Lost Girl (Wolf Girl Series Book 2) Read online

  Walsh scowled at her. “I do. Because sewing kits are useful in emergencies.”

  Sage grinned, looking way too beautiful for this hour. “The next time I have an emergency button that needs mending, I’ll run right over.” She reached out and grabbed her mug from him and took a sip.

  He chuckled. “You haven’t gone through senior year survival training yet. You’ll see. That shit will break you.”

  Sage looked slightly terrified, but brushed it off.

  “Senior year survival training?” I asked.

  Walsh flicked his gaze to me. “When you become Sawyer’s wife, they’ll make you take it too. Throw you into the woods with a backpack and make you live off the land and find your way home.”

  “Okay…” I looked at Sage, worried for her, and now for myself, although that was quite similar to what I was doing now. It was not lost on me how casually everyone assumed I was going to become Sawyer’s wife. I mean… he had to ask me and I had to say yes. Which I totally obviously would after some hardcore groveling for wearing that stupid necklace and picking Meredith.

  Walsh shrugged. “Clearly it’s come in handy, so we have to prepare for anything.”

  “The Paladins do it too, I heard,” Sage piped in, and my entire body froze.

  “Do what?” My breath was barely a whisper.

  “Their alphas go off into the woods on a survival trip or something. I heard my dad talk about it once,” she said.

  This was what my mom must have been talking about when Run disappeared when he was seventeen and she didn’t see him for four years. It couldn’t have been a four-year survival trip… right?

  Walsh stood, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “I’m gonna take a two-second shower. Be ready to start walking when I get out. I want to cover the entire territory today if we can. I’m going to try to get us some horses.”

  Then he disappeared into the bathroom and I spun on Sage.

  “Tell me everything,” I whispered.

  She grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I smacked her arm. “Come on. I’ve been shot and nearly eaten by a dark fey, you owe me something happy. I saw you two kissing.” I raised one eyebrow.

  She peered over her coffee cup at the closed shower door and gave me a smirk. “It’s been a tense couple days trying to find you. We spent one night cutting across the Wild Lands and it was so freezing we had to share a sleeping bag to keep warm.”

  I pumped my fist in the air. “Yes.”

  She burst into peals of laughter. “The chemistry is there, but I feel like when we get back to Wolf City he’ll go back to being my cousin’s lead guard and my fellow coworker and we won’t be anything romantic.”

  I frowned. “Is it against the rules or something? To date someone on your own security team.”

  She shook her head. “It’s against his rules.”

  Just then the door handle turned and we both quieted.

  Walsh stepped out of the bathroom with slicked-back wet hair. Damn, he wasn’t kidding about the two-second shower. He turned and looked at me. “Demi, I’d like you to travel today with your wolf out. I think it’s safer for many reasons.”

  Many reasons…

  “Okay.” At the mere thought, my wolf surged to the surface and climbed out of my skin, solidifying beside me.

  “That will never not be cool… and weird,” Sage commented, and I just smiled, reaching out to pet my wolf behind the ears.

  “How’s your shoulder?” Walsh knelt beside me and I turned to give him my back.

  “It actually feels a ton better.” It wasn’t a hundred percent, but didn’t feel like it did last night.

  He poked it a few times and there was a deep throb like you’d have with a bad bruise, but nothing sharp and horrible. “Looks good. No infection, and it’s closing up. Those stitches will dissolve on their own.”

  Sage slipped on her walking boots and started to tighten the straps on her pack. “One of the deer furs has blood on it so we had to burn it, but I found this.” Sage handed me a long black cloak.

  I took it, nodding my thanks. “I’ll just freshen up and be right out.”

  After going pee and brushing my teeth with a toothbrush Sawyer had packed for me, I draped the long black cloak over my shoulders and slipped into my new Converse shoes.

  ‘These shoes are too clean. I feel bad wearing them,’ I told Sawyer.

  I felt him stir through our bond, but he didn’t respond. He was probably still sleeping.

  I stepped out of the bathroom and Walsh helped secure my pack in a way that didn’t press on my healing shoulder. He’d slung one strap over my good shoulder and then tied the rest around my waist.

