APOLLO RISING (The Apollo Saga, Book 1)

by Sage Arroway

  Tyler’s eyes moved instantly to Allie’s body, which still lay as it had fallen. She was his focus, the sum of his resolve to avenge her death—by the hands of his were-self or not—and he was willing to die doing it. He had nothing left to lose, he decided. Vanessa would pay for this.

  “You bitch!” Tyler shouted, lunging toward Vanessa, hands stretched out. But his face instantly met Jonesy’s iron fist and he was knocked back to the couch.

  “Sit down,” Jonesy ordered, asserting his dominance until Vanessa stepped in front of him to take command.

  Tyler could taste metal, and spat blood at her feet.

  She waved her gun, casually. “Am I really that terrible?” Her voice softened, drawing Tyler’s attention for the briefest moment. “I could be good for you, Tyler. I could be everything you ever wanted.”

  He growled instinctively, his jaw fixed tightly against the new spasm of pain coming from the collar. “You took everything I wanted!”

  Vanessa smiled at that, and once again motioned to her men to discard of the body. “Get rid of her,” she demanded. “It’s time to get this show on the road.”

  Tyler’s eyes flashed towards the thugs briefly.

  The two men took Allie by the wrists and ankles, and made it halfway across the floor before they dropped her and froze in their tracks. Tyler noticed it, too, and couldn’t believe what he saw.

  Allie was moving.

  At first, she breathed – slow, deliberate inhalations accompanied with a deep gasping for air – but then she moved her arms and legs as well. But beneath it all was a strange sound of stretching muscles, and creaking bones. The bedsheet around her body seemed increasingly too tight and too small, and her skin looked darker now, as well. Her face stretched through a mass of blood and hair, and long teeth emerged from behind her lips. In moments, she stepped from the sheet entirely, standing on somewhat uneasy feet – not as a woman, but as a werewolf.

  Chapter 24

  Tyler rose to his feet.

  “Holy shit,” he breathed, unable to bring himself to form any other words. His mind raced, his memories of the past few days challenged by this new realization. This answered a lot of lingering questions he still had about Allie’s behavior, but each revelation brought forth a new question. This explained why she knew how to care for him, why she had been so calm through his own admissions. This is why she knew how to control him, how to help him fight back the wolf. But why hadn’t she told him? And why hadn’t she changed too?

  His struggles to resolve these unanswered riddles faded as Allie commanded the room’s full attention. There was something different about her. She was more…elegant, somehow. She didn’t look like any other werewolf he had ever seen before.

  The fur that covered her was shorter, and her features seemed less bestial; her eyes were the same eyes that had softened when he’d taken her that first night. She resembled no monster; to him, she was simply beautiful, so much more than just a werewolf.

  Almost immediately, the two thugs changed into their more monstrous selves and attacked her from behind. Tyler watched helplessly—it all happened so fast, while he was paralyzed by the shock of it all. Allie, though, seemed to hold her own quite easily against their combined efforts, keeping them hard-pressed to attack her. The three of them became a mass of fur and teeth and claws, maneuvering around one another in a swift and deadly werewolf ballet.

  Vanessa shoved the gun in Tyler’s side. “C’mon,” she said, “it’s time to go.”

  “You’re one of them too, aren’t you?” he snapped, ignoring her command while his eyes remained on the other three.

  She sighed, feigning annoyance. “I’m a little insulted you didn’t already know.”

  He answered sarcastically – perhaps pertaining more to Allie, as he watched her in all her werewolf glory, than to Vanessa, “Yeah, well, I guess it takes me awhile to catch on.”

  Without even looking, Tyler’s hand lashed out instinctively, catching Vanessa off guard and knocking the gun from her grip. It discharged, the bullet harmlessly striking the ceiling, and spun across the floor until it came to rest at the feet of the thin man who still stood by the door.

  Vanessa screamed in anger, chasing the pistol to the other side of the room.

  Suddenly, there was another loud crash and Tyler turned his head sharply just in time to see a blur of something big and brown fly through the front window and land some twenty feet away. Allie-the-Werewolf stood just inside, snarling as she held the remaining thug at arm’s length.

