A Pack of Love and Hate

by Olivia Wildenstein

  Zack rubbed his palms. “Lunch ready?”

  Eileen nodded.

  He kissed the top of her head before striding through the open doorway.

  Eileen tipped her head for us to go ahead of her inside the giant structure. Clutching the strap of my backpack, I walked alongside Liam, gaze zipping over every inch of the building. I’d expected it to be dark, but the entire back wall was made of glass. A river rushed beyond the picture window, and beyond that stretched a copse of evergreens so dense the trees looked welded together.

  “A Watt original,” Zack bellowed. “Ain’t it strikin’?”

  I pulled Mom’s ring out of my tank top and speared my finger through the warmed band, twirling it at the same time as I rotated to take in my surroundings. The building was spectacular. When I stopped spinning, I came face to face with one of the twins. I wasn’t sure which one she was.

  The girl observed me quietly, like most of her pack.

  I stood my ground even though I wanted to back up a little. “Poppy or Penny?”

  “Poppy. Penny’s the ugly one.”

  Her twin sister smacked her arm. “Bitch.”

  Poppy grinned.

  “You’re twins, right?” I asked, even though it seemed obvious.

  “Yup.”

  I wondered how old they were. Nineteen, maybe?

  “Just call them Pee. They both answer to that,” their older brother said, ruffling Penny’s hair.

  “So not funny, Sam,” she said.

  Their familiarity slackened some of the tension in my body.

  “We don’t respond to Pee. Or Pee-wee. Or any derivative of that nickname,” Poppy added.

  “Yeah, they do.” A girl with brown hair down to her waist came up to us. “I’m the last Burley child. Or rather the first. Ingrid.” She extended her hand, and I shook it.

  “Now that you’ve met the whole clan, it’s time to take your seats and dig in.” Zack gestured to the table that stretched the length of the structure and that was heaped with bowls of creamed corn, crisp salads, barbecued meat, and pitchers of fresh juice.

  In a rush of excessive affability, Jane hooked her arm through mine and towed me toward one of the benches propped under the table, chattering on about how hungry she always was. I looked over my shoulder toward Liam, wondering where he would be sitting.

  You okay? he asked.

  I didn’t need him to hold my hand, or want him to, for that matter, so I nodded.

  “So, how come you’re the only female in your pack?” Ingrid asked, taking a seat across the table from me.

  Lowering my backpack to the ground, I bit my lip, wondering if I was allowed to disclose this. I supposed it was no longer a secret. “Because of a fossilized tree root concoction they had the males in my pack ingest. It destroyed female sperm.”

  Her eyes grew as round as the burger patty she’d put on her plate. Her sisters’ gazes widened too.

  “Whoa,” Samuel said, ladling some creamed corn onto his plate and then onto mine without asking if I wanted any.

  “We’re not going to have any females for another decade or so, since Liam’s generation took it,” I added.

  “Unless you absorb the Creeks,” Ingrid pointed out.

  “Unless that.”

  “I hate those bastards,” Samuel said, adding three skewers of cubed meat to his plate. He deposited one on my plate too. “Well, not the whole pack. Just the OCs. You eat meat, right?”

  “Yes.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Who are the OCs?”

  “The Original Creeks,” Jane said.

  “What about the Aspens?” I asked, spearing some corn onto my fork tines.

  “The Aspens are chill—were chill,” one of the twins said.

  I still couldn’t believe the Burleys were seven kids. No family in my pack had more than two sons. Was that because Boulder wives were all human? As I pondered this, I studied the other Rivers seated at the long table. Most of the people I looked at looked right back with just as much unabashed curiosity.

  “But who knows what they’ve become. No one’s impervious to a bad influence,” Ingrid was saying.

  “Do all of you live on the compound?” I asked.

  “Yep, but we’re not all here,” Jane said.

  “We’ll all be here tonight though. The Wolf Moon brings all the pack together.” Ingrid chewed on a bite of salad, then chased it down with a sip of something that smelled like sweet tea.

