by JK Cooper
Athena smiled wickedly. “Yes, Father. A hunt will do her good.”
Sadie’s eyes dropped as her enthusiasm drained away. “You aren’t talking elk, are you?”
Athena laughed. “No, we hunt better prey than your pack ever has. You’ll enjoy it. Otto will want to come too.”
“That should be fine. Let him know.” Mareus then turned to Sadie. “Your abilities make you valuable, but they also make it hard to find your place in the pack. That is where Elias truly failed you. We will find you a place and establish the trust you crave.” He then gave a direct command, one of the first tests an Alpha can give to new arrivals. “You will do this to prove your loyalty, my shifty venatrix.”
“Yes, Alpha Prime.”
The wooden sign squeaked in the wind as it hung from two rusted hooks attached to an arched entryway. It read “Stanner Family Ranch.” A log fence spanned left and right of the property’s entry with weeds sprouting thickly around each post while sagebrush snared the rails. Sadie cringed. She knew Kenny Stanner. He was a homeschooled stoner and a jerk, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die.
Roughly a quarter mile up the private road sat a small rambler style home. In the driveway, Sadie thought she saw an old pickup truck.
“Not the best place to go on a hunt.” Sadie joked.
Mareus smiled. He had the leather bag with the Isluxua slung across his shoulder. “Oh, this is the perfect place for a hunt.”
Sadie sniffed the air and shook her head at the scents of the ranch. “Horse isn’t, like, the best eating, ya know?” She took another sniff. “Lot of horse pucky in the air as soon as Adolf here showed up. Anyone else notice that?”
Otto stiffened. “Maybe we’ll hunt you instead of horse and its pucky.”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “You’d have to cussing catch me. I don’t see that happening with that stick up your gluteus.”
Athena chuckled, but tried to hide it.
Otto’s eyes glowed with amber pinpricks. “Oh, I’d catch you, tiny creature. I am very good at snaring unsuspecting playthings.”
“Hey, none of my business . . . however you spend your private time—”
Otto slapped her. “You will not be insolent in the presence of the Alpha Prime,” Otto said, a growl seeping into his voice.
The speed of his strike shocked Sadie more than the slap itself. She rubbed her jaw. “I wasn’t so much insolent to him as to you, so maybe you should watch your own insolence next time, speaking for your Alpha and all.”
Mareus said and did nothing. He just watched Sadie’s reaction with a keen interest. She felt like he was weighing her right there, peering into her. She pulled herself back from the pack link, not a full disconnect, but she didn’t want her new Alpha and Omega cracking open her skull, literally or figuratively. But she pulled back too fast and too far. Sloppy.
Mareus flinched, infinitesimally, but Sadie saw it. She eased her connection to Mareus and the pack back toward where it had been. Her stomach bubbled with anxiety. Oh Hades, girl, what did you do? She tensed, ready to shift and run at the first hint that they suspected her.
Mareus gave a suspicious smile. “The venatrix has you there, Otto.”
Athena laughed, and Sadie felt her calming touch. It wasn’t as gentle as Shelby managed. This was more a feeling of forceful suppression of the anxiety rather than a coaxing or a comfort.
Mareus also relaxed, even if only by a couple degrees. “Time to hunt. Inside that home, Sadie, is a couple whose seventeen-year-old son just joined my pack.”
Sadie flinched. “Ken isn’t a Lycan.”
“He is now,” Otto growled. “I turned him myself.”
“It’s been over a week and they’re worried sick about him, though he seems to miss them less.” Mareus feigned wiping a tear from his eye as he sniffed. “Still, I am not without mercy. Kill one of them—I don’t care which—and bring the other to me to join his or her son.”
Sadie swallowed.
“What’s wrong?” Otto smirked. “Do you not wish to please your Alpha? I bet you have never killed anyone. Just bunnies and mice, like a house cat.”
“I have killed several someones.” She had. Hunters at Copeland Manor only weeks before. “And enjoyed it.”
“Words are easy. I think you lie.”
“Can I kill him instead?” Sadie asked, motioning toward Otto. “No lie, I would enjoy that, and it would be almost as easy as words.”
