Wolf's Choice

by Laura Taylor

  Miller downed the remainder of his whiskey, and reached for the bottle to refill the glass. Unless he came up with a solid plan soon, one that would disguise his treachery and outwit some of the most intelligent minds in the world… he was a dead man.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Dee rushed to keep up as she followed Eleanor up the steps into the villa that the Italian shifters called home. They’d landed in Venice just over two hours ago, after flying in from England that morning, and the drive to the Italian Den in Agordo had been silent and fraught with tension.

  Caleb, one of Dee’s Den mates, had also been on the flight, having recently been recruited to serve the Council as a historian, keeping records of their species and translating the ancient texts from the old language, and he’d been collected at the airport and taken directly to the Council’s villa in Cison de Valmarino.

  Dee, unfortunately, had a much grimmer task ahead of her: she was going to kill someone. The Italian Den had a new recruit who had been converted into a shifter a couple of days ago, and the conversion hadn’t taken. The woman had been unable to merge with her wolf, and the pair of them were now headed down the slippery slope of insanity, the wolf turning rogue, the human going mad. At the request of the Council, it was now her job to remove the human half of the shifter, killing the woman, but allowing the wolf to live. The wolf would then be taken to Romania and looked after in a wolf sanctuary that was being set up there.

  It was a unique skill that Dee had, one that she had discovered earlier in the year. Most shifters were a seamless blend of their human and wolf sides, one mind, with two bodies. But soon after her conversion, Dee had realised she was different. Her wolf was a separate personality, a distinct consciousness; they were two minds, each with their own body to inhabit, albeit that only one body could be present at a time. Faeydir, as her wolf was known, was the reincarnation of an ancient wolf, Fenrae-Ul, the Destroyer, prophesied to bring about the extinction of the wolf shifters. She alone held the ability to separate human from wolf.

  It was a horrible task, and Dee had only agreed to it because she knew the alternative was for both human and wolf to be put down. A rogue wolf was insane, aggressive, violent, no longer a sapient being, but a violent force of nature. As unfortunate as it was, the rogue shifter could not be allowed to live.

  Aware of her distress, Faeydir gave her a mental nudge, then sent her an image of a female wolf, strong and healthy, running through a snow-covered forest; a clear reminder that one half of this story would have a happy ending, even if the other was a stark tragedy, and Dee tried to focus on that more positive outcome of the situation.

  She and Eleanor were clearly expected, Antonio, the Den’s alpha meeting them at the door. After a brief introduction, they followed him through the villa, out the back door and across the lawn to a stone building, a little larger than a double garage. Antonio wordlessly opened the door and ushered them inside.

  There were six people already inside the building, three men and three women. One of the men was clearly a guard, standing beside a large cage with a gun in his hand and a look of sorrow on his face. Inside the cage was a woman, curled up in the corner, and as the three of them hurried inside, she snarled and wailed at them, beating on the bars with her fists. There was no doubt she was a rogue, Dee observed grimly, incoherent sounds coming from her throat, her eyes wide and fearful, her movements jerky and uncoordinated.

  But before she could concentrate on the woman too much, Eleanor turned to the others, waiting quietly by the wall.

  “Dee, this is Feng,” Eleanor introduced her quickly, indicating an Asian man. “And Rafael,” – a man who looked to be of South American descent, “and Paula,” – a woman with pale blonde hair. “They’re from the Council. And this is Mirela,” she said, turning to the last woman. “She’s an assassin.” Of course, Dee thought, offering the woman a tight smile. No doubt she was charged with putting the rogue down, if anything went wrong.

  “She’s been getting worse,” Feng reported, glancing at the caged woman. “I’m afraid we’re running out of time.”

  “I’ll get things set up,” Mirela volunteered immediately, and for a moment, Dee wondered just what preparations were necessary. When she’d done this before, it had been as simple as reaching out with a kind of psychic energy to feel the two halves of the shifter and pulling them apart. But then her stomach lurched as she saw Mirela take an object out of a box in the corner and realised that it was a camera.

