Read Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2) for Free Online

lie? Fooling so many of us, fooling me. The man I called brother.
     
    I imagine it was supposed to hurt more than it did. Perhaps sink into my soul and leave a heavy, aching lump to swallow around. Instead I felt rather empty, a little bit hollow in the space that he used to fill - that space originally made for a family I didn’t remember. It seemed odd that the man that smiled so much, as if everything amused him, could be hiding such villainy. Hiding behind that wide smile he threw at everyone around him. I’ll not trust such a consistently happy persona again.
     
    I chased him further through the blooming trees. Ancient oaks and wild flowers only just beginning their cycle for the changing season.Wolf caught sight of his prey every so often, little flickers of red hair clashing with the budding green around him. Large shoulders at nearly seven foot in height swerving unnaturally fluidly around the staggered trunks. He was rather good at this game - he played at being the rabbit while Wolf hunted him down.
     
    He’d distracted my original plans of meeting the pack first. Run across my path in wolf form until I’d dismissed the belongings I’d been carrying and fell head first into instinct. I probably should have stilled for a moment, taken more time to think about his motives. But Wolf had decided we were chasing, and that was the end of the discussion. I allowed him more control than usual, simply because the animal felt more betrayed than I did. I felt rage for his actions, anger the moment I saw Sam’s body lifeless on his bedroom floor. Seething hate for the man who had taken my demons and given them Arya to destroy. Those feelings were momentary though, a whistle on the wind compared to this emptiness I now felt. It was as if he’d been ripped from my memories as quickly as he took a life, forgotten as friend and replaced by a driving urge to slay, to put him down like any other dog that had bitten it’s master. Maybe this was my malfunction - some misfire in the brain that caused such lack of conscience, or perhaps it was just the semblance of trust he’d inspired - not quite enough to truly fool the animal that made up half of my soul.
     
    Duncan moved faster ahead of me, his feet a blur between the smaller, younger saplings. I followed his burst of speed with one of my own, Wolf hungry with the idea of the final catch, a little ferocious in his growl of excitement. We were nearing the town, the forest slowly melting away to grass and tiny shrubs, the moon more clearly shown as her face beat down to highlight the traitor. How she moves to ensure his capture, how she lights the darkness to show me the way.
     
    I grinned into the gloomy evening, baring my teeth should he think to look behind him, confident I’d catch him soon enough. He was a fast wolf, a strong wolf - I’d outmatched him years ago.
    Soon enough he hit the breaching light of streetlamps, a hazy yellow that turned the inky night to a grey dawn. Houses lined the opposite side of the sectioning road, terraced dwellings that showed age in their crumbling brickwork. The street seemed sleepy - only lit from within in one or two rooms at the end of the long stretch of buildings. I rumbled to Wolf to put on another burst of speed, increase that pace until he was within grabbing distance - I’d had enough dead bodies thrown at me this evening, it had become somewhat irritating.
     
    “Duncan.” I growled out his name as he slowed beside one house in the middle of the row. Steadily decreasing my own speed until I came to stop within feet of his disheveled appearance. He’d let himself go a little in the weeks he’d spent on his own. I was oddly amused by the fact.
     
    He smiled that wide smile, teeth glaringly white beneath the moon’s glow. “Hello, lad. Enjoyed our little chase.”
     
    I grunted back at him, I found I had no words to continue a conversation I wasn’t all that interested in.
     
    He frowned slightly, creases in the