Chapter 23.-2
I couldn’t tell if he was lying, but something felt off about the situation. To my surprise, Nyx stepped forward. “Gideon, we appreciate everything that you’ve done for us. Let us help you with this. Victor is clearly struggling, and you’re having a hard time managing that with everything that’s going on. It’s understandable. You’re not an alpha, but you are in charge of keeping these wolves safe. You obviously believe in this boy or you wouldn’t have put up with him for this long. Maybe
you think of him as a son?”
Gideon’s head jerked up at that, and Nyx smiled. “He’s seventeen. It’s time for him to take responsibility for his own actions, don’t you think,” she continued.
“Fine,” Gideon said tightly. “He’ll be your navigator. You better take care of him. It might be best if you leave first thing in the morning, before anything else happens.”
***
We left a few hours later. Victor had spent the night as a wolf, and we’d hoped that he’d burn off the serum, but it looked like the drug affected his wolf too. I wondered if maybe I’d gotten the wrong impression of his wolf, if he wasn’t as strong as I’d thought, but it was too late. Gideon had made it clear that we’d backed him into a corner and he wanted us gone.
Dante was walking on his own but he wasn’t at full strength. Nyx’s wolf was right at the surface, but she wasn’t taking full control. Juniper was still pissed. In the end, we were a fucking mess, but we kept a tight formation and didn’t run into any trouble as we worked our way up the mountain. At noon, we’d shaken off the wolves that Gideon had sent to watch us, and we reached a river.
There were plenty of fish in the river, so it wasn’t hard to get some lunch. Most wolves didn’t love fish, but there weren’t any complaints as we took refuge in the shade, ate our lunch, and splashed
in the river.
Nyx shifted and started to apply the ointment to her knee. She’d spent most of the journey avoiding me. Victor loped into the river and kept going. Nyx sprang up from her spot after him, grabbed him by the scruff, and pulled him back. “Don’t kill yourself with the river,” she told him.”
Water is way more violent than you think.”
With a moan, Victor shifted. Naked and shaking, he stared up at her. “I need something,” he
whispered. “I can’t keep this up.”
“You need food and sleep. You get one of those now. You get the other tonight. You’re a werewolf,” she told him as she reached into her bag and pulled out an energy bar. He’d eaten the fish. I’d seen him, but looking at him now, it looked like he might blow away like a leaf.
OO 20
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Chapter 23 2
Weak, my wolf growled. He wanted to kill Victor.
Struggling, I told him.
At that word, my wolf gave pause. He understood and retreated. I watched Nyx interact with the
boy. She wasn’t kind to him. Not motherly or even caring, but on some level, she seemed to relate a little. I doubted Nyx had a drug problem in her past, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
Victor nibbled on his energy bar, then immediately rolled over and vomited. When his stomach was
empty, he came back to the bar and ate a little more. We stayed by the river longer than I wanted,
but as soon as Victor looked a little stronger, we started to move again. We’d gone far enough that
I popped the amulet in my mouth and called out to the wolves.
Victor jerked in surprise and immediately straightened and moved closer to us. I didn’t like expending power like this, but I wasn’t about to get him killed on the same day that I’d taken him. I was still regretting my decision when I felt the amulet warm in my mouth as the sun started to set.
Immediately, I stopped and shifted. If the humans were to be believed, we wouldn’t have any issues with rogue wolves. Victor shifted as well. He had a little more color in his skin, but he still shook. “We can’t stay here,” he whispered. “There are ghosts.”
“Ghosts?”
“You’ll hear them at night. Something horrible happened here, and the magic…it raises the ghosts,
and they are out for revenge.”
As if on cue, the trees behind us started to wail.
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