by Lucy Lyons
“Just the males?” I asked, and Michael hesitated, surprised I thought, to hear my voice.
“No,” Amber replied when her brother didn’t. “Any female strong enough to stop him from taking her dies as well.”
I looked at Michael in disbelief. Here was a boy about to be a man, defending the creature who was going to have him killed. Roger appeared in the doorway with a silver blade in his hand, and I shook my head and reached for Michael myself.
“Look, kid. Before you go and do something stupid that does get you killed, just answer a couple of questions, OK?” He didn’t answer, but stopped moving and relaxed his hold on his sister just enough that her fingers went from purple to an angry red. “Does your father ever leave Petra’s side, or are they always together?” I asked, and he scowled at me.
“They’re always together because they love each other,” he declared, and jerked Amber against his side.
“OK, that’s honorable,” I agreed. “But, does he ever seem…Weaker when she’s not there?”
“She makes him strong,” he countered, but he sounded less convinced.
“Or she’s like another witch I knew, who fed off the people around him,” I returned. “Petra is making your father weak. She’s making him dependent, and she’s inside his head so bad, he doesn’t even realize it.”
Michael gave a wordless bellow and threw his sister to the ground. She scooted out of reach and we both watched him pace like a caged animal.
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“Before I was attacked, I was a Venatores hunter. Hunting and killing vampires is what I do.”
He scoffed. “And hunting and killing wolves isn’t?” I rubbed my face with my hands.
“No. Vampire hunters haven’t killed shape shifters for centuries.” I left off the part about us not knowing they exist. He didn’t need to know that my Venatores former brothers were trying to figure out how to talk the church into open season on shifters, psychics, witches, anything that didn’t look or think exactly as the Venatores did.
“I really don’t care if you believe me, Michael. I’ve seen Goldie. I’ve seen your sister. You’re as much of a monster as they are if you won’t do anything to stop them. Because of that, you don’t get to run back to daddy until I’m done with you both.”
Roger stepped up and held the knife to Michael’s throat and forced him back to the bed. He strapped him down and sat on the chair to watch him. Henny and I exchanged a look as she came back in, her arms full of herbs and pouches.
“Did I miss something?”
“Michael tried to check out against medical advice. Roger talked him out of it,” I sighed and cast about to find Amber. She’d backed so far under a cot that I could only see her toes. “Amber, you’re safe. Come on out.”
Amber clambered out and brushed herself off. Her tear-stained face was blotchy and streaked with mascara, and she sniffled and rubbed at her nose with the sleeve of her hoodie.
“You OK, kid?” Roger asked and she fell on his shoulder.
“I can’t do it. I tried so hard, but I can’t. I’m sorry.” She was sobbing into his shirt as I stared in disbelief.
“No. No. I’m sorry, I don’t buy it. You’re not some friend of the helpless. I saw Goldie’s face after you went out into the woods. I know you want the throne.”
“Yeah, I want the throne. I want Ashlynn to grovel at my feet for her life, so I can line up Gregor’s so-called ‘children’ and make her grovel at theirs. She left them behind, Clay. If you weren’t thinking with your southern brain, you’d want to put a silver bullet in her head.”
“Oh, Roger,” Henny groaned. “You don’t know anything. How could you be so blind?”
Roger started like he’d been stung then pulled Amber into his lap and held her while she cried. Michael was staring at us all like we were demon ghosts, as the mounting testimonies against his father were breaking down the lies he told himself.
“Petra hears everything we think,” he crowed, straining at the tethers on his wrists. “You’re already dead. You just don’t know it.”
“Shut up, idjit,” Roger growled. “We got a witch too, remember?” He rocked the boy’s sister and shook his head. “Your daddy’s raising a brainless fool, isn’t he?”
Henny cleared her throat gently and expertly reinserted the IV in Michael’s arm, above the first site. It was my turn to pace, tugging at my hair and muttering to myself like an insane person.
“Roger, I have every intention of killing you tonight if I see anything that even remotely resembles an alliance between you and Gregor or Petra. Henny, give him whatever juice prevents telepathy. I don’t want him getting my people hurt.” Roger snarled and tried to lunge for me, but Amber clung to his neck and shook her head until he sat back down.
“Your people?” he scoffed.
“Yeah, Roger, my people. The people who are on their way to fight for your freedom and save the children from Gregor and Petra. The hunters, and the vampires, and the wererats that are about to risk their lives for your pack.” I got in his face, hyperaware of Amber trembling between us. “Tonight, I’m taking the pack. All of them. You can join me or die with Gregor, but I finally figured out that this is the only answer, so that is your only choice.”
“Really? That’s the only choice?” Ashlynn bit off each word like she wanted to bite my throat. I’d been so wrapped up in my rage at Roger I hadn’t heard or seen her come in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before responding.
“Yeah, Ashlynn. It is. It wasn’t, until you weren’t strong enough to fight Gregor off when it was one on one. Petra wasn’t helping him. You were either giving it up or you’re too weak to fight another wolf in human form, even when your personal safety is in jeopardy. You are a strong wolf, Ashlynn, but Bernie misplaced his faith in you. When the night is done, you can lead at my side or I’ll defeat you too.” The instant the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Suddenly I understood how Caroline had felt all those times she’d been forced to do more, be more than she thought she could be. I’d stepped in deeper than I could tread water out of indignation and frustration, not desire to lead.
