Marked by the Alpha Wolf; Part 1

by Scarlett Grove

  The closest she’d come to harnessing that kind of power again had been in deep meditation with Circe. Cassie had blasted a cactus to bits with her mind. Even the witches could not harness the power of the earth and sky as she had that day, when the Anu and their soldiers were upon them.

  That kind of power was Cassie’s gift and her curse. “Blessed of the Seventh House,” the witches called her. But the Seventh House had never appeared, never helped her or taught her what to do beyond leading her from the dome and setting her free.

  She made one last attempt to find her core. But all she felt was darkness. The time before, she’d been defending her friends. Selina had been hurt and could have died. The distant threat to strangers did not give her the same motivation. Even her own life had yet to give her the same incentive.

  She strode out of the shade onto the wide sidewalk of downtown Phoenix and was suddenly gripped by an invisible hand and thrown full force against a concrete wall. She slid down the wall, blood seeping from her nose. Damn it. Circe had used a gripping spell on her. The witches might not be able to blast entire squadrons of soldiers and cars, but they sure as hell could do a lot of damage to one person.

  Cassie stumbled to her feet and broke into a run. She ducked around the corner, hoping to get out of their line of sight. She searched with her mind for their location and felt they were surrounding her.

  The hand gripped her again and threw her back toward the zombies. This time when it dumped her on the pavement, she felt her leg sprain. She screamed. Pain seared her body. The zombies still limped toward her, only a few blocks away. Those freaks are slow, but they definitely are persistent fuckers.

  She had to get out of the witches’ line of sight or they were going to kill her. She had instructed them to put her in mortal danger, not to hold back, and they were honoring her wishes.

  Limping down a steep sidewalk, she staggered into a dark parking garage. Her footsteps on the concrete echoed. Behind her, she could hear the grumbling moans of the zombies as they finally turned onto her street. Her leg screamed with pain. She must have bruised a muscle in her thigh when she’d been thrown.

  Zombies fell into the parking garage, rolling, crawling, and scraping toward her. Limping faster, she sped toward an entrance to a building. Maybe she could get inside and keep them out. Each step sent a jolt of pain up her leg, and she wanted to cry out for help.

  She’d gotten herself into this. She’d asked for it, even though she’d known she hadn’t been ready. Tears burned her eyes as she neared the exit. She gripped the sliding door and pushed it open.

  Inside, she looked at the four walls of an elevator. Electricity had gone long ago with the coming of the alien apocalypse. There was no way to close it. No escape.

  Panic gripped her throat. She dug deep into her core, searching for the power. How had she done it? Where had it come from? Nothing—she felt nothing. She let out a frustrated moan and tilted her head back. Above her, she saw an opening in the elevator. The zombies were only a few yards away.

  She jumped for the opening but missed. Pain seared her leg when she landed. Yelping, she grabbed her thigh. She cursed, gritted her teeth, and jumped again. This time, something inside her cracked open and propelled her upward as if gravity didn’t exist. She gripped the lip of the opening. She lost the antigravity power at once and hung by her fingers with the zombies only a few feet away.

  With all her strength, she pulled herself up on top of the elevator just as the zombies broke through the door below her. She looked around at her new surroundings as the zombies dog piled in an attempt to get to her.

  A ladder climbed the length of the elevator shaft, as far up as she could see. Grabbing the first rung, she started climbing. Rung after excruciating rung, she climbed upward, her injured leg screaming each time she put weight on it.

  Glancing down, she saw the first of the zombies begin its ascent. God damn it! Why didn’t these things give up? If they caught her, at best they’d bite her and give her a deadly infection. At worst, they’d eat her alive.

  At the first floor, she tried to pry the door open. No luck—the thing wouldn’t budge. She looked into her core again, searching for the way. Her focus snapped back to the zombie scraping its way up the ladder behind her.

  When she reached the second floor, the door was open, waiting for her to crawl through. She reached around to hug the wall with her arm as she swung her good leg up to hook over the opening. Then she brought the rest of her body carefully onto the floor.

