Wolf Howl (Wolf Ridge Book 2)

by Jayne Hawke

“Shut up,” Briar hissed.

  “It was the Apophis witch who cursed us. He said that if we took down the guardian and gave you to the blood witches then we’d be free. We’d have a pack and territory of our own. You have to understand, we had nothing. It seemed too easy. He said that the guardian wasn’t a true guardian and was blocking the way for a true guardian to come into being. He said because you’re made, you’ll never amount to anything but a small pawn.”

  Briar stomped on Adam’s foot.

  Sky and Amy circled around the siblings, blocking off any exit route they might have had. I felt like a complete fool.

  “We were supposed to undermine you and make sure that the blood witches killed you,” Briar said with a huff.

  “Rosalyn, break their curse,” Amy said.

  “Excuse me? After what they’ve done, I believe they deserve it,” I said.

  “Rosalyn. Please do not go against my goddess.”

  I ground my teeth and thought it over. Adam looked at me pleadingly.

  “What have you done so far?” Sky snapped at them.

  “We planted the box under Rosalyn’s bed, and we tipped Logan off about her walk this morning. He was supposed to injure her so she was an easy target for the witches. That was it,” Briar said hurriedly.

  Cole growled and edged closer to them.

  “Please,” Adam whispered.

  Exhaling slowly, I knew that I had to take the chance. My instincts told me they were pack. The way they had come to us was wrong, but they still had the potential to become true pack.

  I walked forward and wrapped my hand around Adam’s wrist. He flinched but remained standing where he was. Closing my eyes, I allowed something within me to flow forwards. It was like a torrent of white water flowing through my veins and crashing over Adam in a great wave. There wasn’t the tingle I had come to associate with witch magic, it was from a place deep inside myself. Something changed between us. I could feel the barbed web that hung over Adam, restricting him and hiding his wolf side away.

  Slowly I edged forward within my mind, pushing the great wave to be more focused on individual threads. Adam’s wolf peered at me from within him, a look of hope on its face. The web loosened and the barbs began to release. A thin web of threads unspooled within my hand and Adam gasped.

  In my mind’s eye his wolf surged forward and settled just beneath his skin. He was complete once more. Opening my eyes, I saw the gold in Adam’s eyes and the tears of relief streaming down his face. He threw his arms around me.

  “Thank you, Rosalyn. I swear my loyalty to you. Thank you,” he choked out.

  I patted him on the back, feeling incredibly awkward before I gestured for Briar to come forward. She held out her wrist and I repeated the process.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  I gripped her chin and stared her in the eye.

  “You will swear loyalty to me, and you will treat me with the respect your alpha deserves,” I growled.

  She swallowed hard and swore. Something built between us before it faded away.

  I was new to this alpha thing, but I was going to do my best by them.

  51

  Cole and I were just wrapping up an intense sparring session when it happened. The colour drained from his skin and his breathing became short and harsh. I ran to him, running my hands over him, trying to figure out what was going on. Fear prickled at the back of my mind as I felt completely lost. My guardian instincts were useless, and I didn’t have enough medical training to know what to do.

  “Sky! Amy!” I shouted.

  Cole crumpled down to his knees, his eyes were beginning to lose their beautiful spark and I was terrified I was going to lose him. Digging deep, I tried to find some use in the guardian stuff. If I could break the curse on the siblings, I could help him now. I had to.

  Amy reached us first. She dropped to her knees next to Cole and placed her hands on his cheeks.

  “This is going to hurt,” she whispered.

  Cole tensed and his back began arch up as Amy held him tight. I was adrift, unable to do anything but watch on in horror. Cole closed his eyes tight, his face contorted into an expression of agony as his breath came in short sharp gasps. I needed to take away his pain, to bring him back to me. Still I remained where I was, at his side desperately hoping Amy got there in time.

  Sky had pulled her sword from the ether and was spinning it around in weird shapes while she whispered something. The blur of her dark sword left after-images which almost coalesced into something more, something beautiful. There were slender smudges of red amidst the darkness. The hint of a raven’s feather caught my eye, but I kept my focus on Cole’s increasingly lifeless body. I held him close, feeling his heart slow and his breathing become more shallow. He was being stripped of his very essence.

  Amy exhaled and pulled her hands back suddenly. Sky drove her sword into the ground, and everything changed. An explosion of shadow came from the sword and Cole gasped. The light returned to his eyes, making Amy grin before she lay back on the short grass.

  “I hate combat magic; it’s exhausting,” Amy said.

  “I live for it,” Sky said with a grin.

  Cole wrapped his arms around my waist.

  “You won’t get rid of me that easily,” he whispered into my ear.

  “What happened? Who attacked him? How do we find them?” I demanded.

  Sky held her now empty hands up.

  “The blood witches tried to kill him from a distance. Amy broke their bond with him and helped draw his life essence back into his body. They needed to form a bond with Cole, like a leech latching onto him, to form a funnel of sorts. That was how they were drawing his essence from within him. Amy had to gather that essence back up and break the bond while fighting the witches off who were trying to maintain it. Distance work is really difficult. It’s tiring and doesn’t have the same anchors that working in close proximity does. You should be proud of Amy; she’s not the combat model. I shattered the bond once Amy had corralled the life essence back into Cole, but most of what I was doing was trying to keep Amy safe while she worked. The witches were throwing barbs of dark magic at her to try and steal her magic away. Oh, and I sent a little shadow back at them, which will hurt them.”

