by TJ Klune
“Wow,” he said. “Dude, that’s awesome. Thank you.” His gaze darted away. “There’s this girl, and I’m courting her, but she’s being… well. You know.”
“Nikki, right?”
His smile was wide. “Yeah. Nikki. Oh man, she is the best. When she acknowledges my existence, at least. Do you think she’d like to run in the refuge with me? In the rain? That’s romantic, right?”
“Very,” I assured him. “Why don’t you go ask her and find out?”
“Yeah, you know what? I think I will. Thanks, Robbie. This is fucking awesome.” He gripped my shoulder and squeezed as he grinned at me. He stepped off the porch.
“Hey, Daniel?”
He glanced back at me. “Yeah?”
“Just to be safe, what’s the code to get inside?”
His smile faded. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I know,” I said. “But it’s okay. It’s best that I know. Since Alpha Hughes and Ezra are out, I need to make sure that if I need to get in, I can.”
He bit his bottom lip. “Well, I guess that makes sense. I mean, if they’re gone, you’re pretty much in charge, right? Being the second.”
I grinned at him, although I’d never felt less like smiling. “Exactly. You got it. And I really don’t want to go inside. Trust me on that. But you gotta be prepared, you know? Just in case.”
“Just in case,” he echoed. He turned, but not before looking over his shoulder through the rain toward the other houses. There was no one else there.
He went to the door of the house. His nose wrinkled as the scent of magic intensified. A red circle appeared on the door, glowing dully. The circle was filled with lines, sectioning off the interior. And inside each of the boxes the lines created was a symbol. It was simple, a combination of shapes: squares, smaller circles, and triangles. He didn’t touch them, just pointed at a combination. “Circle. Rectangle. Octagon. Heptagon. Circle again. Easy, right?” He took a step back and the bigger circle faded. He looked uneasy. “Just don’t go in, okay? Not without the Alpha here. Or Ezra. The prisoner was already fed before they left. No one is scheduled to go back inside until tonight.”
“Got it,” I said easily. “Hey, say hi to Nikki for me, all right? And I heard she gets impressed the bigger the deer you bring her.”
Daniel laughed, shaking his head. “Women, right? Always wanting a bigger deer.” He stepped off the porch into rain. “Thanks again, Robbie. I don’t care what anybody says. You’re a good guy.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly as he walked toward the lake.
I forced myself to wait until he disappeared around the front of another house, passing out of sight. I strained my ears, listening as hard as I could. Through the sounds of the rain, I could make out the faint voices of other wolves, but they were all coming from indoors. If Michelle and Ezra were actually checking the wards, I had time, but I had to move fast, just in case.
I turned back toward the door. I felt the familiar pull of Ezra’s magic as the circle flared to life.
What had the inscription inside the book said?
Never forget.
Easier said than done, apparently.
Because I had forgotten. And if everything the Alpha had told me over the phone was true, I’d been made to forget.
Why?
An even darker thought followed.
What else had I forgotten?
I told myself that Ezra and Michelle Hughes were trying to protect me. They loved me. They’d told me as much. And their heartbeats didn’t betray any lie. And maybe, just maybe, they had nothing to do with this.
I took a step back from the door. The circle faded.
What the fuck was I doing? I couldn’t go inside. If they found out, everything would be ruined. Oh, I could probably spin it away, telling them that I thought I heard something from inside, thought something dangerous was happening, but would they believe me?
“Fuck,” I whispered.
I turned away from the door.
For a moment I thought I saw a wolf standing on the dirt pathway leading toward the house.
I see you.
Oh god, I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be seen so badly.
I blinked and the wolf was gone, if it’d been there at all.
The circle burst onto the doorway as I stepped toward it again. This time I didn’t hesitate.
Circle.
Rectangle.
Octagon.
Heptagon.
Circle again.
The magic pulsed once. Twice. Three times.
The red faded.
And then the lock in the door clicked.
Last chance. Last chance to forget all this idiocy, last chance to walk away and tell Michelle and Ezra that something was wrong.
I opened the door.
* * *
The interior was like any other house in the compound.
I didn’t know why I was so surprised. It was sparsely furnished, and it smelled unlived-in and musty, as if the windows hadn’t been opened in a long time. There were no lights on, and as the door closed behind me, the entryway fell into a dull gray light that filtered in through the heavy drapes on the windows.
Off to my left was a sitting room with an unlit fireplace and a high-backed chair in front of it. The bookshelves were bare.
The sitting room opened to a kitchen that looked empty. There was no table. No stove. No microwave. No fridge. The floor was ancient linoleum, cracked and faded.
The floor creaked under my boots as I took a step away from the door.
I inhaled deeply.
There was no wolf in the house.
There had been. I picked up faded notes of Daniel and Santos and a few select others who had access. Michelle had been here too, though it didn’t seem recent.
Ezra permeated everywhere because his magic was in the walls, in the ceiling, in the floor beneath my feet, and he’d told me it was a wolf, he’d told me it was a wolf—
A heartbeat.
