Forbidden

Chapter 8

8

I sat with the Pack at lunch.

Tegan was cuddled under Hayden’s arm and would giggle every five seconds which I found strangely irritating. And Randel wouldn’t stop looking so sour; it wasn’t as if I’d done anything to him. He’d started it—not that he wasn’t that far off, but still.

The other wolves were speaking animatedly about the run we were taking this afternoon. Right along the Sacred Line, through the mountains. It would be fun, but not amusing enough to take my mind off things.

“Misha,” a voice interrupted my thoughts. “Dude!”

A French fry landed in my hair.

I wrinkled my nose and pulled it out. “The hell—? What was that for?!”

The offender—his name was Xavier—grinned happily at me. “Somebody went off to Narnia, had to pull her back out of the wardrobe,”

“You see, you read too much,” I whined and he laughed at me.

“Look at this,” he pushed away my lunch tray and spread a map down on the table.

It was an old map, it looked distressed in places from so much use and it was discolored by time. But I knew what it was immediately.

A Lycan Map.

A Lycan Map was a territory map, and this one had been in the Leaf Pack for several hundred years; I could smell the age that coated it. I surveyed the map more closely. There was a trail of pretty sapphire ink that curved through the forest lands and up through the Navara Mountains. I immediately knew that that was the Sacred Line.

“Xavier,” I breathed. “Where the hell did you get this?”

“Dante got it out of his grandma’s attic.” He shrugged. “Figured we could use it, it’s got some good stuff on it.”

I nodded in agreement.

“So I was thinking that on our run today, we could run the entire Line? We’ve never been up through the mountains before, better to know what’s up there.”

“That’s actually pretty smart Xavier,” I began, smiling at him. “But as you know, to run the mountain range we need permission from the Alpha.”

“But you’re—”

“Not the Alpha yet.” I grinned, cutting him off cheerfully. “I can’t risk losing my Pack, now can I?”

“Oh, okay,” Xavier smiled.

Out the corner of my eye I saw Randel glaring at him, but I ignored him.

Just because he was in a pissy mood didn’t mean that he had to bring everyone down with him.

I looked back down at the Lycan Map. It was drawn beautifully, no doubt by quill and ink. The lines were so sharp and precise, and even from all this time, they were untouched and unfazed by time. The colors still owned their luster and made my eyes devour the map.

“Alright, what if we run the line and then cut through the forest?” I asked my Pack. It was only until then that I realized that all of them were huddled around me, listening intently, as they should.

“And take a shortcut by heading through the clearing here,” a small girl called Cinder offered. “That way if we’re allowed to run the mountain, we can get up there easily.”

“Smart girl,” I smiled at her input.

Cinder smiled back.

“Alright, everyone meet up in the usual clearing tonight, I expect to see all of you there.” I said, standing, taking my bottle of water with me.