“Kelly,” I said.
Ox nodded. “Led Robert away. Gave me time to get to you.”
“Is he all right?” I was frantic, trying to parse through the bonds, but they were all so loud and bright that I couldn’t focus.
“No. None of us are. It’s time to end this.”
“Oh, fuck me.”
We turned.
Rico was bent over, hands on his knees, hair hanging down around his face. He was covered in blood, but the wounds were closed. He lifted his head, nostrils flaring, eyes shining. “Is this what it’s always going to be like?” he demanded. “I can hear everything. I can smell everything. And lobito, I have to say, you do not smell good to me right now.” He stood upright with a grimace, hands going to his lower back.
“You get used to it,” Ox said.
“How?”
“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped at them. “We have to get to the others before—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rico muttered. He raised a hand in front of his face. “How do I make my claws come out?” He flexed his fingers. Nothing happened. “Huh. That’s disappointing. When this is all over and we’re regaling everyone with stories of our victory, we’re going to say that I made my claws come out right away. Deal?”
“Deal,” Ox said. He looked down the road. Above the trees in the distance, a thick black column of smoke was rising. “We have to hurry.”
I began to run down the road. A black wolf appeared at my side, eyes red and violet. I looked over in surprise to see Rico running past me, moving faster than I expected. His eyes were wide when he looked back at me. “How the fuck am I moving so fast?” he yelled. “What kind of nonsense is this?”
We ran on.
We hadn’t been gone very long.
Fifteen, twenty minutes at most.
But the compound was changed as if a lifetime had passed. Some of the houses were on fire. A couple of others had been razed to their foundations.
Elizabeth and Jessie were locked in battle with Michelle Hughes near the Alpha House. Elizabeth had a large gash on her side, but she wasn’t letting it slow her down. Michelle was snarling, tail twitching, jaws snapping. Elizabeth crouched like she was going to attack. Instead, Jessie ran up behind her, jumped onto her back, and ran three steps along her spine before leaping toward Michelle, crowbar raised above her head. Michelle moved to the right, but she was too slow, and Jessie brought the crowbar down on Michelle’s side, the silver burning the Alpha’s skin. Michelle whined and tried to bite Jessie, but she was too quick, landing and rolling away before getting to her feet again. She saw us, eyes widening, before turning back toward Michelle.
Gordo’s tattoos glowed as bright as the sun. He scraped his fingernails down his right arm, drawing blood over the raven and roses. He flung it at Dale, who stood on the beach near the water. The blood hit Dale in the face and began to sizzle, Dale’s skin peeling back. Dale didn’t seem to notice, and from behind him a large boulder rose out of the lake. Mark tackled Gordo just as Dale hurled the boulder at them. It smashed into the ground where Gordo had been standing. Even before Gordo stopped rolling, Mark was up and moving, eyes violet as he charged toward Dale. I thought he was going to make it, going to tear his fucking head off, when Dale’s fingers twitched. The ground underneath Mark’s paws seemed to bend upward before it exploded in a grinding flash of dirt and rock. Mark was thrown to the side, yelping as he landed wrong, his front right leg breaking. My stomach twisted as I saw the shiny wet knob of bone jutting out at the knee.
The sky above seemed to grow dark as Gordo rose to his feet. He reached up with his only hand and wiped the blood from his mouth, flicking it to the ground.
He said, “You shouldn’t have put your hands on my mate.”
The raven spread its wings.
The roses bloomed.
Gordo slammed the stump of his arm into the ground. Thick vines burst from the earth, wrapping around Dale’s arms and legs, black thorns piercing his skin. Wild roses bloomed along the vines as they lifted Dale into the air. He didn’t struggle, the same blank look on his face. Gordo grunted, twisting his stump in the dirt, and the vines flung Dale into the lake. He landed with a large splash a few yards offshore.
Gordo was already running toward the water. Without slowing, he stepped up onto the writhing vines, which flung him into the air above the lake. For a moment, he hung suspended above the water, above Dale, who breached the surface. And then Gordo was falling.
“Gordo!” Rico screamed.
But Gordo didn’t hit the water.
