Feral

by Nicole Luiken

  Chloe took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

  She didn’t want to waste time arguing with Dean, so she swiftly undressed and threw herself into the Change.

  Ow, ow. Not her most graceful or fastest Change. Chloe gritted her teeth and waited until the transformation was complete. She rose on four legs and approached Ilona. The horse smell had faded, washed away by sweat. No wonder Ilona always sat out of Phys. Ed.

  Ilona was sitting up. Her eyes widened when Chloe the wolf approached. “What’s she doing?”

  “I don’t know. Chloe?” Dean asked.

  Chloe growled a warning as Ilona scrambled backwards. Ilona stilled. Chloe caught her gaze and words gave way to instinct. Face-to-face they engaged in a staring contest until Ilona submitted. As soon as her gaze dropped, Chloe sprang forward and bit her shoulder. She sank teeth in skin and growled. Ilona went limp.

  Chloe released her and backed off.

  “What the hell did she just do?” Dean asked in a strangled whisper.

  Chloe concentrated on Changing back. Double ow.

  “Okay, Ilona,” she said, coolly getting dressed. “You wanted to be part of a Pack. Now you are.” Sort of.

  Ilona shook her head in disbelief. Her whole body trembled. “What have you done? She’ll kill me.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “Would you rather we killed you and buried your body in the woods?”

  “If she finds the Bite, I’ll wish I was dead.” Ilona shuddered convulsively.

  Chloe shrugged. “So don’t let her see it.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Ilona said resentfully. “You don’t live in the same house as her. What do you think is going to happen the next time she drinks my blood?”

  Blood? What the heck? Chloe boggled. So Ilona’s anemia was real and not an excuse to avoid sweating in gym? “Is Basia a vampire?”

  “She—” Ilona stopped as her silver chain twitched in warning. “I can’t tell you what she is.”

  “Understood,” Chloe said soothingly. Basia must be a witch—though she didn’t match Marcus’s description of the one who’d hexed his family’s airplane. Did Ilona have a grandmother hanging around, too? She refrained from asking, concentrating on more relevant matters. “As your Alpha, I command you not to tell your aunt or uncle about what has happened today.” She paused, thinking. “If I command you to remove the chain, will Basia know?”

  “Yes.” Ilona’s lips were pale and bloodless. “Please don’t. Trying to escape never works.”

  “Okay,” Chloe said reluctantly. “I won’t give the command until I’m sure I can protect you.” She bit her lip. “The chain enforces Basia’s commands, but surely there are some loopholes she’s missed. You can’t tell us what she is, but can you show us?” Chloe needed to confirm her suspicions.

  Ilona hesitated.

  “You’re on borrowed time until Basia finds the Bite,” Chloe reminded her. “I’m your best bet for getting that chain off.”

  Ilona laughed bitterly. “Then I’m doomed.”

  If Ilona was doomed, then so were Chloe’s parents and the entire Pack. “I don’t accept that.” She met Ilona’s gaze, asserting Dominance. “Show us.”

  Ilona hung her head and closed her eyes. “Okay, but we have to be careful that we’re not seen. Please listen if I say ‘stop.’”

  “Agreed.”

  A half-hour tromp through the woods brought them to the Novaskaya horse ranch. No Mazda sat in the driveway; Basia wasn’t home. Ilona halted when the barn came into view. “This is as far as I can take you.”

  Marcus bared his teeth and whined in his throat. “The Evil in the Forest. I can smell it.”

  “Ugh. What is that?” Kyle and the other teens grimaced.

  Chloe inhaled and caught a half-remembered scent floating beneath the horse manure smell. Chicken or poultry, but foul and rotting. She’d smelled something like it as a wolf once, and Marcus had herded her away.

  “Dean, you and Ilona fade back. In fact, why don’t you go into town and go on a date so she has an alibi? I’ll text you when it’s over. Keep her safe.”

  Dean nodded tightly. Once they were out of earshot Chloe continued her instructions. “Kyle, Brian, you play lookout. Marcus, Change and come with me.” In case she needed his keener wolf senses.

