StelrLight

  As one, we exited the restaurant and joihe rush of people outside. I expected this pce to be simir to my previous pce of residen how everyone seemed to hide in their houses retively quickly after the su. “Why are there so many people out and about?”

  “Why wouldn’t there be?” Pendragon asked as his brows furrowed in fusion.

  I didn’t quite know the ao his question but, thankfully, Ginger was able to answer him. “I think she is thinking about how most games and such put the NPto their houses as soon as it is nighttime.” So it wasly what I had been thinking but it might get me the answer I needed.

  “You do know that this isn't a game, right?” He shot me a pointed look. Ohat said I better agree or he would smack me. A simple nod and he tinued. “Also, you have to remember that this pce is made up of mostly travelers.” Which meant that the people here were used to walking around even if it was dark out. Hell, the lights that lihe streets probably made it seem like they were ba Earth. The only thing missihe trains.

  Without warning, we came upon a wall of people, their murmurs blended into a cacophony of excitement and as they tried to get a good look at something. We tried to go around but they were everywhere as people gawked at whatever was oher side. I looked up to see if there was a roof we could scale. Was it all that odd that I wasn’t surprised to find others had the same idea? It seemed as though just as many people hung off the surrounding roofs and walls as there were on the ground.

  Lucky for us, the crowd parted to let a group of guards through. Brandi and Captain Young were amongst them. A few of the guards were also carrying a stretcher with a beaten and sliced-up dwarf. I looked past them and toward the now-visible store.

  It was destroyed. It was safe to assume that the windows were shattered from the inside given the amount of merdise scattered around the pce. Some of it even looked to be stig through the wall and roof. If I didn’t know better, I would assume a bomb had gone off. Then again, maybe it was a magib that didn’t leave any burns or smoke.

  Pendragon stepped into their path. The group stopped. While the captain and the werewolf gred at him, the rest of the group chorused out “ander” and “Guildmaster” as they gave him a slight bow. While I had expected the guy was high up given that he talked to Xander as if they were coworkers and not simply acquaintances, I had not expected just how high up he was. I mean, Guildmaster? Of which guild?

  “What happened?” He asked the captain.

  While Captain Young looked to be g his jaw, he mao grit out, “It is not something for you to worry about. You are currently on vacation. I suggest you return to it and leave this to us.”

  “But…” I started. A hand wave from the dwarf stopped me fruing as we all turo give him our full attention.

  Steve out a few pained groans and grunts as he forced his body up. His fearful and tear-stained eyes met mine before flickering toward a group of guards as he whispered “They stole it…” With those words, he colpsed bato the stretcher.

  The guards looked between him and roup. I held up my hands as if to say I had no clue what he meant. Holy, I hoped that either the group of guards were simply blog my view of the perpetrator because the other option was ohat I always feared. I mean, who didn’t fear running into a corrupt or overzealous police officer, let alone a group of them?

  I just hoped that my tail and ears didn’t give me away because I was both pissed and scared. My orb was gone and I had no clue when I would get it back or even who exactly had it. Who knew when they would decide to try to order me around? Hell, would it work at a distance? Could I run but find myself ordered to return or would going far enough kill me as it did in a few of the stories?

  Thankfully, Captain Youher didn’t want to question us or didn’t care if we did know because he shook his head and pushed Pendragon out of the way as he resumed walking. Save for Brandi and a pair of guards, the rest of the group followed him.

  With the excitement over and a ck of anything to see, the crowd started to disperse. I debated running in the hopes that the person holding my orb would be required to talk to me to order me. While the idea had merit, it had one major fw: the person could just destroy the thing out of frustration. Did I know what it would do to me? No, but it couldn’t be all that good sidering the amount of pain I was in from a simple scratch.

  With how many times I lost the thing, there came a point in whie wondered as to why. Was I just doomed to bee someone's sve? Or was it one of those cruel jokes that the universe pyed on people? Fuck, was it a god or something targeting Kitsuh the simple goal of creating chaos?

  Pendragon’s hand on my shoulder pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts. “I will find it.”

