Caswell looked no different. The buildings were the same. The trees were the same. Even the birds sounded the same through the open window.
But there was a change, one I didn’t even realize until Gordo spoke. “Stop the truck.”
“What?” Ox asked. “We’re not—”
“Ox. Now.”
He pulled over to the side of the road near the movie theater and parked against the sidewalk. Gordo was out of the cab even before Ox turned off the engine. He stood on the sidewalk, head cocked.
Ox glanced at me and shrugged before climbing out himself.
Mark and I followed. I looked back to see the others pulling up behind us, cars and trucks shutting off. Wolves and witches began to fill the sidewalk. Aileen and Patrice went to Gordo, eyes wide.
“You felt it too?” Aileen asked.
Gordo pressed his hand against the front door of the movie theater. “Yeah.”
“What is it?” Joe asked as he stretched, arms above his head. “Is this it? I thought there were walls.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t the compound. It’s still a little ways off.”
“Then why are we—”
“Wards,” Gordo muttered before stepping back from the movie theater. “There are no wards.”
I blinked. “Wait, what?” I stepped up next to him even though I already knew he was right. I hadn’t even realized as we’d crossed into Caswell, but we should have hit Livingstone’s wards already. “Shit.”
“They should be here, right?” Gordo asked.
I nodded. “We should have run into them a mile back.”
Patrice muttered under his breath in a foreign tongue, fingers twitching, eyes oddly vacant. There was a soft burst of color in the air in front of him that faded as quickly as it’d appeared. He said, “Dey were here. Dey’ve been dismantled.”
A murmur went up around us. “Why?” one of the Omegas asked. She shifted nervously. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s inviting us in,” Aileen said. “He wants us to come. He knows he has the upper hand.”
“Great,” Rico muttered. “That’s just great. Hey, guys. Idea. Let’s not walk right into the trap the crazy witch has set up for us. Huh? Right? Any takers? Anyone at all?” He sighed when no one spoke. “Fucking werewolves.” He crossed his arms and glared at the sidewalk.
“It is what it is,” Aileen said. “We knew it would be this way. We planned for it. It’s why you waited for us to come to you.” She glanced at the other witches. “We’ll use containment magic as best we can. Ox will attempt to gain control over the Omegas. The rest of us are support. Stick with what we know. No deviations.”
“Is it always this empty?” Kelly asked me, looking at the buildings. Others were uneasily peering in through the windows. “It’s like this place has been abandoned.”
I shook my head. “There’s normally people here already. These businesses should be getting ready to open. It’s mostly for the people in the compound. Something’s off.”
“Understatement,” Chris said. He looked spooked. His nostrils flared as if he were trying to chase a scent. I had done the same, but there was nothing in the literal sense. It was like an absence of smells. “Do you think they know we’re—”
Someone laughed. It was high and sweet and caused my stomach to clench.
We spun around.
There, standing in the middle of the empty two-lane road, was a child.
He was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a graphic of a cartoon on it. His feet were bare and dirty. But the way he held himself made a chill run down my spine.
His head was cocked, his hair falling over his forehead. He held his arms down at his sides, his fingers flexed. Claws grew slowly and shrank back. Grew and shrank. Grew and shrank. He twitched like a low current of electricity was running through him.
And his eyes were violet.
“What the fuck?” Rico whispered.
I pushed through the crowd. Kelly tried to pull me back, but I shook him off. I stepped off the sidewalk into the street, crossing behind Ox’s truck, losing sight of the boy briefly before seeing him again.
“Tony,” I breathed.
He smiled around a mouthful of sharp little needles.
The smile faded as I said his name again and stepped toward him. “Hey, cub. It’s me. Robbie.”
“I don’t like this,” one of the wolves said.
I took another step toward the boy. He didn’t move, never looking away from me.
“I’ve come back,” I said. “I missed you. Did you miss me?”
Tony growled in warning.
I stopped, spreading my hands wide to show him I wasn’t going to hurt him. “It’s all right, cub. I’m here now. You’re safe.”
The violet in his eyes faded slightly. “Robbie?” he whispered. He sounded lost and unsure, and it made my heart sore.
I nodded. “Yeah, cub. It’s me. What happened?”
A tear slid from his eye onto his cheek. “I had a bad dream.”
I took another step. “You did? About what?”
“Monsters,” he whispered. “Monsters who want to eat me.”
“You’re awake now. And if there are monsters here, I won’t let them hurt you.”
“You won’t?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, Tony. I promise.” I was almost to him. One more step and I could reach out and touch him. I still couldn’t smell him. I couldn’t smell anything other than the sour road sweat of the group of people I’d come with.
He looked up at me with wide, wet eyes. “You left.”
“I know.”
“You left,” he repeated, his voice taking on a strange lilt. It was almost like a song. “You left. You left. You left. You left. You. Left. You. Left. You—”
He tilted his head back and screamed.
I rushed forward even as Ox shouted for me to stop.
I scooped Tony up in my arms. He didn’t struggle, only continued to scream. It tore from his throat, and I didn’t know how someone so small could make such a terrible sound. His claws dug into me, and I grunted as they pierced my skin, blood welling, the sharp coppery tang shocking in the void. He stopped screaming immediately, sitting back in my arms, wrapping his legs around my waist. He stared down at my arms, where blood was spilling.
He grunted.
Ox said, “Robbie, put him down. Now.”
Tony bent over, almost in half, and I felt the wet slide of his tongue against my skin, lapping up the blood from the wounds that had already healed. He grunted and snorted as he sucked it down his throat, and I let out a cry of revulsion. I pulled my arms away, meaning to drop him, but he tightened his legs around me and looked up, eyes glowing, a bright smear of blood on his lips. His tongue flicked out, chasing it, coated red. He grunted again before he inhaled deeply, fangs snapping together, jaw clicking.
