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Ravensong

Page 53

by TJ Klune


  Hughes slammed her hand on the desk. “It will never go to him. You are one pack filled with ferals and humans and abominations. You can’t win this.”

  Ox rose slowly. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

  And I saw it then. On her face.

  Fear.

  Michelle Hughes was scared.

  “I will give you,” Oxnard Matheson said, “one last chance. Step down. Now.”

  “I will not be intimidated by the likes of you. You are nothing. Your pack is nothing—”

  “Then you should remember,” Ox said, eyes flashing red and violet, and oh, she hadn’t expected that. “That in the end, I gave you a chance. To end this peacefully. But that moment is now over. You should prepare yourself, Alpha Hughes. Because we’re coming for you. We’re coming for all of you.”

  The screen went dark.

  Ox turned toward us, eyes blazing. “You are my family. You are my pack. You have helped make me who I am. I will do everything I can to keep you safe. But we knew this day would come. It’s time. It’s time for us to bring the fight to them.”

  The roses bloomed.

  The raven took flight.

  The wolves howled.

  Their humans cried along with them.

  And I did the only thing I could.

  I tilted my head back and sang a song of war.

  SOMEWHERE

  IN

  MAINE

  other

  THE SCREEN went black.

  Michelle Hughes sat back in her chair, claws gouging the wood on her desk.

  “That didn’t go very well,” Dale said mildly.

  She gave serious consideration to tearing out his throat.

  Somehow, she stopped herself. “All of them,” she said. “All of them have lost their minds. It’s… a tragedy, to be sure. Such a fall from grace.” She thought quickly. “And that’s how it will be spun. That’s what we’ll tell the others. The… infection. It has spread through the pack bonds. It’s contaminated the others. There were already rumors about Matheson. But now we have definitive proof. You saw his eyes. He is becoming one of them. And he’s the mate of Bennett. Which means Joe won’t be long to follow.”

  Dale nodded slowly. “That could work, but….”

  “But what?” she snapped.

  “It’s just… Ox.”

  “What about him?”

  “There’s never been anything like him.”

  “He’s a fluke,” she snarled. “A freak. Whatever he is, whatever Thomas Bennett did to him, it doesn’t matter. He can’t be trusted. And if those goddamn hunters could have actually done what they were sent to do, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. The humans are useless.” She couldn’t admit out loud she’d been stunned into inaction in the weeks that followed the destruction of the hunters. It’d been over so quickly. She never should have trusted Meredith King. Humans were weak. The Bennetts were stronger than she expected.

  She wouldn’t underestimate them again.

  “You haven’t stood before him,” Dale said quietly. “Not like I have. He exudes power. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Be it the territory or something else, it’s… intoxicating.”

  Michelle shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He bleeds. Which means he can die.”

  “And what of the packs that have helped them? The ones who have taken in Omegas?”

  “We’ll deal with them later. They won’t dare stand with him. Not if it means the eradication of their entire pack.”

  “I think you shouldn’t underestimate his reach,” Dale said. “He’s already proven himself formidable. They all—”

  Shouts and snarls. From out in the compound.

  Michelle rose behind her desk.

  Dale went to the door and slammed it shut. He pressed his palm flat against it, muttering under his breath. There was a pulse of light underneath his hand as he warded the door.

  It didn’t help.

  The door exploded, knocking him back. He slammed against the far wall, slid down, and slumped against the floor. Blood trickled from his nose. He groaned, looking dazed.

  A man walked in through the ruined doorway.

  He was older, his skin wrinkled, his hair in thin white wisps around his head. He was dressed for the Maine winter, heavy trousers and a thick black coat.

  But every step he took was measured and fluid. He moved with purpose.

  And she knew who this was.

  She’d just seen a version of his face glaring angrily at her moments ago on a connection to the other side of the country.

  She should have seen this coming.

  “Alpha,” Robert Livingstone said, a small smile on his face. “I thought it time we meet.”

  “You can’t be here.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I think you’ll find I can be wherever I wish. We need to have a chat, you and I. It would seem that you’re no better than Richard Collins at handling a meager threat. Hunters, Michelle. Honestly. What could you have possibly been thinking? Even with my assistance at the wards, you still failed. The level of incompetence I seem to find myself surrounded by is astounding.”

