by Skye Winters
Rowan dipped her head and pinned her ears back in a submissive bow.
"Thank you." He stood and set a hand on my shoulder. "The same goes for you. I know tricking you with the fake amulet was a bad idea. I hated to even think on it, but his territory—"
"Intersects with ours." I nodded. "I know. You were doing what was best for the pack, and I understand that now, but my bond—"
He took me in his arms. "Stay true to her. The pack will find a way to accept it. I have."
His hug was quick, and once I realized I'd closed my eyes, I opened them to find the warmth of my father's embrace fading from my skin.
Rowan and I were facing a closed door.
I had my orders, and my father's blessing. It should've made me happy, but instead, it formed a hard pit of iron in my stomach.
He was reconciling with me.
Vastly outnumbered, we both knew the outcome.
Whatever happens, it ends tonight.
Chapter Eight
Wolf howls sounded like sirens in the night. The halls were free of activity. Free of life. Aside from Rowan and myself, the rest of the pack had either headed outside to meet Devlin or were on their way there.
"We should go with them," I said, heading for my mother's bedchambers. "We shouldn't have left him."
Rowan wrapped her teeth around my sleeve and pulled on it as I tried to turn the other way. The growl emitting from her jaws was low. It wasn't a threat but rather a reminder of where we needed to be. Where my father asked us to be.
I continued across the center of the house, past the dining halls and into the east wing. I kept my eyes on Rowan's wolf, on her body language as she guided me through the maze of passageways. Her ears swiveled from one side to the other, but I could hear the howls and barks same as her. What I wanted to know was what I couldn't hear. Sounds so far off in the distance only a wolf could decipher them.
The house rumbled from the confrontation happening outside. I had no way of knowing if the challenge had already begun or if the wolves I heard were our own.
I walked faster. My heart beat a little harder. And I watched Rowan even more.
Her claws clicked against hardwood floors as the walls closed in around us. I took a shallow breath. My chest tightened. I'd seen the pack fight other wolves before, but this time was different. I was old enough to fight.
To protect my family.
To lead.
To die.
We're all mortal.
And I had a forbidden weapon in my hands, ready to fire.
Devlin's wolves were no stronger than ours. They were the same size and made up of the same components. They breathed the same as we did and could die just as easily.
But we're pure.
Wolves with wolves. No interbreeding. No dogs.
All wolves.
We should've had the upper hand.
We're outnumbered.
Two to one. Likely more.
I should've killed them when I had the chance. I should've drugged the house when I broke in. I—
Rowan bit my hand.
"What the hell was that for?" I glared at her, at her tucked tail and pinned ears.
She shook off and stepped between myself and a wall that shouldn't have been there.
"How did we end up here?"
The path to my mother's room was simple, and yet, we'd lost our way.
You're protecting me.
Rowan knew how far down the secret bunker and its connected maze of tunnels went. It was intended for a full assault to keep the pack safe. We'd never used it aside from the random game of hide and seek with my mother, but it was here. Our safety net was still here.
"We need to get my mother."
I turned back down the hall, and this time, Rowan didn't stop me. She didn't growl or pull on my arm. She was doing just as my father had asked. If my mother's room got hit, we still had a place to run. A place that wasn't in the blueprints. A secret room Devlin's pack didn't know about.
I focused on the end of the hall in front of us. Nerves teased the back of my mind as invisible flames radiated from the floorboards up my legs toward my chest.
Breathe, Anna. Just breathe.
My father had his battlefield, and we had ours. On our land, we had the advantage. We can win this. I had to believe that, because if I didn't, Devlin had already won.
I heard my mother's cries well before I reached her room. She crouched behind her bed, concealing herself the best she could when I threw open the door.
I shoved the gun along the hip of my pants and then helped her up. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, but her grip on my arm told me otherwise.
"Can you stand?"
Another nod, this time more confident than before.
"You think you'd be able to walk?"
"How far?" Her voice was weak.
"The bunker. We'll be safe there."
"No." She grasped her bedpost and leaned into it. "I'm not going to run. I won't hide like a frightened pup."
"It's the room farthest from what's happening outside," I explained. "We aren't running, we're just buying ourselves more time."
"More time for what?" I could almost hear her say.
My mother tried to argue, but even as she opened her mouth to say something, Rowan nosed the door shut. Her ears flattened against her skull, and when she held her tail tightly between her legs, I knew our window to reach the other room was gone.
"We fight here." I sat Mom down in a corner of the room, between a wall and the side of her dresser. "Wait here. They won't see you if they come in."
Lines creased her forehead. "What about you?"
I removed the gun from my pocket and faced the door. "I'm going to protect my family."
Her eyes were wide as she looked between myself and the firearm at my side. "Your father's gun. Did he show you how—"
"Yes. Sort of." I shrugged with one shoulder as I gripped the handle. "Not really."
"Give it to me." She held out her hand. "I've used it before. Sur—your father insisted. He showed me how," she explained.
It didn't make me feel any better.
"You can't even keep your balance." I looked back at the door and Rowan's stiff posture.