  Chloe walked forward in a crouch, keeping her profile low, using every bit of cover she could. She could tell they were getting closer from the smell: the foul scent coated her throat and made her want to spit.

  Finally, she edged around the barn and found the cause of the horrid odour. A grey hut with a thatched roof squatted on the forest floor, blending into the trees. Literally squatted. The house had two giant chicken legs with yellow talons folded up underneath it. They were the source of the reek.

  Something about a hut on chicken legs rang a bell. In a second she had it: there had been a picture of it in the Pack Lore. The hut was the home of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore. Not only did Baba Yaga live in a hut that could walk on chicken legs, she was ugly and flew around in a giant mortar and used a pestle as a rudder—the mortar looked like a cup. That fit with what Marcus had seen out the plane window.

  So witches did exist. Her dad was wrong—as he’d probably already found out.

  She shivered. Baba Yaga wasn’t just a witch, but a legendary, very old and powerful witch. Great.

  The hut would be where Baba Yaga did her magic. Chloe eyed it speculatively. Could they burn it down? The thatch looked rotten, and the wood dry, but no. She couldn’t risk a forest fire.

  Marcus pressed his furry body against her legs, silently asking what she wanted to do next.

  Chloe bit her lip. “I want to look in the windows if we can. See if the witch has anything we should steal.” A black charm causing Olivia’s cancer or a master bracelet controlling all the collars or who knew what? Not Chloe. Last week she’d thought witches didn’t exist and that silver had no effect on werewolves.

  Too bad she didn’t have binoculars. Chloe crept up on the hut. She stayed human so she would be tall enough to peek in, but it left her vulnerable. She was glad Marcus accompanied her.

  Twenty feet away, then ten … still no sign of movement from within or without, but her heart pounded like a steel drum, and she had to breathe through her mouth so as to not choke on the terrible odour.

  Ah, crap. The windows were dark because they had curtains or shutters on them. If she wanted to see, she’d have to open the door. But that would mean actually going up the steps between the chicken legs.

  Fear dried her mouth. She really didn’t want to go within reach of those talons.

  Apparently, Marcus didn’t like the idea either. He grabbed her jacket in his teeth and held her back.

  “I know,” she told him. “But I need to find out what’s in there, what we’re up against, if there’s something I can use to free my parents. Besides, the witch isn’t here. It’s just a bird. We are wolves!”

  Her pep talk convinced Marcus, if not herself. He released her.

  Moving as silently as possible, Chloe ghosted up the steps. At the last second she changed her mind and put her eye to the crack between the window and the shutter instead of opening the door. She didn’t want to risk being trapped inside.

  Benches lined the three walls of the hut. Against the far side was a huge stone oven, big enough to fit Hansel and Gretel both. The other wall was lined with shelves.

  At first glance, it looked like an old-fashioned pantry with rows of glass bottles full of canned things sitting on shelves, bunches of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and a mortar and pestle sitting on a plain wooden table. The breath she’d been holding escaped on a sigh of relief only to stutter to stop a moment later.

  A line of rats hung by their braided tails, some dead, some wriggling and biting their fellows. And many of the jars contained eyeballs and beaks and blood and viscera instead of vegetables. Okey-dokey, witch’s hut confirmed. But was there anything in there she could use t
o defeat Baba Yaga or break the hold of the silver collars?

  Of course, since she didn’t know what she was looking for she could be staring right at it and miss it. Nevertheless, Chloe pressed her nose close to the glass, her breath fogging the pane.

  The shutter jumped up. Chloe stumbled back. Was someone inside?

  But both shutters had lifted at the same moment. Her hackles rose. Those weren’t windows, they were eyes. Baba Yaga’s hut was alive.

  Chloe jumped off the porch and dropped five feet to the ground. She landed in a crouch. Marcus rushed to her side, growling.

  The hut raised itself up on its huge chicken legs and lurched towards them. Chloe sprinted deeper into the woods, Marcus at her side.

  The house was big and clumsy; it ought to have quickly fallen behind, unable to get through the places she did. Instead, it crashed through smaller saplings, or raised its tall legs to a horrifying height and stepped over grown trees. And each long stride ate up a dozen of Chloe’s.

