by Holly Hook
“One of the Hunters shoved me against the wall of the gas station when they started shooting. Guess they thought I was just a bystander. Then me and Olivia got in my car and fled the scene before that could happen,” Noah says. “I barely got out and had to run over a curb since their bus was blocking the way out. I don't blame you guys for running. There's no way your SUV could have squeezed past the bus. I think I got some blue tour bus paint on my car, though. One of the other Hunters tried to shoot out my tire. I bet they wanted to take us hostage.”
“They shot at your tire?”
“Well, they missed. Guess they didn't train to slay tires all that well.” Noah releases me and joins Olivia.
“What happened after that?” Cayden asks, joining me. I feel a bit of darkness coming from him. His insecurity is coming out and it's thanks to Brett standing in the kitchen which isn't far enough for us to completely escape his effects. Cayden and I might have to separate again.
“Well, we drove back here and waited like you said,” Olivia says. “Leonora sent us a message saying we'd have a party.”
“Good. That wall makes me feel a lot better,” I say. I look out the front window at the expansive front yard and the stone wall that rises eight feet high. “Did anyone call the cops about the missing bus?”
Olivia nods. “I did. They said they'd look at it but heard nothing from the bus station.”
A bad feeling fills my gut, but I'm not going to go out to the station and check on the staff. We can't risk that now. Too much is at state. The Colling Wolves look at each other and shake their heads. It seems Noah, Olivia, and then have been discussing this already.
“Edwin and his Hunter friends are just as disgusting as the Savages,” Everly says. Then she sighs and shakes her head. “He just doesn't want to admit it.”
Leonora's lip quivers. “I'm sorry for bringing him here.”
I face her as Remo puts his arm around her. She looks like she's shrinking in his embrace. “It's okay. He was the only bad apple in your family. I've liked all the others.”
“But they won't stand up to him. My great aunt just says to let him have his way and all the cousins are the same. Everyone's afraid of him and no one wants to say it out loud. My family hasn't been much help. I'm sorry.”
“Leonora, if you hadn't brought them here, Romulus would have finished possessing Brie already,” Mr. Russell tells her. “Even Edwin helped to hold him off.”
“But that's how he found out about her,” Leonora says. “That had to have been.”
Duh. Of course. Abigail didn't help, either.
“You still did the right thing,” Remo whispers in her ear.
“So now what?” Brett asks from his spot in the back of the kitchen. I face him. He's set Karina down to thrash and groan among the chairs, but at least she's stopped screaming.
“My Aunt May is captured by Edwin and company,” I say, voice shaking. “We have to get her back. I don't think Edwin will kill her yet since she's a Noble Royal, but he might eventually. He'll do anything to get to me.”
“Why is Edwin so bent on harming you?” Don asks, rising from the couch. He leaves Allen and his mother sitting on either side of him.
I've had enough of this. “We went over this. He's bent on harming everyone. Edwin has problems,” I say. “He tried to use dark magic on me. He might be one of the Russells, but he's into dark magic and hid it from his family for years. I bet he's an agent of the cult.”
That gets Don to slowly sit back down. No one questions me. I'm already on shaky ground. I hate keeping the truth from these Wolves, but we can't lose them. Not now. The thing is, I'm not sure how we're going to lead them to this Noble Royal burial ground so we can finally contact Remus.
“And we need to figure out how to get May back,” Cayden adds.
The darkness is sweeping over from him to me again. I'm sure he's feeling mine. Cayden shifts leg to leg like he's uncomfortable. Brett remains in the kitchen. Making him stand outside right now would feel really crappy, so I endure it. Besides, it's not that bad this time around. Maybe he's learning some control. So far, I don't feel any of the chest pressure.
“I agree,” Everly says. “She's a Noble Royal, too, and we're going to need her.”
“Yes. We will,” Don agrees.
