The wind chased about her and she shivered again. Rex walked up next to her and leaned on the van. He wore her father’s black sweatpants and grey sweatshirt, which were small on him, as if his clothes had shrunk in the dryer.
Tristan rubbed against her legs and she looked down at him. She patted his head absentmindedly and he closed his eyes under her touch. She smiled.
“Does it feel good to be almost home?”
I will feel better when we get off the boat and onto our land. Rex, go get the cage. I hear the boat.
Rex nodded and walked to the back of the boathouse. He emerged with a metal cage that he quickly opened.
Ashlee’s heart thumped in her chest. “Why do you have to be caged?”
The man who runs the ferry doesn’t know who we are. He thinks this is a wolf preserve and that we run it. He would be very unhappy with a wolf running loose on his boat.
“Oh.” She really hated the idea of Tristan caged. But he didn’t seem to mind. He walked into the metal cage and Rex snapped the door shut.
“Lucky us, Ashlee.” He winked. “Only way to keep him contained.” Tristan growled. “I joke, big brother, that’s all.”
Ashlee shivered again, but this time not from the cold. Hadn’t Tristan thought Rex betrayed him? What did she really know of Rex, anyway? Not that she knew Tristan either. Ashlee’s pulse sped up and her stomach twisted. Why had she thought it was a good idea to come to this place?
The boat flowed smoothly in the water alongside the dock. It looked like a small fishing vessel, the kind she’d seen in Martha’s Vineyard when they’d vacationed there a decade ago. It didn’t seem like a ferry. Wooden and old, it let out a puff of black smoke when it came to a complete stop.
“Don’t worry, it’ll float. And don’t talk to Trip on the way over there. The seaman will think you’re nuts. We have to replace them every five years as it is so they don’t notice that we don’t age.” Rex whispered.
“Why don’t some of you just learn to drive a boat? You could send one of those telepathic messages across the water: ‘send speed boat now.’” Ashlee looked at the rough dark water they were about to cross. Not that she wanted to pilot the boat. She wasn’t volunteering or anything.
Rex shrugged. “We have a lot of things we need to update around here, customs, like the ferryman, which haven’t been changed in way too long. One of us should become a boat captain, but the telepathy thing, it doesn’t work over long distances like that.”
Ashlee nodded. “Oh.” What else needed to be updated? Were they living in huts with no indoor plumbing? Ashlee swallowed, her mouth dry.
“Got a wolf you’re bringing over, Mister Kane?” The old sailor seemed straight out of a movie. He wore a patch over his left eye. His hair, completely white, thinned in the back. He wore a black rain slicker and overalls.
“I do, Peter. Not to worry, he’s properly caged. Plus this one’s been castrated. He’s not going to harm anyone.” Ashlee heard Tristan give a low growl in the cage. She wanted desperately to reach through the cage bars and touch him. But, you didn’t do that to regular wolves, and it wouldn’t do to make the captain suspicious. “This is Ashlee Morrison. She’s joining us at the Institute.”
“Welcome.” Peter extended his hand and she shook it. “Where is your coat?”
“Packed.” She hoped she had remembered to pack her coat.
“Why don’t you go below where it’s warmer?”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t leaving Tristan and Rex. She stood by the railing and looked out at the water as the boat slowly plowed over the sea. The water was choppy. In general, she didn’t get seasick, but this ride pushed even her limits. The boat rocked right and shook left as the vessel groaned beneath them. Ashlee scanned the deck for life preservers and didn’t see any.
She stared out in the distance and watched as the island got closer. There it was: Wolf Island—they had called it Westervelt—where wolf-shifters had lived for a century unbothered by mankind. The place her mother had fled in the middle of the night in a run for her life. Visions of a young woman, huddled over, hidden, terrified, knowing that she might never come home again filled Ashlee’s mind.
One lone tear slipped from the vision of young Victoria’s eye and Ashlee sucked in her breath. It seemed so real, what she’d imagined. Ashlee wanted to reach out and grab the young woman and assure her that a young man doing his Emergency Room rotation—her mate—waited in New York City to sew up the top of her finger after she cut it off at the cafeteria job she worked. But the vision waned and Ashlee was brought back to her current situation.
She focused on the landmass as it grew closer. Westervelt wasn’t too big and most of the island appeared to be wooded. Big, thick, dense trees filled with color like on the mainland. She didn’t see any housing. They did sleep indoors, didn’t they? Her heart pounded in her chest. Rex seemed content not to speak, which left her alone with her thoughts. Ashlee didn’t know if this was a good thing or not. Finally, after what felt like forever, they docked on the island.
Rex crossed the deck to retrieve Tristan’s cage. Ashlee started to walk forward when Peter grabbed her arm. He tugged her to his side. She pulled back from his hold but his fingernails dug into her skin. She cried out.
“Turn back. I’ll take you back right now. Things are not right over there. Satan lives on that island. The animals, they’re not right. These people do weird work with the wolves. I’ll take you back, miss. Come with me now.”
Ashlee stared at him with her mouth open to speak but Rex was suddenly behind her.
“Peter, what do you think you’re doing to Ms. Morrison?”
Ashlee finally managed to free herself from the old man’s grip and she almost fell backward from the effort. When she turned around, she had to stifle a whimper. A growl erupted from the metal cage but that wasn’t what frightened her. Rex’s eyes had gone dark, menacing. They were his wolf eyes. Ashlee worried that in one moment Rex would shift and then Peter’s days were finished.
“Thank you for your concern, sir. I’ll be fine.” She tried to smile as she crossed past Rex and the cage, and then hopefully to the boat exit. She looked down as she walked, glad she was on solid ground. When Rex had finally taken the cage off the boat and joined her, she whirled to look at him.
“I thought you were going to shift right there.”
“I had it under control. But I would have shifted if he didn’t let you go. We obviously need to get a new ferryboat operator. He threatened the pack.”
He was right, little one. We do not let others harm those who belong to us.
Tristan didn’t need to say more. The unspoken words lay out before them like a bridge she need only cross. If she was pack, she belonged to them, as she belonged to Tristan. She swallowed hard. Did she really want to be owned like that? Once the boat was far enough away, Rex opened up the cage and Tristan walked out. He stretched as he pushed his front paws down towards the ground.
Ashlee didn’t move an inch as she said, “I don’t belong to anyone. You told me I could leave when I wanted to, Tristan.”
You can. But even if you run to the ends of the earth, you will still belong to our pack. You are one of us.
That sounded like a big problem. She never got the chance to respond as four wolves ran out from behind the trees. The biggest one held a bag in his mouth that he dropped on the ground in front of him. She guessed they weren’t just regular wolves. Seemed a pretty solid bet they were shifters come to greet them.