The German werewolf’s eyes darkened to a muddy amber.
“Otto is my lieutenant,” Mareus said with a shrug. “If you wish to challenge him, you may. It is your right as a member of my pack. But first, I need this done, young Sadie Chandler. I wish to see your resolve and dedication to the Advent. Athena wishes to feel it. You are dedicated to us, aren’t you, Sadie?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Good, very good. Perhaps Athena should go with you? For . . . moral support?”
Athena slipped her shoes off. “It would be my pleasure, Father.”
Sadie closed her eyes. “No need. I can handle two humans alone. Give me ten minutes, and then you can send in Athena and her dog.” She took a nervous breath and shifted, tearing her clothes to shreds. She spoke through the new link to her packmates. I’ll need some new duds, sorry. Wasn’t going to undress first in front of Pervy McLinger-Eyes over there.
Athena covered her mouth to hide the silent laughter as Otto growled at the barrage of insults spoken aloud and through the link.
“You have five,” Mareus said. “Otto, go get the girl some new clothes.”
He looked like he might argue for a second, but then he walked back down the road toward the house they’d come from.
“Less than five now,” Athena said with a not-so subtle warning.
Oh, yeah. On it. She raced down the lane. What have I gotten myself in to? she asked just to herself.
When she got closer, she could make out the scents of home cooking. She could practically taste the scalloped potatoes and broiled chicken. Then she could hear the television. She loped up to one of the larger windows near the front of the rambler, the light painting the gravel outside in golden strips. The couple sat on the couch, trays on their laps. The woman had a box of tissues next to her plate. The man had a beer. Poor lady. She lives.
Sadie took a few steps backward to get a running start and burst through the window. Glass flew everywhere. The woman screamed. The man crawled over the back of the couch toward where a shotgun leaned against a table. No you don’t.
Sadie jumped, landed on the table and snapped her jaws at him. His eyes went wide and he fainted. Seriously? Well that messes up my plans, dude! SWAC! I only have a few minutes. Sadie slammed her paw onto a piece of broken glass and held her dripping paw to the man’s neck, intending to create a mock scene of his death, maybe use her venatrix skills to imitate the scents of death, but she paused. In the reflection of the hutch’s glass doors, she saw Athena behind her, staring. She stood outside the broken window, her head lowered, shoulders hunched. And that destroys my plans completely.
Sadie’s stomach boiled with indecisiveness. You can’t do this, she told herself. But she knew she must. Her inhibitions started fading, and she felt less queasy about what must be done. Athena, she realized. Feeling the Omega’s touch enraged Sadie. She steeled herself, looked away, and ripped her claws across Jimmy Stanner’s neck. As the blood spattered her coat, she cringed with regret and felt something inside her shrivel. I’m sorry. I had no choice. She knew it was a half-lie. She then rounded the corner to find the woman huddled up on the couch crying.
Sadie adjusted her scent, grabbed the back of the woman’s nightgown with her teeth, and dragged the crying lady past her husband, over broken glass, and out the window.
She landed with the wailing woman next to Athena and flinched, acting surprised to see her. The woman screamed and cried louder when she saw another wolf.
Too late. I’m done, Sadie said through the link.
&nbs
p; Athena eyed the woman, padded up to the window, glanced inside, and then padded back to Sadie’s side. Good work. Take her to the Alpha Prime.
When the woman saw another human, she wailed louder. “They killed him. They killed my Jimmy. They killed him.”
“Did they now?” Mareus asked, looking at Athena.
She shifted back to human and stretched completely nude in the moonlight. “Looks like Sadie ripped his throat out.”
The woman went silent, staring at Athena with wide eyes and mouth agape.
Otto shuffled up with a handful of clothes and dumped them on the floor. He stared at Athena too, until Mareus stepped between them.
“Nothing like the fresh scent of death in the air.” Mareus sniffed. “Your doubts in our little venatrix proved false, Otto.”
No, no they didn’t, Sadie thought, revolted, pushing down bile.
The woman began screaming again. “Oh, Jimmy. Kenny! My boy and my man are both gone forever. Demons ate them!”
