by S. M. Reine
A few minutes later, they were complete, and a wolf stood where a girl had before.
She lifted her nose to the breeze. Picking out smells when it was wet was difficult, but not impossible. The wolf was especially attuned to the odor of silver, and she could smell it farther down the mountain.
Rylie and the wolf ran. She darted across the mountain, leaping nimbly through the forest like golden lightning.
Once she had the smell, it was easy to locate Eleanor. Rylie was surprised to find her with all the other hunters. Levi was right. The Union was marching, and they were making a direct line for the peak of Gray Mountain to make a stand. They took up the entire trail and didn’t seem worried about being spotted. Why should they? There were tons of men with guns. They didn’t have to be afraid of anything.
Rylie swung wide, making a loop around the long line of people. She climbed onto a ridge overlooking them and smelled the wind again. The sprinkling rain was dying down.
A dozen armed men. A half-dozen unarmed women. And one woman in the lead, dragging two men in ropes.
Two men?
She bounced down the rocks to get a closer look, careful to stay within the trees where they wouldn’t see her.
Rylie recognized Seth, whose wrists were tethered to a long rope held by his mother, but she didn’t know who the other man was. He was even more beaten than Seth. His skin was earthen brown, his hair had a militaristic cut, and he wore the same black uniform as everyone else. His face resonated with the wolf. She must have seen him at the Union camp and didn’t remember him, even if her beast did.
The wolf wanted to dive in, but her human mind held her back. There were too many people. Too many guns. Too much silver. She needed to wait until the right moment.
She would follow them. She would wait.
And as soon as she got a chance, she would kill Eleanor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Alpha
The hunters reached the peak of Gray Mountain at nightfall.
“Eighteen minutes to moonrise,” Jakob said. They all had watches with countdown timers.
Eleanor stalked across the rocks, narrowed eyes scanning the mountaintop. Seth stumbled after her. His shoulder bumped into Yasir. She had given them a short line between their arms, and she seemed to enjoy dragging them around like dogs.
“There’s nobody here,” Stripes said.
Seth stopped behind his mother. They stood on a raised stone platform slicked by ice. The rain hadn’t melted any of it.
It wasn’t Seth’s first time on top of Gray Mountain. It wasn’t even the first time he had been dragged there against his will. Nothing had changed since the year before, either, but he had to stare at it. The rocks were too incredible not to stare.
At first glance, the rock formation on top of the mountain looked like it had been placed deliberately. There was no way erosion would have left pillars standing naturally in such a neat spiral. Each successive rock was a little bigger than the last, creating stairs to a single point that towered over everything else.
But Seth had taken some pretty close looks at the rocks, and there was no indication they had been laid out by humans. He hadn’t seen any tool marks, or other signs of how someone had dragged such massive boulders to the tallest place in the entire forest. He used to think that it had to be natural. But he didn’t think the fact that it looked like a temple was coincidental anymore.
“What is this place?” Yasir asked, breath fogging from his lips.
“It’s a holy place.” Seth’s voice echoed strangely in the night. All of the other hunters had fallen silent as they stared around at the deep shadows, hands gripping their guns so tightly that they shook.
Eleanor glared at the cloudy sky. On top of the temple of the animal spirits, she looked like a force of wild magic herself. Her eyes burned with challenge. Her arms were spread wide to the moist wind with her feet braced on the rocks, like a challenge to the gods to smite her where she stood.
Nothing attacked her. She dropped her hands and faced Seth.
“You call it holy,” she said. “I say it’s unholy. Pagan. This is where a bloody coronation happens tonight. This is where the Alpha is chosen.”
Yasir gave a harsh laugh. “There’s nothing spiritual about any of this. You know what werewolves are? A disease.”
Very casually, Eleanor backhanded him. Her knuckles cracked against his jaw. Seth flinched. He had been on the receiving end of her strikes before. For a human, she had a heck of an arm.
