Ravensong

by TJ Klune

  Jones was gone, as was his cruiser. I didn’t know what they’d done with his body.

  I wanted to launch a full frontal assault. To take them out. To get rid of as many of them as I could. But Ox had said this was reconnaissance only. And, if need be, a distraction.

  Because the wolves were on the move.

  “They better not be touching my tools,” Chris muttered. “That shit is expensive.”

  Jessie snorted. “Way to have your priorities straight.”

  “Hey! Do you know how long it took me to—”

  “Shut up,” I growled, lowering my binoculars. “All of you.”

  “Oh, sure,” Tanner said, as bitchy as I’d ever heard him. “Look at boss man over here. Sounding all tough and shit. I saw the way Mark kissed your forehead before we left and the gross look on your face when you watched him walk away.”

  “Seriously,” Rico groaned. “Is that what we’re going to have to put up with now? I mean, we already get enough of that with Ox and Joe. You were supposed to be the asshole forever. How am I supposed to act now that you’re the asshole with the heart of gold? It’s fucking up my worldview, man. Not cool.”

  “Don’t you do the same thing with Bambi?” Chris asked.

  “I like her boobs. And the way she makes me think. It’s not some mystical moon magic bullshit. It’s carnal passion of the body and the mind.”

  “She does have a great rack,” Jessie said, reaching up to wipe the condensation from the window.

  We all turned slowly to look at her.

  Jessie rolled her eyes. “What? She does. And at least I don’t sound like a creep when I say it.”

  “That doesn’t make it any better,” Chris said, eying her warily.

  Goddamn Team Human.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rico said with a sigh. “She’s probably going to break up with me anyway. I mean, getting everyone we can into her bar with as little explanation as possible? That’s not going to go well.”

  It’d been Carter’s idea. The Lighthouse was as far away from Main Street as someone could be and still be in Green Creek. The town itself was small, with only a few hundred people counted as residents. Many of those lived in homes spread out miles around Green Creek. Fewer than a hundred lived in Green Creek proper, and quite a few of them had already left ahead of the storm. The more hard-core had stayed to batten down the hatches. We didn’t know the extent of what the hunters were here to do, and we didn’t want to take any chances.

  The wolves were moving quickly through the town, gathering as many people as they could and taking them to the bar. Mark hadn’t been pleased at the idea of the humans being in charge of locating the hunters and making sure they stayed where they were, but as soon as Carter had pointed out he needed to stop thinking with this dick, he had backed down.

  Well, mostly. He had backed down after he tackled Carter and held his face in the snow until his nephew literally cried uncle.

  He wouldn’t look at me after.

  I didn’t know what to do with that.

  The Bennetts were known, and I didn’t think they’d have a hard time convincing people to go, especially in light of what Elijah had said upon her arrival. The story being spun was one of meth-head hillbillies bent on causing trouble. Robbie seemed sure it was believable and would convince people to stay away. “Either that or it’ll make them come running with their guns,” he’d said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “People get weird when it comes to meth-head hillbillies.”

  The wolves could move quicker than we could.

  And there were the feral Omegas to worry about. The ones Elijah had called her pets.

  I knew that if another wolf had approached the garage, they’d be scented almost immediately. But we were human, and the storm was thick. Even if the Omegas had parts of their minds intact, we would be less noticeable than the rest of the pack.

  Which is why we had been hunkered down in the diner for going on an hour.

  It was fine.

  Everything was fine.

  “I feel like we should talk about the elephant in the room,” Tanner said.

  “You mean Dale?” Chris asked.

  “Exactly. I mean, do we give Mark shit for ignoring the mystical moon magic and sleeping with the enemy? Or do we put this on Gordo for ignoring the connection with the wolf who wants to take him carnally underneath a full moon?”

  Everything was not fine.

  “Guys,” Rico said, pulling his coat around him tighter as he shivered, “this isn’t the right time to be talking about this.”

