Julia held her breath, waiting for the wolf to spring across the small stream and attack. The wolf walked forward and turned into its human form, becoming slim as she stepped across the stream. She shifted, her body not twisting as Damien's had, but pouring itself into a different shape so fluidly that Julia did not know what was happening until she saw the shifter stand up in human form, her hair in white knotted braids hanging down to her toes. She was young, maybe ten years old. So young.
"You're ... "
"A wolf? A human? Both at once?" Her voice was even younger than her face, still androgynous.
Julia gulped.
"What is this place?"
"This is my home. You came to see me?" the child said.
"No, I'm here ... Julia's voice trailed off. It couldn't be, and yet it was. The girl in front of her tilted her head and winked. Her hand moved in the air across her face and Julia saw for a split second a wizened old face, wrinkled and spotted. Then the old woman's face disappeared, and the girl in front of her laughed.
"Don't worry, wolf child. You are in the right place here."
"What is ... here?" Julia motioned to the streams, where the moonlight twinkled through the water. "Is this all an illusion?"
"This place? Yes, an illusion. No more illusion than the rest of the world, though. Have you seen through it yet?"
"I—I—" Julia stammered, not knowing how to respond.
"What do you want from me?" The girl's quick words made Julia snap to attention.
What did she want? Julia opened her mouth but all of her carefully planned words failed her. Was this truly the werewitch that had hypnotized her as a child? Was she being hypnotized now?
"Ah, yes," the girl said. "The suppression I placed on you. You want the charm lifted?"
"Yes."
"I cannot do that," the girl said.
She bowed slightly and began to walk away.
Shocked still for only a moment, Julia tripped over her feet following.
"Wait. Wait!"
The girl shifter, the werewitch, turned to face Julia.
"You did this to me," Julia said.
"Suppressed your shifter form? Yes."
"Then undo it."
"It is not that simple," the girl said, frowning.
"I don't care how hard it is. I need to be able to shift again."
"Need? Tell me of your need," the girl hissed, waving one arm in a sweeping circle that enveloped the entire forest. "Wolves are dying all around here and you speak of needs."
Julia knelt in front of her.
"Please," she said. "Please." She began to cry. "I want to be able to have a child with Damien. I want to be able to understand him the way he understands me. I want to be able to shift."
The child lifted a hand and placed it on Julia's forehead. Julia felt a shock that seemed to knock her backwards, but her body was perfectly still. The shock ran through her mind and everything went white for a second, blindingly white.
Then the scent of wolves in her nose, the cold forest floor under her feet. Icy, even. The cold air bit her nose. Wolves tumbled across her vision, young pups. She ran and jumped and was there, among them, a wolf herself, tumbling and playing and—
Julia opened her eyes, gasping for air.
"Yes," the child said. "You can shift. You always could."
"I can't," Julia said, breathing air that was not the same as the air she'd known as a wolf. The scents! "I can't."
"Then you haven't wanted it badly enough," the werewitch said.
"That's not ... that's not true ... " Julia said. A sob escaped her chest.
The child leaned forward and kissed Julia on the forehead. Julia looked up at her, and she smiled beatifically.
"There is food by the streams," the child said, motioning. Julia turned her head and saw a piece of slate with something on it that was steaming hot. "Eat what you can. Drink. There is a den nearby where they have taken your friend."
"My friend?"
"The other girl of your pack. Mara, I think they called her as they went past?"
"What about my grandmother?" Julia asked. "What about Dee?"
The child shook her head.
"There was only one."
"Only one," Julia repeated. The words rang hollowly through her body. But maybe they'd just taken her to another place. Maybe they'd split up—
"Where is the den?" Julia asked.
The child lifted her hand to point toward the trees. The firs seemed to draw back their branches, and Julia could see across the valley to where a thin curl of smoke lifted from a place between the boulders. It was not too far away—an hour's walk, perhaps. Julia had already come so far, but now she felt hopeless. Perhaps it would be better to go home first, and ask Damien what to do. Yes, and then the pack would come, and help find Dee, and help free Mara. What could Julia do, all by herself? And Dee—oh, Dee!
"How do I—" Julia meant to ask for the way home, but when she turned back the werewitch was gone, disappeared into thin air. Only a thin mist hung in the air where she had gone, and that too soon evaporated into the wind.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Damien
"Jordan, you'll take the others tomorrow morning," Damien said. "All of them."
"Dee? I don't know if she'll be able to keep up."
"It's her granddaughter. She'll be able to keep up. She's agile enough to dodge the fight, if it comes to that."
"Are we tracking Mara or Julia?" Jordan asked.
Damien knew what his friend was asking.
