The Rise-Book II

Chapter 42: Cave of Wonder

"Jaxon calm down," I hissed to him.

Enoch was muttering something before he looked back at us. "Some of them refused to be broken in."

I blinked hard and pushed my beast back that wanted to claw this man's eyes out. Billy put an arm on Jaxon, shaking his head as we walked to some tents over where we saw omegas running back and forth; doing the grunt work of the pack with hollow faces.

"You're here," Enoch said.

"Thank you," Deryl replied.

"I believe Griggs is picking you up for supper," he stated, eyeing us up and down.

Billy nodded. "I haven't seen my cousin in a long time."

"We will see you tomorrow then," Enoch replied before he turned with his warriors whose gaze lingered on us.

Ajax opened the tent flap and piled in as Jaxon, Bill, Deryl, and I followed. Ryder nodded to me and went back with the twins, our other trackers, and a few warriors back to the other two tents. I mouthed to him 'be careful,' as he passed me.

Jaxon sat down and tugged at his hair in our tent that while it was big, it still was going to be like tight fit for all of us in just the three tents. "My damn head," Jaxon grumbled.

"It's the silver," Billy murmured.

I rubbed my temples as the dull throb in my brain started to surface. "How do they function up here?"

"They grew up here, learned to adapt," Billy replied. "I have no idea how, but they did."

I tossed my saddlebags beside Jaxon and laid down with my head on them. He turned to me, his eyes tired and trying to hide his worry. "Have you?"

I shook my head. "Not since we crossed that treeline."

"Dammit," he muttered. "She's going to skin my ass."

"She's going to do that anyways," Billy shot back.

I closed my eyes and tried to find her. Finding the bond was easy but the link was empty. My wolf searched around for her, looking all over the link but there wasn't anything. We felt out of touch with our female; we knew she was there, but we couldn't feel the things we normally felt over the bond–like emotions or her turmoil. Lander had told me before that it was the silver, he had experienced something similar that apparently worried Claire almost to tears.

"Try not to think about it," Ajax said. "It will just make it worse.

"Not as bad as sleeping in this damn tent," Jaxon mumbled to himself.

"Why? I thought you liked it last time we spooned Jaxon?" I said with a coy smile.

Jaxon growled lowly at me while the others laughed with me. I laughed inwardly at the thought of Eli or Lucas ever meeting him, those two would have shown him what the true meaning of 'arrogant' means. God knows Lucas had an ego the size of this mountain.

We all settled in the tent and figured out our sleeping arrangements. No one wanted to say it, but it felt off here. I couldn't put my finger on it, and it very well could be the silver, but something was up.

Billy's cousin Griggs came for us at nightfall. He was a tight-lipped man with a tight-lipped mate and tight-lipped children. Anytime any of us asked him anything about the pack over the chicken stew his mate served us, he just gave us short replies. Replies that made me uneasy, they made us all uneasy.

My dad was right, there was something up here.

We piled back into the tent afterward, keeping our voices quiet in case other ears were trying to listen. Ajax looked around at our group and shook his head. "Something ain't right."