The One We Answer To: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 3)

by Daniels, May Ellis

  The world goes black as the white flash blinks out.

  There’s a wet choking sound and I know the boy is dead and all I can think about are my sons, my beautiful boys, and did they die like that…brutally, horribly? With a mind so terrified it went blank? With a body that refused to obey?

  Pim’s hand trembles in mine. Something’s changing.

  Pim’s changing. Her hand feels…soft. Downy. Like feathers.

  “Pim, no!” I scream, but too late.

  Pim’s hand slips from my grasp and in the dim light beneath the forest canopy something leaps into the air and rises into the sky, cawing fiercely.

  The soldier standing next to me shouts a warning, raises his gun—

  I slam my shoulder into his arm, knocking the gun from his grasp.

  “Fucking bitch!” the soldier screams as we crumple to the dirt.

  A quick sound of metal sliding from leather. A blade shines over me, flashes down, stabs into the soil inches from my ear. The soldier rolls to the side, springs to his feet. Brings the blade down toward my chest.

  My mind empties.

  I call her. Come to me, I plead. Come to me.

  Silence. Cold and merciless.

  The blade falls.

  A gunshot rings. The soldier jerks to the side.

  Stares at the blood seeping through his bullet proof vest.

  There are weak points in a kevlar vest.

  Trish has been trained to find them.

  The soldier falls dead. I’m on my feet, not bothering to thank my friend, conscious only of the need to find Anik and Shiori and Pim. My packmates.

  The gunfire’s constant now. Bullets zip overhead, punch into trees.

  I scream at Trish to stay close. For her protection or mine? I can’t tell. Bright flashes light up the forest. The Stricken are closing in. I see them flitting through the trees around us. Hear their foul hoots and shrieks and bellows. Feel their hunger for red blood.

  Me and Trish burst into a clearing. My knees weaken. At first I can’t even comprehend what I’m looking at. Hundreds of the makeshift pole pyramids. Even more decaying human corpses. Anik on his knees in the middle of the clearing, frozen, wide-eyed, staring at something in the pole structures.

  A burst of machine gun fire to my right.

  Someone shouts a warning.

  Mia’s crouched on her knees, the machine gun lighting up in her hands. She’s firing into the structures. But there’s nothing there. Only swaying dead bodies and poles tied together at odd angles and…I notice something moving inside the structures. A shifting shadow among shadows. A swarming black cloud.

  Shiori.

  A Stricken pack emerge from the woods. Oh god how many? Seven at least. Hideous, malformed things. Lions and bears and lizards. Their eyes gleaming red and yellow and cold blue. The Stricken snarl and howl and leap into the clearing. I’m certain they’ll charge us, but instead they turn toward the pole structures, raise their arms and roar in triumph.

  The sound freezes my blood. The Stricken are celebrating.

  “Lil?” Trish cries. “Lil!”

  I want to tell Trish my creature is near. I want to say it will be all right. But I might be too weak to risk calling her, and now my friends and I are doomed to die in this stinking wood and I’ll never see my sons again—

  A white raven caws from high overhead.

  Please fly, Pim. Please! Fly far away from this hell.

  “Shiori…don’t do this!” Anik screams, still on his knees. “Why? Why desert us?”

  The buzzing black swarm swirls from within the pole structures as Shiori’s wasps come together to form a delicate, finely featured face, and from the face a voice speaks, disembodied, heartless, and the voice says, “Because I have seen truth.”

  The Stricken pack shrieks in answer.

  “It’s not who you are!” Anik screams, his face wet with tears.

  “Poor Anik. I have ascended the Pyramid of the Sun,” the voice within the swarm says. “Stood beside the Lord of Near and Nigh. Been blessed by the Carrion Cloud.”

  The Stricken fall to their knees, press their foreheads to the ground, prostrate themselves before Shiori and the pyramid.

  The Stricken weren’t hunting us.

  Shiori summoned them.

  She betrayed us.

  Two bodies are sprawled on the ground beside Anik. I recognize Earl. Mia’s second. His body half stripped of flesh. Partially consumed.

  “There is a place for you, Anik,” the voice within the swarm says. “A place beside your true brothers and sisters. Join me. Join me and live free.”

  Anik turns to stare at me, his face wracked with indecision and doubt.

  He’s considering it. He’s lost his way.

