Winter Wolf

Chapter 23

"Byron will be giving us money for the land, and Rafe is going to make a 'deal' with Byron for Lo, he will leave before us, they decided it's best to let Arthur believe Rafe will take her, and we will get her from Cana after everything settles. Byron and Arthur are having problems, he wants to keep it as amiable as possible while everyone is together. What happens afterward he doesn't care, as long as we are all off his territory. It's all in the letters." Ada said.

Tristan could barely think. This is not how he thought any of this would happen. He felt his furious wolf rising.

"Tristan, look at me." Ada said. Tristan glanced up at her.

"I will do everything I can to ensure she knows it's not real. Amelia is a good wolf, she will help us. I know you both have a lot of healing to do, we just have to get through the next few weeks, and get her back on our land before the mating moon." Ada said.

Tristan felt another spike of worry. He hadn't thought of that...

...dammit.

But he suddenly felt panicked.

Even knowing all this, and how important it was... he still didn't think he could do it. How could he be convincing when he couldn't even stand Emma's touch? His wolf hated it. Any female's touch that wasn't family.

It had been that way since he met her...

"I can't do it." Tristan repeated. "I'm not just being stubborn, I can't physically do it." He couldn't control his inner beast.

He wanted only Lo.

"Then you will have to take the ama. Just for a few days, just to be convincing. Until we can get Lo out of there." Edith said.

Tristan felt sick. He finally looked to Rafe's letter. He explained basically the same thing, and included more details.

And he described her, and how much she'd changed from that scared little wolf...

Tristan took a hard breath and glanced up at his grandfather. He looked stressed.

"The meeting is in six days. We need to plan this carefully, and figure out who you're taking with us. He expects us tomorrow, but we shouldn't get there until closer to the meeting, the less interaction we have, the better." Hutch said.

-

Lily stared up at the blue sky. She hadn't slept well.

Anger... more like rage, had kept her awake. Something had made him furious.

It made Lily nervous to think of what. Maybe he knew...

She took a slow breath to try not to think about it and turned her attention to the lake near the pack house that had become a favorite spot of hers. She was sitting beneath a tree, the sun was high, it was midday. And it was quiet there, with not much movement.

Byron's land had several large lakes. One to the west was very big, she had considered it for a possible escape route, but it was nearly frozen with the coming winter. Everyday seemed to be getting colder. Swimming through it was out of the question...

And human cabins were at the other side. An enforcer had surprisingly answered every question she asked as she roamed. She had a good layout of their land and what was where.

But currently it wasn't helping her... she couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't likely get herself killed.

This lake though... she liked this spot for a different reason. There was a small playground on the other side from her vantage point. Families seemed to make use of it at all hours of the day.