The Wolven Mark

by Megan Linski

  Wolf Pack Theory was a class only open to wolven Companions, and was held in the late hours of midnight to 2 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I often reserved times after these night classes to do vigilante work. Tonight was no exception. As the new moon rose, I proceeded into the cover of the woods. I was glad I could see in the dark, for the light being cast above was a mere sliver.

  I smelled the other wolvens before I saw them. A group of about ten or so was up ahead of me, all in their wolven forms. Some of them had wings, though most others didn’t.

  Elijah was in this class. He lifted his lip and displayed his fangs to me as I passed. I snarled back. He was such a joy to have around.

  Professor Lucien was at the center of the circle, and in his wolven form. He rustled his feathers as a brisk, chilly wind passed by.

  I caught the smell of a woman passing, and everyone’s head lifted. The level of testosterone in here was legendary. Each time a female walked by, every man’s head craned to look at her— not that many females walked by this time of night, anyway.

  “Boys, pay attention,” Lucien began. “We’ll be running rounds tonight. Each of you needs a refresher after the summer break.”

  Several people moaned. Nobody liked doing rounds, including me, but they were important. Wolvens could produce formations to hunt down monsters that other shifters couldn’t. It was easier for us to work in groups.

  “I’ll be giving chase. If you let me come close enough to touch you, you’ll fail for the day,” Lucien said. “I’ll give you a fifteen second head start, no less. Arrowhead formation, beginning now!”

  The wolves scrambled to get into formation as class broke into a run. Elijah, being the ass he was, took the spot at the front reserved for the alpha. I wasn’t as much as a dick and took the back right corner, so that the ten of us made an inverted triangle. It wasn’t long before I could hear Lucien’s heavy foot beats behind. His hot breath was practically on my heels. If I failed because of Elijah today, he’d have to deal with me.

  The pack moved as one through the trees, keeping formation even though there were obstacles in the way and Lucien was hot on our tail. “Good form! Those of you with wings, circle formation. The rest of you on the ground, jagged dancer.”

  Three wolvens spread their wings and took to the sky, creating a circle that they flew in like vultures from above, waiting to strike down on their prey. Me and the other wolvens still on the ground took a zig-zag pattern, and used it to weave in and out of trees. Lucien managed to jump on the back of the last wolven in line, and he whined as he went down. We picked up the pace, not wanting to join him in receiving no credit.

  “If I can catch you, a monster will have no trouble!” Lucien warned. “Use the environment to your advantage! Snake formation!”

  The line changed, and our zig-zag became more of a weaving line. Of course, I ended right next to Elijah. He was behind me, trying to shove his way up front, but I wouldn’t let him.

  “Get out of my way, peg leg,” Elijah growled. He stepped on my tail, and I wasn’t stupid enough to assume it was an accident.

  I tried to ignore him, but that ended up being the wrong decision. He reached out and knocked my back leg out from under me, causing me to lose my balance. I toppled forward into the wolven in front of me, and the whole line went down. We went tumbling headfirst down a hill, and the world spun for a moment as various bruises and scrapes littered my sides.

  When we finally came to the bottom of the embankment, many people were groaning in discomfort, or dizzy. Elijah, one of the few to remain upright, came running down the hill with a smug smile on his face.

  I leapt to my teeth and bared my fangs. As soon as he came within distance, I lashed out with my paw. He jumped backward and landed in a crouch, ready to spring forward onto me so we could fight.

  Lucien was between us before either could act. “We are working on rounds today, not dueling,” he said sharply. “If both of you wish to fail, I’ll be more than happy to have you sit out for the rest of the class.”

  Elijah gave me a hateful glare, but said nothing else. Lucien gave a low growl and said, “Let’s try again. If anyone pulls another stunt like that, I’ll see to it that they will not graduate. Rock formation!”

  Lucien made sure to separate us for the rest of the class. We ran more rounds and drills until two hours had passed and many wolvens were lying on the ground, struggling to catch their breath.

