by TJ Klune
“Thomas,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Robbie said. He sounded uncomfortable. “I think so. Kelly and Joe do too, and they’d probably know better than I would.”
“It’s him,” Joe said firmly. “We know it.”
“What did it say?” Mark asked, leaning over the phone, eyes narrowed.
“It wasn’t much,” Kelly said. “But we think we know what it means.”
“Read it,” Joe said, voice crackling through the line.
And Robbie said, “Is this what he could become? Should we have killed him when we had the chance? I don’t know. They assure me he’s trapped forever.” And then Robbie said something else that we couldn’t quite make out.
“Say that again, Robbie,” Mom said. “We missed that last part.”
“Ox,” Joe said, and the world tilted on its axis. “He said he thinks it’s Ox. He wrote that Ox is something more than we ever thought. The last notes say he’s an Alpha. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But if this is true, if the beast can rise, then an equal and opposite must also rise. Ox. Ox. Ox.”
We stared at the phone, thunderstruck.
Jessie stepped forward. “Thomas was dead long before Ox ever became a wolf. How could he know—”
“Alpha,” Mom said. She was staring off into nothing.
“Lizzie?” Mark asked.
She shook her head. “He knew. Even before we did. When those Omegas came. When they took Jessie. Ox was….” She raised her head. At first I thought she was staring at Rico and Tanner and Chris. She wasn’t. She rounded the desk, motioning for them to move. They did. Gavin stood there, wringing his hands. She cupped his face, brushing her thumbs over his cheeks. “Gavin? You were there too with the Omegas.”
He nodded miserably.
“Did you feel it?” she asked quietly. “All that he could be?”
Gavin’s gaze darted over to me before settling back on my mother. “Bright. It scared me. Big. Bigger than anything. I felt him. He pulled. All of us. He let some of us go. We ran. But we felt it. Human. But more. Wolf. Alpha.”
Mom dropped her hands, looking dazed.
“He knew, Mom,” Joe said. “He knew, even then. He knew and he didn’t tell us.”
“We don’t know that,” Rico said. “He could be talking about—”
“There’s something else,” Robbie said. “Not from Thomas. From the book. I don’t know what it means. The rest of it is gone or illegible. But I can read this last thing.”
“What?” Mark asked as he tried to connect the call again.
“A single word,” Kelly said. “Sacrifice.”
The screen on the wall beeped twice quickly.
The call connected via video link.
We turned toward the monitor.
It was dark. The image was fuzzy, the pixels blurred and stuck. I thought I heard the wind. It took me a moment to realize it was someone breathing heavily.
“I got you,” a voice said offscreen. “Come on. Come on.”
I recognized the voice immediately. “Aileen?”
The picture spun dizzily. And then Aileen’s face filled the screen. She was bleeding from a wound on her head. Blood covered the right side of her face. Her skin was pale, and she coughed roughly. “Hey,” she said. She looked away from the screen, eyes narrowing. “Bring him here. Goddammit, Patrice. Is there anyone else?”
“No,” we heard Patrice say. “Dis is all dat’s left.”
“Your arm, it’s—”
“Don’t worry about dat,” Patrice said through gritted teeth. He was hurt, but we couldn’t see how bad. “I warded da cabin. It’s—Gordo. Gordo.”
And then another voice spoke. “Give me the phone.”
Ox.
The screen froze before jumping. Ox’s face appeared. His eyes were red and violet. He had blood on his teeth. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” Mom said. “Ox, we’re here.”
“Listen,” he said. “We were too late. The wards were destroyed. You need to be ready. He’s coming. He’s coming.”
My skin felt electrified. My blood rushed in my ears, and my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. “The witches?”
“Dead,” Ox muttered. “All dead. Patrice and Aileen, they’ve—” Ox grimaced, hand going to his side. He was shirtless, and a jut of bone pressed out from his skin. We heard the audible snap as it healed back into place. “He has a witch. A kid. I don’t—”
“Give me the damn phone,” Aileen growled. “You need to sit your ass down and rest.” The screen grew fuzzy again as she took the phone from Ox. Her face once more filled the screen. “His name is Gregory. Came to me after Caswell. Said he wanted to help.”
“Gregory?” Joe demanded. “I met him. I know him. He’s a fucking teenager.”
Robbie was equally incensed. “I know that name. Livingstone said it once. Back in Caswell when I thought he was Ezra. Said he was helping him, that Gregory was… eager to learn.”
“Fucking teenagers,” Aileen snapped. “And he’s stronger than I gave him credit for. He must have been hiding it from me. He’s the one who let the wolves in. And he’s the one who has let them out.” She choked on her words. “They killed them. All of them. It was a slaughter. Ox was able to kill a couple of the wolves, but Gregory caught him off guard. Knocked him through that old house.”
“Gordo?” Mark asked. He was pleading. “Where is he? Is he….”
“He’s here,” Aileen said. She reached up and touched the wound on her head. She winced, the tips of her fingers bloody. “Unconscious, but here. We have him. We’re holed up in the cabin. Don’t worry about us. We’re safe for now. But Ox is right, you need to be ready. Livingstone is coming. We tried to stop him, but….” She shook her head. “He was stronger than we were.”
