by A J Gala
Declan let out a sigh as Claud’s steps slowed down. The door to Rift’s office was ajar and they could hear a soft but authoritative voice speaking on the other side. Claud knocked.
“Rift? Matt? I’m sorry to interrupt, but some of Matt’s omegas have a situation.”
Matt’s omegas. Declan gritted his teeth. That was the official title they’d been given. The nice title. When it wasn’t appropriate to call them shitbags, or fucking pests, or bb-gun bait. Declan had really wanted to be claimed as an omega of Rift’s pack, but unfortunately, he’d come into the fray when it was Matt’s turn to claim the outsiders. And now Matt’s he was.
A tall, broad-shouldered man opened the door. The rugged angles of his deep tan face were highlighted by a clean shave. Brown eyes looked over the three of them and then he nodded.
“Come in,” he said, gesturing toward the small group inside. “Our conversation was coming to a close.”
“Was it, Rift?”
A shrewd voice cut through the air and all eyes went to a pale woman in the corner. She looked withered up and hollow, all five feet of her. Dark circles hung under wide green eyes that locked onto Declan and raccoon Stephan. Her dark hair was long past her waist and shaggy at the ends, and her clothes were clearly hand-me-downs not cared for.
Diana. Matt’s favorite omega. Declan struggled to remember which of her offenses had officially taken her from beta to omega and almost asked out loud if it was when she had killed Matt’s ailing non-shifter mother to get her out of his hair, but decided not to speak until spoken to.
“Yes, Diana. Try to keep up,” Rift sighed. “Without more information, all we’ll be doing is talking in circles.”
She laughed a fierce, powerful laugh that carried on a little too long. “So, the plan is to keep letting us die until what? Until a hunter leaves their driver’s license at the scene of the crime? Until they literally go door-to-door proselytizing the goodwill of the Shifter-Hunter Coven? Until—”
“Diana!” Another male in the room put his hand up. “Diana, shut the fuck up.”
Matt. Declan averted his eyes like he was supposed to. Matt was smaller than Rift but carried the aura of a violent man around him like an accessory. He didn’t like to stay still and clenched and unclenched his fists as he got up to pace.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” he asked. “No one invited you goddamned vermin over here. And the fuck is he like that for?” He jerked his hand to the raccoon. “Don’t fucking tell me—”
“Yeah—” Declan looked around and Claud had left him for dead, “—he’s having some trouble getting the hang of this shifting thing.”
“That’s what you barged in here for?”
Declan bit his lip. “No. Related, but no.”
Matt walked up to him until there were mere inches between them. It took every fiber in Declan’s being to not back away. Stephan, however, gave in to animal instincts and bowed out under a chair.
“Then what?” Matt growled.
“He’s stuck. I uh, I gave him one of those pills that you give to kids having trouble controlling their shift. And there were complications.”
Matt narrowed his eyes. “How did you get one of those pills?”
Declan exhaled, nodded, and stared down at the ground. “I stole them out of Delta Glacia’s purse. Well, her daughter’s purse.”
Matt nodded along with him, then drove his fist into Declan’s stomach.
Stephan’s eyes went wide as he watched his friend double over and sputter. Matt hit him his stomach again, harder.
Rift folded his arms. “I said no fighting.”
Matt glared at him. “This is not a fight.” He hit Declan a third time and watched him go to the ground. “Isn’t that right? Huh? Speak up, you little rat-tailed piece of shit!”
Stephan couldn’t do anything but watch the abuse as it continued. Matt grabbed Declan’s shirt collar and jerked him back up to his feet only to punch him square in the jaw. Then in the nose. Then in the ribs. Declan knew better than to fight back. He knew it would only get worse if he did, so he let Matt drive him to the ground again and took every kick in stride.
Don’t cry out. Don’t grunt. Don’t make one fucking sound. Declan swallowed the blood in his mouth and held his midsection as Matt’s discounted hiking boot met his kidney. By the time their alpha had finished, Declan was curled up on the floor, coughing up spit and blood. Stephan looked away.
“And there we have it.” Matt raised his arms grandly and smiled. “Discipline. Rift, my upsilon is out and about, trying to use her powers to track the hunter or some shit. Have yours turn the fucking raccoon back.” He looked the bear alpha in the eyes. “Have yours turn the fucking raccoon back, please.”
Rift shrugged. “Very well. Diana, you heard the request. Turn the raccoon human again.”
Declan shuddered with the pain of his wounds and looked up. “Wait, Diana is your upsilon? I thought she was Matt’s om—”
“She was,” Rift said, “and then the powers of an upsilon manifested.”
“But she’s a wolf—”
“I know.” Rift put a finger up to quiet him. “You should settle down. When your friend gets put right again, you two need to leave immediately and stay out of trouble. I do not want to deal with your discipline in my home again.”
Diana laughed her overzealous laugh again and wriggled her fingers until speckles of green energy sparked up in her palms.
“Makes me feel like some kinda witch on TV!” Her smile was wide and sinister as she came closer to the chair Stephan was hiding under. “What’s the matter? You scared? You some kinda fat, scared cat?”
The laugh became a cackle as she twisted the magic around and fired at him. The chair toppled back, exposing Stephan’s raccoon form to the energy. It sank into his skin, stretched him out, ripped the fur back, and mutilated him until he was human again.
He’d never seen the magic of an upsilon before. He hadn’t really believed they even existed. Declan and Margie had whispered of them before, calling them the witches of a pack if a pack was lucky enough to have one. They were fabled to have true control over shifters from the darkness, and that alphas were only a figurehead keeping the peace. Upsilons could force a shifter into any of their forms at their own whims.
But they had no power against humans. Which made their special function nothing more than a myth.
Head spinning, Stephan opened his eyes. The scene in front of him was crisp with his human vision. One of Matt’s betas threw him a change of clothes.
“What the fuck?” Matt was glaring at the screen of his phone. “Hey, did you get this text from Crystal?”
Rift was staring at his own phone. “Yeah.”
“What does she mean carved open? Margie was carved open? Is that autocorrect?”
Rift shook his head. “Don’t think so. Diana, show Stephan and Declan out.”
Stephan rushed to dress himself and helped Declan find his footing again. He had known Declan was walking into a beating but didn’t expect it to turn out so bad. Declan wiped away a fresh stream of blood dribbling down his busted lip and limped out behind Diana. Stephan followed, not daring to steal a look back at the packs watching them.
Stephan’s animal senses lingered though and were picking up sounds beyond what his human ears normally could. As the door closed behind them, he strained to hear the others, slowing his walk.
“What do you mean she was carved open?” Matt growled. “Why would a hunter cut her open?”
Rift sighed loudly. “There was a rumor, Margie and Ray…”
Stephan couldn’t make out the rest of what the bear alpha had said but from the loud outburst of Matt, he put two and two together. Cross-species mating… damn. At the rate of what was taboo, it didn’t matter where someone stood or what pack they belonged to; no one was safe from the shame of becoming an outcast.
To be continued in Part Two.
James Fuller and AJ Gala
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