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.

in relief. "Yes,

irritated by the humid heat despite the sun having set long

through the car’s ventilation system, and her scent grows stronger. She’s close. My muscles coil with

black dog rather than a monstrous wolf.

he pads

know," I mutter through

Your

effort feels like trying to reshape stone. If I

I wanted to, but I didn’t; I even held Fenris back. This should be enough to

just in time for the crunch of gravel to draw my attention to the nearby

his scent far too familiar. What was his

sound carrying through the

deliberate; he’s not stupid.

then his eyes land on me. His body

posture relaxed. Andrew approaches with his head slightly bowed,

murmurs, voice

in my throat. His scent is all over the area and around the camper—all over Grace’s space. The rage bubbling beneath my skin threatens to spill

I remember how Grace trembled when she walked into my suite, and I take a deep

the violence underpinning our society.

will be time to repay this

I tell Jack-Eye, not wanting to linger. Not with Grace within reach. "We’ll deal with

"Got it, boss."

there aren’t many. "Alpha Wilder asked me

yet you’re not

anxiety spikes, filling the air with the sour smell of fear. "She... she decided to come with someone else. A stranger. I couldn’t leave her