Wolves' Bane (The Order of the Wolf, #3)(52)

Lance cringed. “We’ve heard that kind of thing over the years. Families protecting their girls. Girls who end up dying at the fangs of Lazarus and his pack because of ignorance.” He sighed. “It’s not their fault. You ever hear about a period known as the Burning Times?”

I frowned. “What like witch burning?”

Lance nodded. “Yep, that’s right, witch burning. The scholars, they’re Hunters whose Huntresses have died, fell in with the thinking of the times. Stupid old men, who are all dead now, felt that women were the source of a lot of our problems when it came to killing King Lazarus. He was too good at being elusive. The scholars were too ignorant to realize or acknowledge that it was the Huntress who held the true power—that only she could kill the beast. In their blindness, they handed many Huntresses over to the witch hunters to be tortured and killed, not realizing that they were condemning themselves in the process. By the time they figured it out, it was too late. Our Huntress numbers were decimated and the remaining Hunters were useless. The families that had consistently bred Huntress females had scattered, fearful of losing their daughters to the madness of these scholars. It was an ignorant time for all but a deadly time for us. Because of their stupidity, we lost the upper hand. Lazarus increased his numbers exponentially, and now we need to kill him to regain the advantage. What’s worse than anything, though, is that somehow he figured out a way to find our Huntresses before we do.” He ran his hand through his hair, yanking out the tie that bound it back, and sighed. “The only ones he has spared over the years have been those marked as his bride.”

“Like me.”

Lance shrugged. “Maybe.”

I frowned. “He told me I was his bride and I think Cal believes that it’s true. And Jimmy said the same thing to me when he was dragging me into the woods.”

Lance shifted his eyes to the floor and shrugged again. “We won’t know for sure until the lunar eclipse, but yeah, all the signs seem to point to you being Lazarus’s bride.”

“So if there’ve been others like me, other brides, they’re dead, right? What happened?”

Lance’s eyes clouded over and he shifted his gaze to look toward the door. “Yeah, they’re dead. They faced off with Lazarus and died. All of them.”

I gulped down the lump that rested in my throat. “I’m screwed, aren’t I?” I whispered.

Lance swiveled his gaze back to me. “No, not if I have anything to do with it.” He pushed himself up and held his hand out to me. “Let’s go outside and try some throwing. I wanna see if your aim is as good as your movements.”

I hesitated. “Are you sure it’s safe out there?”

Lance snickered. “Oh yeah, with the amount of magic Cal embedded on the border, nothing is getting in.”

I grabbed Lance’s hand. “Where does Kelly come into all of this?”

Lance glanced over at me, studying my hand in his for a second before suddenly releasing it. “Kelly?” The frown that momentarily etched his face dissolved into a smile. “Kelly is our shining star. Up until we found her, the scholars relied solely on these old magical texts. They study and decode them constantly. These old books write themselves, add text every few years, all written in this crazy ancient, dead language. I’ve never actually seen one—they’re pretty heavily guarded. The texts give clues to where the Huntresses will be found. Lazarus can apparently find our Huntresses without the texts, but up until Kelly, we had to wait for the scholars to figure it out.” He headed for the door, snagging the case that the sai were housed in on his way. “We were lucky to find Kelly before Lazarus did. Ever since she and Andrew bonded, she’s been able to see where our next Huntress will be. Sometimes right down to the street. It’s amazing, she’s amazing, and she’s sacrificed a lot for us.”

A stupidly jealous flare rose in my gut. I wanted that kind of praise, that kind of worship.

I bet if I kill Lazarus, I’ll be the one they can’t live without.

Shame washed through me just as suddenly as pride had. Kelly truly was a wonderful woman, trapped in a useless body and kept from enjoying her Hunter, all the while continuing to help the Order. The thought had me mourning what I wasn’t getting from Cal. The stubborn bastard and his need to keep a distance confused me more than anything. Why did he not want me when I was here, alive and willing? Worse, why did I get the feeling that this was all one giant lie—like he was lying to himself just as much as he was lying to me about his feelings?

Lance waited for me by the door, his expression quizzical. “Coming?”

I nodded as I forced my self-pity away. I would survive without Cal, even if he didn’t know what he was missing. “Yeah, let’s go kick some target ass.”





Chapter Twenty-Five





Locked Out


Cal stood outside of Morgan’s bedroom door feeling totally and completely disgusted with himself. How dare he come to her again after treating her so badly only that morning? His mind reeled with the compulsion to go in and see her, be with her again. It was horrible, despicable and heartless of him, but Cal just couldn’t seem to control his desperate need to touch her.

Once again, he had spent almost the entire day watching her and Lance train. He’d been shocked but happy to see how well she used the sai, particularly when Lance and she went outside to the target mounts. She’d nailed every single bull’s-eye dead center, even from thirty feet away. Such an accomplishment had him bursting with pride, which also had him tumbling down a twisted path of confusion. He badly wanted to be a part of her triumphs, but instead he had to train himself to loathe her because it was the only way that he’d be able to kill her when she betrayed them.