  “Vanessa!” she grumbled, warning the woman to stop her pursuit of the gun. “Touch it and he’s dead!”

  Vanessa turned toward Allie and growled. “You don’t have it in you,” she scoffed. “You’d never kill your kind. You’re soft, Allie!”

  “Try me,” she taunted, crushing the man’s bones inside her grip.

  “Go ahead,” Vanessa hissed. “He means nothing to me. I came for Tyler.”

  Vanessa fumbled blindly for her gun, but the gaunt man kicked it just beyond her reach. She shouted his name and raised her hand to punish him, but a loud noise caught everyone’s attention.

  Allie lifted the thug up quickly, slammed him into the boards of the ceiling, and brought him back down even more rapidly onto the paving stones surrounding the mantle of the fireplace. Tyler heard bones creak and snap against the powerful collision, but before the injured wolf could move, Allie’s left foot came down on his nearest arm, snapping it brutally. The wolf howled in agony, squirming in impotent fear.

  With another swift motion, Allie drew up one of the pokers that stood by the fireplace. With a fierce growl, she stabbed the silver stake down, piercing his chest, not slowing until it collided with the floor beneath the werewolf’s torso. The creature’s howl was cut short, silenced by its sudden and brutal demise.

  “Jonesy!” Vanessa shrieked, tearing open her fur coat and shifting instantly into a great black wolf.

  She caught Allie by surprise, throwing her against the far wall. Allie flipped Vanessa around and managed to restrain her for a brief moment.

  To Tyler, she yelled, “Get out! I can handle this. Just go!”

  He froze, torn between the warring desires of self-preservation and wanting to protect the woman he loved.

  Vanessa broke one arm free of Allie’s grip and managed to leverage her way free. They rolled and she pinned Allie to the floor.

  “Stay!” Vanessa growled, a faint hint of laughter in her voice.

  Tyler’s eyes fell on the door and then back on Allie. Leaving her was no easy choice, but she had never misguided him. He hesitated a moment longer, looking toward the two women as they wrestled and attacked one another. Allie twisted around, temporarily restraining Vanessa, and looked his way once more.

  Her eyes burned into him. “Go!”

  In a flash, Tyler sized up the gaunt man guarding the entryway and moved across the room to take him. Their eyes met, and to Tyler’s surprise, Deacon made no effort to stop him. Instead, he regarded Tyler with a curious tilt of his head, opened the door and gestured outside.

  “Thanks,” Tyler said automatically, confused by the man’s actions.

  Realizing Deacon was no threat, Tyler eyed a thick jacket – Allie’s – hanging nearby, grabbed it and ran out the door.

  Taking his first steps out into the cold, Tyler slid his arms through the sleeves and heard a jingle from one of the pockets. He reached in and found Allie’s car keys.

  Tyler wasted no time, made a b-line for the jeep and hopped around to the driver’s side. He jumped into the seat and pulled the door shut, slid the key home, turned it, and… nothing.

  “Fuck. C’mon,” he begged, frantically.

  Inside the cabin, he could hear furniture smashing and deep, guttural growls coming from both women.

  “C’mon, c’mon,” he repeated, giving the jeep a bit of gas.

  He turned the ignition again—cranked it hard this time. It sputtered and finally roared to life.
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  Tyler let out a brief sigh of relief, followed by guilt; hoping, praying that he was making the right decision to flee. He half-turned in his seat, taking one last glance through the broken window at the feud he had caused. And so when Becket jumped onto the hood, he felt it before he saw him.

  The heavy weight shook the jeep, snapping Tyler back around in his seat. Oh shit!

  The werewolf punched clean through the windshield, reaching through until the glass held his arms fast just below the elbows. His claws, however, were less than an inch from Tyler’s face.

  Taking no chances, Tyler threw the jeep into gear and floored the accelerator. A cloud of mud sprayed out behind him and the rear tires spun before catching the ground and sending the jeep off into a clearing. Becket’s face smashed into the glass and he lost his balance, withdrawing his arms in an effort to retain control.

