Free Willow (Blood Vine Series) by Amy Richie Page A

“Will she come back?” I don’t know why I asked it, it made me sound like a child; and I already knew the answer.               “No, it is unlikely that you will see them again.”
                  Them? He had said them but he couldn’t have meant Ivy. Ivy would be coming in a few months to take over the pack. Gage must have meant Bella and her pack. Of course, the temptation to fight would have been too strong with two packs so close. It was better that she left, but sadness still managed to creep into my heart.
                  “Will you hunt tonight?” Gage asked.
                  “Uh … no, I don’t think I will.”
                  His eyes narrowed again, an expression I was coming to know well. “The pack will need to hunt.”
                  I took a deep breath and shrugged. “Yeah I know.” We stood there for a long moment of awkward silence before Gage ducked out the front door.
                  I gulped my orange juice down quickly and prepared to retire to my room so I could work on my paper for English. Maybe if I was lucky I wouldn’t have to deal with the pack tonight. I flinched guiltily when I remembered the resolve I had made at lunch. As the day progressed, my resolve slowly faded. Who was I to tell them how to live? No one was getting hurt. By the time the final bell rang I had convinced myself that the boys were fine. They had lived this long without a leader. What could go wrong?
     
     
     
                  A high, clear howl split the night air. I had just stepped out of the shower when I heard it. The sound filled my entire body with a feeling I was not familiar with. A hard knot seemed to have settled in the pit of my stomach. I was shaking so hard I could barely pull on my pajama shorts and top. Something was wrong, I could feel it in the pit of my being.
                  Not bothering with shoes, I stepped outside the cabin door. I listened intently with my human ears, but I couldn’t hear anything except the usual sounds of a forest at night. Crickets chirped, an owl hooted somewhere nearby. A slight breeze had picked up, causing the leaves to flutter against each other. I tried to let the sounds soothe me. Everything had to be ok, otherwise Gage would have come to tell me. Another howl sounded, bringing heat to my spine. The sound was far away, too far for two legs.
                  I dropped to all fours, a growl already forming. “Who is that?” I demanded. I knew they could hear me no matter how far away they were. I felt the excitement in the air, the hunt. A gun fired, followed by a yelp. “Where are you?” I demanded again. I heard them running then, their legs carrying them to me in quick long strides.
                  Waving my head back and forth in an agitated manner, I lunged forward in a burst of speed. I met the pack four miles from the cabin. Gage was first, followed by five others. Five not six. My chest tightened. “Who’s missing?”
                  A dark brown wolf stepped forward and morphed back into Rueben. “It’s Jed. He was shot.”
                  I growled loudly, making the others crouch away. “What happened?”
                  “We were hunting and came upon a man with a gun. He saw us so Jed attacked, but he shot him.” Rueben’s words all rushed together. He morphed back to his wolf form as soon as the last word fell out.
                  “Why the hell would you attack a human?” Rueben dropped to his belly and tried to push his head under my chin. It was the first time any of them had seen me as a wolf. I snapped violently at Rueben and he flinched back with the others. “What were you thinking?” I paced back and forth. “Take me to Jed.”
                  Gage was the first one to bolt through the trees. I followed close at his heels, my