by C. Larsen
“Derek already failed at that,” Nikolay says, dashing any hopes I had of swaying him. “Now the relationship is a problem.” At my set expression, Nikolay says more sternly, “Look at what happened with Mikhail. He disobeyed me over a human and was punished accordingly. You think I should treat Derek differently? The pack won’t stand for it. His relationship put us at risk. It has to end. If you can’t handle this, then I’ll find someone who can.”
A small corner Ivan’s mouth lifts. I can imagine how much he’ll enjoy the job.
“Fine,” I say, the knot in my stomach growing, creeping upward to encompass my chest, lungs aching as if encased in ice. “I’ll force Derek to break off the relationship.”
“And if he refuses?” Ivan asks, his voice a low croon.
“If he refuses to stop seeing the human, then his punishment will be the same as Mikhail’s,” I say, keeping my gaze steady on Nikolay’s. From the corner of my eye, I see Ivan’s smirk widen.
“If that happens,” Nikolay says, “you will administer the punishment yourself.”
Images of Mikhail’s beaten body flood my mind, his arm hanging limply at his side, his dislocated jaw distorting his face. I swallow the bitter taste in the back of my throat and nod once. This is the best I can do for him. It’s better than allowing Ivan to handle Derek’s punishment, which I’m sure would involve a lengthy thrashing tonight, followed by several more floggings over the next several days. At least this way he has a chance to break off the relationship before Ivan and Nikolay intervene.
“Then it’s settled.” Nikolay turns his back on me and sits down behind his desk. “It’s almost time for your guard shift. I suggest you speak to Derek before you go; I want this taken care of as soon as possible.”
“Understood.”
I turn to leave, but Ivan blocks my way. “Think you’re ready to challenge me?” he smirks.
“To protect my pack, I’ll challenge whoever I have to,” I tell him, refusing to lower my gaze. “Even you.”
Ivan smiles, revealing his teeth. “Good boy. You just might make Alpha after all.”
WHEN Derek returns to the den after making sure Alexis left town, I motion for him to follow me upstairs. I lead him into my room and shut the door with a snap.
“Hey, man, I’m really sorry about Lexi,” Derek begins, running a hand through his short ash blonde hair. “I had no idea she would show up here like this.” Worry is etched in the lines of his face. “Ivan’s not going to do anything, right?”
“No, I talked to him and Nikolay. Ivan won’t do anything.” Derek’s shoulder relax, body slumping with relief. I heave a sigh and lean back against the wall. “But Derek… they want you to stop seeing her.”
“What?” His body tenses once more, a look of panic entering his eyes. “But it was just a mistake. It won’t happen again. Gray, you have to tell them—it won’t happen again. I’ll make sure she stays away.”
“I tried telling them that, Derek, but they didn’t want to hear it. After Mikhail’s disobedience with his human, they can’t just ignore this.”
“But it was just one mistake—”
“A mistake that could have been very bad for all of us,” I cut him off. I cross my arms over my chest and let my wolf peek out as I glare at him. I feel my eyes flicker and I know they’re glowing gold right now. Derek hunches his shoulders, gaze dropping in submission. I hate pulling rank like this, but Derek isn’t going to let this go easily. He has to understand how serious this is. “What if Max had been in wolf form? What if he lost control and attacked her? You know he’s never been around humans before. You could have exposed us all.” My wolf growls, pressing against the barriers I use to keep him in check. I wrestle him down and my eyes flicker back to their normal silver.
Derek keeps his eyes on the floor, tension and despair emanating off of him.
“It’s dangerous, getting too close to a human.” Sympathy softens my tone and I reach out and rest my hand on his shoulder. “It had to end sometime, brother. You know that. It’s better this way, for both of you.”
“It’s not better for me; it’s better for Nikolay—or should I say Ivan.” He spits out the bitter words, shrugging my hand off. “He’s the one really running this pack, isn’t he?”