Kelly was behind me, shouting at Tony to let me go, to get the fuck off me. Tony reached up, digging his claws into my shoulder, glaring at Kelly and hissing.
Kelly took a stumbling step back. “What the fuck is wrong with him?”
“He’s feral,” Aileen said. “Oh my god, he’s feral—”
“Holy shit,” one of the wolves breathed. “Look.”
I turned, still trying to hold Tony back, following the wolf’s shaking hand as he pointed above us.
There, standing on top of the buildings, were children.
Many, many children.
The wolves and witches tried to scatter as one vaulted over the edge of the movie theater, claws extending from her hands and feet. She landed on a witch, the man who’d helped Aileen, Patrice, and Gordo shore up my mind. He screamed when she dug her claws into the flesh of his face. Rico pulled out his gun, but before he could raise it, magic began to gather around the witch. He screamed as the girl sliced through his face again and again, spinning around. There was a sharp crack as a flash of light burst from his hand. It struck Ox’s truck on the passenger side, causing the frame to crumple, the metal shrieking as the truck flipped over with a jarring crash, the windows blowing out, shards of glass flying out and refracting the morning sunlight.
The witch fell, but the little girl never stopped. Her hands rose and fell, rose and fell, feet kicking into the soft flesh of his stomach. She snapped her head up, her face dripping with blood as she snarled at two wolves who were rushing toward her.
The other children followed, jumping off the buildings, raining down around us with claws and fangs, their eyes all violet.
I jumped away from the sidewalk, Tony still holding on to me. Wolves around me shifted, clothing tearing as muscle and bone tore and broke. The timber wolf knocked Carter out of the way before a child could land on his back. The wolf yelped as the boy, who couldn’t have been more than six or seven, lowered his head, burying his teeth into Gavin’s neck. He bent forward, trying to knock the kid off him. I recognized the child. His name was Ben. His mother was a sweet and quiet Beta who lived in the compound. Ben fell off the wolf, landing on his back on the ground, blinking up toward the sky, body twitching.
Ox’s eyes blazed in shades of violet and red, and he roared, the sound shaking the ground beneath our feet. The Omegas with us whimpered.
The children did not.
They didn’t stop.
“Do I shoot them?” Rico shrieked. “Oh my god, do I shoot them?”
“They’re fucking kids,” Jessie snapped at him. She ducked, her crowbar trailing along the ground as another boy sailed over her, landed roughly on the ground, and rolled along the pavement. The boy was up and moving even before he came to a stop, bits of gravel stuck into his arms as he rushed Jessie again.
A great black wolf landed in front of her, eyes a mix of red and violet. He roared at the boy so loudly that one of the windows in the movie theater shook and cracked. The boy skidded on the road, feet tearing and leaving bloody streaks behind him. He jerked back, mouth hung open.
Aileen stepped forward, reaching into a pouch that hung on her hip. She pulled out a bluish powder and muttered into it. It flared like gunpowder, and she threw it at the boy, sparks dropping onto the ground with a hiss. The boy screamed as the powder struck him in the face, and he bent over, trying to wipe it away, tears streaming down his cheeks.
I shoved Tony off me and he landed on the road, my blood still dripping from his mouth. He glared up at me, feral and pissed off. He came for me again, loping on his hands and feet, but jerked back when a sharp crack of gunfire exploded around us and a divot appeared in the pavement in front of him.
“Don’t make me shoot you,” Kelly said, finger tightening on the trigger again. “Please.”
Tony growled at him, muscles coiling in his legs as he prepared to jump, but he stiffened before I could step between him and Kelly. His back arched like he was having a seizure, the cords on his neck sticking out.
It was happening to all of the children. Every single one of them stood as Tony did, like they were being electrocuted. The wolves growled as we regrouped, unsure of what the hell was happening. I saw the witch who’d been hit first lying on the sidewalk, eyes open and unseeing. His chest didn’t rise.
“What’s happening to them?” Rico whispered.
“I don’t know,” Gordo said, panting. There was blood on his face, but I couldn’t see where it’d come from. I didn’t think it was his. “It’s like they’re—look out!”
But his warning was for nothing.
The children moved as one, but they didn’t come for us. They took off across the road, heading east toward a line of trees that led to the top end of the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge. If they were returning to the compound, they’d cut north once they hit the trees. They didn’t stop once they disappeared into the forest.
“Jesus Christ,” Rico said, sounding breathless. “What the fuck was that?”
Ox’s face was twisted as he shifted back. “They…they didn’t hear me. They—”
“Livingstone’s stronger,” Aileen said, crouching down next to the dead witch. “His magic is deeper. He knows we’re here.” She shook her head as she reached up and closed the witch’s eyes. Elizabeth paced around them, growling low in her throat. Carter was licking at the blood on the timber wolf’s back. Aileen stood slowly, hands curled into fists. “Alphas, if we’re going to do this, we have to do it now.”
Joe tilted his head back and howled. Ox shifted to a great black wolf once more, joining in with his mate. The other wolves sang with them.
Kelly grinned at me, crazed and beautiful. He said, “Shift. Lead us.”
“You stay with me. You stay by my side.”
“Always.”
He kissed me then, and I tasted blood.
I called on my wolf.
My skin rippled.
I was angry.
So fucking angry.
My clothing shredded and I—
breathe
just breathe
ox
alpha
kelly
mate
i am wolf
i am pack
i am bennett
sing
sing this song of war
I was above myself, like I was floating and attached by a tether, my wolf holding on to me tightly. I led the way through the reserve, ignoring the familiar sights and scents of the refuge. The others followed closely behind, the humans and witches running at our sides. Kelly was there, always there, the scents of grass and lake water and sunshine filling my lungs with every breath. I was stronger because of his presence, his need to hunt combining with my own.
