Shadow's Howl

by Riley Storm

  “I don’t snore,” he said.

  “You’re going to be well rested. Because I’m going to cast it again,” she said, straightening. “And again.”

  Liam nodded.

  “Then some more. And once I’m confident about it,” she said, looking up at him, eyes challenging him to say no. “Then you’re going to find me a target to try it out on. One not expecting it. Understood?”

  “Of course,” he said, declining to mention the darkness he saw at the corners of her eyes.

  It was the first glimpse he’d gotten of whatever it was driving her. The true reason she’d come to the farm, to offer her help to the rebels. She’d kept it well hidden, but now, in the moment of exultation and success, she was revealing more than he suspected she was comfortable with. It was only there briefly, then hidden once again behind her mask, but he’d seen it.

  But he again didn’t bring it up to her, keeping her secret, letting her feel confident, and prepared. After all, that was what was most important about it all—that she continued to get better.

  He just hoped whatever it was didn’t consume her when it came time to actually attacking.

  “I’m not going to let you down,” Jennifer said hotly, stepping forward and driving a finger into his chest. “I’m not letting anyone down. I can do this, and I’m going to show you all.”

  “I believe you,” he said earnestly, and he did.

  But all at once, that wasn’t his main concern. Without thinking, he’d grabbed her hand with his own as she jabbed her index finger at him. He held it now as electricity shot through their shared connection, the skin-on-skin contact. It lit his nerve endings on fire, tiny hairs on his arms and neck standing upright.

  Jennifer let out a tiny gasp, the only indicator she too was feeling whatever it was. Their eyes were both drawn to where his hand engulfed hers, holding her tight in his grip. Then they looked at one another, and all at once, Liam no longer cared.

  He didn’t care about his past, he didn’t care about her true purpose for being there. What others would or wouldn’t say, what they wanted of him, of her. None of it mattered. Not a single iota, except for right here. Right now.

  At some point, his body simply reacted, and he kissed her, covering her lips. She melted into him, no resistance this time, no hesitation. They didn’t need it. Didn’t want it. All they wanted was each other.

  His wolf howled inside him, eagerly urging him on, telling him that now was the time. Time to take her, to make her his own. Right there in the field they could rut, without a care in the world. It would be primal, basic, uncaring and rough.

  Fingers clutched at his face as he casually lifted Jen from the ground, pulling her in to him, practically crushing her body against his. He could feel the lushness of her, the curves like the antithesis of his hard, sculpted muscles, and it drove him wild. He wanted to rip that robe from her, tear her clothes off and simply admire her sexuality.

  It was intoxicating, the feel of her pressed up to him. He wanted to drink and drink deeply. It would be so easy.

  His mouth found its way to her neck, biting and sucking on the sensitive skin there. The sound of her soft moans in his ear drove him wild, pushing him farther and farther into a frenzy that had no stopping.

  “Liam,” she whispered, nibbling on his ear, thrusting her hips against him, trying to capture the hardness she could feel under his pants.

  He couldn’t strip her like this. She was too tight to him, the space too confining. So he set her down, eager to remove the clothing, to let his eyes feast on what lay beneath.

  “Ah!” she yelped, falling to the ground as she twisted her ankle on the uneven surface.

  Just like that, the spell was broken. He knelt at her side. “Are you okay?” he asked, focused on her health.

  “Twisted my ankle,” she muttered. “Hurts like a bitch, but I should be okay. I think.”

  He rubbed her ankle softly. “Sorry about that.”

  She laughed. “Don’t sweat it, big guy.”

  The friendly nature of her reply confirmed to him whatever spell had come over them, it had ruptured. He could see the pulse in her neck as it hammered away under her skin, and she was still breathing heavily. Liam’s own body was doing the same, his pants still tight, face still flushed.

  But whatever had come over them, it was done. For now.

  “I need to get back to practicing,” she said, getting to her feet, testing out the ankle a bit before walking on it. “No time to waste.”

  Liam nodded, mentally preparing to get hit with yet another knockout spell. The things he did for his House!

  He watched Jennifer keenly as she prepared to cast it again, noting once again something at the corners of her eyes, hidden, yet present. The driving force in her, it was showing itself.

  Why is she driving herself so hard? What is she still hiding?

  Emerald green lashed out at him before he had a chance to think it over, and blackness rushed up to consume him again.

  21

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Jennifer bit back a hot retort that would have been entirely impolite and unhelpful.

  “Yes,” she said tightly, going over the casting of the spell in her head again and again. “You know I need to do this. It’s the next step in it all.”

  They were crouched behind a van in a parking lot, as far from any overhead light as they could get, while still being relatively close to their target. The black of night was everywhere, obscuring things in shadow and gloom.

  “I just don’t want you to feel like you—”

  “Enough,” she growled. “I told you I was ready for this, and I am.”

  A low bell sounded in the distance, ding-ding-ding. Their target was approaching. It wouldn’t be long now before she would be called upon to act. The last thing she needed was Liam giving her reason to doubt herself.

  “There will be six of them,” Liam said, switching gears, much to her relief. “They should all be on the same car, but we don’t know which one it is. Four more will be meeting them. That makes a total of ten.”

