by TJ Klune
Ox tilted his head back, neck popping as his face elongated. His fangs dropped, reflecting the morning sunlight.
And then his head snapped forward, fangs sinking into Rico’s shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
And as Rico’s shoulder crunched, I heard Ox in my head saying you are pack you are brother you are mine.
you
are
wolf
At first nothing happened, and I thought we were too late.
Ox pulled away.
Rico’s bond, his tenuous string, faded.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no—”
The string vibrated as if plucked.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Rico jerked as Ox held on to him. His mouth fell open as he began to seize, feet kicking out, causing motes of dust to rise and catch the sunlight.
Rico’s dark eyes snapped open.
The blood in the whites of his eyes receded.
And then, there, in this house, in this place so far from home, came the bright flash of orange.
beast
“Kelly,” I said.
Ox nodded. “Led Robert away. Gave me time to get to you.”
“Is he all right?” I was frantic, trying to parse through the bonds, but they were all so loud and bright that I couldn’t focus.
“No. None of us are. It’s time to end this.”
“Oh, fuck me.”
We turned.
Rico was bent over, hands on his knees, hair hanging down around his face. He was covered in blood, but the wounds were closed. He lifted his head, nostrils flaring, eyes shining. “Is this what it’s always going to be like?” he demanded. “I can hear everything. I can smell everything. And lobito, I have to say, you do not smell good to me right now.” He stood upright with a grimace, hands going to his lower back.
“You get used to it,” Ox said.
“How?”
“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped at them. “We have to get to the others before—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rico muttered. He raised a hand in front of his face. “How do I make my claws come out?” He flexed his fingers. Nothing happened. “Huh. That’s disappointing. When this is all over and we’re regaling everyone with stories of our victory, we’re going to say that I made my claws come out right away. Deal?”
“Deal,” Ox said. He looked down the road. Above the trees in the distance, a thick black column of smoke was rising. “We have to hurry.”
I began to run down the road. A black wolf appeared at my side, eyes red and violet. I looked over in surprise to see Rico running past me, moving faster than I expected. His eyes were wide when he looked back at me. “How the fuck am I moving so fast?” he yelled. “What kind of nonsense is this?”
We ran on.
* * *
We hadn’t been gone very long.
Fifteen, twenty minutes at most.
But the compound was changed as if a lifetime had passed. Some of the houses were on fire. A couple of others had been razed to their foundations.
Elizabeth and Jessie were locked in battle with Michelle Hughes near the Alpha House. Elizabeth had a large gash on her side, but she wasn’t letting it slow her down. Michelle was snarling, tail twitching, jaws snapping. Elizabeth crouched like she was going to attack. Instead, Jessie ran up behind her, jumped onto her back, and ran three steps along her spine before leaping toward Michelle, crowbar raised above her head. Michelle moved to the right, but she was too slow, and Jessie brought the crowbar down on Michelle’s side, the silver burning the Alpha’s skin. Michelle whined and tried to bite Jessie, but she was too quick, landing and rolling away before getting to her feet again. She saw us, eyes widening, before turning back toward Michelle.
Gordo’s tattoos glowed as bright as the sun. He scraped his fingernails down his right arm, drawing blood over the raven and roses. He flung it at Dale, who stood on the beach near the water. The blood hit Dale in the face and began to sizzle, Dale’s skin peeling back. Dale didn’t seem to notice, and from behind him a large boulder rose out of the lake. Mark tackled Gordo just as Dale hurled the boulder at them. It smashed into the ground where Gordo had been standing. Even before Gordo stopped rolling, Mark was up and moving, eyes violet as he charged toward Dale. I thought he was going to make it, going to tear his fucking head off, when Dale’s fingers twitched. The ground underneath Mark’s paws seemed to bend upward before it exploded in a grinding flash of dirt and rock. Mark was thrown to the side, yelping as he landed wrong, his front right leg breaking. My stomach twisted as I saw the shiny wet knob of bone jutting out at the knee.
