Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 5 - False Start

We started walking in relative silence, not headed anywhere in particular, but soon the woods loomed ahead and then surrounded us. Half a mile in, with no destination in mind, I was finally beginning to relax. It was blacker than pitch, the moon a useless pale sliver, but my wolf's senses refined my sight enough to walk without stumbling. The real difficulty was to keep moving through such a tranquil, still place.

"What's that?" Alex suddenly. He sank into a slight crouch, every muscle alert, I noted. "I smell wolves."

"There are lots here tonight," Eira said carelessly.

"No. Some of our pack is here, true. But I know their scents..."

As yet unconcerned, I took a sniff of the blowing wind. There was a definite tang of Anglesey in the wind — granite and heather and salt spray. But it almost impossible to tell how many of the islanders had chased us.

I shook my sister like a trapped rat through the link, while outwardly trying to smile. "It's probably just rogues passing through — don't sweat."

An owl hooted overhead, calling a warning of our passing. Its mate echoed an instant later, far off to the right. I wondered with growing unease whether that would draw the islanders to us like a beacon. I fumbled for a rock and tossed it high, aiming to scare rather than hit. Disgruntled flapping of wings. It occurred to me, too late, that the owls had been terrifying the other birds into silence.

"I warned you, didn't I?" I asked Eira wearily once Alex had nodded his agreement. "They're coming for the armour."

For the first time in a long while, I felt uncertainty in Eira. Easy to forget she was barely nineteen and sheltered. She hadn't believed that Gwen would notice, let alone care enough to retrieve it. I knew differently. That armour had belonged to our grandparents before they founded the colony on Anglesey. Not to mention that it was invaluable and perhaps the last of its kind.

"What are we supposed to do? Kill them?" she said desperately.

No. I wouldn't kill them, not for doing their job. But neither could we let them sniff around here, attracting attention and getting so close to our father. So a warning, then, and a demonstration to prove to Gwen that our allegiances had changed. The sooner she understood we weren't coming back, the better.

I shared a single command before sealing the link. "Not yet. Keep your mouth shut and your knife out."

Untouchable. We thought we were untouchable. Four young werewolves with a talent for finding trouble. Armed with teeth and claws and a shifter's strength, it was difficult to imagine that we could get hurt. I think, in those days, even an army wouldn't have concerned me. There is an ingrained complacency in those who have never lost a fight, a complacency which defies fear.

Then Evie caught my eye. She was standing too straight, too tall, too stiffly. A realisation unsettled me enough to ask, "How much training have you had?"

It was the right question. Any other might have rankled her pride. But such an indirect route let Evie answer without shame. "Well...none. Alex wanted to, but it's forbidden in our pack."

"Forbidden to learn to fight?" Eira asked hotly.

"Forbidden for females."

Suddenly the islanders were the least of our troubles. My sister and I turned to face the pack wolves with a furious incredulity. We demanded in unison, "What?"

Alex answered before his mate could open her mouth, which I considered fortunate until I realised his words held even more venom than hers. "They think it goes against the natural order, that only males can defend themselves. My birth pack was bad too —they wouldn't let females join the fighters— but at least they were trained."