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The winter snow is bright on the ground. Sage frowned. The original lyrics had said Christmas snow, not winter. She shoved the song out of her head as best she could - earworms, sadly, did not avoid her simply because she was a werewolf - and tried to enjoy the snow for what it was, and not for the song it caused her to remember.
Fortunately, the crisp cold air and the sharp smell of the evergreen trees were no part of the song, so enjoying her surroundings more did nothing to strengthen it. A human would have focused on nothing but the temperature, given the weather and the stylish but very thin coat she wore. What was that to her, though? Neither she nor her companion were going to get colder than they could tolerate on such a walk.
"Do you know who did it?" Kara's voice was excited and amused, and it chased the last of the music completely from her thoughts.
Sage shook her head once, sharply. She was silent for several steps, while she thought of the best way to phrase the warning the girl needed. Finally, she said, "I do not. Whoever is doing this is foolish, but at least wise enough not to involve me. Asil's wolf is not as wild and unreliable as he claims, I do not think, but his wolf is still old and, yes, wild. He and it recognize me, and you, and protect us. But I would not want to be put in the middle of this. It depends on whether he finds it amusing or not, how he will react to those involved." She flicked her fingers in sharp negation. "I would not wish to play this game, so I would be a liability for them."
Kara stopped walking. "So...you're saying you'd tell him?"
Sage stopped after two steps as well, and turned to find the girl staring at her, looking surprised. She raised her eyebrows. "I would. Do not answer this, but are you involved? Because if you are, you're giving too much away. If you are not, you're too excited by half." Not that she believed it; who would involve the child in such a thing? If not because of their good manners, at least because of Bran, who would find it even less amusing than Asil would, most likely. And nothing of the impression Kara had made since coming here suggested she was any good at scheming, so it wasn't likely to be her own plan.
Kara's eyes went wide. "I'm not!" She looked down for a moment, then back up, possibly realizing that she had just done exactly what she'd been told not to in answering. Sage was pleased that Kara did not quite meet her eyes when she looked back up. "It's just...I can't imagine who would do this, and I thought you might know. Do you think he'll do it? Them?"
Sage smiled slowly, and managed to suppress any outward reaction to what she was pretty sure was an unintended double-meaning. "I think, if you have anything to bet with, you will have to figure out on your own whether it is worth betting and on which side." She had already placed her bet. Whoever set the odds underestimated Asil's control - especially around women - considerably in her opinion. She had no desire to be in the middle of the mess if he was irritated by it. She did not mind profiting from the foolish, however.
If anyone were taking further bets on the matter, she would also have bet on the person or persons behind this being paid back in ways they didn't expect. Asil was not Mercy; he was unlikely to show the same creativity in revenge that she did. (No one was likely to show the same creativity, if Sage gave her honest opinion.) But unless he wanted to kill them, which seemed unlikely, he would not attack physically. Not that I think he would kill them if he did, she added to herself. But he believes he might. Asil’s statements about his wolf were true, or he believed they were, but every time she heard hints that made her think he had killed or chastised someone who had deserved it, there was no gory bloodbath after.
Judging from Kara’s sudden fascination with her boots as she kicked at little mounds of snow, she was trying to find something to say, and not succeeding. Since the girl wasn’t actually speaking, Sage turned to continue walking. She only made it two steps before Kara began walking again as well.
Perhaps the motion would give the quiet watcher she suspected was out there something to keep him busy, because she was pretty sure their walk back from the greenhouse to Bran’s house was not unescorted. She hadn’t caught any scent, but that made sense given that they were walking almost straight into the light wind. The few tiny sounds she had heard could as easily have been the forest. But somehow, still, she thought they were not alone.
——
Asil finished pouring water over the seedling, and set the can down. Ever since Sage had come by to walk Kara back to Bran’s, his wolf had been restless. It had started when Sage arrived, and it had only gotten worse when she’d left. It troubled him, because she had been only her normal self. Sage did not usually affect his wolf - not in this way, at least - and he hadn’t noticed anything different with her.
And his wolf being restless with no reason did not reassure him. Either Bran was close to being proven wrong...or there was something he was missing. Perhaps both.
That was the thought that sent him out his door to follow them. He did not shift. If something was wrong, it would waste time. If nothing was wrong except that he was old, well, wearing the wolf’s form would give it more ascendance than he wanted to, here where any possible victims were at least acquaintances, and often more.
He hoped nothing was wrong. He also hoped to live long enough to find out who thought setting him up for dates was an amusing holiday pastime. That last hope might not be wise if the final crack in his control was already showing now.
Despite his doubts, he was sure enough of his instincts to follow them. Even if he could smell them clearly, and no other scent that shouldn’t be there, with the wind blowing their scents clearly back to him. As he closed the distance a little, their scents, as well as their voices, came to him more clearly.
“...so you’d bet on it? But how is that not being part of it?” Kara sounded baffled - with a touch of defensiveness that was, he thought, pure teenager. Not something he had dealt with often in recent years.
