by Brea Viragh
Van went down on his side and Calen jumped, twisting his arm around the wolf’s neck and swinging his legs around until he was astride the creature.
He didn’t have the same kind of strength as the others. Certainly not enough to control the writhing beast for long. But he had something Alex hadn’t accounted for.
Compassion.
Slowly, he exerted pressure on the wolf’s neck, trying to cut off his air supply. Van went wild, thrashing and bucking in an attempt to eject Calen.
He hung on, grip tightening.
“Go down,” he warned through clenched teeth. Not wanting to hurt the other man, and yet...Van stood in his way. Would kill him on Alex’s command.
Something he couldn’t allow.
Van twisted enough to sink his teeth into Calen’s ankle, biting deep. Blood spurted, running down his pant leg and pooling in his boot. This time he managed to keep the scream to himself. That Van was so strong, so powerful...for a split second, with his grip weakened and ankle likely broken, Calen wasn’t sure he could beat the other man.
Then something moved inside of him.
A quiet knowing. A certainty he’d never felt before.
Odessa.
Feeding his strength with her own.
Calen pushed everything else aside and focused on Van. On the pressure. On getting the wolf to go down and stay there while he focused on the real enemy.
To his dying day he would never forget the raging howl the wolf sent him seconds before it passed out, laying still and silent beneath him.
“Oh, bravo.”
Applause filled the air, and when Calen looked over, he saw Odessa floating in the air beside her father. Still a swan, eyes wide open and terrified. Alex had his hands together, drawing in a deep and cleansing breath.
“I didn’t think you would actually do it,” he remarked. “I mean, I figured you would go in for the kill after everything he’d put you through. But mercy...don’t you know there is no such thing as mercy? There is only the weak, and the strong.”
“Which one do you think you are, Darrow?”
Calen heard the weariness in his voice. It was too difficult a task to watch his tone. “It doesn’t matter what you throw at me. I’m going to stop you.”
The wind rustled again, bringing with it the putrid scent of decay. Death.
Full night came upon them. Dark, foreboding, the moon rising and Odessa nowhere near the lake. She could only change if she touched the water...
“Come here to me, Calen.” Alex turned to face him, strange golden eyes compelling, voice low. “Come here and let us see what you can do after all. Perhaps I underestimated you.”
He moved forward despite the swan’s warning cries. The pain in his shattered ankle saw him stepping down once and instantly regretting it.
“Perhaps not. A quick word from me would have your ankle healed. A ritual older than the earth itself.”
At once, the sound of ancient voices filled the air. Calen felt the pain move from his ankle, up toward his knee, his thigh. His heart.
“I can control your nerves,” Alex continued. “Shall I move the pain to your head? See how long it would take you to beg me to make it stop? Or would a worse fate be knowing how your parents were down on their hands and knees, flesh flaying from their bodies, asking me to spare you?”
The ache slowly returned to his ankle, and brought with it, a fresh swell of agony. “Enough,” Calen bit out. “Haven’t you done enough? Haven’t you done enough damage to be content?”
“I think I can do more.”
Calen stood helpless and watching. Watching as Alex crooked a finger and his magic burst to life.
Watching as Alex snapped Odessa’s neck.
Chapter 24
His world went gray at the sight of her broken body. At the way the swan fell in a lifeless pile of white feathers, head twisted at an unnatural angle.
No.
She couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have...
Calen erupted with a roar. Ferociously, he launched himself at Alex, a high-pitched whine stinging his throat. The world around them slowed. Heartbeat pulsing in his ears.
His skin itched as he struck at Alex, reaching across the distance to land a solid punch on the other man’s jaw.
Rain erupted from clouds the alpha had called into being, thinking they would aid him in causing confusion and distraction.
No more games.
Calen fought like a man possessed, pointedly ignoring the prone figure of the dead swan.
Dead.
She can’t be dead, he repeated to himself, over and over again in his mind.
She can’t be dead, he thought as his back hunched and his vision narrowed to encompass only the man in front of him.
Death became his muse. His inspiration. The itching under his skin intensified. Until he felt nothing else, became nothing else. The terrible itching ripping his muscles and his bones apart. Alighting every cell with a fierce rage that took away the rest of his control. He saw only Odessa. Lying there broken at her father’s hand. The man who had trapped her, imprisoned her in a shape that wasn’t her own. The same man who had killed his parents and used their death to fuel his magic.
There was payback due. And lots of it.
Calen swung, his right forearm colliding with the side of Alex’s head. It sent the man back a step, but it wasn’t enough. Would never be enough against that kind of inhuman strength. Black magic strength.
The itching intensified until he felt it all the way to his jaws. The world narrowed, focusing and clarifying on Alex. The other man smiled at him; the left side of his lips hitched higher than the right.
“Do you think this is funny? Do you think this is a game?” Calen roared as he lashed out a second time with an uppercut, an ache beginning in his chest and spreading out from beneath his ribs.