  Marcus howled, calling for help.

  Should she Change? She could run faster as a wolf, but in the minute it took her to Change from girl to wolf, the hut would catch her. She gasped for breath, put her head down and powered on. If she could just make it between that line of firs—

  A giant claw snagged the back of her shirt, tripping her before the cloth tore in half. Before she could scramble back up, the chicken foot came down over top of her, three toes in front and a shorter one in back, trapping her in place.

  Adrenaline compelled her Change without her calling it. Fur sprouted on her arms and legs, her skull crunched and flattened, her muzzle pushing out. She kicked her legs, trying to free herself from her jeans.

  She was vaguely aware of Marcus dashing forward to nip and tear at the chicken foot. In her wolf form, she tried to squeeze out from under the yellow talon holding her in place, but it put more weight on her. She yelped.

  It would either squash her or trap her until Baba Yaga arrived.

  Two more howls split the air. Her ears flicked, recognizing the voices of her Pack brothers: Kyle and Brian.

  Each toe was tipped with a foot-long curved claw, impossible to damage. Chloe jumped up and sank her teeth into a toe, then spat the foul taste out of her mouth.

  Three other wolves rushed in, snapping and tearing off strips of flesh, then retreating. The chicken feet didn’t bleed, but oozed yellow pus. The smell was rank.

  The second foot snaked out, trying to grab Marcus. Chloe howled a warning. The talon stabbed the earth where his body had stood only moments before.

  Kyle darted in on the other side and tore off a scaly chunk of skin.

  The hut shot up, the chicken legs unfolding to their full height of eight metres, as tall as a two-storey house. The talons curled tighter around Chloe, lifted her up into the air, too, then slammed her back down, as the chicken legs took long, lurching strides toward the edge of the forest.

  The force of the impact robbed her of breath, and one of her ribs cracked.

  Marcus howled and attacked with a renewed vigor. Kyle and Brian joined him. Whenever the claw imprisoning Chloe touched down, they stripped off more and more of the foul meat. White bone shone greasily through.

  The floor of the house above crashed down, clipping Brian. He yelped and fell back. Crap! How did you kill a house?

  Marcus leapt for the back of the foot. Snarling, he tore at the exposed muscle and severed the tendon. The claw holding Chloe suddenly released. She rolled on the ground and out of the way as the hut whomped down again, reducing a Christmas-tree-size conifer to matchsticks.

  Marcus nudged her side, urging her to her feet. Ribs still sore, but healing, she trotted after him into the underbrush. Kyle and Brian made two more howling runs at the chicken feet, distracting it. The hut reached for Brian with its still-working foot, tugged the tip of his tail, then lost its grip and overbalanced, the bad leg giving way under it. The house crashed over on its side.

  As one, the Pack howled in triumph.

  Chloe lifted her voice in unison.

  Only after she’d turned human again did she realize what they’d really done was announce to Baba Yaga that they knew about her.

  From here on, the witch would be on her guard.

  chapter

  21

  Her dad cleared his throat, face grim. “Another Pack meeting has been called for tonight.”

  Chloe’s supper became unsettled in her stomach. What would the witch’s move be this time? Marcus’s punishment for breaking Pack Law and Changing in public, that Nathan’s announcement had delayed last time? An accusation of destruction of property levelled at Chloe? Would Olivia step down and Basia Challenge for Alpha?

  Chloe had chosen not to tell her parents about Baba Yaga and the Novaskayas. Like it or not, her parents were compromised. The advantage gained in telling them didn’t outweigh the risk to Ilona.

  “Chloe, do you feel well enough to attend?” her father asked. Since up until now she’d been packing away her food with a healthy appetite, the out-of-the-blue question felt like a strong hint.

  “I think I should stay home,” Chloe said.

  Instead of giving her a lecture on Pack responsibilities her mother said, “What excuse should I give the Alphas for your absence?”

  “Tell them I’m having my period,” Chloe said, skirting the edges of a lie. ‘Tell them’ wasn’t the same as ‘I am.’

  In humans, menstruation was a time of infertility. In wolves, it was the opposite. Menstruating females were forbidden to Change lest the scent cause ‘unfortunate incidents.’ Not that there was any real reason why Chloe couldn’t attend in human form.