  That surprised me. “Thank you, Rico—”

  “Because before we can talk about whether to blame Mark or Gordo, we need to figure out if Dale put some kind of brujo mind-control whammy on Mark that made him bone Dale.”

  Fuck them. Fuck every single one of them.

  “Huh,” Chris said, rubbing his jaw. “I never thought about it that way. Hey, Gordo.”

  I ignored him.

  “Gordo.”

  I glared at him. “What.”

  He had no sense of self-preservation. “Did Dale put some kind of mind-control whammy on Mark to make him sexually subservient?”

  I ordered Jessie to control her brother.

  She cocked her head at me. “Why? I want to know too. Now that you and Mark are going to be—”

  “We’re not going to be anything,” I growled at her.

  They all turned slowly to stare at me.

  “Gordo,” Jessie said. “You do realize that you’re a liar, right?” She looked at her brother. “He knows that, right?”

  Chris sighed. “Gordo doesn’t know how to deal with all his feelings. He needs to pretend to be a prick, but really he’s thinking about Mark’s thighs wrapped around his neck.”

  Tanner grimaced. “Now I’m thinking of Mark’s thighs wrapped around his neck. Ugh.”

  “Heart of gold,” Rico said solemnly.

  “I hate all of you,” I mumbled, raising the binoculars again, hoping that would be the end of it.

  It wasn’t.

  “We’re going to figure this out,” Chris said softly. He put his hand on my arm. “You know that, right? You’re allowed to be happy. He’s going to be fine. So is Carter. We’re going to beat this.”

  And that was it, wasn’t it? I hated how well they could read me, even if they didn’t necessarily know about that almost-kiss in Mark’s room. Part of me wished I’d been stronger, that I’d turned around and walked away, leaving him standing there. But even that was nothing compared to the long-ago memory of the way his mouth felt against mine. The way he’d felt against me. The feeling of his hands on my skin. I’d kept it locked away for so long, put into a box and strapped with chains, shoved into a dark corner to gather dust.

  But the chains had broken now, the box cracked right down the middle.

  For the longest time, Mark had been nothing but a ghost. Even when he stood in front of me, even as we’d fought side by side, I had rarely let myself think of what we’d once been. What we could have had if it wasn’t for pack and wolves and fucking human stubbornness.

  Of course it would take until the world was crashing down around us.

  He was acting strong. And brave. But I was as much an expert in Mark Bennett as I’d been the first time we’d kissed.

  He was scared.

  It went beyond the idea of becoming an Omega, beyond the idea of losing his tether.

  I had lost my pack. Again and again and again.

  But so had he.

  I’d forgotten that.

  In my anger. In my grief.

  Here he was, faced with losing it again.

  And I still didn’t know how to stop it.

  Jessie’s hand pressed against mine, and it was only then that I realized I was shaking.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I’m fine,” I said gruffly. “Don’t worry about me. There are other things—”

  There.

  Through the open garage
door.

  Two feral wolves.

  The red wolf’s head was low, nose to the ground.

  The timber wolf was upright, ears twitching.

  The long chains had been removed, though they still had silver links around their necks, like a collar. It looked as if the silver had been embedded into their skin.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “Omegas. Both of them. Still inside.”

  Rico groaned quietly. “Is it too much to ask for evil werewolves to die when they’re thrown across the road by a witch?”

  “Elijah?” Jessie whispered.

  I shook my head.

  “How many of them are there?”

  “Twenty. That I can see.”

  “Can’t you just… I don’t know,” Tanner said. “Kill them? Somehow? Freeze the air in their lungs or something? The full moon is in two days. We’re running out of time. I don’t understand why we just don’t take them head-on.”

  “Ox and Joe said this was recon only,” Chris reminded him. “He didn’t want us doing anything to bring attention to ourselves.”