Alex blocked him at every turn. A single shot of power had Calen sprawling back and landing hard on his tailbone. A jolt of pain splintered from the area and he roared. The sound tore from his throat and left him with nothing. A hole opening up inside of him.
Alex held up a hand and gestured him forward. “Come on, boy. Come on and see if you can change this story.”
His story wasn’t a happy one. It hadn’t been from the second he turned up on Darrow’s front door, orphaned. Branded an outcast by the people who were supposed to love him because he didn’t have the one piece that made him like the rest of them. Relegated to the bottom of the heap and kept away from the woman he loved. The woman who now lay broken and dead on the sandy shore.
The rain above them paused. It halted midstream; each droplet frozen in diamond-like perfection.
Through it, Calen felt something inside him break. That emptiness he’d learned to exist beside. The ache in his heart. It cracked wide.
And gave him access to power that he’d never dreamed of before.
It shot through his veins like liquid lightning, raw power and magic that made him want to drop, trembling, to his knees. Instead, Calen harnessed that power inside of him. And used it to fuel his change. The itching beneath his skin intensified until black hairs burst through, covering him. His fingernails lengthened into claws and fangs shot through his jaws with a burst of blood and cracking bone.
The wolf took over.
The wolf he’d never thought to find, the one he’d always hoped was part of him. But until this moment had not been reality.
Odessa.
She was the last rational thought in his mind before he gave himself completely to the predator within.
The wolf raged at the loss of his mate. The loss of his pack and the future they might have built together. The wolf raged for the birds trapped on the lake, the torture they’d been forced to endure at Alex’s hands. For the slain wolves who had given their lives to fuel this nightmare.
When the wolf lunged again, he went straight for the jugular.
Alex deflected him easily. A wave of power had him flying. The wolf landed on
his feet and lunged again, teeth snapping.
The magician and the Lycan went at each other. Each blow he struck, each swipe of his claws met with nothing but air where Alex had stood a moment before.
He just needed to keep the man moving. Keep him expending his energy and magic until nothing remained.
Without realizing, much as Van had done in a similar situation, Calen charged, twisting at the last moment. Using his opponent’s momentum against him and diving in for the kill without hesitation.
With Alex stumbling to right himself, Calen attacked. Closing his jaws around Alex’s throat. And squeezed. He had no thought for the future, or who would rise to lead the pack. He had no thought for the stain on his soul. He clamped his jaws shut. Until he felt bones snap.
Until the man lay still beneath him.
He stood over the body panting, with blood dripping from his jaws, feeling the wolf melt away back into that hole. A hole no longer, he thought as fragments came together. A piece of him, integrated.
Lungs heaved, drawing in fresh night air. He barely noticed the coppery twinge of blood. Didn’t see how his fingers shook as claws sank back into very human nail beds. The wolf sank back into his mind with a sigh and remained there. Hovering in wait. Present beside him.
“Are you okay?”
Van’s voice sounded rough behind him. Calen roused himself enough to shake his head. “Will I ever be okay again?” His vocal cords took a little longer to click into place, and each word came out grating. Animalistic.
“I...wish I knew what to tell you,” Van murmured. Then came up behind Calen, seating himself in the sand. “You did what you had to do. He left you no choice. The kill has always been yours to make.”
“It shouldn’t have come to this.”
“I know.”
Alexander Darrow is gone. A weight lifted off his chest, even as a larger one settled in his stomach.
What he wouldn’t give to change things.
Then there was only silence inside of him. Whatever bond he’d had with Odessa, whatever link that connected the two of them, had disappeared. Although his body gave nothing away, inside, Calen screamed. Screamed until there was nothing left.
The emptiness he’d always felt from his inability to shift was nothing compared to the lack of the bond with her.
He shook her, repeating her name, empty without her, and he could not stop screaming inside.
Then Van was there at his side, swaying on his feet with an arm around Calen’s shoulder. Just as bloody as he and barely standing. Guarding the two of them.
Van said something but Calen heard nothing beyond his own pleas, pleas to whatever unforgiving void to give Odessa back to him.
But he had known there was a possibility of things going wrong. A slim chance that even if they found a way to break the curse, something would be taken from them.
In the end, it cost him everything.
Then there was only the emptiness where Odessa used to be, this living and breathing vacuum inside of him as he cleaved in two.
Van tried to take the body from him, and Calen snarled to let go. A roar of defiance that shook the trees and brought leaves to the ground.
He refused to go on like this. Without her, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t live.
Hands touched him, assessed him, and he lunged with a snap of teeth.
“You’re hurt,” Van replied, voice raw and hoarse.
It didn’t matter to Calen. It didn’t matter if he ever healed because Odessa was gone. He shook his head and let the blood flow.
With nothing else to do, Van brought his blood-spattered hands to his lap, lacing his fingers as he knelt beside Calen. “I’m sorry.”
Those two words were enough to shatter whatever sanity he had left. In a way that he didn’t know if he would ever recover.
A flash of light took them by surprise, a bolt of white and blue that split the sky in two pieces. Distinctive. Ozone and sulfur filled the air and the water of the lake began to boil. The rain halted, sizzling.