  Both her parents nodded. Her mother’s face relaxed in relief.

  “Marcus, would you prefer to stay with Chloe?” her dad asked.

  Marcus nodded.

  Her parents left in the SUV. As soon as they drove out of sight, Marcus lifted his eyebrows.

  “We sneak over through the woods, keeping downwind,” Chloe said. If Kyle and Brian got in trouble for their part in this afternoon’s adventure, she would have to intervene.

  Other than that, she needed to tally who amongst the Pack adults wore a silver chain and if any still walked free. Aside from Coach, who was Baba Yaga’s partner and didn’t need one. She clenched her fists remembering his duplicity. Pine Hollow had taken mercy on a lone wolf, welcoming him into their Pack, instead of shunning him as had been their right, and he’d repaid them with treachery and black magic.

  Chloe would never acknowledge him as Alpha. Olivia had likely been tricked into taking her chain, promised a cure for the cancer eating away her life. Coach had no excuse.

  Marcus started to take off his shirt.

  “No, stay in human form,” Chloe said. “If we’re discovered, we don’t want them to accuse you of being feral.”

  Marcus grimaced, but left his shirt on.

  The sun was setting as they slipped into the woods, keeping parallel to the path. Chloe followed Marcus’s lead, walking carefully to keep noise to a minimum. Fortunately, the rising wind would cover their footfalls.

  The usual fire pit burned in the Frayne’s backyard. Chloe used the deep shadows it cast to sneak herself and Marcus into hearing range, to the left of the deck where Olivia stood between Nathan and Coach.

  Olivia stepped forward. “I hereby banish Marcus Jennings for breaking Pack Law. He has one hour to leave the Preserve.”

  Chloe winced, but better banishment than an order of execution. Banishment could be lifted—once the rot at the heart of the Pack was carved out.

  “Some of you may think my judgement is harsh, but Pack Law is enforced for a reason. Marcus broke it, and now we must all pay the price.”

  What was she talking about?

  “I have terrible news,” Olivia continued. “Someone saw Marcus Change in the school parking lot—and recorded it.”

  No. Chloe didn’t believe it. If any of the kids at school had a video of Marcus Changin
g, they wouldn’t have been able to resist showing their friends. She would have noticed that kind of suppressed excitement and secrets circulating among the townies.

  “We’re being blackmailed,” Olivia continued. “They’ve demanded that we open up the Preserve to logging or they’ll go public.”

  The Pack ought to have erupted into anger and outrage. Instead everyone merely looked sick. Chloe’s mom turned into her husband’s arms, openly crying, but only Dean protested. “No! We can’t do that. We have to protect the forest.”

  Coach glared him down. “Enough! The decision has already been made. The Pack is more important than trees. We won’t allow clear-cutting. The trees will grow back. But if who we really are becomes public, it will ruin lives. Not just our lives, but the lives of every werewolf in the world.”

  Chloe’s lip lifted in a snarl. She still thought the video was a bluff. The witch had tried to kill Marcus to shut him up about the plane crash, first by poisoning him, then by her backup plan of having Jefferson shoot him. Otherwise it was too big of a coincidence that Basia would happen to be on school property at the time. But—Chloe frowned—that meant the witch had to have arranged for the poison. How? Had Ilona slipped something into Marcus’s lunch?

  Never mind. She was getting sidetracked. The point was that the witch had been trying to kill Marcus. This so-called video was just a way to discredit him and get money from the logging deal.

  “The papers are being drawn up,” Olivia said. “We will sign them two days from now. The decision is final. Go home.” She lifted a hand and casually dismissed the Pack.

  No. This couldn’t happen.

  Chloe imagined loggers cutting roads in the Preserve for their heavy trucks, wounding and scarring the earth and making the animals flee from their machines’ terrible noise, leaving behind only stumps of once proud trees. The wolf in her keened.

  “No!” Chloe didn’t remember making the decision to step forward; her body did it for her. Marcus stayed glued to her side.

  Olivia turned towards her, unsurprised. “Chloe. Not at home after all.”