by JK Cooper
The murmurs turned to confirmations of the Hunters’ prowess.
“I barely made it out alive. I came here because one of the Lycans at the café in Lovell said I was investigating the wrong area. He said the Alpha Prime was in the south, where I knew the Copeland pack fought against the Advent. The enemy of your enemy is your friend.”
Jack snorted. “You’re the second person to make such a crazy declaration. Why should I believe that?”
“Because the Alpha Prime is at the gate, and he isn’t knocking politely. Mareus will force conflict, one way or another. He wants this pack. He wants them all.”
“He can have the remains right after we’re done. Then we’ll exterminate him as well.”
“You always were arrogant, Jack,” a newcomer said. Bryanne turned to take in the man who had spoken and couldn’t help but appreciate what she saw. A large black teenager and a stocky young man in tactical gear flanked him on either side.
“I’ll take arrogance, Grant, if it means I’m not an oath breaker,” Jack said.
Bryanne started. Was this the hated Grant Brooks who had betrayed the Hunters to marry a Lycan? She had wanted to track him down, but the man had proven extremely elusive. She knew he had a daughter, and what the Hunter’s own projections had predicted if Moriahna ever conceived. Bryanne’s heart raced as pieces of her own race’s prophecies seemed to come to her mind.
Could Eira have been . . . reborn?
“We need to work together,” Grant said.
“He’s right,” Bryanne said. “The Advent is bigger than just Lycans. Listen, I lost a good agent in Lovell who fought beside me and others of your order.” Her upper lip curled up. “I want the Advent to pay as much as anyone. And I’m telling you, Elias’s pack is not the Advent.”
The man in tactical gear went rigid. He turned to Grant. “I have to go.”
“What are you talking about, Ackerman?”
“The Alpha Prime is going to challenge Elias, and . . .” He paused.
“He’s not accepting,” Grant said.
“He will,” Ackerman said. “He won’t have a choice. The pack is gathering.”
“Where?”
“A creek bed southeast of the manor.”
Grant nodded. “I know it.”
Jack crossed his arms. “Very well, Agent Desmond.” He looked to those under his command. “Put down your weapons.” The men and women around him made incredulous faces but complied. “A challenge may be the perfect opportunity to take out this Alpha Prime once and for all.”
“That’s all I’m asking for,” Bryanne said. “Just give Elias a chance.”
Jack turned to Grant. “Alright, Iron Ice. Lead the way. But I want you to know, if I have a chance to avenge Sherman’s team, I’ll take it.”
Ackerman shifted and sprinted off. Several of the Hunters swore and raised their weapons. A helicopter rose a couple of feet from the ground then slammed down. Whining alarms sounded from the cockpit.
“Better play nice now,” the teenager said and pulled something out of his pocket. Was that a Snickers? “Y’all don’t want me to get hangry. Hungry and angry is not a good combo for me. No, sir.” He bit into the candy bar, chewing quickly.
Bryanne blinked in startlement. He’s a PK.
The CIA woman came up to Grant.
“Mr. Brooks?” She held out her hand.
“How do you know that?”
She just smiled. “Bryanne Desmond. CIA, paranormal unit.”
He took her hand.
“Where is Gennesaret? It’s urgent I speak with her,” Bryanne said.
“I’m sure she’s with her husband. We’re all headed that way, it seems. This way.”
“Is Eira with her?”
Grant halted. “How do you know that name?”
“I’m not here to harm your daughter, Mr. Brooks, or her Immortal Wolf. But if she gets her hands on the Isluxua, things will change.”
Grant’s voice hardened. “What things?”
She met his cold blue eyes. This wasn’t the time for it, but oh Goddess was he pleasing to look at. “The world, Grant. Please, lead the way. We need to hurry.”
Shelby felt the rest of the pack arrive as the warm summer rain turned to a downpour. Joe and Abigail McKinney, their son Anson. Emily and Austin Kaplan. Dakota and Chenoa. Jerod Ackerman. Jonas Abbot. Tommy and Karina Kenzie, along with their parents, Ryland and Miranda. Shelby felt a hole in her heart that was once occupied by Will Kaplan, John and Anna Bingham, the Southebys . . . and Rachel Bingham as well as her father, Ben. She felt it now. He had followed his daughter to the Advent pack.