There was a twist of green shooting through me, the sweet power of relief as my Alphas followed me, trusting me to lead the way. I could hear the faint voice of Ox in my head, louder than it’d ever been, saying go go go PackBrotherLoveFriend show me show me.
The trees should have thinned as we got closer to the compound. The trees should have fallen away. Instead the forest grew thicker, the brambles and underbrush overgrown and wild like they hadn’t been just a few months before. I was going to ignore it, hell-bent on getting to the compound, but I was shocked out of my shift when a recognizable scent filled my nose.
Kelly nearly tripped over me but managed to stay upright. “What are you doing?”
I couldn’t answer.
The other wolves stopped. Ox tilted his head, asking a question without making a sound.
I ignored him.
I took a step toward a tree I didn’t recognize. It looked like it was rotting, its trunk black and leaking sap like blood.
Some of the other wolves shifted behind me, demanding to know why we’d stopped, what the hell I thought I was doing.
I pressed my hand against the tree trunk, my palm immediately coated with a viscous fluid. I recoiled as the trunk seemed to breathe, the wood expanding and contracting, the bark split.
“What is this?” I whispered. I inhaled again, and I swore it smelled like Sonari, the teacher from the compound. The one who’d once tried to court me with the carcass of a bear.
Patrice said, “Robbie, don’t,” but I didn’t listen.
I tore at the tree, digging into the bark. It peeled away like flesh and muscle. Each piece I pulled off snapped wetly. Sap leaked in thick streams. I was about to dig further when the stream of sap parted and a finger stuck out from the tree.
“No,” Aileen whispered.
I stared as the finger twitched as if beckoning me. I heard Jessie say there were others, that all of these trees looked like they were breathing, but I couldn’t look away. I reached up above the finger and broke off another large section of tree bark. The tree bled, and through its lifeblood, a face appeared, the mouth open and closing soundlessly, lips coated in sap, eyes blinking.
Sonari.
She was in the tree.
I cried out as I stumbled backward. Kelly caught me around my bare waist, saying, “Robbie, Robbie, Robbie, listen to me, listen to me,” but all I could see was Sonari, her finger jerking, her mouth opening and closing over and over and over.
Gordo pushed by us, tattoos flaring brightly. Mark was there too, still a wolf, pressed against his side. The raven on Gordo’s arm looked like it was screaming, the roses closing into tight red buds, vines and thorns twisting.
“Is she alive?” Jessie asked, voice shaking. “Are they all alive?”
I looked around at the sound of her voice. There were dozens of similar trees, their branches leafless and dark, their trunks groaning. The sound reminded me of when Kelly was sick, that wet thickness in his chest. The trees stretched out ahead of us toward the compound, though I couldn’t see the walls, given how many there were.
“I think so,” Gordo said. He sounded grim. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Patrice stepped forward, palms together in front of his chest. He turned them until his fingers pointed in opposite directions toward his elbows. He dragged his hands apart, a brief moment where his fingertips touched before they parted. There was a beat of nothing, and then his skin seemed to glow preternaturally, the spots of rust that covered his face standing out in sharp relief.
The trees moaned, Sonari’s most of all. Their branches shook, sounding like the rattling of bleach-white bone. Sonari’s tongue stuck out from her mouth, sap dripping off the tip. Patrice caught it before it hit the ground and rubbed it between his fingers. He brought it to his face and inhaled deeply.
“Dere alive,” he said quietly as he wiped his fingers on his jeans. “He’s contained dem. Trapped dem here.”
“Can you help them?” Jessie asked. Chris and Tanner, still shifted, pressed against her sides.
Patrice shook his head. “Not now. Take more time den we have, if I could even do it at all. Dis is deep magic. Deeper den I ever seen. Dis is black. All black. If we remove dem, we might kill dem.”
Gordo looked like he was going to touch Sonari’s face, but Mark took his shirt in his jaws, pulling him back. Gordo barely put up a fight, still looking at Sonari. “He did this,” Gordo whispered. “He did this.”
Ox went to him as a human, stepping carefully in front of him. “Gordo.”
“Ox,” Gordo said in a fractured voice.
Ox nodded. “I know. And we’ll fix it. All of it. But we have to finish this first. Focus. I need all of you. Can you do that?”
For a moment I thought Gordo was in shock, but he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, they were clear. “Yeah. I can do that.”
“Good,” Ox said. He looked at me. “You with me?”
I tore my gaze away from Sonari, whose tongue still hung from her open mouth, dripping sap. “Yes.”
“Are we almost there?”
“Yes.”
“Show us.”
I pushed through the trees, Ox’s voice in my head a low and constant thrum.
I knew them, these trees. Those encased inside. I could feel them. There were no children, though that knowledge didn’t bring any relief. It only meant they were inside the compound.
The air was thick and heavy. It rested on my chest, making it harder to breathe. I wanted to tear into the trees, to rip apart the bark and pull them out, but I knew that Livingstone would expect that. He wanted that. The wolves’ blood would be on our hands.
It took longer than it should have to reach the compound, the trees getting thicker the closer we got. We had to push aside branches, and every time we touched the wood, there was a low, dark pulse from inside the tree, a moan, a quiet scream. They were aware.
I was devastated.
Kelly knew. He whispered, “We’ll take care of them. I promise.”
I wished I could believe him.
We reached the wall at the south end of the compound. The others gathered behind Ox, Joe, and me. Ox looked up, brow furrowed. “I know you told us about this, Robbie, but it’s bigger than I thought it would be. Have these always been here?”
Elizabeth shifted, pulling herself to her full height. She stepped up between Ox and Joe, pressing a hand against the wall. “No. Thomas, he… always believed that this place should be open and free to anyone and everyone so long as they came in peace. He learned that from his father. This isn’t like it was before. This is Michelle. Yet another thing she’s taken from the wolves.”
