Wolf Castle

by Heather Walker

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Thanks For Reading

  WOLF CASTLE

  PHOENIX THRONE BOOK FOUR

  HEATHER WALKER

  Copyright © 2018 Heather Walker

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  Chapter 1

  Sadie Cole smashed into the ground. Stars exploded before her eyes. She winced in pain, and a splitting jolt of agony shot through her left shoulder. She lay still and kept her eyes closed until her head stopped spinning. When she dared to pry her eyelids open, she peered sideways at a rocky landscape. An overcast day spread over scraggly trees and bushes.

  She picked up her head to get a better look around when a spine-chilling screech startled her out of her skin. Something hit her hard and knocked her back down on the ground. Pounding impacts thundered over her legs, hips, body, and even her head.

  She cowered in the fetal position on the ground. The blows stopped, but running footsteps still drummed past her head. She squeaked one eye open, and legs flashed past her. She buried her head under her arms again, but the noise didn’t stop.

  Screams, roars, and yells echoed all around her. She couldn’t distinguish one voice from another, but at least the running started to move away. She dared open both eyes. Bodies ran, lunged, and convulsed in every attitude of human movement on every side. She raised her head a little more.

  Her brain refused to comprehend the evidence of her own eyes. She beheld a massive crush of bodies. Many had two arms and two legs like humans, but she couldn’t recognize who or what they were. Some wore long hair. Some were bald. Some had pink faces. Some had black faces. Some had blue faces or red faces or green faces.

  The sight didn’t fit with any experience Sadie ever connected with reality. She blinked, but the scene didn’t change or go away. If anything, it got more awful and more surreal. How in the name of all goodness did she get here, and where was here?

  In the mix of disfigured bodies, flailing limbs, wild faces, and strange shapes, large numbers of wild dogs rushed here, there, and everywhere. They attacked people in every direction. They leaped on people, ripped out their throats, and rushed somewhere else. Gore and flesh splattered all over their furry muzzles.

  Inch by inch, Sadie peeled herself off the ground. She had to if she wanted to get a better look at everything going on around her. She managed to sit up before another wave of bodies swept over the landscape and rushed all around her.

  She screamed and hunkered down, but the bizarre scene sparked her curiosity too much to stay still for long. She sat up and took a good hard look at her surroundings.

  She sat in an open stretch of rocky ground. Clouds of smoke and dust dimmed the sky so she couldn’t tell what time of day it was for the shadowy darkness cast across the land. It could be dusk, or it could be high noon.

  A tall square tower like a castle raked the sky in the distance. It might as well have been a thousand miles away for all the shelter it offered Sadie. Those terrible bodies, neither human nor animal, blocked her way to any kind of shelter.

  She cast her eye in all directions. The noise deafened her until her brain went numb. She couldn’t begin to register what was going on. She struggled to her feet in a vain hope of going…somewhere, anywhere, to return to some form of sanity.

  At that moment, three bodies lurched in front of her. What looked like a person staggered into her field of view locked in mortal combat with two of the dog shapes. They tussled and snarled in each other’s faces. The person—or whatever it was—gnashed its teeth at the dogs with the same animal ferocity that the dogs snapped and spat back.

  That’s when Sadie realized they weren’t dogs. They were far too large, with silver-grey coats. Flecks of reddish-brown spackled one of them across his shoulders. Both creatures raised the hackles along their backs to make themselves look more vicious and otherworldly than ever.

  In front of Sadie’s shocked eyes, the person lunged at one of the wolves. Sharp fangs protruded from the strange being’s lips, and a smear of blood stained its chin and splattered over its bald head. Its eyes glowed demon red in the faint light. She had no idea if this person was male or female, but those labels didn’t apply to this creature. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. She saw that at first glance.

  It caught its victim in both arms, wrenched the wolf’s head back, and sank its fangs into the animal’s throat. It ripped out the poor animal’s throat, and a spurt of dark blood sprayed across the killer’s already disgusting visage.

  The wolf gave one stricken cry before its life blood gurgled up in its throat to cut off its breath. The killer hurled the dead body away, and the carcass landed at Sadie’s feet. She stared down at the floppy remains of a large and magnificent wolf, its beautiful coat now black with blood.

  In the blink of an eye, the wolf changed into a man. The fur disappeared and became smooth skin stretched over thick muscle. He wore a red kilt crisscrossed with green stripes. A swath of the same fabric angled across his bare chest, and blue paint formed a distinct triangle covering part of his face, one shoulder, and half his chest.

  His red hair tumbled over his face, and his mouth fell open. His eyes glazed over, and his head lolled to one side to reveal the horrible gash across his throat. Sadie froze in horror at the sight.

  In all the years she’d worked as a doctor, she never came face to face with violent death like this. She worked in a nice clean office surrounded by people with colds and flus. The worst she ever saw were impending heart attacks and broken bones.

  Her senses screamed to do something to save this man’s life, but she couldn’t do anything. She had no tools, no bandages, no emergency equipment—not even a band-aid.