  I snarled. The witches had done amazing work, but my focus was on the enemy witches and what they had attempted. They would beg for death when I found them.

  Cole was still slower and weaker than he had been. He sat in the kitchen while Sky fussed over the stove cooking him something that smelled sort of like food.

  “Do we have some idea where they are?” I asked the witches.

  “I’m going with you this time,” Cole growled.

  “No,” I growled back.

  I was not risking him being taken out. He didn’t have the strength to fight like he’d need to.

  Cole fixed his alpha glare on me and I returned it.

  “You need to heal,” I said.

  He huffed.

  “I’m fine.”

  He wobbled on his seat.

  “Fine, huh?”

  He scowled at me and said nothing more.

  “I’m sure it won’t take too long to get Cole back in fighting form. A couple of days,” Amy said brightly.

  “We’re not waiting that long,” I pushed.

  “No. We’re not,” Sky agreed.

  Amy huffed and shook her head.

  “You’re pushing too hard. This is a balancing act.”

  “That was an act of war,” Sky said.

  The witches glared at each other before Sky dished up the stir-fry she’d cooked for Cole. He poked at it with his fork before tentatively taking a bite.

  “You swore I would have the killing blow,” Cole reminded me.

  I wrinkled my nose, regretting having made that promise.

  “Where are Briar and Adam? They can give us more information on the Apophis witch,” Sky said.

  “So can Natasha,” Amy said.

  “S
he is not involved with such darkness,” Cole said.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “You seem very sure.”

  He stuffed a forkful of food into his mouth and said nothing.

  “Adam, Briar, get in here,” I called out.

  They’d shifted into their wolf forms and were running laps around the upstairs. As much as I was happy to have given them that freedom, Sky was right, they could help us with the blood witches.

  A pair of pale grey wolves came skidding to a halt in the kitchen before they shifted back with huge grins on their faces.

  “Tell us everything you know about the witches,” Sky demanded.

  “Not much, I mean, the Apophis witch was a normal looking guy. A bit model-like, twenties, we didn’t think he was scary at first,” Adam said.

  “And the blood witches? Do you know where they are? How to find them?” Sky pushed.

  “No. We just had to keep Rosalyn out of the way,” Briar said.

  “How did they tell you to get Logan involved?” Amy asked softly.

  “A dream,” Briar said.

  Amy nodded.

  “What did the Apophis witch give you, Briar?” Amy asked.

  Briar looked down and away.

  Adam narrowed his eyes at his sister.

  “He gave you something?”

  “It was beautiful, it’s the only pretty thing I’ve ever owned,” Briar said.

  “Bring it,” I commanded.

  Briar sighed and pulled a small delicate copper chain and necklace from her pocket. She handed it to me. I dropped it immediately when the pain burnt the palm of my hand. It felt as though it had sat in the desert sun all day.

  Amy picked it up without any problems and inspected it. The pendant was a simple swirling pattern which seemed to be constantly shifting. The witch pursed her lips before she gave a small nod.

  “I can use this. I’ll return it to you once the magic has been removed,” Amy said to Briar.

  The young garou relaxed and smiled.

  “Thanks.”

  “How long?” Cole asked Amy.

  “I’ll have what I can get from this in the morning.”

  “We need to focus on the blood witches, as much as it pains me to say that,” Sky said.

  “The Apophis witch is tied to them, no?” Amy said.

  Sky nodded.

  “I’m returning to the books. I’m sure we’re close to a break-through on that sacrifice location.”

  “You are not going after those witches without me,” Cole pushed.

  “We’ll see,” I said.

  “You swore, Rosalyn,” Cole growled.

  “I am not going to lose you.”

  “I think it would be best if you don’t see Natasha again,” Amy said as she stood.

  Cole looked at her.

  “That won’t be possible. We have business to conclude.”

  Amy sighed.

  “You will regret that decision,” she said softly before she left.

  I wanted to push Cole, to know what business, but I let it drop. We needed to focus on the blood witches. As Sky said, they had committed an act of war.

  52

  Cole made a point of joining me on a long run that evening. He was slower than usual, but he was determined to try and hide it. I pushed him over and rested my head on his shoulder, making him rest on our favourite large rock. A small growl rumbled in his throat but he gave in and relaxed beneath me. At least his wolf side has some sense, even if the human side was too stubborn for its own good.

  We remained there in our wolf forms enjoying a small respite. Tomorrow we would hunt down those witches and kill them. I felt good about our chances. The one in the cabin hadn’t been too difficult. It had certainly been a two-man job, but there would be three of us once we’d tracked them down.

  Amy had made it clear her goddess would not allow her to be there for the actual fight. Sky, on the other hand, was very eager. She said she hadn’t had a challenge like blood witches in too long.

  The anticipation of the coming fight flowed through me and gave me a fire that I hadn’t experienced before. It felt so right. I was defending my people and ridding the world of some truly dark and malicious beings. That was what I’d been turned for.