  “Lily…I don’t know…please? Tell me? Please?”

  I open my mouth to speak. But no words arrive. There’s nothing I can say. Sometimes leading is about more than commanding. Sometimes its about saying silent. Anik needs to let his heart guide him, and in my silence his face crumples and his shoulders slump.

  “This alpha is weak,” the voice in the swarm says, rising in volume until the sound makes the soldiers at my side cover their ears. “A liar. An impostor. She’s weak. A failure. She doesn’t care about you, Anik. She never has.” The buzzing sound softens. “But I care. You know I do. We carried one another, Anik. Like true packmates. Like lovers. We carried one another from Sedna’s lair. Across northern forests. We held one another warm against the cruel wind. Do you remember?”

  “I remember,” Anik says, his voice halting and heavy.

  “Think of the pain our sister caused…” Shiori says. “Judge by her actions. Not by what others claim she is, or what she claims she is. What has she done, Anik? To help you and Pimniq? To protect you and Pimniq?”

  “Nothing,” Anik growls, casting me a seething glare.

  “Then abandon the weak. Join your packmates at the Temple of the Sun. Bring your beautiful sister. And after, you may both return home. The north will be yours alone.”

  “I miss my home,” Anik stammers. “The cold blue ice. The…clarity. I miss roaming free.”

  “I know you do,” Shiori says. “I understand how much—”

  There’s a clicking sound, then a whoosh of air, then one of the soldiers screams a war cry. I whirl to see him fire an anti-aircraft missile directly at the pole pyramid. The missile steaks across the clearing, leaving a white-orange trail behind.

  Part of the wasp swarm detaches from the main host and flies at the streaking missile. The missile hits the black cloud and deflects high overhead, arcs harmlessly through the sky and explodes into the woods several miles away.

  The soldier drops the rocket launcher and flees into the woods. A few seconds later there’s a horrible, pain-filled shriek, then silence.

  The remaining three soldiers look at one another.

  And that’s when I realize Mia has vanished.

  “Destroy her, Anik. Your animal spirit stalks near. I scent him. Destroy the failed alpha!”

  Anik’s body shudders. He lifts his head to the sky and moans. Digs his hands into the dirt, and when he lifts them they’ve widened into powerful, claw-tipped paws.

  Tornarsuk the Three Eyed Bear. The Indestructible.

  “Rise now,” the wasp swarm says. “Rise now and feed.”

  The Stricken pack stand.

  Turn to face me and Trish and the three Skin soldiers.

  But it’s not them I’m worried about. It’s Anik. He’s rolling on the ground, his body shifting and swelling, the immense polar bear’s massive muscles bunching tight across Anik’s shoulders and chest, his face broadening, and then something swoops from the sky, a flash of brilliant white beneath the silver moon.

  Pimniq.

  The soldiers’ machine guns blaze.

  The Stricken charge at us, a wall of bloodthirsty death.

  Tornarsuk rears on his hind legs and roars so loud the ground shakes and trees topple and my breath flees my lu
ngs. But he doesn’t move to defend us.

  Shiori’s black cloud screams in triumph.

  The Stricken plough into the remaining New World Order, rending them limb from limb.

  The white raven arcs low.

  Trish fires at the Stricken. A bull with twisted ram’s horns takes a bullet straight in the face. It tears off half his jaw. The bull turns to Trish and grins.

  Tornarsuk paces in a frenzied half circle, moaning and bellowing in rage and confusion.

  I stand rooted, helpless, while the Stricken advance.

  The white raven’s carrying something in its talons.

  No. It’s carrying someone.

  The nut-ball professor.

  “Run!” Professor Melchuk screams as the white raven glides over the clearing.

  No time to think. I wrap my arm around Trish’s waist and dive for the woods. We smash through a thicket and land in a heap, and when I turn I see the professor, cradled in the white raven’s gentle talons, open a leather satchel as he swoops over the Stricken. Shimmering orange power spills from the satchel, showering onto the animal-creatures. They shriek as the powder burns into them, melting the flesh from their bones. The reek of black blood fills my nose.

  “No!” Shiori shrieks. Her wasps flies across the clearing while the white raven sets Melchuk down, then lands lightly beside him.

  The professor dusts off his coat, looking mighty pleased with himself.

  The killing swarm sweeps in behind them.