  Taking a deep, ragged breath, she looked over the ledge at the zombie. She scrambled to her feet and tried to push the elevator door closed. At first it wouldn’t move. Slowly, the door slid shut with a satisfying zip, sealing the entrance.

  Not a minute later she could hear the sound of scraping against metal. No time to lose. The zombies would get through soon. She had to find a way out.

  She limped down the hallway searching for a stairwell before she looked up and realized that half the building had been blown open. When she found the door marked “stairs,” she opened it to find a massive pile of rubble blocking her escape.

  Scraping filled her ears as the zombies clawed their way up the ladder and worked against the door that protected her from them. She stumbled to the open wall and looked down. She was on the third floor, nearly forty feet in the air.

  She searched frantically for a way to climb down. The rubble didn’t offer any reasonable ways of climbing down. Her best option looked like a forty-foot drop to a pile of concrete and steel, which of course was a terrible option.

  The zombies pushed the door open and began dragging their broken bodies onto the dingy linoleum tile of this once-upon-a-time corporate office. The lead zombie crawled through the door and pulled itself up to its full height.

  The man he had been was dressed in a gray suit and striped shirt that were now coated with dirt and gore. The zombie he had become had lost half his face, and Cassie could see teeth and tendons in the side of the monster’s face.

  The others began to emerge behind him. Cassie stood her ground, preparing herself. She drew her sword and held it aloft, ready to swing. Maybe if she took them out one or two at a time, she could defeat the hive the old-fashioned way.

  She sliced. His head toppled to the ground and rolled toward her foot as the zombies inched forward behind him. Cassie’s psychic battle skill had been exceptional from the very first day she’d discovered how to use it.

  She could predict the movements of her foes before they made them. As she bobbed and danced with her sword, their attacks seemed to happen in slow motion. Her body somehow exhibited the most profound muscle memory for hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and swordplay. Slashing and stabbing, Cassie made quick work of the first wave of single-file, undead creepers. Behind them, another swarm of them crept three at a time from the elevator shaft.

  Chapter 51

  Rafe spun around and burst into a run, away from the ship. Selina galloped beside him, her tongue lolling as she panted in the heat. Laser blasts shot behind them, making boiling heat radiate from the ground, baking their back legs.

  The alpha’s mind raced faster than his feet. Clark clung to Rafe’s back with both arms gripping tightly around his neck, nearly choking him. A laser blast came from the side, and Rafe veered away.

  A laser shot grazed Selina’s side. She yelped, knocking into Rafe and sending Clark tumbling to the ground. Rafe gripped the boy’s good arm between his teeth and swung him up onto his back. Clark clung to Rafe’s hair. Selina staggered from the laser burn across her side, but they continued running.

  Shots blasted at them, sending them running straight toward the edge of a cliff. Rafe didn’t slow his gallop even though Clark cried out in alarm. Selina gave a high-pitched howl as they hurled themselves off the cliff.

  Below, the river ran deep and wide. Clark lost his grip on Rafe’s back as the three of them fell, flailing, into the water. When they hit, they sank like stones.

 
; The swift current at this part of the river pushed them downstream. Rafe fought the downward pull and made it to the surface. He could see Selina’s wolf head bobbing in the water a yard away, but Clark was nowhere to be seen.

  Rafe dove below the surface, eyes open, searching the darkness. He spotted the limp, black-and-white shape of Clark and the slow downward movement of his body. Rafe paddled toward him and gripped Clark by the shoulder, dragging him to the surface.

  Clark’s eyes were shut, and his chest wasn’t moving. Rafe used every muscle in his body to tug Clark through the beating current to the shore, where a thick stand of willows shaded the sand.

  Selina helped Rafe pull Clark’s body from the drink. They both shifted, and Rafe knelt to give Clark CPR. After what seemed an eternity, Clark rolled onto his side and spit up the silty river water from his lungs.

  Rafe helped him sit up and patted his back as he coughed.

  “Are they gone?” Clark asked, gasping for a clear breath.

