40. Cassie

Everything felt too easy. The six lumbering carts took forever to get moving. No guards came charging. Multiple tons of grain, a huge unavoidable convoy diverting away from the standard road towards the river bridge, during the afternoon and nothing?

“You’re paranoid,” Robyn hissed as I stood up in my stirrups and surveyed the land around us. “There’s nobody there! Corbin wouldn’t get it wrong. He trusts these men. Do you think he’d lead us into danger? His sister?”

“No, no, I don’t. I like Corbin. He seems like a good guy,” I whisper back. He listened to my idea to shift, too. There was no arrogance to his leadership.

Those who shifted too often in a pack were often scorned. I thought it was mysterious, a chance to look at the world in a different way. Elle, of course, found it barbaric, but then you can’t stick a corset and hoist up a cleavage on a canine.

Watching the attack today, I made a quiet little promise to myself. When I find myself alone, with some safe space, my wolf s