by Lucy Lyons
“That ship has sailed, I’m afraid. You should be proud of Goldie, though. Played her part like a real pro. Sucked me in and then sucker punched me.” I stretched again, feeling the beginning edge of the eclipse. “Come down and fight me. We’ll have a lunar eclipse duel. Who knows what power will course through our veins. Let’s put on a show, Gregor. Just you and me. Winner take all.”
He didn’t move at first, but from the front row of seating, a chant started. “Gregor…Gregor…” It rose with each wolf that joined in, and soon he was standing and motioning for the crowd to quiet down. I glanced over at the corner where it started and found Roger, grinning toothily back at me. I tried to reach him telepathically, but it fizzled out and left me feeling drained. Henny had done the job we asked of her, but it left me feeling almost abandoned in the center of the ring.
“I don’t have to fight you, whelp. You’re a werewolf, what, a few months? You really think you can best me?” he huffed. “Be grateful that I said no and saved you from a humiliating death.” He turned his head away from the ring as if to dismiss me.
“Coward,” I sneered up at him. I held my arms out to the sides in the center of the ring and taunted him.
“Go fight, Gregor,” Petra shoved at his arm as she demanded he act. “Don’t let him male you a coward after what he and his alpha did to your son.”
Gregor flinched at his wife’s words. Standing slowly, he raised his hands to quiet the jeers that followed him down the stairs, joining me in the ring in human form. He held his hands in the air and turned in a circle, hoping to hear more chants and cheering. His own people gave him a lukewarm welcome, and I shrugged at Roger, who started another cheer for the alpha. After all, we wanted him to believe he was the star.
I glanced up at Petra, who was glowering down on us with her lips moving. I could feel the crackle of magic in the air, and saw Henny sitting white-faced in her seat, hands clenched in her lap, muttering feverishly as she rocked a little in her seat. The professor had his arm around his wife as though he could protect her, and our wolves nearest them seemed to pull in a little tighter too. I nodded at Petra, and Roger and Bernie both glanced in her direction. If she was messing with me or Henny or anyone I cared about, I wanted her stopped. If she was messing with her husband, I hoped she was done soon, because with the moon rising by the minute, we were on a tight schedule.
Gregor didn’t seem to notice and rolled his shoulders while we waited for the gong to sound. I was both pleased and irritated by the lack of magical interference in the circle. It meant that whatever Petra was doing, Henny was managing to counter. However, it both put Henny in the hot seat and stopped Petra from showing herself to the Rainier pack. I wanted them to see the evil for what it was, not just accept an honorable fight between to alpha males.
As it stood, I’d been in so many challenges already in my time with the pack that the most normal part of becoming a werewolf was to get in the ring and fight until someone popped someone else’s head like a pimple. When Gregor rushed me, I easily evaded him, and re-amended my thoughts on Henny’s wonder herbs.
He rushed again, and I sidestepped, feeling like a tall, hairy matador. He refused to change, and it made me think that he knew more about wifey’s strength sucking than he wanted to let on. I pulled my power back into myself with effort and stood naked before the crowd. The strength and seconds I lost in the shift gave the advantage to him, and Gregor landed a kick to my gut and a punch to the face that knocked me back.
“C’mon, Gregor. The eclipse is starting. Can’t you feel the electricity in the air? I thought you knew how to hurt a wolf,” I taunted. I jumped up as quickly as I could and circled him again, waiting for him to rush now that we were both human. Instead, he held his arms out to me.
“Come and get it, young buck. Maybe if you’re lucky, after I beat you to an oozing mass of broken bones and torn flesh, I’ll let you visit Ashlynn, in her cage.” I snarled and wound my way closer to him as he talked.
“Gregor, you will never be the supreme wolf in town because you lack imagination.” I feinted then hit him with a combination, courtesy of the boxing lessons I’d taken from Somayo, and danced away before he could recover. He reeled back and spat blood on the ground. “First blood Gregor. Two more and I win, whether I kill you or not.”