  “I’m not sure.” Rafe scanned the skies but couldn’t see the ship anywhere. “We need to stay under cover. Let’s just get our bearings here for a moment.”

  “This is downstream from where we met Nadine, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. I suspect we are about ten miles from the highway and about fifty miles from Tucson. The highway is upstream,” said Rafe, pointing to the east. “We’ll have to hike it. How is the wrist, Clark?”

  “It isn’t any worse.”

  They slowly pushed through the dense willows that choked the riverbank. Everyone stayed in human form and walked on bare feet through the sand and mud. Their human bodies took up less space and were less conspicuous from the air. If Clark had been well enough to run, the speed would have been a better option.

  After about a mile in the dense muck, they stopped and drank from the swift river. Water cooled their overheated bodies. The sun had already begun to descend in the western sky.

  Rafe and Selina prowled into the river for fish while Clark sat on the shore, nursing his wrist. They were able to pull catfish out of the shallows and flung them ashore. In wolf form, the small pack devoured the fish whole. After a few moments’ rest, they shifted back to human form and continued on their trek.

  Several hours past nightfall, the group found the highway. Naked and muddy, they climbed onto the concrete.

  “Hop on, Clark,” Rafe said before shifting. Selina followed suit, and they began a long trot toward Tucson. Rafe knew exactly how picked-over most of Tucson already was. Finding a car and gas that far north would probably not happen. Their best bet was to scavenge in the suburban towns farther south along the highway. Maybe they could find a place to hole up for the night, sleep, find some clothes. Until they reached those small towns, they had a lot of desert to cross.

  Stars sparkled in the clear night sky. As they ran, Rafe could see stars falling. Meteors hurtling toward Earth in the hundreds. It looked more like a storm than a shower. White blazed on black before his canine eyes. The effect was mesmerizing.

  Around midnight they reached the suburban neighborhoods. They veered off the highway and into the empty streets. Sniffing for zombies in the still air, Rafe couldn’t smell anything.

  He nudged Clark off his back, and the young man slid to the ground. Rafe shifted and looked at Selina. “Do you smell anything?”

  “No,” she said, shifting. “It smells safe here.”

  Clark walked beside them while they went back to wolf form, sniffing out gasoline. Down a long, wide street lined with southwestern-style upscale houses, Rafe smelled the stinging scent of gas.

  He hurried in the direction of the smell and found it originated from a crew-cab 4x4 truck. The thing was a gas guzzler for sure. They needed something discrete and fast. He scanned the neighborhood for other cars and spotted a tricked-out Mazda RX8. That’s what they needed right now. He sniffed the car for gas, but it didn’t have any.

  Rafe broke into a garage behind the truck and scavenged for a hose and a gas can.

  “I’m going to put the gas from the truck into the Mazda. You two scout out food, clothes, and a place to rest for the night.”

  Clark and Selina walked off in search of provisions, leaving Rafe to his thoughts. For the first time, the loss of his pack fully sank into his consciousness. His heart felt heavy and hard as a stone. He gulped, trying to swallow his despair. A single tear slid down his unshaven cheek. He wiped it with his shoulder and got to work siphoning the gas from the truck into the gas can.

  As Rafe poured the gas from the gas can into the Mazda, Selina and Clark returned from their scouting mission. Clark’s hand had been wrapped in a bandage and a sling, and they were both dressed in suitable clothing. Selina wore a pair of form-fitting pants and a hoodie over a tank top. Clark had on blue jeans and a T-shirt under a sweater. The desert night’s chill crept up Rafe’s back as he looked at them dressed so comfortably.

  “We found a good house. Food, clothes, no dead bodies,” Selina said, pointing a flashlight at Rafe. He followed them across the street to the house, where he found a pile of clothes waiting for him. They were a bit snug for his muscled frame, but they fit well enough. Selina had even found him some tennis shoes only half a size too big.

  Dressed and warm, they inspected the contents of the kitchen under the glow of Selina’s flashlight. They found cans of corn, baked beans, and an unopened mega package of beef jerky, teriyaki flavor.

