Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 32

Yore had just opened the door to his cabin after arriving home, ready to put on some clothes, check in with his mother, and then go and see how Fanner was getting on, when he heard the sound of someone approaching fast from behind him. They often ran in wolf form just to get around faster and the kids were always dashing about all over the place, but this sounded different. More urgent.

Raya collapsed forward in front of Yore as he turned to face her, shifting with a speed and ease that Yore envied. She was panting as she pushed herself up onto two feet. "My sister is here. Sani."

"Ah," Yore said. He had known she was one of the ones who had been considering challenging him, but he hadn't expected her to be the first to make a move. "Well, that's okay. No need to panic."

Raya shook her head. "She has Fanner."

Yore grit his teeth around a curse and forced himself to take a couple of breaths in and out. "She wouldn't hurt him. She's just here to challenge me. Hurting him would start a whole incident. Besides, I've never taken her as the type to do something like that."

Raya shrugged helplessly. She looked like she might cry. Yore had never seen her cry before.

"Take me to them."

#

Fanner kept expecting Sani and the other werewolves to do something to him, to hurt him or to try to take him somewhere else, but they seemed to be waiting for something. They hadn't even touched him yet. Sani had seemed to have some level of hostility towards him when she'd spoken to Raya, but honestly, Fanner had seen worse. She seemed to have no interest in antagonising him purely for the sake of it.

Fanner dug a little rut in the dirt with the toe of his boot. He hadn't moved from the log where she'd told him to sit. "Are you going to let me go?"

Sani barely glanced at him. "Not yet."

"But..."

"But we will, yes."

Fanner nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

Sani shot him a baffled look. "Listen, I don't want to hurt you. None of us do. We just don't all think it's our responsibility to help you like Yore does."

"That's reasonable."

"It is reasonable. Where is he going to lead us if he insists we do everything for everyone without even asking for equal payment?"

"That's true. He's done a lot more for me than I have for him."

Sani let out a frustrated sigh. "Do you even think you belong out here?"

"I don't know where I belong."

"Not here."

"You're probably right."

Sani was about to say something else when suddenly her head turned and her lips pressed into a flat line. A few seconds later, Fanner saw two wolves running towards them down the dirt track. One of them was big and black and heart clenchingly familiar.

Fanner stood from the log as Yore started to shift. It took him three times as long to return to his human form as it did Raya, but this time he was deliberately masking what a painful process it was for him.

"Yore, be careful," Fanner warned. "I think it's a trap."

As Yore straightened onto two legs, he was unable to conceal the awful popping sound his back made. "It's okay, Fanner. I understand what's happening here. Though I have to say, Sani, I'd have preferred if kidnapping my guest weren't a part of it. You didn't have to lure me out here to challenge me."