by TJ Klune
Joe came then. He put his forehead on my shoulder. “Rico and Jessie. They got everyone out the back in time. While Ox kept her talking. They’re fine, Gordo. Everyone is safe.”
I closed my eyes and sagged against Mark.
He held me tightly.
“Pappas?” I managed to ask.
Joe said, “No. He… he didn’t make it.”
“Okay,” Mark whispered, rocking me back and forth. “Okay. Okay. Okay.”
I opened my eyes to the sound of an approaching vehicle.
There, on the road, heading straight for us, was one of the trucks belonging to the hunters, light bar across the top lit up.
I struggled to push myself up, needing to get to whoever it was. It never ended. It never ended, and I couldn’t—
“Elizabeth,” Mark grunted in my ear, arms tightening around me as he held me against his chest. “Tanner. Chris.”
“What?” I croaked out.
“Pack. Pack. Pack.”
The truck stopped, and through the windshield, I could see Tanner and Chris staring out in horror at the sight before them. Elizabeth said something and pushed the door open, sliding from the driver’s seat. She had found some clothes to wear, and though they looked big on her, she was still intimidating as fuck. Her eyes were orange as she approached, her hand going to the tops of her sons’ heads as Carter and Kelly fell in step beside her.
“Is she gone?” she asked, voice hard. “Elijah.”
“Yeah,” Joe said wearily. “She’s—Gordo. He saved us. He saved all of us.”
“What happened to him?”
“Just tired,” I muttered, though my words came out in a slur. “Give me a few. I’ll be up to kick some ass again later.”
“Jesus Christ,” I heard Chris say. “You let her blow up the bar? Oh my god, where the hell are we supposed to drink now? Mack’s? His beer is all foam, man.”
“I told you two to stay in the truck,” Elizabeth scolded Chris and Tanner as they approached. Chris looked worse than before, and Tanner’s face was pale as he held his arm against his chest. “You can’t be moving around much until we get your injuries checked out.”
“Oh, man,” Chris said. “Please tell me my sister’s okay and that she didn’t hear me bitch about the bar before I asked about her well-being.”
“Every word,” another voice said. “When you get healed up again, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I turned my head against Mark’s chest.
Coming out of the dark on the other side of the bar was Jessie. And Rico. And they were leading a group of wide-eyed people, most of whom were staring in shock at the devastation before them.
The Omegas growled at them, but Ox flashed his eyes and they flinched away, trembling against each other in the snow.
Chris moved toward Jessie, smiling even though it obviously pained him. He limped, right leg dragging behind him. She met him halfway, wrapping her hands around him. He grunted in pain, and when she tried to pull away, he just held her tighter.
“This kind of sucks,” another voice said, and I looked to see Bambi standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at what remained of her bar. “Good thing it’s covered. Though I’m probably going to have to commit insurance fraud, because I don’t think it’s going to go over very well if I tell them the reason my bar exploded was because hunters came to kill my boyfriend’s werewolf pack.”
“I love you so much,” Rico breathed. “I’m going to do so many things to you after I get over the mind-numbing PTSD of almost getting murdered by evil humans and feral werewolves.”
“Werewolves!” Will cried, and he looked soberer than I’d seen him in a long time. “I always knew something was going on with that family. Always hiding out in the woods. And you all said it was coyotes we heard howling. Looks like I’m owed apologies from all of you!”
The townspeople murmured behind him, huddling together. Some of them watched the feral wolves. Some of them were watching the fire burn.
But most of them were watching Oxnard Matheson as he approached.
“Maybe he should think about putting on some pants,” Rico muttered, hanging off Bambi. “If he’s going to tell them more than we did, they should probably hear it without his dick hanging out.”
“It’s a nice dick,” Bambi said.
“Oh my god, would you please not stare at my alfa’s junk?”
“He’s pretty good with it too,” Jessie said.
Joe growled at both of them as he followed his mate.
Bambi laughed as Jessie flipped him off.
Elizabeth kneeled in front of me. Mark tightened his grip around me, and I rolled my eyes.
“All right?” she asked, leaning forward to put a hand to my forehead. It was such a motherly thing to do that I had to swallow past the sudden lump in my throat.
“Yeah,” I managed to say. “All right.”
“Saved us,” Mark grunted from behind me. “Gordo saved us.”
Elizabeth glanced at him before looking back at me. “I know. It stinks of magic.”
“Not much I can do about that,” I said, trying to keep my eyes open.
There was a pulse under her hand, and I felt green green green come through the bonds. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For keeping them safe.”
I sighed. “Promised you I would. And then you threatened to kill me.”
