Chapter 835 Chapter 835
Oryn refused to look back and see if he was keeping up with her. She’d already been gone a day longer than she’d hoped to be. When she’d seen the owl overhead, she knew without a doubt that he wasn’t a wild one. In the months of being in this area, there had never been an adult of her kind. At first, she thought he was just passing over, but then he kept circling back, and she knew he was looking for something. That made her deviate from her plans because there was only one thing in this area that would be of interest to another shifter. The house. He had to be here for the house, or more specifically, the people inside it.
Stowing her gear, she’d shifted and moved into the trees to observe him. At the time, she thought maybe some sort of miracle had happened, and he’d escaped the slaughter of her clan and had come looking for her. It wasn’t until she’d landed, shifted, and dove beneath the surface that she knew he wasn’t from her clan. She’d never seen him before.
What he’d done going into the water was an amateur move, but the shock of being shot could be reason enough. He wasn’t a novice flier. That much was obvious from his age and the way he’d flown in the wind.
Did she regret going after him? No. She wanted to, but she could never ignore a shifter in trouble—unless they were a fox, and then she had no problem leaving them behind.
Oryn had almost walked away without looking back when he mentioned the Alliance. How could others think it still existed and was going to save them? Had they saved her clan? No. Had they come looking for her clan in all the months since it happened? No. Did they storm Kenric’s hideout and kill the bastard? No. The Alliance may have once been a powerful organization for shifters, but those days were gone. The number of clan members she’d observed being taken into Kenric’s fortified property was proof that the Alliance was only a pipe dream that shifters held onto when they were out of hope.
She stopped and looked back, surprised he was close behind her. She hadn't heard him. “Are you sure it was this way?” She couldn’t scold him for being so far from his stuff. It had happened to her more often than she cared to admit.
He stopped and looked around slowly. His stance had changed since they left the shore. He was alert and watchful now, which made him appear less idiotic than when she’d hauled him out of the water. Any flier that had been shifting longer than a year could recognize the surroundings from above and below. The formation of groupings of trees and space between areas was second nature and meant survival success.
He pointed. “It’s this way. We’re close.”
Oryn motioned for him to lead and waited until he went by her. He carried himself well. Silent movement and careful footing. Most fliers were only cautious in the air. Watching him made her think he was a completely different man than the one who had dive-bombed into the icy water and tried to shift on impact. Was it possible there was a clan around here? She didn’t want to get to know him, but she did need a few details. “Where are you from, Uri?”
He paused, listened, and then glanced back at her. “My clan is from Manitoba.”
She gave him a shocked look. “Long way from home.”
He shook his head slightly and started walking again. “I travel a lot for the Alliance.”
There it was again. He honestly thought he was part of some defunct group. “Oh yeah?” She stopped and looked behind them, scanning the entire area. The good part of being a flier was her eyesight. She could see a mouse breathing from fifty feet away. She started moving again. “What do you do?”
He paused, placed his uninjured shoulder against a tree, and lifted one foot. Pulling something out of the bottom of the sock, he put his foot back down. “I’m the leader of the surveillance team.” He started walking again.
“So, you just sit back and watch things?” When she was little, she’d been told stories of the brave Alliance warriors.
“Watch and gather Intel.”
“Is that right?” She grinned at him back. “And what Intel are you here to gather?” Might as well play along with him for the time being. It had been months since she’d talked to an adult.
He stopped, looked up at the trees, and then turned left. “A head count and routines for a house run by Kenric Castro. We closed down a compound his group was using that led us to him and a few others in North America.” He walked over to a log, leaned down, and pulled a worn backpack out of it. He glanced at her. “And I have to meet up with a few members of the Sea clan while I’m here to figure out how to stop them from hunting more Water clan members.”
Oryn could hear her heartbeat in her head. If what he was saying was true and the Alliance was real again, then she was going to have to stick with him because there wasn’t going to be any capturing Kenric Castro. That man deserved nothing less than a long and bloody death.