“Maybe it was Livingstone,” I said before I could stop myself. “Maybe she didn’t have any other choice. Maybe she—” I closed my mouth, almost biting my tongue.
“We can’t take that chance,” Joe said quietly. “If she’s here, if she’s with him, then she has to be dealt with. We don’t have a choice. You heard what he said. That she was the one who let him out.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “But he lies about everything. He could be controlling her just like he did to me.”
“I dunno,” Rico said. “I’m all for shooting first and asking questions later. Seems safer that way.” He grimaced. “Except for the kids. Fuck him for using kids.”
Ox looked up at the top of the wall again. He raised his voice so all could hear him. “We don’t kill the children. No matter what. Subdue them. Contain them. Use force if necessary. But keep them alive at all costs.”
Kelly sighed. “This is such a clusterfuck.” Carter nosed at his hand, and Kelly rubbed the top of his head between his ears.
“How do we get inside?” Jessie asked. “March through the front gate?” She looked at me. “Unless you know of another way inside.”
I shook my head. “Two entrances, one in the front and back. They’ll know.”
“He already does,” Gordo said. “He knows we’re here.”
“We go up and over,” Ox said.
Rico groaned. “I knew you were going to say that. And I should point out the walls are concrete and at least fifteen feet high. Some of us are human.” Then, “Oh god, you have an idea I won’t like, don’t you?”
“Chris,” Ox said, “you’ve got Rico. Kelly, you’re with Robbie. Elizabeth, Jessie. Gordo, Mark. Patrice and Aileen, with me and Joe. Tanner, Carter, bring up the rear. Gavin, you stay with Carter.” He turned to look at all of us, this group of wolves and witches and humans who all knew full well what we were about to walk into. “Stick to the plan like we discussed. Spread out. Smaller groups. You leave Livingstone to the Alphas and Gordo.”
Chris pulled out of his full shift to a half-shift. He grinned at Rico through a mouthful of fangs. “Climb on, buddy.”
“I hate all of you,” Rico mumbled. “So, so much. I’m a man in my forties. I should not be getting a piggyback ride from my naked friend.” But he moved toward Chris.
“Ready?” I asked Kelly.
He nodded.
I reached out and touched his cheek, fingers trailing to his jaw. He turned his face and kissed my palm. His eyes were bright, and I knew that if this was it, if this was the last moment we’d ever have together, I was loved.
“Now,” Ox growled. “Move now. It’s time to finish this once and for all.”
Kelly jumped on my back, arms around my neck, knees digging into my hips. His breaths were light and quick in my ear. I half-shifted, claws sprouting from my fingers and the tips of my toes.
Kelly whispered, “Pack. Pack. Pack.”
We leapt toward the wall. Ox and I hit it first, our claws digging into the stone with loud cracks.
We began to climb, muscles straining as we pulled ourselves quickly up the side. The others followed, and by the time I reached the top, everyone was moving.
The sight of the houses around the lake caused my heart to twist. For a moment I thought nothing had changed—that it looked like it always did, an idyllic scene of houses surrounding a lake.
But it was a lie.
Even as I pulled Kelly and me over the top of the wall, I could see the signs of battle. One of the houses had been burned to its foundation. Whatever had happened to it hadn’t spread to the other houses, though they hadn’t made it out unscathed. Windows were broken. The porch of one house had been destroyed. Doors hung off their hinges as if they’d been kicked in.
I jumped from the top of the wall, the air whistling around us as we hurtled toward the ground. Kelly grunted in my ear as I landed in a crouch. He slid off my back, wobbling a little before shaking his head.
“Good?”
“Yeah. Good.”
The others landed around us.
I was ready to follow through with Ox’s orders, to spread out and see what we could see, when Rico said, “Where is everyone?”
All of us stopped. The wolves tilted their heads, listening for any movement.
There was none.
“Maybe they’ve gone,” one of the Omegas said, eyes flashing. “Run away.”
A child laughed, the sound carrying across the lake.
“Goddammit,” Rico said. “This is why I never want kids. They cost too much money and also can be taken over by a dick of a witch and turned into killing machines. Fuck kids. Fuck them all.”
“Layout the same?” Joe asked me.
“Yeah. As far as I can tell.”
“Go, then,” Ox said, and I felt his power rolling through me as his eyes filled with that familiar swirl of red and violet. “Don’t stop until it’s over.”
We went.
We spread out through the compound, breaking off into smaller groups. Kelly and Rico and Chris fell in behind me. Chris shifted back into full wolf, while I stayed half-shifted. I couldn’t cut myself off from Kelly, needing him to be able to hear me. Rico and Chris were tuned in with the pack. Kelly wasn’t. I couldn’t stand the thought of him stumbling blind.
They stayed close as we moved between the houses. The quiet was eerie, the only real sound coming from the lake lapping on the rocky shore. Kelly stayed close, his hand grazing my bare back. He and Rico had pulled their guns, eyes narrowed and darting side to side.
The houses on either side of us were empty. The one to our left had holes in its side, ragged and small, and it took me a moment to recognize it for what it was. It looked like they’d been chewed open, leaving a space wide enough for a child to slip through.
Rico was right. Fuck kids.
“What the hell?” Rico whispered, looking around wildly. “This is some goddamn horror movie shit. I don’t like this. I’m a minority. Everyone knows minorities die first in horror movies.”
“No one’s dying,” Kelly snapped at him.
Not while I could help it.
We rounded the lake, making sure to keep enough distance between us and the water so we wouldn’t be trapped if suddenly surrounded. I could see the others moving behind us and across the lake. Elizabeth and Jessie were quick, going from house to house, stopping only for Elizabeth to check to make sure each house was empty before moving on.
It took nearly ten minutes before we joined up again on the northeast side of the lake.
Elizabeth was staring up at the largest house, prowling before it, a low growl in her throat.
