by K. R. Willis
“Thanks,” I told Jamie as I climbed out of her car. She smiled and waved, then drove away. The parking lot was empty as I walked past Old Red on my way to my apartment building. Or that’s what I thought. A shadow crossed my path from somewhere off to my left, accompanied by footsteps.
A familiar face rounded the front grille of a truck two spots down.
“Vicki? What are you doing here?” I asked. “I told you I would pencil you in one day next week.” She stalked toward me, her movements reminding me of a predator. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Rya rushed forward in my mind. Danger! But it was too late. Something hit me in the back of the head, and the world went dark.
∞∞∞
The terrifying sound of Rya hissing and growling woke me. I jolted upright and immediately regretted it when my head began pounding. My eyesight blurred, giving everything a hazy appearance. Trees and open fields of grass surrounded me, similar to where Jamie and I had gone hiking earlier. Darkness was close, but the sun still hung over the horizon, lighting the land enough for me to see by. As soon as my eyes focused, I searched for Rya.
She sat in a large steel cage about twenty feet from me. Her tawny fur was matted, streaked with blood. She hissed repeatedly, her massive jaw opening wide to reveal killing teeth.
Rya! Are you okay?
I’m fine, she said. But I can’t get out.
What happened? I made an effort to move toward her, but stopped when I realized my hands were chained. My eyes followed the links back to a tree a couple feet behind me. My heart rate kicked into high gear, and I swallowed hard. Someone—Vicki?—had chained me to a tree and put Rya in a steel cage.
Right before they knocked you unconscious I leapt from your side to try to protect you, she said, frustration in her voice. I took out two of them before they ganged up on me. Someone darted me! She swiped at the bars of the cage, and screamed her rage.
“Looks like someone is finally awake,” Vicki snarled as she came out of a stand of trees to our right. Her long blond hair rippled in the breeze as she approached. For the first time, I noticed something about her I hadn’t before. Hatred seethed beneath the surface, and it was directed at me. It was obvious in the tightness of her jaw, and the way she glared at me. If she could light fires with that look, I’d be ablaze.
“What’s the meaning of this?” I asked, giving her a good glare of my own. A couple of days ago when she came to the shop, she’d been the epitome of nice, never letting on there was something wrong. I’d thought she acted a bit odd, but not aggressive.
The wind shifted directions, now blowing toward us. Rya inhaled, parsing the scents over her tongue. Suddenly she growled low, the sound vibrating deep in my bones.
What is it?
Werewolf, she said. I never smelled it before. She must have covered the scent somehow. Now she isn’t.
I looked back at Vicki. She was well-built. Muscles rippled beneath her clothes, long and sinewy. I hadn’t paid much attention before when she came to the shop. Vampires always seemed to flow like water when they moved, but werewolves approached like they owned the very ground they walked on. She had a certain air about her that screamed confidence, and warned to stay back. She reminded me of an Alpha.
Then it clicked.
I cursed under my breath. How the hell did I miss that before?
“You’re the new Alpha, aren’t you. Jeremy’s sister.” It wasn’t a question. Now that I was looking for it, I could see the resemblance in her hair, skin tone, confidence, even the cut of her nose.
A cruel smile curved her lips. “So you finally figured it out,” she said. She stood in front of me now, just out of reach. “Took you long enough. I mean honestly, how stupid are you? I had a charm made to hide my werewolf scent and all, but I thought maybe you would’ve figured it out.” She scrunched her nose, obviously disgusted with my ignorance. “Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to be nice to you? To meet you in person with that ridiculous story about the truck, and not kill you on sight. Pathetic,” she spat.
The chains bit into my wrists when I lunged at her. She didn’t even move. She must have known exactly how long they were. Rya hissed behind her, but Vicki acted like she didn’t exist. Her hate-filled eyes were only for me.
“We finish this tonight. I’ll have your head on a pike to avenge my brother.” She threw her head back and howled, the sound eerie and foreign coming from human lips. Answering howls erupted from all around us as wolf after wolf emerged from the trees. There were approximately thirty in all. Some on two legs, others on four.