  I’d been roped into helping translate the books the witches had gathered. They were all written in weird poetic form that made no sense to me, but I was trying.

  It was two AM, we were all on our fifth cup of coffee, but I felt as though we were making real progress. Briar had fallen asleep in front of the stove in her wolf form, and Adam was struggling to keep his eyes open.

  “Go to bed,” I instructed them both.

  “I can help,” Adam mumbled.

  “Sleep. Now,” Cole said.

  They shuffled off and Sky made the next pot of coffee.

  “The stars and general night sky are important,” Sky said, waving around a piece of paper.

  “Well, the stars aren’t going anywhere, and there are no special moons or anything coming up. So we need more,” I said.

  “The location has to be important,” Cole said.

  “We know it needs to be a forest, but the entire state is forest,” I grumbled.

  “Something has to be holding them back, else they’d have done it by now,” Sky said.

  We’d been over this again and again for hours. I felt as though we were right on the cusp of something, but I couldn’t see how or where.

  Cole’s eyes went wide and he gasped for air like a fish out of water. The witches were attacking him again. I needed to do something.

  Sky swore and pulled her sword from the ether. I ran around to Cole and tried to soothe him while feeling entirely useless. Sky was sweeping her sword in clear motions, the long black blade slicing through the air forming a vicious magic. Something shivered within me and I felt the need to lay my hands on Cole’s chest. The need was overwhelming, my instincts stronger than they had been before. A thin layer of something cool formed over the palm of my hand as I pressed it to Cole’s heart. It was magic, that much I knew. It wasn’t the raging torrent of my guardian magic, this was something quieter and deeper. Something more personal.

  Cole began to breathe again right before Sky thrust her sword skyward and shouted something aggressive. She was shattering the bond between them, and removing the grip the witches had on him.

  Cole slumped forward and gulped down air.

  “Well played, Rosalyn, I don’t think I could have cut through their magic fast enough without you keeping Cole going.”

  “A guardian thing, I guess.”

  “Guardian thing. Sure,” she said with a mischievous smile.

  I frowned, not understanding what she was getting at.

  She continued making the coffee as if nothing had happened while Cole returned to his usual self.

  “Did you know that life-bonded garou develop a small amount of magic that allows them to keep their other half safe? It’s pretty cool.”

  “No, I didn’t,” I said, mostly ignoring her while I checked Cole over.

  We continued looking through the papers and making notes for another cup of coffee before I couldn’t do it any more. The words were blurring and all I had was, high up location, in the forest, with the stars overhead. That could be fulfilled by hundreds of places. We hadn’t even succeeded in pinning down a suitable time for something like this. I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.

  53

  The morning started about as the night had ended. More note-taking and reviewing the notes we’d already taken. No one told you how much tracking and research was involved in being a merc. I felt like someone should work on that. Maybe I could hire someone to do the paperwork for me and I’d focus on the cool badass stuff.

  I stretched and sighed as I eyed the coffee machine. We’d run out of coffee and it was on me to go and get more. Cole was still a little pale and slow that morning, I was glad we hadn’t heard from Amy yet. There was no way I’d be abl
e to get him to stay behind when we did find the location of the witches.

  Grabbing my keys and my phone, I went to my car. Briar ran out to me.

  “I’m going with you.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about her. She’d been much brighter and respectful since we’d broken the curse, but my wolf side was still unamused at everything she’d done. A young pack member should have been quiet, respectful, and made themselves useful to the pack. Briar had a job and she was trying, but there were still moments of sharp edges and pushing that my wolf side found distasteful.

  “I’m sorry. I know I did some horrible things, but you have to understand. I was trying to keep Adam safe. He’s too nice for his own good. The witches would have made him a pet years ago if I didn’t watch over him,” Briar said.

  I waited for the rest of the words to tumble from her mouth.

  “We were never well thought of in the pack. Our parents died young. We were not of the right bloodline. Adam was always so quiet, he kept his head down and did his best to give the alpha what he wanted. I… I did some awful, dangerous things. I shed blood, but I had to keep him safe. I didn’t want to harm those people, but he was all I had.”

  I could understand her sentiment. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to keep my little pack safe.

  “I get it,” I said.

  She relaxed and I turned on my music. I was direly under-caffeinated and didn’t have it in me to try and hold a real conversation. The car park I preferred to park in was completely full, leaving me to park in the last spot on the side of a small road. There must have been an event or something in town to make it that packed. Sometimes there were live bands in the parks, and other things that I avoided like the plague. There were just too many people there.

  Briar walked with her hands in her pockets and a gentle smile on her face. She was a completely different person since the curse had been broken and everything had come out. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to stand her for a while there, but she was showing potential now.

  Of course, nothing was ever that simple. We turned a corner and Eira was there waiting for us like a weird wraith. Diaphanous fabrics flowed around her as though touched by a personal breeze. Her face was one of murderous coldness, an alienness replacing whatever beautiful porcelain was usually present. There was no denying that she was far from human. It shone from her eyes. The mask she wore was barely present, and her true nature as a predator unlike any other was there for all to see.