Yasir spit blood onto the ice and glared at Eleanor. She had split his lip. “I swore to protect humans—all humans—when I joined the Union,” he said. “But if you hit me again, I will kill you in front of your son and your animal gods and all of these men.”
“I’d like to see that,” she said with a cruel smile.
“Nine minutes to moonrise,” Jakob reported.
The teenage hunter stepped up. He looked more nervous than the rest of them combined. His knees were practically knocking together. “What should we do?”
“Spread out,” Eleanor said. “They’ll be here soon.”
“There are almost twenty werewolves out there,” Seth said. “We’ve got less than twenty men here. I don’t think you realize how bad those odds are.”
“We don’t need to kill twenty wolves. Just the Alpha. Cut off the head…” She sliced her finger across her throat. “Tell me, son. Who do you think is Alpha? The most powerful werewolf is the deadliest. The one who bites the most, but leaves them alive.”
It was obvious the direction in which she was taking her narrative. Seth twisted his wrists in his bonds. The knots were too tight, and dug into the soft, fleshy part of his wrist. “Rylie hasn’t made other werewolves. She’s not the Alpha.”
“When she dies, it’s all over. And there’s no way she’ll stay away as long as I have you.” Eleanor gave his ropes a hard jerk. He fell to his knees and almost dragged Yasir with him.
“So that’s why you got me? This has nothing to do with family, does it?”
“Nothing. And everything.” Her eyes were wild. Seth wondered if the Union would have given her command if they had seen it.
“This is going to be a bloodbath,” Yasir said. His voice had risen to a shout. “You can’t just wait here for them. You have to have a plan, you have to lead—”
Eleanor slapped him again.
With a roar, the commander snapped his ropes. He almost wrenched Seth’s arms out of their sockets.
Yasir tackled Eleanor.
She dropped Seth’s rope to draw her gun, and he took the opportunity to twist his wrists free. The teenage hunter was only a few feet away. Seth kicked him and wrenched the shotgun out of his hands, spinning to aim it at the boy when the other men tried to move forward.
“Freeze!” he shouted.
Everyone stopped except for Eleanor and Yasir. They rolled across the rocky top of the mountain, wrestling over her pistol.
Jakob took a step.
“Don’t move,” Seth said, pushing his shotgun into the boy’s chest. What was his name? He hadn’t bothered to learn it. “I’ll do it.”
“He won’t do it,” Jakob told the other men.
He pumped the shotgun and fired into the air.
A wolf’s howl responded.
The wail broke the night and sent shivers down Seth’s spine. Eleanor and Yasir paused mid-wrestle. She kneeled over her opponent with her fist raised, but she didn’t land the punch.
The one howl turned to two, and then three. It was an unearthly sound, like the screaming of ghosts or wailing babies or the bitter cry of the wind through trees.
And then pale shapes emerged below them.
Most of them were still human, but they twisted and writhed as the call of the moon fell upon them. Seth recognized some of the werewolves that had been with Rylie and Abel. A couple had already changed and stalked up the mountain on all fours.
For a moment, the hunters were too transfixed by the shiftin
g bodies to shoot.
Jakob was the first to pull the trigger.
His shot went wide, striking a tree beside a wolf with silver fur.
It was enough to trigger an attack. The wolves that had already shifted charged up the mountain and crashed into the hunters like two fronts of a storm. Shots fired, growls and howls echoed off the rocks, and Seth didn’t wait to see what would happen.
He broke into a run, but stopped at the trees when he recognized one of the people approaching.
Abel’s skin was ashen gray, but he was standing—barely. His arm was slung over Levi’s shoulder. His stab wound had been bandaged and blood seeped through the gauze. The younger man propped him against a tree, stripped off his shirt, and shifted in a flurry of fur.
Seth had never been so happy to see his brother’s ugly face.
“Where’s Rylie?” Seth called.
Worry flashed through Abel’s eyes. “I thought she was with you. She left to find—ugh.” He groaned and doubled over.
When he looked up again, his face was growing into a wolf’s snout.
