Page 99 of Wolf Unseen

You’re insane! He’s miles away! We need to get out of here or the bear will trap us inside this chapel!

My wolf took no notice. Instead she looked around and then trotted through a doorway into a smaller side room, where Tate’s scent was much stronger. Oh my goddess, was this where the wolf hooked up with females?

I didn’t get the chance to search for female undergarments or used condoms. The bear roared as it barreled through the doorway into the main chapel.

And this is where we die, I told my wolf, resigned to my fate. This time, she had nothing to offer because we both knew I was right. In following Tate’s scent, she’d led us straight into a trap. There was no way out of this room other than back through the main chapel.

A desperate whimper escaped as my wolf released her hold on me. The frigid air cooled my clammy skin, but I barely felt it as I squeezed my body into the gap behind a pile of old crates, back in my human female form because the pendant had been spelled to shift with me.

The weathered wooden crates blocking my view offered very little protection, but I prayed the bear would give up and leave if I hid out of sight.

Something with way too many legs skittered over my head, adding to the trauma. I swallowed a scream and closed my eyes, concentrating on breathing to stop my imminent panic attack. In and out. In and out. Spiders were the least of my problems right now. I could handle a few bugs.

The bear roared his anger inside the chapel. Then I heard a second furious snarl. My heart nearly seized in my chest when I realized another predator had joined the bear, and if there were two bears…

Just when I thought my situation couldn’t get any worse, I realized how wrong I was.

Having run out of options, I closed my eyes and prayed to the goddess for a miracle.

61

Tate

Thirty minutes earlier

Itossed the keys to my truck at Tobias. “Take that idiot back to campus.”

“Are you not coming?” Tobias asked while Tank stood in a sulk, having squeezed his ass into a pair of too small shorts.

I noticed the big bastard kept glancing toward the shadowy perimeter while sniffing the air. Fuck my life. He had better not let his wolf loose again. Twice in one evening would seal his fate with the Shifter Council; those fuckers needed no excuse to issue an arrest warrant.

“I’m going to shift and run back.” Dad would already have heard the news, so there was no point rushing to face his wrath. And besides, my wolf was antsy as hell. He needed to let off some steam as much as I did. It was go for a run or kill someone.

“Okay, fine,” Tobias said with a huff. “I’ll play babysitter and get our friend here back safely.”

“Fuck you,” Tank grumbled. The pair of them climbed into my truck, still bickering. I waited until the truck’s taillights disappeared down the long driveway before I jogged over to the side gate that led into the forest.

A faint hint of burned sugar riled my wolf up as I strode into the thick trees and stripped off my clothes. After shaking my head to clear the beguiling scent from my nose, my wolf surged forward and took control.

The forest smelled of wet leaves and fragrant pine. Small creatures fled in panic as my wolf loped along the trail, but he paid them no attention. He wasn’t in the mood for games tonight, too focused on following a scent trail. I zoned out and let my mind wander as we ran at a steady pace, stopping occasionally to sniff a tree or bush.

This evening had been a disaster. Dad already thought Tank was a liability, and nothing I said to defend my friend would change his mind.

Dad wouldn’t want the Shifter Council sticking their noses into the Frosthaven pack’s business, and by extension, ours. Not with all his shady business deals going on. Deals I had yet to unravel.

I wondered how best to frame this mess. Perhaps I could spin it as a show of dominance to highlight how powerful our combined packs were. He might go for that, especially if I said the weasel shifters were behind it all. Dad hated weasels, declaring them untrustworthy and weak.

My wolf slowed again and growled, sniffing the air. He’d picked up a bear’s scent. A bear shifter, not a wild bear, and from his reaction, this bear wasn’t bumbling around the forest for fun.

I focused on what my wolf could hear and smell. The burned sugar scent he’d detected earlier seemed more intense. Had the little female come this way? Surely not. This trail led back to Moonfall Academy and being out this late was dangerous for such a small shifter. Wild wolves roamed the forest at night, and from what I’d heard, there had been at least one feral wolf shifter attack in these parts over the last month.

My wolf growled when a distant roar echoed through the trees. He bounded forward, intent on tracking this new threat to us. We passed something white on the ground—clothing?—before the old chapel came into view.

A frightened whimper reached us, and I knew immediately the female from the ball was here and in grave danger.

62

Riley