  “What’s that for?”

  “We’d like to film the separation,” Rafael said apologetically. “Seeing it in person is one thing, but the rest of the Council will want to see how it was done, and we may need to analyse the footage later. It seemed a prudent step to take. There are also receivers set up around the room to record any fluctuation in electromagnetic radiation.”

  Dee was disgusted at the frank explanation. “You all seem to think this is a fascinating experiment,” she snapped, irritated by their calm curiosity. “I’m about to kill another human being. You could show a little compassion.” In general, speaking to the Council in such a tone was a gross breach of protocol. But given the circumstances, Dee didn’t feel inclined to go through the usual process of fawning over the shifters’ version of aristocracy.

  “We are certainly not without concern for Claudia,” Eleanor said gently. “But you also have a unique and dangerous skill. That is the other purpose in you coming to Italy, after all – for us to develop a better understanding of your talents.”

  “We care for each and every one of our brethren,” Paula said, her tone a touch sharper than Eleanor’s had been. “But none of us can forget that we also have the responsibility of safeguarding our entire species. The opportunity to study your talents cannot be overlooked.”

  Dee was not the slightest bit mollified by their words. “At the expense of the dignity of one of your own? That’s hardly reassuring.”

  “It must be a happy luxury to have only one life to worry about,” Mirela said condescendingly, as she finished her preparations, “rather than the weight of three thousand resting on your shoulders.”

  Dee bristled under her disdain. It was not at all what she had expected from an assassin. Andre, another of the Council’s assassins, had spent the past few months with Dee’s Den in England, and after seeing his genial ways and almost excessive politeness, the reprimand was a rude shock. But to Dee’s dismay, she quickly realised that Faeydir didn’t share her offence over the assassin. She was a high ranking wolf, Faeydir pointed out. If she wanted to tell them off, she was well within her rights to do so.

  Dee sighed. Okay, so maybe they had a point. This wasn’t a display she could easily repeat, after all, not without killing someone else, and she grudgingly had to admit that recording the event held a certain logic. Even if it seemed disrespectful to Claudia at the same time.

  She glanced at Claudia, who was now huddled at the back of the cage, whimpering, and realised an immediate obstacle to her task. “If I’m going to remove the human, then she’s going to have to be in wolf form,” she explained to the waiting Councillors.

  The men and women around her seemed surprised – no doubt they would be asking plenty of questions about this later – but Antonio didn’t bat an eyelid. He went to a fridge nestled in the corner and took out a bowl containing a steak.

  He crouched down near the cage, holding out the steak and muttering soft words in Italian to Claudia. She seemed to calm for a moment, eyes fixed on the meat, and licked her lips. Antonio kept talking to her in soft, gentle words as he eased closer, Claudia slowly coming forward… and then the woman shifted.

  The instant she was in wolf form, her entire demeanour changed. Instead of focusing on the steak, she put her head down, hackles up, teeth bared as she snarled at Antonio. He tossed the steak into the cage, snapping his hand back as sharp canine teeth tried to take a bite.

  “Stand back,” Dee said sharply, not knowing how long it would be before the woman
decided to shift back. And given the strength of her abilities, she didn’t want anyone else in the way, getting caught up in the magic.

  She stepped forward and reached inward, letting Faeydir come to the fore. Invisible hands seemed to reach out in front of her, two waves of energy which felt for the two halves of the shifter, took a firm hold of them both, and yanked…

  The wolf let out a scream, flailing about the cage in a panic. Faeydir lingered a moment longer, Dee’s skin crackling with static electricity, and then she retreated. Dee felt something warm and furry brush her neck – not a real sensation, but the memory of one – and thanked Faeydir for the gesture of concern. She would be fine, she told the wolf, even as tears gathered in her eyes.

  After a moment or two of whining and struggling, the wolf went still, collapsing onto the floor of the cage. Her rapid breathing gradually evened out, and eventually she lifted her head. Looked around. Saw the people watching her, but oddly, didn’t seem at all alarmed by the audience. She sat up, sniffed around… and delicately picked up the steak with her teeth, setting about devouring the meal with a huff and a wag of her tail.