He snarled and attacked, diving low and taking me to the ground with his arms around my waist. We rolled and both ended up mirroring each other in the same crouched position. The electricity in the air grew stronger, and I glanced up to see more of the moon disappear behind the dark ring that was sliding across the sky.
I pushed through the wall of electricity that my power was trapped behind and sprang forward, putting all my body weight behind my shoulder and arm as my fist connected with his face, shattering the bone under my knuckles and smashing his nose against his cheek. Wolves all around us were howling and snarling and those in human form were chanting and cheering, not for one of us to win, just for the violence and the spectacle.
Above me a black cloud advanced over the sky until the thin sliver of moon that was left to us flickered and disappeared then reappeared after a moment. There was the sound of wings and then the weight of more eyes on us. Gregor glanced around, obviously sensing something, but the vamps stayed out of sight in the trees and along the roof ridge of the longhouse.
I glanced at Roger again, and he nodded and started to chant again. But for his final chant, he bellowed my name to the crowd, not Gregor’s. The Beaver Lake alpha tugged his shirt over his head and threw it on the ground, out of his way, and rushed me again. For over a minute, he rushed and I feinted, until finally I let him grapple me to the ground so I could flip and pin him. The maneuver worked, and he ended up on his back under me. With some effort, I shifted my hand into claws again, swiping down the length of his torso as he tried to reverse our positions.
“That’s two, Alpha. One more and you’re out,” I taunted him. The wolves were going wild for the fight, and several jumped into the ring to join in the battle like it was some sort of rave. Bernie and the guards dragged the kids out, and when they were pulled off us, Gregor was covered in bites and claw marks. So much flesh was torn form his shoulder that I could see bone.
“Looks like your kids know you won’t be going home to beat on them tonight, Gregor,” I said softly. “Those aren’t love bites,” I added in a whisper. He howled his rage and began to change, his flesh tearing to make room for the jet fur that rippled and flowed over him until I was staring at a giant wolf. Almost immediately, he wavered to one side before righting himself. In the next second, he had me on my back and was snapping his giant teeth in my face.
I threw him off and let come at me again, catching him by the ruff and throwing him back over my head. While he recovered, I started to change then was stopped. The moon disappeared completely, and the beast stayed below the surface, not appearing, but closer than it had ever been to becoming one with my human nature.
I picked up Gregor and held him above my head, the strength of my beast merged perfectly with my human form, allowing me to hold him without straining. I turned slowly so the entire audience could see. Petra finally took notice that not only was her magic failing but her pet wolf as well. She stood very still, no longer casting, with her hands gripping the rail tightly. She glanced at Ashlynn, who stayed in her seat and shrugged. I had Gregor. It was my kill to take or to leave.
But I’d never chosen to kill a challenger before. Duels were supposed to be enough to set things straight and end the conflict. Then again, I’d never had anything that evil in my hands before. We’d already lost people to the lack of real leadership that we had. Petra called out to me to stop, and for a split second, I almost did.
“Clayton, what are you doing? You have to let him go,” she begged. “I felt her trying to worm inside my brain, but the eclipse had made my natural senses stronger, and I managed to elude her magic. I remembered what Caroline had often told me about how important her psychic shiel
ding was. I tried to imagine myself behind a thick stone wall, but instead I kept holding an image of a phalanx of wolves inside me, all protecting the power we shared. The Rainier pack was a part of me and I of them. The power of the promises we made when we oathed ourselves to the pack was all the shielding I needed from one greedy, psychic vampire.
“Enough,” I said, setting the alpha down. I hated making her think I couldn’t fight her, but I let Gregor get his feet under him and backed away from him. I made it about three steps back before he lunged at me. He got his teeth in my hand and bit all the way through, and I ground my teeth and snarled in pain.
Swearing, I punched him in the face, and before I realized what I was doing, I’d grabbed his head and twisted it with a sickening crunch. I swallowed bile as my stomach churned and rocked. I didn’t even try to stop the first wolves to swarm me after I killed the alpha. The kill was good. I had obeyed the law. But I was sure I would be the next to die.
