Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 47: Caine: Knock Like a Normal Person

The campground entrance is easy to miss, hidden in the darkness without any streetlights to mark it. Thankfully, many of the campers parked here have LED lighting strips along their rigs, and I slow before I miss the turn.

"Where?" I demand.

Thom closes his eyes, concentrating. "Keep going. She’ll be on our left. I’ll know when we get closer."

I drive deeper into the campground, wheels crunching on gravel. Rolling my window down seems like a mistake at first. The place reeks of humans—their food, their waste, their cheap alcohol. But beneath it all, I catch hints of her scent, growing stronger.

"That interference," Thom mumbles, seemingly to himself. "It’s stronger here. Almost like..."

"Like what?" I snap.

"Like something’s deliberately masking her." He opens his eyes, pupils dilated. "Something old."

Jack-Eye opens his own window, shoving his head outside to breathe in deep. "There’s a shifter... Blue Mountain."

I can smell him, too.

"There." Thom points to a large RV. The lot next to it isn’t empty, but only holds a blue sedan and a tent. "She’s there."

I park the car on the opposite side of the road and kill the engine, and Jack-Eye slides out of the car with languid ease. "I’ll deal with the traitor."

I grunt at them both, reaching for Grace’s pillow with fingers that itch to crush something. One brief caress over the soft fabric. One deep breath of her scent—blueberry muffins, mixed with fabric softener.

My chest loosens as the pillow’s scent cuts through the noise in my head.

"Stay here," I tell Thom without looking at him.

slumps in

the car door, I step out into the night, vaguely irritated by the humid

breath I take now isn’t filtered through the car’s ventilation system, and her scent grows stronger. She’s close. My muscles

first glance he appears to be a large black dog rather than a monstrous

as he pads beside me. She’s already frightened

mutter

Your

reshape stone. If I approach her with

done to reassure her she’s safe. I didn’t kill the Forest Springs Alpha. Or her boyfriend. I wanted to, but I didn’t; I even

for the crunch of gravel

far too

growls, the sound carrying through

deliberate; he’s

his eyes land on me. His

Andrew approaches with his head slightly bowed, then drops into a formal submission posture ten

murmurs,

the camper—all over Grace’s space. The rage bubbling beneath

how Grace trembled when she walked into my suite, and

weak. They’re too fragile to understand the violence underpinning our society. I must hide it

to repay this

Jack-Eye, not wanting to

"Got it, boss."

dart between me and Jack-Eye, weighing his options. Smart enough to know there aren’t many. "Alpha Wilder asked me to protect her," he

not in Forest

sour smell of fear. "She... she decided to come with someone else. A