“Randall,” she called over her shoulder.
A young muscular man with dark hair and an angular jaw broke from the other wolves and strode toward us. He had a hard look about him. A scar ran the length of his face from his hairline to the corner of his lip. Randall must be part of the pack muscle.
“How may I be of service, Alpha?” he asked when he arrived at her side. The words sounded forced and a sneer twisted his lips, as though he despised calling her that.
Hmm...it didn’t look like everyone supported their new Alpha. Perhaps I could use that somehow.
“Bring her,” Vicki said. She turned and walked away, not waiting to see if he obeyed her. She obviously felt confident about her newly acquired position, regardless of his tone.
Randall’s lip curled at her command, but he obeyed. He singled out one of the links that held the chain bound around the tree, grabbed that section and yanked. The link gave with little protest. He wrapped the end of the chain around his meaty hand. “Move,” he told me. He bumped me from behind with his forearm, guiding me forward toward an open grassy field.
We walked past Rya just as two other werewolves lifted her in the cage and followed. I glanced back at Randall. “Why do you follow her?” I asked. With any luck, maybe I could sway him to my side. “You obviously don’t like her. Especially after what she did to George and some of the others.”
His eyes flashed amber, anger flaring. My only problem was that I didn’t know if he was angry with me for mentioning it, or her for what she’d done.
“I don’t agree with her methods,” he snapped, “but I follow because it is our way. She won the right to be Alpha. To continue to challenge her would be to challenge the very fabric of our society. I believe in the pack. Now move.” He bumped me again when I stopped in an effort to talk some sense into him.
“You’re an idiot. She’ll enslave your people, and rule you with fear.” I’d seen it in the way Loukas ruled the vampires. Randall growled, showing his teeth, then bumped me again, forcing me forward.
Well that didn’t go as planned. Pack hierarchy and traditions were too ingrained in who he was, regardless of how he felt about Vicki. I tried to think of another approach, but before I could, we arrived at our destination. Randall jerked me to a halt, but didn’t let go of the chain.
All the wolves, human and canine, formed a circle around us. Vicki stood in the center, stretching in the grass like a prizefighter. Her eyes had already ambered in anticipation of what was to come. It seemed she and her wolf were looking forward to sinking their teeth into me. Well, we’d just see about that.
Randall grabbed my wrists and broke the links on the chains that bound me. Then he unceremoniously shoved me into the center with Vicki. I stumbled twice before managing to catch my balance and stay upright. The two wolves sat Rya down along the perimeter of the circle and closed ranks around us, filling all the gaps. She hissed at them and they each shifted a step away from her. I smiled just a little.
“Brothers and sisters,” Vicki said, addressing her pack, “we are here tonight to see my brother, your old Alpha, avenged. She took him away from all of us too soon.” She walked the perimeter, acknowledging several wolves as she made her rounds. Many of them cheered, whether from genuine desire to see me dead or from the thrill of the hunt, I wasn’t sure. But quite a few didn’t cheer, including Randall. They stood at the edge, neither cheering
nor willing to put a stop to it. Just as George had said.
“I don’t want to fight you, Vicki,” I said, raising my voice enough for all the wolves to hear. “Jeremy attacked me. I begged him to stop, to reconsider, but he didn’t listen. I ask you not to make the same mistake.”
Apparently, that was the wrong tactic with her because she screamed, “How dare you!” and lunged at me.
She shifted from woman to wolf mid leap. If she hadn’t been lunging at me with the intention of ripping my throat out, it would have been spectacular to watch. Bones retracted and popped, her limbs shifted from that of a biped to that of a canine. Ash gray fur rippled along her skin, and her blond hair disappeared between one second and the next. Based on the ease with which she shifted, she truly was an Alpha, just as powerful as her brother. Maybe even more so.
I dove to the right, out of her path, the grass scraping my knees in the shorts I wore. Jamie had done one thing for me asking me to go hiking with her: She’d forced me to wear my running shoes. I wasn’t as used to fighting in them as I was my everyday work boots, but they were awesome at gripping the grass, something I was thankful for now. If I survived this, maybe I would try a little harder to be nice to her.
