by Tasha Black
It was the natural way of things. They knew more than she did and she relied on their support and help. But at the end of the day, the alpha always stood alone.
Clive stood at the opposite end of the site.
The moonlight caught his flaxen hair and highlighted the bulges and curves of his enormous muscled body. His high cheekbones looked razor sharp.
He looked like an alpha.
Ainsley tried not to think about how weak her soft body must look in comparison.
Trying to distract herself, she scanned the surroundings for something she could use to her advantage.
A chain link fence surrounded the site. The ground was all loose dirt. The trees and bushes had already been removed.
Most of the machines appeared to be meant for pushing the dirt around to level it. The building’s foundation hadn’t been dug yet. Here and there Ainsley saw wooden stakes with ribbons tied to them in different colors. They must have something to do with where the foundation should go.
Ainsley felt a shift in emotions and looked up to see Clive striding toward her.
The crowd collectively held their breath.
“Ainsley Connor, I challenge you for control of the Tarker’s Mill pack,” he said.
His lazy voice was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Ainsley stepped toward him and tried to remember what Erik had said to Justin.
“Clive Warren, I accept your challenge.”
She wasn’t sure if her voice rung through the air, but she could feel that it was heard by her pack anyway. Those who were present and those who were not heard it equally.
She looked up to make eye contact with Clive. She had to show him that she was not afraid. She was going to fight hard for her pack.
Predictably, she supposed, he was staring at her breasts. She could smell that his penis was hardening, though she would not deign to look.
It affronted her wolf that he would allow himself to imagine mounting her.
She fought to calm herself and decided to shift. There didn’t seem to be a referee. She may as well start the fight.
She tried to remember the advice of her mate and her consort. Cressida’s words echoed in her mind, tempered by Erik’s and she repeated to herself Be angry, but don’t lose your patience.
She called to her wolf and slid into her soft red fur.
Instantly, her focus narrowed and her hearing and sense of smell expanded beyond their already heroic reach.
She dashed into the darkness. As her paws hit the dirt she could smell the sharp note of Clive’s wolf. She didn’t even know what he looked like, but now was probably not a good time to turn around.
As she tore across the dusty site she realized how well Clive had stacked the deck in choosing a location for their fight. Maybe he was a little smarter than she had been giving him credit for, at least when it come to this sort of thing.
There were few hiding places on the empty site. And when she ran she kicked up dust behind herself – giving Clive an easy way to find her. It was going to be hard to use any of Cressida’s small wolf tactics.
She realized she would have to rely on her speed and stamina alone to gain any advantage.
Crouching behind a yellow backhoe, Ainsley willed her pounding heart to slow before it gave her away. She could hear Clive stalking nearby and she had no idea what she would do when he got too close.
It helped that there were so many wolves to bear witness. All their smells and sounds might cloak hers partially.
When she heard him nose around just a few feet away, Ainsley pounced.
She flew through the air toward his hind end. He was enormous, even compared to the other wolves. His shaggy coat was the color of wheat.
She missed, but she also managed to dash between a few more pieces of equipment and lose him again.
It was terrifying, yet exhilarating too.
Ainsley tried another pass. Again, she missed. Again, she managed to dash out of the way before he could retaliate.
And so the fight continued. Ainsley began to learn Clive’s rhythm and his speed. She used it to confound him. Though she never managed to land an attack she did manage to stay the aggressor and to escape him each time he tried to catch her.
She could tell by his breath and his heartbeat that he was tiring of the chase. His charges were wilder, less focused. He was probably pretty mad too though, so she knew it was more important now than ever to stay on her toes. She needed to goad him until he lost focus, then he would make a mistake.
She pushed her heightened senses, and realized she could actually hear his muscles contracting before he sprung. This newfound information made dodging his attacks that much easier.
As the fight dragged on, Ainsley began to tire. She wondered how much longer she could keep it up and still have the strength to finish him when the opportunity presented itself.
On her next pass, Ainsley chose to launch herself off the top of the backhoe she’d originally hid behind. Her old scent should serve to mask her new scent.
She slunk up to the machine and climbed the big rubber rear wheel silently. A single leap took her to the roof of the cab.
Clive turned at the click of Ainsley’s claws on the roof, and headed toward her.
Ainsley held her breath as he approached. His stalking was slow and he seemed to be reaching out for her with all his senses.
He was fifty feet away. Forty.
Ainsley tried to still her heart.
Thirty feet.
It was impossible not to launch herself at him, but she held.
Twenty. Ten.
Finally, Ainsley unleashed her coiled muscles and flung herself down at the massive buff-colored wolf below.
She landed on his back and bit down. She had caught his ear.
He snared and flung her off, then barreled toward her with all his might.
Instinctively, Ainsley sidestepped him, turned, and hightailed back into the shadows.
She spat something coppery and hairy into the dust, then glanced at it.
A piece of Clive’s ear.