The wolves looked confused. The Omegas were shifting from side to side. The other Alphas were snarling quietly, lips pulled back over their fangs.
I knew why.
I felt her too.
I stepped toward the house. Kelly tried to stop me, but I shook him off as his brother and the timber wolf came to stand on either side of him.
“Michelle!” I shouted up at the house. “Come out now! You’re surrounded!”
Nothing happened.
I balled my hands into fists. “You fucking come out!”
Still nothing. I was about to storm into the house and drag her out when Ox put his hand on my shoulder. I glared at him, but he was serene and calm, sending waves of it washing over me.
He squeezed my shoulder before dropping his hand. He turned to the house and raised his voice. “It’s over, Alpha Hughes. Or at least it soon will be. This has gone on long enough. This can end peacefully. Surely even you want that. Your people have suffered enough. You are an Alpha, and an Alpha always puts their pack above all else.”
I thought it wasn’t going to work.
I thought she would ignore us.
Instead, the door opened.
Michelle Hughes stepped onto the porch.
She wore a long, flowing dress, the hem swirling around her bare feet. Her shadow stretched behind her in the morning sun. Her hair rested on her shoulders, and her eyes were red.
I felt a pull when she looked at me, quiet and soft. A whisper of what once was and would never be again. She frowned at all of us, taking us in. The porch creaked underneath her. Her mouth twisted at the sight of humans. At Carter and Mark, their eyes flashing violet. She glanced off toward the trees, a complicated expression crossing her face.
“Alphas,” she said as she looked back at us. “You came.”
“You knew we would,” Joe told her.
“I did, little prince,” she said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Bennett pack. Always sticking your noses in the business of others. You never learn from the past.” She shook her head. “Thomas understood. He would never have—”
Carter managed to stop his mother as she rushed forward, teeth snapping, eyes ablaze. Michelle barely flinched as Elizabeth snarled at her, claws creating divots in the grass and dirt.
“I seem to have struck a nerve,” Michelle said mildly. “My apologies. I never….” And for a moment her countenance split. She seemed lost. Confused. But then it was gone. She squared her shoulders, and regardless of what else she was, regardless of all she’d done, she was still an Alpha, and a powerful one at that.
The Alpha of all.
“Stand down,” Ox said, voice even. “Stand down now and this can all be over.”
“If only it were that easy,” Michelle said. “You shouldn’t have come here. You could have stayed in Green Creek and we would have—”
“Jesus Christ,” Jessie said. “Lady, I don’t know what kind of power trip you’re on, but if you think we’d just let packs be destroyed, then you don’t know the first thing about us.”
Michelle cocked her head as Jessie glared defiantly. “Human. I never understood the attraction. What could you possibly bring to a pack of wolves? You’re so… breakable.”
“Yeah? Why don’t you come down here and we’ll see who’s breakable.” Jessie tilted her head side to side, popping her neck as she smacked the end of her crowbar against her hand. “I think you’ll be surprised.”
Michelle laughed bitterly. “I’m sure I will. You have a warrior’s heart. I can see that. It won’t be enough, but I see you. Jessie, isn’t it? The schoolteacher. And Rico. The roughneck from the garage.”
“Fuck you too, bitch,” Rico growled.
Her gaze crawled dismissively over the rest of us until it fell upon Kelly. I stepped forward, but it wasn’t enough. “And you. Kelly Bennett. This is because of you. You just couldn’t let him go. You just couldn’t let things be.”
“You stole from me,” Kelly said coldly. “And I’m going to make sure you never touch him again.”
“Are you?” Michelle asked. “And just how are you going to do—”
Kelly moved, almost quicker than I could follow. He stepped around me, raising his gun. A sharp crack of gunfire caused my ears to ring and my eyes to water.
Had it been anyone else, the headshot would have been true.
But he was dealing with an Alpha.
She jerked her head to the side and the silver bullet embedded itself in the door behind her.
The sound of the gun rolled over the lake and echoed throughout the compound.
Michelle’s expression twisted, her face elongating. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Behind you!” Aileen cried.
I glanced over my shoulder.
There, standing on the path that led away from the Alpha’s house, was a thin man.
He stood stiffly, as if all his muscles were tensing at once. His mouth hung open. A line of spittle fell from his bottom lip onto his chin. His eyes were completely white. He breathed, but it was harsh, chest heaving. He took a step toward us, but it was unnatural, his knees barely bending. He looked as if he were attached to unseen strings, like a puppet.
And I knew him.
Once he’d given me the truth, though I hadn’t known it then.
You. Are. Wolf.
You. Are. Pack.
You. Are. Bennett.
“Dale,” Gordo snarled. Mark roared as he stood next to his mate, tail curling around Gordo’s waist.
Dale didn’t respond. I wasn’t even sure he was Dale anymore.
He raised his hands, fingers twitching.
“Move!” Patrice shouted.
There was a beat where nothing happened.
Then all hell broke loose.
Michelle leapt from the porch toward the Alphas, dress tearing as she shifted. Joe shoved Ox to the side, and Michelle landed on the ground where they’d been standing, the tatters of her dress falling off her back and onto the ground. Her wolf was larger than I remembered, rivaling Ox and Joe and the timber wolf. Her eyes were on fire.
Before she could move again, Elizabeth jumped onto her back, claws digging in. Her head moved viper-quick, and Michelle yelped when fangs sunk into the back of her neck, Elizabeth’s head jerking side to side.
Gordo shouted in warning as the ground underneath our feet began to break apart. I looked back in time to see bright colors swirling in front of Dale as magic gathered at his fingertips. His mouth was still open and his eyes were still white, but he fell to his knees, slamming his hands onto the ground.