  “You still have that fey blade from last night?” he asked. “I saw you keep it.”

  I nodded and tapped my pack.

  “Good. It might come in handy,” was all he said. With that, we doused our fire and bid our little cabin goodbye. Walsh handed us each rations for breakfast that were dismal compared to how hungry I was, but I didn’t want to complain, so I thanked him and ate the peanut butter crackers.

  “Why don’t we just cut back through the Wild Lands?” I asked. If they’d done it before, maybe it wasn’t as dangerous as I thought.

  Walsh and Sage both shared a look before he shook his head. “Let’s just say our time there was not as quiet as we hoped, and we definitely alerted them to our presence. They will have the borders locked down and heavily guarded.”

  Damn.

  “Can we get a car?” I hadn’t walked this much in my life. I just wanted to be back with my mom and Raven and Sawyer.

  Walsh nodded. “They use cars in Light Fey City. I can boost us one when we get there.”

  Boost one… AKA steal. Whatever got us home quicker, I would turn the other cheek, but that meant we had to get through Dark Fey Territory first.

  “So we’ll try to get horses while here?” Sage asked him. He nodded, pulling a laminated map from inside of his deer skin cloak. When he opened it in front of us, I gasped. It was like the map Marmal had given me but… so much more detailed and modern. It looked like it had been ink jet printed and then laminated; it had little icons for major buildings. He pointed to a little barn icon inside of Dark Fey Territory. “Our insider said this area has animals for purchase. A man named Trip runs the trades.”

  Trip? Sounded shady. Like a fey drug dealer or something.

  Sage looked skeptical. “A dark fey is going to sell us three horses?”

  Walsh placed the map back in his jacket pocket. “A man named Trip does some illegal animal trading and will do whatever we want for the right price.”

  The words, illegal animal trading made my skin crawl. I loved animals, more than people, and if this bastard had a little pet monkey in a cage or something I was totes breaking it free.

  “You think that’s where they got the bear?” Sage looked at the three long gashes on her arm, which were healing nicely, and Walsh nodded once.

  My wolf was walking apace beside us, and Walsh glanced at her now. “All dark fey seem to have a familiar or animal that they magically bind themselves to in an effort to be more powerful, or on even playing ground with our kind. Like you, Demi, they walk beside their animals yet share one mind.”

  Whoa. That gave me a wild idea… maybe the Paladin magic wasn’t witch in nature… maybe it was dark fey. I shivered at the thought and shoved it deep down inside of me, but said nothing.

  “What insider?” I asked Walsh, “You said before an insider helped you with this map.”

  Walsh sighed. “Few people pass through these lands and live to tell about it. Eugene did, early on in his years as an alpha guard. He’s been really helpful with the knowledge we will need to make it home.”

  Sage stopped, a seeming light bulb moment hitting her. “Sawyer… his kidnapping… when he was young. I remember Eugene was the one that brought him back. The dark fey took him! Not the Paladin?”

  Walsh looked at Sage an
d I, seemingly to calculate how much he should say. “It’s classified.”

  Sage frowned and my heart sank. Did someone lie and tell everyone in Wolf City that the Paladins had kidnapped Sawyer when in reality it was the dark fey? That was messed up. Poor Sawyer. Being kidnapped at five years old was old enough to remember… what kind of scars did Sawyer carry from that?

  “No offense, but why didn’t Eugene come with you?” I missed the big guy hulking around campus.

  Walsh and Sage shared another look. “He’s currently fighting for his life in the ICU. How much has Sawyer told you about the fight that went down?”

  I stumbled over my feet and nearly fell. Fighting for his life! “The fight with the vampires and Locke? Not much.”

  Walsh walked a few paces before looking back at me. “When we crossed the border to look for you in Vampire City, they were ready. They had Locke there as witness that we were trespassing.”

  I stepped over a fallen log and growled. “Even though I told Sawyer the vampires took me?”

  Sage sighed. “How is Sawyer going to explain that you guys can talk into each other’s minds? No one believed him. Said he was trying to mess with the murder investigation and that you ran off because you were upset he picked Meredith.”

