C5

"I am Zanele Okafor, the special bone reader, and I am here to work," I said.

I pulled on my thick white gloves and ignored their angry faces. I reached down and picked up a heavy, stinky piece of wolf bone from the muddy grass. I did not even blink at the bad smell.

"The Head Guardian gave me the power to tell you what to do," I told the mean girl healer. "If you do not like it, keep your mouth shut."

Effie Jones and Brandon Hughes just stared at me. Their jaws dropped open. They knew the Alpha Council was sending a very important wolf to help them, but they never thought it would be an ordinary omega girl in her twenties. They stood there like they were frozen in the snow.

"Why are you staring at me?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at them. "Is the killer's name written on my face? Get to work!"

My fake mask made me look plain, but the sharp fire in my eyes made them shake. They felt the strong alpha energy hiding inside my soul, and they got too scared to talk back.

They quickly moved their hands. Effie and Brandon did not get distracted anymore. They helped me put numbers on the wet bones and took magic pictures with their stone devices.

We loaded the black bags into the back of the heavy pack wagon. I rode with them all the way to the main guard house in the middle of Ravenmoor Moon City.

The wagon stopped by the big stone steps. I hopped down and reached for a heavy bag of bones, ready to go inside the dark bone room. But a big male wolf stepped right in front of me, blocking the door.

"Ms. Okafor, my master has been waiting for you in the shadow," the man said. He pointed toward a giant black iron carriage with dark glass windows. "Please come over to that carriage for a talk right now."

I looked at the big black carriage and let out a mean laugh. "Should you not tell me your name before you go around ordering people to walk with you?"

The man stopped and looked shocked. His name was Jabari Kane, a high guard for the King. He had dealt with many strong wolves in the Alpha Council Corporate Circle, but he had never met a plain girl who spoke so rudely to him.

"My master is Supreme Alpha Idris Blackthorne," Jabari said, puffing out his big chest. "He is the ruler of the Blackthorne Bloodmoon Pack, and he wants to speak with you."

Idris Blackthorne?

My heart stopped for one tiny second. Even though I had lived far away in the wild woods for five years, everyone knew that name. The Blackthorne Bloodmoon Pack was the most powerful pack in the whole land. They controlled all the pack dominion networks, the Silverfang Biotech labs, and the guard forces. They were everywhere.

I had never met the Supreme Alpha. Why was he hunting me down at my new job?

I did not want to think about it. It made my head hurt.

"Tell your master that I am busy looking at dead bones," I told the guard. "I do not have any time to meet him."

Jabari's jaw dropped. Behind me, Brandon and Effie gasped so loud it sounded like they were choking on water.

"What?" Brandon whispered. "The Supreme Alpha asked for you?"

"Boss, you cannot just say no to Idris Blackthorne!" Effie screamed. "He can kick us out of the territory!"

I turned around and glared at them. "Are these three bags of dead wolves finished yet? Go clean the bones before you talk about big kings!"

My face looked ugly under the hot sun, but my voice was completely loud and bossy. Brandon and Effie knew I was right about the work, so they grabbed the bags and ran up the stairs into the bone room.

Jabari knew he had failed his job. He walked back to the big black carriage with a very angry face.

Inside the carriage, Supreme Alpha Idris lifted his dark eyes from his ancient pack records. He looked at his guard through the glass.

"Where is the girl, Jabari?" Idris asked, his deep voice making the carriage shake.

"I told Zanele Okafor that you wanted to speak," Jabari said, looking down at his feet. "But she just said no without even thinking about it."

Idris pressed one large finger against his lips. His dark eyes went cold. No wolf ever said no to the King.

"Why did she say no?"

"She said she has to look at the bones of the dead wolves right now. She has no time for you."

Idris looked up at the big stone building of the Major Crimes Unit. He cared about his little girl Amara more than anything else. If this strange bone reader could make his daughter speak, he would wait forever.

"If she is busy with the dead, I will just wait here until she is done," Idris growled softly. "Did the shadow trackers get her history file yet?"

"We only got the basic things," Jabari said, shaking his head. "Her past years in the pack network are completely locked up by magic codes."

"Can our pack hackers not break into the system?"

Jabari closed his eyes tightly. "No, Alpha King. Her system is too strong. It fought back and destroyed millions of our pack codes in one second."

A slow, dangerous smile came onto Idris's handsome face. His eyes filled with a scary light.

"How interesting," Idris whispered, staring at the dark windows of the bone room. "It looks like I must meet this Zanele Okafor right now."