“The curse on the Hudson family was a mistake,” Rab finally said. “A mistake our entire people have lived with for as long as I can remember.”
Fair enough. We all made mistakes, but the curse was still there and a huge problem in Sawyer’s life. “Well, you can’t expect someone to just easily get over that mistake when it impacts their entire life. In Wolf City, they have contests to win the alpha’s heart, where you compete with dozens of other women. He dates them all at the same time because of your curse. It’s messed up.”
Willow shook her head. “I would kill them all.”
I grinned. This chick was going to be a good friend, I could tell.
Rab dropped his fork on the plate. “Okay, I get it, we messed up forever ago and there is a good reason city wolves hate us. Can we move on?”
I nodded, shoving a mouthful of yummy spiced beans into my mouth as a flavor explosion of cumin burst across my tongue. “Yes. Let’s move on. I know you don’t like me, but I’m all that you have left, so I’m just going to have to do.” I shrugged.
Willow stilled. “Does that mean … you’ll go to the Dark Woods and prove yourself as alpha?”
Her hand went to her belly and I sighed.
“Yes. You think I’m going to let your baby be born a human and eat dried beans and rice for the rest of their life? I told you, I’m here to help.” Dammit, their entrapment had worked. I was going all in.
Rab looked me up and down then, scanning my body with the gaze of a predator as if looking for weak spots or wounds to exploit. “Run was the greatest alpha of our time, and it took him three years to find his way through the Dark Woods to the Cave of Magic. Do you really think you can even make it out of there alive?”
My wolf surged to the surface then and I glared at him. “Have you ever had an alpha who was a split shifter?”
Willow lifted a finger. “Angel wolf, and no, we haven’t,” she agreed, and Rab shot her a glare.
“You’re not trained,” Rab said. “The first cold night, you’ll lose your fingers to frostbite.” He took a bite of rice and beans, chewing it slowly.
Okay frostbite sounded bad, but after my time with Marmal and running through Dark Fey Territory, I was no longer scared of being alone in the wild. “Then teach me as much as you can in the next twenty-four hours, because I’m going and I’m coming back in three days with magic that will fix this land and save your people.”
He looked at me like I was a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. “Our.”
I frowned. “Huh?”
“Our people, and if positive mental attitude could help you out there, I wouldn’t worry so much.”
I smiled, taking another bite of food.
“But it can’t,” he growled. “So be ready for a master class in woodland survival.”
I gulped.
Was I really doing this? Going out alone into a place called the Dark Woods in order to find some magical cave and possibly get lost for years?
No, I couldn’t think like that.
Seeing Willow stroke her pregnant belly longingly though, I knew I had to try, and I could leave nothing to chance. Nothing.
“Willow, do you have a fancy dress I could borrow?” I asked.
Eugene showed up later that afternoon and I made him turn right back around and take me to Sawyer. That I was staying was something I had to tell him in person, and there was something I had to do in person too. I’d asked Astra to accompany us, as well as twenty guards. Surprisingly, Rab himself had volunteered to go. He and I had turned a corner, and I was grateful to no longer be butting heads with him.
“Why are we traipsing through war-torn woods with you all dressed up?” Eugene asked as he held a gun at his side, finger on the trigger.
I smoothed the red and gold silk handmade dress that Willow had given me. With the bright colors and the way it draped over one shoulder, it reminded me of an Indian Sari. I’d tied up my hair into a sleek bun and used beetroot powders Willow had given me to stain my lips and cheeks.
It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for my wedding day look, but it would have to do.
“Because I’m going away for a while and I won’t leave without being Sawyer’s wife first,” I said, determined. I wasn’t going to go into some crazy Dark Woods and let the curse kill my mate if I ended up gone for three years.
Eugene stopped dead and looked up at me, tears glistening in his eyes. “Does he know?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I know he has a lot going on.”
Eugene cleared his throat, straightening his shoulders and nodded. “I’ll get you there and back safely. Don’t worry.”
He stepped in front of me with seemingly renewed strength as we continued our walk through the woods. I stumbled over ferns and small shrubs, holding up the edges of my dress to make my way over to Astra. We’d left the Paladin horses and donkeys in favor of going on foot. A troop of twenty warriors on horseback was loud; we could be stealthier this way.
“Astra?” I stepped next to her and she looked up at me with a smile. Always smiling at me this one, such an innocent and loving soul.
“Yes, Alpha?”
I’d long stopped asking her to call me that. “You’re like a priest or a pastor, right?”
She frowned, looking confused.
“Like … you are an important person of God. You … marry people?” I hedged.
Her eyes widened as a grin broke out on her lips and she looked at my dress in a whole new light.
“Yes, Alpha, it would be my honor to oversee your joining union.”
Joining union must be what they called a wedding. “Okay, great. Thanks.”
We crept through the trees, and the once far-off noises of war grew closer and louder. Nothing new to see here, folks, just creeping through the war-ridden woods to surprise my fiancé with a wedding he knew nothing about.
‘Hey, we’re like twenty minutes away. Are my parents and Raven still in the bunker?’ I asked.
I really wanted my dad to walk me down the aisle, but I wouldn’t pull him from safety if things were still in a lockdown kind of situation.
‘Yes. Everyone who isn’t fighting is down there. It’s a secret bunker under the school … which has been completely shelled out.’
I stumbled over my footing. Shelled out? My mind spun. ‘What do you mean shelled out?’
I felt the agitation run through him, but knew it wasn’t meant to be directed at me. ‘It’s gone, Demi. Sterling Hill is completely gone, but the bunker holds strong. It’s thirty feet underground, with twelve inches of steel and concrete, and they’ve got a two-year food supply down there.’
Dizziness washed over me. Why would they need a two-year food supply? ‘Sawyer, are they … trapped under there?’
‘Not trapped, but I’ve told them not to come out until we win the war.’
Until we win the war? My parents could be in an underground bunker for weeks? Or even months? My head swam with the thought of that. I was about to ask something else when a weird whistling sound cut through the air. A body tumbled over me and I was taken to the ground. Using my hands to break the fall, I hit the ground hard, landing the brunt of my weight on my palms. My gaze snapped to the man who’d thrown me to the ground, and a split second later a steel-tipped arrow sank into the soil beside me.