Vicki growled, the deep vibration rumbling through my body. She padded toward me, one paw at a time, sizing me up. I backed up with each step she took, doing the same thing with her. The wolves at my back kept me from running, though even if I could I wouldn’t be able to outrun Vicki. My weapons weren’t with me. I’d left them at home when I left for my hiking day out with Jamie. But then again, Sam had trained me with or without weapons. I preferred having a sword, but could do hand to hand if necessary.
Watch her posture, Rya warned from her cage on the sideline. She’s a predator, but she’s fueled by human emotions as well. She’s angry; she’ll give herself away.
I did as Rya said and sure enough, Vicki dropped her right shoulder a fraction before she launched her next attack. She leapt in with teeth and claws, one of her sharp nails caught me in the thigh as I rolled right a little too slow. Pain rippled through me from the gash, bringing with it the shock of a deep wound. I fought the urge to look and see how bad it was; the roaring fire that now lit my leg was answer enough. When I came up from my roll and tried to stand, the muscles spasmed and the leg gave out, sending me to my knees. More pain flared as I hit the uneven ground, a few rocks digging into my hands.
Move! Rya yelled in my head. Without question, I rolled to the left across the grass, ignoring rocks as they dug into my flesh, and the pain that zipped through my body from the claw mark on my thigh. It burned like the devil, and something wet and sticky ran down my leg.
Vicki slid across the ground where I had just been, her muzzle scooping up clods of dirt and grass as she’d had her mouth open and teeth bared with the intention of tearing me apart. Apparently, she was angry enough she’d forgotten about my blood turning her human again.
I took advantage of the moment when she rose and shook her head side to side to clear her mouth, temporarily distracted. She yelped when I tackled her, the momentum of the hit carrying us several feet across the ground, near the edge of the circle.
Something in her neck popped when I grabbed her muzzle and yanked it to the side as hard as I could. She let out a whimper, but recovered quickly. One of the perks of being the Alpha. She managed to get her massive paws underneath me and pushed, shoving me off her and into the grass.
Spitting and sputtering as I landed face down in the dirt, I stayed there for a moment trying to gather my wits. Wrong thing to do. Vicki landed on my back, pushing me onto the ground, and began shredding my skin with her claws.
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Wave after wave of white-hot pain lanced through me. Darkness clouded the edges of my vision. My breath seemed to get stuck in my lungs. Warm liquid welled up and ran down my spine and sides.
Get up! Rya yelled. Keira, get up!
My hands shook as I gathered every ounce of strength I had. Stars danced in my vision as the effort threatened to send me over the edge into oblivion. If I passed out, I was dead. With my elbows wedged underneath me, I pushed as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough to throw her off as I had hoped, but it did knock her off balance. Her weight shifted to my left, and somehow I managed to crawl out from under her to my right. I had to do something now to save myself.
I just wasn’t sure what that was.
But I got up anyway. My back, which felt like shredded meat hanging from the bone, throbbed and burned like nothing I’d ever felt before. I staggered a step backward, barely able to stand, my vision blurred for several seconds. Vicki stretched to her full height, snarling and snapping, her toenails soaked red with my blood.
I glanced around, quickly searching for something, anything that would help me.
Keira! Rya yelled. My attention snapped to her. She pawed at something on the ground just out of her reach. I had to strain to see what it was, but after a second, I realized the chain Randall had held onto while leading me into the clearing lay on the ground. No one had cleared it from our makeshift arena.
Now I just had to figure out how to get to it.
Though it had been less than a minute, I’d stood in one spot long enough I could hear the sound of my blood plopping into tiny puddles that had formed on the ground. Not a good sign. I was losing a lot of blood. Vicki snarled when I narrowed my eyes at her. She’d thought she had won, that the fight had gone from me, but now she saw my renewed determination.