She heard the footfalls of others emitting new scents. Chelsea. Sean. Their dad. Trish and Amanda. Even Bubba. That made her smile. Then Grant came up next to her, M4 slung across his chest with his right hand on the grip.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said, smiling weakly as he looked sidelong at her.
“Dad,” she whispered. “I’m scared.”
He nodded.
“And . . . I’m sorry,” she said.
“I know. You had every right to be angry.”
A woman stood beside her dad. She looked all government-like in her dress, but the rain did its best to make her look like a drowned rat.
“New girlfriend, Dad?” she whispered to him.
“Huh? Oh, this is Bryanne Desmond. She’s a spy or something.”
Shelby pursed her lips. “Of course she is. And she wants you.”
Grant blinked. “Uh . . .what?”
“It’s all in her pheromones. You don’t smell it?”
“Is this really the time?” her dad asked.
Shelby shrugged. “Ask her. She’s the one emitting it, and rather thickly I might add. I hate being a werewolf sometimes.”
The temporary refrain from the intensity of the moment faded. Across the now-muddied dry creek bed, Shelby saw dozens of pairs of glowing orbs. When the lightning flashed, she saw the Lycan that held those luminous eyes.
That is him, Eira said. Mareus. Your son. The First.
Mareus’s shoulder length blonde hair was tied back with a few locks freely dropping around his face. His eyes were piercing as he stared at Elias, then his gaze drifted to her.
He really isn’t my son anymore, is he? Shelby asked.
Genetically, no, Eira answered. Thyra’s body died centuries ago.
I feel nothing for him but vile.
“Hello, Mother,” Mareus said. Then to Kale, “Father. I see Eira and Skotha brought your spirits to new hosts finally. They seem to have chosen well for you.”
Shelby felt Eira recoil at the presence of Viersin within Mareus.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how you’d feel when you saw your old packmate, Shelby said to Eira. You were his Omega.
Were, Thyra. Many things have changed.
“Nothing to say to your son?” Mareus taunted.
“If you ever were our son,” Kale said, “that tether died long ago.”
Mareus smiled. “So it did.” His hardened stare turned back to Elias. “And you follow an Alpha who is not an Immortal Wolf. How you have lowered yourselves.” He sneered, looking down to Otto. “I should thank you for that, Elias. I know my daughter does.” Next to him, Athena shrugged. Then Mareus held out his hand. “You have challenged and defeated my lieutenant. Come. Take his place at my side. It is your right.”
Shelby felt Elias’s disgust. “Never,” he said.
Puddles of muddy water formed in the shallow creek bed. The downpour heightened to a torrent.
“Do not force my hand, Elias,” Mareus said, lowering his hand. “You and your pack need not die. See the Advent come to pass. Be part of it and save the Earth.”
“Like you saved Alsvoira?” Kale asked. “Skotha has shown me what you brought upon your old world.”
“Our old world, Father,” Mareus said.
Elias shook his head. “You do not wish to save the Earth. You want to dominate it.”
Mareus pursed his lips. “I
speak in a relative meaning of the word, of course. Are you going to force my hand?”
“No, I won’t make you challenge me.”
Mareus looked surprised, but Shelby sensed what would come next. She felt Kale sense it as well, and he stiffened beside her.
Elias roared when he spoke again. “I challenge you, Mareus! I challenge you for the right to lead the Advent pack.”
Athena smiled wickedly. “We thought you’d never ask. Afterwards—” she glared at Sadie—”I’m going to rip the prize you stole from your dead hands.”
Sadie clutched the sack closer to her, and Paul and Sophie stepped in front of their daughter.
She has it, Thyra, Eira said. Shelby felt her wolf’s anticipation.
Has what?
The Isluxua.
Shelby eyed the leather bag that dripped with rain. It made sense now. Elias sent her to steal it. Sadie caught her stare and turned away from her. There was mistrust coming from Sadie. What is that? Shelby wondered.
Mareus walked down into the creek bed and stood before Elias. “I accept.” His eyes glowed yellow as he spun like a terrible storm, nearly faster than Shelby could track with her eyes, and backhanded Elias across his face with a partial-shifted arm. Shelby heard the crack of bone, and Elias flew through the air parallel to the ground, as if in slow motion. He hit the ground, limp, and did not rise.
