And I’d do it if I had to, but it would sting. Not as much as it would hurt Clara and the others in her family if Virginia wasn’t better soon. On the afternoon of the third day, her eyes fluttered as I sat at her bedside while her mom went downstairs for something to eat. I bent close and patted her arm. “Hi there. You’ve had a long nap.” One assisted by the drugs she’d been administered, including, according to the blood Wendi analyzed, the same suppressant that had kept our healer unable to walk for years—and unable to shift. It seemed every evildoer had a line to an endless supply of the stuff. One more thing for our alpha to try to track down. Or the council, which he’d been sending reports to at every step. They weren’t interfering, but at some point, they’d have to step up. This was not just one of those little arguments between packs.
“I-I…where am I?” Her voice was hoarse, and her bruises at the blue/black/yellow stage so garish it looked like clown makeup. “Mom?”
“Shh. She’s getting a sandwich down in the kitchen, and she’ll be here in a minute. You’re in the pack infirmary, and you’re going to be just fine.”
She was groggy, and I didn’t want to push her, but as soon as her mother appeared in the doorway with her lunch and realized what was going on, that her baby was awake, she screamed, sent her plat flying, and her cries brought in not only Wendi, but our alpha who had been on the first floor and who immediately wanted to ask her questions.
Luckily, our healer was able to settle everyone down and remind them Virginia had been through a lot, and patience would be a better way to learn whatever she knew.
Which, as it turned out, was virtually nothing.
She did mention one section of the woods, and Samson left to go arrange a search party. Wendi and I stayed to keep Virginia and her mom and her dad—who someone had called on their phone company in hopes she’d remember more—calm.
Chapter Twenty
Samson organized another search. We needed to find this Opal before she took anyone else. Right now, everyone was living in lockdown, something we’d started to do on a regular basis and something wolves were not crazy about. The young females were, of course, the most watched over, but everyone was concerned. Just because a pattern was set didn’t mean it wouldn’t be changed. The only reason I was still going to school etc. was because of my reputation as a warrior. And even then, Samson was rumbling about wanting me to stay at his house or at least Wendi’s, but I told him no.
The library scare did make me think, but I needed room to breathe and moving onto pack lands would leave Tris behind, not something I was willing to do. Samson seemed to understand, since he didn’t push the issue, much. Tris hovered a little, but he also acknowledged my abilities.
So when it came time to search the woods, I was, as had become usual, the only female along for the ride. Or the walk, the run. It was getting pretty chilly in the woods right now, and an icy rain was not only jabbing the back of my neck, making me wish I’d worn the jacket with the hood, but also washing away any possible footprints. A few of the younger males were in wolf form, but they hadn’t hit on a trail at all yet.
This section of woods was largely wild and so dense hardly anyone went there. It wasn’t pack lands, and I wasn’t really sure who owned it but whoever it was had neglected their management duties big time and I had heard Samson mention he wanted to track them down and report them or something. Fire starting in the underbrush could easily spread to our lands. Not that we got out there and raked up the leaves, but we did clear away a lot of dry underbrush and stuff. We downed dead trees and collected a lot of the wood, leaving some for habitat of course.
Samson was a genius with natural things. He actually had a college degree related in some way, his father apparently approving of school over the Navy. I wondered whether it truly was the Navy or if he was angry his attempts at fostering rivalry between his sons came to an end when Tris stepped out of contention for the alpha spot. Could an adult, one in charge of a whole pack, really behave so childishly?
Honestly, it sounded more like pure evil than childish. Something deep-rooted and very troubling. I stumbled over a root, and Samson steadied me. “Easy, there. It’s dangerous around here. Doesn’t look like there is any kind of pathway at all, like nobody has been here in decades.”
Decades. Pulled back into the moment, I forgot the past and stopped, making him stop with me. “I think you’re right. We have everyone pretty spread out. Have any of them found anything? Like broken branches, footprints, trash? Any sign of human or shifters coming through?”
“Let’s find out.” He closed his eyes, something I’d seen him do before when putting out a call to his betas and, sure enough, a few minutes later, a dozen or more wolves came loping in to form a circle around us. They must have shifted to return more quickly, which made perfect sense. “Report.”
One by one, they answered, telling us what I more or less expected. No signs of anything besides regular animals going about their lives. Not so much as a discarded water bottle or sneaker. Weird, but somehow, people tended to leave single shoes in the woods. And shifters left a lot more. Samson reminded them constantly to return for any clothes they’d left behind