My body stills. Is that what the rest of the pack believes? “This isn’t coming from Ivan,” I tell him, keeping my voice controlled. “It’s coming from me. Alexis could have been killed today. Is that what you want? Our world is too dangerous for her.” Derek’s face twists and I press my advantage. “You know you could never take a human as your mate; it’s against Pack Law.”
“I don’t want any of the girls in the pack,” he says, collapsing onto the bed, head hanging, hair partially obscuring his eyes.
“I know,” I sigh, sitting next to him.
Nikolay expects us, me especially, to choose a mate from our pack. But with only a few girls even close to our age-range, our choices are limited. I’ve tried to date Isabel, but it just didn’t work out. I couldn’t force myself to feel something for her that I didn’t. As for Derek, he’s never even attempted dating anyone in the pack. He’s never been the least bit interested in any of them.
“You could choose someone from the coven,” I suggest. “Nikolay’s been trying to unite our two groups for years.”
“You’re not listening, man.” Derek bursts up from the bed, pacing angrily around the room. “I don’t want anyone else! I love Lexi! Don’t you get that? I love her.”
“No,” I say, blocking his path. “I don’t get it. She’s a human.” Fear makes my words come out sharper than I intend, but he has to understand. I seize his shoulders, finger digging in. “You want to end up like Mikhail? ‘Cause that’s the next step. If you don’t stop seeing Alexis, Nikolay is gonna have you beaten, just like he did him.” My heart thuds in my chest, my whole body pulsing in tune with it. Hurting Mikhail was hard enough. I can’t do that to my best friend. I can’t.
Derek studies my wild eyes. “He’s going to have you do it, isn’t he? You’re the one who’ll carry out the sentence.”
My silence is answer enough.
Derek curses quietly. “Your old man is a piece of work, you know that? Christ, the way he manipulates you, trying to mold you into him. Into Ivan.”
Derek tries to shake me off, but I tighten my grip. I need to make him understand. “Just break it off, brother. Before Nikolay or I do it for you.”
I don’t know whether I got through to Derek. He told me he’d take care of it, but the determined look on his face when he said it worries me. Even twelve hours of mindless running can’t rid me of this anxiety.
My guard shift is nearly up—I only have one last area to secure: the Chittenden Brook Campground. There are a lot of advantages to claiming a national forest as our territory, the biggest being the vast acres of undeveloped land and plenty of game to hunt. But unfortunately we aren’t the only hunters drawn by the abundant game. What happened to Max’s mother isn’t unusual in our world. Danger from hunters always poses a threat for our kind, but at least here there’s plenty of space for us to avoid them—most of the time, at least. But there are other drawbacks as well, the biggest being the number of tourists that come here for fishing, hiking, camping and the like.
For the most part, we avoid the camping areas and main trails, but we still need to patrol them to keep an eye out for threats. You never know when a rogue werewolf might use camping as a convenient excuse to get into our territory.
I peer through the underbrush at the family around a campfire, the orange glow blinding them to the predator lurking in the darkness. A young girl with pigtails sings some religious song as her father strums a guitar. Her mother is busy cleaning up the remnants of dinner, dumping it into plastic bags and tying them shut so animals don’t come after the scraps. Too bad her efforts are a little late; the smell of cooking food already attracted the attention of a black bear, which looks down on the family from its own perch.
&n
bsp; Bears are common around here and generally leave people alone, but this one is young and hasn’t yet learned to avoid people. When the bear steps from behind his hiding spot, I leap out of mine, blocking her path, growling deep in my throat.
Werewolves are larger than the average wolf, but still not quite as large as a fully grown bear. I’m lucky that this one is young, and female to boot. It evens out the playing field.
The bear lunges toward me, slapping the ground with its massive paw. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be stupid enough to take a bear on alone, without the rest of the pack, but this youngster is roughly the same weight as myself; I feel pretty confident in my chances. The wolf in me howls at the thrill of the fight.
I lunge forward, snapping my teeth to call her bluff. She snorts, drawing her body up to make herself look bigger. I lunge again, adding a snarl.