And she laughed. “Oh, Gordo. How I love you so.”
The other wolves came then, and the humans. Bambi looked confused when Rico kissed her forehead and left her standing next to the bar. He went to Tanner and Chris first, and though I could hear them complaining about being too manly for such a thing, they hugged for a long, long time, Rico first kissing Chris on the cheek and then turning his head and doing the same to Tanner, muttering something that I couldn’t hear to each of them.
Elizabeth sat in front of me, her hands on my legs.
Carter and the timber wolf lay on my left, Carter’s nose pressed against my thigh, breathing in my scent. Kelly and Robbie came on my right, trying to get as close to me as they could. Jessie’s hand was in my hair, and Chris, Tanner, and Rico stood behind us, always the protectors of their pack.
Oxnard Matheson and Joe Bennett stood in front of the people gathered near the remains of the bar. He looked over all of them, and Joe reached over, taking his mate’s hand in his, holding it tight.
“You’ve known me,” Ox said, “for a long time. I was just a kid when I came here. My mother, she… she did her best in the face of everything. She raised me. She loved me with every piece of her soul. She laughed. She danced. And one day she gave her life so that I could live mine. A monster came and took her from me. He also took my father, Thomas Bennett. I didn’t—I didn’t know if I would survive after that. But it was because of my family that I survived. You see, one day I met a boy. A boy who talked and talked and talked of things like candy canes and pinecones. Epic and awesome. A tornado who would never let me go. And he helped me be brave and strong. Even when my heart was breaking, I remembered that. Remembered him. And… my pack. I’m a mechanic. I’m the guy that lives in the house at the end of the lane. I eat with you. I laugh with you. I live with you. I bleed, and I hurt, and I love this town. This place. Thomas taught me there is nothing like Green Creek anywhere else in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re human. Or a witch. Or something more. Like an Alpha.” His eyes flared red and violet, and the people gasped. But none of them backed away. None of them tried to run, which, given it was a full moon and they stood before a pack of wolves, was probably a good thing. They were scared, even I could see that, but it was outweighed by something more. “I am the Alpha of the Omegas.”
“And I am the Alpha of all,” Joe said, squeezing Ox’s hand.
“And this is the Bennett pack,” Ox said. “Our pack. And I promise you, no matter what happens, we will always be here to keep you safe. If you let us.”
No one spoke.
The fire burned.
M
y pack breathed around me.
Then Bambi spoke. “You gonna bite us?”
And because he just couldn’t help himself, Rico said, “That’s my job.”
Bambi glared at him. “Consider correcting what you just said.”
Rico blanched. “Yes, my queen. You are the light in my life. Without you my world is cold and dark and celibate.”
She looked back at Ox and arched an eyebrow.
“No,” Ox said. “I will not bite you. I will not harm you. Any of you. We will protect Green Creek with everything we have.”
“And what about them?” she asked, nodding toward the Omegas prowling behind us. “If what Rico and Jessie told us is true, they’re sick. They’re hurting. And you don’t know how to fix it. How can you guarantee they won’t turn around and attack someone when you’re not looking? You can’t be everywhere at once, Ox. No matter how strong you are.”
“That’s where we come in,” another voice said.
I turned my head.
On the road stood Aileen and Patrice. Behind them were a group of people.
Witches. All of them.
Aileen smiled. “I have an idea.”
ravensong
“THIS HAS to work.”
I turned my head, fumbling with the cigarette in my left hand. Ash burned my fingers as I blew smoke out my nose. Maybe it was time to quit.
I looked back out at the front of the house at the end of the lane. Omegas prowled in the snow. Some were sleeping. Others were grooming. Still others crashed in the forest around us.
Mark lay at the bottom of the steps, ears perked up, paws crossed in front of him, watching the feral wolves.
Carter was running with the timber wolf at his side. I could make him out in the distance, weaving in and out of the trees.
“I don’t know,” I muttered, stubbing out my cigarette and dropping it into an old coffee canister.
Oxnard didn’t say anything more.
He didn’t need to. We were all thinking the same thing.
It’d been six weeks since the full moon. Things had changed yet again, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were barely in control. The people who’d been at the Lighthouse the night Elijah had come for them had formed somewhat of an uneasy truce with us, led by Bambi and, surprisingly, Will. Granted, he seemed to take pleasure in telling anyone who would listen just how right he’d been, but still. People who thought he was crazy before didn’t think that now.
We hadn’t been able to escape scrutiny. A cop had been shot in the head. Green Creek had been torn apart. People were dead.
