“All the more reason to go back to the city and get help.” Nicolas’s voice almost broke with his tension. William could see moisture beading up all over his face and body. He was truly terrified of what it was he had seen.
Aceso lifted Nicolas’s head to meet her eyes and turned toward the rest of the pack. “The Whyte Plain will kill Achelois and all that will remain is the shadowy form that these things exist as if we don’t do something now. We don’t have time.”
William sat up straight. “I’m not letting you go by yourself.”
Charles spoke to Aceso. “William is your pack mate, correct”. Aceso nodded. “You would only be able to find William and not Nicolas if you got separated in this Whyte Plain?”
Aceso nodded. “Our pack bond was the only thing that allowed me to track William into the Whyte plain.”
“So, if you lost track of Nicolas than there would be no way of you finding him?” Katherine asked.
Aceso nodded. “Yes, that’s why the less of us go the better.” She looked over at William. “If you go get the Elders, you would be able to find me.”
“And by that time, you would be dead as well, and we would have lost three werewolves for the price of one.” William looked down at Nicolas. “You said we were in a war. In a war you have to make sacrifices. I say we leave Achelois there to rot.” He didn’t dare look at Katherine or Charles. “Better we lose one shape shifter, than three.” His stare hardened to shoot daggers at his alpha. “A tree needs to be pruned of its sick limbs so that it can survive. Achelois has become a sick limb. Besides, better that we ditch the malcontent and get a new healer who will accept you as alpha. Then we can move on and become a true pack.”
The silence that hit him was like a cresting wave from the ocean. He felt his body constrict and he was having trouble breathing. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there. He suddenly had to go relieve himself. But he kept up a façade of total coldness as he continued to stare at Aceso. The alpha did not show any of the shock or anger that he would have expected to see from Katherine or Charles. She seemed to take in every word he had said and know she was logically disseminating the information and processing her options. She remained deathly still and her strong, quiet voice cut through his inner anxiety. “If there is even a sliver of a chance to save her, I’m going to take that chance.”
William shifted his feet and bowed his head while maintaining eye contact with her. “And I will not let you go to the Whyte Plain without me.”
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“If William doesn’t go back to the city, we would never be able to find any of you, would we?” Charles asked.
Aceso shook her head, but it was Nicolas who answered. “Asteria told me that Scouts can’t see the future anymore. She told me that seeing anything clearly through my dreams was virtually impossible. I’m not very strong in those abilities anyway, or so she said.”
“If that’s true,” Katherine said, “how do you know where to find Achelois now?”
“I don’t know,” Nicolas spat back at her, “I never asked for any of this.”
“Is it possible,” Charles asked, “that you are being manipulated somehow.” Nicolas looked at him blankly. “Is it possible that you are being given these visions?”
Nicolas looked as if he was going to yell at Charles but thought better of it. He sat back with a sullen look on his face, collapsing against the earthen wall of the den.
Aceso cocked her head to the side a fraction of an inch as she regarded Charles. “Are you suggesting that this all could be some sort of trap?”
“What I’m saying is that in a war, traps are necessary and should be expected in most cases. The person who thinks he is immune to traps usually falls for the simplest ones and dies for his arrogance, taking his friends to the grave with him.”
“Unless,” William said, feeling a surge of hope and adrenaline in his throat, “we find a way to beat the trap and spring one of our own.”
Katherine looked between him and Charles and Aceso. “What are you suggesting?” she asked. “A few minutes ago, Aceso sounded like if we got in and made it back out in one piece it would be a small miracle, now you’re talking about going on offense, in a place none of us knows anything about.” She shook her head rapidly as if she had just eaten something extremely sour. “I’m not much of a one for sports, but I know having home field advantage is huge.”
Aceso cut through William’s would be response. “This is pointless and unnecessary. I’m going to the Whyte Plain…”
“And I am coming with you.” Aceso looked at William as if he had just stabbed her with a knife. “If Charles is right, and you go by yourself you will fight very bravely and die along with Nicolas and Achelois.” William took a deep breath. “With me, you will at least have an Enforcer with you and a fighting chance. I’m not going to let you throw your life away, not when I can help.”
Aceso looked at him coldly. He felt like she was looking at someone that she knew nothing about. Being treated like a complete stranger after all they had been through together hurt in ways he never thought imaginable but if it got them through this alive than it would have been worth it.
“What, exactly, did you have in mind?”
“You take Nicolas and go find Achelois. While you are doing that, I could circle around your position off to the side. I would be able to feel you through the bond so I would know where you were and how far away, reasonably. When I felt you stop moving, I move in from the flanking side and take the shadows by surprise.”
“And what would keep you from being taken while you were out there by yourself blind, in the Whyte Plain?” Aceso had a challenging tone to her voice.
“That’s where the Tracker that’s with him watches his back and keeps him in one piece.” Charles shifted his eyes from Aceso to William for the smallest fraction of a second.
Aceso was quiet and spent a long moment studying Charles before looking back to William.
“The same could be said for you, Aceso. What makes you think that you would be safe?” Katherine asked.