“Dere gone,” Patrice said. “I tink dere all gone. Wolves. Gregory. We’ll wait here until we can be sure, and den—”
“No,” Ox said. “We’re leaving. Now. We have to get back to Green Creek.”
Aileen sighed. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because we have no other choice. Carter.”
“I’m here, Ox.”
“You need to warn the town. You—” He groaned somewhere offscreen. Then, “Will knows what to do. Raise the alarms. We’re coming for you, okay? I swear it. Hide. You hear me? I want you all to hide. You can’t do this on your own.”
Chris stepped forward. He looked at all of us before turning toward the screen. “You know we can’t do that, Ox. We have to help Green Creek. As many people as we can. It’s our job, man. It’s what you’ve been training us for. This moment.” He laughed, though it was shaky. “I mean, why else would you make us get up at the crack of dawn to punch each other over and over?”
Ox’s face appeared on the screen again. He looked furious. “No. Don’t. He’s stronger than you. Hide. Don’t make me tell you again.”
And Chris said, “We love you, okay?” as Ox’s face crumpled. “We’ll do what we can to hold them off until you get here.”
“Please,” Ox whispered. “I can’t lose you too.”
“You won’t,” Tanner said, stepping up next to Chris, standing shoulder to shoulder. “You’re our Alpha. You’ve taught us well. You and Joe both. We always knew it could come to this. Trust us, okay? Have the faith we have in you.”
“I’m coming,” Ox said, and we felt the pull of our Alpha. “I’m coming for all of you. Do what you can. But if it’s too much, you run. I don’t care what happens to the town. You take the people and you run.”
The screen went dark.
“Fuck,” Joe snarled. “Kelly, get on the—yes. Now. Robbie, go outside. Get as many people together as you can. And if anyone gives you shit, you tell them you’re speaking for me. I’ll be out there in a minute.”
“But—”
“Go.”
We heard them running.
Joe said, “Mom.”
“I’m here,” she
said quietly.
“I can’t lose him,” he whispered. He sounded like a little boy again, telling us about a boy he’d found on a dirt road in the middle of the woods.
“You won’t,” she said. “Get home.”
“I love you.”
“We love you too. We’ll see you soon.” She disconnected the call. She stared down at the screen a moment before shaking her head. When she looked up at us, her eyes were orange. “We’re not going to let this happen. Whatever comes, we face it, and we face it together. We—” She stopped.
“What?” I asked.
Mom looked from the door back to me. “Where’s Gavin?”
I whirled around.
He was gone.
I TORE THROUGH THE HOUSE, shouting his name.
He didn’t answer.
I flew into our room, the door slamming against the wall. On the bed underneath a stone wolf that had once belonged to my mother was a note written in familiar block letters, two words that screamed at me.
I’M SORRY.
I whirled around, running from the room and back down the stairs.
Mark was on the first floor, eyes wide. “What’s wrong now?”
I ignored him, bursting from the house. I jumped off the porch and landed on the ground, looking around, listening to the sounds of the forest. “Come on,” I muttered. “Come on. Come on.”
There. Behind the blue house. A rapid heartbeat.
I ran toward it.
I rounded the house and skidded to a stop.
In the trees near the blue house, I saw a flash of color.
A timber wolf running through the trees.
My fangs descended.
My claws grew.
A powerful beat thundered in my head, urging me to chase and hunt and bite.
My clothing tore as I
i
i
i am wolf
run
run fast
stop him
gavin
gavin
gavin
hear me
hear me i need you to hear
me you can’t do this
you can’t leave
not
there you
are i see you
you’re fast
but i’m faster
i
I shifted back as I tackled him, sliding along the ground. I ended up on top of him. He was on his back, paws kicking up into me, scratching my skin. He tried to snap at me. I gripped his snout with my hand, holding his mouth closed before turning his face into the ground. I roared at him, eyes flashing as I lowered my face to his.
He stopped struggling. He whined, eyes violet and scared.
“Shift back,” I bit out.
He didn’t.
“Shift. Back.”
I felt the muscle and bone grinding against me. The hair receded, and all that remained was the man I’d come to know. He scowled as he shoved me off him. I fell to the ground at his side but was up on my feet before he could move again.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Stupid Carter,” he muttered, pushing himself up. “Stupid, stupid Carter.”
“Fuck you.” I shoved his chest. He took a stumbling step back. “Where are you going?”
“Not your business,” he snapped. “You don’t own me. I go where I want.”
I could barely think straight. I was so goddamn angry. Bile rose at the back of my throat, and I choked it down. But hidden under the fury like a great, lumbering beast was something bigger.
Fear.
I was scared.
Not of him, but of what he was doing. Of whatever was going on in his head.
I’M SORRY the note said.
“Running away?” I asked, a nasty curl in my voice. “That it? First sign of trouble and you’re running?”
He glared at me but didn’t speak.
“Fucking coward.” I grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him back toward the houses.
