Kingdom of Wolves - Page 61

I mind link with Poppa Lykos. ‘Poppa, can we go fishing anduse the gear?’

‘Yeah, your bestie is here asking, too.’

Walking over to the shed where Poppa Lykos keeps the fishingpoles, I grab two and make sure the line is okay. We can dig for worms as thehooks are on the line anyway, and I don’t want to hang around when we can goenjoy the peace of the river.

Brod runs out of the farmhouse and slams his hands on hiships when he sees me with the poles. “Aw, bestie…”

Giggling, I hold his pole out to him, but look up when PoppaLykos walks out of the kitchen. “You two behave. No messing around in or aroundthe river. If you get into trouble because you were acting careless, you’ll notbe going alone again.”

We both give enthusiastic nods before turning and walkingtoward the forest and the river. The birds are singing and we see wildlife aswe walk; we ignore them and they ignore us, which is how it should be unless weare hunting.

Reaching the river, we set the poles down and dig around alittle with the hand trowel that Brod had picked up as we passed the vegetableplot. Finding a couple of worms, we bait the hooks and throw the line into theriver, taking a seat and waiting quietly.

“Did you hear anything more about your parents dying?”

“No, not yet. Flint is doing all he can, but I’m not surewe’ll ever find out now.” Looking over at Brod, I see he’s deep in thought. “Whatare you thinking?”

“Well, if it was a murder, someone has to know something.It’s not something easy to hide because the link to the pack would break theinstant the Alpha died. Then the new link would form when the next pack leader,Alpha takes over.”

“I’m not thinking about it too much because they’ve beengone a long time, and even if we find out, we can’t bring them back.”

“YES,” Brod shouts, taking me by surprise, but jumping tohis feet, he pulls in a large fish and points at me. “One for me, none foryou.”

“You just got yourself a challenge.” Giggling as I grab thetrowel and dig for a new worm.

The afternoon passes with us catching three fish each. Weboth laugh and enjoy the time we spend together. Maybe Brod is two yearsyounger than I am, but we get on so well, and he feels like a brother.

Walking back through the forest, I turn to smile at Brod ashe’s admiring his catch. “Your momma is going to love those fish. You’ll have agreat meal tonight.”

“Yeah, I love fish, but don’t go fishing as much as I’dlike. When I get my wolf, we can fish in wolf form. That’ll be even more fun.”

Yes, I’d like that. I hear Ebony say.

Laughing, I look at Brod. “Ebony says she’d like that.”

“I think Ebony is beautiful, and I hope my wolf is handsomeand big. You know enormous, so he can fight and protect.”

“I’m sure he will be Brod. You know, if I ever had abrother, I would have liked him to be you.” Brod drops his pole and fish andgrabs me, hugging me hard. He’s grown massively since I first met him and he’s muchtaller than my 5’ 2”.

Before we can do or say anything, a straggly, dirty, andwild-looking wolf steps out of the trees. I push Brod behind me and quietlytell him to run when I tell him.

The wolf slowly stalks forward. He’s a feral rogue and musthave come out of no-man’s-land because I’ve not seen him around town. Leapingforward and springing into the air, I shout, ‘RUN’ as I shift into Ebony, whododges the rogue and spins at the ready.

I hear Brod’s feet pounding away and thankfully we are notfar from the farm. Stepping back into my mind, I allow Ebony to take over.

Rolling over twice, Ebony is quickly on her feet and jumpsonto the rogue’s back, scraping her claws down his back and biting the back ofhis neck.

The rogue flips over and Ebony loses her grip on him as hetakes the wind out of her by the sheer weight of him landing on top. She isn’tfinished by any means and claws all four feet down his underbelly, causing himto scream and jump away, creating distance so he can recover.

Stalking around and watching each other closely, neither ofus noticed the approach of two wolves, and when Troy and Dusk join the attack,we quickly have the rogue turning and running, with Troy in pursuit. Dusk turnsand looks at Ebony, checking she is okay before licking Ebony’s muzzle andrubbing her head across her neck.

Ebony allows me to shift, and I grab hold of Momma Akela assoon as she shifts into herself. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m okay. The rogue didn’t expect me to be able tofight. Did Brod get to the farm safely?”

“Oh, he arrived shouting and screeching, and that’s what hadus coming as fast as we could.” Momma Akela hugs me again. “I nearly had aheart attack thinking you were going to be badly hurt or killed.”

We both look up when Troy trots out of the trees beforeshifting to Poppa Lykos. “Are you both alright?”