by T. J. Klune
Maybe he’d even tell me that one day.
If he ever came back.
If I ever forgave him.
I said, “What. Is. Your. Name?”
“Come out here,” the wolf said. “Beyond the stickies.” He cocked his head at me, his elongated ears flickering.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I said, tired of him. Tired of all of this. “You’re going to give me the girl. Once I see what kind of condition she’s in, I’ll make a decision as to whether you walk away from here or crawl.” I tilted my head, my gaze staying on him. “Or how deep in the ground I bury you.”
The wolves didn’t laugh at that.
I saw two or three of them take a step back. I would spare those ones. If I could.
The wolf in front of me paused. “You,” he said, “are a conundrum. Why is it you are the way you are?”
“Because of my father,” I said, thinking of Thomas.
He watched me for a moment. Then he raised his voice and said, “Bring the girl.”
It couldn’t be that easy.
From the shadows of the interior of the bridge, two figures emerged from the dark. One stuttered with every step it took. The other dragged the first harshly.
Jessie.
She was walking on her own, but I could hear the low hitches of her breath. She was limping, barely putting any weight down on her right foot. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were wet. But her mouth was set in a thin line, her jaw tensed. She was scared, yes, but she was pissed. That was good. Anger was a better motivator than fear. It also probably meant the wolves were underestimating her. Just like they were underestimating me. My pack.
She saw me and her voice was raw when she said, “Ox.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just look at me. It’ll be okay.”
“It really won’t,” the wolf said as he took Jessie by the arm. She struggled against him, but his grip was iron tight. “Tell me, Ox. Do you think that little crowbar of yours would do anything to prevent me from ripping out her throat right in front of you? Do you think you could stop me before I stop her heart?”
“Another wolf said something like that to me once,” I said quietly. “Before Richard Collins. This wolf held my mother almost the exact way you’re holding her. I bashed his head in. He died a very painful death.”
“History doesn’t repeat itself.”
I shrugged. “It can.”
“Not for your mother,” the wolf said with a nasty smile. “Tell me, Ox. You saved her a first time, why not a second?”
Easy, Thomas whispered.
“What do you want?” I asked, barely containing my rage.
His eyes flared violet. “Simple,” he said. “You. Since your Alpha has… abandoned you all, he will need incentive to come back out of hiding. You will provide that incentive. We will be rewarded. He will put us above all others when we give you and your Alpha to him.”
“And if I don’t?”
“The girl,” he said. “She’ll die. The rest of this town will die. What remains of your pack will die.”
I snorted. “The wards will hold. You can’t touch them. The pack. Or this town.”
“Ox, what the hell is this?” Jessie asked, voice high and wavering.
“For how long?” the wolf asked. “Mistakes will be made. You can only stay in there for so long. I can stay out here forever. And anytime a person leaves this place, I will be there to kill them. One by one.”
“You should have told me your name,” I said. “That’s all I asked for.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know who you’re—”
“I gave you the option,” I said, finally letting my anger show. My voice deepened and I felt something surging along the pack bonds. “To let this go. To walk away. Or even crawl. Now, I don’t know if any of that is an option.”
BrotherPackLoveSonFriend
They were there. All of them.
Those of us that remained.
Because regardless of those that were missing, we were a pack. We lived as one, we ate together as one.
We trained as one.
Ever since that day when Elizabeth had shifted back, things had been different. Since Tanner and Chris. Since Rico and Robbie. They’d come when we were alone and made us something more again. Maybe not whole, but we were held together. There were doubts, yes, mostly mine, because of the things I couldn’t let go. The anger of betrayal. The loss of my family. The fractured pieces Joe and the others had left behind.
But we weren’t down. Not completely.
I had my pack.
And my pack had me.
“In a minute,” I told the Omegas, “there’s going to be yelling. Probably some screaming. Things are going to get confusing. Blood will be spilled. I want you to remember something for me when that happens. All I wanted to know was your name.”
There were ten of them.
There were seven of us.
But they didn’t know that.
The wolf holding Jessie took a step forward.
They came then. To my side.
The wolves first. Teeth bared and snarling at the intruders who dared to come into our territory, who dared to try this again.
Elizabeth and Mark stood to my right. Robbie came to my left. They brushed against me, coiled muscle and bristled hair.
The others followed. Tanner and Rico stood next to Robbie. Both held guns loaded with silver bullets, something Gordo had made sure I’d always saved in case of an emergency. A year ago, Rico had never even held a gun before. Now he was the better of the two.
Chris came to stand between Elizabeth and Mark. He flexed his wrists, and spring-loaded knives infused with silver shot out. He’d made them himself with materials and tools from the shop. Said he’d found the schematics online. He rocked his head back and forth, neck popping loudly in the silence.
“What is this—” the wolf started.
But that was as far as he got.
Even before he’d finished the hard end to the first word, we were moving. No sound was made aside from our feet in the dirt. I didn’t even think they were aware of what was happening until it was almost too late for them.