  Ten. The most she would have tried her spell on so far. It was a major milestone, and yet still just a stepping-stone to where she needed it to be.

  “Don’t worry if you don’t get them all,” Liam said. “Just get as many as you can. Our men will handle the rest.”

  Ten rebel shifters had accompanied them, just in case things went sideways, Liam had wanted enough backup on site to ensure they could either finish a fight or extract themselves without trouble. She knew he didn’t expect her to fail but was still prepared for it. Just in case.

  Plan for the worst, hope for the best. That was a saying he’d hammered into her brain over the past three days, ever since Logan had given them the green light for the strike.

  “I know,” she told him as he prepared to repeat himself. “I heard you. Ten of them. Six arrivals, four greeting them. Get as many as I can. Don’t forget I am the one who came up with the idea of testing this out. I know what we need. You were right, after all.”

  She bit back a smile as Liam struggled to find words, unsure how to respond to her saying he was right about something.

  “I was?” he asked, essentially admitting defeat by acknowledging he didn’t know what she was talking about.

  “Yes. When you told me just because I knew how to cast a spell, didn’t mean it would be of any help. If I’m going to go up against this Magi, I need to have these spells ready to fly without thought. Without hesitation. The only way I’m going to be prepared for that, is a test run. Like this. Something smaller. Controlled. Where if I fuck up, nobody dies.”

  Liam nodded in agreement. “I know. We’re in agreement there, Jen. I just want to make sure you’re ready for this. Because as soon as this happens, even if we’re successful, they’re going to know we have a mage working for us. With us,” he corrected hastily as she glared at him.

  “Your point?” she asked calmly, not tak
ing her focus off the mission at hand and what would be required of her.

  “I already told you. They’ll know about you after tonight. Maybe we should call this off,” he suggested. “Give you more time to practice. To preserve the element of surprise.”

  She appreciated the offer he was making, giving her a way out of tonight if she wasn’t feeling ready or up to it just yet. A professional cop-out. Well, Jennifer wasn’t going to take that. No sir. She was going to show these whisker-twisters just what she was capable of, and she was going to do so without hesitation.

  “No,” she said quietly. “We’re a go.”

  “You’re positive then?” Liam asked. There was no admonishment in his voice, he was simply making sure, looking for the answer.

  “Completely. You told me there’s only so much I can learn in drills out in the farm fields, Liam. I need real-world practice and experience. This is how I get it. End of story. I’m ready for a call-up coach. Let me show you what I can do.”

  He snickered at the line but nodded. “Very well.”

  Behind the van, the screech of metal on metal announced the arrival of the freight train at the station, as it slowed from its leisurely pace to something sedate and stately, before at last coming to a halt, cars clanging against one another.

  The two of them rose from their crouch, peering through the tinted window. It was odd for the freight train to be stopping here. The freight yard was farther on still. Which meant they had the right train.

  Her eyes weren’t as sharp as Liam’s, but even she could see figures moving. Four of them, like they’d expected, moving toward the train to greet the new arrivals.

  Jennifer had no idea how Liam had gotten word of the reinforcements the Tyrant King was bringing in. All he’d said was not everyone on the inside was as loyal to the Throne as it seemed and left it at that.

  It was no secret, even to her, that Laurien, the loyalist King, would be scrambling for more support from every corner. After two attacks against the rebels had gone horribly wrong, his numbers were down more than ever at Moonshadow Manor. If he had any hope of holding it against the rebel attack, he needed more numbers.

  The only ones available to him, however, were those from enclaves around the world. The core strength of House Canis had always been located at the Manor, just outside of the small town of Plymouth Falls. But that strength had been split, and then further decimated as the war raged on.

  According to Liam, untold dozens of shifters languished in the dungeons at the Manor, “guests” of the Tyrant King, whose loyalty hadn’t been strong enough to his cause. Between that, the rebels who had escaped to fight back, and the deaths during the fighting, House Canis was at its weakest in a long time.

  If she was successful tonight, it would begin the final stage of the rebellion. And she, Jennifer Shaw, would be the one to help put an end to it. To help reunite the wolves. That would be the perfect way to help atone for the damage Adrian had inflicted.

  “Last chance,” Liam said as the new group of loyalists exited one of the freight cars.

  “This is what I need to do, Liam,” she said sharply. “I would appreciate it if you supported me on this.”

  His head came around so fast she heard something pop.

  “I am supporting you,” he growled. “I was the one who went to Logan and argued with him to approve this plan. I reached out to our contacts, discovered what was going to happen. This is the plan I put together. These are men I went out and asked to volunteer, because I supported you. All of this,” he said, waving his hand around. “Is because of my support for you.”

  “Oh.” Jennifer felt ashamed. “I didn’t know that. You didn’t tell me.”

  “Because it didn’t matter,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You said you were ready. I believed you. End of story.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. It should have been. I’m sorry it wasn’t. I’m just…not used to you believing in me. Trusting me. What…what changed?”

  Liam peered back through the van windows. “Is now really the time for this? They’re going to be done their pleasantries soon and begin moving.”

