“Well, then we need to get your sister to help us,” Orsina says. I take my phone out of my pocket, but there’s no way we could call Layla from here - I don’t have any signal on my cell phone out here in the mountains.Instead, I take pictures of the stone, getting it from every angle I can and making sure I have plenty of clear photos of the engraving. “I can send these to my sister once we get back to town,” I promise. “We should get you out of here quickly then,” Orsina says. “I don’t know when my family will be back. If they see us talking, we could all be killed.”“Wait,” Jasper says. “I’m not leaving them alone to poke through my ancestral homeland while I just hang out in town. We came here to stop them in their search.”“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go up there and chase after them,” Orsina tells him. “My dad and brothers and uncles are all out hunting for the cave, and they’d destroy you.”“That’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Zach says. “I
Layla’s explanation of the loyalty spell contained in the stone makes a lot of sense. Jasper’s family dwindling down to a few scattered members, plus the fact that Orsina felt compelled to reach out to us wolves for help as soon as she found the stone - it all fits with what we’ve discovered.I scroll through the translation of the poem Layla sent me, trying to make sense of the rest of it. It talks about love, and the two families becoming one. Is that just a metaphor, or is there something else there? The carving itself is strange and almost magical in its ability to look like a bear from one side, and a wolf from the other. At the end of our phone call, Layla told me that she’s sure there is more to the stone, more to its magic and its meaning. She promised to keep researching, and asked me to take more close up photos of the carving next time I had it in my possession. “I really want to come out there and see it for myself,” she told me. “Where are you in Montana, exactl
Orsina doesn’t ask where Jasper plans to arrange this meeting, but from his tone, I’m pretty sure I have a good guess. Sure enough, when he calls the human attorney, Thomas Krat, he gives him the location of his family’s old den.The place where his sister was killed. Where his father came upon him, stunned and injured, half dead, still in human form. Mr. Krat sounds beyond excited to hear from Jasper, and is eager to set up the meeting. Jasper gives him the coordinates, and we plan to meet him and his clients there at 2pm in the afternoon.“Alright,” Jasper says, hanging up the phone. “It’s all set. I’ll let Zach know.”“We’ll see you there,” Orsina says with a hopeful smile. “Good luck.”“To you, too.”Jasper and I go back to our motel room to get ready. Jasper is convinced that he might have to defend me, so he runs both of us through a bunch of training routines. It feels almost like being back in the tree house, practicing various offensive and defensive exe
The bear shifters take us back to their camp. The heavy scent of bears is thick, but I can’t see Orsina. Various other bear shifters come out of their tents and campers as we approach. Zach, I see, is awake now, with bruises around his eyes and a glazed expression on his face. I stand next to him, trying to prop him up, and see Jasper doing the same thing on the other side. The three of us huddle together, our arms bound, our muscles aching after the unfair fight.A short, stocky man with a thick beard approaches us. “I am Barrett, the Alpha of this bear clan,” he declares, crossing his arms and glaring at us. “Please, you have to listen to us,” I beg, trying to get through to him. “We aren’t trying to hurt anyone. In fact, we’re trying to fix everything. Your family is under a curse -”“I’m aware,” Barrett snarls. “The curse of the filthy wolves. They’ve been stinking up our territory for generations. You have killed our family members, encroached on our lands, and stole
“We need to come up with a plan, and quickly,” Orsina says. “They want to execute us when the Ursa Major constellation is high in the sky - and that will only be a few hours after sundown, this time of year.”Jasper stands up and starts feeling his way around the trailer. It’s dark, but my eyes have adjusted enough that I can see shadows and shapes, and I know what he’s doing.“Maybe there’s a way out,” Jasper mumbles. He bangs on the metal walls, only to have them banged on from the outside. We hear shouts from the guards, telling us to knock it off.“Probably won’t be too easy to escape, even if we could find an opening in this thing,” I say. “They have at least three of their toughest men outside,” Orsina says. “No way we’ll get past them.”“Then we need to think of something else,” I say. “Some way to trick them, or convince them, or something.”We talk for a while, offering various ideas and suggestions, but nothing comes together. Soon, the sun goes down, a
Once everyone wakes up and Orsina and I are back in our human forms, I gather everyone together to tell them about my idea. It seemed to crystallize in my mind as soon as I awoke from my dream, and I want to get it out of my head as soon as possible. “Orsina was right,” I whisper, leaning in to draw my head close to everyone else’s. “A good night’s sleep was exactly what I needed to come up with something.”“What’s the plan?” Zach asks. He looks much better this morning, though the bruises on his face will take a long time to heal.“The bear clan keeps talking about the Whismore line, wanting to end this specific wolf pack and family, right?”Jasper and Zach nod.“Well, I’m not a Whismore. I’m not part of the line.”“But you’re Jasper’s mate,” Zach says, tilting his head with confusion. “That means you join the family line.”“We’re not mated yet,” I say. I tug down my shirt collar to show them, in the gray morning light of the trailer. I don’t have a claiming mark
“Alright, girl, what’s your deal?” Barrett pushes me down, hard, making me sit on a fallen log near the campfire.“Could I have some breakfast first?”“Someone give the wolf some bacon,” Barrett commands. The bear clan is all looking at me with distrust, but someone passes me a plastic plate piled with bacon, sausage, and potatoes. I dig in hungrily, feeling guilty knowing that Zach, Jasper, and Orsina are still locked in the trailer without food.But they’re counting on me. I need to be strong and clear headed if I’m going to be able to manipulate Barrett into letting me take the upper hand. I finish the meal, then set the plate on the ground. “Now tell me what’s going on here,” Barrett demands. “I’m actually from California,” I tell him. “But I’ve been having some issues with a local pack. They were trying to steal things, magical things, from me and my sister. I’m a Star Twin, actually. It’s a wolf shifter thing.”“Uh huh.” Barrett doesn’t seem too interested, bu
JASPERAs soon as Ayala leaves the trailer, I feel a deep sense of loss and longing. My heart is aching. It feels like something has been ripped away from me.I can’t live without her. I’m worried about her. And we’re not even mated yet. I never realized what it was like to fall in love with someone. Now that I have, I don’t know what to do with myself. I pace back and forth in the tiny trailer, jumping up and down occasionally to stay warm.Zach and Orsina are huddled up in the far corner, their arms wrapped around each other. They’re whispering and giggling to each other, but I can’t hear what they’re talking about.I can’t focus on anything but Ayala. I hadn’t realized just how badly I would miss her when we were separated. I haven’t been away from her since we admitted to each other that we’re in love, and that we want to be mates.Part of me wishes that we had already mated. I shouldn’t have held her at arm’s length for so long. I tried to keep my distance,