There was a terrifying snap as the temperature seemed to drop a hundred degrees in a single instant. One moment Dale was floundering in the water, head sinking below the surface, and the next the entire fucking lake turned to ice.
Gordo landed roughly on the ice, limbs flinging out in different directions as he slid along the surface.
He came to a stop near Dale’s hand, which was the only visible part of him. Gordo pushed himself to his feet before he spat down at the hand. He turned toward us. He started to grin, but then his face twisted. “Look out!”
We whirled in time to see Michelle hurtling toward us. Elizabeth was struggling to rise to her feet with Jessie’s help.
Michelle didn’t slow, and she only had eyes for me.
She jumped.
And then Ox was there in front of me, half-shifted, catching her by the throat. She grunted as her legs flew forward with the momentum. Ox brought her face close to his, roaring the call of an Alpha. He didn’t wait for a response, instead flinging her back where she’d come from.
Elizabeth and Jessie ducked as Michelle flew over them and crashed into her house. The porch shuddered and collapsed as Michelle hit the doorway. The door cracked under her weight before it was torn off its hinges. Michelle landed inside the house and didn’t move.
“Where’s Kelly?” I shouted at Gordo.
Before he could respond, I heard Tanner’s furious howl from the other side of the lake.
I ran toward him, Rico bellowing after me.
Nothing else mattered but getting to Kelly.
I flew past Aileen and Patrice. They had a group of feral children in front of them. The kids were snapping their teeth, trying to get at the witches but unable to get past the barrier Aileen and Patrice had created.
I saw dead wolves, at least three that had come with us. One of them had been an Alpha, and one of his Betas looked up at me, confusion mingled with fear on his face, eyes suddenly flashing red.
I ignored it.
There wasn’t time.
I felt my pack behind me as I ran.
What I found made me stop cold, my breath catching in my chest.
The earth on the south end of the lake was scorched, blackened and cracked.
Tanner stood above Chris, who lay panting on the ground, ribs exposed from a deep cut on his side.
The timber wolf—Gavin—was snarling, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him.
Robert Livingstone was dragging Carter and Kelly toward us by their hair. He looked no worse for wear. Kelly was struggling weakly. Carter’s eyes were closed, body looking as if it’d suffered a repeated assault. His face was bruised heavily along his jaw, eyes swollen. He wasn’t healing.
“This,” Livingstone said. “This is what you’ve done. This is what you’ve brought upon yourselves. Do you think I want this? Do you think this is necessary? All I asked, all I ever asked for is what was mine, what was owed to me. And you refused. All of you refused, and it has come to this. How dare you.”
“Let them go,” I snarled, Gavin at my side.
To my surprise, he did. Kelly and Carter fell to the ground. Carter groaned as Kelly tried to raise himself up. He looked at me, face ashen. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, and it ran in rivulets down his face.
Livingstone stood between them. Instead of angry, he looked weary, like he was exhausted. There were shadows under his eyes, his pupils blown out. He raised a hand toward us. “Gavin,” he said, voice soft, “I can fix this. I can make it all go away. Come with me. Let us leave this place behind.” He looked down at the brothers at his feet, then back up at us. His gaze trailed behind us to Tanner and Chris, to the rest of the pack coming at a run. He sighed as he shook his head. “Wolves. With them is only death. Suffering. I know. I know. They turned Gordo against me. They poisoned my wife, filling her head with falsehoods. They drove her to take my tether from me, and then, when all was lost, they tried to contain me. They took my magic from me. They ripped me in half like it was nothing. Abel Bennett. Thomas Bennett.” His lip curled. “The princeling. The human Alpha who cannot stay out of my goddamn way.”
My pack gathered around me, wild and strong. Ox and Joe stood on either side of me, their anger boiling over through the pack bonds between us.
“This is over,” Gordo growled. “The children are contained. Dale is dead. You have nothing left. You’ve lost. Let them go.”
Livingstone turned his face toward the sky. He took a deep breath, let it out slow. “So it would seem. But that’s the thing about appearances, my son. They can be an illusion.”
“My grandfather chose to spare your life,” Joe said, shoulders squared. “He knew what you’d gone through. What had happened. He showed you mercy.”
Livingstone laughed bitterly. “And where did that get him? He’s nothing but dust. Like the pack that once was. Like Thomas.”
