by TJ Klune
It’d been made more difficult the first time Thomas had come to me asking for help with Joe, who couldn’t seem to hold his shift. Or when I’d seen Mark for the first time in years, standing on the sidewalk in Green Creek like he’d never left.
Nothing about this had been easy. But I thought it was getting better.
“Ox talk to you?” Joe asked.
Okay, it wasn’t getting better at all. Fuck every single one of them.
“Murder eyebrows,” Ox murmured.
“We have other things to worry about,” I reminded them.
“Sure, Gordo,” Joe said easily. He’d found peace since returning to Green Creek, especially after the death of Richard Collins. He was his father’s son, much to my dismay. He was calm and strong and not above a little manipulation if the situation called for it. I told myself it wasn’t malicious, but I still struggled with the idea of Thomas Bennett, though he was nothing but ash and dust spread throughout the woods around the Bennett house. “Other things. But I’m pretty good at multitasking, in case you didn’t know.”
“Omega?”
Joe bumped his shoulder against mine. “Yes.”
“Like the others?”
“Probably. Your wards give us plenty of warning. I trust them. Like I trust you.”
It shouldn’t have made me feel as warm as it did. “You’re just trying to get on my good side.”
He squinted at me. “Is it working?”
“No.”
“Kelly’s right, you know.”
“About?”
“Grumpy old man.”
“I will light you on fire right here. Right now.”
Joe laughed quietly before he looked back out toward the forest. Whatever it was, Omega or something else, it was getting closer. Overhead, the sky was fading and the first stars were coming out.
“Mark’s coming,” Ox murmured.
I popped my knuckles.
Joe snorted, shaking his head.
I heard him before I saw him. I would recognize the sound of those large paws upon the earth anywhere. I told myself to stay where I was, to keep looking straight ahead, but there was brother in my head, and love and pack and markmarkmark as the other wolves picked up on the thread from their Alphas.
Even the humans heard it, faint though it was. I was tied to the pack because of my magic, which is why I could hear the songs in my head.
My mother’s voice whispered to me, reminding me that wolves used and they lied, but I pushed it away. Whatever Thomas knew—or didn’t know—no longer mattered. He was gone, and Ox had been turned.
Carter said, “Must have left his car at—”
“Shut up, Carter,” Kelly hissed.
“Oh. Shit. Right. That of which we do not speak so as to not hurt Gordo’s feelings.”
“He can hear you!”
“We can all hear you,” Elizabeth told her son.
“Someone needs to say it,” Rico muttered. “He’s stupid.”
“How’s that nice girl of yours?” Elizabeth asked him.
“Which one?”
“Melanie, was it?”
“Oh. Fine. I think? I mean, I haven’t spoken to her in a few months.”
“He’s on to Bambi now,” Tanner said.
“Bambi,” Robbie said. “That’s… I don’t know what that is.”
“She’s hot,” Chris said. “She’s got a huge set of—”
“You’re not at the garage,” Jessie reminded him.
“—of feelings. That. Are nice.”
“Good save,” Tanner muttered.
“She’s got the biggest feelings,” Rico said. “Like, sometimes, she puts her feelings all over me—”
“We need more women in the pack,” Jessie said with a sigh.
“I think we hold our own,” Elizabeth said lightly.
I turned and looked over my shoulder.
A large brown wolf was weaving through the cars. His shoulders were as tall as the hood of Ox’s truck, ears twitching on top of his massive head. His paws left prints in the dirt that were bigger than my hand. His gaze darted around the pack gathered before him before it landed on me. It stuttered and stuck before it fell away.
I turned back toward the woods.
There came the shift of bone and muscle behind me.
“You think I’d be used to seeing werewolves who turn into naked people by now,” Rico said. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“You can be one of those naked people,” Robbie said. “Just let Ox or Joe turn you and you can show your junk outside like everyone else.”
“Please don’t give him any ideas,” Chris said, sounding horrified. “There are certain things that no one should see.”
“Don’t be racist. And besides, we grew up together. You’ve seen me naked hundreds of times. We all jerked off together when we were twelve!”
Joe and Ox turned slowly to look at me.
I glared back at them. “I had nothing to do with that. If anything, it’s Ox’s fault for bringing them into the fold to begin with.”
“Why did you have to tell everyone?” Chris demanded.
“Oh, please,” Rico said. “We’re in a pack of werewolves who we can sometimes hear in our heads. We don’t have boundaries anymore.”
“Why does he still think we’re mind readers?” Kelly whispered.
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “But don’t remind him we’re not. I like learning things that will scar me for life.”
“I’ve never jerked off with them,” Tanner said.
“You were sick that day,” Rico told him. “Otherwise we would have asked you too.”
Ox and Joe had offered to turn the humans in the pack. Jessie had refused outright, saying she didn’t want it. Chris had followed her shortly after, and whether or not it had to do with his sister, I didn’t know. Tanner was more reticent, and out of all the humans, I thought he’d be the one most likely to agree to be turned. But he never did anything without knowing everything he could about it, and I thought it was only a matter of time before he asked Ox to bite him.