The humans at the campsite stop singing. Good, hopefully they can hear us. Maybe they’ll realize predators are near and they’ll seek the safety of their camper.
I lower my head and prepare to charge. The bear takes in my aggressive stance, then steps backward. I growl again, and she turns away, lumbering back into the trees.
I wait several minutes, making sure she’s not planning on returning. The guitar strikes up again, and the family continues with their song, blissfully unaware. I circle the area once more to make sure all is clear before heading back to town.
It takes me almost an hour, alternately sprinting and trotting through the thick forest, to get to the outskirts of Ashwood Creek. At the edge of the tree line, I change back into human form and quickly pull on a pair of sweatpants from a small pile of clothes we keep in strategic locations for just this purpose. For safety’s sake, we don’t travel around town as wolves, just in case a park ranger happens to be driving through. It wouldn’t do to draw attention to our small community.
I yawn widely, dead tired and ready for sleep. I groan at the thought of getting up early for school tomorrow. Passing Mikhail’s cabin on my way home, I decide to stop in to check on him. It’s late, but he might still be up. If not, I’ll check on him tomorrow before school.
Climbing the three steps to his porch, I knock on the front door, but no sounds come from inside, not even breathing.
Panicking, I barge inside, expecting the worst. Sniffing the air, I’m relieved not to smell the unmistakable stench of death. For one horrible moment, I thought Mikhail’s injuries might have actually killed him. I sniff again, surprised to find Mikhail’s scent so weak. It doesn’t seem like he’s been here since this morning.
I know he didn’t have guard duty today, and last I saw, he wasn’t in any shape to do anything but lie in bed.
I head into the back bedroom where his scent is strongest. My wolf shifts uneasily. The room is a mess, some dirty clothes strewn about on the floor. Cocking my head to the side, I follow my instincts and open the closet. Empty hangers greet me where clothes should be. I check out the tiny bathroom. Toothbrush and shaving supplies are also gone. Back in the bedroom, I open drawer after drawer. All empty, or nearly so.
Mikhail isn’t here—he ran.
Chapter 6
“WHAT do you mean ‘Mikhail is gone’?” Nikolay asks, glaring at me from over his massive mahogany desk.
“That’s what it looks like,” I tell him. “And from his scent, I’d say he left early this morning.”
“He’s with that human,” Ivan cuts in.
I clench my jaw and keep my eyes on Nikolay. I really wish Ivan wasn’t here for this. Based on Derek’s comments this morning, some in the pack think Ivan is running things through Nikolay. If Ivan continues to involve himself in our business, it won’t be long before Nikolay’s position as Alpha will be challenged. Weres’ don’t like taking orders from outsiders, even if they happen to be Alpha of their own pack.
“If this is true and he is with her, he will be dealt with. We’ll send out two hunting parties. Gray, take Derek, Veronika, Isabel, Dmitry and Zak with you. I’ll lead the other party.”
My mouth twists at having to bring Zak with me, but at least Ivan won’t be hunting with us. I leave immediately, calling the others on their cells to tell them to meet me at Mikhail’s.
Once everyone arrives, I quickly relay the information before stripping out of my clothes to change. Everyone follows suit, leaving their clothing in a pile near the tree line.
I remember when I first started changing, over a decade ago. I used to go off into the woods to shift, too embarrassed to get undressed in front of everyone. But modesty is short-lived among werewolves. We’ve all seen each other’s naked bodies so many times that it ceases to even register anymore.
I ignore the pain as my body begins shifting, joints popping out of place and resettling, teeth and claws sharpening, elongating, black fur sprouting up, covering my chest, arms, and back.
Within minutes, I’m standing on all fours, adrenaline coursing through me. The thrill of the hunt sings in my veins, erasing sleep and fatigue despite the fact that I’ve been running through these woods most of the day and night.
But this isn’t an ordinary hunt, I remind myself. Tonight, we hunt a friend, a pack mate, and I have no idea what Nikolay has in store for him once we catch him.
I’m the first to complete the shift, Derek just a few minutes behind me. We pace around, stretching our limbs, waiting for the others to finish.