I bent low in order to drop my center of gravity and had to grit my teeth not to scream with the pain that erupted from the claw marks on my back. My feet shuffled toward the chain, slow and steady, while I watched Vicki, ready for her to make her next move. She followed me, step for step, planning her next strike. I could see it in her eyes as she thought of the grandest way to take me out, some way that would be seen as proper vengeance for the death of her brother, and even further cement herself as Alpha.
Vicki obviously didn’t realize Randall hadn’t disposed of the chain properly, because she never looked in that direction. Her hate-filled eyes were all for me. I inched closer and closer to Rya’s cage. Just as my foot bumped something hard in the grass, Vicki lunged again.
With a prayer that I both timed the drop right to avoid her claws and landed in the correct spot to grab the chain, I dropped to the ground, screaming the whole way from the pain that stabbed through me. One of the cuts, which had started trying to clot, tore open and it was all I could do not to pass out. Spots colored everything for several precious seconds.
But luckily, I’d managed to accomplish both my goals. My hand latched onto the hard steel, sending a thrill of excitement through me. I glanced up in time to see Vicki crash into the crowd of onlookers. The young man she landed on helped her to her feet, and she rewarded him by tearing out a chunk of meat from his forearm. She spat the pieces of meat and fur out, then turned toward me.
She hadn't seen me pick up the chain. I tucked it in close to my side, out of sight.
Now that I was armed, I didn’t wait to see what she would do—I attacked first. She looked surprised for half a heartbeat, then she met me head on. I threw my arms out and dove in close to avoid her massive teeth, bear-hugging her. She snapped and snarled, twisted her head trying to get a good grip, but couldn’t with the way I had latched onto her.
As quickly as I could, I flung one end of the chain across her shoulders, caught it with my other hand, then twisted and spun around so that we were back to back. I yanked on the chain as hard as I could, then grimaced when I felt it hit something solid. Vicki yelped and struggled, but I sucked her in closer against me, holding the chain tight.
The claw marks on my back lit with fire. They burned and raged, and fresh blood ran down my skin as her struggles forced the wounds back open. My eyes watered as I gritted my teeth, trying my best not to pass out or vomit from the pain.
Vicki howled, but it came out garbled as th
e chain around her neck slowly crushed her larynx. I let go of the chain as soon as I felt her start to sag, then spun around to face her. She hit the ground with a loud thump, then staggered forward several steps, coughing and sputtering as she did. She barely managed to keep herself on all fours.
“It’s over,” I told her as I circled around in front of her.
She shook her head back and forth like a dog who had just gotten tagged by a porcupine. Vicki opened and closed her mouth, a soft growl rattled out. It sounded like I’d done more damage than I’d thought.
“We’re finished. Let it go.”
Her amber eyes snapped to mine, and she lunged.
No! Rya screamed in my head.
I had a second to think 'this is it,' then her teeth snapped shut and I just knew excruciating pain was soon to follow. But somehow it didn't. Instead I felt the chain around my neck pop as the clasp gave way. That wasn't what Vicki expected either. She chomped on the amulet, then shook it free from her mouth, scattering dozens of pieces all over the ground.
A strange sensation washed over me and disappeared. My stomach clenched. Whatever protection the amulet had given me was gone.
But I couldn't worry about that right now. I still had an injured, angry werewolf to deal with.
"Dammit, Vicki, stop this. I don't want to kill you."
She tried to snarl her answer, but instead of it sounding menacing as she had no doubt intended it to, it sounded ragged. She coughed and wheezed, the sound strange coming from a wolf’s mouth. Vicki acted like she wanted to make another go at my throat. I tensed, preparing for another round, but she staggered forward a step and collapsed to the ground. One last breath whistled through her teeth as she died.
I sagged with relief as the change back to human began. Guilt gnawed its way into my subconscious, but I shoved it away as hard as I could. She’d had every chance to back down, and she hadn’t taken it. It was her or me, and I would always choose me to be the one left standing.
The seconds stretched as I stood there breathing, trying to get my heart rate to return to something that resembled normal, until my skin began prickling and I suddenly remembered I was surrounded by dozens of werewolves. And I’d just killed their Alpha.