  “I know that, but why can’t we just get the pack together and make the streets run red with their—and holy hell, I’ve become a rage monster.” Tanner shook his head. “That’s probably not a good thing.”

  “You know why,” Jessie said, wiping the window again. “Jones already died because of them. We can’t take the chance of someone else getting hurt. Not until we know more.”

  The timber wolf’s ears twitched. Its head turned in our direction.

  “Down,” I hissed.

  We all hit the floor of the diner.

  The wind howled outside.

  The air was cold.

  My heart was racing.

  In my head came the wolves in a burst of color, of PackBrotherLoveWitch. I sent back soothing waves of calm, though it felt like a lie. I didn’t know if they believed me.

  “Stay down,” I whispered to them. “Don’t move unless I say.”

  “What is—” Chris started, but I shook my head, and he fell silent.

  I took a deep breath and held it in my chest.

  I pushed myself up.

  I peered over the diner counter out the window.

  The men still milled inside the garage. The few outside moved back and forth in the snow.

  The timber wolf stood with its back to us, looking farther into the garage.

  The red wolf was nowhere in sight.

  It was probably just in the garage.

  I let out the breath I was holding. “Okay. All clear. We’re—”

  A low growl off to my right.

  I turned my head.

  There, head bowed low to the ground to peer at us from under the other side of the tow truck, was the red wolf.

  “Well, fuck,” I said.

  The wolf’s lips quivered over sharp fangs.

  Its ears flattened to the back of its head.

  There wasn’t enough room for it to get to us. At least not yet.

  Chris gasped behind me.

  I held up my hand at them without looking away from the wolf.

  Its violet eyes glittered in the snow.

  “Slow,” I said, voice even. “Back the way we came. No sudden movements.”

  Tanner said, “Gordo,” but I just shook my head.

  “Now.”

  I heard them moving. The wolf’s gaze darted over my shoulder, but I snapped my fingers, bringing its attention back to me.

  It growled lowly.

  I didn’t look away.

  The others were moving behind me. I knew we didn’t have much time. Either the wolf would try to come for us or the hunters would be alerted. Our pack was too far away.

  But I’d faced worse.

  I’d seen the monsters in the dark.

  This asshole didn’t know who the fuck he was dealing with.

  I grinned at the wolf. “I’m going to kill you. All of you. Just you wait and see.”

  It growled louder as it took a step forward. Its shoulders hit the tow truck, which creaked ominously, the boom scraping against the floor, the frame shuddering. It didn’t like that sound, backing a step or two away.

  “Come on,” I said under my breath. “Come on.”

  The raven fluttered its wings.

  The wolf crouched low and began to crawl toward me, black claws digging into the snow.

  “That’s right,” I said. “Come and get me, you fucker.”

  I backed away slowly.

  It snarled at me.

  Flakes of snow blew in from a broken window.

  Men laughed across the street in the garage.

  Glass crunched underneath my feet.

  The wolf was all the way under the truck, claws digging into wood and ice as it pulled itself toward me, jaws open wide.

  Nevermore.

  The raven flew.

  The pack knew. They knew. I felt it. All of them.

  The Alphas were there. In me. In my head.

  gordo gordo gordo

  And Mark.

  Always Mark.

  I pulled on those threads. The ones that connected us all.

  And pushed.

  There was a shriek of metal as the boom twisted, the tow truck shaking.

  The wolf opened its mouth, tilting its head back to fucking howl and—

  The boom snapped to the side, the linoleum floor underneath it splitting apart.

  The boom landed outside of the diner in the snow.

  For a moment, the tow truck hung suspended.

  The wolf’s howl cut off even before it began as the tow truck collapsed on top of it. I heard a wet crunch as six tons of metal met bone and muscle.

  I didn’t hesitate.

  Even as the hunters began to shout in warning, I pushed myself up and ran toward the back of the diner. The door we’d come in was hanging open, snow falling. A wave of cold air washed over me as I passed through the doorway, looking over my shoulder on the off chance the wolf had survived the truck falling on top of it and was coming after me.