Sage’s amused laughter was so warm, it was almost a wonder the snow remained. Warm, and wicked in that way that was purely her. “I am not saying which way I bet, if you are asking. But I do not think our resident Evil One is going to take it out on those of us who did not set it up.” He would have liked to see the look on her face, in her eyes. Imagining it was not half so fun--
His own smile dropped away into a flat expression. Just a hint of something not right on the wind, weak but present. Not something close, now, but it shouldn’t be there at all.
Was it faint because of age, or was it faint because of distance, something lurking further up the path, past Sage and Kara? He didn’t want to alarm them if it wasn’t necessary. Or involve them in a fight if it came to that. Perhaps that response was old-fashioned, but he was old-fashioned. If the danger were ahead of them, however…. They were taking the easy path, and soon it would turn. He picked up his pace, but swung wide of them, moving as quietly as ever he could through the trees.
The scent pulled him past them, a faint thing, bitter. Not rotten; rotting meat was just rotting meat. This was something darker, but he wasn’t sure if it was witch, even though it set his hackles in the same way. Still, he gave a sharply satisfied smile as he passed their likely turning point and found the scent still further ahead of him.
——
Sage managed not to frown, keeping her expression faintly amused at Kara’s earlier shock. It took more of an effort than her usual light-hearted devil-may-care insouciance. She had been relatively certain that it was Asil behind them. Now, however, she caught the faintest wisp of his scent from in front of them, carried back on the wind. If she was lucky, somewhere about the turn in the path he would pounce on her and roll her up in the snow for betting on those dates.
It wasn’t something she could easily see him doing, and that was unsettling. Turning and knowing that he was no longer ahead of them was more concerning, but there was nothing in the pack bonds - admittedly there seldom was - to suggest a problem.
Sage thought about it for a few paces more, and then said lightly, “I may be the older, but I believe I can beat you to Bran’s house.” It was a race she was bound to lose; winning it, if she could, would mean leaving Kara behind. The tension in her shoulders and neck told her that might be a bad idea. That meant she had to appear to run well, but never so well that she was very far ahead of the girl.
And indeed, a short while later, Kara thumped into the door of the house just ahead of her. Having lost the race, Sage saw no need to slam into the building, and slowed. The unease had been fading for a while, and she wondered if the run had been necessary at all. It had actually been fun, once the concern had passed, but still - had it been purely a winter’s day’s foolishness?
——
The scent was subtle, and even at its strongest not all there. It made him think witch but it wasn’t his witch, and he wasn’t sure it was a witch at all. It made him think of darkling fae, too, but it wasn’t precisely that scent either.
He was hesitant to shift now, not because he worried his wolf was losing it, but because if something did lurk nearby, he would be a little more vulnerable for those moments. But his wolf would be better able to identify and follow the scent.
He had just decided he would change, when a deceptively small, grey wolf stepped out from between the trees. Asil met Bran’s gaze for only an instant and then dropped his, before asking, “Do you smell it, too?” Or am I losing it, finally?
Insteading of confirming his unspoken fear, Bran lowered his head, sniffed, and gradually began moving further away from his own house and Asil’s, off into the forest. Asil walked behind him, ready to react if anything happened. Instead, he got a half-mile hike in the snow until neither of them could scent it any more.
They walked back to his greenhouse together, and when Bran had shifted and put on sweats, he said, “Something unpleasant has been too close. We’ll need to be watchful, so if it comes back, maybe we can catch it.”
“Witch?” Asil’s voice was sharper than he liked.
Bran shook his head. “I don’t think so. It wasn’t quite right for that. But I’ll let the others know. We’ll need to stay alert.”
——
Leah opened the door herself. “Kara, Sage. Come in and warm up. Bran will be back in a little while; he’s checking on something. Would you like some hot cider?”
Leah opened the door? And greeted them like that? Kara had said that Leah was kind to her - and Sage saw that kindness in the warmth of the other woman's expression, in the way she wrapped an arm around the girl. Sage didn’t receive the same warmth, but she didn’t get the brush-off she was more used to, either. And for just a moment, as Kara headed for the kitchen and Leah’s smile flickered briefly, Sage saw that she was at least a little concerned. A little protective.
Even with the concern, it was strange to see Leah acting like the dominant mate of the alpha would in a normal pack, caring for a pack member. It caused Sage to wonder whether she could have been received that way, if she had shown her weakness and pain instead of being prickly and defensive when she’d first arrived. She thought not - and in any case, she didn’t think she’d trade that much of who she was, just for this.
And there was not a thing she could ask or say that Kara wouldn’t hear. There were limits to how quiet a human voice could be. Instead, she settled for dropping her usual mask, just for a moment or two. “Thank you, Leah.” And as Bran’s mate looked directly at her, she let her eyes drop without being forced.
She felt a little more normal, back in familiar territory, when Leah didn’t serve the drink, just pointed out the cups and crock pot full of cider. It was decently good cider, too.
“So,” Kara asked brightly, looking at Sage over her cup of steaming cider, “Do you think they’ll try to set you up on a date with Asil?”