The Unwilling by C.M. Simpson

Author:C.M. Simpson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.M. Simpson Publishing

18—A Calculated Risk

Oliver woke to the thud of Lewis landing heavily beside him.

“My turn to sleep,” his beta declared, as soon as Oliver opened his eyes.

The alpha managed a grunt and rolled to his feet, watching as Lewis shifted from hybrid to wolf, and curled into a ball. Looking around, he saw the sun had set and the moon was high overhead.

“You could have woken me earlier,” he muttered, and Lewis lifted the tip of his tail with a grumbling whine.

It sounded like as sarcastic a ‘you’re welcome’ as the pre-wolf Lewis might have given him in similar circumstances.

Oliver grimaced. “Yeah, thanks and all that.”

Lewis folded his tail back over his nose and closed his eyes again, leaving Oliver to stare, and wonder at the speed at which he’d adapted. He didn’t stare for too long, though. With full dark came the opportunity to get an idea of the direction they’d need to travel in the morning.

He climbed swiftly back to the spot from which he’d observed the supply flight, and wondered how Lewis had known. At first, he saw nothing, so he shifted vantage points letting his eyes get used to the dark as he looked for where their starting point should be.

It was easy enough to find, although not as brightly lit as he expected. Lights glimmered at the shuttle port and he watched a shuttle come in from the east and descend to land. It looked hauntingly similar to the one he’d seen take off earlier, and he frowned.

Reinforcements? he wondered, losing sight of it as it dropped below the trees.

He watched the space a little while longer, moving his gaze north until he’d located the two settlements he’d seen on the map. He also saw smaller points of light in between, the kind he’d expect from isolated farming buildings, but not the kind that might signify a trading post or some other kind of base.

Shuffling back to his original perch, Oliver looked down into the valley, and then tried to remember the ships’ path as they’d wound their way up it. When he reached the point where they’d disappeared into a fold in the hills, he let his eyes continue, trying to read the shadowed contours and guess where the ships might have gone next.

The glow, when he found it, was fainter than he’d expected, but diffuse enough to indicate a sizeable facility, one too big to be an isolated farm, but still too condensed to be a town. Oliver studied it, marking the direction and trying to guess if that kind of lighting indicated a military, mercenary or trading presence.

It all depends on the traders or company, he decided, and made himself scan the surrounding countryside. It would be too easy to become mesmerized by the light, and miss something coming in from another direction. When the moon sank and left the world in darkness, he looked again.

The glow was easier to see…and blinked out minutes after the moon had gone.

As if they know how easy they are to see… Oliver thought, and wondered why that would bother them.

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