by TJ Klune
He took off down the road.
There was a pulse of something in my chest, something I couldn’t remember feeling before. A tug that almost seemed familiar.
And it was connected to Rico.
We followed him down the road.
The house stood no different than when I’d left it.
I ached at the sight of it.
We came to a stop a few yards away.
Brodie and Tony stood on the porch, hands still joined. They watched as we approached, growling low in their throats, heads cocked.
“Okay,” Rico whispered, gun drawn. “Now what? They’re trapped, right? I mean, we probably are too, but still.”
I took a step toward the boys. “Tony.”
There was no recognition there.
“You know him,” Kelly said.
I nodded, never looking away from the boys.
“He doesn’t know you. Not anymore.”
“Tony,” I said again, and the boy bared his fangs. “It’s okay. It’s me, Robbie. I’m here. I’m—”
“Would you hear me, dear?”
I fell to my knees, clutching my head as a terrible wave of magic assaulted me. It rolled over me, obliterating every thought I had. I screamed at the ground, struggling to stay in control even as my mind filled with a dense, heavy fog. It was calming. Soothing. I wanted nothing more than to let it take me away.
And then Kelly said, “Robbie, Robbie, please,” and I gritted my teeth as his hand came down on my bare shoulder, covering the mark he’d put there with his fangs. The mark I didn’t remember receiving.
The mark that meant mate.
I raised my head, the fog pulling at me with long tendrils.
“No,” I managed to say in a guttural voice. “No. You can’t. You can’t.”
Livingstone stood on the porch behind the boys, his hands on the tops of their heads. “I think you’ll find I can. And I will.”
Rico and Kelly spun around me in a practiced move, guns raised. They opened fire at the house, and though their aim was spot-on, the bullets sparked against a barrier in front of Livingstone’s face and ricocheted off into the porch.
Livingstone slowly shook his head. “All this bloodshed. And for what?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you’re in any position to talk about bloodshed,” Rico said as he reloaded. “You know, seeing everything you’ve done and all.”
Livingstone looked at me, and his expression turned pleading. “I am giving you a chance, Robbie. To give me what I want. All of this could be avoided. Everything.”
“You stole him,” Kelly snarled, pointing the gun at Livingstone again, though it was useless. “You’re never going to touch him again. Not while I still stand.”
“I see that,” Livingstone said. “Maybe you shouldn’t be standing anymore, then.”
I couldn’t stop him.
I wasn’t fast enough.
He raised his hand.
I reached for Kelly.
He was hurled off his feet as the air sparked and crackled around him. He flew across the dirt road and slammed into a tree. I heard the sharp crack of bone as his leg broke. He screamed, and I screamed with him as he fell to the ground at the base of the tree. He turned himself over and began to crawl toward me, leg dragging behind him.
“Such perseverance,” Livingstone marveled. “I see what you found in him, Robbie. I understand now. Mates. It’s a shame, really. Would you hear me, dear?”
I cried out again as the fog wrapped itself around my head.
“Fight it!” Kelly shouted. “Robbie, you fight it, goddammit!”
“He can’t,” Livingstone said. “I see what the witches have done to him. How they’ve locked him down. It’s only a matter of time. Robbie, dear, listen to me. Listen to my voice. There is a human next to you. He is a threat, much like your father was. Do you remember what your father did? This human will do the same. You can stop him.”
I turned my head toward Rico.
Rico took a step back. He raised the gun toward me. “Robbie. Please. Don’t make me do this.”
I stood slowly.
Rico stumbled back even as Kelly tried to push himself up, screaming again in pain as his bad leg gave out. But it was a distant thing, a faraway thing, lost in the fog.
I growled at the man before me with a gun.
This human.
I took another step toward him.
The barrel of the gun shook.
“No,” Kelly whispered. “Rico, don’t—”
I slapped the gun out of Rico’s hand before he could get off a shot. It landed on the ground, bouncing away from him. He raised his hands to ward me off.
It wouldn’t stop me.
It wouldn’t—
Kelly said, “I see you, you know?”
Kelly said, “I see you.”
Kelly said, “And I will never let you go.”
And I—
It was good between us. We took it slow. You smiled all the time. You brought me flowers once. Mom was pissed because you ripped them up from her flower bed and there were still roots and dirt hanging from the bottom, but you were so damn proud of yourself. You said it was romantic. And I believed you. There was something… I don’t know. Endless. About you and me. We came here sometimes. Just the two of us. And you would pretend to know all the stars. You would make up stories that absolutely weren’t true, and I remember looking at you, thinking how wonderful it was to be by your side. And if we were lucky, there’d be—ah. Look. Again.
“Fireflies,” I whispered.
“What was that?” Livingstone asked, his voice a whipcrack of warning.
“Fireflies,” I said again, louder, as the fog burned away. “It’s all fireflies and—”
Time slowed around me.
I tilted my head toward the sky.
She whispered, Little wolf, little wolf, can’t you see? You are the master of the forest, the guardian of the trees.
Quiet as a mouse no longer.
It started in my chest. This great bloom of fire.