Elizabeth shifted. “You don’t deserve to speak his name.”
Livingstone nodded. “You think you’ve won. And I can see why. But you are sadly mistaken. Gavin. Don’t make me do this.”
Gavin took an uncertain step forward.
Carter groaned as he raised his head. “Don’t,” he managed to say. “Gavin, he’s… lying. Don’t… listen….”
And Gavin stopped.
Cocked his head, ears pricking.
Livingstone narrowed his eyes. “What’s this?”
“He’s with us,” Ox said. “He’s pack.”
“Pack,” Livingstone spat. “Pack. Fine. Remember, this is on you.” He looked down at Carter. “You made me do this.”
He raised his hand toward us, tattoos bursting brightly.
A wave of magic bowled over us in a great storm, rocking us off our feet. We landed roughly on the ground as it continued to push against us. It tore at our skin. Jessie tried to pick herself up but was thrown back toward Tanner and Chris.
Ox gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up, fighting against the rising winds. Joe rose behind him, pressing against his back, pushing them both forward. Mark curled around Gordo to keep him from flying back. Rico held on to my leg as I dug my fingers into the earth.
Livingstone reached down and grabbed Carter by the hair again, pulling him up as if he weighed nothing. Carter was too weak to fight him off. Kelly struck at Livingstone’s legs, but it did nothing.
Above the raging winds, I heard Livingstone say, “I am sorry for this, child. But this is the price you must pay for all that your family has done to mine. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
The markings on his arm began to move, and Carter screamed, body jerking as if electrified. The tattoos crawled up Livingstone’s arm, and they were dark, the magic black and wicked.
Elizabeth cried out for her son as the tattoos hit Livingstone’s hand and moved toward Carter’s open mouth.
Something shot past me, quicker than I could follow.
Carter fell to the ground as the storm ceased.
I blinked slowly.
Livingstone kicked as he was raised into the air, a large hand covering his face, claws cutting into his skin.
A man stood before him, the white and gray and brown hair of a timber wolf receding from his neck and shoulders as he shifted toward human. He was almost as tall as Kelly, his dark hair long and ragged as it fell on his shoulders. The thin muscles in his arms and legs quivered. His face was twisted in fury. It took me a moment to realize what—who—this was. He looked like the man he held writhing in his grasp, like the witch lying on the ground next to me, albeit a younger version.
Gavin snarled, “Don’t. Touch. Him.”
And then he threw his father as hard as he could. Livingstone flew backward, and the moment before he struck the remains of a smoldering house behind him, I saw the look on his face.
Betrayal.
He hit the house, sparks and flames rising up as the house collapsed.
Impossibly, ridiculously, Carter whispered through a mouthful of blood, “Oh shit. I think I’m bisexual.”
Before anyone could react to that, or this new wolf-turned-human who had saved us all, the remains of the house Livingstone had crashed through exploded, debris whipping out around us.
Gavin fell on top of Carter and Kelly, shielding them from the blast.
Livingstone rose from the fire.
“You’ve taken them from me,” he said, stepping back out onto the ground. “Gordo. Robbie. Gavin. All now with the Bennetts. Everything that was mine, you’ve taken from me!” He raised his hands toward us, the storm beginning to build again.
I looked to Kelly, wanting the last thing I saw in this world to be his face.
lovelovelove, he whispered to me, my heartsong.
Livingstone took a lurching step forward as a wolf reared up behind him, claws digging into his neck and back, eyes burning red.
Michelle Hughes.
She opened her mouth wide, and then her jaws closed over his shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
To a witch.
She jerked her head side to side.
Livingstone’s mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.
Michelle pulled away, dropping down behind him.
Livingstone took a stumbling step forward.
His tattoos started to flicker.
He gasped as he looked around, confused.
He raised his hand to his neck, fingers bloodied as he pulled them away.
“No,” he whispered. “Not… not like this.”
The marks on his skin began to burst. They twisted angrily on his arms, and his skin started to burn as each symbol flared, the skin blackening.
He raised his bloody hand toward Gavin.
Toward Gordo.
Toward me.
He said, “Please.”
He said, “Please help me.”