Triumphantly, she turned back toward the center of the site.
She couldn’t sense Clive immediately.
Strange.
She ratcheted her heightened senses to the max, demanding that her excellent night vision show her every corner of the site, and squeezing every sound wave out of the air.
At that moment, a flash of blinding light sent a wave of white pain through her pupils. An engine started up nearby, and it sounded like bullets crashing against a metal wall. The smell of diesel exhaust drove away all the other scents. The cacophony bore down on her like a landslide.
Clive had turned on the work lights and a piece of machinery – pushing Ainsley into sensory overload.
Ainsley was blinded and deafened - crushed by her senses. She froze on the spot.
Somewhere, beyond the din, she could hear Erik and Cressida urging her to snap out of it. She reached for their voices like a drowning woman reaching for a life preserver.
Let it flow past, like a river. Concentrate.
Her vision cleared in time to see a dun colored thing hurtling at her. She had no time to react.
Clive tackled her so hard it was like being hit by a truck.
Ainsley heard several of her own ribs snap. The pain radiated through her like a spreading fire.
Before she could move, there was a wrenching, tearing pain in her shoulder. Clive was biting her.
She turned and he was lifting his head away - shaking a chunk of her flesh in his mouth for everyone to see. The pain blossomed and burned in her shoulder like a living thing.
Ainsley forgot herself and howled in pain.
She heard Erik cry her name in despair. She glanced at the sidelines to see Will and Justin and a couple of other guys holding him back as he fought to go to her.
Behind him, Cressida turned away and slinked through the crowd. The abandonment stung, but at least she would be gone before they dec
ided to turn on her.
CHAPTER 10
Grace approached the house. There were no lights on inside. Her fingers danced on her holster. Something wasn’t right. Grace had learned to trust her overdeveloped sense of intuition.
She walked up the wooden steps to the front porch of the Victorian twin. No one lurked in the shadows – just a set of wicker patio furniture.
She took a breath and rapped on the door.
No answer.
She knocked again, loudly this time with her metal flashlight.
“Tarker’s Mills Police Department.”
Still no answer.
She went around back but the back door was locked. As were the Bilco doors to the basement.
The yard was deep and wooded. She walked it once to be sure there was no one there. It was completely deserted.
She returned to the front door and knocked a final time.
“Tarker’s Mills Police Department.”
She placed the palm of her hand on the door and prepared to call on some divination magic. She would pay the price for the spell later, but if there was any chance of a hurt child inside she needed to know.
The door to the adjoining twin popped open, interrupting her.
“Hello, officer, is everything okay?”
“I’m here for the domestic complaint. Did you call it in?”
“What do you mean?”
“A neighbor called the Tarker’s Mill Police Department tonight to alert us that there was a situation,” Grace continued politely, turning back to the door.
“Well, yes, I called the police tonight. But not because of a domestic situation.”
Grace turned to the man. He looked like a normal guy – not someone who would play games with law enforcement.
“Why did you call?”
“The Kranksys are out of town for two weeks,” he said, indicating the door Grace was about to break down.
She didn’t respond, so he continued.
“They called Karen, my wife, today because they’d forgotten to hold the paper. We’ll be picking up their paper. And I called you guys to alert you. Karen said sometimes you include a house on the night rounds if the owners are away for a while? I talked to Sheriff Warren. You can ask him.”
Grace was frozen to the spot. Somehow she managed to pull herself together enough to respond.
“Thank you for letting me know. Dispatch must have sent me the wrong code. I’m very glad you came out.”
“Anytime! Say, do you guys ever enforce the parking restrictions on this street?”
She was already down the stairs and halfway to the patrol car.
“I’m sorry to run but I have to make sure dispatch didn’t send the wrong address instead of the wrong code. Stop by the station whenever you want to talk about parking!”
Grace’s heart was beating a mile a minute. She turned on the car, but didn’t know where she was going.
Whatever Clive was doing, he’d taken her off the scene for half an hour with a phony call.
She remembered the people headed to campus and took off.
Grace normally viewed wolf stuff as none of her business. But Clive had stepped over a line tonight. She’d be damned if she was going to let this play out when Ainsley needed her.
CHAPTER 11
A insley was drowning in agony.
Her wounds throbbed and burned. Adrenaline from her injuries was pumping her wolf senses high and higher. The lights and sounds were painful beyond description.
Her heart ached for Erik.
She shifted.
The sensory pain disappeared, allowing her to better appreciate the singing pain of her injuries. She would be easier to kill in this form – but she was going to die anyway. It seemed more dignified to die as a person.
The tawny wolf before her shimmered and melted into a man. The brilliant lights behind him threw his figure into silhouette.
He was larger than life – more like a statue than a man.
He stepped closer and she could see his face.
Even through her pain and fear, Ainsley marveled over how handsome he was. His sandy hair was tangled and a little streak of her blood widened the appearance of his lush mouth. His torso was ripped like one of those guys on the cover of a romance novel.