  “Yes,” she said. “It really is the time. I need to know, Liam. It’s important to me.”

  He sighed. “It began when you showed you were willing to fight another mage, just to stay and help us. That was the first clue that sent me for a loop. That isn’t something you just do for fun, not when it could have backfired on you spectacularly.”

  Shrugging, Jennifer remained quiet. There wasn’t much to say to that; he was right on all fronts. It hadn’t been easy for her to defy the Council’s wishes, but she’d thought it over many times before she’d ever stepped foot on the farm. It was the reaction she’d expected from them, and so she’d steeled herself for it, prepared herself so when it happened, she would freeze up.

  “Anything else?” she prompted when he didn’t continue as expected.

  “And…” he said, looking down and away, blinking furiously. “I may have been letting some of my own problems cloud my initial judgment of you.”

  She looked at Liam with new-found respect. He’d never admitted something like that before. It had been obvious to her that something was going on, but he’d never actually acknowledged it before.

  “I see.” There was so much more she wanted to ask him, to talk about, but he pointed at the van, and by extension the loyalists on the far side of it.

  “It’s now or never, Jen. Are you ready for this?”

  She couldn’t see the other shifters in the parking lot, hidden behind other cars, but she knew they would be awaiting Liam’s signal to attack. Otherwise, they would stay hidden, and eventually fade away into the night after the loyalists left, never the wiser.

  Closing her eyes, blocking out the world, she took a deep breath, trying to calm the frantic pounding of her heart as nerves threatened to overwhelm her.

  In her mind’s eye she saw a picture of her and another, older man, sitting on a nightstand, back in her room at the academy. He was smiling. Happy. Alive.

  “Let’s fucking do this,” she hissed, standing up and walking out from behind the van.

  22

  Magic coursed through her veins. It had done ever since she was a child.

  From the time Jennifer was old enough to understand words, she’d been taught how to control her magic. To bend it to her will. Not only had she been shown how to use it, but she’d also been instructed on when to use it. A good man had shown her that.

  Using it on other people was often not a time to use it. In times of rare importance, or emergency, it might become necessary. Now was not one of those times. But nevertheless, Jennifer was convinced it was a proper time.

  So, she let the power flow, drawing deep upon the well of it that beat within her like a fire at her core. She drank it all, drawing it out, letting it flood her veins. Walking forward she barely heard Liam behind her.

  He vaulted the van, barking orders to his men to prepare themselves, but it was all background noise to Jennifer. She barely noticed it all. Her focus was on her magic, and on the cluster of men ahead of her who were just now noticing her presence.

  “Mage,” she heard, the word hissed in surprise.

  How did they know, she wondered, until she glanced down at herself. Bright green magic swirled in bands around her arms, flowing down until it concentrated into brilliant green balls in her hands.

  The shifters came at her in a blur, moving faster than her human senses could react. She froze. They were so fast! She couldn’t hope to match their reaction times. They would be on her before it was too late.

  “Jennifer?”

  “Let me concentrate!” she hissed, pushing Liam out of her mind. She needed all her focus right now. The spell was there, at the fringes, but it was proving harder to assemble than expected.

  They just moved so fast! The distance was great, but they would be on her soon, if she didn’t cast the spell.

  Come on, come on! Just do
it already!

  She slowed her forward pace, wondering if she should run away, put some distance between them so she had more time to cast the spell. If she could. Even as Jen grabbed at the strands of magic, trying to focus them, weave them together as she’d learned, they frayed and fell apart.

  “Jennifer,” Liam urged gently. “If this isn’t going to work, I need to know.”

  “You constantly interrupting me isn’t helping,” she snapped, focusing on her hands, putting the oncoming shifters out of her mind. Either she would cast first, or they would reach her first. It really didn’t matter at this point, she only had one option.

  The spell rushed back to her in a moment of clarity. “Almost!” she hissed before Liam could say something else. “Almost got it…”

  There.

  Her eyes snapped open and she thrust her hands forward at the hard-charging loyalists. Emerald-green magic shot forth in an expanding arc with her as the origin point, spreading out to smash into all the loyalists.

  Jennifer watched the spell hit home, crossing her arms confidently, a smile on her face. “Yeah! That’s what I—uh oh.”

  The spell worked as intended. Each shifter it hit went stiff as a board, arms snapped to their sides, legs together, mouth shut. It worked, it really did. Except she’d still managed to screw it up somehow.

  One by one, they hit the ground, but before their momentum had even scraped skin off on the sidewalk, the spell had worn off. Jennifer started to back up as they rolled to their feet and continued to charge.

  “Uh, Liam?”

  “Yes?” the shifter asked tightly, stepping up next to her.

  “I don’t think this is going to work.”

  He snorted. “Good thing we came prepared then, isn’t it?”

  All around her, more shifters appeared, forming a solid line. Jennifer felt her spirits buoyed, but it only lasted for a second. Instead of pausing and turning tail, the loyalists snarled their challenges and came at them harder.

  “I think you made them mad, honey,” one of the other rebels drawled, rolling his neck.