He said, “Please don’t let me die.”
And Gordo said, “Fuck you.”
Livingstone fell to his knees in front of us as we pulled ourselves up. He tilted his head toward the sky as I rushed toward Kelly, lifting him up and pulling him close. He wrapped his arms around me.
“Hold on to me,” I whispered.
“Always.”
Robert Livingstone howled toward the morning sun, a song of anguish and rage that rattled my bones. I gritted my teeth against it, and in my head, in the deepest part of me, there was only packpackpack.
The tattoos crawled up Livingstone’s arms, disappearing under his shirt and reappearing on his neck. They rose up his throat to his jaw and into his open mouth. He choked as they forced their way inside. His throat bulged as he swallowed them down.
An unseen shock of magic detonated over us.
Kelly cried out, tensing against me.
I held on as tightly as I could.
Mark’s shift melted away as he collapsed to his hands and knees, panting toward the ground, eyes flicking ice blue, violet, ice blue, violet.
Carter lay on the ground on his back, limbs skittering in the dirt, chin jutting up toward the sky.
And then it was gone.
Robert Livingstone looked old and faded. His skin was sallow. His eyes were closed. He took a breath. And then another. And then another.
He said, “This isn’t the end.”
He fell face-first onto the ground.
His heart stuttered in his chest.
And then he died, quiet as a mouse.
Silence fell over the compound, the only sounds coming from the shifting and cracking of the ice in the lake.
“Robbie,” Kelly whispered.
I pulled away, but only just.
And Kelly’s eyes were the bright Halloween orange of a Beta wolf. He grunted as the fracture in his leg repaired itself with an audible snap.
I kissed him with everything I had.
And I could feel him, I could feel him, I could feel him in my head and heart, his voice a wolfsong.
I heard a choked sob coming from next to us, and I looked over, shocked to see tears running down Gordo’s cheeks. He was cupping Mark’s face in his hands, demanding that he do it again, do it again, goddamn you.
Mark did.
His eyes flashed orange.
He hugged Mark as hard as he could.
Which meant—
“Carter,” Kelly said, pulling away from me. He turned and ran toward his brother, who had just sat up, head in his hands. Carter barely had time to brace himself before Kelly tackled him back onto the ground. Carter grinned up at him as his eyes filled with the same orange as the rest of the Betas. They laughed and clutched at each other, Kelly babbling that he was going to murder Carter if he ever did something like that again.
It was Elizabeth who figured out what the rest had missed.
“Robbie?” she asked.
I looked toward her. She approached me slowly. Joe and Ox came next to her. Chris and Tanner were behind them, wounds healing. Jessie had her arms slung around Rico, his head on her shoulder. They were all watching me.
“Yeah?” I said hoarsely.
“Do you remember?”
I was taken aback. I hadn’t even—
And then my heart sunk to the pit of my stomach.
Because the void was still there, vast and black. Oh, it had light in it now, the threads of the pack stretching across it, but it was still wide open and gaping.
I hung my head.
She rushed toward me, gathered me up in her arms. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out. I promise.”
A wolf growled.
I spun around, pushing Elizabeth behind me, baring my fangs.
Gavin stood above Kelly and Carter, lips pulled back over his teeth, eyes still violet. And he was staring at Michelle Hughes.
She had shifted back to human, her nude body streaked with blood.
She was pale as she looked at us.
She said, “I… did what I could.”
She said, “You have to believe me.”
She said, “I never wanted this.”
She said, “I never wanted this to happen.”
She said, “I was under his control.”
She said, “Like Robbie. I was just like Robbie. I couldn’t fight him off. I couldn’t stop him. I swear to you. On my life. I only wanted for the wolves to survive. I never—please. Please believe me. I’ll do whatever you want. Joe.” She took a step toward us, and Ox snarled at her. She stopped again, hands up to placate. “Joe,” she said again, voice stronger. “Alpha Bennett. I’ve… done so much. For the wolves. I’ll step down. You will become the Alpha of all. Just… spare me. Please.”
“What the hell?” Gordo muttered. I glanced over at him. He was looking down at his arm. The raven was twisting furiously.
Joe stared at her for a long moment. “You stopped him.”
