Page 106 of A Wolfe in the Woods

“And of course,” Erik added, as if it were an afterthought, “you’d be compensated generously. Beyond market value. I heard rumors you never wanted the land anyway. Here’s your chance to start new, without the baggage of the past weighing on your shoulders. With what I’m willing to offer, you can do whatever you want without the shackles of your father’s legacy.”

He smiled confidently, as if he was telling me everything I wanted to hear. “We’d also handle relocation. Seamlessly. Wherever you like. And”—his eyes sharpened—“a golden opportunity.”

I said nothing, only continued listening.

“We could use someone like you here at Skoll,” he went on. “Your reputation precedes you. You didn’t earn the name ‘Black Wolf of Graymore’ by accident.”

There it was.

“You’d have influence,” Erik said. “Real influence. Not this…self-imposed exile. You could help shape that future I see.”

I knew his type. I’d worked beside them. Defended them. Watched them justify everything with the same language—efficiency, necessity, progress. Men who didn’t see land as living or cities as sick or people as anything with a soul…only an opportunity. They spokewin-win, but what they really meant wasI win. You lose. Then I win again.

Graymore ran on decay, and Skoll wanted to feed it fresh blood.

Juniper Woods would bleed so the city could pretend it wasn’t already a corpse.

I never interrupted him. I merely let Erik Skoll finish building his beautiful, hollow case.

When he finally paused and waited for my answer, I already knew there was nothing he could offer me that I wanted.

And everything he wanted from me was exactly why I’d left Graymore behind.

Finally, I replied, “It’s a generous offer…but I’m not for sale. And neither is the land.”

Erik didn’t blink but hesitated for a moment. I had caught him off guard with my polite but blunt answer. An answer that wasn’t quite what he was expecting…or wanted.

“You surprise me,” he finally said.

“Why?” I asked.

He studied me for a long moment. “What exactly are you doing in the woods, Jonathan? Hiding away?”

Now he was getting more desperate.

“You were dangerous once,” Erik continued softly. “Precise. Feared. You’re not a hermit, no matter how much you try to convince yourself of it.”

“I’m not hiding,” I said finally, my tone edging more toward a growl.

A calculated, elongated pause. Then Erik titled his head. “Blanche spoke fondly of the land.”

The room—and my heart—froze.

“She said it was special,” he added, “based off her assessments. She said it had everything we wanted and could still be left mainly protected, virtually untouched.”

I kept my face neutral, but on inside I began to feel uneasy. Ifelthe was lying. Testing me. To see if I would flinch, and outwardly I didn’t. But inside, acid pooled in my stomach, my thoughts firing a million a minute.

His gaze sharpened, just a fraction. “She’s been very helpful. Her reports were instrumental into getting final board approval.”

The words slid under my skin like a blade. She’d…betrayed me? She’d been spying on me for ErikfuckingSkoll this entire time?

He stepped closer to a holo-screen embedded into the wall. “She has a bright future here. You could too.” Then he tappedthe screen, which produced faint overlays of maps, boundaries, parcels I recognized as if they were part of me.

Erik stopped on one map in particular. A map heshouldn’thave had. A map of the entirety of Juniper Woods that had been drawn and recorded by own grandfather. A map that wasonlyin my cabin. There was only one in existence, and here it was.

And I knew of one person who’d had the opportunity to find it, the one person in my life who had a connection to Erik Skoll. I’d caught her checking her work email the day she’d left for Graymore on Monday. Had she sent it to him then? While I’d been sleeping?

Blanchehadbetrayed me.