Genn screamed. She ran to her mate’s side. “Elias!” She rolled him over. Shelby recoiled from the sight. The right side of his head was caved in, blood covering half his face. Shelby tried to reach him, to heal him with Eira’s power, but he was too far gone.
Look into me, Shelby. It was Elias . . . his voice . . . so weak. She did as he asked, and immediately fell into a memory. Nothing more than a second flashed by as Elias walked her through the day he became a Lycan, the death of his friends, the loss of his brother. She saw the silver crucifix he apparently always wore under his shirt, the constant pain of it a reminder.
Permanent scars covered his chest. Shelby realized she’d noticed he had patches of white fur there when in his wolf. It must have been a constant torture to keep silver against his skin. He never wanted to stop feeling the pain of his brother’s death. The pain of what he had done after.
He then showed her the violence of so many other packs. He let her witness all the horrors he had done, all the pain, all the meaningless deaths he’d participated in, fueled by anger over the loss of his brother and the life he once knew.
Don’t let my loss do the same to you, Genn, and Kale, he whispered to her through the fading link. This is not the end. And take Sadie with you.
But you hated her.
I never hated her, he whispered to Shelby’s mind. She is one of my pack. Of course I loved her. Keep her safe. She’ll need you. She’ll blame herself.
I will.
But Shelby wasn’t sure he heard her. His Alpha influence over her waned. His presence in her mind and heart as his Omega was thinning.
Shelby glanced at Sadie, her anger gone. She fell into another memory. She saw all Sadie had seen and done since leaving the pack. She saw the visions Mareus gave her. She saw her turn the Stanner woman, and the guilt of it. She saw her kill the Stanner man, though she had tried not to. Still . . . the guilt. She saw her running for her life with the Isluxua. But the horror of what Mareus had shown her rocked Shelby’s soul. Is that true?
Eira answered. Not the entirety of the truth. Mareus kept back much and shared only what he knew would alter Sadie’s perception of you.
But . . . some of it is true?
Eira hesitated. Yes.
Show Sadie the whole truth. Show me. I need to see it.
I will, but not now. Elias is dead. Can you not feel it?
Shelby did, it tore through her in hot slashes through her spine. Being an Omega meant feeling someone leave your pack more. It meant feeling the death of one as a death inside you. A single blow, and Elias was defeated. Mareus’s raw strength completely shook her, and she felt that fear ripple through her pack. They shifted, her pack, everyone including her, and they howled. She had never felt this before, the loss of an Alpha, and her howl beckoned, begged even, for it not to be true, for Elias to rise.
But she knew he would not. Beside her, Kale’s howl grew to a roar. Louder, and louder still. It deepened, and Shelby tried to take his sorrow, but he wouldn’t let her. He kept it, and she felt his mind spin with grief and anguish and suffering and such poignant mourning and—Eira screamed.
THYRA!
Athena knew her chance had come. She felt the boulder of surety crumble within Kale. Finally. She pushed at it harder, forced her way in, widened the cracks. Doubt, fear, insecurity, Athena poured them into the boy.
The bond weakened. She felt it thin, then tear. Yes! Then it snapped entirely.
Shelby is done. She’s ours.
Eira’s warning came too late. Shelby felt Athena’s assault into her mind, to the bond between her and Kale, between Eira and Skotha. And then, nothing. Severed, in their lowest moment, that split second of incredible sorrow and weakness. She felt the wisps of the bond flapping in the storm of her heart. No more anchor. No more home. Kale’s essence was no longer a part of hers, and she felt herself falling.
“It is done,” Mareus said. He stretched out his arms. “I accept you as part of the Advent.”
Many crossed the creek bed. Shelby had only been a werewolf for a year, but she knew it was the law, the way of the Lycan pathos. She felt something inside her drawn to the Alpha Prime, but she resisted.
Ryland and Miranda Kenzie crossed. Karina, then Tommy as well. Shelby’s heart ached. Anson McKinney crossed next, his head lowered, followed by Joe and Abigail. The Kaplan twins were next, and Shelby felt hollow. Her pack . . . her pack was not a pack anymore.
