Wolves' Bane (The Order of the Wolf, #3)(76)

“No, I want to go now,” I said as I walked past Lance to the door. “And I don’t want Cal coming. I’m not ready to face him.”

Lance followed after me with a small chuckle. “Well, you’re certainly not going to want to face him if he finds out where we’ve gone,” he muttered.

A chill ran through me, but I didn’t stop. I needed to see the battleground, and Cal be damned, I was going to get out there before I had to face off with the King of the Beasts.

Five minutes later, we stood just at the border of the forest near the house. I felt the dread of stepping beyond the protective barrier like an icy hand curled around my gut. Cloak or no cloak, I wasn’t one hundred percent okay with venturing into the forest.

“You sure about this?” Lance turned to look at me, his brow furrowed.

I swallowed my fear, forcing myself to give a strong nod, but not trusting myself to actually speak.

Lance eyed me for a moment longer, assessing my face, before he finally turned toward the trees. “Put the hood up. You need to be completely covered. And get your weapons out. Stay close to me.”

I nodded to myself as I quickly did as I was told, raising the cloak’s hood until it fell over my head, then unsheathing the sai and holding them ready for attack.

He moved closer to the trees, motioning for me to come to his side. Once I did, he glanced at me. “Be ready for anything. They can’t hear you, or see you and if they stumble upon me they’ll think I’m talking to myself. But if you take off that cloak, they’ll catch your scent in a matter of minutes.”

I gave a jerky nod as my heart thumped wildly in my chest. “How far is it?”

Lance shrugged as he stepped past the border of the property. “Far enough that we’ll be in trouble if they attack.”

A chill swept my body as I followed him, casting fearful looks at every shadow I could see. Lance’s words comforted me somewhat. They couldn’t see me while I had the cloak on, but what if they attacked him? Would I not have to reveal myself then?

And then another thought dawned on me. “Cal’s going to use me as bait isn’t he?”

Lance shot me a frustrated look but said nothing.

I pursed my lips as I rolled that thought in my head, my mind quickly connecting all of the information I had about the battle. “That’s how this battle is gonna go down, isn’t it? I mean, why else would Lazarus willingly expose himself on the night he’s most vulnerable? You Hunters are going to bring me out to the battlefield with the cloak on, get into position and then make me take the cloak off, aren’t you?”

Lance’s shoulders stiffened. “Yes. That’s the plan.”

Great, so now I’m bait and dead meat. “Assholes.”

Lance snorted a laugh but didn’t answer, allowing me to stew in my anger while we trekked through the woods. I was so intent on mulling over my thoughts that I didn’t notice until sometime later how deep into the woods we actually were, how far from the house we had traveled. With quick glances over my shoulder, I realized that there wasn’t exactly a trail to follow, either. If I lost Lance, I’d have no idea how to get back.

At the sound of a branch snapping I glanced over my shoulder again, only to come barreling into Lance’s back. He grunted as he turned to steady me, holding my arm with one hand while he raised his sword with the other.

“We’ve got company,” he whispered as he motioned for me to stay quiet and move to his side.

I darted my eyes around, unsure where to look and not hearing what Lance was clearly listening for. I gripped my sai tightly, ready to launch an attack, my gut clenching and beads of sweat breaking out across my forehead.

I wanted so badly to ask him if he thought it was the wolves, knowing that getting that information wouldn’t necessarily ease my fear, but it would prepare me for what I was about to face.

Lance motioned toward the line of trees in front of us and then for me to stay as he slowly began to circle around, clearly planning to catch our predator from behind once it broke through the trees.

Another series of branches cracked, echoing through the forest around me. My stomach pitched as I spun in a slow circle, straining to see—to hear—what was coming for me. The cloak acted like a blinder, blocking my peripheral vision and making me feel all the more vulnerable even though it was meant to protect me. I wanted so badly to rip it off but knew better. I had no interest in becoming wolf meat.

Lance disappeared around a clump of trees, leaving me with my growing sense of doom. Chills of fear ran from the top of my head to my toes as I clenched my weapons tightly.

Another branch snapped and I spun, nearly screaming as I raised my sai to launch.

“What the f*ck are you two doing out here?” Cal hissed as he barreled into the small clearing.

I stood frozen, my arm raised with my sai, and my stomach roiling. Oh shit.

“Busted.” Lance groaned as he moved out from the clump of trees and stood by my side.

Cal’s chest was heaving with his anger. “I asked you a question,” he hissed again as he took a step closer to me.

I jerked my eyes from him to Lance as I slowly lowered my weapons. “It was my idea.”

“I don’t care whose idea it was. I want to know why you’re here.”

Lance stepped toward him, his hand out as if to touch his arm, but one hard look from Cal had him stepping back to his place at my side. “She wanted to see the battleground and since you seemed to be too busy to do it…”