‘You should leave with Luciana. This could turn into an ambush.’

I paid no heed to Malcolm, who sent me the warning through our pack link as my eyes remained glued to Luciana, who was staring at me blankly. Her face had been drained of color, a clear indication that she was in some form of shock. The corners of her mouth were slowly but surely turning downwards.

I looked at the two deltas seated in the backseat of the car through the rearview mirror and I closed my eyes for a moment, debating which of the two would be a more reckless driver. Instinct let me throw the car keys back at the younger of the two, making me send a silent prayer to the moon goddess that I had made the right call.

“I want her safely back at the pack. You’re not to stop for anything. Am I clear?”

I didn’t bother waiting for a response, knowing that my instructions had been perfectly clear. My attention had returned to Luciana, and I found myself taking her face into my hand once more, my mind trying to form something coherent to say.

“Stay safe, alright?”

What was meant to be an instruction, came out as a question, my voice sounding unsure. Afraid of seeing her reaction, I turned away from her, getting out of the car in the process. My eyes focused on Malcolm, who was following my lead, as well as the rest of the pack. They understood the situation without it even being explained to them.

I moved aside, making space for the young delta to get into the car, my eyes scanning our surroundings, desperately trying to find something—anything. I needed to find out who had attacked us and what their intentions were.

I sent a prayer of thanks to the goddess when the car pulled away with what would have been alarming ferocity in a normal situation, the tired spinning and pushing up dirt before it actually started moving. She had guided me to make the right decision.

I turned to the side of the forest where the attack had came from, and I took a deep breath, collecting my thoughts, expecting our attacker to jump out and make his presence known.

“Alpha? Do you want us to attack?”

Malcolm came to a standstill beside me, and despite not looking at him, I knew him well enough to know that he was frowning.

“Attack what?”

I found the question to be a valid one. He couldn’t expect us to attack something that we didn’t even have a scent of, let alone our sights on. I decided to instruct the pack through our pack link, not wanting to risk our attackers hearing what the plan of retaliation was.

‘Delta’s, shift and separate yourselves into two groups. Then separate into the two different sides of the forest. Search for a scent, a sign, a sound. Anything that doesn’t belong there. Call for backup if you feel like you’ve lost the target after finding it.’

The pack reacted instantaneously, the silence that had settled around us quickly being filled with the sound of clothing that was ripping and shredding as they shifted. I started walking into the forest, Malcolms footsteps becoming synced with my own.

‘Do you think you might have been the target?’

It didn’t immediately register within my subconscious that it had been Malcolm who had spoken to me. I stayed silent for another moment, walking in time with the pack around us.

‘I don’t think so. The arrow had been fired at Luciana. It was too far off course for it to have been aimed at me, especially since it was only a few centimeters off course from her face. If she was sitting normally, she would have been dead.’

It came as no surprise when Malcolm remained silent after that, my words sufficing as an answer. I turned to him and found that his eyes were scanning the forest with careful eyes, trying to see something that was out of place. A glint in the light. A broken branch. Something.

That was the thing. Malcolm was focused on looking for a sign that led to the attackers, the wolves were trying to pick up on a scent, leaving it to me to listen for a sound that was out of place.

The sounds that assaulted my senses first were the normal ones that one could expect to find in the forest. A cricket cricketing loudly, the sound ringing in my ears.

I clenched my jaw, focusing on something else. The loud crunch of twigs beneath the paws of my wolf was the second thing I registered. I could tell that they weren’t being deliberate. A bird chirped as it fed its young. A metallic clank echoed through my ears and as my eyes snapped in the direction it had come from, the wolves started growling.

They must have picked up on something too, for they hesitated for a second before taking off after one another in the direction that I had heard the sound come from.

‘Why does it feel like all of this is too easy?’

I turned to Malcolm, seeing the focused expression on his face, our footsteps speeding up as we started walking in the direction that our pack had gone. I could practically see the gears turning in his head.

‘Why would one single individual attack a pack? And why miss a your target by mere centimeters? It just sounds too good to be true.’

My feet seemed to stick to the ground and I turned to Malcolm, my own mind drawing conclusions in response to his questions. My heart started to beat against my rib cage, the intensity of it almost painful enough to make me reach up and try and soothe it.

‘They wanted to separate us.’

Malcolm turned to me, the frown on his face becoming even deeper than it had been.

‘But why?’

The answer to that question hit me like a bucket of cold water, numbing me to the core.

‘Luciana.’