AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Charles pushed his way to the front. “We’re here for Anais. Don’t try to stop us!”
Jerron’s anger intensified, and the warriors with him vibrated in a low growl behind him. The shadows fanned out around him. “Anais has something that belongs to me.”
First Beta Daniel murmured something in Jerron’s ear. Jerron snapped at him.
Anais’ tail drooped and her head hung as she panted. She shifted from one bloody paw to the next. “Elder Luna Autumn of SilverPaw left it to her daughter, Luna Winter of SnowFang. It was part of the Archives and subject to Chronicler authority. You have no say, Alpha. It is not yours.”
My brother’s dark form blotted against the night, his eyes an umbral brown, and his fangs harvest-moon-yellow in the dim light. “It is SilverPaw’s!”
“The Archives do not belong to any pack!” Hatred bubbled in my veins. Dark, shameful hatred. Mongrel Alpha. One of the most powerful wolves in the world and he paraded like some petty tyrant. This overgrown pup would soak SilverPaw in piss to prove he could.
Sterling stepped forward, crouched low to the snow and growling a real threat, reeking of a primal desire for violence that terrified and thrilled my soul.
The younger SilverPaw warriors fanned out in a hot, growling shadow.
Jerron didn’t deserve the satisfaction of killing us all. Seething, I shifted into human form. Our lupine language lacked the words I needed. Bitter cold bit into my skin and stabbed between my toes and rattled my jaw. “Where did you find the key, Anais?”
Anais wearily shifted into her human form. Deep shadows hung under her eyes. Her hair plastered to her neck. Her hands bled from open blisters. “Tucked between the pages of Volume 36. A key and a note stating it was for you. It’s at the bank in town.”
I ducked back into wolf form before I froze something off.
Jerron paced back and forth, attention darting from Sterling to me to Charles to Anais.
“Thirty-six.” I pretended to whisper under my breath like Volume 36 was super interesting and significant, since Jerron and Daniel leaned forward to hang on my every scent. Daniel’s eyes seemed especially bright and sharp.
Anais cocked her head. “You know it?”
Sure. I knew Volume 36 wasn’t interesting. Most adjuncts wouldn’t even have it, or have seen it. Most wolves would have no idea what a Volume was, or that Volumes even existed. The Volumes were just the ledgers of births, deaths, pack movements, registrations. The usual population book keeping, and if there was an interesting or relevant story to go with any of the entries, just a bit of text telling you where to find it in the Collections.
The Collections were the juicy bits. History, letters, accounts, testimonies, memories, pedigrees, collected gossip of the time.
Dad had permitted me to read all the Collections except the most recent ones, which involved wolves who were still alive, or their immediate descendants. Even though everything in a Collection was technically a final public record, most wolves didn’t know Collections existed, and had no way to access them. He’d said it wasn’t fair if I could read up on all the sensitive things involving wolves I might actually meet.
Like Deadbeat, Cerys, and a young Sterling.
The only Volumes I’d bothered to read were the extremely old ones just because they were very old, or if my father had asked me to go look something up in Volumes 38 or 39, which were the most recent two. They were as interesting as reading the whitepages. And if I’d wanted to hide something in the Archives, where my father probably wouldn’t have found it for a few years? Volume 36. Too old to be relevant, too young to be interesting.
Jerron’s patience ran out. “It doesn’t matter. It’s mine!”
“The Archives don’t belong to you!” Anais barked.
“He is Alpha!” one of the young warriors howled, and the others joined in the song, while the older ones hung back, uncertainty lacing the musk of violence.
Daniel demurred, ears flat. “The she-wolves are correct. The Archives do not belong to the pack. This has been a mistake.”
“So glad you finally chimed in.” I sneezed.
“I am Alpha.” Jerron snarled at Daniel. “You care what this hybrid and his sloppy bitch tell anyone?”
Sterling barred his teeth. The EarthSpine squirmed.
Daniel snorted. “I care what the Elder Council will say about this.”
So Daniel’s concern was the Elder Council’s teeth, and not Jerron doing things like oh, say, murdering Chroniclers and tampering with Archives. I pinned my ears. “Even if you have the keys, you can’t get the box. You are an idiot.”
Jerron spun on me, teeth glowing in the darkness.
Sterling lunged forward.