  Not me. I still had a long night ahead of me.

  Lucien shook his head. “So many could not keep up. The summer’s made you soft. I plan to beat that out of you by the time the first snow comes. Class dismissed.”

  Elijah looked fine. He was one of the few that hadn’t passed out during rounds. He was in top shape. It was clear he’d been training for the Contest all summer. I kept my eye on him and didn’t turn my back until he was well out of sight.

  I became my human form once I entered the palace. The halls were dead and quiet at this time of night. I avoided the dormitories and instead went to a different part of the castle— the dungeons.

  They hadn’t been used in years, and were supposedly blocked off to students, but I’d found a way in through a hidden doorway that posed as a bookcase in the library. The hidden halls were a secret to anyone who wasn’t in the royal family— special passageways had been built behind the walls of the palace for the king and his kin to use in case of emergencies when the palace was built in 1700, but had been forgotten about long ago. I only remembered they were there due to something my father had said in passing shortly before he died.

  I emitted a purple light from my hand, to guide the way through the dark passageways and long tunnels that weaved like a maze. Finally, I came to the end of my destination. It was an underground bunker that had a door leading to the streets of Dolinska. I sparked a fire in the fireplace, then used it to ignite the torches scattered around the room. The flames illuminated the room. My cloak and mask were tucked into a locked trunk near the door. A scattered maps and clues splayed over an old wooden table. Bunks were placed alongside the walls, but I never used them.

  It was the perfect hideout for the Phantom. I highly doubted the Arcanea Alliance expected the vigilante to be a student.

  I changed into my outfit then quickly scanned the maps, where I’d outlined a trail. There’d been ten murders at Arcanea warehouses in the area, where we shipped out our famous Malovian wine. The wine was enchanted by sorceresses, and was of high value in the magical marketplace. Production had been slowed due to bodies showing up around the area. A few more people who worked for the wineries had gone missing entirely.

  The people that were found killed had been consumed, so I knew we were dealing with a monster and not a person. The only question was what kind.

  I stood before the warehouses shortly after, on a rooftop that overlooked where the bodies had been found. My nose could smell the protective charms that the sorceresses had put over the warehouses for security purposes. I couldn’t break them— a Marked needed to do that. So I’d need to go around.

  There were sewers leading into the warehouses, I was sure. I dropped down, then searched the ground for a manhole. When I found one, I popped the lid and slid inside. I fitted the cover over the hole as I proceeded through the large pipeline beneath. When I was certain I was inside the warehouse campuses, I found another manhole and came out the other side.

  My guess was successful. I was inside the magical ward now. I tried the first door I came to, and found it unlocked— Arcanea didn’t typically lock doors when they had magic to protect whatever was inside.

  The contents of the warehouse didn’t arouse any immediate suspicion. All that was inside were hundreds of wooden barrels full of wine, stacked up to the ceiling.

  Then I smelled it. The body. It was freshly killed, within the last hour or so, and still warm. Metallic blood was seeping all over the concrete floor.

  My eyes quickly caught other small details through the darkness. Spilled b
arrels, claw marks— the signs of a fight, or struggle. The blood showed signs of someone else being dragged along the floor. There’d been two people here, both attacked at the same time.

  I heard sucking noises. Something was feeding on the corpse. The dead eyes of a Marked stared out at me as I approached. As I drew closer, my sight illuminated green scales.

  The monster was long and thin, reptilian, with four legs and a long, snake-like neck that ended in a pointed head with venomous jaws. It wasn’t much bigger than a large dog, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous. Its vicious red eyes caught me as I approached, and it hissed, lashing a whip-like tail.

  Momentary shock went through me. A beithir? What was it doing here?

  The beithir went to run. I chased after it. The creature scattered between barrels of wine, and I slipped on the blood trying to catch up. It spit venom at me, which I quickly dodged. Sizzling green liquid landed on the floor next to me and ate up the concrete. I got within reaching distance and extended my arm for the tail, but it lashed me in the face and left a small mark. My hand instinctively went up to my face. Before I could do anything else, the creature left through the door I’d come out of and hurried away into the night.