I'm not sure I like that. I eye the dying light outside. The sun's almost set completely and the night looks darker than normal. Maybe I'm entering my night as Cayden said he did after he lost his parents. It's a horrible feeling, like a constant set of dread, and it's then I can never blame him for acting like a jerk sometimes. The night isn't a pleasant stroll under the stars.
But then I place my feeling of dread.
“Brie?” Cayden asks.
I cup my hand over my ear and listen. “Quiet.”
The whole room tenses as I try to place my sense. Outside, far in the distance, footsteps approach, and I hear the squeak of leather with each step. Leather boots. Hunters. Maybe five of them, plus someone else approaching who wears tennis shoes and has a very slight limp. An older person.
Edwin.
I feel the blood drain from my face. They're walking up the street, straight towards Olivia's house, and they're showing no signs of deviating or stopping.
Chapter Eighteen
“It's them,” I mouth to everyone.
Noah lifts his eyebrow like he's not sure what I mean. Then he plunges his hand into his pocket and feels around. Then he pales and shoots off the fireplace, leaving Olivia sitting there by the pokers.
“Is there something I don't know?” I ask Noah in a squeaky voice. Good job, Brie. Show fear in front of the pack.
Noah thrusts his hand into his pocket. “I might have lost my cell phone earlier?”
“Where? Don't tell me it might have happened at the gas station. Why didn't you tell me this?”
“Went to call the cops and I just realized it was gone.”
I shake my head, unable to believe anyone besides Leonora wouldn't notice a missing phone for more than five minutes.
“Sorry, Brie. I seriously just realized it. Maybe one of the Hunters lifted it off me. The one who shoved me against the wall.”
“Then he lifted your phone and figured out where everyone you know lives,” I say, drawing closer to the front window. “They knew we'd come to the fortress.” At least Olivia has curtains and I pull them shut. The Hunters and Edwin are still down the street some distance, maybe a couple of hundred feet, and we have time to figure out what to do. Then my instinct to take charge sweeps over me. “We've got this wall around us they'll have trouble getting over it.”
“The gate is locked,” Olivia says, shaking.
I look right at her. “I'm sorry. Can you, um, call the cops and tell them people are trying to break in?”
Olivia pulls out her phone and swipes to activate it. But then her screen goes dead and the plug-in symbol appears. “What the heck?” she asks. “I just charged this two hours ago--”
A collective groan rises from the others. People take out their phones. I take mine out just as a new text comes in, but my phone goes dead, too, before I can read what it says.
“Edwin,” Leonora says, marching to the window. She practically shoves me out of the way while she peeks outside. “He's draining our phones and getting ready to do some kind of magic with all that energy.”
“I did that once,” Brett says.
I pull her back. They're nearing the gate and I don't want Edwin making eye contact with anybody.
Mr. Russell takes over in pulling his daughter back. “You get in the kitchen.”
“We have to convince him not to hurt Brie.”
“Just stay back,” I tell Leonora. She might be learning, but she's nowhere near Edwin's caliber yet. Not even Brett is, but I wave him out of the kitchen, somewhat to protect Leonora. “You need to do whatever you can to drain Edwin, or make those dark spirits attack him, or something.”
Brett looks back at his sister, who rolls agains
t the chair legs in the kitchen and groans. She's still out and will be for a while.
The Hunters and Edwin reach the gate. One of them tries to pull on it, but it's futile.
“You need to stay back, too,” Cayden says.
I let him wrap his fingers around my shoulder and pull me back with a gentle touch. That alone eases the darkness between us a bit, though it feels a bit wrong to let Cayden tell me what to do. “I know I do,” I say.
The Colling Wolves take turns peeking out into the night, and each one snaps the curtains closed after confirming that Edwin and his rogue Hunters are indeed at the gate. But when Natalie looks out and pinches the curtains shut, she looks right at me and says, “They're either giving up or circling around.”
“I'm going with the circling around theory,” I say. “I did that once.”
“I know you did.” Olivia stares right at me and bites her lip.