  “Assistance? What assist—”

  “Though you did do me a favor,” he said, as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’d been tracking Meredith King for months once I discovered she was in possession of something that belonged to me.”

  “You come into my territory uninvited,” Michelle said, her shift starting to come over her. “You are not welcome here, witch.”

  He laughed. “Oh, I don’t need an invitation. Sit down.”

  Her claws popped and her fangs lengthened.

  “I said sit. Down.”

  And she did. She couldn’t stop herself. Her legs folded, and she sat in her chair.

  “Good girl,” Robert said. “Now, I’m going to talk, and you’re going to listen. Do you understand me?”

  She nodded, though she tried to fight it.

  He tapped his boot against Dale’s thigh. Dale groaned but otherwise didn’t move. “I have little use for wolves. You’re animals, the lot of you. Enslaved to the moon. I’ve always found lycanthropy not unlike a virus.” He sighed. “Which is why I attempted to make it one. The results have been varied, but there is always a trial-and-error phase with any experiment. One must learn from their mistakes in order to push the boundaries further. And I planned to push them until they broke. But I find myself at an impasse. There are… wolves that I did not account for. Variables I didn’t expect. Richard Collins was a failure. Your attempt with the hunters was a failure. Because of these variables.”

  “The Bennett pack,” Michelle managed to say.

  Robert sighed. “Yes. Them. Still. Even with the fall of Thomas Bennett, even with a separation, even with nothing but a human to guide them, they managed to survive.” He shook his head. “And now… well. They’ve become something more, haven’t they? Somehow they’ve been able to contain my magic in the Omegas. And they have my son.”

  “Gordo?” Michelle asked. “But he’s always been—”

  “No,” Robert Livingstone said as he came to stand in front of her desk. “Not Gordo. Gordo is lost to me. I’m talking about my second son. His brother.”

  There was a sharp buzzing in her ears. “I don’t understand,” she said weakly. “There isn’t any other Livingstone. We would have—”

  “Do you know what it feels like to lose your tether?” he asked, leaning forward, hands flat on the desk. “What it feels like to have it ripped from you when you least expect it? Because I do. My wife, she… didn’t understand. She quite lost her mind, in the end. And she took my tether from me. Murdered her in cold blood, even though she was an innocent in all of this. When she became pregnant, Abel Bennett made me send her away. Made her give up the child. She returned, but she wasn’t the same, after. And then my wife….” His hands tightened into fists. “I promised myself when my magic was being ripped from me that I would return. That I would bring my children back into the fol
d. That I would see the end of the wolves. But Gordo… I knew that no matter what I said, he wouldn’t understand. And my other son… somehow he’d been bitten. He’d been changed. I could heal him, if only I could find him. And then came news he was the pet of that hunter, and I—I did everything I could to get to him.” His voice grew cold. “Instead he finds himself with the Bennett pack and his brother, feral and stuck as a wolf. That will not do. I have come to you with an offer. Help me break them apart. Give me back my son. And you will be allowed to remain as the Alpha of all. I no longer care about the fates of wolves. I only want what’s mine.”

  “How?” she asked. He lied, she knew, even though his heartbeat didn’t stutter. But she also knew that she would agree.

  He leaned closer. “Even after all they’ve done to you, there’s still one who you’re fond of, isn’t there? A wolf in their pack who used to be yours. Someone who I can turn against them. Someone who I can use to take back my son.”

  Her eyes widened. “Robbie,” she whispered.

  And he smiled.

  More from TJ Klune

  A Green Creek Novel

  Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.

  Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane.

  Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy’s secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega.

  Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces.

  It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

  Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with drag queen hair and a trio of elderly Vespa riders known as the We Three Queens.

  Gus is not normal. And he’s fine with that. All he wants is to be left alone.

  Until Casey, an asexual stoner hipster and the newest employee at Lottie’s Lattes, enters his life. For some reason, Casey thinks Gus is the greatest thing ever. And maybe Gus is starting to think the same thing about Casey, even if Casey is obsessive about Instagramming his food.