“The water—” Van began.
“The spell!” Calen exclaimed. Unsure how he knew.
“Grab her and go.”
Van barked out the order without thinking. What could he do? What should he do?
A glance over his shoulder at Van had him running to pick up Odessa. The swan lay cold and unmoving in his arms. He pushed those thoughts aside, running as fast as he could for the water. Something inside of him urging him, begging him, to go, even when the water burned him. When it scalded his skin and the lightning threatened to kill him.
He clung to whatever scrap of hope he could, refusing to acknowledge the void inside of him. Looking back at Van one final time, he brought Odessa into the lake with the moon high overhead.
I’ll bring her back.
Whatever he had to do, whatever he had to sacrifice, he would do it.
Watching as the last of Alex’s spell broke.
The rest of the birds were the first to turn. Waterfowl and geese, mallards and egrets. Each melted into shadow before growing, solidifying. Returning to their original forms and dropping into the water with their returned weights.
Death had freed them. And yet...
Calen twisted his head to stare at the swan he held.
“But he broke your neck,” he whispered. “How is the spell going to conquer even death?”
“It’s not death.”
The familiar tone sounded from in front of him. And Jean was there, panting, pale and drawn, human, wading out to him with dark hollows gracing her cheeks.
“What did you say?” Calen rasped.
“It’s not death. It's an illusion. He only made you think he snapped her neck. Dip her in the water, Siegfried, and let the magic set her free.”
His lips moved yet no sound came out. “How...How do you—”
Jean huffed out a breath. “Stop wasting time!”
Oh, lord, but what if it didn’t work? “Please. Please.”
Calen didn’t know what he pleaded for. Odessa returned to normal, Odessa alive. The future he’d always envisioned for the two of them...but he said the word. Over and over he said it as he held her.
And slowly, he watched as her feathers melted away into skin, webbed feet shifted and twisted into delicate toes. Her black beak shrunk until he stared down at Odessa’s familiar face.
Pale, unmoving.
“I’m sorry.”
Drawing a deep breath into his lungs, Calen dove, bringing them both into the water. The heat burned his skin for a moment before giving way to cool waves.
He remembered the old stories then. The ones of a cursed princess, a daring prince, and the vow of everlasting love he and Odessa had once laughed at. Stories where a man, pure of heart, pledged his love to his woman, and in turn conquered all.
Dessa...survive. Because I can’t live without you. I can’t breathe without you. I’m not sure of my worth, but you are the world to me. For whatever it’s worth, I love you with everything I am, and everything I will ever be. Come back to me.
Light burst behind his closed eyelids like a thousand fireflies released from jars at once. Whatever fear had surrounded him before, whatever terror that isolated him, disappeared.
Once upon a time, there was a lone wolf who could not change, and a princess he loved very much...
Until he burst through the surface, Odessa at his side, her eyes open.
Her inhale cracked the silence. Then, turning impossibly wide eyes to Calen, her smile lit his soul on fire.
“Dessa,” he breathed out.
With a laugh, she wrapped her arms around his neck, their legs keeping them afloat and treading water.
“You did it, Calen!” she exclaimed. “You really did it.”
“Hey, you two, get out of the water before you catch a cold.” Van stood up to his knees on the lakeshore, helping the dripping humans onto land. He extended a hand to Jean and dragged her slight body toward his. His eyes pointe
dly ignoring her nakedness.
He couldn’t keep his hands off of her. Fingertips skimmed along smooth, slick skin, tangled in the dripping knots of her hair, and Calen knew he’d never again see a more beautiful sight than Odessa’s smile. Neither swan nor wolf, but a combination of both in an exquisite human skin.
“It looks like Van has his hands full dealing with the rest of the newly freed humans. We better get up there and help him.”
She refused to let go of him. “He’ll be fine for a minute.” Her head tilted, lips rising to meet his, and Calen had never been one for swooning, but came damn close in that moment. This kiss was everything.
A throat cleared, and when Calen glanced over, his senses full of her, he could see Van with an eyebrow raised and a foot tapping the sand. “If you please?”
“Your guardian seems to be worried that I’ll ravish you right here in the water,” Calen said softly, his eyes narrowed in a smile.
“Care to give him a show?”
A growl began low in his throat, rising the longer he stared at her. The wolf, fully integrated, urged him to claim her fully. To take her as his mate in front of everyone and God as witness. He might have, too, if a naked man hadn’t swum right next to him, his eyes focused on the shore.
“Van?”
Desmond cut through the water with sure breast strokes until his toes reached the sandy bottom. Healed with the broken curse.
That single syllable saw the Evertooth alpha’s son straightening. His eyes fell on the man’s slender form and remained there, his face giving nothing away.
“Van!”
Desmond scrambled to reach the shallows. His movements jerky, uncoordinated.
“He’s been waiting for a very long time for this reunion,” Odessa murmured. “I’m not sure why I couldn’t put it together until now.”
“Put what together?” Calen asked.
“Just watch.”