Upon listening, I realize Natalie's right. Edwin and co. are going to come in through the back, where the cops won't see them. They want this to be a stealth mission. They have to realize I can hear them, right? I never told Edwin about my enhanced senses, though. Maybe I have an advantage.
And the Hunters are walking very quietly.
My mind spins. “They're going to try coming through the back. The wall is just as high back there.”
“Then they must have a plan for that,” Don says.
The boots circle all the way to the back, closest to where Karina lies. Brett, as if registering my words for the first time, runs back into the kitchen and drags his sister into the living room. He still wants to shield her despite everything that's happened today.
The Hunters say nothing. They're at the back of the house.
And then I hear something metal brushing against rope. Confusion grips me as I stand in the middle of the living room. The Hunters seem to stand there for several minutes as we listen. I need to have a plan and tell the others what to do. But most of the Colling Wolves are looking at their dead phones and I don't see a landline anywhere. The air feels cold and absent as if a thousand Bretts were standing with us.
“Leonora,” Brett says. “You ready for the dark arts? We're going to call on my dark spirits, but it'll work better with participants. You guys, too.” He snaps his fingers at her parents. “We'll hold off those people out there. I have Edwin's hair.”
Leonora mutters something and exchanges some major worried glances with her parents. But her father nods sadly and motions to the living room floor. “We might not like dark magic, but we have others to protect.”
Leonora kneels beside Brett. Mrs. Russell and her husband do the same, and the four link hands. Light spirits aren't going to help us right now, and even the Russells have to admit it. Brett begins saying some low words, and Leonora shakes as she holds his hand. Then to my surprise, Remo joins the circle and puts himself between her and him.
“Never thought I'd see that,” Cayden whispers in my ear.
The air in the house darkens, even though the effect isn't visual, and I check my phone to see if it's coming back to life. Nope. Not yet. Brett's up against Edwin, and if we had Karina working with us, we might have a good chance, but--
The metal thing flies through the air outside, making the air whistle, and rakes against the top of the stone wall. I can't see it from the back door—it's just off to the left from there—but hearing paints the picture I need. Something sharp scrapes against stone for a moment before getting lodged at the top.
“They have a climbing hook,” I say. My brain finally unlocks. “Block the back door! Furniture. Stuff. Anything!”
The rest of the pack, plus Noah, get up and thunder around Brett's group on the floor. Don and Ron lift Olivia's leather couch and haul it through the kitchen, putting it up against the vulnerable glass door. Already leather-bound feet scrape against the wall as the first Hunter scales it.
“Is this necessary?” Don asks as he tips the couch onto its side. “We outnumber them.”
“Those Hunters are trained to kill Wolves,” I say. “One shot in the right place could end us. And Edwin will sacrifice other Noble Wolves to get to me. He's working with the Savage King.”
Don pales as my words wash over him. With the couch in place, he and Ron back away from the door and go to work putting the kitchen chairs up against it. The whole house is motion and scrambling.
“They know we're here,” a Hunter I've never met says from behind the wall.
“They do. But it won't matter. We'll see this through,” Edwin says.
And then I smell something from beyond the wall I really don't like.
Gasoline. Edwin hasn't just brought his magic to the party. My stomach turns with terror and I turn to Olivia, who hugs herself on the fireplace shelf. How can I tell her what Edwin might have planned, that he might try to smoke me out? It's as if he wants me to go out there and confront him so the others don't die. Everyone in this house is now a bargaining chip.
I might have to.
I look right at Cayden, who has remained by my side through this thing. “Edwin has gas,” I whisper.
He frowns, looking more grave than I've ever seen him. “He does. I know.” Then he looks to Olivia who stands pressed against the wall. “We have to get her and Noah out of here.”
But it's too late. A slosh sounds from behind the wall as Edwin hands the container of flammable liquid to whichever Hunter has the rope. They're going to throw it over the wall and do the dirty work from there. They need me out. Us out, maybe. And Edwin at least doesn't care that innocent people might get caught up in this.