Jessie saw us coming and didn’t wait to be rescued. She brought her right foot up at an angle, her thigh pressing up against her stomach. Then just as quickly, she kicked her foot down into the wolf’s knee, knocking his sideways, the bones cracking wetly as they broke.
I didn’t even give him a chance to register the pain before I brought the crowbar up in a golf swing upside his head, knocking him back. Blood and teeth flew into the air as he landed on his back, leg out at an odd angle.
The wolves snarled around us as they attacked each other, teeth and claws biting and tearing. I grabbed Jessie and dragged her away from the fight. I felt the wards rush over me as we passed through them. “You stay here,” I snapped at her. “Don’t come one step closer. They can’t get to you here.”
“Ox—”
But I didn’t stay to listen to her. I turned and ran back through the wards, directly toward the wolves snarling and growling behind me.
An Omega, half-shifted, eyes crazed with rage, bellowed and headed straight for me, claws outstretched as it leapt. I slid to my knees into the dirt, sliding swiftly even as my pants tore, rocks digging into my skin. I lay back as low as I could go as I slid toward the wolf. It flew over me, its teeth snapping near my neck, claws trailing along my skin. I brought up the tip of the crowbar and shoved it upward. The wolf’s skin bubbled and smoked as the silver cut into it. Bones cracked in his rib cage as I thrust it up as hard as I could, his momentum carrying him over me, splitting him from his chest down to his stomach. He landed awkwardly on his shoulder, crashing into the ground and rolling away. He didn’t move when he stopped facedown, blood pooling beneath him in the dirt.
Behind me, gunfire erupted.
I turned back toward the sound.
Elizabeth had her teeth sunk into the neck of a wolf below her. T
he wolf was on its back, legs kicking feebly as she tore into it.
Mark was bigger than any of the other wolves, almost by half. He took down two of them even before I could move, teeth soaked with blood.
These Omegas were far less coordinated than the ones that had come before. I didn’t think Richard Collins had sent them. They fought against us, but they didn’t fight together. They moved independently of each other. They weren’t bonded.
Robbie yelped as an Omega clawed his back. He twisted and snapped his teeth over his shoulder, trying to bite at the Omega’s legs. I didn’t wait for him to reach them. I ran full speed toward them, knocking the Omega off him. We hit the ground, the Omega scrabbling above me, teeth near my throat.
Before I could throw it off, Chris was there. He punched the wolf in the back of the neck, knife shooting forward from his wrist and into the spinal cord. The wolf convulsed on top of me, legs skittering and scraping against my skin. Chris jerked his arm back, the wolf’s head rising with his arm until the blade slipped free. Chris was moving again even before I pushed the dead wolf off.
Tanner and Rico were moving in tandem, standing back to back, arms extended, firing into any wolf that came near them. They kept moving in a slow circle, firing in short, even bursts. When one reloaded, the other watched their back.
One wolf slunk in low from the side, trying to remain undetected as it stalked toward them both. Its teeth were bared and it crouched, ready to jump.
“Two o’clock!” I shouted at them.
Tanner ducked immediately as Rico whirled around, arm sweeping over him, moving until the wolf fell within the gun’s sight. He fired once, the bullet catching the wolf in the throat. The wolf fell back, and I knew that the bullet was breaking apart internally, the silver spreading in the bloodstream, poisoning the Omega, slowing its healing enough that it wouldn’t survive.
The sounds died down around us.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Rico and Tanner lowered their guns.
Chris was already running toward Jessie, who stood behind the wards looking shell-shocked.
Pain flared briefly in my arm. There was a gash near my shoulder, not deep, but long. A tooth or a claw had caught me at some point. I probably needed stitches or it would scar. I didn’t think it mattered one way or another. Scars showed what I’d been through. That I was still alive. It was bleeding sluggishly. It’d be fine. For now.
Mark was standing near Robbie, growling at three Omegas who hadn’t shifted during the fight. They were near the bridge, the fear evident on their faces. I didn’t know if they were here by choice or if they’d been forced. Thomas had told me once that Omegas were lost, mostly. On their way to being feral. Marie certainly had been. I didn’t know if they’d be able to find their way back or not.
Elizabeth was standing over the wolf that had been doing the talking. He was conscious, still, body burning from the silver. I knew he’d heal, eventually. If I let him.
There were six dead wolves lying on the ground. The gunfire would be noticed soon. We didn’t have much time.
“Rico,” I said.
“On it,” he said. He pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as he started to walk away. “Yes, hello? I think I hear gunfire. Has anyone called that in? It sounds like it’s coming from out near the south end of town, so hunters? Maybe in the woods?”
Which was in the opposite direction.
I walked over to Elizabeth. She was growling low in her throat, a consistent rumble as the wolf below her bled and choked.
I ran my hand down her back as I knelt beside her. She pressed into the touch, but didn’t look away.
“Gah,” the wolf said, a bubble of blood bursting from his mouth. A thin red mist dotted his cheeks and forehead. “Gah.”
“You should have told me your name,” I said quietly. “But that wasn’t your first mistake. I wouldn’t even say coming here was your first mistake. Do you know what was?”
