I could catch a glimpse of Clay standing sentinel outside, I shifted back and followed Toby, guilt, disappointment, and my own dark thoughts my only companions on the short run.