Seth backed away slowly. He couldn’t shoot Abel if he attacked. He had to run.
But when he turned, Eleanor was behind him. She grabbed his arm, and her fingernails bit into the muscle. She wasn’t armed anymore. A quick glance around showed that Yasir had her gun, and was stuck in a standoff with Jakob amidst a roiling mass of bodies.
Seth didn’t shoot fast enough. Eleanor ripped the shotgun from his hands.
“Where’s your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. Hopefully very, very far away.
Eleanor dragged him to the top of the stone pillars. She shook him hard. “Rylie! Come and get him!” she shouted into the night. Her voice was loud enough to carry over the growls and screams.
He didn’t know if he believed the werewolves had gods watching over them or not, but he shut his eyes and prayed to them all the same. Please don’t let her come…
His mother’s triumphant cry made his eyes fly open.
A golden wolf erupted from the trees and landed on the rocks below them. Rylie wasn’t as big as some of the other werewolves, but she was faster, and she practically flew through the air. Her eyes were bright and clear. There was no hint of silver frenzy left in her.
“No,” Seth groaned.
Eleanor dropped him and raised the shotgun.
Rylie darted forward. Her mouth snapped closed on Eleanor’s leg. The material of her pants was thick enough that the teeth didn’t pierce, but she jerked Seth’s mom off her feet.
A massive brown wolf climbed the rocks. He was the color of the stones around him, with flecks of silver in his fur. Seth had only seen his brother in wolf form once, but he recognized Abel instantly.
He went straight for Eleanor and tackled her. Abel tried to bite her. She shoved her arm deep in his mouth so his jaws couldn’t close.
Eleanor shoved him off of her, and Seth saw cold calculation flit through her eyes—two werewolves, one gun, not enough bullets—for a half second before she jumped.
She didn’t go for Rylie or Abel. She grabbed Seth and smashed the shotgun into his gut.
Both wolves froze. Their golden gazes were unsettlingly calm.
The fight raged on below them, even as everything on top of the pillar went completely still with tension. Seth couldn’t tell who was winning anymore. There were bodies scattered across the ground—some wolf, some human. He had a hard time focusing enough to count when there was a gun in his stomach. He flushed with heat.
“Get down, Abel,” Eleanor ordered.
It looked like it pained the big wolf to obey her. He slowly backed off the rocks. The parting clouds let silvery moonlight spill across the top of the mountain, like the moon itself wanted to see what was happening.
Then his mother nodded to Rylie.
“Change back.”
It was a ridiculous order. She couldn’t do that. Nobody could—not even Bekah and Levi. As soon as the moon rose, werewolves were stuck until sunrise.
Rylie’s luminous gold eyes met Seth’s. He saw the possibilities in them. More than that, he saw the humanity.
She was in control.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
A shudder ran through her body.
The change back was slow, and almost beautiful. Fingers emerged from paws. A girl’s face formed beneath the frightening veneer of the wolf’s. She straightened as her fur fell away, and stood straight-backed and proud in front of Eleanor.
One by one, the hunters and werewolves struggling stopped moving to stare, as if Rylie had thrown her arms over her head and started screaming. Yet there was gravity to her silence. A werewolf, human on the full moon—impossible. But she had done it for Seth.
“You see?” the older woman panted, jamming her gun harder into Seth’s side. “I told you she’s the Alpha!”
“Just let him go,” Rylie said.
“Walk to the top. Do it. Go on! Call your gods down, and tell them to save you!”
She turned to obey. Seth watched her retreating back with dismay. There was no way it could end well—there would be no gods waiting to intervene. Eleanor would shoot her, or she would shoot him, but someone was going to die.
The clouds parted as Rylie walked to the top of the peak, her bare feet melting the ice as she passed. The moisture on her skin steamed.
A swollen silver moon loomed overhead. It was so huge that it looked like Rylie could reach out with her fingers and brush its surface. Stars scattered in the black patches of the sky, peeking through even the tiniest gap in the clouds. It was like they were watching to see what would happen.
