bit, Alex using his influence to stop a few people and ask if they’d seen anything unusual. Night fell as we looked, the sky dimming to a rich, deep blue and stars appearing one by one.
“Nothing,” Alex said after a while. Most of the people retired to their cozy cottages, fires burning through the window panes as families ate dinner or chatted about their day.
“Nothing,” I echoed.
Alex slumped against the side of the building. “Now what?”
I leaned next to him, staring down an alleyway. Something niggled at a part of my brain, but I didn’t know what it was or where it came from. “I don’t know. Go back to the barn and wait for Wolf to snap out of it I guess.”
“I don’t see how you can have a demonic magic creature run through here and no one notices. Is he sure she’s here?”
“He hasn’t led me wrong yet.” I started back in the direction of the barn.
“I think I’m going to stick around a bit.”
I looked over my shoulder. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I think I’ll try knocking on doors to get a look inside. Sometimes when weird shit goes down small towns don’t like to discuss it.” He eyed me. “Are you going to be all right with him alone?”
“I’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Alex let out a long sigh as if debating whether or not to come with me. Finally he said, “Okay. Just be careful.”
I smiled reassuringly.
Chapter 11
Night quickly grew darker, and for a while I worried I wouldn’t be able to find my way back. But the nearly-full moon and stars gave off enough light in the open field to see the dark hulking shape of the barn in the distance. I opened the door tentatively.
“Wolf?”
Huffing and panting came from the far end. I tiptoed in. Wolf paced between bales of hay, his face damp with sweat, nibbling on the end of one thumb.
“Wolf?”
His head snapped up in my direction, his eyes flashing gold, red, and then settling back to normal again.
“Oh, Caroline, it’s you.” He stretched in a way that made it look like he was uncomfortable in his own skin. He shook his collared right foot in irritation. A familiar tingle caught my attention, and this time I knew what it was. Magic. The collar around his foot was magical in some way. Maybe that was why it irritated him all the time. Did he know?
“So, did you find the little lambkin?”
I eyed him. “No, not yet. She’s still here, right?”
“Oh she is, she is. In her little bluebell dress, prancing and parading just like all the little lambs in the field, tender and soft and warm and mouth-watering.” He growled faintly.
“I think you need to lie down.”
Gold flickered in his eyes. “Do I now? Why? Because you say so? Caroline, the great studier of wolves. You know everything about us, don’t you? Should I obey?” He advanced toward me, taking a step with each thing he said. “What if I don’t? What will you do? Are you going to act like every other human out there? Yell for help? Get them to come running just like they always do?”
“Wolf,” I said, managing to keep my voice stern.
“I am not a dog, Caroline. I don’t obey commands like a mutt hoping for table scraps. I’m a wolf. I do what I please.”
A sensible person would have backed up, left him alone. But I studied wolves for a living, and I wasn’t going to roll over and show my belly on this one. If I was his mate, then I was an alpha too, damn it, and I wasn’t going to let him push me around.
“Not tonight you’re not.” I pointed at him. “You’re going to stay right here in this barn.”
Suddenly my back was against one of the horse stables, Wolf’s hands slamming into the wood on either side of me.
“Would you like to know what I did, sweet Caroline? Hmm?” His eyes flickered gold-red for a moment and he bared his teeth. I wasn’t even sure he’d heard me. “Would you like to know what got me impounded? Several months ago I went out into the farmlands. I killed two sheep and I ate them. Oh yes, I ate them.” He snapped his teeth together. “They were tasty and bloody and delicious and raw. But I was hungry, oh yes, very hungry. I hadn’t eaten in months you see. It’s hard to catch deer by yourself and sheep are stupid and hemmed in and