  It wasn’t.

  “I think it’s dead,” I said to the others. “I think it—”

  I bumped into someone.

  I turned.

  Chris. I had stumbled into Chris. Rico was to his left. Jessie to his right. Tanner stood on the other side of Jessie.

  They weren’t moving.

  “What the hell are you stopping for?” I demanded, pushing my way through them. “We have to—motherfucker.”

  In the back alley behind the diner, in front of Team Human, stood the timber wolf.

  I hadn’t had much time to parse out its details when it’d come for me the day Elijah had arrived in Green Creek. I knew it was big, almost bigger than any wolf I’d seen before, but now, here, up close, I understood just how massive it was. Before Ox, Thomas Bennett had been the biggest wolf I’d ever seen. Before him, his father, Abel. Carter was bigger than his brothers, even Joe, his Alpha, but none of them compared to the size of the Omega in front of us.

  Its eyes snapped to me.

  I took a step back.

  Its nostrils flared, and there was a brief moment when the violet in its eyes faded into a deep, muddy brown that I thought almost looked familiar, but then the violet returned bright as ever.

  Only two ways out of this.

  Through the alley behind the wolf.

  Or back the way we’d come through the front of the diner.

  Toward the hunters.

  Tanner and Rico had their guns drawn but stood down, knowing gunfire would bring the attention of the hunters.

  The knives hidden under Chris’s sleeves popped forward.

  Jessie tapped Ox’s old crowbar against her shoulder.

  The wolf wasn’t impressed.

  It took a step toward us and—

  “Fuck this,” Jessie said.

  And before I could stop her, she pushed past me, took three running steps, and swung the crowbar upside the feral wolf’s head.

  The crowbar
that was inlaid with silver.

  The wolf yelped in pain as its head jerked to the side, a burning gash alongside its muzzle and cheek and up to its eye, which was squeezed shut and bleeding. It brought its head down toward the ground, pawing furiously at the smoking wound that hadn’t yet started to close.

  “Come on,” she spat at us, dancing out of the way as the wolf tried to snap at her, missing by a good foot.

  Rico and Tanner followed her, giving the injured wolf a wide berth. It tried to whirl on them, but Chris was there on its other side, slicing along the wolf’s back as he ran in the narrow space between the Omega and the brick wall of the hardware store next to the diner. The wolf turned its head, snapping its fangs after him, but he was already past it, running after the others.

  Red dripped onto white.

  The wolf turned to me.

  It took a step toward me.

  I raised a hand, the roses blooming underneath the raven, ready to end this now.

  But then it faltered.

  The wolf snorted, shaking its head violently side to side. The chain around its neck barely shifted, the links deep into its skin. It blinked its one good eye rapidly and lowered its face to the snow, pushing down into it, leaving streaks of blood behind it.

  And I… I couldn’t do it.

  “Gordo,” Rico shouted. “Move your ass!”

  I moved.

  The Omega barely glanced in my direction.

  “What the hell is wrong with it?” Chris asked me as soon as I reached them, coming out the other side of the alley behind the diner.

  I glanced back at it. The Omega was pawing at its face again. “I don’t know.”

  “Why didn’t you kill it?” Jessie asked me, already moving away from the diner.

  I didn’t answer.

  HALFWAY TOWARD the Lighthouse, we met up with Mark and Elizabeth. She came to me first as Chris, Tanner, and Rico shared with Mark their outrage about the hunters being in the garage.

  “All right?” she asked me, and I remembered Thomas telling me there was never anyone else for him.

  “Yeah,” I muttered.

  “He took out one of the Omegas,” Jessie told her, glancing at me curiously. “The red one. We got a few hits in on the bigger one, but it’s still upright last we saw.”

  “And Elijah?”

  Jessie shook her head.

  Elizabeth touched my arm. “Gordo?”