  Anger surged up inside of me. “Wait, so no one believes I was kidnapped? They all think I ran away?”

  Sage rubbed the back of her neck. “You packed a bag, you took your phone, people saw you running through campus crying.”

  Fuck, I had no idea that Sawyer was the only one who believed me.

  “Your testimony is the only thing that can prove the vampires kidnapped you,” Sage said.

  My mind spun. “So… what happened when Locke wouldn’t let Sawyer look for me?” I chewed my lip thinking of what Sawyer told me about killing Locke.

  Walsh gave me a side glance and a maniacal grin pulled at his face. “I’ve never seen Sawyer so badass.”

  Sage reached out and smacked his chest. “That was scary. He almost died.”

  My heart beat wildly as Walsh chuckled. “He wiped the floor with that fey.”

  We’d reached a really thick area of trees and went single file to get through them. “What happened? Tell me about the fight,” I pressed.

  I hated not being there with Sawyer, but I knew from seeing him kill Butcher that he was an amazing fighter.

  A half smirk pulled at the corner of Sage’s mouth. “The second Locke said that Sawyer would legally be unable to search the building for you, he wolfed out.”

  Walsh growled. “Locke went nuts, like a crazed dark fey his eyes turned black and he snapped, attacking Sawyer.”

  Oh my gosh. “What else happened!” I rushed to keep up with them as we traipsed through the thick trees. There was an opening ahead, and Walsh stopped and faced me.

  His eyes were threaded with yellow. “He grabbed Sawyer’s wolf by the neck and lifted him into the air, told his father that if any of us made one more move it would be an act of war.”

  My hands went to my face, covering my mouth.

  Sage grinned. “So Sawyer bit his hand and tore it clean off.”

  My mouth went dry. Holy shit, that man had a temper.

  Walsh nodded. “And everything erupted into chaos. Sawyer killed Locke, but we had to retreat. There were too many of them and we weren’t prepared. Eugene protected the alpha with his life, as is his duty, and here we are.”

  Oh no. So they tried to hurt Sawyer’s dad too? Poor Eugene.

  All of this… because of me. Shame burned my cheeks as I thought about what would have happened if I hadn’t run off, if I—

  “Stop it.” Sage pointed a finger at me. “The vampires have been doing this for years. My uncle is just too soft. Sawyer won’t stand for it. It’s been a long time coming. It’s time someone stood up to their corruption and evil deeds.”

  I swallowed hard and nodded. Hard to think of it that way but—

  We heard voices just up ahead as Walsh put his finger to his lips in a sign of quiet.

  The voices were speaking a weird language I didn’t know, and I reached out and brushed my fingers over the top of my wolf’s head to calm her.

  Walsh silently pulled out his map, pointed to the barn, and then up ahead to the clearing with a thumbs-up.

  The barn was just up ahead.

  When the voice passed, Walsh looked at Sage and I, chewing his lip as if wrestling with what to do.

  “Don’t even think about going in there alone!” Sage whisper-screamed.

  He sighed. “I don’t want you guys to get hurt if things go south.”

  Sage growled, “I’m not a fragile princess in need of saving.” Her teeth gritted together as her jaw clenched. Then she pointed to me. “She’s more powerful than both of us combined. Her wolf can walk through walls. So don’t start with me.”

  He blanched at the knowledge my wolf could do that and gave her an appraising look, which she returned with a wolfish grin.

  “Fine. But if things go south, run,” he agreed.

  “Not on your life.” Sage put a hand on her hip.

  I nodded to my wolf and tapped my chest. “I should probably have her join me.”

  “No.” Walsh reached out and stopped me. “I had you keep her out for a reason. If you were to get angry or need to fight, and they saw her come out of you, they would know what you are.”

  Truth.

  “But if we walk in with a wolf, they will definitely know we are from Wolf City,” I said.

  Walsh nodded. “They’ll be able to smell it either way. Better we look like four wolf shifters than two werewolves and one…” He looked at me. “Split shifter?”

  I shrugged. “Better than demon.”

  Sage nodded. “You’re right. Own what we are and say we’re on the run? We were banished?”