The sky above seemed to grow dark as Gordo rose to his feet. He reached up with his only hand and wiped the blood from his mouth, flicking it to the ground.
He said, “You shouldn’t have put your hands on my mate.”
The raven spread its wings.
The roses bloomed.
Gordo slammed the stump of his arm into the ground. Thick vines burst from the earth, wrapping around Dale’s arms and legs, black thorns piercing his skin. Wild roses bloomed along the vines as they lifted Dale into the air. He didn’t struggle, the same blank look on his face. Gordo grunted, twisting his stump in the dirt, and the vines flung Dale into the lake. He landed with a large splash a few yards offshore.
Gordo was already running toward the water. Without slowing, he stepped up onto the writhing vines, which flung him into the air above the lake. For a moment, he hung suspended above the water, above Dale, who breached the surface. And then Gordo was falling.
“Gordo!” Rico screamed.
But Gordo didn’t hit the water.
There was a terrifying snap as the temperature seemed to drop a hundred degrees in a single instant. One moment Dale was floundering in the water, head sinking below the surface, and the next the entire fucking lake turned to ice.
Gordo landed roughly on the ice, limbs flinging out in different directions as he slid along the surface.
He came to a stop near Dale’s hand, which was the only visible part of him. Gordo pushed himself to his feet before he spat down at the hand. He turned toward us. He started to grin, but then his face twisted. “Look out!”
We whirled in time to see Michelle hurtling toward us. Elizabeth was struggling to rise to her feet with Jessie’s help.
Michelle didn’t slow, and she only had eyes for me.
She jumped.
And then Ox was there in front of me, half-shifted, catching her by the throat. She grunted as her legs flew forward with the momentum. Ox brought her face close to his, roaring the call of an Alpha. He didn’t wait for a response, instead flinging her back where she’d come from.
Elizabeth and Jessie ducked as Michelle flew over them and crashed into her house. The porch shuddered and collapsed as Michelle hit the doorway. The door cracked under her weight before it was torn off its hinges. Michelle landed inside the house and didn’t move.
“Where’s Kelly?” I shouted at Gordo.
Before he could respond, I heard Tanner’s furious howl from the other side of the lake.
I ran toward him, Rico bellowing after me.
Nothing else mattered but getting to Kelly.
I flew past Aileen and Patrice. They had a group of feral children in front of them. The kids were snapping their teeth, trying to get at the witches but unable to get past the barrier Aileen and Patrice had created.
I saw dead wolves, at least three that had come with us. One of them had been an Alpha, and one of his Betas looked up at me, confusion mingled with fear on his face, eyes suddenly flashing red.
I ignored it.
There wasn’t time.
I felt my pack behind me as I ran.
What I found made me stop cold, my breath catching in my chest.
The earth on the south end of the lake was scorched, blackened and cracked.
Tanner stood above Chris, who lay panting on the grou
nd, ribs exposed from a deep cut on his side.
The timber wolf—Gavin—was snarling, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him.
Robert Livingstone was dragging Carter and Kelly toward us by their hair. He looked no worse for wear. Kelly was struggling weakly. Carter’s eyes were closed, body looking as if it’d suffered a repeated assault. His face was bruised heavily along his jaw, eyes swollen. He wasn’t healing.
“This,” Livingstone said. “This is what you’ve done. This is what you’ve brought upon yourselves. Do you think I want this? Do you think this is necessary? All I asked, all I ever asked for is what was mine, what was owed to me. And you refused. All of you refused, and it has come to this. How dare you.”
“Let them go,” I snarled, Gavin at my side.
To my surprise, he did. Kelly and Carter fell to the ground. Carter groaned as Kelly tried to raise himself up. He looked at me, face ashen. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, and it ran in rivulets down his face.