“Sadie,” Mareus said, smiling proudly. “Mrs. Stanner wishes to see her son. Make it so she can really see him.”
No, not this as well. It would be too much. Too cruel. Not just to this poor woman but to me! Her tail twitched as she approached the woman who had seemed to cry her last tears.
“Just kill me,” she pled.
That would have been more merciful. Sadie obeyed her Alpha’s wishes and bit the woman on the thigh. Her venom burned into her body. She convulsed, then passed out from the pain.
Bryanne did the best doctoring she could in the motel bathroom, cleaning her wound for the fifth time since leaving Lovell. She winced as she dipped it in the hottest water she could get out of the tap once more.
She eyed the soggy, blood-soaked towels on the floor. That’ll be a fun expense to explain if I survive. No, sir, I didn’t steal the towels. Why did they charge me like I had? Apparently, they can’t handle a little blood, sir.
She took a deep breath and suppressed a giggle. I’m also a little delusional. Fever and blood loss will do that to you, lass!
Still no word from Riley. He was surely dead. A pang of guilt rushed through her, but she pushed it aside. Mourning was a luxury she did not have. On the old motel television, some stuffy looking man from CNN reported that an alarming amount of missing persons reports were being filed, particularly in small towns across the U.S., and even some in England.
Ava. Bryanne thought of her Bandruí sister at MI5 who sent her the cable about the Advent pack arriving in America and prayed she was having better luck. She used the last clean towel to dry her skin and resealed the gash in her arm with superglue and a surge of magic. Emergency rooms have nothing on me. Wish the ley lines were stronger here. Should be in Texas.
She pulled the map she’d bought at the last gas station from her back pocket. I’m close. Gennesaret better be ready.
Sadie masked her scent as she stole into a shadowy corner of the drawing room of the old plantation style house, turning her coat a mixture of off-white, black, and gray to match the soot stained walls near the dilapidated hearth. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her thudding heart. Shadowy recess or not, her amber eyes would glow like two disembodied stars in the dark.
The Alpha prime had been busy. Some two-dozen new Lycans — their scent so pungent — lay around the house, some in their human form, some in their wolf. Some sullen, angry about being robbed of their humanity, some burning with wonder at their rebirth. And yet, Sadie herself could not help but feel a twinge of guilty excitement. You infiltrated the Advent Pack! You go, girl!
But, there had been a steep cost. She tried not to think about it. Mrs. Stanner still writhed in the basement with the others who were struggling to turn. Most did not survive. Kenny, her son, wrestled outside with the other pups, not seeming to care at all that his mother languished in agony as the venom did its work.
She heard snarls followed by loud bangs coming from upstairs as several roughhoused. She felt the vibrations through the wall she leaned against as what sounded like a body went through drywall and studs above her. Many itched with a desire to unleash their new power, but Sadie felt Athena and the Omegas under her calming the pack . . . though even her powerful influence had its limits. New Lycans needed to unleash their bloodlust, and Mareus’s lofty promises made it even more difficult for them to keep their urges in check.
She skulked along the wall toward the private study where she knew Mareus spent most of his hours reading that condemned book. Why did we agree to this, Sexy Lexi? Just because Elias asked nicely? Yes, but also, she couldn’t resist a secret mission. She was a venatrix, after all.
She decided Elias better pay her if she succeeded. I won’t ask for much, just a stipend of, oh say, $25,000 a month. He can afford it. He probably spends that on marble cleansers alone.
She reached the threshold of the study and noted the soft glow of candlelight coming from a door standing slightly ajar. Hesitantly, she nosed open the door and allowed her coat to shift back to its natural brindle color. The door creaked as it languidly swung open.
She debated reconnecting to Elias and her pack, but worried Mareus would feel her departure. You’d think he wouldn’t notice one with all the wolves he has under him, all the ones he’s adding daily, and all the ones departing as they face off with humans and Hunters everywhere.
Being a venatrix allowed her to invade another pack’s link for a time, but she feared the Alpha Prime or the Omega would root out the connection as an intrusion. It wasn’t perfect. That was the real reason she didn’t let Athena in. Hacking a pack link left mental breadcrumbs that could be found. For my first spy mission, I think I’m doing an underworld of a job. She had just gotten all the way to the study without being detected. Hopefully the book is in there alone.