  The Council members were staring at her, seeming surprised that it was over so quickly. “Is that it?” Feng asked.

  But Dee didn’t hang around to explain. She couldn’t stand being in this room a moment longer, and she quickly headed for the door, rudely pushing Eleanor out of the way when she didn’t move fast enough, and escaping into the afternoon air. The sky was a brilliant blue, the sun out, but Dee felt like she was smothered in a dark fog, tears spilling out of her eyes as she dashed across the lawn and sought refuge in a thick pocket of bushes. She sank down onto the ground, gasping for breath, grief and guilt warring in her mind. She felt her skin crackle, and she retreated willingly as Faeydir emerged. The wolf was closely attuned to her emotions, and was willing to take over for a while, to give Dee time to recover from the awful task.

  Eleanor was right behind her, arriving just in time to see the end of the shift, and she slowed to a halt with a sigh.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, sinking down beside Faeydir. “I know that was unpleasant. But it was by far the lesser of two evils, and-”

  Eleanor trailed off as Faeydir picked herself up and gave her a short bark. Tail high, she retraced Dee’s steps back towards the shed, then slunk inside, going right up to the cage. Eleanor followed, baffled by the wolf’s behaviour.

  Faeydir sniffed the cage and the captive wolf, then rose up on her hind legs and batted the lock. She glanced back at Eleanor and barked again.

  “What? You want me to let her out?”

  Faeydir nodded, recognising the confusion in the humans as they glanced at each other. Baffling creatures, they were, always making things more complicated than they needed to be.

  “Let’s see what she does,” Mirela suggested, coming forward with the key. Faeydir whined and licked her leg as she opened the lock, a gesture of respect for the powerful wolf.

  Claudia – or the wolf that remained of her – put her head low and slunk towards Faeydir. She was a weak wolf, newly created and not sure of her surroundings. But Faeydir wagged her tail, bounced her front end down slightly – an invitation to play – and darted off a few steps towards the door.

  Claudia followed, cautious until she got to the door and saw the wide lawn and the bright sun. Her whole body relaxed at once. She bounded out the door, giving chase as Faeydir ran across the lawn, tongue lolling out, tail high, and the pair of them dashed off into the bushes, newfound friends bent on adventure.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Eleven Council members were gathered around a long meeting table. Normally there would have been twelve of them, but after one of their members had died earlier in the year, the careful process of selecting a replacement was still ongoing.

  After witnessing the shifter’s separation in Agordo, the four attending Councillors, along with Dee, had returned to the Council’s villa in Cison de Valmarino. Now Dee was resting, while the Council discussed her unusual talents.

  “I must say,” Feng began, “I’m rather baffled by her reaction to the separation, considering what the prophecy says about her. She was grief-stricken after killing just one person. It’s hard to see how we go from there, to Dee wiping out the entire species.”

  “Don’t discount her so quickly,” Paula said. “A year ago, if anyone had asked her, no doubt she would have scoffed at the idea of abandoning her family and becoming a wolf shifter. She was converted by force, thanks to the Noturatii, but since then, she’s wholeheartedly accepted the conversion and her new life. She’s shown extreme resilience under the most trying of circumstances. Who’s to say what could happen in the future that could cause an even more dramatic change in her.”

  “Only a few months ago, we were contemplating having Mark put down,” Elise added, the youngest member of the Council, referring to Dee’s boyfriend, who had betrayed his Den and faced serious punishment as a result. “If we’d gone ahead with his execution, Dee might well have let her grief open the way for a long campaign of revenge. It’s entirely possible that some other similar dilemma in the future might cause her to rethink her compassionate ways.”

  “I think we’re missing an important detail here,” Rafael interrupted. “Dee herself seemed quite distressed with the separation. But her wolf half was remarkably unaffected by it. Faeydir took Claudia off to play and seemed rather delighted by the whole thing. And we must keep in mind that they’re two separate people, for all that they share a body. Perhaps it’s not Dee we need to worry about, but Faeydir.”