  Samuel, who couldn’t seem to help himself from taking care of me, had poured me a tall glass of the iced brown beverage.

  “Too bad more of you couldn’t make it down here,” Ingrid said.

  One of the twins smiled brashly. “She’s just sorry August couldn’t make it down here.”

  My vertebrae jammed together.

  Ingrid shoved her shoulder into her sister’s. “Shut up, Poppy. Besides, he’s probably off in Iraq. I heard he enlisted again.”

  August had never told me where he’d been stationed, but he’d told her?

  I was clutching my fork so hard that I was probably bending it. I set it down before anyone could notice. “He did, but he came back early.”

  Jane plopped both her elbows on the table. “Daddy wants to commission another building from them, so you’ll see him soon enough.”

  “She’s totes whipped,” the youngest brother, Jack, said.

  Jealousy sharpened my senses, or maybe it was the approach of the full moon.

  “He probably has a girlfriend,” the other twin told Ingrid. “Dudes like him don’t stay single for long. Dudes in general. Seriously, men are like incapable of bein’ alone. Why is that, Sam?”

  Samuel set down the skewer he’d picked clean. “Why you asking me? I’m on a break.”

  “Since last week, and you’re already fillin’ up her plate.”

  Sam flushed. “I’m bein’ a good host, is all,” he muttered around a bite of meat.

  “So? Does August have a girlfriend?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah,” I said slowly, hoping my voice wasn’t giving away all I was feeling.

  Ingrid blinked in surprise. “It’s that girl Sienna, isn’t it?”

  Had he cheated on Sienna with Ingrid, or had he slept with Ingrid before hooking up with Sienna? The chronology of August’s girlfriends was foreign to me, not that I had any desire to familiarize myself with his string of conquests.

  “You guys know Sienna?” I asked in a wooden voice.

  “We know of her. He mentioned her. They were casually seein’ each other the summer he came to install this building.” Ingrid tipped her head to the roof. “They weren’t serious or nothing.” After a beat, she asked, “Are they serious now?”

  “No.”

  “Is he dating anyone else?”

  I wasn’t sure why, but instead of setting her straight, I said, “No.” And then I focused on my food even though my appetite had vanished.

  12

  After lunch, Jane led Liam and me to a cottage. She gave us a tour of the simply decorated space: one leather couch, two armchairs, a wooden coffee table, a stone chimney blackened by use.

  In the bedroom, there was a queen-sized bed and a gray-tiled bathroom. Everything was clean and functional. There were no paintings on the wall, no books atop the mantle, no pictures on any of the side tables, no chemical smells, just the scent of sun-warmed animal hide and scrubbed pine.

  “You guys can rest up.” She pulled open the front door. “We’ll come fetch you before the run.”

  I spun around. “Wait, where’s the second bedroom?”

  “We were told you’d be sharing . . .”

  Did she honestly think I’d share a bed with a guy I wasn’t dating? “By whom?”

  Liam placed a hand on my forearm. “We are sharing. Thanks, Jane.”

  She gave him a dazzlingly bright smile.

  Once she’d shut the door, I muttered, “I suppose you could stay with her. I bet she wouldn’t mind.”

  “I suppose I could, but unlike
some people, I didn’t come here to screw girls. Plus she’s a little young for my taste.”

  I inhaled sharply. “You shouldn’t attack people when they aren’t here to defend themselves, Liam.”

  “That wasn’t an attack. It was a remark.”

  “It was a very judgmental remark for someone who had sex with a girl while his buddies were playing poker in his living room.”

  A beat of silence descended over us.

  After almost a full minute, Liam asked, “Why didn’t you tell Ingrid she had it wrong about Sienna?”

  I’d been sitting halfway across the dining hall, yet he’d heard the conversation? I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or annoyed. “Because it’s none of her business. None of anyone’s business. Besides, thanks to you, I’m not his girlfriend, am I?”

  “If I’m supposed to feel bad about that—”

  “It was just a remark,” I said.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Anyway, we’re not sharing a bed.”

