Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
‘Break away?’ Ripper all but snarled.
‘Walk, or get over your reservations about mating – one or the other. To not claim her wouldn’t spare her pain if she lost you, it would just mean you weren’t mated.’
Ripper ground his teeth, his thoughts—
‘Fuck.’ The barked curse made them both tense. It had come from Crew. A birdcall came next – a Get over here message from the werewolf in question.
Ripper and Logan tracked the sound, finding Crew staring at a tree. Their other clan members materialized, coming from various directions.
‘What is it?’ asked Ripper.
He pointed at the tree. ‘That.’
Ripper did a double-take. A pile of skulls and other bones – most covered in stringy flesh and blood – rested against the large tree.
‘Jesus,’ Kerr breathed.
‘What could have done that?’ asked Crew. ‘I mean, I can smell Rabid piss – you can’t mistake it for anything else; it’s too distinctive. But they don’t collect the remains of their kills and stack them like this.’
Ripper glanced around, noticing there were deep grooves in the nearby trees. But some claw marks were smaller than others, as if not all were made by the same creature.
‘They do now,’ said Logan. ‘Because there’s nothing else out here that would. You ask me, it’s a Stay away from my territory message.’
Crew frowned. ‘Rabid mark their slice of territory, but they don’t use scare tactics to keep other packs away. Why would one suddenly do this?’
‘Maybe because this has somehow become a public area,’ said Ripper. ‘Generally, the leader of the pack will do the marking, but there’s more than one urine marker here. I can smell several. And not all the rake marks were done by the same Rabid. More than one pack has come here, and it’s like they keep coming; feel compelled to claim it.’
Logan scratched his nape. ‘Why, though? Sure, there’s plenty of wildlife to hunt in these parts. But no Rabid needs to settle in this particular spot. What could be drawing them here?’
‘Maybe they have something to do with it,’ said Crew.
Following the path of his friend’s gaze, Ripper noticed that two small symbols had been carved into the same tree against which the bones were piled.
‘What the hell are they?’ asked Logan.
Ripper squatted down to look at the symbols, feeling his face tighten. ‘I don’t know. But I know someone who will.’
Laying out the small pair of torn jeans on the hub’s counter, Emberlyn hummed as she took in the entire row of ripped clothes. ‘Let me guess,’ she said to the female werewolf in front of her. ‘He still keeps shifting before he’s finished undressing.’ ‘He’ being the nine-year-old boy at his mother’s side, who blushed furiously.
The she-wolf gave a sharp nod. ‘He and his friends are always racing and seeing who can strip and shift first. But more often than not, they’re so determined to win that they don’t fully strip first. Which is cheating,’ she told her son.
Refusing to meet his mother’s gaze, he stared right at the counter.
It was not at all unusual for Emberlyn’s customers to be parents who were aggravated by their child’s habit of tearing their clothes during shifts. But this poor she-wolf was here more than most. ‘I can use magick to make his clothing more resistant to tearing, but . . .’
‘It won’t make him learn not to cheat, which is why I’m not paying for such a service. In fact, I won’t be dishing out any cash at all. From now on, he’s going to use his allowance to pay for repairs.’
He gawked. ‘What?’
‘Is it so outrageous that you’d pay the literal price for your deliberate carelessness?’ his mother questioned.
His shoulders slumping, the boy sighed at the wall, his face all scrunched up. ‘Ah, man.’
Hiding a smile, Emberlyn swiped a tag and nabbed a pen. ‘I can have them ready by tomorrow.’ She scribbled the relevant details onto the tag.
‘Thanks, I’ll see you then.’
‘See you, then. Bye,’ Emberlyn said to the little boy.
‘Bye.’ It was the mumble of a long-suffering martyr.
As mother and son then left, Emberlyn attached the tag to the pair of jeans.
Footfalls preceded the sound of Paisley yawning loudly. Sidling up to Emberlyn with a mug of coffee in hand, she peered down at the newly dropped-off laundry. ‘Another repair job?’
‘Yup. Kid still keeps damaging his gear during his shifts. It’s a werewolf-child thing, I know, but it has to be irritating. You’ll learn that for yourself eventually, since you have this to look forward to.’
Paisley tensed, a pinch of panic in her eyes. ‘What?’
‘Easy, I’m not saying that you and Crew are destined to shack up and breed.’ They were an item, and they were still going strong. But life provided no guarantees. ‘I’m just saying that any children you bear will go through this stage.’
Paisley pulled a face. ‘I don’t think I’d make a good parent.’