Rico, on the other hand, didn’t seem to give two shits one way or another. He’d made Ox and Joe promise to turn him if it was a life-or-death situation, but he seemed to be okay being who he was.
I was relieved. The idea of any of them being able to pop claws gave me anxiety.
“Got here as quick as I could,” a low voice said. “We know what it is yet?”
“Appears to be an Omega,” Elizabeth said.
“Another one? That’s the third this month.”
“Curious, isn’t it? I left you a pair of pants just inside. Kelly, could you grab them?”
I heard the screen door open, and I tried desperately to focus on the approaching Omega. There was no need for me to glance over my shoulder to get an eyeful of—
Joe bumped my shoulder again.
I turned to look at him.
He grinned.
“Shut up,” I muttered.
Before he could respond, Mark Bennett came to stand beside me.
His hair was shaved close to the scalp, the barest hint of stubble. His beard was as full as it’d ever been, finely trimmed and lighter than the deep, dark brown of his wolf. His eyes were that ice blue they’d always been, cold and searching. He wore a pair of loose jeans hanging dangerously off his hips but thankfully zipped up and buttoned. He was shirtless, hair covering his bulky chest and flat stomach. His skin was hot as his arm brushed against mine—an aftereffect of a recent shift.
“Gordo,” he said, sounding faintly amused as he always did when he said my name.
“Mark,” I said in return, resolutely staring straight ahead.
Ox and Joe sighed in unison, the insufferable Alphas that they were.
“Good day?”
“Fine. Yours?”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Great.”
“Idiots,” Joe muttered.
Before I could e
ven begin to acknowledge that, an Omega burst through the tree line.
It was a woman, and she looked as if she’d seen better days. Her clothes were in tatters, her feet bare and caked with dirt. Her hair was wild around her face, and she hesitated at the sight before her, the rest of the pack spreading out behind us at the ready. We’d been back in Green Creek for just over a year and in that time had become a finely oiled machine. We knew our strengths. We were aware of our weaknesses. But there’d never been a pack quite like this one, and we had clawed our way into who we were now.
The Alphas stood side by side.
I popped my neck.
Carter, Joe’s second—his enforcer—growled.
Ox’s second, Mark, came to stand behind him and to the left.
Kelly stood with his brother.
The humans were next.
Elizabeth and Robbie brought up the rear.
There were twelve of us. The Bennett pack.
And one Omega.
Which is why I was surprised when her eyes flashed violet and she charged at us, half-shifted and snarling.
No one behind us made a sound.
I pressed two fingers against an earth rune on my arm, digging my fingernails in deep enough to draw blood.
The ground rolled beneath the Omega’s feet, causing her to stumble forward, her hands shifting into paws as they hit the dirt. Dirty gray hair sprouted along her arms as she struggled to maintain her balance. It was a battle she lost, and she went down hard on her shoulder, fangs bared, eyes alight as they fell on me. Her growl was a feral thing as she snapped her jaws in my direction.
Mark stepped forward, the muscles in his back shifting as he tried to step in front of me, like he was protecting me. His hand came back behind him, as if he was getting ready to shove me away. This motherfucker thought he could—
She was up and moving, hurtling toward us.
Mark tensed.
But it was over before it really began.
Ox moved quicker than a man his size should have been able. One moment he stood with Joe, and the next his hand was around the Omega’s neck, stopping her forward momentum. She made a painful choking sound, her legs and arms jerking forward. He lifted her off the ground, her feet kicking out as she tried to impale him with her claws. She didn’t get the chance before he slammed her back down into the ground with a bone-jarring crunch, crouched over her, his face in hers, eyes ablaze.
And then he roared.
It bowled over us, a blast that rolled through the forest. The Beta wolves whimpered quietly. The humans covered their ears. Even Joe flinched.
My tattoos burst to life, the colors swirling up and down my arms. The raven’s beak opened in a silent scream, the roses blooming underneath, full and bright.
The song of the Alpha was a tremendous thing, and no one sang it like Oxnard Matheson.
The Omega instantly shifted back to human, the violet flickering out of her eyes. She started crying, a low, painful sound as she curled up into herself. She muttered Alpha over and over again, shoulders shaking.
“Robbie,” Joe said, watching Ox as he removed his hand from the Omega’s throat, “call Michelle Hughes. Tell her we have another one.”
pinpricks of light/bones and dust
ELIZABETH AND Jessie took the woman away. She continued to tremble, her head hanging low, dirty hair around her face. Elizabeth put an arm around her shoulders and whispered in her ear. Jessie followed behind them, glancing back at Ox before disappearing into the house. If the Omega was anything like the ones before, they would be fine. But if not, Elizabeth would handle it.
“She’s not going to be happy,” Joe was telling Ox when I turned back to them.
“Michelle isn’t happy about anything,” Ox said, rubbing his hands on his work pants. “Ever. You know that.”
“Still.”
