have noticed Cassius take advantage of the chaos to knock into Constantine. I wouldn’t have seen tiny Theo picking up the folded piece of paper in his teeth because anything that falls to the floor belongs to the pups.
I would, however, have noticed Cassius pinioning Theo’s little tail with his big fucking foot. No way I would have missed that because Theo yelps loudly and tries to skitter away. Leaping over the table, I grab Cassius and throw him bodily toward Elijah, my shredded skin screaming at me to stop until Elijah takes hold of Cassius by the collar and drags him away, the Shifter’s feet churning desperately against the floor, trying to keep upright so he won’t choke on the fabric tight around his trachea.
Constantine sits on the floor holding the whimpering Theo, but the piece of paper that had been in Theo’s spitty mouth is gone.
You see, my furious heart says. You let yourself be deluded. There is no one to hold your hand while you hold the Great North together. This is on you alone.
I am so tired and my body hurts and I don’t know how to save the forever wolves and I have let Shifters into Homelands and one of them was dangerous enough to make me lose track of who I am.
The Alpha of the Great North Pack.
I drop to my knees, pulling the tiny pup from the Shifter’s hands. A sweet cheese dumpling bounces onto the floor and Theo jumps away, his little tail high and straight as a flag.
Then I turn back to the Shifter, my jaw trembling as—
He holds out the tightly folded piece of paper.
“Alpha?” he says as the wave of my anger recedes, leaving my heart flopping on the shore, panting and breathless.
My left hand stinks of Cassius. My right hand is still holding that now-crumbled oatcake slathered with butter and last summer’s mulberries.
“Should I read it?” he asks and I nod, licking at the butter and mulberries while he unfolds it carefully because it’s been stapled together by pup teeth.
“It’s for Julia.” He points to the name on the outside. “He tells her to get away from…Logan?…and meet him in the basement the day after tomorrow. At breakfast.”
He holds it out to me and I almost laugh with relief. It’s a mash note. Constantine was only a messenger boy. “Lorcan,” I finally say. “It’s Lorcan. Cassius thinks the 12th’s Alpha wants Julia, though if he took a single whiff of him, he’d know it wasn’t true.”
He stares at the little piece of paper.
“That man, the one who’s always sniffing around you…” he starts.
The door opens and closes on Rieka, naked and gnawing on a hoof. She scans the room, looking for me. She’ll find me soon enough, but I haven’t finished looking over the USDA prelicense application package (Class C), so I really have nothing to say to her. I crouch down lower, hiding behind the backs around me. She’ll find me soon enough.
“You mean Poul?”
“Yes.”
Constantine folds the page carefully, lining up the holes made by Theo’s sharp teeth.
“Does he find what he’s looking for?”
“Alpha?” says Rieka, standing at the end of the row made by benches and wolf backs.
Letting out a pained breath, I push myself up again.
“No,” I say quietly.
Chapter 20
Constantine
There is a bit of dark jam and butter on her lower lip, but she sucks it clean, then darts her tongue out to check her mouth for stains of summer fruit.
Oh god, I am not okay.
She starts down the hall because of course someone needs something done. She’s got these jeans, they must be old favorites, worn and soft with holes at the left thigh just big enough for a flicker of brown skin as she walks away.
She stops to listen to someone in the library.
Turn around.
At the threshold of her office, a wolf stretches up his head and she leans over to mark him.
Look at me.
She responds with a terse wave of her hand to someone in the kitchen.
See me.
She disappears into her office.
Evie.
The door closes.
When a wet nose touches my ear, a broken breath hisses from my throat. Magnus brushes his chin on my shoulder. Everything about him looks so much stronger now. The small, sunken wolf with the dusty lackluster fur and rheumy eyes is now large and strong with fur that is light gray on top and dark gray underneath. His eyes are the same, though: true blue, the color of cloud.
Magnus was ripped up by the transition to wolf, so