Chapter 6 : In Hiding

*Kael*

"Lian!"

I heard the sound of my fake name but was too stunned to respond to it. I was pushed and shoved by the crowd, some snapping at me to get out of the way. But I couldn't move until that female disappeared into an alley.

She struck a chord in the center of my soul. I felt it tug toward her before I even saw her like a flame in the dark—sandy blonde hair, eyes as blue as the faraway Eastern sea, I imagined. She looked like she'd been caught in a dust storm, disheveled and gaunt, but I thought she was the most beautiful shifter I'd ever seen.

But who in the Moon Goddess's hell was she, and why did she find me as easily as I found her?

"Kael!"

The sound of my real name hissed in urgency finally made me turn just as someone grabbed my scruff and yanked me back into the dark alley where we were supposed to be hiding. I almost stumbled right into Jerah, who was glaring at me pointedly.

"What in the Goddess's hell was that?" he demanded, shoving me deeper down the alley to avoid being seen. "Even the pups know better than to run out in plain sight."

I shook off my daze. "Sorry, Jerah, I… I don't know what got into me. There was a female—"

Jerah's sigh was part exasperation, part patient. "My young friend, now is not the time to be looking for rebellion candidates."

Normally, I would have laughed and agreed, but I felt so shaken that I just said, "Right."

He patted my shoulder. "We're back to sensible. Good. Come on, we have what we need, so let's get back."

I took one more glance over my shoulder, knowing it was pointless to hope that she would be pushing through the crowd to get to me. What kind of fantasy was that? I laughed to myself. Had I really been so touch-starved that I was dreaming up impossible scenarios now?

The lack of sleep was likely getting to me.

I jogged to catch up to Jerah, already peering over the corner building to make sure the coast was clear to dart across the dirt street. There hadn't been any Sun Mountain or Hazel Coast activity in a while. We all deduced that Niburgh had been so drained of all its usefulness that they didn't bother bullying it anymore. But we couldn't afford to be careless lest assassins be hiding in plain sight really to slit my throat.

I hung behind Jerah and muttered, "She was being escorted—or kidnapped maybe—by Hazel Coast Epsilon."

Jerah stiffened. "How do you know?"

Both warring packs were proud enough to never wear anything but their colors. Not even the assassins, who wanted you to know who killed you in the last seconds of your life.

"Sun sigil," I told him.

Jerah swore. "Great. Clear."

We snaked through the sparse stream of shifters to the next alley. After two more, we stopped at a boarded-up door of a building that had half collapsed on itself years ago. The several wooden slats looked like they would have nailed the doorway shut, but now it was a ruse because they were just stacked loosely atop each other.

Jerah and I moved a few boards and duked inside, putting them back where they had been.

The hallway was cold sandstone, near pitch-black without any light sources, but soon it opened up into an empty atrium. The skylight had been shattered, millions of shards of glass glittering across the floor. The only thing in the big space was some scattered stone blocks once used as modern chairs. Now we stacked them to climb onto the second floor and kick them over to hide the evidence.

We veered into the fourth hallway on the right and into another boarded door. This one we knocked on seven times, one for each of my lost family members. A few moments later a slat level with my shins was pushed off by a tiny hand.

"Daddy?" asked a curious young voice.

Jerah's serious mood lifted instantly. "It's me, pup. Can you push this one?"

He rapped on the one above it. There were some determined grunts and bare feet scuffling the floor, but eventually, Tara got herself high enough on her toes that she knocked it down.

"I did it!"

"You did!" Jerah boomed, setting down all the other slats after handing our gathered supplies to me. Behind the barrier was two-year-old Tara with her arms already in the air waiting to be picked up by her father. He scooped her up and spun her around, her giggle the purest sound I'd ever heard. "Soon you'll be taller than your uncle."

I scrunched my nose at Tara to make her laugh again. "You think you'll be six-foot someday?"

"Yes," she said confidently.

"Not if you keep feeding her only peaches and desert rabbits."

I looked up in relief to see Jaci padding toward us out of the dark. I grinned at her and she took some supplies off me. "Hey."

Jerah ruffled her neat white hair. "Thanks, sis."

Jaci rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue as he squeezed past her. "We're thirty-two, dirt-for-brains. Stop being so immature."

"Wave at your auntie for me, Tara," he said, his deep voice colored with mischief.

Tara did so happily.

Jaci snorted, shaking her head, as we fell in step together to continue down the hallway. It had a few spaced-out gas lamps that still worked, even if they didn't give off much light. "How did it go?" she asked.

Though Jerah had his proclivity for humor, his twin was stern and level headed. Jaci was one of the few who kept us all together physically, mentally, and emotionally. If we didn't have her, we'd have lost hope years ago.

I kept out the female I'd seen; she would scold me for getting distracted in plain sight. "Hazel Coast Epsilon. Just two, heading toward the train."