  I groaned. Who knew where the monster had went?

  Something wasn’t right here. Beithir weren’t native to Malovia. They could hardly be classified as monsters, and didn’t come from the underworld. They originated in Scotland. They were more of a magical creature than anything else. Dangerous, yes, but not specifically out to harm human beings in service of Droga.

  Yet this beithir had. He’d killed two people before getting away the last time. Yet there was no easy entrance for the creature, as far as I could see. I’d had a hard enough time finding a way inside, and it couldn’t come in or out through the wards that defended the warehouses.

  The evidence was clear. The monster couldn’t have gotten in unless someone had let it.

  I examined the body. There was a large, gaping hole in her middle— the beithir had shot his venom at her, and it’d ate away at her body. Claw marks, like those from a griffin, were deeply embedded in the floor— I even found a missing talon that had been ripped off, and a few feathers the griffin had lost while trying to get away. Next to them were bloody footprints that looked human, and a few scraps of frayed black cloth.

  Her Companion had been taken by force. It was the only thing I could conclude from the situation.

  I searched the warehouses extensively, but I didn’t see any other sign of the beithir, or clues as to where the captured Companion had been taken. I’d scared the reptile into hiding. I found pieces of where the monster had been— a nest, even, made of old, oily rags— but nothing else. I destroyed the nest before a thought came to me.

  Someone had let the monster loose inside the warehouses in order for it to hunt down and wound fellow Arcanea. If the beithir didn’t kill it, they’d kidnap whoever was left alive, now that their monster had made the job easier. What they did with them, I didn’t know.

  This went way deeper than a few monster slayings. If I truly wanted to figure out what was going on, I’d have to leave the monster alive, and come back tomorrow to see who was following it around.

  Puzzled, I went back the way I came through the sewers and resumed my walk to campus. I wouldn’t figure this out tonight.

  I took the rooftops on the way back home. Less conspicuous. I was nearly back to Arcanea University when I heard screams— they were coming from a female.

  Instinctively, I knew they were coming from Emma before my brain registered the fact. I increased my strides along the rooftops to get to her. What was she doing out so late at night? Didn’t she know these streets held danger?

  I came to a stop on the edge of a rooftop that hovered over an alleyway below. There, Emma had her back pressed against a dead end, while two hooded figures approached her. They wore cloaks of all black, with grotesque masks of skulls painted in red blood covering their faces. They advanced slowly on her, saying nothing, appearing as horrid ghosts from hell about to take the life of a frightened mortal.

  “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll fry your ass! I’ve done it before!” Emma shouted. Her voice was tight with fear. She raised her hand and attempted to make light come out of her palms, but it was weak, and her magic failed her. Her power got dimmer and dimmer with every steady step the strangers used to approach, arms extending to grab her. Her whole form quivered as they continued their slow advancement, remaining silent and stoic.

  Rage blinded me and made adrenaline pound through my system. They had the nerve to threaten my mate? How dare they!

  I fell from the rooftops and landed in front of Emma. She gasped— the figures stopped their advancement toward her as they stared upward at my form.

  “I suggest you walk away,” I said lowly. “Or the consequences for remaining here will be your lives.”

  The masked figures didn’t listen. They lunged forward, one of them exploding into a grey alicorn to deal with me, the other reaching out toward Emma.

  I reacted in mere seconds. I grabbed my dagger and shoved my shoulder into the charging alicorn, knocking it over. Then I whirled around and grabbed the one who was trying to hurt Emma. I shoved the dagger into its stomach— a fatal blow. I heard the person gasp. The alicorn on the ground— who I assumed had to be her Companion— let out a high pitched scream.