I pushed past her and out of the medical room, desperate for an escape. Suddenly, the massive, open common room of the longhouse made me claustrophobic. I tried to sense Petra, but she had no presence inside our home. It was me, and my inability to be the one in charge. Who else was going to take up the mantle and protect the wolves? I’d thought that the biggest threat to the wolves was the outside world, people like the Venatores and the vampires who wanted to force them to serve, like we were some sort of lesser creature.
Instead, I was finding more and more that seclusion and archaic laws were making my new people slaves to each other, and to rules that didn’t protect the pack the way that they should. I’d learned a lot from Nicholas about how he led the vampires. Maybe it was just time to bring the wolves into the twenty-first century—the democratic, American way.
Chapter Seventeen
Ashlynn followed me out and glared at me as she grabbed my arm and pointed upstairs. I followed without a word, feeling a dozen pairs of eyes on my back. Once I was inside, she slammed the door shut and punched me in the face, hard.
“Is that better, Clay? Am I strong enough for you now?” She spat on me and hit me in the chest with both palms, rocking me back on my heels. “How could you undermine me like that? Betrayer.” The last word was almost whispered as she stood white with rage and shaking in front of me.
“Want to keep going? Because if that’s what you want, I could do this all day,” I scoffed. “Roger admitted that Gregor promised to help him take the pack. Roger, not you, not Bernie, not anyone else who’ve put their heads in the sand was going to help those girls.”
“I wanted to help them,” she argued, but I held up my hands and she shut her mouth, fuming as I continued.
“He was going to kill you. Do you understand that? He wasn’t going to be merciful. He was go
ing to kill you and anyone who stood with you. Then he was going to kill Gregor and probably Bernie as well if he tried to stop the massacre.”
Ashlynn’s face went impossibly pale, and she wavered on her feet. I led her to the bed, and she sat on the end holding her head in her hands.
“We’ve had peace for almost a century. Our laws have kept us from killing one another off.”
“Ashlynn, it’s time for a new law. I’m the newest member of the pack. I’m the least mired in old rules and appearances. I don’t want to be the one, but I am. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll do my best to save everyone. Everyone except Gregor and Petra. Not only has he harmed all those girls. He did it to his own daughter and let Petra murder his wife. He’s too depraved to live. And Roger?” I chewed on my lip. “Leave Roger to me. If you touch him, I’ll treat you according to my law. Trust me, you won’t survive.”
She threw a decorative pillow at my head and shrieked, “I hate you!” so loudly even Gregor and his people outside had to have heard.
“Funny, I was just thinking about how much I want to keep you safe. Just appreciate that the hate doesn’t go both ways, and don’t get in my way.”
I swiveled on one heel and stormed out, slamming the door twice as hard as she had. There was a creaking noise, and the doors swung out of alignment, hanging against each other from the bent frame. Ashlynn screamed obscenities at me, and I took the stairs down two at a time, leaping from the last step across the room. My blood boiling, I returned to the medical room, where Bernie and a lanky, blond, surfer-type named Bull were discussing a guard rotation for our injured wolf.
“Roger.” In one word, I managed to spit out all my revulsion and anger and blame for Ashlynn’s fury. “You will do as I say, and you won’t step out of line, or no one will be able to protect you.”
With that, I stormed back out and kept going until the sunshine hit my face. All around me were the smells of the Beaver Lake pack, fear and torment, hunger, rage. The wolves were at a breaking point, boiling over in the summer heat just waiting to release the pressure all over my people. I reached out to where I’d told Simi she could do her surveillance and felt the space around it for werewolf presence. Instead, I felt another shifter lurking in the trees.
My heart jumped, and I let out a shaky laugh. Fin stepped out from behind a cedar and gestured for me to follow him. He jumped the stream and went some ways up the mountain, following a deer path that wound up to the top of the tree line.
“I don’t do that telepathy thing I heard you started doing, and I wanted to make sure we could talk without being heard. I’ve got sentries posted, and the vamps are armed and waiting for the sun to go down.” He grinned at me, and I shook his hand until he started laughing and pulled his away.
“Look. I called in some loyal Venatores, so you need to get the word out not to kill the hunters if you see them. They’re supposed to hang back, so it shouldn’t be an issue, but we’ve got our people rebelling, and a crazy witch who vamps out and feeds off shifters. I brought in the hunters to help bring her down.”
“Shit, hunters? I feel like I should tell Caroline…”
“No. If you tell her, she’ll come. Henny’s a powerful witch. She teaches Caroline, remember? Just steer clear of Simi and Somayo, and watch out for a freaky human-type who likes to hurt little girls and feeds off shifters in their animal form,” I demanded.
Fin shuddered at the last, and I couldn’t help but agree. Petra was the unknown that could cost us everything. I still hadn’t seen her, and if she could feed off wolves, who was to say she couldn’t feed off any preternatural creature, alive or undead?