“Call them!” Eleanor shouted.
The fighting stilled as Rylie lifted her arms to the moon, opening her body to its rays. Her eyes fell closed.
Seth broke free of his mother, scrambling up the rocks. “Rylie! Don’t do it!”
A flash of pain erupted in his skull. He landed face-first on the stone, and his vision swam. It wasn’t until he rolled over and saw his mother holding a rifle with his blood on the metal that he realized she had rammed it into the back of his head.
It was all he could do to roll over and watch as Rylie moved to the very edge of the rocks. She smiled down at him. Her eyes weren’t gold anymore. They were filled with the silver of the moon.
“Sorry, Seth,” she whispered.
And then she jumped. Her body vanished over the side.
Silence filled the air.
The surviving hunters exchanged looks. The werewolves seemed rooted to where they stood.
“What happened?” Yasir asked. It looked like he had won his fight against Jakob. The other hunter was unconscious at his feet. “Where did she go?”
Eleanor walked carefully up to the highest pillar on the peak. As soon as she left Seth’s side, the shaggy brown wolf that was Abel joined him again, standing protectively over his body. He smelled even worse as an animal than as a human, and that was saying a lot.
She glanced at the moon before looking down to search for Rylie.
“Well?” Stripes asked.
“I don’t believe it,” Eleanor said.
A pale hand shot over the side of the ledge, caught Eleanor’s ankle, and jerked her over the side.
Seth’s mother screamed as she fell.
The sound cut off with a crunch.
Seth felt sick and dizzy and horrified and relieved all at once. Emotion swamped him. He reached up to grab a fistful of Abel’s fur to steady himself, and he thought there might have been pain in his brother’s reflective eyes.
Slowly, Rylie pulled herself on top of the rocks, and stood on trembling legs—human legs—to look at everyone else. With the moon at her back, her white-gold hair looked like it was aflame with moonlight. Her eyes were still silver, and they were filled with new knowledge. Whatever happened when she faced the moon and stepped over the side had changed her.
She opened her arms again, but it was to the
wolves instead of the sky. “I’m supposed to tell you all something. Something important.” She faltered. “But you won’t understand like this, will you? You guys should change.”
Abel groaned beside him. Seth heard snaps and pops, and realized with a dull shock that his brother was shapeshifting.
One by one, every werewolf changed back into human form. Their bodies jerked. Their spines cracked. Humans emerged where animals had been a moment before. Even Bekah and Levi, who turned out to be sitting near Yasir, resumed their human forms.
When it ended, everyone stood up and looked at each other in confusion, blinking like they had woken up from a very, very heavy sleep.
“What the hell just happened?” Abel asked when he realized he was naked on top of a mountain.
“Holy mother of God,” whispered one of the hunters.
“Okay. Here’s the message,” Rylie said. She didn’t yell, but her voice carried over the air anyway. “They said they’re sorry. This was never meant to be a curse. But human nature’s a tricky thing, and when you try to stick animal souls in with human ones, it gets confusing. So they’re sorry. It was a mistake, and they… um, they said they love us.” She gave a small, shy smile. “Sorry. That’s all I got out of it.” She faced the hunters. “Now put down your guns.”
Nobody moved. Yasir raised his voice. “You heard the girl. Put down your guns!”
The hunters finally obeyed.
Seth staggered to his feet, and Rylie made her way down the pillars to stand with him and Abel. Everyone kept staring, like they weren’t sure what to do without being told. Rylie’s skin burned with heat when Seth hugged her. “What was that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I went up there, and it was like… like the moon talked to me. And when I climbed back up, it showed me how to make everyone human again. I think it’s just for the night, but… it’s over. For now.” She bit her bottom lip. “Do I sound crazy?”
“Yes,” Seth said.
Abel grabbed Rylie’s hand. “What did they look like? What did they sound like?” he asked urgently. “I mean, my God, what does it mean?”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. I told you everything I’ve got.” She sniffled. “I’m sorry about Eleanor.”