“Gah. Gah. Gah—”
I said, “Your first mistake was underestimating me. My pack. I may be human, but I run with wolves.”
I stood and moved toward the other Omegas.
Mark and Robbie had herded them up against the wall of the bridge. They cowered as I approached.
Mark and Robbie parted briefly to allow me to step between them. They crowded my sides immediately, pressing their warmth against me.
“You didn’t shift,” I said to the Omegas. “Why?”
There was fear in their eyes as they watched me. None of them spoke.
I took another step toward them.
They whimpered.
And then bared their throats at me.
I stopped.
Because that shouldn’t have happened. That was only for—
I wasn’t—
I couldn’t be—
Something in my scent or the beat of my racing heart must have given me away, because Mark was there, Robbie was there. Elizabeth was there, all three touching me, running their noses on my legs and arms. Rico and Tanner and Chris were there too, somewhere. I could feel them in my mind, bright and loud. Robbie’s thread was stronger than it’d ever been before, and it pulsed with friend and home and packpackpack.
I could barely breathe.
“You will take them from here,” I managed to say. “Your wolves. You do not leave a single trace. You will go back to where you came from. If you see Richard Collins, you will tell him what happened here today. And if I ever see your faces again, I will not let you walk away.”
They were moving then. The Omegas rushed toward the dirt roadway, gathering up dead wolves. The wolf that had been the only one to speak was slowly pulling himself to his feet. His jaw was obviously broken and stuck out at a sharp angle. He was bleeding profusely from the mouth. He took a staggering step toward us. His eyes were filled with hate as he glared at me.
I said nothing as he stumbled by, following the other Omegas across the bridge. I could hear sirens in the distance, far away and getting fainter. They weren’t coming toward us. At least not yet.
I stared into the shadows on the bridge for a very long time.
Movement occurred around me. Rico and Tanner picking up shell casings. Chris kicking up the dirt and covering the blood that had been spilled. Jessie muttering, demanding answers, wondering who those people were, what the hell had happened, were those wolves, oh my god, Chris, what is all of this?
Robbie and Mark were somewhere off to my left, sniffing along the ground. I knew they were tracking scents to make sure no other Omegas or anything else lay in secret waiting until our backs were turned.
It was Elizabeth who approached me.
She moved around me until she was in front of me. She sat down, head high, regal and proud. She waited until I could no longer ignore her gaze. I looked at her. She flashed her eyes at me. There was a pull in me at the sight, one much stronger than I’d ever felt before.
“I can’t be,” I told her.
She didn’t move.
“You know I can’t be. I’m not a wolf.” I didn’t know who I was trying to convince.
There was a brush along her thread. It said silly boy and it doesn’t matter and pack it’s what is right for pack and one other word I didn’t want to hear. One other word that shouldn’t be possible. One other word that felt like I was betraying Joe.
“I don’t want it.”
She huffed and looked stern.
“I mean it. I can’t. I can’t—” Then another thought struck me and caused goose bumps to prickle along my arms. “Did you know?”
She cocked her head at me. It wasn’t an answer.
“Did he know?” I demanded.
Not Joe.
But she knew who I meant. I could feel the gentle wave of sadness run through her.
“Answer me!” Because the thought that they had known since the beginning, since that very first day when they’d stood on the porch of the house at the end of the lane was all I could think abo
ut. It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be true, but what if? What if all of this had been to get to this moment, this fucking realization? Did anyone have a choice in this? Did Joe?
Did I?
Mark came over then, sitting next to her. He pressed his nose against her ear before looking back at me with an identical expression on his face.
Robbie came too, but he was moving slower, as if unsure of himself. His shoulders were lowered, his ears pressed to his skull. His tail was curled between his legs. He looked spooked, as if he thought he’d be rejected if he moved any quicker. He kept his eyes averted as he sat next to Elizabeth.
“What the fuck is going on?” I heard Jessie ask from behind me.
“They’re recognizing him,” Chris said quietly, and it was another blow to whatever wall I’d hastily constructed in the face of this damning recognition. If they felt it, then—
“As what?”
“Why?” I asked as a last resort. My voice cracked and I could do nothing to stop it. “I am not anything. I am not anyone. You shouldn’t be doing this. This isn’t what was supposed to happen! It’s supposed to be him. He’s going to come back, okay? He’s going to come back and you need to—”
There was the telltale sign of a shift, the creak and groan of bone and muscle. The wolf took human shape.
But her eyes remained the same.
She said, “Ox.”
“So… this is a thing,” Jessie said faintly. “Mrs. Bennett is naked and this is a thing.”
We ignored her.
I waited for Elizabeth to speak again, because I had nothing left to say.
I didn’t have to wait long.
She said, “Sometimes, it’s not about being able to shift. Some of us are already born with a wolf in our heart. The color of your eyes doesn’t matter. The fact that you are human does not matter. What matters is that you have taken your place like you were meant to.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” I told her, desperately so.
“I know,” she said softly. “But you are what we need.”
“My father….”