I left him to coordinate his people and get my message to the vampires and headed back to camp. I’d left in such a bad mood, I didn’t figure anyone would be looking for me, but Goldie met me as I ventured from the trees.
“Hey, Clay? Can I talk to you?” There was a tremor in her voice and a tightness in her wolfish eyes that blared at me like a warning beacon. I glanced toward the longhouse and saw Roger in the doorway, watching me. Well, shit. I guess that’s what I get for standing up for y’all, huh? I thought at him. He stood straighter, and I knew he’d heard me. I nodded at Goldie and smiled, my eyes roving over the bruises and swelling on her face.
“You look better than you did earlier, but I thought you’d be more healed. Do you need help, Goldie?” I asked, trying to speak to her in code.
“No, I’m just not very strong. None of us are. That’s why Gregor took us in…to protect us.”
“Protect you from what, Goldie? What could possibly have been worse than what he’s done to you and your packmates?”
She shrugged and sighed. “He did get me away from my step-dad who was pimping me out to his friends. Turning into a big, scary wolf who could eat the bastard seemed like a dream come true.”
“And then?” I asked. “Was it everything you hoped?”
“Nope. The fat piece of crap gave me indigestion for days.” I glanced at her, but she was either the best straight man ever or she was deadly serious. With werewolves, it was always a coin toss as to how they reacted with the first change. With Gregor as their alpha, I had no doubt the parents, significant others, or parole officers were their first meal as wolves. Too late to worry about that anyway. I let the matter drop.
“What about your face today?”
“He protects us from ourselves when he has to, as well as from outside interference or strangers.”
“Well, not to criticize a visiting alpha, but he’s doing a piss-poor job of protecting you from anything, if he let you get banged up like that,” I retorted. She didn’t answer, and I couldn’t think of a way to convince her not to lead me into whatever trap Roger and Gregor had set for me. I gave her a long sideways look, examining the bruises on the sly. A cut remained from her temple down, a cut that could only still be there if she’d been hit with something silver. “Was he protecting you from yourself when he cut you with silver?”
“He does what he has to, just like Ashlynn…and you, like all of us. He doesn’t love hurting us…”
“Bullshit he doesn’t. I’m looking at the marks of a man in love with violence against young girls, Goldie.”
She ignored me and kept walking, until she pointed to a sunny outcropping of stone. She stopped near two large trees and sat on a rock, shielding her eyes with her hands and looking toward the sun. She glanced back down and fidgeted with her fingers, twisting and untwisting a loose thread from her jacket in her hands.
“You really care about what happens to us, don’t you?” she asked, and I nodded. I stayed standing and sniffed the air for signs of more wolves, but the wind was moving at us from the camp, and there was too much wolf scent to differentiate.
“Yeah, Goldie, I really do. I hate knowing that you’re being beaten and hurt and no one did anything to help you.” Goldie nodded and went back to watching the sun then playing with her jacket sleeve. “Goldie, what can I do to help? I know something’s wrong here. I know this is a trap. So why don’t you just trust me and let me get back to camp so we can help you.”
There was a sound behind me, and I whirled around, but nothing was there. I turned back to Goldie and held out my hands in offering and she chewed on her cheek and rocked back and forth on her boulder.
I sniffed the air again and searched the trees behind Goldie for signs of treachery, but all I could see or smell was the two of us and the forest. I turned my back to the rocks to see if anyone had followed us and almost instantly felt intense, sharp pain as something hit the back of my head.
“Sorry, Clay. Really. But if it’s going to be between you and me? I’m going to make sure you’re the one getting the beating this time.” Goldie smashed the rock down on my head again, and the world went black.
Chapter Eighteen
When I came to, my vision was all blurs of light and stars as my head bounced along the ground. Two guys I’d never seen before dragged me by my heels, and I tried to alleviate the discomfo
rt of my mode of travel by shielding my eyes with one hand and holding my aching head off the ground with the other. The sun was balanced on the tops of the trees, almost ready to set for the night, meaning I’d been out for a spell.
The shadows and the excruciating pain in my head played tricks with my eyes and every so often, I saw wolfmen sitting in the high boughs of the surrounding cedar trees. My hand fell away, and my head hit another bump, drawing a pained sound from me before I could stop myself. Immediately, the men dropped my feet and turned to face me.
“I knew Goldie was too puny or too stupid to do the job right. You should still be out,” one said as he jabbed his finger in my face. Without thinking, I bit down on his finger until my teeth hit bone, wishing I wasn’t in too much pain to shift.
The man screeched and fell, kicking dirt into my face as he fell on his ass. While I was trying not to think about where that finger had been, his friend kicked me in the head, earning him a pained growl. Suddenly, I felt my beast lurking just below the surface, raging at the men and pushing power through me as it tried to emerge despite my lack of control over my power.
If I can just live until the moon rises, I thought. The moon would pull the wolf out without any effort from me. But the sun was too high still to feel confident I was going to get the chance to break myself free. I’d pissed off Ashlynn, so she wouldn’t come looking for me, and even if he wasn’t in on it, I’d burned the Roger bridge all on my own. I was an idiot, and I was about to pay an idiot’s price for over confidence.