  But Gus isn’t normal and Casey deserves someone who can be. Suddenly wanting to be that someone, Gus steps out of his comfort zone and plans to become the most normal person ever.

  After all, what could possibly go wrong?

  Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City Of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident.

  Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam’s pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the King’s Wizard, Morgan of Shadows.

  When Sam’s fourteen, he enters the Dark Woods and returns with Gary, the hornless gay unicorn, and a half-giant named Tiggy, earning the moniker Sam of Wilds.

  At fifteen, Sam learns what love truly is when a new knight arrives at the castle—Knight Ryan Foxheart, the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.

  Naturally, it all goes to hell when Ryan dates the reprehensible Prince Justin, Sam can’t control his magic, a sexually aggressive dragon kidnaps the prince, and the King sends them on an epic quest to save Ryan’s boyfriend, all while Sam falls more in love with someone he can never have.

  Or so he thinks.

  In the small mountain town of Amorea, it’s stretching toward autumn of 1954. The memories of a world at war are fading in the face of a prosperous future. Doors are left unlocked at night, and neighbors are always there to give each other a helping hand.

  The people here know certain things as fact:

  Amorea is the best little town there is.

  The only good Commie is a dead Commie.

  The Women’s Club of Amorea runs the town with an immaculately gloved fist.

  And bookstore owner Mike Frazier loves that boy down at the diner, Sean Mellgard. Why they haven’t gotten their acts together is anybody’s guess. It may be the world’s longest courtship, but no one can deny the way they look at each other.

  Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.

  But something’s wrong with Mike. He hears voices in his house late at night. There are shadows crawling along the walls and great clouds of birds overhead that only he can see.

  Something’s happening in Amorea. And Mike will do whatever he can to keep the man he loves.

  It begins with a message that David cannot ignore:

  I want to see you.

  He agrees, and on a cold winter’s night, David and Phillip will come together to sift through the wreckage of the memory of a life no longer lived.

  David is burdened, carrying with him the heavy guilt of the past six years upon his shoulders.

  Phillip offers redemption.

  Readers love Wolfsong by TJ Klune

  “Wolfsong is brilliant in all its heartbreaking glory.”

  —The Written Voice of Is

  “Nothing I say will do this book justice, so if you’re a fan of TJ Klune, just go read it. If you’re a fan of werewolves/shifters, just go read it.”

  —Sinfully: Gay Romance Book Reviews

  “Seriously one of the worst book hangovers ever. In the best possible way. Damn him.”

  —Gay Book Reviews

  “Even now, as I begin writing, I can only hope I have the best words to convey my astonishment and amazement at how spectacular this book truly was. I don’t even know where to begin.”

  —Get the Chance

  When TJ KLUNE was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid—he didn’t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video-game company, much to his chagrin). Now, over two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder. But that’s okay, because he’s recently become a full-time writer and can give them the time they deserve.

  Since being published, TJ has won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance, fought off three lions that threatened to attack him and his village, and was chosen by Amazon as having written one of the best GLBT books of 2011.

  And one of those things isn’t true.

  (It’s the lion thing. The lion thing isn’t true.)

  Facebook: TJ Klune

  Blog: tjklunebooks.com

  Email: tjklunebooks@yahoo.com

  By TJ Klune

  Burn

  How to Be a Normal Person

  Into This River I Drown

  John & Jackie

  Murmuration

  Olive Juice

  AT FIRST SIGHT

  Tell Me It’s Real

  The Queen & the Homo Jock King

  Until You

  BEAR, OTTER, AND THE KID CHRONICLES

  Bear, Otter, and the Kid

  Who We Are

  The Art of Breathing

  The Long and Winding Road

  GREEN CREEK

  Wolfsong

  Ravensong

  TALES FROM VERANIA

  The Lightning-Struck Heart

  A Destiny of Dragons

  The Consumption of Magic

  A Wish Upon the Stars

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRES
S

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Ravensong

  © 2018 TJ Klune.

  Cover Art

  © 2018 Reese Dante.

  http://www.reesedante.com

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. 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 the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-206-3

 

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