Their packlands were huge, that was for sure. The Shadow Valley pack, now the Cliffwater pack, had land stretching as far as the eye could see. Lined on three sides by mountains, it was easily defensible and refreshingly isolated.
As Callie, Kennedy and Vik hiked up the last of the hills winding towards the Cliffwater pack, Callie's mind couldn't help but wonder. It was Vik's parents that held her interest – and not even what they knew of her parents – but instead what they were like. Did Vik look like his father? Did he have his mother's eyes? She was excited, she realised, to meet them. Nervous.
"Do they know we're coming?" Kennedy asked from the back, slightly out of breath. Their pace had been relentless and Callie knew they'd pushed her too hard. She'd barely had a full meal, she must be exhausted.
"No," Vik said, pulling a leaf from a tree overhead and carefully shredding it into pieces. "But they've sensed us." He jerked his head up towards the mountain that towered over them to the left.
"I hadn't even sensed them," Callie whispered as she used her wolf's sight to pinpoint the three wolves situated at the top.
"Who?" Kenney asked, oblivious to their audience.
"You know them?" Callie asked Vik, who looked uncomfortable under their stares.
Vik grunted in response.
"There's guards, above us, Ken'," she said, answering Kennedy's question.
Vik trailed on ahead and she frowned at his back. This wasn't going to be easy for him.
"Will they meet us at the perimeter?" she called after him.
"Yeh," he said to the road in front of him. Callie didn't push him for more of a response.
Kennedy cast her a look and she shrugged in response.
Sure enough, as they reached the perimeter a line of wolves had appeared, all armed with guns strapped to their waists. "Expecting armed company?" she murmured as she came to a stop beside Vik who was looking at anything but her.
"It's my father's way. Never be unprepared." Vik's voice was bitter.
Callie was reminded of what her uncle had said, that the Magnum pack had been a war pack long ago, it would seem that the Cliffwater pack never stopped. Adding further suspicion to the idea of them being responsible for her parent's murder. Callie bit her lip to stop her from voicing as much to Vik. She wanted to tell him everything, anything – but not this, not now.
The line of wolves parted long enough for another wolf to step forward. He was old, greying and carried an air of authority. But he was not Vik's father. No, his colouring was too pale and he had none of the stillness that identified Vik.
Vik drew in a sharp breath of air, but by the time she'd glanced at him all sign of anger or surprise was gone. In its place was a mask – she knew it was a mask because she didn't recognise anything in his face, there was none of the violent predator or tender wolf she'd come to know.
"Vikas. Why have you come?" the man asked, his voice booming across the clearing between them. White and grey flecked hair ruffled in the wind but his eyes, a dark forest brown, were as hard as knives. There was no pleasantries to be had.
"I'm here to see my parents," Vik announced to a murmur of discontent from the soldiers. Callie's wolf growled in her chest, ready to kill them all but Vik's hand on her arm stopped her.
The stranger's eyes lasered in on that hand, on the simple touch meant to quiet her wolf. Something crossed his face that Callie couldn't quite read, and he abruptly turned and walked away.
Just like that they dismissed them.
"Is that it?" drawled Kennedy from the small rock she'd found to perch on.
"No," Callie whispered as the line separated and two wolves stepped forwards. She didn't need to look at Vik's face for his reaction because it was obvious who these wolves were. Vik looked like his mother. He shared her dark, demanding eyes and fierce cheek bones, but his hair – that was all his father, who even at his age still sported a healthy lock of black hair. Unlike Vik's, his was tied back neatly, no strands free to fall into his eyes.
His mother missed nothing, her eyes darting to the hand resting on her arm still, before sizing Callie up.
"Come, let them in," Vik's father announced, turning to walk away. Not once had he glanced at Callie, his gaze instead had been fixed on his son. The three of them stepped over the packlands, the perimeter zinging against their skin.
Vik's mother and father walked ahead of them but his father suddenly darted off to the left. Callie glanced at Vik in question, but he was staring after him.
"He wants me to go and talk to him," he said quietly as they both paused. Soldiers stood around them.