"At least my hands aren't shaking."
I didn't listen to her. With my mother safely on the ground behind one of the bulkiest pieces of furniture in the room, I kept my eyes on that door.
I strained to hear footsteps down the hall. In the kitchen. Anywhere remotely close to where we were. But all I heard were the challenging barks outside.
I tightened my hold on the gun, eased back and flexed my hand again. Deep down, it almost felt like I was trying to fight back my shift. My bones ached, as though they were being stretched to the point of splintering in half. My wolf was right under the surface, gnawing at my nerves as I struggled to stay human. This entire time, all I'd wanted was to be a wolf, but now it was the complete opposite.
War was coming, possibly right down the hall from where we were. Instincts insisted I shift and fight in my primal form.
But wolves couldn't use firearms, and my mother was too weak to stand at my side. I pushed my wolf back. I wasn't sure how or when my father had released his hold on me, but my quicker heartbeat and the tingling under my skin were evidence enough he had. I could take on either form if I wanted to, but I remained the same, holding the gun in my hands with my eyes fixed on the only way in or out of my mother's room.
"How far are they?" I asked through clenched teeth.
Rowan didn't move, and I tried even harder to hear whatever may have been standing on the other side of our barrier.
"This is ridiculous," my mother said as she emerged from her place on the ground. "Take me to your father. I should be with him." Her grip on the dresser was far from steady.
"You can hardly walk. You should be in bed."
"You're the one who put me here." Her face was flushed.
"Only to keep—" I cut myself of
f at the sound of Rowan's low growl. "Get back down."
My mother did as I asked, tucking her feet under her. I could still see her, but just barely.
"When I open this door," I said to Rowan, my voice so low I felt more than heard the words pass over my lips, "I need you to jump whoever is on the other side. The moment of surprise will give me all the time I need to assess if the wolf is one of ours or one of Devlin's. Once you're at my side and I know you're safe, I'll shoot."
My shoulders tensed as I held the gun in front of me with one hand and slowly opened the door with the other. Rowan dipped her head in agreement and lowered herself close to the ground, ready to jump once the door was out of her way.
I took a breath. Held it. Pulled back the hammer on the gun and turned the knob on the door.
A growl came from the other side, changing octaves as the wolf licked its maw. He was confident, possibly too confident, but Rowan met his vocalizations with some of her own.
Her growl rumbled deep within her chest as I turned the knob the rest of the way.
The air in the room stilled.
I stopped breathing.
Stopped thinking.
Reacting.
For a moment.
Then my vision blurred, and Rowan was near my mother with a dark wolf between us. He faced me with ears pinned back and his tail held high.
My hands shook as I stared into those dark eyes. At his perfect teeth.
And my wolf clawed at the surface as I scrambled to hold on to my human form long enough to aim the gun at the creature in front of me.
Rowan moved first, leaping onto the other wolf's back as my mother crawled toward her bed. Devlin's mutt yelped in pain as Rowan bit down on the tender flesh along the back of his neck, forcing him to lift his head so I could get the shot I needed.
"Move away," I said, unable to trust my aim any more than the wolf invading my mother's bedchambers.
Rowan came to my side, and before the wolf could shake off the paralyzing bite she'd given him, I pulled the trigger.
"You missed," my mother said from the side of her bed. "Shoot it again."
I cocked the hammer back, sucked in a deep breath and willed my hands to stop shaking so I could get a second shot. One that hopefully hit the wolf instead of the furnishings around it.
Come on. Come on.
I couldn't keep my hands still long enough to take aim, so I stared at the wall behind him instead. When I felt my chest would burst, I pulled back on the trigger, ready to run.
There was a faint yelp, a thump and then nothing.
The wolf's body lay lifeless at my feet, his maw open but releasing no breath at all.
I knelt down as the wolf slowly changed shape to eye the markings on his chest. "He's a scout." I met my mother's gaze. "Devlin will send more if this one doesn't return. We can't stay here."
She didn't argue, not when I approached her and certainly not when I let her use me as a crutch. "They're inside the house. Your father's office—"
"Is set to blow if and when we feel it's necessary," I assured her as we made our way over to the door.
"You have to do it now." When I looked at her, she continued. "None of our lives will have any meaning if Devlin gets to that room. There are things the other packs—things he must not know. If we fall—"
"The battle ends here." I nodded. "Dad already told me what had to be done, and you're my top priority. Not the study, his books or our treaties."
After checking Rowan for signs of danger, the three of us entered the hall.
"Your turn as alpha is soon upon us," my mother said. "Protecting this pack and our alliances is critical."
I wrapped an arm along the small of her back to offer more support as we turned the corner. "Tell that to Dad. Markus. Even Caine. The pack loves you. If I let something happen..." I shook my head and glanced at Rowan as we picked up the pace. "The pack would kick me out for reasons that have nothing to do with who I've bonded with."
"You underestimate them."
"There's still a chance we can win this, and until that changes, I'm not going to torch our history."
