Ravensong

by TJ Klune

  “Mark,” Ox said, “I want you to stay silent. Not out of sight. But just watch.”

  He nodded slowly. “For?”

  “Anything she’s not telling us.”

  I blinked. “You think she knows more than she’s saying?”

  “She says a lot,” Joe said. “For someone who doesn’t say anything at all.”

  “People in power usually do,” Robbie muttered, tapping on his phone. “And not that I don’t appreciate the invite to the head honcho meeting, but why am I here?”

  “Because she knows you,” Joe said. “And I think she still trusts you.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I think that ended the moment I chose Ox over her. And not like that,” he added hastily, eyes going wide as he looked at Joe. “I’m so over Ox. Not that I was ever into Ox. It was Stockholm syndrome or something. I’ve got my eye on something different.”

  “Uh-huh,” Joe said dryly. “And by something different, you mean my brother.”

  Robbie swallowed thickly. “I’m going to shut up now.”

  Joe grinned, razor-sharp. “Good plan.”

  Ox reached over and switched the screen on. It lit up a bright blue as Robbie continued to tap his phone. He looked back up at his Alphas and said, “Ready?”

  Joe nodded.

  The screen went dark and beeped once, twice, three times.

  And then Michelle Hughes appeared.

  She was beautiful, in a cold, aloof way. She was somewhere around my age, though she looked younger. Her hair was dark and rested artfully on her shoulders, her makeup minimal. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I don’t know if it ever did.

  “Alpha Bennett,” she said. “Alpha Matheson. How lovely it is to see you again. And so soon after our last meeting.”

  “Alpha Hughes,” Joe said evenly. “Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. I know it’s late in Maine.”

  She waved him away. “I’ll always make time for you. You know that.”

  Robbie coughed. It sounded sarcastic.

  Her eyes flickered over to him. “Robbie. You’re looking well.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am. Doing just fine.”

  “That’s good. Your pack seems to be treating you well.”

  Your pack.

  “They are,” he said, puffing out his chest proudly. “They’re good Alphas.”

  “Are they? Curious.” Then, “Livingstone.”

  “Michelle,” I said, sounding bored.

  She was good. She gave away nothing at my disrespect. “And Mark Bennett. Why, this is quite the gathering. All for one little Omega.”

  “The third this month,” Ox reminded her, though she already knew.

  “Does it live?”

  “She does,” Joe said. “She wasn’t a threat. We don’t kill indiscriminately.”

  Mark tensed beside me but said nothing.

  “No? Ox might say otherwise. As I’m sure you’re aware by now, during your little… sojourn to parts unknown, the blood of many Omegas was spilled upon your territory.”

  “You know why,” Ox said, calm as ever.

  “Yes,” she said. “Because they were acting in service of Richard Collins, the pathetic little things that they were. Or at the very least, they were trying to capture his attention. And now that he’s dead, well. They have to go somewhere.”

  “Why here?” I asked.

  She barely looked at me, instead choosing to answer to the Alphas. “Somehow Richard was able to gather the Omegas behind him. They listened to him. They followed him. He wasn’t an Alpha, not then, but he acted like one.”

  Joe shook his head. “That shouldn’t have been possible.”

  She arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “No? Neither should Alpha Matheson here. Before his change, he was nothing but a human.” She had a look of faint disdain on her face. “And yet there was still something about him, wasn’t there? Enough that the pack you left behind chose him to lead. Well, the wolves, anyway.”

  “Ox is nothing like Richard,” Joe said, voice clipped. No one talked shit about his pack. I’d seen what Joe was capable of when pushed. Michelle was pushing, though I didn’t know why.

  “They’re more alike than you think,” Michelle said. “Ox may not have Richard’s penchant for… chaos, but they aren’t like anyone I’ve ever seen before. And even though his reign ended rather quickly, from what you’ve said, Richard got his wish. He was an Alpha, if only for a moment.”

