Chapter 32: A Perilous Retreat
Athena
My claws slid free, unbidden. Fur rippled across my arms, my wolf stirring close to the surface. Lucas’s eyes glowed faint gold, his voice now rough with the edge of his shift.
"What if all these don’t work?" I murmured. "No, I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. It should definitely work out in the end."
Lucas’s voice was tight. "We could try negotiating with it. It’s intelligent to understand us. There should be something it might want in exchange of the Kurd."
I nodded. "But what if it turns on us..."
"We’ll try to retrain it the best we can then, in that situation. I just wish we could kill it, that’ll make our mission much easier."
We stepped back from the edge. We were trying to avoid making rash moves.
Lucas tilted his head back and released a low, pulsing howl. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t meant to be. The sound echoed with intent, it was for summoning monster beasts, not a threat. Werewolves called it the Parley.
For a moment, nothing moved. I was starting to have doubts that the beast was really in here.
Then came the answer.
It was a loud growl. Very long and layered, it sounded like part pain and part defiance. The earth vibrated as the sound crept up from the pit like a rising storm. Dirt shifted. Stones rolled inward.