Page 63 of Before the Bond
Stella filled in when she could. Jake offered, but it was too soon for him.
I moved toward the scent cautiously, checking for anything else — human or wolf. I pressed two fingers into the soft ground beside a patch of weeds.
Elias Voss.
I gritted my teeth.Why him?
I quickened my pace. I picked up the next mark seconds later. It was thirty — no, forty yards from the current spot.
This one was carved into a cedar. Shoulder height. This wasn’t a wolf cutting through territory on the way somewhere else. He was watching.
The edges of my jaw tensed.
A third scent carried in the wind. This time, it was at the corner of the property. My legs weakened.
I thought about the angle from this point to the estate windows, which windows were lit at which hours. Thought about the east-facing ones: the kitchen, the sunroom, the room at the end of the hall where Olivia read in the mornings with her coffee going cold…
I knew what he was mapping.
The wolf inside me stirred. Angry. My hands trembled and clenched.
I finished the perimeter run without hurrying. It was one of the few things that came easily to me. I knew how to move without showing it. Jake called it scary. Donovan called it useful. My father called it discipline.
I already had my suspicions that the Voss pack knew about Olivia.
It would be wolf suicide to attack on another pack’s territory. Not only was going against another group ill-advised, but word would spread around to other packs. They would be condemning themselves to certain extinction.
There was only one explanation.
A stone formed in my throat.
For once, I knew exactly what I needed to do. And I refused to do it.
I was back at the estate before midnight.
I alerted the pack as soon as I arrived.
Donovan came down first, already dressed. Jake followed after, half-asleep and trying not to show it. I noticed him wince as he sat down. Still hurting from the shift. I almost made a note to ask Olivia. Tomorrow.
Stella came in a few minutes later. Even though she lived further down, it was easy for her to travel back and forth in wolf form.
When she entered through the door, Donovan looked at me, as if demanding an explanation.
Stella looked at him directly. “Don’t worry,” she said dryly. “I’m here for business.”
The four of us gathered in the study. We kept the lights low. If the Voss were watching, they didn’t need to know we were together.
I reported what I'd found on my patrol. I remarked specifically that it was Elias Voss who was prowling around, not Maykhel or one of the other units of their pack. I told them about the three marks — the placement, the angles, what each one told me about how long he’d been doing it.
“They’re spying even closer now,” I said. “And specifically on Olivia.”
“You said his smell was along Olivia’s running track?” Stella asked.
“Yes.”
“He’s watching her.” Even though her voice was low, I could hear the anger creeping into it.
Jake asked the most important question. “What do we do?”