“Guys,” Gordo said. “Something’s wrong. Something’s—”
She nodded furiously. “I did. I waited for the right moment. I knew if you came—when you came—that it would be our only chance. I had to make him think I was still on his side. Until I could finish this. Finish him. A witch can’t live through an Alpha bite. The wolf magic and witch magic are incompatible.” She smiled shakily. “He’s dead. And I killed him. I saved you. I saved all of you—”
She jerked forward, eyes widening.
I screamed for her as a hand burst through her chest, blackened, the fingers ending in long, glistening hooks.
Blood poured from her mouth as Robert Livingstone rose behind her, black hair growing along his face, eyes blazing orange. He roared at us over her shoulder as he pulled her heart out through her back.
She was dead before she hit the ground.
Livingstone held her heart in his hand as Kelly and Carter scrabbled away from him. Ox and Joe stepped forward, half-shifted, roaring.
Livingstone’s eyes filled with red.
Michelle had been an Alpha. And now Livingstone had taken it from her.
“You did thissssss,” he hissed at us, and impossibly, he began to grow, his body contorting, muscles rippling as his bones creaked. His shift overcame him, but he wasn’t like any wolf I’d ever seen. His clothes shredded and fell to the ground, but he remained on his hind legs, which were bent at the knees, feet turning into long black paws shot with white hair across the tops. His chest expanded, ribs breaking and reforming. His arms were bulky with muscle, and the claws on his hands and feet were at least six inches long. His face stretched into a savage mockery of a wolf, his head bigger than any I’d ever seen. He towered above us.
A beast.
He tilted his head back and howled. It rolled over us, the ground shaking beneath our feet.
“What do we do?” Rico shrieked. “What do we do?”
“We finish this,” Ox growled.
“Yessss,” Livingstone said, jaws snapping.
But he was stronger than us.
Than all of us.
And here, at the end of all things…
We lost.
Oh, we gave it everything we had. Ox and Joe charged at him, and we all shouted when Livingstone swung his massive arm out, striking them both in the chest, knocking them back. I barely had time to take a breath before Joe crashed into me, slamming us both to the ground.
He rolled off me as gunfire erupted above us. I looked up to see Jessie walking toward the beast, Rico’s guns in her hands. She kept on shooting, and the bullets were silver, but they barely made a mark, bouncing off Livingstone’s face and chest, only pissing him off even more. The guns dry-clicked and Jessie threw them to the ground, pausing only to scoop up the crowbar before charging. Livingstone swung at her, and she ducked, falling to her side, her momentum carrying her underneath him between his legs. He started to turn, but she was already on her feet behind him, bringing the crowbar down onto his back.
It broke, the end snapping off and falling to the ground.
“Well, shit,” Jessie said.
Before Livingstone could put his claws on her, Chris and Tanner and Rico shouted in unison, these brave men who had carried the hearts of wolves in their chests even before they’d been bitten.
They were no match for Livingstone. He knocked them away easily. Chris and Tanner landed on the ground near a burning house. Rico flew out onto the lake, sliding along the ice.
I had to end this.
I had to stop him before he hurt anyone else.
I ran toward him, claws popping.
“Robbie, no!” Gordo cried, but it was too late.
I would do this for him.
For Kelly.
For my family.
For my pack.
I jumped.
And Livingstone caught me by the neck.
“You,” he growled, pulling me close to his face. He opened his maw, and I could see endless rows of teeth. I struggled against him, beating on his hand and arm, but it was useless. “I gave you life. I gave you a home. I gave you everything. And thissss is how you repay me?”
“Fucking die already,” I managed to say, and sunk my claws into his right eye. It was almost as big as my palm, and I yanked on it, feeling it pop underneath my fingers.
Livingstone howled in pain, his grip around my neck tightening until I thought my spine would break.
Instead, he threw me to the ground. My breath was knocked from my chest as my arm broke. I turned my head slowly to see what remained of his eye still in my hand.
Joe and Ox pulled themselves to their feet.
Carter and Kelly stood before the beast, next to their mother.
Jessie circled Livingstone, keeping a safe distance.
Chris and Tanner helped me to my feet as my arm healed.
Rico slipped over the ice before hitting the beach, eyes orange.