My heart races. Cayden and I draw close together. Our fear, magnfied by Brett's presence, flows between us. And I also know what Cayden wants. But the Hunters will kill him. If I send him and the other Wolves out to deal with them, pack members will die. The Hunters are much smarter than the Savages. And then the guilt will get me. No amount of reasoning will stop me from letting the Savage King take over.
And if I go out myself, I die.
No matter what I do, people will die.
“We have to leave,” I shout, hoarse, whirling to look at everyone. “Run out the front gate.”
“We outnumber them,” Don says. “If they're working for the Savage King, then we need to attack them and keep them away from the good people of this town.”
He's right. In my terror, my command is weakening. We should fight. Backing down isn't an option. At least, not to the Colling Wolves, who have managed to stay together and alive for ages. Allen looks at me like I'm crazy as his mother, who has her hand firmly on his shoulder, forces herself to let him go. He's strong and will be able to fight. But Cayden can't look right at him.
Slosh.
A bunch of gas strikes Olivia's back deck. The smell is unbearable. Some strikes the glass of the sliding door. Even Olivia notices.
“They're going to throw a match over,” she says.
“What do we do?” Natalie asks. “Alpha?”
I want to ask Remo, but he has his eyes closed, sitting between Brett and Leonora. So far, their magic isn't doing anything but at least Brett's not draining us at the moment. “We have to attack them,” I force. “All of us. Together. They might not know the whole pack is here.”
Cayden seizes my hand. “Let me go ahead of you.”
We lock gazes for a moment. I should go in his place—I'm the alpha—but not letting Cayden go first might wreck us both if we survive. I have to make this right.
“That would be great.”
“Don't go out through the back door,” I announce, full of strength. It feels right to give Cayden this even if he's risking his life. He needs this. Is that the warmth of the Noble King in my chest? “They might set a fire any moment and then we're in trouble. We take the attention off the back of the house. Come on!”
I wave everyone to the front door except for Noah and Olivia, who remain by the fireplace, and loosen my jacket on the way out. But not before I let Cayden storm out the door t
o lead the charge.
Chapter Nineteen
Cayden bursts into the front yard and I follow, watching as he rips off his jacket, throws it to the ground, and starts to shift despite still wearing his pants. Dark fur covers his skin and he pops as he quickly changes shape. A dark wolf springs out of Cayden's clothes, growls with fierce protectiveness, and bolts around the back of the house.
The shift begs to overtake me and I do the same, not caring about the others pouring out of the house. Everly kneels beside me and shifts, and I let the pain overtake my body as I change shape. Popping and stretching fill my being with fire for a moment, and the silver cut screams as I shift around it. It slows me down for a second, a second too long, but at last my vision, better than ever, snaps into place. My hearing truly blooms. In wolf form, I dart after Cayden, Everly, Don, and Allen, who is right behind Cayden. Leaving the rest of the pack to shift behind us, we bolt around the side of Olivia's mansion.
The gas smell overtakes me and I nearly backpedal. But it's not as bad as Brett's poisonous herbs. Cayden makes the first leap over the eight-foot-high stone wall in the back, where a metal claw grips the top like the start of a monster. He vanishes over the edge and leaps down on whoever has the misfortune of standing right on the other side. A loud growl and a snap later, one of the Hunters swears and readies a crossbow. Bolts roll against each other, but before he can fire, Allen, a large tan Wolf, leaps over the wall with just as much ease as Cayden. Teeth snap into leather and more growls sound through the air.
I have to jump in even if Edwin needs sight of me to wave his dagger and use my blood against me. That urge to protect the others sweeps over me.
And then a bolt fires and the tip sinks into flesh. Allen yelps but renews the attack.
I leap over the wall, right beside Marleen, a matching tan Wolf. Marleen rips over it, claws leaving marks on the top, and attacks the Hunter who shot her son. They both go down as the other four Hunters, just dark shapes among the trees, backpedal and ready their weapons.
