The bushes rustled again and Thordin’s grip on his weapon tightened. His heart began to beat a little faster. The glint of gold had to have been eyes—what else could it have been? There had been a wolf in those bushes, a gold-eyed wolf, and it either meant them harm or no ill will.
The battleaxe in his hands would ensure that regardless, no harm would come to the people of the tiny settlement that he’d adopted as his home.
“Wait,” an unfamiliar voice with a thick accent said. “Peace. I’m coming out.”
Thordin’s eyes narrowed. Matt grasped his shoulder.
“I think I know the voice. I think he was here with Drew’s half-brother.”
“You know Daniel?” The voice asked. A mass of black curls appeared over the top of the bush, followed bright hazel eyes and a winter-pale forehead. Those eyes narrowed for a brief moment, the stranger’s gaze focusing on Matt, not on Thordin. Hope lightened the man’s heavy accent. “I remember you.”
Matt nodded, slipping past Thordin to the edge of the brush. “You need clothes, don’t you?”
“Clothes would be helpful.”
Thordin grabbed a fistful of Matt’s jacket. “Who the hell is he?”
Matt twisted to look at the older man. “He was part of a pack of werewolves that showed up here before you and Neve and Cameron. We can trust him.”
“You sure about that?” Thordin eyed the stranger warily. The man’s lips were turning blue. Maybe he really was completely naked and hiding in that bush. “A name, stranger.”
“Gwilym,” the man said, the Welsh undertones vaguely familiar and identifiable to the man who’d lived a life centuries past and then thirty years of one wandering from one end of a continent to the other. Thordin frowned, continuing to study the newcomer.
“You’d trust him?”
“Pack alpha is Drew’s younger brother.”
Thordin nodded slightly. “Right. Go and get him clothes and get Thom.”
“What are you going to do?” Matt asked.
Thordin smirked. “Try to figure out if I think he’s worth trusting.”
He got an inappropriate amount of satisfaction from the stranger’s nervous swallow. Thordin grinned even wider at the man as Matt looked between them.
“Don’t hurt him.”
“I won’t unless he tries to hurt me.” Thordin waved him away. “Go. We’re not going anywhere.”
After another moment’s hesitation, Matt turned and went, leaving Thordin alone with the stranger named Gwilym.
“All right,” Thordin said softly, “now you can tell me why you’re really here.”
Gwilym just swallowed hard and shuddered.
Thordin smiled and waited.
It was only a matter of time.
oh ya, the werewolves. Wonder what this one wants..
Thanks for the new post.