  She was right. Even as I’d watched, unable to stop him, Richard had thrust his hand into Ox’s chest. I’d seen the blood and the wet pieces of Ox falling to the ground. And there had been a brief, terrible second when Richard’s eyes had bled from violet to red. Ox’s pack didn’t talk about it much. How they’d felt Richard bursting through them, even the humans. Where once it’d been love and brother and sister and pack, what remained was nothing but rage and bloodlust, a furious pull into black tinged with red. Richard Collins had taken the Alpha from Ox. Therefore, he’d become the Alpha to Ox’s pack.

  Joe had ended that as quickly as it’d started.

  But they hadn’t forgotten how it’d felt, brief though it was.

  “And you took that from him,” Michelle continued. “You killed him. Richard was the Alpha to the Omegas. When he died, that passed on to you. And oh, they’re fighting it, I’m sure. Resisting the pull. But Green Creek was lit up like a beacon in the dark. Some can’t help but seek you out. Coupled with the draw of the Bennett territory, I’m only surprised there haven’t been more.”

  Ox and I exchanged a glance. The rest of the wolves didn’t react. Michelle was dangerously close to a truth she didn’t even know was within her grasp, something we’d kept from her since the day Oxnard Matheson had been turned into an Alpha wolf.

  Because she was right. Somehow, Richard had managed to gather Omegas behind him, and though he hadn’t been an Alpha—in fact, toward the end, his eyes had been violet and crazed—they had followed him. They had listened to him.

  Alpha to the Omegas was something of a misnomer. Richard Collins had only been an Alpha for seconds before Joe killed him.

  Joe’s eyes had burned as bright as I’d ever seen them before he bit Ox, giving the Alpha power back.

  And with it had come the Omegas who had amassed behind Richard.

  It’d been a whisper at first, in Ox’s head.

  But it soon turned to a roar.

  There were a few days following Ox’s transition from human to wolf where we thought he was turning feral.

  And then it began to spread to others. Elizabeth. Mark. Chris. Tanner. Rico. Jessie. Robbie.

  They, too, began to feel it, like an itch under their skin that could never be satisfied. They were… moodier than they normally were. Quick to anger, especially after Joe and Ox mated.

  We should have realized what it was sooner.

  Ox was hearing the voices of the Omegas. They had followed Richard.

  And now they had latched on to Ox.

  Ox had figured it out before everyone else.

  Together we shut down the connection. We couldn’t sever it. It was as if we closed a door and locked it firmly. They still scratched at it, still threw themselves against it, trying to break it down, but I was strong, and Ox was stronger.

  We didn’t know what would happen if Ox opened that door. If he didn’t fight the bonds anymore. What would happen to him. To his pack, the ones who had stayed behind. Even though we were all one now, there was still a thin division.

  Or if the Omegas themselves shattered it and poured through.

  We would never find out, not if I had any say in it.

  Michelle Hughes didn’t know any of this. And we planned to keep it that way.

  “How many more do you think there could be?” Joe asked, deflecting before she could continue.

  “Oh, I can’t even begin to speculate. But they will be dealt with, no matter what. We can’t afford to have our world exposed, no matter what the cost.”
<
br />   “But why did she go after Gordo?” Robbie asked.

  Michelle leaned forward as I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

  “Um,” Robbie said. “Forget I said that. She didn’t go after Gordo. Ha ha ha, just joking. Just a really awful joke that I shouldn’t have—”

  “Robbie,” Ox said.

  “Yep. Got it, boss. Shutting up now.”

  “Did she?” Michelle asked. “Fascinating. Gordo?”

  “It was nothing,” I said, keeping my voice even. “I was in front of everyone else. The closest target. Nothing more.”

  “Nothing more,” she repeated.

  I stared back blandly.

  She hummed a little under her breath. Then, “Tell me, Gordo, when was the last time you heard from your father?”