Chapter Twenty
A pair of strong hands lifted me, and another braced me. The Beaver Lake wolves poured into the ring, some of them in wolf form, others still human, every one of them under eighteen. They picked me up and carried me on their shoulders, most of them cheering and a few sobbing about their liberation. I saw Roger at the edge of the crowd with Bernie, and I was glad I’d saved his life.
“Hey, Roger, tell your wolves to let me down,” I called out to him and he looked around. Bernie clapped him on the back, and someone else congratulated him. I finally got the wolves to put me down and walked over to Bernie as Roger celebrated with the kids he loved.
“You made that look easy, even with the eclipse stopping the change,” he said.
“It was easy,” I replied. “Isn’t that strange?” I looked up where the vampires had been perched, but they were gone. I ran to the top of the stands around the ring and tried to find Simi, but she was gone too. I looked toward the pavilion to ask Ashlynn what had happened, and I realized where everyone else had gone. Petra and Ashlynn were gone. I looked around the ring, counting the kids I knew, frustrated that I hadn’t learned them all before I set them loose.
Henny rushed to me, fear in her eyes, and I knew I was right.
“Clay, Michael, Amber, and Petra took Ashlynn. I couldn’t cast a spell quickly enough, and they were just gone.” She sniffed.
“That’s where the vampires went, Henny. They’re following Petra, and we’ve just got to follow their breadcrumbs. How far do I have to get before my shifting power comes back?”
“I can release the telepathy spell for you now, but I don’t know about the shifting. It’s just the circle I cursed to be silent to magic. I nodded and took the stairs to the top tier, three at a time.”
I felt a pop in my ears like I’d just descended in an airplane, and I could hear Ashlynn. She was terrified and helpless, held hostage and gagged by Petra’s magic. The witch hadn’t even tied her up, and Ashlynn was mentally screaming at herself to run away.
Well, I guess her power does work on humans, I thought. I sent a mental warning to Fin and Simi and began the hunt. I moved tirelessly through the brush with almost no sound, while I could hear and smell Petra and her step children as I closed in on them.
There was a thud just behind me, and Somayo dropped to the ground and ran full out. He surprised me so much, he was able to keep the pace with me for a couple of minutes before he was forced to stop and recuperate. With my enhanced abilities, I should’ve outrun him easily. I made a mental note to tell him how good his run was later and left him panting for breath behind me.
Petra and Michael were at the edge of a tributary and far too close to the cliffs for my comfort. The vampires had taken up places all around them and stood ready to close the net if I failed to complete my mission. Fin couldn’t be far away, and I knew Somayo wouldn’t settle for showing up too late to get in on the action.
How did we get here, Clay? a foreign voice resounded in my head. How did we go from two people who were just looking to protect their own into the vilified and misunderstood creatures that we are? Petra had found her way inside my head, and I tried to block her out before she took control of me too.
She repeated her thoughts and I refused to answer, afraid of going through the reserve of power that I had. Ashlynn was hysterical, sobbing silently as she tried to wriggle away from Michael, who clamped down harder on her thin wrist and dragged her across the ground to Petra’s side.
“You thought you were so smart to stop Michael from coming back to me. Except that I didn’t want him back. I wanted him with all of you.” He grinned at her but kept shooting glances up toward the blank moon-shaped space in the constellations. “Michael and I have gotten very close, haven’t we, sweetie?” His eyes flickered to me then back to her again.
“I bet you weren’t expecting that,” he scoffed at me.
“Yeah, that’s about exactly what I was expecting. I mean, Gregor had his girls. What was Petra up to? You probably should’ve played a little nicer with Amber. If you had, maybe she would’ve kept your business private.” I grinned at him feeling every bit as smug as I looked.