Nosing around the yard, I search out Mikhail’s trail. A large black wolf with a ring of gray around its muzzle trots out of the woods, five others following obediently behind. Looks like Nikolay’s party is all ready to go.
*Mikhail’s had a big head start, but he’s weak. We can catch him,* Nikolay says along the pack bonds.
Yips and short howls answer this statement. Nikolay’s party sniffs around for a few minutes before heading off into the trees on the west side of the house.
Instead of following, I take my time circling the house again, puzzled. There are several scent trails leading from the house into the woods, all from either early this morning or late last night. It will take a bit of time to follow each one before eliminating the false trails. But something about this bothers me and I sit down on my haunches, trying to figure it out.
When I left Mikhail last night, there weren’t many major bones in his body left intact. I know Allison isn’t strong enough to have healed all of Mikhail’s injuries, and after less than a day of recuperation, he would know he’s too weak to outrun the pack. Besides, what about the human? The only reason Mikhail would have fled is if he intended to run off with her. Hard to do that as a wolf in the middle of the forest. No, he wouldn’t have run into the woods.
*Are we hunting or are you just gonna sit here all night?* Zak asks, chuffing as he paws at the ground. *If you don’t have the stomach for leading the hunt, step aside and let me find the traitor.*
I turn my head and bare my teeth at him in warning. I wait for Zak to lower his head in submission before trotting out into the road. You would think that after last night he would stop challenging me, but some people are too dumb for their own good.
*Where are you going?* Isabel asks. *The trail leads this way.*
*False trail,* I answer. *There are three more like it around the house. He didn’t run into the woods. He left in a car.*
*What? How do you know that?* Derek comes over to me to check out the scent I just picked up.
*It’s faint, he must have masked it with something, but it’s there, and it’s headed out of town,* I tell them.
The others cock their heads to the side, unsure, but Dmitry falls in behind me like the obedient soldier he is. *Lead the way.* He gives me a wolfy grin, excited to start the hunt.
I take off down the dirt road, following the faint trail. The others run along the tree line to limit our exposure. With my dark fur, I could be mistaken for a dog—a large dog—but the gray coloring of the others is too distinctive to be mistaken for anything else.
We run for miles, the dirt road eventually gi
ving way to a paved one, the cars becoming more numerous even at this late hour. We stick to the cover of trees bordering the road, only occasionally venturing out to check the trail.
The sky is just lightening to gray when the trail leads us to a crappy little motel on the side of the highway. I have the others wait in the trees while I sneak around to the side of the building.
The scent gets stronger in the parking lot, where he must have gotten out of the car. I follow it to a room on the bottom floor, careful not to get too close; if Mikhail hears me he’ll take off before Nikolay and the others can get here. When I’m sure which room he’s in, I ghost through the grass, back to where I left the others.
*Nikolay, we found him,* I call. I can tell Nikolay is far off to the northwest, but our pack bonds work regardless of the distance between us.
*Did you take him down?* he responds after a moment.
*Negative. He’s holed up in a motel. He has the human woman with him.* I most definitely caught her scent mixed with Mikhail’s outside the door. I was right; he didn’t leave without her.
A longer silence, then, *Where?* I relay the address to him. *I’m on my way. Stay there in case he runs again.*
We camp out in the woods as the sky changes from gray to pink, then light blue. We take turns napping in the underbrush, everyone but Derek, who paces restlessly back and forth.
*What’s up?* I ask him privately, so the others can’t hear.
He looks over at me, then continues his pacing, eyes locked on the motel in the distance. *This doesn’t feel right,* he says. *If Mikhail doesn’t want to be in the pack anymore, why can’t Nikolay just let him go?*
*You know why,* I tell him. *Werewolves and humans don’t mix. Even if Mikhail never tells her what he is, she’s bound to notice something’s off about him. If he slips up, all of us are exposed.*
*What’s Nikolay gonna do to him?* he asks, a slight whine escaping.
*I don’t know…*