Chapter 13: Answer in the Trees

The howl from the forest came again, closer.

Every guard at the treeline lifted a head.

"Back to the hall," the Alpha ordered. "All of you. Now."

Nobody got the chance.

Four shapes came out of the pines at a dead run, low and gray, and the nearest one hit a guard so hard I heard his ribs go.

The pack broke into screaming.

Bram shoved me behind him and shifted in a single heave, his shirt tearing off his back.

I had never seen his wolf in battle.

It was black and as tall as my shoulder, and it met the second rogue in midair.

"Rosalind, the hall!" Tobin yelled, grabbing my arm.

"Where's Linnet?"

I twisted around.

Linnet stood at the treeline where the guards had left her, with her cut bonds at her feet.

She was not running.

She was smiling.

A fifth wolf walked out of the dark and stopped beside her.

He was the biggest animal I had ever seen, scarred across the muzzle, one ear torn to a ragged edge.

Linnet laid a hand on his back.

He changed.

It took him three breaths, and the pack nearest to him went silent while he did it.

A man stood in his place, naked and filthy, forty-five or fifty, with Linnet's gray eyes.

"Harlan," someone said in a cracked voice. "That's Harlan. That's the one from the north road."

The Alpha stepped forward with a dozen fighters at his back.

"You killed my brother's son and two of my scouts."

"I did," Harlan said pleasantly. "I've been waiting nineteen years for somebody to say it to my face."

A guard lunged at him with a silver-tipped spear.

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