Wolf Song (Wolf Singer Prophecies Book 1)

their wishes, Gabriel! They cannot be trusted to keep their word!"
"But they can be trusted to keep their word about destroying this town. We were able to hold on, but just barely."
“And why do you think that was so? We were only able to do that because of the preacher's wards in the first place."
"If it weren't for the preacher, we wouldn’t have needed wards, and you know it." Gabriel's voice was lethal. I had never heard him speak like that before, let alone to his wife. And though I knew he wasn't really angry toward her, it was still unnerving to see that he would raise his voice at all.
I didn't know whether or not I was able to go back up the stairs without them hearing, or if I should just reveal myself to them. But I needed to know what they were talking about with the preacher remark and why he had implied that my dad was the reason why we needed the wards in the first place.
Creed’s intake of breath warned me that someone was coming. A moment later, Kirby bounded down the stairs.
"Hey, Soli, when'd you get here?" Kirby raised his hand for a high-five and I obliged him.
"Hey there, I literally just got here."
Zorah and Gabriel shuffled from where they were having their conversation around the bend. "Oh hey!" They had on their political face on. They looked between Kirby and me, trying to calculate what we were about. "Soli, how good it is to see you. Were you here to visit with your dad?"
"Yup. I was just chatting with Kirby a sec."
My answer seemed to put her at ease. She hadn't wanted me to have overheard them after all, and I didn’t blame her. No one wanted to be caught talking about anyone in a negative light.
But despite her discomfort, I really wanted to know the context of their conversation. I weighed it out in my mind, going back and forth about maybe bringing it up.
Oh hells, why not.
"Okay, forget it." I just spoke up right in the middle of Zorah's talk about the tomato gardens and making something like a chili cook-off or like a salsa taste-off to raise the community spirits, and it was the silliest thing considering what I'd just heard and the fact that my dad lay not a hundred feet away unconscious.
They had just been arguing over his body about agreeing to someone’s ransom demands—I could guess who was doing the demanding—and she had the nerve to talk about her fucking tomato garden?
I raised my hands in a stopping gesture. “Stop, okay, just stop talking. Whatever the hell you’re saying is pissing me off.”
Zorah looked at me like I was the one unhinged. Her eyes grew so large in shock that the whites of her eyes were the only things on her face that I could see. It was kind of hilarious just thinking about.
She was stock still, and so was the mayor. They were both looking at me like I just grew ten heads.
"Yeah, sorry, but I'm not really sorry. I'm not going to pretend that I heard nothing because I didn't. In fact, I totally heard you. You know, talking about my dad like he wasn't just lying there. So, are you going to explain yourself or what?"
Gabriel seemed to realize that he was allowed to talk. He coughed a little, and then started to speak in low, soothing tones, as if he was talking down a crazy person. "Okay so that may not have been the best part of the conversation to walk into, but hear me out, I have every respect for your dad. He has helped this community in the past."
I barked in laughter. "Helped this community? What you trying to do, get my vote? Mayor, my father has singlehandedly preached away Hellfire on numerous occasions and you're telling me that ‘he's helped out in the past?’ It's not like he was setting up bake sales."
Gabriel had his hands raised as if in surrender. "I get that Soli, which is why we fought hard for him to stay underground."
I blinked like he was saying crazy words. "What?"
Gabriel and Zorah shared a look. "The people from his past. They already knew he was here. They had found out that this was where he was going. I mean the fact that they tagged him with this tracer was probably obvious."
I had drifted over to my dad as Gabriel was talking. His normally dark face was ashen and gray. But it didn't look like he was breathing at all, but I knew he was alive. I could feel his pulse going. It was thready but there.
"What happened here last night? What didn't you tell me?"
Gabriel and Zorah rubbed their faces, but it was Zorah who spoke. She looked bleak. "They took the children, Soli. Whatever children they could find, they took."
I blinked, stunned. “Who? Who was the person from the past? Who took these children?” Something told me it wasn’t the Reapers after all. They wouldn’t be so picky.
Zorah swallowed. “AEGIS. They’re the ones that started this whole thing. And, this is how they’re finishing it.”
I was stricken. Who would do this? Take children? I sat heavily onto a chair. I looked up at them. “You told me it was a Skoll attack. I should have known it was a lie. No one would have survived.”
Gabriel looked weathered and drawn, as if he’d aged years overnight. “There were Skolls. Only, they didn’t get into the compound. They were the distraction. They kept to the perimeter.”
Zorah added, "It could have been worse. It could have been so much worse, but there were those wolves at the perimeter."
I perked up to hear about wolves. "Wolves?"
Zorah nodded, her fingers twisted together. “Yes, wolves. It was nice to hear them. Just their wolf song was comforting to hear."
It always gave me a feeling of otherworldliness, but it wasn't really a bad thing I realized. It was more that