“I’m not a coward,” he growled at me, struggling to pull free. My grip was too strong. “Shut up.”
“I don’t want to hear it. What the hell is wrong with you? How could you think this was ever okay? You can’t just—”
“I’m going to him!”
I stopped.
Closed my eyes.
The winter birds sang from the trees. It sounded like a song of sorrow.
I whispered, “What?”
He said, “I’m going to him.”
He said, “Never should have come here.”
He said, “I can stop this.”
He said, “I can stop him.”
He said, “Sacrifice. In the book. It was sacrifice.”
He said, “Doesn’t have to be Ox. Ox is Alpha. Pack needs Alpha.”
He said, “Pack doesn’t need me.”
I turned to look at him. His eyes were wet. His bottom lip was trembling. I said, “No.”
He shook his head. “Carter. Listen, okay? Listen. I can do this. I can end this. I… I can save pack. Good wolf. I can be good wolf. Big and bad but good.”
“No, no, no—”
“Shh,” he said, taking a step toward me. He pressed his finger against my lips. “Shh, Carter. It’s okay. I promise.” He tried to smile, but it broke into pieces. “You know I’m right. You know it. I help pack. Make it better.”
I jerked my head back and whirled around, pulling him toward the houses again.
“Carter, stop.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled at him over my shoulder. “You really think I’m just going to… what? Let you go? Let you do this? And you think I’m the stupid one? Oh, buddy, have I got news for you.”
“You don’t need me,” he said, struggling to pull away. I held on tight. “You don’t. You live. You can live. He doesn’t want you. Or Alphas. Or pack. He wants me.”
“What then?” The blue house came into view. “What the fuck is going to happen then? You let him suck the life out of you? Let him kill you? What if it’s not enough? What if he tears away all that you are and leaves you nothing but a fucking wolf again? He won’t stop, Gavin. You know he won’t.”
“He will. I can do it.” He said, “I hear him. He’s getting louder. He’s my father. He—”
“He is nothing to you.” The fear in me pushed through the rage, rearing its ugly head. I could barely breathe as it clawed at my chest, the panic fierce and bright. “He never has been. Why can’t you see that? You don’t get to do this. I won’t let you.”
“Why?” he shouted, and the force of it startled me. My grip on his arm loosened, and he pulled away before pushing me. I crashed into the side of the blue house, the siding cracking. “I never asked for this. Any of this. I never asked for you.”
I laughed bitterly. “Then why did you stay?”
He flinched. “What?”
I took a step toward him. He didn’t move. “You came here. You stayed. You didn’t have to. You knew who you were. You knew what would happen if we found out. And still you stayed. Why?”
“Questions,” he growled. “Always questions. You never stop, even when you should.”
I ignored him. I couldn’t stop. Not now. Not when everything was crumbling around us. “And then you leave because you’re a self-sacrificing asshole. I chased after you, and oh, did you put up a good fight. No, Carter, no. I don’t want to go with you. I don’t want to be with you. Go away, Carter. Go away. Stupid Carter.” I curled my hands into fists to keep from lashing out. “And you still came back. You still made yourself part of this pack. You made yourself a home. If it’s so easy for you to leave again, then why the fuck did you even come back here at all?”
He slumped, the fight draining out of him. His voice was hoarse when he said, “You’re the only place I’ve ever felt safe. You, Carter. You make me feel safe.” He tapped his fist against his chest. “Thump. Thump. Thump.”
I kissed him.
He exhaled explosively as his lips pressed back against
his teeth. His mouth was warm and wet, and I felt the scratch of stubble against my hands as I cupped his face. He made a wounded noise, and then I was being shoved back against the house again. Only this time, he was pressed up against me, the long line of his body hot against my own. My brain was misfiring at the thought that we were both naked, but then it fell away when he bit my bottom lip, tugging on it gently.
I groaned into his mouth as he gripped my biceps, claws digging into my skin.
“Stupid Carter,” he muttered against me. “It’s you. It’s you. Always you.”
I tilted my head back against the house as he latched his teeth on to my throat, inhaling deeply. Any question I’d had on whether I was into this went right out the window. I was into this. I was definitely into this.
He was still talking, still saying my name like a prayer, and I said, “Shut up, shut up, get in the house, we’re not going to do this here,” and he said, “You shut up, always talking, you never stop.” I laughed wildly. I felt crazed, the edges of the world a haze. It was like I was slipping again, but this time I didn’t want it to stop.
He stepped back, chest heaving. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me through the back door of the blue house. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know how to do any of this, but I was beyond caring. I stumbled into the house, my head bumping against his back. Randomly, I said, “I’m not ready for page seventy-six.”
“You make no sense,” he said. “Stop talking.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to—”
And he said, “I do,” and my blood ran hot. I did my best not to stare at his ass as he pulled me up the stairs, but I failed miserably.
He took me to a room at the end of the hall, a spare bedroom we’d used for Omegas. He closed the door behind us, and in the distance, the sounds of sirens began to wail in Green Creek, signaling the townspeople to action.