  Oh, so that’s how she wanted to play. “Before Osmond took him away,” I said coolly as Mark’s fingers brushed against mine. “Before he said that his magic would be stripped and he would never escape from where you all would be holding him. Much like you were supposed to be holding Richard.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “That was unfortunate—”

  “Unfortunate? People died. I think it’s a little more than unfortunate.”

  “I didn’t know you cared about Thomas Bennett,” Michelle said, losing a bit of her composure. “You made that abundantly clear after he—”

  And Joe said, “Enough.”

  Mark’s hand was in mine, holding my fingers tight. I tried to find the strength to pull away but couldn’t do it.

  “My apologies, Alpha,” Michelle said, mask firmly back in place. “That was uncalled for.”

  “You’re damn right it was,” Ox snapped. “We don’t always see eye to eye. I get that. But you have no place speaking to the Bennett witch that way. Do it again and we’re going to have a problem. Do you understand?”

  It obviously pained her to say, “Of course,” but I couldn’t find a fuck left to give. “That being said, I stand by my inquiry.”

  “Which is?”

  “Robert Livingstone.”

  Mark squeezed my hand. I thought my bones would break.

  “We know he was working with Richard,” she said, “though the question still remains in what capacity. If he was working for Richard, or if—”

  “He wouldn’t have.”

  Everyone turned to stare at me.

  I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  Michelle was smiling again. “What’s that now, witch?”

  I cleared my throat. “He wouldn’t have been working for Richard. He would have loathed the wolves.”

  “How do you know that?” Ox asked. “You told me he—”

  “My mother. She… hated. This life. Pack and wolves and magic.” They lied, she said, they used, they didn’t love. “She wanted to take me away from it. My father wouldn’t let her. I think, in the end, he was altering her memories somehow.” I shrugged. “And then she found out about… his tether. How it was another woman. My mother killed her. My father killed my mother, and more. It was my mother’s last act. The only way she could get revenge against him for all that he’d done. He couldn’t handle the loss, so he…. And then to have you all take his magic from him. To have his own brethren strip him of his magic under orders from wolves, well. He would have hated them. You. So, no. He wasn’t working for Richard. If anything, Richard was working for him, though he wouldn’t have known it. I wouldn’t be surprised if my father let Richard think he was in charge. But Richard was nothing but a puppet. A weapon my father would have used in order to take out as many of us as he could. He wouldn’t have cared about Richard wanting to become an Alpha. My father used Richard.”

  “And how do you know all this?” Michelle asked, leaning forward on her desk. She had a glint in her eyes that I didn’t understand.

  I said, “I’m my father’s son. And had it been me in his place, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.”

  MARK SAID, “You’re wrong.”

  I blew smoke out my nose. The porch light was off, and I could barely make him out in the dark. The air was cool, and the leaves swayed in the trees. It was cloudy now, and it smelled like rain. He hadn’t come from inside the house. After the meeting with Michelle had ended, he’d been one of the first out of the room, not looking back. I didn’t blame him. There wasn’t much to look back to.

  I grunted at him, ashing the butt into my hand. Sparks burned against my palm, the pain like little pinpricks of light that reminded me I was alive.

  “You’re wrong.”

  “About?”

  “That you would have done the same.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do.”

  “What do you want, Mark?”

  “I don’t know how you can’t see it.”

  “See what?”

  He said, “That you’re nothing like him. You never have been. You came from him, but he didn’t shape who you are. We did that. Your pack.”

  “The pack.” I snorted in derision. “Which pack, Mark? The one I have now? Or the one that abandoned me here?”

  “I never wanted—”

  I was suddenly very tired. “Go away, Mark. I don’t want to do this right now.”

  The bitterness was sharp and pungent. “Like that’s a surprise.”

  I inhaled. It burned. I exhaled. Smoke leaked from my nose and curled up around my face, hanging like a storm cloud.

  “I thought….” He laughed, but it didn’t sound like he found anything funny. “I thought things would be different. After.”

  After we’d come back.

  After Richard was dead.

  After the separate packs had come together.

  Always after, after, after.