"Track Julia as far as you can," he said. "Dee said she lost the trail, though." The prospect of finding Julia if Dee couldn't ... well, it looked grim.
"And if the tracks split?" Jordan asked.
"Send Katherine and Kyle to track Mara as far as they can. If they find her and there are too many to fight against, they can double back and rejoin the group."
"What if the shifters are purebred?" Jordan sounded worried. Neither Kyle or Katherine would be able to sense the presence of purebred shifters in human form.
"Dee said they weren't."
"But there could be others."
"That's a chance we'll have to take." Damien could see no other way around it.
"I'll start packing," Jordan said. "We have eight hours or so before we can leave. I'll tell the others to try and get as much rest as possible."
"First, though, you have to splint my leg."
"You don't mean—"
"If I start now, I may be able to reach Trax's territory at the same time as you."
"Your leg has barely healed, Damien."
"That's why I need a head start."
"You'll be limping all the way there. You'd be useless in a fight. Damien, I understand that you're worried. But this ... "
"She's my mate, Jordan. You'd do the same for me."
Jordan was silent for a moment.
"Alright," he said finally. "Be careful. Don't go too far into the territory without us."
"Are you kidding?" Damien said, a false note of joviality in his voice. "I plan to rescue both of them before you guys even arrive."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Julia
She would find Mara soon. In her heart, she knew what she had to do. The witch had shown her the path, and all she had to do was follow it.
The sky darkened to a deep gray. There was no more sky above Julia's head and as she moved step by step through the forest, the rain started. She was cold but the chill did not reach her core. Or perhaps she was too numb to know her own sensations. The rain misted through the pine needles, and the water that clung to the firs gathered weight and fell in fat drops down, down to the already damp forest floor.
Julia lifted her head and let the water wash over her. She took off her jacket. The fabric had soaked through, and the weight of it was unbearably heavy. She walked forward as if her feet were guided by some unknown force, a current that flowed directly to the den where Mara was being kept. It wasn't long before she'd reached the den where Mara was being held. As she drew closer, she could see Mara just outside the entrance of the den. Her arms were tied above her head with chains that were staked to the side of the boulders. There was an iron collar around her neck. Her head hung forward. Julia did not know if she were alive or dead. The rain dripped down and Julia moved forward.
There were two wolves in wait outside of the den. One with a black coat, one gray. That meant two more of them inside, perhaps more. The fire near the den had been extinguished by the rain, and only a thin line of smoke rose from the ashes.
They'd smelled her from far away, and now as she slipped down the path of pine needles, they stood and watched her. Their eyes did not look surprised, nor afraid. They seemed curious that Julia would come back at all, that she'd found her way to the den.
Julia walked toward them, her hand resting casually on the sheath that housed the wolfbone blade. Her fingers sought out the handle, closing around it as she approached.
One of the wolves strode forward and growled. The bass rumble of its voice made Julia's fingers tighten around the handle of the knife. Would it leap?
No. The shifter transformed instead, right in front of her, his bones sliding gravelly under the skin, the fur disappearing as though the rain were washing it off. He stood twenty feet from Julia, shoulders square, nak*d and strong, every muscle slick with rain. Strands of long hair fell over his eyes, and drops of water splashed from them onto the wet ground.
"I knew there was a human in the area," he said. "I smelled you last night."
"Where is Dee?" Julia expected her voice to come out trembling, but instead she spoke loudly, confidently. There was something else driving her.
The other wolf came forward and stood just next to the shifter who had already transformed. The wolf's jaws hung open, its teeth showing. His fur bristled, sending waterdrops flying.
"Are they your friends?" The shifter cocked his head. "You should not have come looking for them."
"They are my friends," Julia said. "I had to."
"What a waste," the shifter said, and his voice was a growl that sent shivers across Julia's nerves.
"A waste?" Julia thought of Dee. Had she already been killed? Had Mara? No. Mara's chest rose and fell shallowly, although she did not pick up her head to look at Julia. Perhaps she had been drugged.
"A waste of human flesh. We already ate today, but now we'll have to kill you. He wanted to find you and kill you yesterday," he said, nodding down to the wolf beside him. "I convinced him it wasn't worth our time. And now, look. A waste." A thunderclap overhead punctuated the word, and the rain fell harder.
"Why?" Julia's mouth was dry. "Just let them go, and we'll leave in peace."
A flash of lightning illuminated the shifter's smile as it disappeared from his face. The air was growing even darker, the clouds above their heads black and full with rain.
"Peace? Your friend is a traitor."
"Mara?" Julia saw less and less as the darkness grew close around them. It worried her.
"She betrayed Trax. She betrayed the pack. She will suffer for it. Leave in peace? She will never be allowed to leave again. And you ... "