Livingstone stood between them. Instead of angry, he looked weary, like he was exhausted. There were shadows under his eyes, his pupils blown out. He raised a hand toward us. “Gavin,” he said, voice soft, “I can fix this. I can make it all go away. Come with me. Let us leave this place behind.” He looked down at the brothers at his feet, then back up at us. His gaze trailed behind us to Tanner and Chris, to the rest of the pack coming at a run. He sighed as he shook his head. “Wolves. With them is only death. Suffering. I know. I know. They turned Gordo against me. They poisoned my wife, filling her head with falsehoods. They drove her to take my tether from me, and then, when all was lost, they tried to contain me. They took my magic from me. They ripped me in half like it was nothing. Abel Bennett. Thomas Bennett.” His lip curled. “The princeling. The human Alpha who cannot stay out of my goddamn way.”
My pack gathered around me, wild and strong. Ox and Joe stood on either side of me, their anger boiling over through the pack bonds between us.
“This is over,” Gordo growled. “The children are contained. Dale is dead. You have nothing left. You’ve lost. Let them go.”
Livingstone turned his face toward the sky. He took a deep breath, let it out slow. “So it would seem. But that’s the thing about appearances, my son. They can be an illusion.”
“My grandfather chose to spare your life,” Joe said, shoulders squared. “He knew what you’d gone through. What had happened. He showed you mercy.”
Livingstone laughed bitterly. “And where did that get him? He’s nothing but dust. Like the pack that once was. Like Thomas.”
Elizabeth shifted. “You don’t deserve to speak his name.”
Livingstone nodded. “You think you’ve won. And I can see why. But you are sadly mistaken. Gavin. Don’t make me do this.”
Gavin took an uncertain step forward.
Carter groaned as he raised his head. “Don’t,” he managed to say. “Gavin, he’s… lying. Don’t… listen….”
And Gavin stopped.
Cocked his head, ears pricking.
Livingstone narrowed his eyes. “What’s this?”
“He’s with us,” Ox said. “He’s pack.”
“Pack,” Livingstone spat. “Pack. Fine. Remember, this is on you.” He looked down at Carter. “You made me do this.”
He raised his hand toward us, tattoos bursting brightly.
A wave of magic bowled over us in a great storm, rocking us off our feet. We landed roughly on the ground as it continued to push against us. It tore at our skin. Jessie tried to pick herself up but was thrown back toward Tanner and Chris.
Ox gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up, fighting against the rising winds. Joe rose behind him, pressing against his back, pushing them both forward. Mark curled around Gordo to keep him from flying back. Rico held on to my leg as I dug my fingers into the earth.
Livingstone reached down and grabbed Carter by the hair again, pulling him up as if he weighed nothing. Carter was too weak to fight him off. Kelly struck at Livingstone’s legs, but it did nothing.
Above the raging winds, I heard Livingstone say, “I am sorry for this, child. But this is the price you must pay for all that your family has done to mine. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
The markings on his arm began to move, and Carter screamed, body jerking as if electrified. The tattoos crawled up Livingstone’s arm, and they were dark, the magic black and wicked.
Elizabeth cried out for her son as the tattoos hit Livingstone’s hand and moved toward Carter’s open mouth.
Something shot past me, quicker than I could follow.
Carter fell to the ground as the storm ceased.
I blinked slowly.
Livingstone kicked as he was raised into the air, a large hand covering his face, claws cutting into his skin.
A man stood before him, the white and gray and brown hair of a timber wolf receding from his neck and shoulders as he shifted toward human. He was almost as tall as Kelly, his dark hair long and ragged as it fell on his shoulders. The thin muscles in his arms and legs quivered. His face was twisted in fury. It took me a moment to realize what—who—this was. He looked like the man he held writhing in his grasp, like the witch lying on the ground next to me, albeit a younger version.
Gavin snarled, “Don’t. Touch. Him.”
And then he threw his father as hard as he could. Livingstone flew backward, and the moment before he struck the remains of a smoldering house behind him, I saw the look on his face.
Betrayal.
He hit the house, sparks and flames rising up as the house collapsed.