I got scolded anyway. She snapped, "You were out of sight, right? You should have worn that stupid wig. Why didn't you wear it? You need to hide your identity every damn day, Kael. You know that."

I chewed the inside of my cheek. It was rare that I did forget to wear the itchy black wig to hide my near-white hair that stuck out like a rotten tooth amongst the many brown or black-haired heads through Niburgh's streets, but today it had slipped my mind completely.

Jaci elbowed me. "Something's up with you. What happened out there?"

"It's nothing," I said too quickly.

We reached the end of the hallway, entering what used to be a common area to mingle and have meals. It was a little worse for wear than it used to be, but it filled our needs. Shifters young and old milled about, doing much about nothing as the end of the day approached. Soon everyone would disperse to their rooms for the night and hopefully dream of finding freedom again.

It was the same dream I had, except mine road on the back of guilt and the weight of my family's legacy.

"It's not nothing," Jaci said, setting the supplies on one of the tables before putting her hands on her hips.

I sat my things down and couldn't help but grin down at her. "You're such a mom."

"My five offspring remind me every day." She said it seriously, but the corner of her mouth was struggling not to curve toward a smile. "And since I've been raising you were seven, I shouldn't have to baby you twenty years later." She poked my chest. "So tell me what's going on."

It was true. When I tried to remember what my mother looked like, Jaci's face was the one that came to mind. Even if she wasn't my mother, she was just as good. And I couldn't lie to her.

I gestured for her to follow me to a quiet corner. There were quite a few eavesdroppers around. "Alright," I sighed, meeting her fierce dark blue eyes. "The Hazel weren't just walking around. They had a female with them. I think they'd kidnapped her."

Jaci's brows knitted in confusion. "That's unfortunate. How does that matter to us?"

I inhaled deeply. On the exhale I said, "I think she's from the East."

"How do you know?"

"I'd never seen blonde hair and blue eyes before—not Moonwake features at all."

"Hm. I'd never seen anyone from the East. Kael, you're skirting the truth."

"I… I think she's—"

"They're back!"

The voice echoed in the room. What was left of Moonwake stirred awake at the return of the patrol as they filed inside. Most went straight to their pups or partners; one male went to Jerah and another came toward me and Jaci.

"What is it?" we asked at the same time.

He seemed torn on who to directly report to, and I wasn't going to lie to myself that it hurt. After all these years, the pack's faith in me had waned far too much for anyone's liking.

Jaci shoved a palm into my back as a rough cue.

The male, a former Epsilon, cleared his throat and said, "Thankfully not much to report, but we saw two Hazel Coast guards with a captive who looked like an Easterner."

I couldn't help but throw Jaci a quick told-you-so glance. She shook her head in good nature.

"It wouldn't be a concern," he continued, "had we not learned that reinforcements from the Eastern Epsilon, some Rosewren, most Oceantide, are going to dock here in Niburgh."

That was concerning. "To aid Sun?"

He nodded once. "We can only hope none are sent for Hazel."

"Agreed." Alpha Syrus Morven was the instigator of the war twelve years ago, but it was Hazel Coast's Alpha, Connor Herrick, who brought it to every pack's doorstep. Including mine.

My resentment was a sleeping beast; it stirred now just thinking about the real monster who murdered my family and nearly annihilated Moonwake.

I pushed it back down. I refused to give in to revenge. All I wanted was to protect those I had left.

"What else?" I asked as I noticed the supplies table was still half empty. I felt a prickle of dread. "Did the hunt not go well?"

The Epsilon, though twenty years my senior, glanced away as if wanting to avoid telling me something. I opened my mouth to ask again when Jerah came over with a dark look on his bearded face.

His voice was equally grim. "They're looking for you."

It sounded like a premonition. I gritted my teeth. "Which they?"

"Hazel."

Behind me, Jaci swore.

My mind flew through a dozen scenarios of what to do next. This was something we'd all dreaded for years and prayed would never come.

I looked around the room at all the shifters I'd grown up with or watched grow up. All the elders who served Moonwake for decades with nothing but faith and love for the Liviana dynasty. We'd lived in a city of blue and white, and now we were hiding in an abandoned hotel.

I was supposed to be the savior of our pack, and yet, I was putting them all at risk just by standing here.

"Alright," I began, but someone demanded, "Where's Rian?"

My blood froze. Oh, no.

"Where's Rian?" I barked at the Epsilon, who winced as if I'd figured out what he was trying to hide.

"We… we don't know."

My fear was bigger than my anger. "How do you not know?!"

"We were near-ambushed by a few Sun. They held us at knifepoint and demanded your location."

"Me? Or—"

Jerah shook his head. "They don't know you're the Alpha. Rian told them he was."

Looks like the female in the crowd would have to wait.