  Trish is on her feet first, firing into the black cloud, and then I’m behind her, one of the dead soldier’s machine guns in my hand, firing into the cloud even though I know it’s useless, desperate to keep Shiori from reaching Pim and the professor.

  The white raven turns as the wasp swarm widens to swallow her and the professor. She looses a quick, terrified squawk.

  Tornarsuk leaps between the swarm and Pimniq and raises himself to his full height. The bear towers twenty feet over my head, then raises both front legs to the night sky, leans toward the killing swarm and roars.

  A tremendous booming sound pours from the bear’s throat, like a rogue wave crashing onshore. Tornarsuk’s roar smashes into the buzzing wasps. Shiori’s swarm shatters and dying wasps flutter from the sky and still Tornarsuk roars.

  I hear the pain in my gentle brother’s roar. The fear and doubt and heartbreak. I hear glaciers calving into a frigid black sea. I hear a sleek seal slicing through cold water, pursued by a sharp-toothed killer whales. I hear the killer whale’s hunger. I hear the cycle of death and life in the north, the months of cruel winter darkness and blinding summer light, the song’s Anik’s people sing to ward of hunger pangs and wild spirits. Songs of love and loyalty. Of hatred and betrayal. I hear the roof of the world crying in Tornarsuk’s roar, and when he finally stops Shiori’s lying face-down in the moss at his feet, naked and pale, her thin body cut and bleeding, and for a moment I believe the mighty bear had killed his sister.

  Then Shiori lifts her head slightly, turns to face the growling bear and says, “I love you, Anik. Remember that. When all is done. Remember that I love you.”

  Shiori settles her head into the moss and closes her eyes.

  Tornarsuk settles on all fours. Whimpers. Rubs his paws over his face. Bends down and nudges Shiori with his nose.

  The white raven vanishes.

  Pimniq reaches out and grasps Professor Melchuk’s shaking hand.

  I start to walk toward Tornarsuk, but a glittering blue-black snake slides across the clearing.

  Trish raises her Glock.

  I grip my friend’s wrist and say, “It’s Mia.”

  “Still want to shoot that damn snake” Trish says, her face pale.

  The snake approaches Shiori. Tornarsuk snarls and leaps at the giant snake. The snake lifts her head, flicks her forked tongue out, hisses.

  Tornarsuk pauses, sniffs the air and takes a few steps back.

  Mia’s snake reaches Shiori’s limp body.

  Slowly, implacably, the snake winds herself around Shiori’s torso.

  “What’s she doing?” Trish asks, horrified.

  “Making sure.”

  “We need her, don’t we?” Trish asks. “Your packmate? To defeat—”

  “Not anymore,” I say, lowering the gun. “Shiori turned. Challenged her alpha and her pack. This is natural law.”

  “This is madness,” Trish says, turning from the grisly scene.

  Tornarsuk chuffs and whines as the ruthless snake winds around his packmate. The snake’s body ripples and pulses as it starts squeezing Shiori’s chest.

  Shiori’s ribs crack.

  Tornarsuk shuffles forward and back, moaning and whimpering, then turns and studies Pimniq, a question burning in his black eyes.

  Pimniq’s face becomes hard, and suddenly she looks much older than her years. She looks ancient. Pimniq nods at her brother while Mia smothers the life from Shiori.

  The bear plops on its haunches, covers its three black eyes with its massive paws and moans.

  Shiori’s hand begins trembling, then her right leg bucks and digs into the moss, then her eyes fly open. Her tiny, delicate-featured face twists into a terrible mask of fear and pain, and I know if she had the strength she’d summon her swarm and murder us all. But instead she smacks and scratches at the giant snake’s silver-blue scales, then slowly calms as she weakens and realizes there’s no hope.

  “Not like this,” Shiori whispers when she sees Tornarsuk watching. Her voice is soft and weak. “Please, Anik? Not like—”

  The snake squeezes harder.

  A pained, wet-sounding breath escapes Shiori’s lungs.

  Tornarsuk stands. Stares me down. Three night-black eyes drill into me. I want to tell him it doesn’t have to be this way. That Shiori can live. But this is law. The natural result of Shiori’s challenging my status and joining the Fallen.

  Tornarsuk’s eyes blaze. He’s furious with me.

  He places a giant paw on the snake’s body.

