Free The Ascension by Kailin Gow Page A

werewolves managed to find potable water out in the woods. She was just grateful for the cool taste of it, which seemed to wash away the last of her sleepiness.
    Gem decided then that it was probably time to face up to the conversation she needed to have with Rio, and left the group to look for him. There didn’t seem to be any sign of him, or indeed of most of the other young men. After looking for a while, she final y asked one of the women of the tribe, a beautiful young woman with flame-red hair, if she had seen them.
    “They went out to hunt at first light. They won’t be back for hours yet.”
    Gem hadn’t considered the thought that maybe Rio might want to avoid her too this morning, but that seemed to be just what he was doing. The female werewolf gave her a sanguine smile.
    “Some of us saw that your man didn’t stay in the same tent as you. You had an argument?”
    “It’s complicated,” Gem said, “and Rio isn’t…
    if I say that it’s complicated again wil that make me sound stupid?”
    “No. It usual y is, with men. They can be so…
    sophomoric sometimes, can’t they? I’m Nina.”
    “Gem.”
    Gem found herself walking with the werewolf as she wandered over to one of the fire pits and started rebuilding it.
    “That’s the problem with parties,” Nina said.
    “They always leave such a mess. Have you thought about what you’l do today? The hunters won’t be back for a while, and you don’t strike me as the sort for a sedentary life.”
    “I don’t know,” Gem admitted. “We’re supposed to be looking for someone. I suppose I might ask around about him.”
    “Who are you looking for?”
    Gem explained about Henry Word and everything that had happened. Just because Mul igan either hadn’t heard anything or wasn’t wil ing to share it, that didn’t mean Gem might not be able to find the information elsewhere. She just had to be persistent.
    “I haven’t heard of anyone like that,” Nina said, and Gem found that she believed her. “I suppose someone else might have. If you get bored, seek me out. I’m looking after a few of the cubs today, and they always find new ruses to make life interesting.”
    Gem could just imagine the sort of trouble smal children might get themselves into if they could also turn into wolves. Even so, she said that she might, before setting off on a rough circuit of the vil age, asking everyone she met if they had seen anything of her father. None of them seemed to have, and as Gem found herself starting to run short of and as Gem found herself starting to run short of ideas, the task grew more onerous . She had assumed that people would know something, but now Gem suspected otherwise or they just did not trust to tel anything yet.
    In the end, she decided to seek Nina and her col ection of cubs out before the series of succinct rejections wore her down any further. Gem found her sitting with a couple of other werewolf women, watching over a cluster of nearly a dozen children and wolf pups. One of the latter ran up to Gem, growling softly before her. Nina stepped forward to pick it up and put it back with the others.
    “Now Serrin, what have I said about growling at people? He’s just trying to get you to play,” Nina added softly. “Come over and I’l introduce you to the others.”
    “The others” turned out to be a dark-haired young woman of about Nina’s age, whom Nina introduced as Sophie, and an older woman with greying hair cal ed Petra. Between them, they watched over the children indulgently, sitting on a fal en log and keeping an eye on them even as a couple made inept attempts to leap on them. Those only resulted in them buffeting against one another as the adults moved just enough to get out of the way. The older woman, Petra, laughed at it.
    “You’re too noisy,” she insisted. “Noisy wolves don’t catch lunch. They are lunch.” It sounded to Gem like a maxim that got repeated at lot, though it didn’t seem to do much for the