Grayson, and at least a dozen of their pack members had been tracking that day had been trying to cause trouble in Greenleaf. But we'd never had a direct wolf attack in Greenleaf before, I now knew thanks in large part to Chase and Grayson's protection over the years.
And with that being the case, I supposed it just hadn't occurred to me earlier that day to fear that the attacking wolves might actually slip by this time. It really hadn't occurred to me to be concerned for my friends and Skye.
But now, I wasn't just concerned; I was petrified. My voice came out in a shaky whisper.
"And the attacking wolves...did they...did they hurt anyone?"
Grayson sighed so softly the sound was barely audible, then spoke in a voice almost equally quiet. "I'm so sorry, Rowan. They took Skye. They kidnapped her. But we'll get her back, and very soon. We promise you this."
My knees began buckling and I would have fallen to the floor had Chase and Grayson not caught me immediately. Suddenly, I was shaking, gasping, crying; being picked up in strong arms and carried over to the couch.
I could hardly think; the only clear thought in my mind was that the truth about my fertility deception would have to wait. First, I knew I had to help Chase and Grayson get Skye back. I couldn't distract them in any possible way. I knew Skye's life might depend on it.
CHAPTER FIVE
The moment I saw the wolf, I literally saw red. My heartbeat accelerated so quickly and suddenly that my vision swam for a long, dizzying second, the sun-dappled expanse of forest in front of me becoming clouded with reddish-orange dots. But then, after I'd taken a deep breath, the dots faded, and all I could see was the wolf. Without taking my gaze from him, I stooped and picked up a large, flat rock from the bank of the stream. I was going to kill him.
I hadn't planned on becoming a wolf-killer that day. Normally, I was more than content to let Grayson, Chase, and their pack deal with any and all enemy wolves who approached Shadowfen. But not today. Not when Grayson and Chase were running a patrol with their pack and I had no idea how near or far they were.
Not when Flora and Lily were just a couple hundred feet upstream. Flora, who was so petite and delicately-built, and Lily, who wasn't even four yet. I knew they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. But I was several inches taller than Flora and at least twenty-five or thirty pounds heavier.
I was a sturdy and strong young woman. I guessed I was at least triple the weight of the wolf. He looked almost downright tiny to me, though I couldn't tell if that was just because he simply appeared that way at a distance, or if he actually was a very small wolf. I also couldn't tell if he simply just appeared tiny to me because the anger rising up inside of me seemed as large as the world.
It didn’t matter. I was going to take him down. I was going to kill him. I was going to rid the world of one of the evil, destructive kind of wolves. One of the evil ones, like the ones who'd abducted my sister a week earlier and still held her captive.
For all I knew, this wolf that I was staring down, across the stream, could have even been one of the wolves from that pack. And the deeper I looked into his glinting eyes, I became nearly sure of it. He stared back at me with what appeared to me to be bloodthirsty menace.
But if it was blood that he wanted, or another captive to drag back to his pack, he was going to be disappointed. I wasn't going to let him take me, Flora, or Lily. I wasn't going to let him touch a hair on our heads.
With my gaze still on the small grayish-tan wolf, I rose to my feet, clutching the large rock. "Come try me, then! Just come try to take me on!"
My hands were shaking, though not with fear, but anger. Anger at the wolves for having taken Skye, and anger at the particular wolf across the stream from me. The wolf who surely