  Leans his weight onto Mia.

  The snake recoils, lifts her head, hisses at Tornarsuk.

  “He needs to be the one,” Pimniq says. “He demands it.”

  Mia hesitates, then relents.

  Silently uncoils herself from Shiori.

  Tornarsuk waits until Shiori’s completely free, then lifts his paw off the snake.

  The snake slides across the clearing and a few moments later Mia’s there, clutching her broken leg, jaw clamped tight. She shoots me a look that says I should have let her finish.

  Tornarsuk bends low over Shiori. Plants a paw on her chest.

  Leans toward her throat, his jaws opening—

  Shiori’s eyes flicker open.

  “Yes. Like this, poor Anik,” she says. “Like the touching of lips.”

  I close my eyes. It’s done.

  Twigs snap to the left of the clearing, then there’s a click and a tormented scream as Earl’s boy Steven, his face a mask of hatred and fear, unloads an AK-47 into my pack.

  Trish collapses, shot or to save herself I can’t tell.

  Steven keeps screaming as he shoots, cursing us, screaming for the filthy freaks to die, die, that we murdered his mother and father and the bullets fly into Tornarsuk and Melchuk and Pimniq and then another clicking sound as the gun empties and Tornarsuk charges across the clearing at Steven—

  “Anik no!” I scream, and for some reason the magnificent bear heeds my command and digs his paws into the ground to halt his charge. Tornarsuk towers over Steven, his eyes filled with rage.

  “The boy’s lost everything,” I say. “Everything! Have mercy, Anik. He’s only a boy—”

  Steven raises his head to face the bear square-on. Lifts his hand and gives the bear the finger. “Just fucking kill me, freak,” Steven sneers, and I know by his tone that he means it.

  “Mercy, Anik,” I say, walking slowly toward him and trying to keep my voice calm. “You’re not all animal, remember? Not all predator. There’s a
person in you. A person capable of mercy—”

  “Mercy?” a mocking, buzzing voice says from behind my back. “Mercy is weakness. Cowardice. Death.”

  I whirl to see Shiori rising from the ground. My packmate flashes me a thin, triumphant smile, then gestures at Pimniq.

  No. Please no.

  “I did it!” Steven screams, driven insane with fear and grief. “I fucking did it! Ha! I killed the freak kid!”

  No. Not Pim. Please.

  “Mercy, Anik. Please. The boy has suffered—”

  “I shot the little bitch!” Steven screams.

  Trish takes three quick steps across the clearing, slides between Tornarsuk and Steven, catches Steven square in the jaw with a solid right cross.

  Steven’s eyes roll up in his head and then he’s out cold before he manages to get himself murdered.

  “I’ll help your sister,” I say to Tornarsuk. “Don’t look at her. Please? I’ll help her like I did before. I’ll summon my animal and we’ll heal Pim—”

  Tornarsuk swings his great head, sees his little sister, then bellows at the sky. The sound slams into me, knocking the breath from my lungs. Trish, who’s closest to the bear, screams and covers her ears and staggers away.

  Pimniq’s lying in her side, staring at her brother, the proud spirit-bear, tears streaming down her cheeks, clutching her belly. Her hands are smeared in blood. She’s breathing. Barely.

  Shiori raises a thin, almost skeletal arm, points and accusing finger at me, then says to Tornarsuk: “See, Anik? Your little sister means nothing to her. You mean nothing.”

  “That’s not true, Anik,” I say, very quietly. “You know that’s not true.”

  “Kill our weakling sister, my love! Have vengeance. Have strength. Murder them all. Murder them and feed on their beating hearts, Anik! Then join our packmate at the Pyramid of the Sun. Pimniq will be safe there. I swear it.”

  “I brought you back,” I say to Tornarsuk as he growls down at me. “Shiori says you mean nothing to me? Says I should be judged by what I’ve done?” My blood begins to boil. I feel my animal surging beneath the surface. I’m too weak to call her…but she’s there. The apex alpha. The All Encompassing. “I brought you and Pimniq back from the Bloodless Land. From the dead, Anik! And you,” I say, whirling to face Shiori. “I brought you back as well. After the Guardians cut your throats. I gave up my son for you and your sister, Anik! My unborn child!” My voice breaks into a wracking sob. “I’ve done everything for my pack. Sacrificed everything!”