There was a deep rumble as the ground split, columns of dirt and rock shooting up around us. The people around me cried out as some of them were knocked off their feet. Kelly raised his gun and fired again, this time aiming for Dale, but the bullet ricocheted off an unseen barrier in front of Dale with a sharp whine.
I grabbed Kelly by the hand and pulled him out of the way just as another column rose where he’d been standing, dirt and grass and rock showering down around us.
Then the children came.
They ran out from between the houses.
They fell from the rooftops.
A couple of them crawled from the lake, water dripping from their little bodies, eyes alight in Omega violet. They weren’t shifted, but hair sprouted and receded along their faces, and their claws were wicked sharp, like little needles.
We broke apart, our group moving in opposite directions. I turned in time to see Michelle knock Elizabeth off her back, the wolf mother landing on the ground with a terrible crash. Joe and Ox both shifted, black and white, yin and yang, and charged Michelle.
Gordo’s tattoos were as bright as I’d ever seen them as Mark charged Dale. For a moment, I thought he’d get there and tear out his throat, but Dale raised his head, eyes wide. Mark stopped in his tracks with a surprised whine before he rose off the ground, levitating a few feet in the air. His body contorted painfully before he slammed into the side of a house, the siding cracking before giving way.
“Oh,” Gordo breathed, “you should not have done that.”
I grabbed Kelly by the hand and pulled him away from the house as Rico followed us, gun raised. “Who do I shoot?” he was screaming. “Who do I shoot?”
I didn’t know.
Rico couldn’t shoot the children as they swarmed the wolves. Patrice cried out in pain when a little girl sunk her claws into his leg. One of the Alphas lifted a child—a boy named Caden who’d smiled brightly whenever he’d seen me—and hurled him into the lake. He landed with a splash and breached the surface, sputtering, already moving back toward the shore.
Rico couldn’t shoot Michelle, as she was tangled up in a drag-out fight with Joe and Ox, each of them moving in a blur, drawing blood. Joe’s white fur was splashed with it. Michelle was savage in her attacks, going low, and Ox whined when her teeth closed around his right back leg and bit down.
Rico couldn’t shoot Dale, as there was a barrier in front of him.
It was chaos.
The timber wolf was furious when a little girl landed on top of Carter, stabbing Carter at the back of his neck. Gavin went for her, looking feral, but Carter snapped himself to the side. The girl fell off him and landed on the ground, slowly blinking up at the sky.
“We have to help them,” Kelly panted, sweat dripping off his forehead. “We have to—”
There, standing near the back of the Michelle’s house, was Tony.
Next to him was Brodie, the boy whose pack had been so cruelly taken from him.
They were holding hands, their eyes violet. Tony looked at me blankly. He didn’t recognize me. Neither did Brodie.
I took a step toward them.
They turned and ran.
I chased after them.
“Robbie, no!” Kelly screamed as I shifted and hit the ground running as a
wolf
i am wolf
i am
pack
i am
bennett
cubs
little cubs
stop
hear me
listen
fight
you must fight this
you must stop
i will help you
i will save you
i
cried out as my shift was torn from me as I passed through a ward unlike anything else I’d ever felt. I hit the ground and rolled, a sharp rock cutting into my back. I felt it start to heal, though slower than normal.
I stood up in time to see Tony and Brodie disappear down a familiar road.
The sounds of battle came from behind me, but they seemed distant.
I took a step forward and—
A hand grabbed my arm, tugging me sharply.
I whirled around to see Kelly and Rico, looking scared. “What are you doing?” Kelly demanded.
“Tony. Brodie. They’re here. And I know where they’re going.”
Rico looked beyond me down the dirt road. “Where?”
“To my old house. The one I shared with Ezra. With Livingstone.” I jerked my arm out of Kelly’s grasp. “We have to help them.”
“Maybe we should—”
“We promised,” I snarled at Rico. “We told Shannon we would help them.”
“You’re going where he wants you to,” Kelly said quietly. “You have to know this. You have to know he’s waiting.”
I nodded. “I know. But we don’t have a choice. We can’t let him have them. We can’t let him win.”
“Shit,” Rico groaned. He turned his face toward the sky and inhaled deeply. “Well. We were fucking crazy to come here in the first place. What’s another bad decision or two?”
And then this man, this ridiculously wonderful human, howled at the sky, the cords in his neck standing out. It echoed in the forest around us, and there came the sound of answering howls from back in the compound.
“I’ve been practicing,” Rico said with a shrug as we stared at him. “Pretty good, right? And fuck me, you’re naked and we have guns and we’re going to go face an evil witch. Let’s do this thing.”
He took off down the road.
There was a pulse of something in my chest, something I couldn’t remember feeling before. A tug that almost seemed familiar.
And it was connected to Rico.
We followed him down the road.
The house stood no different than when I’d left it.
I ached at the sight of it.
We came to a stop a few yards away.
Brodie and Tony stood on the porch, hands still joined. They watched as we approached, growling low in their throats, heads cocked.
“Okay,” Rico whispered, gun drawn. “Now what? They’re trapped, right? I mean, we probably are too, but still.”
I took a step toward the boys. “Tony.”
There was no recognition there.
“You know him,” Kelly said.
I nodded, never looking away from the boys.
“He doesn’t know you. Not anymore.”
“Tony,” I said again, and the boy bared his fangs. “It’s okay. It’s me, Robbie. I’m here. I’m—”
“Would you hear me, dear?”
I fell to my knees, clutching my head as a terrible wave of magic assaulted me. It rolled over me, obliterating every thought I had. I screamed at the ground, struggling to stay in control even as my mind filled with a dense, heavy fog. It was calming. Soothing. I wanted nothing more than to let it take me away.
And then Kelly said, “Robbie, Robbie, please,” and I gritted my teeth as his hand came down on my bare shoulder, covering the mark he’d put there with his fangs. The mark I didn’t remember receiving.
