Broken Moon by Laken Cane

Chapter Ten

The beta led me to the pack’s seer, Lennon. She stood in the woods, dressed in black leather, her long, red hair waving gently in a nonexistent wind. Her eyes, when she turned to watch me approach, were starkly green and vividly contrasted against the flawless ivory of her skin, and though I’d seen pictures of her before, her stunning beauty in person was…well, stunning.

“Wow,” I whispered, as Eli and I approached her, causing him to chuckle.

I wasn’t sure why she’d wanted to meet with me in the dangerous woods instead of behind the relative safety of four walls, but when I’d walked into the alpha’s office and no seer had been in attendance, Jared had informed me she was waiting for me in the woods.

I’d lifted my eyebrows. “I’m shocked you’d allow one of your people in the woods right now.”

He’d given me a wry smile. “The seer does as she pleases.”

I’d only shrugged, but I was slightly intrigued by a wolf who wouldn’t be bossed around by her alpha. Though I was sure if he’d seriously commanded her to do something, she would have done it. It was the wolf pack way.

“With Lennon, I pick my battles,” he’d said, as though he’d plucked my thoughts from my head.

I would have thought keeping one of his people safe from whatever was roaming these woods would have been a battle worth fighting, but he knew what he was doing. I was also surprised that he’d cared to explain himself to me.

When I stood in front of her, we simply stared at each other. I didn’t offer my hand or open my mouth as we took each other’s measure. One had to be careful with seers. An uninvited touch could lead to dangerous things—for both parties. I’d once seen my own pack’s seer experience a violent seizure when someone had grabbed her hand, and I’d seen a pack member knocked out for two days after an unintentional touch. He’d awakened with no memory of the previous year.

It wasn’t uncommon for a seer to see the deep dark secrets inside a person she touched, and that had gotten a wolf banned before. And worse.

So I didn’t touch her, and while I patiently waited for her inspection, I made sure my own walls were high and strong. Just in case.

At last, her features softened and she leaned toward me, her lips tilting in a small smile. She started to speak, then darted her eyes to the beta. “Eli,” she said sharply, and though he sighed, he moved a few yards away.

“He’s a nosy beta,” she murmured. “And I never allow my business to be carried back to the alpha unless I want it to be.” She held out her hand. “Don’t worry,” she said, when I hesitated, “I’m well secured. It will hurt neither of us.”

I refused to be afraid of the Gray Shadow seer. I was stronger than that, and I was well secured against a touch as well. I took her hand.

And it didn’t matter how secure we’d thought we were against that handshake, that first touched kicked both our asses.

Eli came loping toward us, ready to defend his seer against me, but Lennon managed finally to jerk free—God knew I couldn’t find the strength—and Eli was there to catch her when she reeled backward.

In the back of my mind was the cold realization that Jared’s beta was in love with the seer. It was said that seers could never love. Their heads and hearts were too full of their visions and knowledge, and they didn’t see romantic love the way others did.

Too bad for Eli.

“What is she,” Lennon whispered, and I wasn’t sure she was exactly present in the moment. Finally, she focused on me and pulled away from the beta. She didn’t offer me her hand again, and I was betting she probably never would.

Her eyes held something strange, something I couldn’t parse, but her voice was full of pity and sorrow when she spoke again. “The wolf’s screams and torment,” she murmured. “How do you bear it?”

“I’ve grown used to it,” I told her, smiling grimly, though I really didn’t want to. “You’d be surprised at the kind of agony you can bear when your only other choice is death.”

She shuddered, her luminous eyes full of tears that never fell. “It won’t always be this way. I see…I see many things.”

“Your alpha has promised to free my wolf,” I told her, “if I hunt the creature killing your pack.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, he can do that!” She reached out, excited for me, but quickly dropped her hands. “You must understand what will happen when you’re free. You’ll need the alpha to control your wolf, to teach you to control yourself, to help you through the first hours, days, and maybe even weeks. Kaitlyn, you understand that Jared will be your alpha? He will be there to take care of you, to subdue your wolf when she refuses to return to human form—and she will refuse.” She peered out of those haunting green eyes, and it was all I could do to stand my ground against them.