  My knees shook as I whimpered, “How?”

  “I don’t know but I will find it. I will not stop until I find that thing.” He promised. The guy shot a longing look at Ginger as he tinued. “It wouldn’t be right to leave anyone in this situation. Not even if it required me to leave you for a time. Just know, I will be back.”

  Pendragon moved to follow the guards but Brandi stopped him. “How about you wait until you meet with the Alpha?”

  “Why would we o meet that beast?” At Ginger’s words, the two guards that had stayed behind growled.

  “Don’t you call him a beast you wannabee shifter!” One of the guards said.

  “Oh great, more racism,” I muttered as my eyes rolled.

  “What did you say?” The other one shot at me.

  “Now now,” Brandi spoke as if she was the voice of reason. I was starting to wohough. She had to know how Ginger would react, let alone her own people. “You are right in asking why. He doesn’t typically talk to new shifters, but Kyren here is an oddity. He felt that he couldn’t delegate this to an underling.”

  “And why would she o meet him at all?” Ginger shot back.

  Pendragon spoke as if something just occurred to him. “Because she is a shifter.”

  “Correct,” Brandi smiled. It was the first time I had seeeeth and they looked, predatory. Each of the tips seemed more poihan they should have been. The sight shot a brief spat of fear rag down my nerves and into my legs as I started to seriously pte running. It was as if she knew what I was thinking as her eyes met mine. “You try and run but you won't get far. Even if you did the guards at the gates would bring you to our pound if you made it that far.”

  “Why the fuck did you bother to ask me to e with you if you were just going to force me to anyway?” I demanded.

  “Because we don’t like to force people to e see us. We want their stay to be their choice.”

  “Their stay? You mean once I get there I won't have a choi how long the stay will be?!”

  Brandi sighed, “I am making a mess of this. eet the guy. Only then we know what es .”

  I debated taking my ce. I eveed attag her. While I khat would be suicide, I was fairly sure that my spawn point was likely still set to that church. I would then be able to go anywhere and there would be nothing the fug Alpha could do to me.

  As my hand reached to retrieve my Chisa Katana from my iinger’s hand stopped me. “Just go with them. My brother will deal with them whes back if they try and keep you against your will.” Her words calmed me because she was right. Xander would do something like that for me. Hell, he aying for doing something simir.

  “Fine,” I said in a cheerful voice. “I will meet with this Alpha of yours.” Brandi this before pivoting on one foot and leading us down areet. As we followed her, I noticed that the pces turned from small busio box stores before morphing into apartments. Given how many of the massive towers there were, the city had to support quite a rge popution. Probably rger than most tries ba Earth did.

  Then came the rich residences. Whereas the apartments were iowers, these pces looked like townhouses. They even had feo prevent people from destroying their wn. Of course, the things were designed so they didn’t bloe's view of the property.

  Of course, while there were those that everyone sidered rich, there were those that even the rich sidered over the top. Those that built pounds for themselves or even close family. One of the rgest looked to tain an impossible-looking forest is walls. The gate to the property swung open as roached.

  “Wele to Hunt’s Hollow,” Brandi announced as we stepped over the threshold. I barely noticed as the gates shut behind us. My eyes were locked onto the vilge that the wall had hidden. This far from the forest, the trees were fairly well spread out and looked fairly young. One or two buildings y between some while others tained small crop plots.

  Kids in various forms pyed as their parents watched. The pce looked peaceful. Like it was home to these people. I almost felt bad for what their Alpha was bringing down on their head by f me to be here. Almost.

  She didn’t give us long to gawk at the sights before resuming the procession. It only took me a mio realize that she was leading us toward the rgest building in sight. Each of the walls was crafted from logs that looked to have been harvested from the very forest it was surrounded by. Which was impressive given that the structure was two stories tall and at least a hundred feet on a side.