  I shoved the masked figure backward, ripping out the dagger. She clutched at her stomach, attempting to hold in her innards. The alicorn scrambled to get up and used his neck to lift his Marked onto his back. Hoof steps clattered into the night as the shadowed figures fled, the one I’d stabbed leaving a blood trail behind.

  Normally, I’d follow to finish the job, but I wouldn’t leave Emma’s side. You’d have to take my other leg before I’d leave my mate alone after what had just happened.

  I turned around, and my cloak swooped behind me. Emma was still shaking. I longed to put my arms around her and hold her, calm her down— but she’d already been terrified enough by masked men tonight. “Are you all right?”

  She gaped at me. I think she was speechless, or going into shock. Her expression was frightened. She didn’t know who I was.

  “It’s fine,” I said gently. “I’m not going to harm you. Now I ask again— are you hurt?”

  She finally found her voice. “I… I don’t think so.” She pried herself slowly off the wall. “Who were those people?”

  “Servants of the Black Claw,” I told her. “Most likely, they were here to take you as a human sacrifice.”

  “Sacrifice?” Her eyes grew wide, and she swallowed. “Well, thank you for saving me.”

  “Don’t thank me. It was foolish for you to be wandering these streets after dark. You should know better,” I told her gruffly.

  Her cheeks turned red with anger. “I just wanted to go for a walk. I’m a student at the university. I couldn’t sleep, and the city’s beautiful at night,” she protested.

  “It doesn’t matter. You could’ve been killed. What on earth are you doing out at three in the morning?” I couldn’t keep the harshness out of my tone. I wanted to shout and rage at her. What she didn’t understand about this world… it almost resulted in me losing her tonight.

  Emma raised an eyebrow. “Your voice sounds familiar. Who are you?” She took a step closer.

  I ignored her. “You shouldn’t be walking around at night by yourself. It’s dangerous to be on your own, even in a city like Dolinska. Monsters still prowl here.”

  “Well, escort me back to the school yourself,” she snapped, and she crossed her arms. “Or I won’t go.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re a stubborn woman. Very well.”

  I extended my hand to her. Slowly, she took it. When our hands touched, I felt a powerful warmth surge through me. It went up my arm and traveled through every pore of my body, settling in my gut and creating a home there. It was emotional and powerful, and flowed through me like my very b
lood. It felt like holding lightning in my hand.

  Emma had felt it, too. Her eyes widened and her lips parted a bit, color flashing in her emerald eyes.

  I tugged on her hand and said, “Come on. I don’t have all night.”

  She narrowed her gaze at me. “I’d be fooled, seeing as how you’re walking around looking for trouble.”

  “You’re a mouthy one.” We proceeded through the streets of Dolinska, holding hands… I was so intently aware of every movement her body made next to mine that it made my form feel like it was on fire. What was this unexplainable, undeniable connection between us, and how could anyone on this earth live without it? How could I, after so many years?

  There were nightly wards around Arcanea University as well, but you could pass through them if you were a student or part of the staff. I hoped Emma didn’t know about them, because if she did, she’d have one more clue to piece together who I really was. But as we passed through the wards to enter the school grounds, she said nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Emma went to go through the front gate of the school, but I tugged her back. “Not that way.”

  We went around, through a backdoor in the gardens that few people knew about, hidden behind a square hedge. This part of the gardens led directly to the dormitories.

  “Which one?” I asked as I looked up at the rows and rows of windows above us. Emma pointed.

  “It’s three stories up. The only one with a balcony. I got lucky,” she said.

  “I’ll say.” I reached into my cloak and grabbed my grappling hook gun. I shot it at the balcony, and it hooked over the side. I grabbed Emma around the waist and said, “Hold on tight.”

  I pressed the button on the gun, and the line pulled us upward. Emma clung her arms around me as we rose. Gods, the feeling of her body pressed into mine was making my instincts go mad. It was like a million sensors were firing off in my head all at once. My head clouded over so that it was hard to think. The only thing I could conjure in my imagination was the sight of Emma beside me— Emma in my bed.