Mark stood next to Gordo, their ravens’ wings stretched wide.
“Stop. Please.”
Two words, grunted with what sounded like great hardship.
The beast looked down.
Gavin stood before him, looking up at his father. It was discordant, seeing his face, so like his brother and father. But it was harder somehow, darker. It was in his eyes.
Feral.
“Leave,” Gavin grunted. His face twisted like he was struggling to form words. “With you. I’ll. Go. With you. Don’t. Don’t touch. Them.”
Livingstone craned his neck toward his son. “Leeeaave?”
“Yes,” Gavin said. “Us. We go.”
Livingstone snapped his teeth at Gavin. “Whyyyy?”
And Gavin said, “You’re. My father.”
The beast reared back, nostrils flaring.
“No,” Carter said, taking a step forward. “You can’t—”
Livingstone jerked his head toward Carter. He roared, his remaining eye flashing in warning.
“Here!” Gavin shouted. “Here! I. Will go!”
Livingstone looked back down at him. And extended his hand, claws flashing in the sunlight.
Gavin took it without hesitation.
“Joe!” Carter cried. “You have to stop him. You can’t let him—”
“No,” Gavin snarled at him, eyes violet. “Stay. Back. Don’t want. This. Don’t want. Pack. Don’t want. Brother. Don’t want. You. Child. You are. A child. I am not. Like you. I am not. Pack.”
And his heart never stuttered.
But he lied. Because he was pack. They were faint, the threads that stretched from him toward us, and just as we began to pull on them, just as we began to tug them, to sing to him, to remind him where he belonged. Gavin broke them.
Carter sounded as if he’d been punched, bending over and gagging.
The others were distracted.
They didn’t see what I saw.
The look on Gavin’s face, brief though it was.
It was heartbreak, real and devastating.
And then it was gone.
Livingstone roared again, and I covered my ears.
By the time my head cleared, Gavin and Livingstone were running. They didn’t stop when they hit the wall. Livingstone leaped up and over it, and Gavin clawed his way to the top and jumped to the other side.
He never looked back.
They were gone.
Carter took a step forward, hand raised, fingers trembling.
And when he turned toward us, gone was the bravado, gone was the man I’d come to know. In his place stood a lost boy, eyes wide and wet, lip trembling.
“Mom,” he croaked as a tear spilled down his cheek, chest hitching. And ah, god, there was so much blue pouring off him, I thought it would drown us all. “He… left. Mom? Why—why did he go? Why did he leave? I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
Elizabeth went to her son, holding him close as Carter broke apart, shoulders shaking. She whispered in his ear, telling him it would be all right, that it would be all right, my love, I promise you. I promise you. I promise you.
There were cries of joy as the people of the compound poured through the gates, whatever magic had held them in the trees now gone. The kids screamed for their parents, eyes clear but confused. Tony’s mother and father swept him up, each of them kissing his cheeks, his chin, his forehead as he babbled at them, telling them he’d been asleep for a long time and had the strangest of dreams, but he was awake now, and why were they crying? Why were they sad?
Brodie looked lost and unsure, but Ox was there, crouched before him, hands on his shoulders. Brodie’s face crumpled as he collapsed into Ox, sobbing against his chest.
Elizabeth led Carter away from the rest of us, his head bowed, hands in fists at his sides.
Kelly watched them leave. “What are we going to do?” he whispered to me.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“We can’t beat him. Not like we are now.”
“I know.”
He turned his head toward me. “Gavin didn’t want to go.”
I sighed. “You saw that too?”
He nodded and looked back at his mother and brother. “He sacrificed himself. To save us.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We have to. For all of us. But for Gordo and Carter most of all. They deserve to know the truth. And he’s part of this. Gavin is part of this. Of us.”
“He’s pack,” I said quietly.
“Yes. And we don’t leave pack behind. Ever.”
“Ever,” I said, hugging him closer.
He put his face in my neck, breathing in deeply. “You don’t remember.”
I closed my eyes. “No.”
“It’s okay.”
“I don’t—”
“Grass. Lake water. Sunshine.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“That’s what I smell like to you. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said hoarsely. “It is.”
