The combined werewolf and human hunting party spent the next few days trekking through the Oclan countryside, trying to stick mainly to the roads and paths already existing so the humans wouldn’t fall behind as much. It was a constant and overwhelming irritation to Russel which was only made worse any time they had to stop because of them. They always needed to rest, or to drink water, or eat. If the humans weren’t slowing them down, they would have been at the Harvenk border in three, maybe four days. The fact that Hank was forcing them to take his envoy along would make the trek eat up almost the entire time limit that was given. He had to remind himself, over and over again, not to kill the prick. Killing Hank would be extremely bad. It would most likely lead to war. They couldn't afford to get into a war with a country that had advanced weaponry. Thousands of his people could die.

Those were the reasons he kept telling himself over and over again but each day Hank or another human delayed them was just another day he was close to breaking. To help keep himself sane, he spent most of his time scouting a path that wouldn’t bring the humans too close to other villages, cities, or towns. He didn’t need the added stress of a possible confrontation between them and some of his people. People weren’t aware of what was happening, although he was pretty sure some form of word or rumor must have spread by now. He didn’t want to take any chances though. It was better to just circumvent those places and avoid the possibility.

“They’re slowing us down again,” Ays said.

Russel and his group of four were currently five or six miles away from the humans, who were, according to Tris, stopping for lunch or some other nonsense. He had brought Aysir, Tris, Maks, and Raylan with him. They had spent the first several hours in wolf-form running through a small forest to make sure there wasn’t anyone lurking inside that might pose a risk or cause some kind of trouble.

“At this point, I’m startin’ to think the fools are doin’ this on purpose,” Ray growled. He was standing resolutely, his gaze scanning the forest as he chewed on a stalk of grass. “They want you to fail, Rus.”

“I don't know if it’s that simple,” Russel replied. “I don't think it’s that they want me to fail. I think it’s more likely they want us at the border at a very specific time. The problem is that I don’t know why and haven’t had any luck figuring it out.”

“An ambush?” Tris asked.

“That’s the likeliest of the possibilities but it still doesn’t make any sense. Hank demonstrated he could have killed a lot of us back at the castle. Why go through all this if he’s just going to ambush us?” Russel looked thoughtfully into the forest. “And then there’s the other thing bothering me.”

“The girl?” Ray said.

“Lola has to be a piece of this puzzle. I’ve noticed strange things about her since we’ve met but she just isn’t fitting in with anything else. King Harrison was willing to rip up the treaty just to make sure she was okay. That she was safe and not a prisoner of mine. That’s a complete overreaction by the human king.”

“Tells you she’s important to them,” Maks mumbled. He was up about five feet in a tree staring at some claw marks but he heard the conversation just fine.

“Whatever the reason they want her, it’s clear we ain’t gonna be givin’ her back to the pricks,” Ray said.

“Don’t,” Russel demanded. “Lola is not our prisoner and not a bargaining chip. She is free to leave if she wants.”

“Get yer head of yer ass,” Ray snarled. “You keep throwin’ up blinders when it comes to that girl. Nearly got yerself killed by father over her. I saw that fight..”

“I said don’t!” Russel yelled, his eyes full of commanding authority and blazing with bright, blue light. “Bring her name up again and I’ll throw you in the deepest hole I can find, Ray.”

There was an immediate silence that hung over all of them and everything got awkward. Ray looked like he wanted to continue the fight but he knew it would do no good for anyone, except maybe to show the humans how divided they were. Even in his blinding anger, Ray didn’t want that. Those bastards caused him to worry enough as it was, he didn’t want them thinking they were easy to pick off due to infighting and division.

“Fine, Your Majesty,” Ray said, backing down. “But when this all comes back to bite us in the ass, it’s you’ll I’ll be findin’ and takin’ some revenge from.”

“Do what you have to,” Russel remarked. “But you will leave Lola out of this. I don’t care what it is they want from her, or why father wanted her killed, she is under my protection now. You take action against her and I’ll kill you.”

“We should get back to the camp,” Tris said, breaking the tension. “We need to confer with the…” She paused, her face twisting with barely restrained disgust. “Humans.”

“Ah, they ain’t all bad. I like your human, Your Majesty. She seems very capable,” Aysir said.

Russel looked over at him, baffled. So did the rest of them.

“What do you mean? You’ve never met her, Ays,” he said.

Aysir stared back at him with equal amounts of confusion.

“What do you mean? Sure I have.” He raised his hand up to the approximate height of Lola. “She’s about this high, right? Really pretty blue eyes? Short-ish hair. Fighter’s build. Ringing bells for anyone?”

“She’s supposed to be back at the castle under heavy guard.” Russel felt every muscle and tendon in his body suddenly flex all at once.

“Uh…then maybe I’m…well…wrong. I talked to her a couple of times. I thought it was her but maybe I was mistaken.” Aysir suddenly looked like a child that had gotten into something he shouldn’t have. “She had the same scent I smelled back at the palace a few times. That’s why I assumed it was her. I admit, I didn’t exactly ask her name.”

“How do you even know about her? I haven’t said anything to anyone here,” Russel said. He turned to Ray. “Except for you.”

“Seriously?” Maks asked, jumping down from the tree. “Everyone knows or has at least heard some word about the girl. It was buzzing all through Oclan.”

“You also ordered the palace guards and soldiers to protect her. And don’t forget about what happened in the throne room between the humans, yourself, and Lola right before we started this trek. That is a lot of eyes and mouths to start all this gossip,” Ray explained. “I haven’t seen this girl Ays is talking about but to be fair, she would have known I would recognize her right away. You too for that matter. She’s probably been staying away from us because she knew how you’d react.”

She didn’t sneak in with the humans, Russel told himself, trying to temper that anger inside him. Ays is wrong. That’s all.

But those were hollow words that didn’t comfort or make him feel even the slightest bit better. The cold truth was, she would absolutely have done that, especially because he had forced her to stay back. Lola did not take well to being ordered to do anything.

I’m such a fool! He wanted desperately to slam his fist into something hard but he resisted.

“Let’s head back, now,” Russel thundered, his voice as hard as steel.

He shifted into his wolf form and loped through the forest at a full run. Behind him, he could hear the others following. Maybe fifteen minutes later, the little group burst out of the forest and onto open grasslands dotted with rocks and hills like most other parts of Oclan. Further back and barely visible were the snow-capped peaks of the Plated Mountain range. \

A mile or so in the distance, was a makeshift camp with several fires going. The sky was still bright with sunshine but the air had a nasty chill to it regardless. Clustered around the fires were the humans.

Russel raced for it, pouring on speed. He wanted to get to Lola before she saw him coming and hid from him.