The Moon She Waited Under novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Red Creek

I went alone, and I didn't tell Lucan which way.

I left the ridge by the north path while he was shouting for the patrol captain, and I crossed the south fence at four in the afternoon with my braid down my back and nothing in my pockets.

Osric had seen me go.

He hadn't tried to stop me, and that was the only reason I got as far as I did.

Red Creek's gate was two log posts with a chain between them and a sleeping dog beside it.

The dog woke when I came up, looked at me, and lay flat on its belly with its chin in the dirt.

"That never gets old," said the young wolf on the gate, and he swallowed.

He was about nineteen, and he had gone pale under his sunburn.

"I'm here for Kari Oakes," I said.

"I know. He said you'd come." He pushed the chain aside with a shaking hand. "I'm to walk you up."

We went along a road of packed gravel between lumber sheds and long low houses.

Doors opened as I passed.

Faces looked out and ducked back.

"We watch your ring," the boy said suddenly. "Did you know that? Every full moon."

"No."

"Our scouts sit in the pines across the ravine. The healer pays us to tell her when the Alpha leaves." He glanced at me, then away. "I did the sixth one myself."

I kept walking.

"She wanted to know the minute he turned for home. Because she'd told him you weren't coming, and she wanted to be sure he went to the clinic."

"And did he?"

"No, ma'am." His voice dropped. "He never left."

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