  His eyebrows lowered, darkening his chocolate eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll take the couch. But I’ll have to go through the bedroom to use the bathroom. Just in case you were planning on sleeping in the buff.” His gaze locked on mine.

  I hoisted my backpack higher on my shoulder and then headed toward the bedroom. “If you need the toilet, it’s now or never.”

  A crooked grin settled over his lips. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a bossy streak?”

  “I’ve heard it said, but usually behind my back.”

  Liam chuckled. “Might be because we’d like to keep our balls attached to the rest of our bodies.”

  As I entered the bedroom, my anger dissipated a little. I set down my bag on a wicker chair propped in the corner of the small room, underneath a window that gave right onto the living room of the cottage next to ours. I closed the blinds, then pulled out my phone, but like Jane had said, there was no reception, so I put it away and took out the rest of my clothes, setting everything neatly atop the dresser.

  The toilet flushed and then water ran, and then it shut off and Liam strode out of the bathroom, running his wet hand through his dark locks. “Have a nice nap.” He offered me a smile before shutting the bedroom door.

  I contemplated locking it, but there was no lock. Hoping he wouldn’t barge inside, I stripped down to my underwear and tank top and slid underneath the comforter.

  I woke up to loud banging. “Ness!”

  I blinked, disoriented for a moment. When the room swam into focus, I all but lurched out of bed. “I’m awake!” I said before Liam could enter.

  I tugged on my jeans, then alternately dragged my hand through my hair and rubbed sleep out of my eyes.

  I opened the door. Liam stood there barefoot in an unbuttoned plaid shirt and a pair of unbelted, low-slung jeans. “Moon’s up.”

  The mention of Earth’s satellite had my skin strumming.

  When we reached the door, I bent to put on my sneakers.

  He drew the front door open. “You won’t be needing shoes.”

  Right . . .

  “Stay close to me during the run, okay?”

  I nodded. Outside, a steady stream of Rivers were exiting their respective cabins and making their way toward a field filled with long, swaying grass that tickled my calves.

  “My Rivers. May the Wolf Moon light up your paths tonight and for the rest of your lives. Be wild. Be free. Be merry,” Zack hollered, yanking off his T-shirt before tugging down his jeans.

  I averted my gaze as the sound of zippers and rustling fabric filled the air.

  “Consider this training,” Liam said, chucking his shirt on the ground.

  “Training?”

  “For the duel. You’ll have to strip in front of everyone.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek.

  He pulled down his jeans in one quick swoop. When I realized he wasn’t sporting anything underneath them, I looked down at my toes poking through the long grass.

  “I’d offer my assistance, but you’d probably bite my head off.”

  Ugh. I really didn’t want to get naked in front of Liam, or anyone else for that matter.

  Sighing, I pulled off my tank top and then rolled my jeans down. Liam’s gaze struck my bare collarbone and the swell of my breasts. I turned so I had my back to him, and then I crouched, unclipped my bra and shimmied out of my underwear. Finally, I removed the leather strand speared through with my mother’s wedding band, which I always wore around my neck, and stuffed it inside the pocket of my jeans.

  Screened off by the long grass, I let the change sweep through me.

  13

  We ran long and hard, trampling miles and miles of moonlit grass, clay-rich soil, and fresh mountain streams. My tight muscles stretched and coiled as I raced parallel to Liam and Zack through the Rivers’ domain.

  It dawned on me that, for all my talk of leaving Boulder, I was unwilling to give up my ability to travel the earth as a wolf.

  Twigs cracked, and leaves drifted over me like fuzzy down. I halted and raised my head. Hanging mere feet above me was a black beast with gleaming eyes. At first I thought it was another wolf, but wolves didn’t climb trees. I eyed the creature, and it eyed me back. A black bear.

  Liam’s muzzle bumped into my haunch. He won’t come down. Too many wolves, he said through the mind-link.

  Some Rivers had stopped beside me and were pawing the ground, alternatively snarling and yapping at the creature hanging for dear life on a branch that seemed too flimsy for its massive weight.