“When I can change again, you’re a dead man,” he scoffed. “Then I’ll rip through your skinny white body like paper,” he snarled at Ashlynn and snapped his jaws at her. She scrambled backward into a rock and mewled in fear, still trapped inside Petra’s mental prison.
He and I paced one another, but I kept my eye on Ashlynn. I knew the vampires and the Venatores were waiting for my signal. I just had to free Ashlynn from Petra’s control before she broke her mind completely.
The absence of the moon was distracting me, tingling all over my body and still making me feel like I’d just touched an electrical outlet. Michael could feel it too, and I picked up a pebble from the ground and whipped it at him to try to get him to fight. The stone was no bigger than a moth’s plump body, but he yelped and threw himself at me, snapping his jaws at me like a dog on a tether. He tried to bite me, but he physically couldn’t. It made him foam at the mouth in his anger, but Petra had him under her control completely. As I paced him, mirroring his movements back and forth, I watched his step mother. She sat on a rock, waiting, obviously still enjoying the show. I looked up at the sky, and just before the tiny crack of silver light appeared at the edge of the black on black circle that was the eclipse, I felt the world turn right-side up again.
I howled my delight and shifted as I sprang at Michael, tumbling him over and landing on my back. Directly above me was Petra. I jumped to my feet, snapping my jaws at her as I strained to get closer to her. Michael had my back legs and wouldn’t let me any closer, but still I tried. I hadn’t seen Amber since they took off, but I tried to sense the world around me.
Suddenly, I realized I’d been distracted for more than a couple of seconds, and Petra grabbed me by my scruff and held onto me while I tried to spin and dislodge her. Michael grabbed me and threw me down again, and I heard a yelp of pain as he skittered backward from me with an arrow in his flank. Amber appeared with a silver knife and two grown men I didn’t recognize from before. She held the knife to Ashlynn’s throat, and the men circled around to make a ring.
I saw flutters over the slice of the reappearing moon and stopped attacking, settling for a dive toward Ashlynn so she could use me for support as the vampires swooped in to save the day. Colette dropped into the middle of our brawl and started to laugh as she glanced around.
“This is it, Clay? This is all you have for me to play with?” Three more vampires jumped down from the trees all armed to the hilt and ready to fight. Ashlynn whimpered, and I picked her up and backed toward the trees. It wasn’t until I was hidden by the trees and the moon that was waxing again and lighting everything up, that I finally saw Simi, above it all, taking aim with her bow. She hit Michael in the front leg, and I stumbled over myself cheering for her.
I raced back to camp with Ashlynn only to see that more adult males that hadn’t been part of the initial party were trying to
herd the kids into cars and make them leave. I took Ashlynn to Henny to help her with the bonds that Petra had created and barreled through a pair of wolves looking for Bernie.
“I have to go back and help with Petra,” I panted, and Bernie agreed.
“Yeah, we have these idgits covered, Clay. You go get the witch, and we’ll call it an all-around win for team Ashlynn.”
I raced back to the Venatores that were fighting Petra, afraid that I’d get back and they’d all be zombie-fied or dead.
Fin was fighting with a burly guy with “criminal” practically stamped on his forehead. I jumped on the guy’s back and he nearly threw me off before I could get a hold of him. Fin let out a primal yell and stabbed him with his silver blade, and I was knocked off as he fell. My shoulder hit the rocks hard, and I smelled the tang of my own blood in the air.
“You should really have that looked at,” Petra sneered as she dug her fingers into my shoulder. I tried to push her off me, but my body had turned to cement, and I couldn’t move. “Oh, not so brave now that you’re in the hot seat, are you?” I stared into her eyes, black as charcoal in the moonlight, and snarled as she dug her fingers into my wound again, then painted my arm with my own blood.
“No one will miss you when I tear off your head,” I hissed. She laughed and pressed the blade of a silver dagger into my chest.
“It’s just you and me, wolfie. No one can see you, and no one can hear you. No one cares enough about you to see through my spell.” I looked around, and the wererats and vampires were still fighting the wolves. “How does it feel to be so alone?”