It consumed me, and I burned with it as these strings so much like tethers exploded out from me. They struck Rico first, and I heard lobito lobito lobito, and then they moved on to Kelly, and it was i love you i love you i love you, and it went on and on and on until there was Jessie and Elizabeth, Chris and Tanner, Gordo and Mark, Carter and the timber wolf, faint though it was, and then, oh, and then it was the Alphas, their voices bright and strong, and I heard them all. I heard them all when they sang BrotherLoveFriendMatePack we see you we feel you we will never let you go because we’re packpackpack and pack is love pack is home pack is—
“Pack is everything,” I said.
“What is this?” Livingstone demanded. “What have you done?”
I looked at him, the bonds of my pack writhing within me, giving me strength. I’d never felt so alive. So vital. So present, here, in this moment. I took a step toward Livingstone. “I don’t need you. I don’t love you. You can’t control me. Not anymore.”
He said, “Would you hear me, dear?” but it was such a small thing, such a negligible thing when it plucked against the strings so vibrant and fibrous.
And I said, “No.”
He narrowed his eyes. “So be it. Remember, when all you love is gone, I gave you a chance.”
He shoved the boys forward.
Tony and Brodie ran, claws raised.
I took a breath and braced for impact.
And I was hit, but not from where I expected.
I fell to the side when Rico crashed into me.
I stumbled. I would remember that always.
I turned in time to see Brodie sink his claws into Rico’s chest again and again and again.
Blood spilled as Rico said, “Oh. Oh. Oh.”
The claws raked down into his stomach.
Birds took flight from the trees.
Kelly said, “No. Oh god, no.”
Tony hit Rico, who took a step back, somehow managin
g to stay standing. Tony climbed onto his back, knees hooked around his waist, and he raised his claws to sink them into the back of Rico’s neck.
Rico looked at me. He grinned. His teeth were bloody. He said, “Worth it. All of this. You. Them. I—”
Tony brought his claws down.
Rico grunted and fell to his knees.
The boys jumped off him and landed on their feet, hissing as they backed away, covered in Rico’s blood.
I caught him before he fell.
His eyes were open and glassy. His breath was ragged in the ruins of his chest. His blood smeared into my skin, and I couldn’t stop the bleeding, I couldn’t make it stop.
“Rico, Rico,” I chanted. “Look at me, stay with me, stay with me.”
Livingstone stepped off the porch. Tony and Brodie huddled at his sides, burying their faces in his stomach.
I looked up at him, eyes wet. “Why?”
Livingstone said, “Because it’s the only way.”
He raised his hand, and his tattoos flared to life.
I tilted my head back and howled a song of horror, needing our pack to hear me, needing them to know all we had lost. It echoed in the forest around us, and in the distance I heard an answering roar that sounded like a scream.
Magic wrapped itself around us, and I held Rico close to my chest. I whispered, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
We were lifted up off the ground. I couldn’t fight it.
“I thought I could be enough for you,” Livingstone said. “I really thought I could. I should have known that the wolves would never let you go.”
And then we were flung up and over Livingstone, and the moment before we crashed into the house, causing it to collapse around us, I heard Kelly cry out my name, and I had a second to think that at least it would be quick for him, and we would enter the clearing together, and we would run and run and run under a full moon and nothing, no one would hurt us ever again.
It felt like a kiss before dying.
Rico and I smashed into the house and it all went dark.
I wasn’t unconscious very long.
I opened my eyes, dust and shards of wood falling on my face.
I was confused, unsure of where I was and what had happened. I hurt all over.
I groaned as I tried to sit up. I didn’t make it very far.
A large beam lay on my chest. Bones were broken, and when I coughed, it felt like I was drowning.
The remains of the house surrounded me. A second beam above me, sticking up at an angle, created a small pocket, holding up the debris, though it creaked dangerously as I tried to free myself.
I laid my head back down. I was tired.
“Hey.”
I turned my head.
Rico lay a few feet away, bloodied, body at an awkward angle like he too had been broken. He blinked slowly at me. His eyes were red, and for a moment I thought he was an Alpha. And then it dripped down his cheeks.
He smiled. “Sucks, huh? Got our asses kicked.” His voice was low and rough, words exploding from him with each quick exhalation.
“Rico.”
“Little wolf,” he whispered. “Legs. Can’t feel them.”
I roared in anger, trying to push the beam off me again. The house shifted once more, and more wood fell around us.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rico grunted. “Bring it all down. Smash us like bugs.”
“I’m going to save you,” I promised him. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
I looked around, trying to find something, anything that would help me. Help us.
There was nothing.
“It’s okay,” Rico said. His breaths were easier, and he had a vacant look in his eyes I didn’t like. “I… I always knew this could happen.”
“Rico, listen to me. We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to go home.”
“Home,” he whispered. He coughed, and a bubble of blood burst from his mouth. “Bambi’s going to kick my ass.”
“Yes. Yes, she is. And I’m going to fucking laugh at you when she does.”
“I love you, you know.”
Tears fell from my eyes. “I love you too.”
He nodded. “It’s good. To be with someone who feels the same way. At the end. I always…. I never wanted to be alone. It was my biggest fear. And look.” He smiled. “I’m not alone.”