  Tyler kept his foot pressed heavily on the gas.

  The jeep bounced erratically, running over everything in its path. Tyler couldn’t see beyond Becket and the cracked glass to see where he was going. He yanked on the seatbelt and slid it into place, threw the jeep into second gear and steered off into the woods blindly.

  “Hold on,” he prayed.

  Becket got his feet under him and ripped the windshield from its frame. Bits of glass and hair and cold wind struck Tyler in the face as Becket tore free of the window. Tyler floored the gas and brought the jeep up to the edge of third gear. The werewolf crawled up the hood, his red-rimmed eyes staring at Tyler with hatred and malevolent hunger.

  “You’re not getting away this time,” he snarled, “Vanessa may want you alive, but I’m going to rip your fucking heart out!”

  Panic rose swiftly up Tyler’s throat and he swallowed hard. His knuckles white, he gripped the steering wheel and jerked it hard to the right. “Fuck you!”

  The jeep jumped over several bushes, sending Becket to his knees. The wolf slid down the hood and grabbed at the grill to hang on, just in time for Tyler to get a clear view ahead and witness a large birch tree heading straight for them.

  Without warning, the jeep hit an embankment, launched them nearly four feet into the air and crashed mercilessly into the trunk of the great tree.

  Everything seemed to be spinning. Lights danced around his eyes, and something warm dripped into Tyler’s right eye. He opened his mouth to get a breath, wincing at the resultant pain. The air tasted like copper; he had bitten his tongue, pretty hard, and it took several moments for his vision to clear.

  It seemed hard to focus; like his surroundings were moving. Eventually, he realized that they were, slightly. He was looking directly at the werewolf, who was pinned between the front of the jeep and the stationary birch, but still trying to pull itself up and out. It was badly injured; blood flowed freely from its nose and mouth, and its left paw looked to have been almost completely torn free of its wrist.

  The jeep sputtered and fell silent—it was totaled. Tyler fumbled at the seat belt, but the jacket he was wearing was in the way. Panic-stricken, he struggled to escape, knowing he needed to get some distance between himself and Becket, in the event that Becket survived.

  The wolf looked at him and snarled.

  “Sorry, man,” Tyler told him, finally wrestling free of his restraints and stepping from the jeep, “but I gotta go.” He yanked the keys from the ignition and tossed them onto the hood. “Good luck.”

  A wild pair of tire tracks led behind the vehicle in the direction they had come. It would be easy to find his way back, Tyler reasoned, but he had no idea how far out he was. He pulled his coat closed just as a gust of bitter wind swept through the dense forest and made him shiver. He needed to get back to Allie—it was all he could think about. Caught between adrenaline and the biting cold, he tried to stay warm as he began the slow walk back to the cabin, hoping – praying – that he wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 25

  A deafening howl echoed through the forest.

  To the best of Allie’s knowledge, it was Becket; which raised concern for Tyler’s safety. She glanced quickly out the window, saw that Becket was no longer laying on the drive.

  “If anything happens to Tyler…” Allie warned.

  Vanessa paced around her, just out of reach. “You’ll what?” she snarled. “You’ve already lost him, Allie. He belongs to me.”

  Standing several inches taller, Allie looked for the advantage over her opponent. She took a step back, claws out and growled, “You may control his body, but you’ll never control his heart.”

  Allie’s words must’ve rung true somehow. Vanessa lashed out at her, shrieking with anger.

  “Damn you, Allie, if you were going to leave, why couldn’t you stay gone?!?” she growled. “Why is it always you?”

  “Me?!” Allie barked. “I wanted nothing to do with this, Vanessa. I came here alone. He wouldn’t even be here if you were as powerful as you claim. Tell me,” she inquired, “how did he escape the first time?”

  Vanessa bypassed a verbal response and swung irately, scoring a deep wound in Allie’s thigh. It hurt worse than it looked, though it managed to draw blood. Allie stepped back, favoring her other leg, and countered with a quick blow to Vanessa’s face. The dark-haired wolf flinched back, the strike bringing tears to her eyes.