The mark that meant mate.
I raised my head, the fog pulling at me with long tendrils.
“No,” I managed to say in a guttural voice. “No. You can’t. You can’t.”
Livingstone stood on the porch behind the boys, his hands on the tops of their heads. “I think you’ll find I can. And I will.”
Rico and Kelly spun around me in a practiced move, guns raised. They opened fire at the house, and though their aim was spot-on, the bullets sparked against a barrier in front of Livingstone’s face and ricocheted off into the porch.
Livingstone slowly shook his head. “All this bloodshed. And for what?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you’re in any position to talk about bloodshed,” Rico said as he reloaded. “You know, seeing everything you’ve done and all.”
Livingstone looked at me, and his expression turned pleading. “I am giving you a chance, Robbie. To give me what I want. All of this could be avoided. Everything.”
“You stole him,” Kelly snarled, pointing the gun at Livingstone again, though it was useless. “You’re never going to touch him again. Not while I still stand.”
“I see that,” Livingstone said. “Maybe you shouldn’t be standing anymore, then.”
I couldn’t stop him.
I wasn’t fast enough.
He raised his hand.
I reached for Kelly.
He was hurled off his feet as the air sparked and crackled around him. He flew across the dirt road and slammed into a tree. I heard the sharp crack of bone as his leg broke. He screamed, and I screamed with him as he fell to the ground at the base of the tree. He turned himself over and began to crawl toward me, leg dragging behind him.
“Such perseverance,” Livingstone marveled. “I see what you found in him, Robbie. I understand now. Mates. It’s a shame, really. Would you hear me, dear?”
I cried out again as the fog wrapped itself around my head.
“Fight it!” Kelly shouted. “Robbie, you fight it, goddammit!”
“He can’t,” Livingstone said. “I see what the witches have done to him. How they’ve locked him down. It’s only a matter of time. Robbie, dear, listen to me. Listen to my voice. There is a human next to you. He is a threat, much like your father was. Do you remember what your father did? This human will do the same. You can stop him.”
I turned my head toward Rico.
Rico took a step back. He raised the gun toward me. “Robbie. Please. Don’t make me do this.”
I stood slowly.
Rico stumbled back even as Kelly tried to push himself up, screaming again in pain as his bad leg gave out. But it was a distant thing, a faraway thing, lost in the fog.
I growled at the man before me with a gun.
This human.
I took another step toward him.
The barrel of the gun shook.
“No,” Kelly whispered. “Rico, don’t—”
I slapped the gun out of Rico’s hand before he could get off a shot. It landed on the ground, bouncing away from him. He raised his hands to ward me off.
It wouldn’t stop me.
It wouldn’t—
Kelly said, “I see you, you know?”
Kelly said, “I see you.”
Kelly said, “And I will never let you go.”
And I—
It was good between us. We took it slow. You smiled all the time. You brought me flowers once. Mom was pissed because you ripped them up from her flower bed and there were still roots and dirt hanging from the bottom, but you were so damn proud of yourself. You said it was romantic. And I believed you. There was something… I don’t know. Endless. About you and me. We came here sometimes. Just the two of us. And you would pretend to know all the stars. You would make up stories that absolutely weren’t true, and I remember looking at you, thinking how wonderful it was to be by your side. And if we were lucky, there’d be—ah. Look. Again.
“Fireflies,” I whispered.
“What was that?” Livingstone asked, his voice a whipcrack of warning.
“Fireflies,” I said again, louder, as the fog burned away. “It’s all fireflies and—”
Time slowed around me.
I tilted my head toward the sky.
She whispered, Little wolf, little wolf, can’t you see? You are the master of the forest, the guardian of the trees.
Quiet as a mouse no longer.
It started in my chest. This great bloom of fire.
It consumed me, and I burned with it as these strings so much like tethers exploded out from me. They struck Rico first, and I heard lobito lobito lobito, and then they moved on to Kelly, and it was i love you i love you i love you, and it went on and on and on until there was Jessie and Elizabeth, Chris and Tanner, Gordo and Mark, Carter and the timber wolf, faint though it was, and then, oh, and then it was the Alphas, their voices bright and strong, and I heard them all. I heard them all when they sang BrotherLoveFriendMatePack we see you we feel you we will never let you go because we’re packpackpack and pack is love pack is home pack is—
“Pack is everything,” I said.
“What is this?” Livingstone demanded. “What have you done?”
I looked at him, the bonds of my pack writhing within me, giving me strength. I’d never felt so alive. So vital. So present, here, in this moment. I took a step toward Livingstone. “I don’t need you. I don’t love you. You can’t control me. Not anymore.”
He said, “Would you hear me, dear?” but it was such a small thing, such a negligible thing when it plucked against the strings so vibrant and fibrous.
And I said, “No.”
He narrowed his eyes. “So be it. Remember, when all you love is gone, I gave you a chance.”
He shoved the boys forward.
Tony and Brodie ran, claws raised.
I took a breath and braced for impact.
And I was hit, but not from where I expected.
I fell to the side when Rico crashed into me.
I stumbled. I would remember that always.
I turned in time to see Brodie sink his claws into Rico’s chest again and again and again.
Blood spilled as Rico said, “Oh. Oh. Oh.”
The claws raked down into his stomach.
Birds took flight from the trees.
Kelly said, “No. Oh god, no.”
Tony hit Rico, who took a step back, somehow managing to stay standing. Tony climbed onto his back, knees hooked around his waist, and he raised his claws to sink them into the back of Rico’s neck.
Rico looked at me. He grinned. His teeth were bloody. He said, “Worth it. All of this. You. Them. I—”
Tony brought his claws down.
Rico grunted and fell to his knees.
The boys jumped off him and landed on their feet, hissing as they backed away, covered in Rico’s blood.
I caught him before he fell.
