where the horses traveled from,” Royce said. He walked toward his own horse and climbed on. “While the scent may still be fresh, we have to try. Robert, take to your wolf form, we will follow your nose.”
We all watched as Robert undressed and began his transformation. It looked painful, but I was also mesmerized by the beauty of watching a man turn into a wolf. I was jealous that I couldn’t do it yet. To have such an ability, any amount of pain was worth it. Once he was gloriously in his full wolf form, he shook his gray fur out, getting accustomed to his new muscles. He took a sniff of the horses, then trotted in the direction he’d come from with them, which was the direction I had traveled when searching for the herbs.
“Mount up!” Royce ordered, and the other two wolves climbed on their horses. “Deacon, gather Robert’s clothes and bring them. You will join us on this hunt, so you may learn the power of a wolf’s nose.”
“Yes, Sir,” I said, then ran over to gather Robert’s clothes, balling them up and cradling them in my arms. I walked over to my horse, placed the clothes on the saddle, then climbed on.
Royce whistled and Robert took off into the forest and we joined, following him as he sniffed his way through the grass, tracing the horses’ hoof prints all the way back to an inn on the edge of town right before you get to the rural area. Robert stayed in his wolf form as the others and myself dismounted. Royce petted his head as he walked past him into the inn and I followed my Beta Capo as he traced Marcel’s scent to the room where the hunter had stayed.
“Can I help you, Sir?” asked a female’s voice from behind me.
Royce looked at the female innkeeper and stepped up to her. “Who stayed in this room?”
The female, who looked like she had seen better days, shook her head. Her gray hair was unkempt and tied in a bun in the back. Her clothes were also of low quality, the dress fraying at the hem. “I don’t know.”
“Can you find out? Did he sign his name in?” Royce asked. “I will pay you for the information.” He said, then reached into his purse, pulling out several shiny coins.
The woman’s eyes grew wide as she stared at the proffered coins, then nodded. “I will get the key.” She walked away and we waited.
“Humans are always motivated by financial gain, remember that,” Royce said. “They will sell their own blood for the proper amount of coin. They call us monsters, but it has been them, who throughout history, have done the most monstrous things to each other. Wolves who long to be human are weak, despicable, and deserve to die. I admire that you only wish to be made whole. To be wolf.”
“It is all I want,” I said.
Again, something I said made the Beta Capo laugh.
“What?” I asked.
“Certainly, it is not ‘all’ you want. No, no, Deacon. Something tells me you have great aspirations.”
Well, that was something I couldn’t argue with or deny. But at this point, becoming a wolf was all I wanted… well that, and revenge for my parents.
The female innkeeper returned with a name and the key to the room. “Marcel Du Bois.” Royce paid her and she left us to search the room for anything we could find. We found more weapons made from silver, arrows, a few swords, and daggers. We also found a satchel filled with wolfsbane, and Royce picked it up.
“See if you can smell it,” he said, positioning the satchel beneath my nose.
I looked at the flower with its multicolored petals and took a good whiff. I could only smell a little floral scent. “Barely, Sir. Like a musk.”
“That is your human senses picking that up. It is also dangerous to humans, but more so for wolves. In fact, the only Monkshood that is beneficial to us is the pink, and that’s only to counteract the poison the other monkshood has caused. If we take the pink by itself, it becomes a poison with no counter poison to heal us.” He closed the satchel and tied it up before slinging it over his shoulder. “Gather all the weapons,” he told the other wolves, who had joined us in searching the room. Once we’d taken what we wanted, we left and returned to Royce’s home.
“You will stay with me