Lou. I tried reaching for the bond but came up empty. It wasn’t gone, but it was like Lou wasn’t connected to it. Please let it be because she was too far. That my father’s pack took me and let her be. I had to believe that or I would lose it completely.

For now, I was alone in every sense of the word.

Considering how many of my father’s wolves I could smell in the barn alone, being by myself wasn’t the worst thing. Someone had tossed me on the ground onto a thin layer of dirty straw. Most of the floor was dirt. The barn itself was tall and open, with regularly spaced windows high up letting the moonlight in. There were some stalls in the back still intact, but everything else had been broken down and cleared at some point, leaving a large open space.

In the middle of the dirt floor, paving stones were arranged into a circular fire pit. It was prepped for a fire, wood sticking up above the rim. Most of the magic making my skin crawl was coming from the fire pit. I was willing to bet that if I could see the rim, it would be covered in chalk symbols from whatever spell had been set up.

Besides the moonlight, the only other light source was an old lantern hung up by one of the dilapidated stalls illuminating the wood and paper in the pit. When I thought I could move without vomiting, I arched back and lifted my head off the ground, turning it so I could see what my collar was attached to. A chain went from my neck to one of the pillars supporting the barn roof, each link as large as my fist. I flopped my head back down onto the straw. Well, so far this was going really well.

A shadow moved in the darkness, revealing Kodo and Podo. They were excited, hopping up and down, each coming up to nibble on my hair and beard in greeting. “Holy shit, am I glad to see you guys.” The ferrets continued to bounce around, pleased with their cleverness in finding me. “Are you with Van? Lou?” I still couldn’t feel the bond, but maybe it had been damaged?

Kodo and Podo chattered apologetically. I couldn’t understand them like Van could, but I could listen to their tone. The ferrets were on their own. I remembered seeing them in the window before my attack. Had they stowed away in the van somehow?

The ferrets bounded away from my face, choosing this time to crawl all over me like I was an amusement park. I tried to turn my head and see what they were doing, carefully twisting so I didn’t accidentally crush one of them. After a few seconds, I figured it out—one was chewing at the bindings on my hands, the other my feet. “You cunning little bastards. I’m going to get you so many treats.” What did Van buy them all the time? Bananas? “Who wants bananas, huh? I will plant you a fucking tree if you help me get out of here.”