“I don’t give a shit about her happiness. We warned her this was happening and she did nothing. This is on her as much as it is us, no matter what she says.”
Robbie was pacing in front of the house, talking quietly into his cell phone. He looked aggravated before he snapped, “I don’t care what I’m interrupting. You tell her the Alphas of the Bennett pack need to speak to her. Now.” He waited a beat before sighing. “Good help is so hard to find these days. No, I was talking about you. Move your ass! Jesus Christ.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Mark was there, standing far too close for someone half-dressed. He frowned at my arm. I looked down. A small trickle of blood leaked from the indentations I’d made with my fingernails. His nostrils flared. I wondered what it smelled like to him, if it was copper laced with lightning.
“It’s nothing,” I said, stepping back when it looked like he was going to reach for me. “I’ve had worse.”
“You cut yourself.”
“I did what I had to.”
He scowled at me. “You didn’t need to bleed for it to work.”
I snorted. “Because you know so much about magic.”
“Oh, right, I haven’t been around it for my entire life or anything.”
“Don’t,” I warned him.
“Gordo—”
“And what was that, by the way?”
That stopped him. “What?”
“You getting in my way.”
His bushy eyebrows did a complicated dance. “She was targeting you.”
“I can handle myself.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”
“I don’t need you to—”
“As if you haven’t made that abundantly clear. You’re pack, Gordo. I would have done the same for anyone else here.”
Goddammit. That shouldn’t have stung like it did. So I said, “How’s Dale?” knowing full well the nasty curl that crawled along my words.
His eyes flashed orange. “Dale’s fine. I didn’t know you cared so much about his well-being.”
I grinned at him. “What can I say? I’m a nice guy. Can’t wait to meet him. Thinking about telling him about your hairy time of the month?”
His jaw tightened.
I stared back.
“I wish I’d thought to bring popcorn,” I heard Chris mutter.
“This is better than those Real Housewives shows that I absolutely do not watch or have recorded on my DVR,” Rico whispered back.
“I thought you said those were there because of Bambi?” Tanner asked.
“They are. That’s exactly why they’re there. Not because I watch them by myself ever.”
“I need to get a girlfriend,” Chris said with a sigh. “I’m tired of seeing naked people I don’t want to have sex with.”
“That sounds like too much work,” Tanner said.
“That’s because you’re aro. You don’t want a girlfriend.”
“Maybe you should just learn to be happy with yourself. Being aromantic doesn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Shut the fuck up, Tanner. You’re making me feel bad.”
“Humans are so weird,” Kelly muttered.
“True that,” Carter said. “Hey, question. Why are you staring at Robbie like you can’t decide if he’s a large bug or if you want to rub against him?”
Kelly growled at his brother and stomped inside, the door slamming shut behind him.
“I’m having such a wonderful time,” Carter said to no one in particular.
“Michelle’s getting online,” Robbie said, shoving his phone back in his pocket. “She’s not very happy. Just so you know.”
Ox shook his head. “Not my problem. Robbie. Mark. Gordo. With Joe and me. Carter, run these idiots through their drills.”
“What!”
“Why!”
“What the hell did we do?”
Ox glared at them.
Rico rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alfa says jump, we say how high. Got it. I think I liked it more when you weren’t all grr. Bastardo.”
I followed Ox and Joe into the house as Carter gleefully began to b
ark orders at the others, who grumbled. I felt Mark watching me before he muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t quite make out and made his way inside.
Kelly was in the large kitchen, frowning at the pots and pans on the stove, looking as if he was trying to figure out what his mother had been up to before the Omega had breached the wards. Elizabeth and Jessie were nowhere in sight. The old pipes groaned in the walls. They must have had the Omega in one of the bathrooms, trying to get her cleaned up.
Ox opened the door that led to his and Joe’s office. I hesitated at the doorway as I always did before I entered, flashes of a long-ago life punching me in the gut. My father burning his magic into my skin, Abel’s eyes bright as they shone down on me. Abel sitting across from me at his desk, telling me my mother was dead and that my father had killed her. Thomas sitting in the same place saying they were leaving and I was staying here because I was human. Thomas asking me for help. Joe dividing the pack, breaking Ox’s heart even further. This place carried with it an angry history, one that I still hadn’t come to terms with.
“Okay?” Mark asked from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder. He’d thankfully found a sweater hanging on a rack near the door, though it pulled tight against his chest. I didn’t let my gaze linger. “Fine.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything else.
“Are you guys having a moment?” Robbie asked from somewhere behind him. “Maybe you could let me in so I don’t have to stand here awkwardly while you work through it.”
Mark’s lips twitched.
I walked into the office, and he did the same. Robbie followed, closing the door behind us. The room was soundproofed to protect from any prying ears such as those belonging to the Omega upstairs. Joe and Ox stood near the far wall in front of a large mounted screen. Robbie hooked up his phone to a cable that somehow allowed us to video-conference through the TV. I still had my old flip phone from before we left to follow Richard Collins. Robbie sighed every time he saw it.