  Our escorts sped past us as they moved to open the massive double doors to reveal a rather rge sitting room. While the room might have been well decorated, I didn’t notice. My eyes were locked on the man sitting in the chair in the middle of the room. His hands were steepled as he waited for something or someone. His eyes snapped up to take in roup only to loto me. They were a dark brown that reminded me of chocote. It went well with his darker-tanned skin. While the skin tone and posture hid much of his muscle tone, even I could tell the guy was well-built. The amount of well-muscled people had me w just what they fed these people and where I could get some.

  “You must be Kyren.” He spoke with a soft voiot that it wasn’t any less powerful for it. Even now I could feel the amount of power radiating off of him. “One of the boarders few Kitsuhe only ohat is low enough level to fall under my purview.”

  Wait, there are other Kitsune iy? Where were they? Could I meet them? I opened my mouth to ask these questions and more but he didn’t give me a ce. “Do you know why the city allows me to require all shifters to e visit this pound at least once?”

  I didn’t know, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hazard a guess. “trol?”

  He shook his head. “Not in the way you mean it. Did you know that those with an animal transformation are more proo being influenced by said animal?” I shook my head. “Well, they are. Wolves are more likely to live in packs while cats tend to be loners.”

  I wao ask what this had to do with me but I resisted. “And?”

  “While it is different for every species, if a wolf doesn’t have a pack, they tend to go insane.” His tone was ung. “A wild and insane werewolf is not something anyone wants. Especially ihe city where there are non-batants.” My mind fshed back to the kids I just saw outside, pying. “My pack built this pound to give the various shifter species a ce to get what they o stay banced. It has grown to the point that the cil sends people here rather than try and deal with them on their own.”

  I shook my head. While this sounded great and all, it didn’t apply to me. “That still does not expin why I am here.”

  “Because you shift into a fox. Sinone of the other Kitsune are willing to talk to me about what might happen, I o assume the worst about your beast's nature. As such, I will have to require that you stay here, at least for a little while.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” Ginger asked.

  “I will have to insist.” His grin turned predatory as his gaze went to her. The guy leaned forward as he reached for a box set on a nearby table. As soon as the lid was lifted, I reized the small orb inside.

  “What are you doing with that?” I growled. I wasn’t the only oher. Both Pendragon and Ginger sounded just as pissed as I felt.

  “Funny story about this little thing.” He said as he set it down oable with its lid open and fag us. “When Brandi told me that you didn’t jump at the ce to visit the pce, I sent someoo keep an eye on you. Imagine my surprise when they reported back this little of information.”

  “So you are the ohat ordered that shop destroyed and the smith to be hurt?!” Pendragon asked. His voice was low and full e.

  “Not at first.” He responded with a wave of his hand. “Not until the spy reported back that it sounded as if the dwarf was going to see if it was the real deal by you to do some things.”

  “He would never!” Ginger shouted.

  “To have absolute power over someone is tempting to most. It i even those with pure iions.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” I asked. My eyes narrowed as I tried to figure out what he got out of all this. “You could have kept it secret and saved it for some time iure when you wanted pany or something.” A shudder ran through me at the very thought.

  “I could,” he agreed, “or I could make a deal with you.”

  The idea of making a deal reminded me of the demon but I didn’t see any other choice. “I am listening.”

  “Until such a time that I determine you trol your beast in any situation, you will live in one of the pack houses.” He started to list things off. “The pack goes on a run every night. You will join in on these runs as long as you live within the pound. Iurn, I will give you this back.” He gestured at the box taining my orb.

  her of those sounded all that bad. So what was the catch? “And how much will this e?”

  “Because it is something I am requiring you to do, it is free. The price for when you are free to e and go will depend on how everything goes and how well you ie into the pack.”

  I tried to e up with a catd finally asked him. “What is the catch?”

  “To leave the pound you must be apanied by someohat tain you.”

  I retty sure most of his people could do this, but something told me he was going to limit this as much as possible. “A me guess, there are very few people that you would sider capable of doing that?”

  “About two dozen, most of which are out doing various missions.” Yeah, imagihat.

  “Fine.” I grumped as I reached for the box.

  His ha mine and held it in pce as he shot me a smile filled with pride at what he had aplished. “Your first run is in ten minutes.” Well, I knew who I would be going after first with pranks.