  One of the Rivers got on his hind paws and batted the branch with his front leg. The bear bobbed and then let out a blood-curling sound of his own. Emboldened, other wolves lurched up and punched the branch, howling at the bear that skittered backward toward the trunk.

  A sharp crack sounded over the pack’s garish attack, and then the smell of warm blood wafted through the air, tantalizing, intoxicating. Stiff, horizontal tails poked out of frenzied bodies. My own tail came up in anticipation.

  Ness, move! Liam yelled.

  Even though I wanted to leap onto the bowed branch and help bring our prey down, Liam’s order had me backing up. I whimpered, not understanding why he was making me step back from the kill. I tried to poke back toward the tree, but Liam growled, and my body sank lower to the ground.

  I’m hungry, I yelped.

  And you’ll eat, but let them do the kill. We’re on their land. That bear’s theirs to kill.

  His explanation didn’t smother my hunger, but at least I understood why he was making me recede. I shot my gaze up to the creature that had reached the trunk. One of the wolves leaped and latched onto the bear’s back paw. The bear released a guttural yap and kicked at the wolf’s head, sending the ball of brown fur tumbling and rolling. Another brown wolf scampered toward the collapsed wolf, licking at a weeping gash on her packmate’s head.

  The wolf whined, and even though the growls and howls had grown in volume in the forest, I heard the wolf tending to the fallen one whimper, Poppy.

  Poppy didn’t stir.

  The other wolf—I imagined one of her sisters . . . her twin perhaps?—yelped, and Zack snapped his attention off his ravenous pack.

  The River Alpha bounded toward his daughter, and then he headbutted the thin brown wolf aside to have access to the immobile one. I strained to catch the beat of her pulse over the thundering hearts surrounding me.

  She had to be alive. Werewolves didn’t die so easily. When she still hadn’t moved, I peered into Liam’s alarmed face.

  That could’ve been you, he said through the mind-link.

  My stomach contracted with a mix of dread and hunger brought on by the bear’s fatty flesh.

  After releasing a raspy bark, Zack whipped his face toward his pack. He must’ve spoken into their minds, because his wolves halted their attack, reluctantly turning away from the cornered bear.

  The animal huffed warily as it scrambled higher.

  It wasn’t my plac
e to go to Poppy, so I stayed shoulder to shoulder—or rather shoulder to belly—with Liam.

  Zack nudged the lump of brown fur at his paws.

  Can we die of an animal attack? I enquired.

  If the bear sectioned her artery, yes, he answered.

  After a minute of terrible stillness, the brown lump emitted a whimper as faint as the patter of rain, so faint I wondered if I’d made it up, but then, through the trellis of furred legs, I saw Poppy lift her head. It glistened with dark blood which Zack and another wolf began to lick animatedly.

  The River Alpha let out a keening howl, which every wolf in his pack reciprocated. A branch snapped overhead. I craned my neck and locked eyes on the creature that had almost stolen another daughter from the Rivers. My wolf longed to lunge up at it and devour its flesh for the pain it had caused my kind, but the human in me rooted for it to climb higher, because we’d lashed out first.

  I’d never considered myself a predator before tonight, but the combination of wolf and human made us the most lethal kind.

  Poppy rose to her feet like a newborn foal, struggling to stay upright.

  I’ll take her back, the wolf who’d cleaned her said. I recognized her mother’s voice.

  My heart pinched at the sight of the two females. Not only did Poppy still have her mother, but her mother was a shifter. I envied what they shared. How I wished my mother had been a wolf too. Cancer wouldn’t have taken her from me if she had been.

  As I stared at them, I imagined myself standing protectively next to my own pup someday, and a maternal instinct I didn’t even know I possessed rose within me.

  Looming larger than the other wolves in his pack, Zack waded toward Liam and me. Alpha, you desire an alliance? Kill the bear that attacked my daughter, and for as long as you lead your pack, the Rivers will be your allies.

  You want Liam to bring down the bear? I yelped, wanting to add that the bear hadn’t even attacked his daughter, that she’d attacked it, but I bit back my observation.

  You may help him. You are his Second after all.