“I never told you what it was like for me. How I knew that day. When we came back. How I knew you were my mate.”
“It’s—”
“Home,” he whispered. “You smell like home. You always have. And that’s the only thing that matters. You don’t need to remember because I remember for the both of us.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Are you sure?”
He nodded.
I kissed the side of his head. “Then we won’t worry about it. We won’t—”
“I tink we can help with dat,” a voice said from behind us.
We turned to see Aileen and Patrice standing there, looking dirty and worn but otherwise unharmed.
They were both smiling.
There were questions. So many questions. The residents of Caswell were scared. They demanded answers, wanting to know what had happened and what was going to happen next. They didn’t have an Alpha, they cried. They didn’t have anyone to lead them.
They didn’t want to turn into Omegas.
They gathered in front of the remains of the house that had once belonged to Michelle Hughes. We stood in front of it, a wave of anger and sadness bowling over us from all sides. I didn’t blame them. After everything we’d all been through, after everything we’d seen, I understood their fear.
Ox was trying to calm them down, but they weren’t listening.
It wasn’t until Joe Bennett spoke that they quieted.
He was staring off at the lake, a strange look on his face.
He said, “My father… he stood here once. I remember it. Clear as day. He was crying. I found him. He tried to hide it from me, but I found him. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t…. My voice had been stolen from me by a man named Richard Collins.” Joe turned to look out at the crowd. He took a deep breath. “I did the only thing I could. I put my hand on his hip, putting my scent on him. I bared my neck, wanting him to know that no matter what had happened, no matter what I’d gone through, I knew him. My Alpha. My father. And he was shocked by the display, so much so that I think he forgot he was crying. He asked me what I was doing. But I couldn’t answer him. I didn’t know how. So I hugged him.”
Elizabeth wiped her eyes, Carter standing stonily at her side.
“I hugged him,” Joe continued, voice growing louder, an undercurrent of AlphaAlphaAlpha behind his words. “Because I needed him to understand he didn’t have to hide his sadness. That he didn’t have to be tough and brave all the time. That he was my father and it was his job to protect me, but as his son, I loved him no matter who he was or what he was capable of. That we were stronger together than we would ever be apart.” He looked around at the crowd of wolves and witches and the last of our humans. “And I will be strong for you. But I can’t do it alone. I need you. I need all of you. If you’ll have me. If you’ll allow me to be your Alpha, I promise you, I will do everything for you. Because pack is everything.”
At first no one moved.
No one spoke.
We waited.
And then Tony stepped forward—little Tony who had blood on his hands but would never know of it as long as I still drew breath. His mother tried to stop him, but his father grabbed her arm, shaking his head. She didn’t argue.
He looked at all of us, the Bennett pack.
He smiled at me briefly before he looked to Joe.
“Are you a good wolf?” he asked.
“I try,” Joe said quietly. “And if I ever fail, I have people to remind me of who I am.”
“Your pack,” Tony said.
“Yes.”
He reached up and tugged on Joe’s hand, pulling him down, their faces inches apart. Tony touched Joe’s cheek, dimpling his skin. He laughed when Joe snapped at him playfully with a low growl.
And then Tony bared his throat.
Joe blinked rapidly, breathing heavily through his nose.
He trailed his fingers along Tony’s neck, flashing his Alpha-red eyes.
Tony scrunched up his face.
His eyes flickered orange.
The crowd sighed. It sounded like the wind.
“I did it!” Tony crowed.
“You did,” Joe said, smiling warmly. “And I’m so very proud of you.”
“Thanks, Alpha!” He ran back to his parents. They scooped him up in their arms as he laughed.
Joe rose, taking Ox’s hand in his.
He said, “I am Joe Bennett. My father was Thomas Bennett. My grandfather was Abel Bennett. I have their strength within me, and that of all those who came before me. We are pack. I know you’re scared. I know that uncertainty lies ahead. We have much to do. But we’ll do it together because we’re the goddamn Bennett pack, and our song will always be heard.”
The people of Caswell, Maine, all bared their necks to him.
His eyes filled with fire again, and when he howled, I knew things would never be the same.
In the ruins of the compound, we howled with him.
Joseph Bennett.
The Alpha of all.