  “You thought wrong.”

  “I guess I did.”

  I felt him watching me.

  The tip of the cigarette flared in the dark. It looked like the color of his eyes as a wolf.

  He growled low in his chest. I heard the grinding shift of bone and muscle.

  I looked back a moment later.

  The clothes he’d been wearing lay on the porch.

  He was gone.

  OX WAS waiting for me when I went back inside. “You told me once it was a wolf who killed your mother.”

  Shit. “I lied.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted you to hate them as much as I did. I was wrong.”

  He nodded slowly. “You don’t, though. Hate them. Not anymore.”

  “It’s… no. I mean, it’s complicated.”

  “Is it?”

  Fucking werewolves.

  THE GIRL. The Omega.

  She was broken.

  “Alpha,” she pleaded. “Alpha.”

  She reached for Ox.

  She reached for Joe.

  She saw me, and her eyes flashed violet.

  She growled, a cornered animal ready to lash out.

  Elizabeth whispered in her ear, her hand around the Omega’s arm. Little trails of blood dripped from where her claws dug in.

  The Omega snapped her jaws at me.

  Elizabeth jerked her arm harshly.

  “Jessie,” Ox said, “move away.”

  Jessie did, slowly and never taking her eyes off the Omega.

  “Mom,” Joe said, “maybe you should—”

  Elizabeth didn’t look at him when she said, “Hush, Joe.”

  Joe hushed.

  She whispered and whispered.

  The Omega stared at me with wide eyes.

  Eventually violet faded to a muddy brown. Her hair was wet and plastered to her shoulders. She had a towel wrapped around her chest and waist.

  Her face was puffy and pale.

  “Alpha,” she said again, voice breaking. “Please. Alpha.”

  Her hands were claws as she held them toward Ox. Toward Joe.

  Joe said, “She’s just like the others.”

  “She’s an Omega,” Elizabeth said, her grip ever-tight. Her fingers were slick with
blood. “She doesn’t know any better. None of them do.”

  “Alpha,” the Omega said through a mouthful of fangs. “Alpha, Alpha, Alpha.”

  OX SAID, “I don’t understand.”

  “I know. You wouldn’t. Not now.”

  “I’ve seen Omegas. When they came here. Before. With Thomas. And after, when you all were gone. Even with Richard, they had… they weren’t like this. They still were in control. And after… I don’t know. I thought we’d closed that door.”

  Ah, yes. The door. The connection to the Omegas he’d felt after Richard Collins had become an Alpha. We didn’t talk about it much. “How is it?”

  “The same as always.”

  I told myself I believed him.

  He sat behind the desk in the office. Joe had refused to leave his mother’s side while she looked after the Omega. It was late. The humans had gone home. Carter and Kelly were on patrol, running the edges of the territory. Robbie was in his room. Mark was… well. I didn’t need to think about where Mark was. It was none of my business.

  I picked at a long scar in the wood on the surface of the desk. It’d come from one of the kids in the old pack, still not in control of her shift. She’d died when the hunters had come. “They degrade.”

  Ox scrubbed a hand over his face. He looked tired and oh so young. “What?”

  I chose my words carefully. “Omegas. They degrade. The tether, it’s… a bond. It’s metaphysical. An emotion. A person. A spiritual attachment. It holds a wolf to their humanity. Keeps them from getting lost to the animal.”

  “And a witch.”

  I looked up at him. He was watching me, head cocked. “I don’t—”

  “You said it holds a wolf to their humanity. It works the same for witches. You told me that once.” He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. It creaked under his weight.

  “I told you a lot of things.”

  “I know.”

  “We’re not talking about me.”

  “Maybe we should.”

  “Ox.”

  “You do this, you know. Deflect.” He opened his eyes. They were human. “I don’t know why.”

  I scowled at him. “I know what you’re doing. This whole Zen Alpha bullshit doesn’t work on me. I’m not one of your wolves, Ox, so knock it off.”