  The other wolf flew at the attacker in a rage. The animal snapped and slathered in the killer’s face. It dove for the killer’s throat, but the inhuman thing brought up its hands and caught the animal around the neck. It wrestled the wolf’s head back and pitched it on the ground some distance away.

  The wolf bounced up, foaming in murderous rage. It sailed past Sadie’s face and landed its front paws on the killer’s shoulders. It sank its teeth into the bald head and wrenched it to one side to ripe the person’s face off.

  Sadie no longer considered the killer a person. Nothing in the eyes or face sparked the light of human recognition. This was some feral demon out of Hell. The thing made no attempt to dislodge the wolf from its face. It g
rasped the wolf in both fists and yanked it in hard.

  With one mighty rip, it tore open the creature’s throat. The thing wheeled around, but it still didn’t try to get rid of the wolf. It held the animal in its deadly embrace and tackled it flat on its back.

  The wolf gave one grunt of stricken agony. The killer never removed its fangs from the animal’s neck. It pinned the wolf to the ground and bent over it. In a moment, Sadie recognized the unmistakable sounds of sucking coming from the killer’s mouth. Its shoulders and back flexed to suck the blood pouring from the wolf’s veins.

  Sadie’s jaw dropped open, but she couldn’t make a sound. She could only stand and watch in horror. The killer drained the wolf’s life out of it, and the animal’s body changed just like his friend’s. This wolf also turned into a man wearing the same red and green kilt. This man wore a white shirt, now stained with blood and soot. His black hair framed a delicate face, a much younger face, and he wasn’t as thick-set as his unfortunate companion.

  The killer finished sucking the dead man’s blood and raised its demonic eyes to Sadie’s face. For a terrible instant, she stared into the burning depths of unutterable evil. It wasn’t human. Of that, Sadie was absolutely certain. She dared not speculate what it might be, but before she could think about it, it ran off to rejoin the battle.

  This episode crystalized in Sadie’s mind what was going on. These wolf people battled the blood-sucking demons all over the field around her. The wolf people changed back and forth between their wolf forms and their human forms. They fought the devils with swords, knives, axes, teeth—anything that would work. Bodies fell in every direction.

  The tide of battle swept one way, with the bloodsuckers gaining ground, only to get pushed back by the wolf people. The longer Sadie watched, the more she understood. The bloodsuckers charged over the low hill toward the tower. They were trying to attack it, and the wolf people were rushing from its doorways to defend it.

  Human shapes crossed the battlements. They threw spears and shot arrows down at any bloodsucker that came near. Thousands of the bloodsucking demons rushed onto the field. They overran the defenders and slaughtered everyone in their path—everyone but Sadie.

  For some reason, everyone ignored her. They left her standing there to stare and wonder at the awful scene. What was going on here? One minute, she sat in Hazel Green’s living room. The next instant, she materialized here in the closest thing she could imagine to Hell.

  Hazel tried to cast a magic spell to send herself and Sadie and their three friends to King Arthur’s court in Camelot. This definitely wasn’t Camelot, though. Every man Sadie laid eyes on wore a kilt. Their long hair flew in the wind, and they’d painted their faces for battle.

  Her heart went out to these wolf people in their deadly struggle against the bloodsucking invaders, but Sadie couldn’t move. She’d never picked up a weapon in her life. She cared only to heal people. She hated war and conflict of all kinds, but now, for the first time, she wanted to fight for something.

  She wanted to help these people any way she could, but she didn’t know how to fight. She was useless. For the first time in her life, she understood how impotent and fragile she really was. She could only stand and watch them fall all around her. Their blood splashed her clothes and her face until it numbed her into a stupor.

  Chapter 2

  The Cameron brothers crowded around Fergus and Hazel as they stood ahead of the Phoenix Throne. The brothers shook Fergus’s hand, and Elle and Carmen hugged Hazel. Her skin glowed, and she wouldn’t stop smiling. Fergus blushed. Robbie threw his arm around his younger brother’s shoulders and hugged him, too.

  Angus strode down the steps to join his family. Ewan Munro clapped Fergus on the shoulder. “I mun’ make ye an officer o’ the Guard, now ye’re a married mon.”

  “Ye’ll do more than make him an officer,” Angus interrupted. “I’m promotin’ him tae me Chamberlain. Now that ye’re ambassador tae Faery, ye’ll need a rank befittin’ yer station.”

  “Angus, mon….” Fergus began.

  “Dinnae refuse me, lad,” Angus replied. “I need a keen mon by me side who understands the lay o’ the land. Ye shouldnae kept these Faery folk a secret from me, and I charge ye tae inform me o’ all the people livin’ in me realm. Understand? As soon as we finish the festivities, ye and Rob and I’ll meet tae discuss the full details.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Fergus replied.

  “I ainly wish I’d been there at yer real wedding tae escort ye,” Angus mused, “but I understand the King of Faery’s wish tae do it himself.”

  Fergus glanced at Hazel in her gossamer gown highlighted with gems and gold. A shining dirk and the jeweled kilt pin and Cameron medallion decorated his own dress tartan. “Ye’ve done as much and more ’ere. It’s like getting married all o’er again.”