  “You bitch!” Vanessa swung blindly, allowing Allie a chance to dodge behind her swings.

  Finding herself near the front door, Allie turned and snarled at Deacon. He froze; his dark eyes unblinking. Casually, he raised his hands in a display of neutral – if not peaceful – intentions. She growled, returning her attention to Vanessa, who leaped up and over Allie, gripped her around the neck and used her momentum to throw Allie across the cabin’s floor.

  Vanessa followed, pouncing on the attack.

  The two women struggled together into the kitchen, destroying everything that got in their way; until they neared the back door. Taken by surprise, Allie found herself sailing through the air, tearing the door from its hinges and rolling to a stop dozens of feet behind the cabin.

  Her neck felt wrenched from Vanessa’s claws, though the cold helped to numb the wound on her leg. She blinked away the mud that clouded her vision. She could hear the footsteps ahead of her—she could smell the other wolf coming—and Allie rolled to the side as Vanessa leaped past her.

  Allie’s vision cleared just in time to maneuver through another attack, as Vanessa pounced again, her teeth bared in a feral grin.

  “I see you still have some fight left in you,” she grumbled.

  Allie lunged forth, taking hold of Vanessa and throwing her down roughly onto the forest floor. “It’s been awhile,” Allie reminded her, “but you’re still no match against me.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Vanessa threatened, narrowing her eyes.

  Vanessa’s feet dug into Allie’s legs, clawing at her already wounded thigh. Allie swallowed the pain, but could not relent. Not yet. Swinging one leg over Vanessa, she crouched down and took Vanessa by the throat with her left hand. She drew back with her right hand, showing off her lethal claws while she delivered a fair warning.

  “Yield!” she spat.

  Vanessa growled, “Never!”

  Allie waited a moment longer, then drove her right hand down with all the force she could muster. It struck the ground a hair’s breadth from Vanessa’s head – causing no harm, but eliciting a reflexive flinch from her subdued rival.

  Vanessa gasped, seemingly surprised that she was still alive.

  Allie waited several heartbeats more, letting the realization sink in. “I spare you,” she said softly, letting the words carry across the silence of the forest. “Now go. Leave me and Tyler in peace. Return to your city and carry on as you must, Vanessa, but let this be a warning to you.”

  Vanessa growled but did not debate the statement. “You claim him, then?”

  “I only know he is not yours,” she said. “Now leave, before I change my mind.”

  Vanessa retained her form, and wi
th a last, anguished growl, she turned and loped away, eventually vanishing into the forest.

  Exhaustion filled the void left by Vanessa’s departure, leaving Allie to feel each cut and bruise. She’d been hurt more than she’d realized. She felt heavy, too weak to stand, and the air burned her lungs. The sky was bright, so very bright.

  She clinched her fingers into fists, willing herself to remain awake. Blood was everywhere – it covered her hands and legs, ran down her sides and dripped into the snow beneath her feet. The smell of it filled her nostrils and her own heartbeat pounded in her ears. Beyond the pain, she could feel the itching and tingling as her body struggled to heal itself.

  A twig snapped ahead of her, and she jumped, startled by the sound. Claws out, she growled. “Who’s there?”

  “Allie?” a voice called out.

  She looked up to see Tyler, walking towards her, slowly, and realized it must be difficult for him to recognize her this way. But she still needed a little more time to heal. She sighed, nodding.

  He stepped closer to her, but she waved him back, leaning against a nearby tree while she caught her breath. The deepest cut along her thigh was almost healed over now - that wound had been the cause of her greatest concern, being so close to the femoral artery. She felt instinctively that the worst of it was done, and she let the wolf slip away. As she fell, two arms reached up and caught her.

  She smiled up at Tyler. He had a good smile, she thought. And a strong will. But when her eyes began to close, her vision rested on the silver collar—still locked around his throat—and, above any other sting, she felt the breaking of her heart.

  Chapter 26

  Tyler carried Allie back to the cabin.

  The last remaining member of Vanessa’s entourage was waiting for them when they returned. Tyler stopped in the middle of the ruined back doorway, pausing long enough to get a feel for the unusual man’s motives.