"Then go," Callie said softly, as he took her hands in his. His face was racked with sadness, making Callie's chest ache.
"You'll be OK?" he asked, a trace of hope in his features – he didn't want to leave her, she realised.
"I'll be fine. Go speak with him. I'll get to know your mother," she said with a glance to the retreating figure ahead of them.
He sighed and a hand rose to cup her cheek, his thumb gently brushing against her skin. "I"ll come find you soon," he promised before jogging after his father.
Taking a deep breath, Callie turned to Kennedy with what she hoped counted as a smile. The two she-wolves headed into a large grey-brick building with a perfectly manicured lawn at the front of it. Once inside, a wolf greeted them with a small smile. She was a short, young wolf, staff, Callie assumed.
Vik's parents were very rich. Obviously their pack was doing well despite the upheaval.
"The she-alpha has asked to speak to you alone," the woman told Callie. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you to her study."
Callie glanced at Kennedy who nodded, before she followed the woman along the cream coloured corridor, a plush carpet beneath her feet. Kennedy stayed behind, loitering in the hallway looking decidedly out of place.
The woman led her to a large brown door and knocked three times before a sharp voice told them to enter. Vik's mother was sat at a large mahogany desk. She was reading paperwork but glanced up long enough to dismiss the woman with the tilt of her head and direct Callie into the seat opposite her with a nod.
Not a woman for many words then. Not yet anyway.
The room was slightly stuffy and a small bead of sweat gathered on Callie's forehead. She took a seat as silently instructed and waited. Patiently. Or at least, as patiently as she could, but soon her leg was jumping up and down.
The woman ignored her, focusing on whatever she was reading.
Callie began drumming a beat against her leg with her finger, stopping when the woman looked up and over her glasses in annoyance.
Callie sighed, bored, and leant back in the chair eyeing the walls of the office. Books lined them, some looked old and most looked like textbooks, though Callie spotted a few notebooks in the corner.
"I have not seen my son in years."
Callie jumped at her words, having not expected her to talk. When she looked back to the woman, she was sat forwards, elbows leaning on the desk, her eyes studying Callie's every move.
"Oh, I-uh, I know," Callie stuttered.
"I don't know what it is you think you're doing with him, but you should leave while you're still able."
Callie stilled at the threat in her words, at the tone to her voice. "What do you mean?" Was this her warning that they intended to kill her? Would they harm Vik? Callie's wolf unfurled in her chest at the threat.
"I imagine my son's power has enthralled you well enough, but you should know the danger you're in. He is unstable, and there are not enough pretty words in the world to save your life when his wolf turns. So, leave. Whatever you think you feel for him now will pale when you learn how much of a monster he truly is."
Callie's growl slid like ice from her chest, silencing the room and making Vik's mother's eyebrows rise in surprise. "He is not a monster," she said with venom, her wolf in her voice. Claws tore into the arms of the chair as she gripped them - namely to stop her from wrapping those claws around Vik's mother's throat. He might not appreciate that.
Vik's mother rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "I am telling you girl, you are better off running while he's still distracted. A weak thing like you is no match for my son."
Callie's wolf lunged for the surface and she had no interest in holding her back. Her wolf's paws thudded against the desk, sending it skidding towards Vik's mother. The woman was quick enough to jump up and out of the way, but not quick enough to run.
Callie released her power, letting her dominant waves wash over her unfettered. Vik's mother fell to her knees, her eyes wide in surprise as her hands clutched at her chest. But Callie wasn't satisfied, and nor was her wolf. She shouldn't have insulted Vik
She doubled down on her power and a whine of pain left the aged woman's throat as she was forced closer to the floor, her wolf flashing in and out of her eyes.
But it was still not enough. Might never be enough.
No. She wanted more. She wanted the woman to grovel and beg and-
"Callie!" Vik's voice cut through her wolf's haze of anger.
Her power stalled and fell, and Callie transformed back into her human form, yanking her clothes on as Vik rounded the desk and helped his severely weakened mother into her chair. To his mother she said, "I only stopped because he asked, not because I wanted to."
The she-alpha stared at her in silence.