  They took the food into the living room and relaxed on the dead owner’s luxurious, modern gray couches. After an entire day and half the night of slogging naked down the river and highway, the food was much needed.

  Later, they slept. Rafe took first watch, sitting on the couch with his arms crossed over his broad chest. He gazed at Selina and Clark as they slept in the dim glow of starlight through the windows. At least he still had them. And he would find Cassie.

  For the first time, fear that Cassie might have been attacked wound around the base of his brain. The thought squeezed down his spine until it reached his heart. He gasped and put his hand over his mouth. No. She had to be okay. He shoved the thought away. He wouldn’t entertain it a second longer.

  Chapter 52

  The zombies surged from the elevator shaft. Cassie stalled for half a breath, waiting for the onslaught. She slashed through the first ten zombies, dancing with her sword at almost inhuman speed. But her speed and strength quickly failed her as the pain in her leg intensified. She could not hold back the horde for much longer.

  She withdrew slowly, slashing a zombie down the middle before hacking another’s head clean off its neck. In the split-second window before the next five were on her, she whirled around and ran, as fast as she could with the stabbing pain in her leg, to the opening in the wall.

  The drop to the ground would probably kill her. At least it would maim her enough to make her an easy kill for the zombies that would fall after her. She knew that, yet she continued at full bore to the drop-off. Her foot propelled her off the ledge, and she flew forward.

  Something inside her cracked open. She felt it as the whooshing upward of jets of air. She felt it as powerful wings on her back. She was held aloft, either way. Spreading her arms, still gripping the short sword, she flew through the air, kicking her legs as she went. After what felt like a single suspended moment, she landed on the two-story building across the street.

  Cassie snapped her head back to look at the zombies, a sense of satisfaction breaking into a smile across her face. She stood, brushed off her knees, and sheathed her sword.

  She walked with a slight limp toward the doorway leading to the stairs. Her muscles seemed to have loosened in her short flight across the street. Inside the shade of the stairwell, she took a swig of water and wiped her brow, taking stock of what she’d accomplished so far.

  She hadn’t yet found the place inside her that could direct massive bursts of energy like a weapon, but she’d been weightless twice already. That was definitely a good skill to have.

&nbs
p; Nevertheless, she’d come here for one reason and one reason only. Liberating the dome would require that burst of energy, and she’d have to remember how she’d done it if she wanted to take the fight to the Anu and save those children.

  She twisted the cap onto her bottle and tossed it in her backpack before quickly moving downstairs. As she turned down the last flight, she felt the grip of an invisible giant hand encircling her midsection. Damn it! It crushed her insides as she screamed. She pushed against the invisible foe, trying to break free, but its fingers held fast.

  The hand slowly tightened around her. She could hear the sound of her ribs popping. The pain seared her. Suddenly, Cassie could see with perfect clarity how to dispel the hand.

  A line of energy shot up through her feet from deep in the core of the planet, moving through her body to pool in her solar plexus before jetting up through the top of her head. The energy was propelled through the ceiling and into the sky. Her consciousness moved with it as it blasted into the universe and plummeted back through the top of her head with such force that it burst outward from her solar plexus, exploding the invisible hand.

  She dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Her midsection ached, and she thought perhaps several of her ribs were broken. Tears escaped from the corners of her eyes as she scooted across the floor to lean on the cool wall behind her.

  A woman dressed in a long black robe stepped through the door at the bottom of the stairs. Circe ran to Cassie and cupped her face in her hand.

  “Sister, are you all right? You did it! You did it, Cassie. You found it. And you flew, sweet sister. You did it.”

  Cassie groaned as Circe pulled her into an embrace. Hecate and Vesta came in close behind her. The women circled Cassie, chanting in the cool, dim, enclosed space. Cassie screamed as her ribs popped back into place. Her organs felt bruised, but soon those were soothed as well. Even the pain in her thigh subsided under the power of the witches’ healing spell.