Jackson and Rick walk ahead while Ivan, Chloe and I follow them. Wren, in his wolf form, is at the forefront. He is tracking the grey wolf I saw at the lake.
Wren's wolf stops. His nose is up in the air sniffing. Then he changes direction and goes to the side.
"So that's how it's like to track as a wolf," Ivan says.
To me and my friends, it was extraordinary to see Wren transform into this beautiful silver furred wolf.
It's amazing how they can transform so effortlessly. I'll probably breakdown crying in pain if I were to morph now.
Eventually we reach the end of the border that faces Gerth Hills. "Stop right there," I tell them, "we're not going further."
"But the scent is coming from there," Jackson says.
"Wonder why?" Ivan says, looking upset at me. Ivan strongly believes the murderer must be Hermann Keith, son of Gerth Hills' Alpha.
Ignoring Ivan, I say to Jackson, "We don't have a friendly relationship with Gerth Hills. We are not gonna go anywhere near their packland."
"Won't they want to know a psycho wolf could be hiding in their land?" Rick says.
"Oh, I'm sure they know," Ivan says. I glare at him.
"What do you mean?" Jackson says.
I say, "He believes the psycho killer is the heir of Gerth Hills' Alpha."
"Is he?" Jackson says.
"No! We've no proof whatsoever of who the killer is. Hermann... he's a little weird. But not dangerous. So, please, let's not go near Gerth Hills. Unless you decide to become my Luna and live with me here forever, in which case, you're free to pick a fight with whichever neighbor you want," I say to Jackson, grinning.
Jackson sighs. He looks at Wren's wolf and says, "Stay within the border and see if you find anything else."
"Tsk. He's hard to manipulate," I whisper to Chloe. "You think?" She says.
I grab Ivan and take him to the side, out of everyone's earshot. "You need to give this a rest!" I tell him.
"Come on, Leah, you can't just ignore what everyone doubts about," Ivan says.
"Doubt, being the keyword. Did you see it was Hermann who killed those rogues? You even agreed with me before that the wolf couldn't have been his," I remind him.
"Maybe not the wolf. Maybe the wolf is his accomplice or something. But we can't just turn a fucking blind eye to him!"
"Ivan, trust me, the last thing I want to do is stand in your way. I know you want to confront Gerth Hills on this. But we can't just pull up a stunt like that when we're not ready for a fight," I say and lower my voice further before continuing, "We don't have enough manpower or money to go into a war with them. I can't fucking challenge their Alpha because people think his son is a weirdo. If I'm gonna even point a finger at them, we better have Hermann in a fucking 4K resolution video killing someone cold blooded."
Ivan grunts. "Fine," he angrily says, and leaves.
I watch him walk away.
"Everything okay?" Jackson says coming next to me.
"No," I tell Jackson and turn to him. "But if we kiss, I'll feel better," I add.
Jackson bites his lips and leaves.
Boys. All they know is to leave.
End of chapter