From down the hallway in front of me.
There were three doors. All of them were closed.
It wasn’t the heartbeat of a wolf.
It was human.
The heartbeat was slow and steady, a repetitious beat on a hollow drum.
I followed it.
It didn’t come from behind the first closed door.
Or the second.
It was the last door at the end of the hall.
Nothing hung on the walls. No paintings. No pictures. The house felt blank. Unused. Hollow.
I hesitated in front of the last door before knocking.
The heartbeat inside didn’t speed up.
“Hello?” I said. “My name is Robbie. I’m here to… check on you.”
No response.
“I’m going to come inside. I would really appreciate if you didn’t attack me or anything. Because honestly? I’ve had a very weird day.”
Nothing.
I took a deep breath as I put my hand on the doorknob.
I expected the door to be locked. It wasn’t.
The knob twisted easily. I pushed the door open.
The hinges made no sound.
The room was filled with shadows. There was an empty bed, the blankets pulled tight in the corners. A rug lay on the floor at the foot of the bed.
The windows were covered in the same thick drapes, barely letting in any light. I could hear the rain through the walls. It was getting louder. In the distance came a peal of thunder.
A chair sat in the middle of the room.
And in this chair sat a man, facing away from me. He didn’t move.
“Hello?” I said. My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hello. Can you hear me? My name is—”
“Ahhhhhh,” the man said.
A chill ran down my spine. I left the door open as I stuck to the wall, inching my way around the man.
He didn’t move, staying perfectly still.
It made everything wor
se.
I didn’t know why I expected a great flash of something when I saw his face. I was too worked up, my senses heightened.
He was a thin man, almost gaunt. His cheekbones were sharp. His hair was cut short. He wore jeans and a chambray button-down shirt. His feet were bare. His hands were in his lap. He sat statue-still, the only movement the shallow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. His skin looked bleached white, as if he hadn’t stepped out into sunlight in a long time.
His eyes, though.
His eyes were like the house.
They were blank. Unseeing. He barely blinked.
I pushed myself off the wall, taking a step toward him, making sure to keep my distance as I circled him. My claws prickled against the palms of my hands.
“What’s your name?” I asked him in a low voice.
Nothing. Like no one was home.
“What are you doing here?”
Silence.
“Why did the woman say I needed to come here?”
He stared straight ahead.
I was sweating. And I was scared. “What have you done?”
He didn’t flinch at the harshness in my voice.
I stopped in front of him. A few feet separated us. I hunkered down on my heels so we would be eye level.
He looked right through me. I wasn’t sure if he knew I was there at all.
He was younger than I expected him to be, though whatever had been done to him had seemed to age him prematurely. The hair at his temples had turned white, and there were heavy black circles under his eyes.
He breathed in. He breathed out.
His heart rate never changed.
I asked, “Do you know me?”
Nothing.
“Do you know Ezra?”
Nothing.
“Do you know Alpha Hughes?”
Nothing.
A memory filtered in through the storm in my head.
It’s time you know who the real enemy is.
The ones who would take everything from us.
They are the Bennetts
And they will destroy everything if given the chance.
Was that real? Or was it just a dream?
I asked, “Are you a Bennett? Are you part of their pack—”
He moved quicker than I expected. I cried out in alarm as he leapt from his chair. I fell back onto my ass as he stalked toward me. I growled at him as he stood above, head cocked, eyes still horribly blank. His arms hung at his sides like they were boneless.
He said, “Ah. Ah. Ahhhh.”
I pushed myself away from him, my boots slipping on the floor.
He took an answering step toward me. And then another. And then another.
He only stopped when I did, my back against the wall. I had nowhere else to go.
I looked up at him, claws digging into the floor.
His mouth opened and closed soundlessly, his brow furrowed in deep lines like he was thinking as hard as he could. He blinked slowly.
And then he sat down on the floor in front of me. One of his bare feet pressed against my calf, causing my skin to crawl.
He opened his mouth again.
He said, “Ahhhhh. Ahhh. Ah.” The skin around his mouth tightened. “Ahhh am. Ah am. I am. I am.”
“You are,” I whispered.
“I am. I am. I am.” He was getting frustrated, practically spitting the words. “I am. I am. I am.”
I never should have come here. I needed to get out while I still could.
I started to get up but stopped when he lashed his hand out, wrapping his fingers around my ankle, squeezing tightly. I thought I felt a flash of heat, but it was faint.
“Bennett,” he said through gritted teeth.
I could barely breathe. “Bennett. You’re a Bennett?”
He shook his head jerkily, like it was being controlled by strings. “No. No Bennett. I am. I am.” He bared his teeth at me. They were yellowed, though they still looked strong. “I am. I am. Witch. I am witch. I am witch.”
He couldn’t be. I would have smelled the magic on him as soon as I walked into the house. Ezra had said this was a wolf. That was a lie. The man said he was a witch. That was a lie.