Eira?
Skotha must rise, she answered.
Shelby looked to Kale’s wolf, large but unsure. Even without their bond, she could tell he also felt hollow.
I choose him, Eira said. You must also.
Shelby did. She chose Kale as her Alpha, and instantly a connection—not their bond, but that of an Alpha and an Omega—knitted itself between them. There. A pack of two. A duet in the cosmos that defied the burgeoning tyrannical chorus in front of them.
Mareus snapped his head toward Shelby. “You dare defy our law? Defy me? I am the First! I am the Prime of our race!”
Then, Shelby felt another connection, and their duet became a trio. Gennesaret and her wolf chose Kale and Skotha. Then Paul Chandler, then Sophie. It swelled further with Jerod Ackerman, loyal to Elias to the end, and now, to his son. Dakota added his will to the pack, and then, surprisingly, Jonas Abbot. Chenoa came to Shelby’s side, and Shelby felt her and Jaenu choose Kale.
I will never choose Viersin, Chenoa said through the newly formed pack link. But it wasn’t Chenoa, Shelby realized. It was Jaenu, her Immortal Wolf, and Shelby sensed an eternal hatred that resided there toward Viersin.
Sadie came forward in her wolf, choosing Kale too. She nosed something toward her new Alpha. The leather satchel. Something like a shock spread through the pack link as Sadie spoke.
This is what your dad wanted. She turned her amber eyes to Shelby, then looked back to Kale. I’m sorry I got him killed. I’m sorry for so many things.
Then, the venatrix sprinted away.
Sadie! Wait! Shelby called.
No, Shelby. I have to find my own way back.
Please, I can help— But her plea was interrupted by the same rippling shock of sensation—something akin to feedback from a guitar amp—as Sadie disconnected from the newly formed pack link.
Let her go, Kale said. His voice had the presence of someone older now, of authority. We will heal her when she is ready.
Kale sniffed the satchel then nosed the object within it free.
“That,” Mareus shouted, “belongs to me!”
“I’ll bring it to you, Father,” Athena said. She shifted.
Do not l
et her take it back, Eira said. For the sake of the Earth, do not allow Mareus and Viersin to have it.
Kale, in Skotha’s massive form, stepped over the book, placing it protectively beneath him. He hunched his shoulders and emitted a deep growl. Grant raised his rifle, obviously sensing the growing tension. The pheromone-emitting-spy-chick beside him drew her sidearm.
You were the first Lycan, Mareus, Kale said, somehow piercing the Advent Pack’s link. Our Prime.
How can he do that? Shelby asked Eira. I thought only a venatrix could.
Because, Thyra, Skotha-mit-Daeglan is something Viersin-mit-Mareus can never be.
But, Kale thundered, you were not the first Alpha. I was. I am. And you I brand as an imposter and a usurper of the Prime Pack of Alsvoira.
He is rising, Thyra, Eira said. He is choosing the role he once held on Alsvoira, both Skotha and Daeglan.
But Shelby wasn’t a part of it. She felt Kale as her Alpha, as an Omega in the pack would, but not him. His essence and soul had vanished from her. Those wispy ends of the bond reached for his heart but didn’t find their home. Kale felt like a void, an emptiness where there had been so much strength and confidence. The bond was another void, a nothingness where there had once been hope, joy, comfort, and love.
Mareus darkened, the angles of his face seeming to sharpen. “Then you will die.” He shifted, followed by Athena. The former members of Elias’s pack looked hesitant, but each of them eventually followed suit, joining the dozens of Mareus’s pack.
Now in the form of Viersin, Mareus charged, crossing the creek bed in a single leap. He slammed into Kale and the two rolled in a tangle of teeth and claws.
“Kale!”
Automatic weapons’ fire rang out from behind her, silver rounds slamming into the Advent Pack. Hunters had obviously been waiting further back and out of sight, upwind. Grant and Bryanne opened up as well, shooting rapidly. Shelby felt a surge of heat waft past her. As other Advent Lycans sprinted across the muddy creek bed, spouts of fire jutted up, burning them. Vipers rose from seemingly nowhere, attacking them.