  Angus squeezed his shoulder. “It’s naught tae do fer me own brother. Now come alaing, all o’ ye. There’s a hall full o’ food waitin’ fer us next door. Callum, ye and Jamie’ll come tae the conference, too. I want ye twa tae take o’er Fergus’s patrols while he works in ’ere wi’ me.”

  Callum squared his shoulders, but he didn’t say, “Yes, Sir.” He planned and rehearsed this moment for weeks, but nothing helped him, now that the time actually came.

  “We’ll no take o’er Fergus’s patrols,” he told Angus. “We’re leavin’, Jamie and me. We ha’e decided tae leave Urlu.”

  Angus whipped around. “Leave Urlu? Ye cinnae do that. I need ye both ’ere. We mun’ all stay taegether.”

  Callum shook his head. He knew this would be hard, but he never imagined it would be this hard. Carmen, Elle, and Hazel all stared at him in shock A flash of anger crossed Robbie’s face. No one but Fergus understood.

  “I mun’ go,” Callum insisted, “me and Jamie both. We ha’e talked aboot it mony and mony an evenin’ while ye twa ruled the country. Ye’re King, Angus, and Rob’s yer second. Fergus is married, and ye’re all at peace. Me and Jamie want tae travel back tae our auld home, tae visit all the auld folk and tell them we’re awright out ’ere. We ha’e none o’ us been home since this whole thing started. We’ll no settle ’ere until we ha’e been home and seen our friends and loved ones again.”

  Angus studied his brother with his head on one side. “I can see ye’re set on’t, and I’ll no try tae turn ye aside. I ainly wish I was goin’ wi’ ye, but that’s no tae be.”

  “Ye’ve yer own life here tae live,” Callum returned. “Ye can survive withoot the twa o’ us fer a few weeks, I reckon.”

  “I can,” Angus replied, “so laing as it’s ainly that and no lainger.”

  “It is,” Callum promised. “Ye ha’e me word on that. I’ll no keep away laing, and we’ll allus return ’ere. This is our country, the same as yers. We ha’e no other.”

  Angus pulled Callum into a rough embrace. “I dinnae like tae lose ye both. Ye’ll take me heart wi’ ye when ye go.”

  Callum swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn’t like to lose his brothers, either. The trials and hardships of winning the Phoenix Throne, and now to see the three of them married with a new one on the way, made him cling to his family more than ever.

  He and Jamie had to do this. They talked about it enough times. They made their decision, and now that he told Angus what they intended to do, he couldn’t go back on it. The sooner they got home, visited everybody and passed the word the Cameron brothers were alive and safe, the sooner he could get back.

  Maybe one of these days, he would marry an Urlu girl. Maybe someday he would share some small portion of the happiness he saw emblazoned on his brothers’ faces. Jamie felt the same way, though he didn’t say so out loud. Callum saw it written in his brother’s eyes when Jamie watched Angus and Carmen, Robbie and Elle, and now Fergus and Hazel together.

  Callum joined his brothers and their wives in the Dining Room for the great feast in honor of Fergus and Hazel’s wedding. He smiled and talked to everyone as usual, but his feet itched to
hit the open road.

  Toward noon, he caught Jamie glancing at him. Callum nodded. They finished their conversations, and Callum approached Angus. “We’ll be off now, mon. Gi’e us yer blessing and wish us weel.”

  Angus grabbed him and gave him a bear hug. “I’ll do more than that, lad. Ye’re taking the best o’ us wi’ ye. Ye’re taking all Urlu wi’ ye. Dinnae forget that.”

  Angus pushed him off, and Callum saw tears in his brother’s eyes. To his surprise, Carmen came forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Take care of yourselves, and come back soon.”

  “We weel,” Callum replied.

  He turned away to hide his emotion, and he and Jamie hurried out of the hall. Jamie appeared at his side near the kitchen door, their usual exit. Callum cleared his throat. “Are ye ready, lad?”

  Jamie nodded but said nothing. His cheeks sagged, and a thin trail of pink showed around his eyes, but he wouldn’t reveal his true feelings. Callum didn’t drag out this painful moment. He hurried on his way.

  He walked out into the stable yard and looked around. None of the Guard or servants saw him leave. He took a breath and launched. In a heartbeat, he transformed into a burnished copper dragon. He arched his neck and beat his wings to put as much distance between himself and the castle as he could.

  He got as far as the eastern mountains when a brilliant gold dragon appeared at his side matching him wingbeat for wingbeat. The two dragons streaked up the mountains and skimmed their summits heading east.

  Callum inhaled the clear frosty air over the summits. Snow dusted them. It crept farther down the mountains every morning. In a few weeks, winter would shroud Urlu in a protective blanket of peaceful quiet. People and dragons would stay indoors by their fires until spring called them skyward again.

  Callum swooped up to a pinnacle of tall rock. He stalled in mid-air to survey the landscape. Rugged mountains extended to the east as far as he could see. Black forests shadowed their interiors. The sea cut across the southern horizon, and islands dotted the coastlines.