The amount of texts in Dad's study could lead the pack for centuries. In fact, it already had. No way in hell I was going to risk our ways because of a lone scout.
My mother was silent as we continued down the passageway. The familiar click of Rowan's claws on hardwood filled the space between us. It held my attention just enough to focus on what was around me instead of the fight happening outside.
An invisible force pushed against my back, urging me to move faster. Rowan had felt it as well, a low growl emitting from her chest. I took on a longer stride to match her pace, practically dragging my mother along with me.
She stumbled and slapped a palm against the wall to keep her balance. "Anna, slow down."
Something lodged itself at the base of my throat. I couldn't speak, so I adjusted the hold I had along mother's waist, held her up and started to run. She hugged me for support, half running half leaning into me as we neared the hidden bunker.
Nerves coiled around the base of my spine. I shook them off and didn't look back.
Something's coming.
It was in the air. On my breath. I sensed it in every step Rowan and I took.
Rowan skidded on the hard floor, turning to fight whatever I hadn't had the guts to see. I opened the bunker door and helped my mother inside.
"Aren't you coming?" she asked, her eyes wide as she crouched in the small crawlway.
"Right behind you," I threw over my shoulder, turning in the opposite direction. Just as soon as I put a bullet in this one's head.
He hadn't made it down the hall yet, but there was definitely a dark shape loping toward us. Nausea climbed up the back of my throat, and I forced it back down as I gripped the gun, taking aim as the wolf's body finally took on a familiar shape.
"Don't shoot," he said, crawling along until he completed his shift.
"Caine." I lowered the gun. "Are you nuts? I almost shot you."
"You saw me in time." He was panting. "Though you might want to save it for the wolf behind me." He gestured back down the hall.
I craned my neck, but I couldn't see anything. "He isn't there now."
Caine came up beside me and leaned against the wall. "Give him time. Think I lost him back in the dining area."
"You didn't go after him?"
"Dad." He coughed out the word, and my heart dropped. "Go to him. I'll take care of things here."
I glanced behind me at the bunker door and Rowan who was loyally guarding it. "Stay with them." To my brother, I added, "Take this. I won't need it where I'm going."
Caine stared at the gun as I set it in his hands. "Anna, how—"
"Not now. Point and shoot. Mom can give you the rundown if you need it."
"But shouldn't you take this? You can't even shift!"
I was already heading back toward my father's study. I can and will. If it came down to it, I knew I'd be able to shift. Somehow.
Chapter Nine
The halls were as empty on this side of the house, which made my wolf anxious to run. I could feel her tearing at my stomach, puncturing large holes in my resolve. Not right now. I growled under my breath as my vision blurred and the bones in my fingers started to change shape.
"Not now." I winced around the throbbing pain in my temples. "I know I promised to let you have control, but we aren't there yet. Please." I exhaled and fell into one of the walls. "Just a while longer, and then I promise, you can have all the control you want." In fact, I'm depending on it.
The wave of nausea passed long enough for me to fumble with the door to my dad's study. After that, every step was a challenge between myself and my wolf.
Dry tinder lined the baseboards and every bookshelf. My stomach dipped and, once again, I considered how much of our history I was about to destroy. No other choice. No way I could hide it all, and seeing as the only bit of information I got from my father was the book of
remedies in my room, I had no idea what books were more important than the rest.
"Matches, matches. Where the hell are they?"
A hard pang hit my stomach, and I doubled over in pain. My nails grew. My knuckles cracked. And every tendon in my body stretched and groaned.
Almost there.
I gripped the desk, wedged a nail between it and the middle drawer, and then pulled out a box of matches. Beads of sweat formed on my brow as I fought against the shift, one of which I was losing fast. My ankles cracked, throwing me down to all fours. I opened the matchbox and fished through it for an unused match. There were a few, so I pinched one between my nails—quickly turning into claws— and struck it along the side of the box.
The flame flickered and then went out.
My spine straightened, and as soon as my wolf's claws receded, I struck two matches at the same time, cupping a hand around them until the flames engulfed the entire matchbox.
As the room lit up around me, everything else went dark.
* * * *
Smoke burned the inside of my nose and the backs of my eyes as I got to my feet. For a brief moment, I was almost certain I'd beaten the shift and was still human. However, after looking at the ground around me, I realized my clothes were disintegrating in orange flame.
Panicked, I tried to see if I was still wearing my amulet, and when I couldn't crane my neck enough to do so, I took a step. The pendant dangled somewhere on my chest, and I released a sigh of relief. The amulet transfers between both forms, I reminded myself. The only reason I'd lost it at Devlin's house after my shift was because it was a fake. It wasn't bonded to me, and much like my clothing, was thrown to the side when I changed into my wolf.
Even so, I could remember things. I could feel my wolf around me. I could see through her eyes.
How is this possible? I shifted and yet, I was completely aware of what was happening. I wasn't just lucid, I was a wolf. I could feel her—her heart beating in my chest. I could sense everything. The heated wood under my paws, the crackling fire as it climbed up the walls. Everything.
