A splash came from behind us, breaking the spell. Bastien’s eyes shot toward the noise, and as I turned, I caught sight of a man swimming near the center of the lake. Then he became still, allowing me to make him out better.

He had only one eye, but it was fixed right on us.

Dane.

Apparently coming to his senses, Bastien immediately distanced himself from me before saying in a disconcerted whisper, “We should go.”

Victoria

On the way to the bank, Bastien dipped down and emerged holding a familiar plant. A slimy, bulbous weed. But unlike the whitish river weed, this had a greenish tinge. “Lake weed,” Bastien explained.

We plucked off some of the mucousy bubbles and ate them in a hurry. Lake weed was no more unpleasant in taste than the river weed—quite bland, really—but the snotty substance slid just as slowly down my throat.

Reaching the bank, I grabbed my satchel and retreated behind a tree to dry myself as best as I could and get changed. Bastien promised to keep a look out and warn me if anyone was approaching. Once I’d finished, I returned to see that he had also changed into another loose set of clothes.

I pulled my jacket on and zipped it up high before we returned to where we had left the rest of the werewolves. It seemed that everyone was awake by now. I caught sight of Dane from the corner of my eye, climbing out of the lake. Had he been spying on us? From Bastien’s concerned look, he seemed to suspect as much.

Then I spotted Brucella throwing me a dirty look. I let my eyes pass over her, ignoring her.

About a quarter of an hour later, everybody declared they were ready to leave. I climbed onto Bastien’s back once again, and we set off.

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur of travel.

First, we managed to successfully gather the Cuthrals—a burly, dark-toned tribe—along with two other packs. Once he had these three additions, Bastien suggested to Sergius that we had enough groups to split ways and gather the rest faster. Sergius agreed to his suggestion, since it was far more efficient than all of us traveling together. Each pack was allotted groups to gather over the next few days. Our fellow travelers also agreed that we would only have time to gather the strongest packs, at least for now. They decided to gather fifty in total. With fifty, Bastien seemed to be convinced that they would be strong enough to move onto the next step: taking on the hunters.

But first, of course, everybody had to meet to discuss what their strategy should be. This was something that I was still scratching my head about, and Bastien had not offered any further clarification as to his thoughts either.

Thus, we all split ways, promising to meet our quota of recruited packs within five days, after which we would all gather in Rock Hall—another suggestion that was posed by Sergius as his own idea, rather than Bastien’s, since they were far more likely to accept it from him.

Bastien and I did not have much of a role to play in gathering the packs, given that most of them we stopped by were either unknown or enemies to him. We relied on the others to go in and do the recruiting. For us, it was a lot of waiting around, followed by more travel. Though I could not say that I got bored at all. Bastien was too interesting a man for me to feel bored around. We talked a lot, and I dug deeper into his childhood—like what it was like to grow up as a wolf in The Woodlands—and his culture. He also introduced me to his family in more detail, particularly his siblings: how they used to pass their time, how they would hunt, play, fight, and do everything together. It sounded like his siblings had been his best friends.

I also told him more about The Shade, as well as the current state of affairs on Earth. He seemed impressed when I described the role that The Shade had come to play in everything, the protectors and fighters we had become. I also told him everything that I knew about the hunters—something that he, understandably, took particular interest in.

We lived mostly on a diet of either river or lake weed, since there did not seem to be any shortage of fresh water in The Woodlands, and it was quick and convenient. I guessed that some of the more courteous wolf tribes we visited would’ve invited us inside for a hot meal, but there were just so many of us. It would have been a huge undertaking to accommodate all of us.

Bastien was again unaware of most of the locations we were heading to, so we could not travel up in the trees… which left us on the ground, enduring Brucella’s constant glares. I was not sure if it was just my imagination, but I couldn’t help but think she was spending more time watching us now than she had before Dane had spotted Bastien holding me in the lake. At least we had parted ways with the Bonereavers for the time being.

But once the pack stopped to rest for the night, Bastien always escaped with me to the trees. As time went by, I found myself looking forward to the end of the day when we could get away from the crowd of dangerous strangers and be alone. It was during these stolen hours that we had our best conversations. We could both feel much freer around one another. But often, we did not talk. Often, we just sat together, enjoying the silence and each other’s presence.

Over the next four days, the Northstones worked hard, even cutting down on resting times to meet our quota. Fortunately, we reached an area that seemed to be far more populated with wolves and there was less distance to travel between each den. By the fourth evening, we’d gathered every pack allotted to us except for one. We had to hope that the other tribes had been as successful as we had been.

We weren’t left to wonder long about how the Bonereavers had fared. As we prepared to stop for the night, we crossed paths with them in a clearing, and with them were almost ten other tribes. There were so many wolves gathered around me now, I could hardly even estimate the number. The Bonereaver chiefs reported to Sergius that they had been successful in securing their quotient, and tomorrow they had just a couple more to retrieve before we were all due to meet in Rock Hall before evening. Things were going more smoothly than I had expected, and I was surprised at how the wolves were cooperating. Though this was such an emergency, they really had no choice but to put aside their differences.