Too bad he’s mad as a hatter.
“This has been a long time coming, Ainsley Connor,” he said as he approached her.
Ainsley tried to slow her frantic heart.
“I’ve been the alpha of this town for all practical purposes for months. All you had to do was lay back and let me fuck you. But I should have known you would find a way to screw it up. You were an uppity little cunt in high school and you’re an uppity little cunt now.”
Ainsley focused on taking breaths. She’d better enjoy them, they would be her last.
In and out, in and out.
He kicked her hard in the stomach.
She retched and curled into the fetal position.
“I should have killed you when I killed Brian. It’s a shame you won’t be around…”
Kick.
More ribs shattered.
“…to see what I do…”
Kick. The top of her head shimmered with pain.
“…with your new boyfriend!”
He kicked her hard in the chest.
Ainsley saw stars and for a moment she couldn’t breathe.
Brian’s death was all her fault. Even if she didn’t do it herself, just being with Ainsley had been enough to end his life.
And now it was going to happen to Erik.
Clive backed up and Ainsley could see he was gathering speed to come at her hard.
She closed her eyes, but her broken heart kept pumping as she waited for the killing blow.
Suddenly everything went dark and silent.
Was she dead?
There was shouting.
So she wasn’t dead.
Ainsley opened her eyes.
“Catch that bitch!” Clive was screaming.
Ainsley turned to see Cressida’s outline melting into wolf form and running away from the machinery, with two larger wolves in pursuit.
Cressida had turned off the lights and equipment to help Ainsley.
Suddenly, Ainsley’s whole body was trembling with an electric current.
The spectral figure of Brian walked toward her.
Followed by her parents.
Through them, she could still see Clive. He was screaming again but in slow motion. Everything was in slow motion.
Except her parents, and Brian, who had nearly reached her.
“I’m sorry,” she choked.
She coughed, her ribs crushed in pain, and she spit a mouthful of blood into the dirt.
“Ainsley, don’t be ridiculous. It was our job to protect you – not the other way around,” Michael Connor said in his warm, rich voice.
“And look how well we managed that!” her mother said.
“It’s all my fault,” Ainsley said.
“There is only one person at fault here,” her father said. He reached down and touched Ainsley’s shoulder.
CHAPTER 12
A jolt of electricity shot through her, then Ainsley was watching a scene play out through her father’s eyes, like a movie.
Her parents were in her mother’s Subaru, headed for the city. Her father drove and her mom gazed out the window.
“Do you think this Othello will be better than the one the Walnut Street did in oh-five?” her father asked.
Ainsley smiled, Othello was one of her favorites.
“I just wish Ainsley were seeing it with us,” her mother replied.
Michael Connor reached across the seat and took his wife’s hand in his own.
“All children grow up, Sylvia. She just needs to work through things.”
There was a lump in Ainsley’s throat.
He put his hand back on the wheel and there was silence in the car for a moment.
Suddenly high beams flashe
d in the rear view mirror. A car flew past theirs and cut them off.
Michael slammed on the brake pedal but it went all the way to the floor.
He cut the wheel to avoid hitting the other car.
The Subaru plunged through the guardrail and over a steep embankment. Its lights were still on and Michael had a crazy view of trees and ground as the car flipped twice and skidded down into a gully.
After what seemed like an eternity, the car came to a rest upside down.
Immediately, Michael looked over at his wife.
She was hanging upside down by her seatbelt, lifeless. Her neck was broken.
Michael called her name, knowing she couldn’t answer.
His own vision was clouded by blood.
He heard a thrashing sound. Someone was coming down the embankment. Michael blinked and saw a figure come into view. Upside down it was hard to tell who it might be.
His heart leapt when he recognized the shape of the Sheriff.
No, no, Ainsley thought.
Michael opened his mouth to call to him, but no words came out.
The Sheriff was carrying something. He swung it lightly in his beefy hand.
A can of gasoline.
Suddenly, Michael realized what was happening. He tried to shift, but he was too broken.
The smell of gasoline filled his lungs. Then fire consumed everything.
CHAPTER 13
A insley’s father removed his hand from her shoulder and she snapped back to the present.
Her wolf howled to be released. She was white with rage and longing for vengeance.
Ainsley’s mother crouched down next to her and looked at her with the same sure eyes that had coached her through every skinned knee and childhood hurt.
“I can’t do it, Mom. I’m not strong enough. I’m not strong enough to fight. I’m not strong enough to lead.”
“There is more than one kind of strength, Ainsley. And you have always been strong. You need to find that strength now.”
“How?”
“You are the daughter of the best leader the pack ever had. And you are the daughter of the only witch ever to be accepted by any pack. You are the one who can bridge the gap. You are the one who can lead the pack into a new age. You are strong. You are proud. You are Ainsley Connor.”