His eyes were open and glassy. His breath was ragged in the ruins of his chest. His blood smeared into my skin, and I couldn’t stop the bleeding, I couldn’t make it stop.
“Rico, Rico,” I chanted. “Look at me, stay with me, stay with me.”
Livingstone stepped off the porch. Tony and Brodie huddled at his sides, burying their faces in his stomach.
I looked up at him, eyes wet. “Why?”
Livingstone said, “Because it’s the only way.”
He raised his hand, and his tattoos flared to life.
I tilted my head back and howled a song of horror, needing our pack to hear me, needing them to know all we had lost. It echoed in the forest around us, and in the distance I heard an answering roar that sounded like a scream.
Magic wrapped itself around us, and I held Rico close to my chest. I whispered, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
We were lifted up off the ground. I couldn’t fight it.
“I thought I could be enough for you,” Livingstone said. “I really thought I could. I should have known that the wolves would never let you go.”
And then we were flung up and over Livingstone, and the moment before we crashed into the house, causing it to collapse around us, I heard Kelly cry out my name, and I had a second to think that at least it would be quick for him, and we would enter the clearing together, and we would run and run and run under a full moon and nothing, no one would hurt us ever again.
It felt like a kiss before dying.
Rico and I smashed into the house and it all went dark.
I wasn’t unconscious very long.
I opened my eyes, dust and shards of wood falling on my face.
I was confused, unsure of where I was and what had happened. I hurt all over.
I groaned as I tried to sit up. I didn’t make it very far.
A large beam lay on my chest. Bones were broken, and when I coughed, it felt like I was drowning.
The remains of the house surrounded me. A second beam above me, sticking up at an angle, created a small pocket, holding up the debris, though it creaked dangerously as I tried to free myself.
I laid my head back down. I was tired.
“Hey.”
I turned my head.
Rico lay a few feet away, bloodied, body at an awkward angle like he too had been broken. He blinked slowly at me. His eyes were red, and for a moment I thought he was an Alpha. And then it dripped down his cheeks.
He smiled. “Sucks, huh? Got our asses kicked.” His voice was low and rough, words exploding from him with each quick exhalation.
“Rico.”
“Little wolf,” he whispered. “Legs. Can’t feel them.”
I roared in anger, trying to push the beam off me again. The house shifted once more, and more wood fell around us.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rico grunted. “Bring it all down. Smash us like bugs.”
“I’m going to save you,” I promised him. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
I looked around, trying to find something, anything that would help me. Help us.
There was nothing.
“It’s okay,” Rico said. His breaths were easier, and he had a vacant look in his eyes I didn’t like. “I… I always knew this could happen.”
“Rico, listen to me. We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to go home.”
“Home,” he whispered. He coughed, and a bubble of blood burst from his mouth. “Bambi’s going to kick my ass.”
“Yes. Yes, she is. And I’m going to fucking laugh at you when she does.”
“I love you, you know.”
Tears fell from my eyes. “I love you too.”
He nodded. “It’s good. To be with someone who feels the same way. At the end. I always…. I never wanted to be alone. It was my biggest fear. And look.” He smiled. “I’m not alone.”
“Rico. Rico.”
His chest rose and fell. Rose and fell. Rose and fell.
I waited for it to rise again.
It didn’t.
He stared at me, unseeing.
I howled. As loud as I ever had before.
The house shifted above me.
I—
I can’t wait to meet you.
But I hope you understand that I’ll be fine with waiting on that meeting for as long as possible. Because when he gives you his heart, it will no longer be mine to hold. And I want to hold on to it for as long as I’m able.
Whoever you are, you are loved.
Never doubt that.
You are loved.
A white wolf was with us. Not pure white, though. He had a smattering of black on his chest. His back. He lay down next to me, his massive head near my face. His eyes were red, and when he pressed his nose against my forehead, I said, “Oh.”
The pack bonds within me stretched tight, and I searched through all of them, finding Jessie and Chris and Kelly and Carter and Gavin and Tanner and Gordo and Mark and Joe and Ox, and there, there there there, faint and breaking, was Rico.
I grasped on to it, holding it tight, pulling it into my chest, wrapping it around my heart.
The Alpha huffed in my face.
And he said, packpackpack pack is hope pack is family pack is love you are my pack you are my hope you are my family and i love you i love you i love—
I screamed as I pushed on the beam with the last of my strength. It shifted easily, almost torn from my grasp.
The white wolf was gone.
Above me, the sun shining behind him, was Oxnard Matheson, eyes blazing red and violet.
He said, “I’ve got you.”
I believed him.
He lifted the beam above his head and threw it off behind him. I heard it crash on the ground somewhere in the distance. I took in a gasping breath, the bonds of the pack shining brightly.
I rolled to my side, spitting out a thick wad of blood. “Rico,” I managed to say. “You gotta help Rico.”
He nodded, moving toward our brother.
I pushed myself up off the ground as my bones began to knit back together. I groaned as my ribs snapped back into place. “He’s—is he—”
Ox brushed a bloody lock of Rico’s hair off his face. “I can’t lose you. I won’t.”
Ox tilted his head back, neck popping as his face elongated. His fangs dropped, reflecting the morning sunlight.
And then his head snapped forward, fangs sinking into Rico’s shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
And as Rico’s shoulder crunched, I heard Ox in my head saying you are pack you are brother you are mine.
you
are
wolf
At first nothing happened, and I thought we were too late.
Ox pulled away.
Rico’s bond, his tenuous string, faded.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no—”
The string vibrated as if plucked.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Rico jerked as Ox held on to him. His mouth fell open as he began to seize, feet kicking out, causing motes of dust to rise and catch the sunlight.
Rico’s dark eyes snapped open.
The blood in the whites of his eyes receded.
And then, there, in this house, in this place so far from home, came the bright flash of orange.