“Rico. Rico.”
His chest rose and fell. Rose and fell. Rose and fell.
I waited for it to rise again.
It didn’t.
He stared at me, unseeing.
I howled. As loud as I ever had before.
The house shifted above me.
I—
I can’t wait to meet you.
But I hope you understand that I’ll be fine with waiting on that meeting for as long as possible. Because when he gives you his heart, it will no longer be mine to hold. And I want to hold on to it for as long as I’m able.
Whoever you are, you are loved.
Never doubt that.
You are loved.
A white wolf was with us. Not pure white, though. He had a smattering of black on his chest. His back. He lay down next to me, his massive head near my face. His eyes were red, and when he pressed his nose against my forehead, I said, “Oh.”
The pack bonds within me stretched tight, and I searched through all of them, finding Jessie and Chris and Kelly and Carter and Gavin and Tanner and Gordo and Mark and Joe and Ox, and there, there there there, faint and breaking, was Rico.
I grasped on to it, holding it tight, pulling it into my chest, wrapping it around my heart.
The Alpha huffed in my face.
And he said, packpackpack pack is hope pack is family pack is love you are my pack you are my hope you are my family and i love you i love you i love—
I screamed as I pushed on the beam with the last of my strength. It shifted easily, almost torn from my grasp.
The white wolf was gone.
Above me, the sun shining behind him, was Oxnard Matheson, eyes blazing red and violet.
He said, “I’ve got you.”
I believed him.
He lifted the beam above his head and threw it off behind him. I heard it crash on the ground somewhere in the distance. I took in a gasping breath, the bonds of the pack shining brightly.
I rolled to my side, spitting out a thick wad of blood. “Rico,” I managed to say. “You gotta help Rico.”
He nodded, moving toward our brother.
I pushed myself up off the ground as my bones began to knit back together. I groaned as my ribs snapped back into place. “He’s—is he—”
Ox brushed a bloody lock of Rico’s hair off his face. “I can’t lose you. I won’t.”
Ox tilted his head back, neck popping as his face elongated. His fangs dropped, reflecting the morning sunlight.
And then his head snapped forward, fangs sinking into Rico’s shoulder.
The bite of an Alpha.
And as Rico’s shoulder crunched, I heard Ox in my head saying you are pack you are brother you are mine.
you
are
wolf
At first nothing happened, and I thought we were too late.
Ox pulled away.
Rico’s bond, his tenuous string, faded.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no—”
The string vibrated as if plucked.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Rico jerked as Ox held on to him. His mouth fell open as he began to seize, feet kicking out, causing motes of dust to rise and catch the sunlight.
Rico’s dark eyes snapped open.
The blood in the whites of his eyes receded.
And then, there, in this house, in this place so far from home, came the bright flash of orange.
beast
“Kelly,” I said.
&
nbsp; Ox nodded. “Led Robert away. Gave me time to get to you.”
“Is he all right?” I was frantic, trying to parse through the bonds, but they were all so loud and bright that I couldn’t focus.
“No. None of us are. It’s time to end this.”
“Oh, fuck me.”
We turned.
Rico was bent over, hands on his knees, hair hanging down around his face. He was covered in blood, but the wounds were closed. He lifted his head, nostrils flaring, eyes shining. “Is this what it’s always going to be like?” he demanded. “I can hear everything. I can smell everything. And lobito, I have to say, you do not smell good to me right now.” He stood upright with a grimace, hands going to his lower back.
“You get used to it,” Ox said.
“How?”
“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped at them. “We have to get to the others before—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rico muttered. He raised a hand in front of his face. “How do I make my claws come out?” He flexed his fingers. Nothing happened. “Huh. That’s disappointing. When this is all over and we’re regaling everyone with stories of our victory, we’re going to say that I made my claws come out right away. Deal?”
“Deal,” Ox said. He looked down the road. Above the trees in the distance, a thick black column of smoke was rising. “We have to hurry.”
I began to run down the road. A black wolf appeared at my side, eyes red and violet. I looked over in surprise to see Rico running past me, moving faster than I expected. His eyes were wide when he looked back at me. “How the fuck am I moving so fast?” he yelled. “What kind of nonsense is this?”
We ran on.
We hadn’t been gone very long.
Fifteen, twenty minutes at most.
But the compound was changed as if a lifetime had passed. Some of the houses were on fire. A couple of others had been razed to their foundations.
Elizabeth and Jessie were locked in battle with Michelle Hughes near the Alpha House. Elizabeth had a large gash on her side, but she wasn’t letting it slow her down. Michelle was snarling, tail twitching, jaws snapping. Elizabeth crouched like she was going to attack. Instead, Jessie ran up behind her, jumped onto her back, and ran three steps along her spine before leaping toward Michelle, crowbar raised above her head. Michelle moved to the right, but she was too slow, and Jessie brought the crowbar down on Michelle’s side, the silver burning the Alpha’s skin. Michelle whined and tried to bite Jessie, but she was too quick, landing and rolling away before getting to her feet again. She saw us, eyes widening, before turning back toward Michelle.