  “It’s a valid point. Prophecies can be a tricky thing,” Feng agreed. “Faeydir is indeed the reincarnation of Fenrae-Ul, but the prophecy doesn’t mention Fenrae’s new host. It simply says that Fenrae shall be restored to life, and ‘under her reign, the shyfters shalle be restor’d to the natural order.’ Under Fenrae’s reign, not Dee’s. It’s entirely possible that Dee may object to the whole thing, but Faeydir, as Fenrae’s reincarnation, has every intention of destroying us.”

  “We need to find out more about Faeydir,” Eleanor said. “Dee maintains that she’s a peaceable wolf with no grudge against us, but we have only her word on the matter. And Dee herself has admitted that at times she has trouble understanding what the wolf is saying.”

  “Then we should also concentrate on helping her understand the wolf better,” Feng added. “She’s our only link to being able to communicate with Faeydir.”

  “I agree,” Eleanor said, and the other Councillors murmured their support for the idea. “For the moment, Dee’s resting – she’s still quite upset about Claudia. But in the meantime, we also need to finalise our selection of the new Councillor. Even once someone is chosen, it’ll take weeks before they’ve completed their initiation. And given the challenges we’re going to be facing in the near future, I, for one, don’t like leaving the position vacant for any longer than necessary.”

  Dee sat on a cushion in the villa’s wide living room, in the middle of her first session with the Council as they began their investigations into her unusual wolf. There were four Councillors seated on the floor around her. She was aware of the camera set up at the side of the room, recording the entire conversation, and she tried not to feel self conscious about it. It was necessary, she understood, for the rest of the Councillors to be able to review the conversation and compile a list of questions later, as they hadn’t wanted to overwhelm her by having the entire Council in the room all at once.

  At the moment, they were discussing Faeydir’s unexpected reaction to the separation they’d performed yesterday. And Dee had been rather dismayed to hear that the Council were concerned about Faeydir’s apparent joy in the act. “All she was doing was trying to cheer me up,” she said earnestly. “She’s very in tune with my emotions, and knew I was very upset. She wanted to show me that the wolf was happy and unharmed, not revel in the fact that a human had died. I’m sorry if that came across as enjoyment of the act. Faeyd
ir takes the separation as seriously as I do.”

  Eleanor nodded. “I see. And I’m sorry for the insensitive questions. This is new territory for all of us. As I’m sure you’re aware, it can be difficult to understand the motivations of a creature who can’t speak or explain herself directly.”

  Dee nodded, not inclined to take offence. The day before had been trying for all of them, and it was to be expected that the Councillors were feeling rather tense about the whole thing.

  “Okay, let’s move on then,” Eleanor said gently. “We’d like to discuss the prophecy of Fenrae-Ul with your wolf, to see what her perspective on it is. Does she know the details of it?”

  Dee nodded. “Yes. I read it in our library a while ago, and Faeydir remembers what it said.”

  “Excellent. The prophecy begins, ‘Thus be the truth of the wolfe Fenrae-Ul.’ Does Faeydir agree that that’s her? Is she aware of being a reincarnation of another wolf?”

  Dee concentrated, tuning in to the responses from her wolf, and she nodded. “Yes. She’s aware that she’s lived before. A long time ago. And she…” Dee paused, working to unravel the message, delivered to her in a blend of images, scents and emotions. For all that she was merged with a human, Faeydir had never taken to communicating in words, finding the language overly limiting – much as Dee would have had trouble trying to convey all her thoughts in simple mental images. “She’s been waiting a long time for an opening in the spirit world, and is very pleased to be back in this world now.”

  “Remarkable,” Eleanor said, a note of wonder in her voice. “The next part reads, ‘The daughter twice removed from Faeydir-Ul.’ In what sense is she the daughter of Faeydir-Ul? Shifters aren’t able to have children, after all. Did Faeydir have a daughter before she was converted?”