I recoiled, already fighting those words, then realized there was really nothing to fight. I needed an alpha. I needed a pack. I needed my shift. More than anything, I wanted my shift.

“I’ll do anything to get my freedom,” I said.

Lennon nodded. “You will belong to the alpha but…”

“But?” I was aware that I wasn’t really giving that fact the attention it deserved. I didn’t want to think too hard about Jared becoming my alpha, because I was afraid it would take away my joy.

“I have nothing more to say,” she told me, her voice slightly regretful. She no longer looked me in the eye, as though she was afraid I’d read something in hers that I had no business knowing.

“You have a lot more to say,” I murmured. “But that’s okay, Seer. I know you’ll tell me if you’ve seen something critical.”

Something had changed since she’d had her peek inside me, though. She was just as polite, just as interested and curious, but she was now just a little more…guarded.

If I had known her better, I might have brought up the subject of the demon and how my blood on his blade had expelled him from his body and trapped him in this world. She might have had some advice. But I couldn’t ask her that. Not yet.

“Where is the alpha?” she asked Eli, as though her encounter with me had made her wish for his support.

“He had to discipline a couple of stupid pups,” he told her, but he looked at me when he said it.

Her stare dropped to the new blood I’d picked up from my latest fight with the demon, as well as the red bruises decorating the tattoo on the back of my hand. Her body stiffened and her eyes narrowed. “Did they—”

“No,” I assured her. “I got messy from a battle on my way here.”

“Ah.” She, too, peered at me, understanding lighting her eyes. “I apologize for our wolves, Kaitlyn. The pack was warned, but they don’t always listen. At least the young ones who’ve yet to learn of their alpha’s wrath.” She smiled slightly. “Don’t worry about them. Whatever he does to them, they will learn their lesson, and they will heal with their manners firmly intact.”

I squinted at her. I didn’t ask how she knew I was just a tiny bit worried about what Eli might do to them. She was a seer who’d been inside my head. I felt ridiculous for my worry, but that told me one thing.

I was already thinking of this pack and these wolves as mine.

“You need to talk about the creature attacking the pack,” Eli told us both, “so I can get Lennon out of the woods.”

It didn’t hurt my feelings that he wasn’t concerned with my safety. People didn’t tend to see me as vulnerable. I nodded. “Tell me everything you know,” I said.

She shook her head and clenched her fists, frustrated. “That’s why I’m here in the woods. I’d hoped I would pick up something vital to tell you—but I feel and see…nothing, really. Nothing.”

I could understand her frustration. A seer always saw something. It had to be driving her crazy that the creature was so hidden from her.

“That’s not entirely true,” she said, then. “I feel darkness. Darkness and wind, that’s what I see. I don’t know what it is, where it came from, or why it is feeding on our wolves.” This time a tear escaped.

“I’m sorry for the loss of your wolves,” I murmured. “I’ll catch this asshole, Lennon.” I smiled inwardly, remembering fondly how it felt to want to please one’s seer.

She touched my arm, secure in the fact that there were layers of fabric between her skin and mine. “You will get what you want, Kaitlyn.” She hesitated, then continued, her voice soft but sure. “You will be Pack.”

I shivered, fighting my own suddenly rising tears. I was a lone wolf by force, not by choice or nature. For twelve years I had felt like a lonely dog chained in some asshole’s back yard, and I was finally about to be brought inside. My wolf shivered as well, eager, excited, hopeful.

“You are the person you are because of your exile,” she told me. “If you’d stayed in your pack, you would not be the same. The despair of your past was necessary for the hope of your future.”

Then she stiffened and for a brief moment, she was no longer there. And I felt it, too. The cold, dark wind, the fear, the heaviness.

“He’s here,” we said at the exact same time.

Eli didn’t hesitate. He slid his arm around her waist and rushed her away, and I was alone with the coming creature.