The book was in there, but it wasn’t alone.
Mareus glanced her way, closed the Isluxua, and put it back into the protective leather bag he always carried with him. He pulled the laces at the top, cinching the opening shut. Sadie caught the deliciously moist scent of the thick leather and salivated. It made her think of elk for some reason.
“You are not like the rest of this rabble, Sadie.” He did not question why she was in her wolf. It seemed many of his pack chose to stay wolves the majority of the time.
You mean this gaggle of slobbering newly turned pups you’ve got? I’m about to go bat feculence crazy with all the fleas they’re attracting.
Mareus pursed his lips as he nodded slowly. “Athena has told me about your colorful metaphors. These young ones will have their purpose. The impetuousness of youth can be useful, when channeled properly.”
“I suppose that’s true. Applies to me too, I suppose.”
“Yes, but tell me, little one, why do you still resist my daughter’s touch? What are you afraid of?”
Sadie shrugged in her wolf. I have daddy issues?
“That one’s a lie,” Athena said, coming up behind her. “She loves her father very much.”
Sadie blushed, glad it wasn’t visible in her wolf. Didn’t hide that one well enough. Then, through the hacked pack link she continued. It’s the thing to blame nowadays, isn’t it? Why take responsibility when you can blame your parents for everything? Shelby’s the one with real daddy issues. Sheesh, that girl.
“Ah, yes.” Mareus’s eyes glowed. “Shelby. Speaking of parents . . . tell me about her.”
Sadie whined instinctively, turning away from Mareus’s gaze. What about her?
“Has she told you who she really is? Who her wolf really is?”
You mean Eira?
Mareus inclined his head and raised an eyebrow.
Yeah, she told me all about naming her wolf. Kale did it too. Probably some kind of bonding thing, like how boyfriends and girlfriends used to wear each other’s names on matching necklaces. How copulating cheesy can you get? I named mine too though. Sadie spun dramatically, showing off her coat and making it shine a tad more than normal. I call her Sexy Lexi. Fitting
, right?
“Very,” a foreign voice agreed. Sadie looked over her shoulder to see Otto in threshold to the study beside Athena. Otto grinned. “Although redheads are not usually who I find attractive, especially redheads with big mouths.”
“Ignore him,” Athena said. “He doesn’t find you attractive. He doesn’t trust you and is trying to make you feel off-balanced.”
Like you aren’t doing the same thing with that comment?
Athena grinned. “I like my friends off balance too, yes.”
“Your wolf is not an Immortal Wolf,” Otto said, looking at Sadie.
Nope, and I’m fine with that.
“It actually makes her feel insecure,” Athena said. “She doesn’t want to believe there is such a thing because it means she is inferior. But . . . she grudgingly does believe that Immortal Wolves are probably real.”
I hate Omegas.
Mareus actually chuckled.
“You are unworthy of an Immortal Wolf,” Otto said. “You are not pure.”
Yeah, well, your wolf is a Nazi, so . . .
Otto sneered. That struck a nerve.
“I don’t blame you, child,” Mareus said. “Skepticism is not a weakness.”
But Sadie wasn’t skeptical. She felt Mareus’s authority. Her feigned skepticism helped mask her fear. She was afraid. Yes, very afraid right now because she was beginning to believe there was something more to this Alpha Prime. It radiated from him, and she felt the truth of his words when he spoke. Wait, that was Athena, stoking her trepidation, encouraging her to trust in her Alpha. Condemn it, she’s good. Maybe better than Shelby.
“Listen to me, Sadie, and I will tell you who your Shelby really is. One world has already paid the price of her existence. The consequences are . . . most unfortunate.”
Sadie shuddered. Gennesaret has told us about the Summer Omega prophecies. Next thing I know you’ll cussing tell me that your daughter is the real Athena from Greek mythology. You don’t have to worry about me. if it’s between humans and Lycans, I’ve already chosen my side. Long live the Advent, or whatever your catch phrase.