Unless….
Reality felt thin, like a translucent membrane.
I wanted to tear it apart.
“Witch,” I repeated. “You’re a witch.”
He nodded, head snapping up and down. He still held on to my ankle. If it came down to it, I’d break his wrist. Hell, I’d break his entire fucking body. I wasn’t going to die here. Not in this house.
“But you don’t have magic.”
“Ta,” he said. “Tay. Tay. Ken. Tay ken.”
“Taken.”
He nodded again. Yes.
“Taken. Your magic was taken from you.”
Yes. Yes.
“Ripped from you before they put you in here.”
Yes. Yes. Yes.
“Because of what you did.”
And that got a reaction out of him. He narrowed his eyes, and his grip on my ankle tightened to the point where it’d probably leave a bruise if I were human. He snapped his mouth at me, teeth clicking together again and again.
“Because of what someone else did,” I said.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
“Do you… do you know who I am?”
“Rob. Bee.”
I swallowed thickly. “How do you know me?”
He said, “You. Are. Wolf.”
He said, “You. Are. Pack.”
He said, “You. Are. Bennett.”
No. No, no, no—
I kicked him. He grunted as my boot caught him in the chest, knocking him back. His fingernails scraped against my ankle before he let go. He fell back onto the floor, head bouncing against the wood. I pushed myself up, ready to tear him to pieces.
He was staring up at the ceiling, barely blinking, his head near one of the legs of the chair he’d been sitting in.
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I snarled down at him. “You don’t know me. You don’t know the first thing about me. I’m not a Bennett. The Bennetts are traitors. Ezra said—”
He laughed. It sounded wet and harsh.
It went on and on before dissolving into heaving gasps, tears streaming down his face as he smiled.
“Fuck this,” I muttered.
I headed for the door.
Before I could walk through it, he spoke again.
“Dale,” he gasped through his tears. “I am Dale. I am Dale. I am Dale I am Dale I am Dale I AM DALE I AM—”
I closed the door against his screams.
* * *
I called the number from the note again as I stood on the porch, running a hand over my face.
It rang and rang.
No one answered.
* * *
Ezra and Michelle returned to the compound as the rain began to let up later that afternoon. I watched them as they approached the house. Ezra was soaking wet, though he didn’t look as if he minded. Michelle held an umbrella.
“Robbie?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
I shrugged. “Daniel needed a favor. Figured I’d help him out. Courting is a lot of work.”
“It is,” Ezra said slowly. “Not that you would know anything about that yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m twenty-nine years old. I have plenty of time.”
Ezra and Michelle exchanged a look. Michelle said, “You don’t need to worry about this place. It isn’t your job. We have plenty of people who—”
“It’s fine,” I said, and Michelle narrowed her eyes at the interruption. I added, “It was a good deed, you know? I hope those crazy kids make it. And I’m sure Santos or someone else will be back soon to take over for me.”
“Santos is off-compound,” Ezra said. He stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up at me. “On assignment.”
I kept my expression neutral. “Is he? Where did he go?”
“It
’s not your concern,” Michelle said sharply.
I arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m your second. You said so yourself. Shouldn’t I know these things?”
Her eyes flashed red. “I don’t appreciate your tone.”
I nodded as I felt her pull like a hook in my brain. “My apologies, Alpha. I don’t mean anything by it. I just thought… well. I thought I’d be kept in the loop should anything happen.”
“And you will be,” she snapped. “If I feel it needs to be brought to your attention. This didn’t.”
“Okay.”
She blinked. “Okay?”
“I believe you. If you say I don’t need to know about it, then I don’t need to know.”
Ezra stared at me thoughtfully. “Did you go inside the house?”
“I did. Thought I heard something.” I shook my head. “It was nothing. Guy inside was sitting in a chair in his room.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
I laughed. I felt cold. “Didn’t seem like he was aware of anything at all. He didn’t act like any wolf I’ve ever seen before.”
“No,” Ezra said, “I don’t suppose he did. Why are you here?”
“I told you. I was doing Daniel—
“A favor, yes. I heard that part. But why?”
“Because he’s a good guy. Deserves every happiness. Don’t you think so?”
“Of course I do,” Ezra said. “I just…. Would you hear me, dear? I worry about you.”
The stress drained from my body, shoulders slumping. I was very tired, and it wasn’t helping that I didn’t know what the fuck I’d seen in the house. What it meant. “I know. But you worry too much. I can handle myself. I’m not a cub.”
“I know you’re not,” he said gently. “But there are things at play here. Things that go beyond your understanding.” He raised a hand before I could speak. “And it’s not because we—I—don’t trust you. You know that’s not the case. But there’s a need for sensitivity, for… discretion. And with these dreams you’re having, it’s probably not helping matters. You’ve been out of it for a few days, you know.”
I smiled grimly at him. “It’s Saturday.”
“Yes, dear. It is.”
