A Hero of Realms(33)

I turned on Julie, unable to hide my irritation. “We can’t afford more snapping twigs.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said in a hushed tone.

“Okay,” I said, breathing out. “Just be careful next time.”







We spent what felt like the next half hour continuing through the woods without coming across another wolf. I was beginning to feel desperate. I even pondered Arron’s suggestion to go directly to their dens. But I didn’t consider it for long.

As we entered a particularly dense area of woodland, I heard pounding in the distance. The thundering of heavy paws. I froze, raising my hands for the others to do the same. They halted and looked at me.

“Do you hear that?”

From the alarmed look on Julie’s face, she too had heard it.

The noise became louder as the footsteps drew closer and closer. Soon I could make out harsh, heavy panting.

I looked up toward the treetops. “Let’s climb,” I whispered. I grabbed hold of the nearest branch to me and swung myself up into a tree. Julie followed closely behind me and planted herself on a nearby branch. I’d forgotten about Arron only having one arm, but Aisha helped him into a tree several feet away.

My mind worked furiously. I had to think of a plan. The lone wolf whom we’d spotted earlier—or rather who had spotted us—had likely traveled back to his pack, and now a group of them had come to investigate. And from what I could hear, it was a very large group.

This was just what I’d wanted to avoid.

The first of the pack whipped through the trees beneath us. A giant black wolf with dark green eyes ran at the forefront. They halted, apparently having picked up on our scent.

Dozens of gleaming eyes shot up toward us at once. There was no hiding from them, but at least being higher up gave us an advantage. Or at least I’d thought that it would. The black wolf—the largest and most ferocious-looking, who appeared to be the leader of the pack—launched himself at my and Julie’s tree. Digging his claws into the bark, the tree trembling, he began to climb toward us.

Julie clasped my hand and tugged on it. Her hazel eyes bulging, she urged me higher up into the tree.

I extended my claws, even as I hoped that I wouldn’t have to resort to violence.

The wolf was slower in climbing the tree and we gained height much faster.

“We are not here to cause trouble,” I called down. “Nor are we enemies.”

Arriving on one of the thick lower branches, the wolf balanced himself and paused, looking up at us.

“Then why have you come?” he growled. “Vampires aren’t welcome here.”

I glanced toward Aisha through the trees. She was eyeing me intently. I knew that if she suspected I was in the slightest bit of danger, she would blast the wolf out of the tree. Which was the last thing that I wanted. It would only rile them up and make our task much harder to complete.

“I simply require the tooth of a werewolf,” I said. “Grant me this and we will leave in an instant.”

My words only seemed to aggravate the wolf.

“What makes you think you can just arrive in our land and make demands?” he snarled. “Who do you think you are?”

A very desperate man.

“Maybe you could try telling them the truth,” Arron called from a nearby tree, as he and Aisha retreated from two werewolves climbing up toward them.

The black wolf was already continuing his ascent toward us. It wouldn’t be long now before he reached the top.

“The tooth would be put to good use,” I said. “If you’ll listen, I’ll explain.”

The werewolf didn’t appear to be in any mood to listen. He was too close now—his heavy jaws within biting distance of our feet—forcing Julie and me to leap into the branches of a nearby tree. The werewolf leapt after us, landing on a wide branch several feet beneath us.

“Do you want the Elders to rise again?” I bellowed down.

The wolf froze, gazing up at me through his dark green eyes. My question had taken him by surprise.

“What kind of imbecile are you?” he hissed. “Nobody in their right mind would want that.”

“Then one of you will relinquish a tooth.”

He let out another deep growl and shook his fur before continuing to climb toward us.

I had to try a different tactic. Julie gasped as I leapt from our branch, and dropped down just four feet away from the wolf. Opening his jaws, he lunged forward. I dug my fingers through the thick fur on the top of his head and, using it as support, swung myself around the wolf’s body and landed on his back. He twisted his head back and snapped at me with his jaws. I moved further down his long back out of reach. The wolf was forced to leap from the tree, down to the ground, where he could tackle me unimpaired by the need to maintain grip and balance on a branch.