  Walsh shook his head. “You will say nothing. I will do the talking. I’m hoping to flash enough gold at this guy that he doesn’t even blink at my request for transport animals.”

  Sage crossed her arms and glared at him, but nodded. It was clear he outranked her or whatever.

  He handed Sage the map. “In case we get separated.” And then he pulled his sword and lay it on the ground, covering it with leaves. “Hide the weapons. Eugene said they take them and don’t give them back.”

  Great. I reached down, scraped some of the fallen leaves and dirt away, and then deposited the shotgun Marmal had given me and the fey blade, covering it. I’d grown fond of the weapon and hoped it wouldn’t be stolen while we were in this place.

  Walsh looked at me. “Your name is Jessica. Understood?”

  Okay, wow, so we were really paranoid. I nodded.

  After that, we stepped out into the clearing and my eyes immediately were drawn to a giant pole barn. It was huge, must have been two hundred feet long by a hundred feet wide. Maybe for racing animals or keeping them in there or something. There was a chimney at the top that spewed dark smoke, and the scent that hit my nose was so confusing I actually scrunched up my face.

  Fox, beaver, bear, tiger, rat, and magic. So much magic…

  This place was crawling with magic and smelled like a zoo. A crazy combination for sure. As we approached, my eyes ran over a large dude about Eugene’s size. He stood like a sentinel at the front of two large double doors; his forehead and nose were troll-like, as were the tiny delicate tusks that protruded from his cheeks, but he had slightly pointy ears and black eyes. He didn’t look a full-blown fey; they were tall and willowy and had really pointy ears. He was somewhere between a troll and a fey.

  “Ithaki,” Sage whispered to me and my eyes widened.

  Shit. I hoped he didn’t know who I was from the day Sawyer killed their leader.

  What was an Ithaki doing in Dark Fey Territory? A troll fey one no less? Did he live here? I was slightly horrified and intrigued by this.

  The man inhaled through his nose and growled. “Wolf.”

  Walsh produced a small gold coin from his pocket
, legit gold, and handed it to the man. “I need to speak with Trip.”

  The man looked at us like we were the scum of the earth, his eyes even roaming over my wolf before he looked back at Walsh and tapped his palm.

  Walsh produced another gold coin and it clinked with the first one. The giant put them in his pocket and stepped aside, allowing us entry into the building. We walked past him quickly and into a barrage of sounds and smells.

  A stone sank in my gut as my eyes ran across the hundreds of cages that lined the far walls of the large barn. Racoons, foxes, dogs, cats, every kind of animal you could think of. I tucked into Walsh’s side as my wolf pressed against my other side and Sage brought up the rear. Seeing so many caged and mistreated animals had us all shrinking together in our own little pack. I skidded to a stop, causing Sage to run into my back as my eyes stopped on a stall that was barred like a jail cell. Thick iron bars went from the floor to the ceiling, encasing the most magnificent creature I’d ever seen.

  “Is that…?” My mouth dropped open. The most beautiful pearl colored dragon stood in the center of the cell, her turquoise eyes tracking me as I tried to walk closer to her. Walsh’s hand snaked out and grasped my upper arm as he yanked me back. I could tell by Sage’s wide eyes that she also didn’t think dragons existed before this very moment.

  I started to look at the other cages and stalls more closely now. Horses, buffalo, every animal looked “normal” but they all smelled of magic.

  “Holy drago—”

  Walsh shushed me, forcing us to all start moving again and I had to bite my tongue from freaking out.

  “Mods,” Sage whispered to me as we followed Walsh deeper into the center of the room, where some crowd was shouting and chanting.

  “Mods?” I looked confused.

  She gestured to the animals in the other cages. “Modified animals. They’re given magic powers before they’re bound to the fey. They probably use the dragon to do it.”

  Holy shifter.

  I looked back at the dragon, sad to see the brokenness in her eyes, the same brokenness I once recognized in Sawyer and in myself. My wolf whimpered and I knew exactly what she meant. The cages were too small and all of the animals looked mistreated. This place was a nightmare and I’d wished we’d never come.