Impossibly, ridiculously, Carter whispered through a mouthful of blood, “Oh shit. I think I’m bisexual.”
Before anyone could react to that, or this new wolf-turned-human who had saved us all, the remains of the house Livingstone had crashed through exploded, debris whipping out around us.
Gavin fell on top of Carter and Kelly, shielding them from the blast.
Livingstone rose from the fire.
“You’ve taken them from me,” he said, stepping back out onto the ground. “Gordo. Robbie. Gavin. All now with the Bennetts. Everything that was mine, you’ve taken from me!” He raised his hands toward us, the storm beginning to build again.
I looked to Kelly, wanting the last thing I saw in this world to be his face.
lovelovelove, he whispered to me, my heartsong.
Livingstone took a lurching step forward as a wolf reared up behind him, claws digging into his neck and back, eyes burning red.
Michelle Hughes.
She opened her mouth wide, and then her jaws closed over his shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
To a witch.
She jerked her head side to side.
Livingstone’s mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.
Michelle pulled away, dropping down behind him.
Livingstone took a stumbling step forward.
His tattoos started to flicker.
He gasped as he looked around, confused.
He raised his hand to his neck, fingers bloodied as he pulled them away.
“No,” he whispered. “Not… not like this.”
The marks on his skin began to burst. They twisted angrily on his arms, and his skin started to burn as each symbol flared, the skin blackening.
He raised his bloody hand toward Gavin.
Toward Gordo.
Toward me.
He said, “Please.”
He said, “Please help me.”
He said, “Please don’t let me die.”
And Gordo said, “Fuck you.”
Livingstone fell to his knees in front of us as we pulled ourselves up. He tilted his head toward the sky as I rushed toward Kelly, lifting him up and pulling him close. He wrapped his arms around me.
“Hold on to me,” I whispered.
“Always.”
Robert Livingstone howled toward the morning sun, a song of anguish and rage that rattled my bon
es. I gritted my teeth against it, and in my head, in the deepest part of me, there was only packpackpack.
The tattoos crawled up Livingstone’s arms, disappearing under his shirt and reappearing on his neck. They rose up his throat to his jaw and into his open mouth. He choked as they forced their way inside. His throat bulged as he swallowed them down.
An unseen shock of magic detonated over us.
Kelly cried out, tensing against me.
I held on as tightly as I could.
Mark’s shift melted away as he collapsed to his hands and knees, panting toward the ground, eyes flicking ice blue, violet, ice blue, violet.
Carter lay on the ground on his back, limbs skittering in the dirt, chin jutting up toward the sky.
And then it was gone.
Robert Livingstone looked old and faded. His skin was sallow. His eyes were closed. He took a breath. And then another. And then another.
He said, “This isn’t the end.”
He fell face-first onto the ground.
His heart stuttered in his chest.
And then he died, quiet as a mouse.
Silence fell over the compound, the only sounds coming from the shifting and cracking of the ice in the lake.
“Robbie,” Kelly whispered.
I pulled away, but only just.
And Kelly’s eyes were the bright Halloween orange of a Beta wolf. He grunted as the fracture in his leg repaired itself with an audible snap.
I kissed him with everything I had.
And I could feel him, I could feel him, I could feel him in my head and heart, his voice a wolfsong.
I heard a choked sob coming from next to us, and I looked over, shocked to see tears running down Gordo’s cheeks. He was cupping Mark’s face in his hands, demanding that he do it again, do it again, goddamn you.
Mark did.
His eyes flashed orange.
He hugged Mark as hard as he could.
Which meant—
“Carter,” Kelly said, pulling away from me. He turned and ran toward his brother, who had just sat up, head in his hands. Carter barely had time to brace himself before Kelly tackled him back onto the ground. Carter grinned up at him as his eyes filled with the same orange as the rest of the Betas. They laughed and clutched at each other, Kelly babbling that he was going to murder Carter if he ever did something like that again.