Amber Silverblood: Silverpack

Chapter Twelve

"Three... freaking... days!" I moaned, opening my blinds and resting my forehead against the cold glass. My blood was burning, my muscles tense, begging to be used. My breath fogged the window and I stepped back, staring longingly at the blindingly white landscape outside.

True to Dex's word, it had snowed harder than ever the night after he'd given me his warning. The wind had howled all night long, making the branch scratch incessantly at my window, but that wasn't what had kept me awake.

She was out there.

I could feel her the same way I could feel when someone was watching me. She might not have been able to see me, but she was still there. I didn't know anything about the wards Stark had put up, so I had no idea whether she'd been able to get past them or not. Maybe the fact that she wasn't prowling around the house itself meant they had worked. Still, her presence was enough to make the hairs on my next stand up, and I was constantly having to fight to keep my wolf from breaking out. It wouldn't have gone out to challenge Becky, not with Stark having given a direct order to stay inside, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't still cause some destruction around the house. My mom wasn't a werewolf, and I didn't intend to change that just because I had a case of cabin fear.

That first morning, after lying awake all night, I slid out of bed and went to check the front door. Dex had promised there would be no school that day, and I believed him, but I wanted to see for myself what they had done. Somehow, I wasn't surprised that Majestic could control the weather, but the thought was still enough to make me shudder. Putting that much power into the hands of idiots like them was a recipe for disaster.

I had opened the door, and then blinked in confusion when I saw nothing but pure, unbroken whiteness in front of me. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at a wall of snow that stood taller than I was. Only a few scant inches of gray sky were visible through the crack between the snow and the top of the door.

"Holy crap," I had whispered. "He wasn't kidding!"

It didn't matter if they got every snow plow in the state out working, there was no possible way we were going to school today. They would have to drop a nuke just to clear the roads, and I wasn't sure if I was happy about this, or—

"I thought I told you this house was on lockdown!" Stark had yelled, appearing out of nowhere beside me. Before I could even jump, he'd slammed the door shut and locked it.

"I- I'm sorry," I'd stammered backing away from the door, my submissive side immediately taking over.

Stark had rounded on me, the bags under his eyes showing that he hadn't gotten any more sleep last night than I had, and I ducked my head. My common sense told me that I was being stupid. Stark wasn't like D.K. He was a good alpha. He wouldn't hit me just for opening the door... right? My wolf side was having a hard time believing that, and fully expected to be punished for my insubordination.

After a few seconds, Stark's face softened and he put a hand on my shoulder. "It's all right," he said. I could hear the weariness in his voice. Between dealing with Becky and whatever this new, unnamed threat was, he was stretched thin, and I felt bad for giving him even more to do. Becky was here because of me, after all.

He bent over a little so we were at eye level. I was almost as tall as him, so he didn't have to lean far. "This isn't your fault, Amber," he said, squeezing my shoulder. "We're a pack, you hear me? A family. We deal with these kinds of things together."

Finally working up the courage to look him in the eyes again, I nodded. Stark took his hand away, and sighed.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be," he grumbled, shaking his head. "Your pack are the last people in the world you should be afraid of. Dalton's lucky he's dead, or I'd kill him for what he did to you."