A tale was spun. Of a militia group who had come to Green Creek under the cover of a storm. They hadn’t been happy, Elizabeth Bennett had told authorities, about a land deal that had been in the works with her husband before he died. He’d been planning on pulling out but had had his heart attack before he could do so. It’d been left to a grieving family to inform the Kings that any negotiations that had been in place before Thomas Bennett died were over.
The Kings had come then. Armed to the teeth. They’d murdered Jones, dumping his body in the woods. They’d almost killed Chris and Tanner, first by knocking them into the diner, and then, later, by holding them hostage and torturing them. They’d destroyed the bar.
They’d been led by Meredith King.
Meredith King who, in the end, had blown herself up in the Lighthouse.
As for the others, well. While everyone had been trying to hide, there must have been some infighting. There’d been gunfire. That was all anybody knew.
Oh yes, there’d been dogs with them, now that you mention it. Big dogs. Dogs that almost looked… feral. The Kings had brought them when they tried to take over. No one seemed very surprised that the dogs would have turned on their masters. You raise a hand to an animal enough, and eventually it will either cower or fight back.
It looked as if these dogs fought back.
No, no one saw where the dogs went. The area was rural. The forests stretched for miles and miles into the mountains. They probably took their pack and fled. They’d be long gone by now.
It was shaky, held together by thin strings. It had holes large enough to drive a truck through. It was national news, the tiny mountain town under siege by a group of redneck militants. Oregon seemed to breed them. There’d been that group the year before in Eastern Oregon who’d taken over a wildlife refuge to protest the Bureau of Land Management. Granted, they’d gotten off free in the end, hadn’t they?
The Kings didn’t.
It’d lasted days. Cameras and reporters with wide eyes and breathless voices, speaking into microphones about the Terror in Green Creek, as the chyrons all said across the bottoms of screens. And while it started off as a major story, the media quickly became frustrated at how no one wanted to speak about it. No one wanted to be interviewed. They all just wanted to move on.
Sometimes howls could be heard coming from the trees. “Coyotes,” Will told reporters who’d stayed in his motel. “Maybe a couple of wolves. Best stay of out of the forest if you know what’s good for you. If I was a betting man, I’d wager they don’t take kindly to outsiders.”
They left as quickly as they had come, and Green Creek was once again forgotten. Tragedies occurred everywhere, after all.
We waited.
Six long weeks since Mark had shifted back to a wolf and stayed that way.
Oh, Ox had tried to call him back. Tried to do the same for Carter. But while he could still feel them, while he could still feel all of them, they were still Omegas. It was only under extraordinary duress that Mark had been able to shift back when he had, when his mate had been in danger. All his protective instincts had come rushing forward, and he’d forced himself to shift back to human.
But that had passed, and even as that long night had ended, he had shifted back and remained that way.
He never left my side. We slept in his bed at the Bennett house. I’d only been back to the garage a couple of times since we’d rescued Chris and Tanner. At first I’d told myself I needed time to heal. That we’d all been through something traumatic and we couldn’t be expected to pick up right where we left off. That I didn’t want to leave Mark, not while he was stuck as he was.
Chris and Tanner and Rico said they understood. They handled the day-to-day operations of the shop. Well, Chris and Rico did. Tanner tried as best he could, but his arm was in a cast and would be until after Christmas. Robbie still worked the front office and the phones.
They knew, though, what I was doing.
I figured I’d get at least a few more days of feeling sorry for myself.
My hand was done.
There was nothing I could do about that.
The stump was fully healed, the skin slightly gnarled where my hand had once been. It felt strange, the skin bumpy and ridged, with barely any loss of sensation. If I pressed down hard enough, I could feel the jut of bone. Whatever Patrice had done had been effective.
But the skin wasn’t unmarked.
The sleeves my father had tattooed onto my arms extended to either wrist. I didn’t see they had changed until we got back to the Bennett house as the sun rose after the full moon.
The runes were the same. They hadn’t moved.
The roses had, though.
The vines now extended down my forearm, twisting around the runes and symbols, the thorns sharp and curved. And covering the stump was a bloom of roses so red, they looked real. Patrice and Aileen hadn’t been able to explain it. Either my place as the witch of the Bennett pack in our territory under siege had caused my magic to expand to compensate for the loss of my hand, or my mate bond with Mark was so strong, I’d called upon it to make a wall of ice filled with roses. Or a combination of the two.
It was beautiful, regardless. It looked like the work of a master.
But my hand was gone.
I wallowed.
Yeah, it wouldn’t be long before the guys came to kick my ass.
And Ox, always O
x, knew what was going on in my head.
He’d been busy these past weeks. Maintaining control of a couple dozen Omega wolves would do that to an Alpha. There hadn’t been much time for anything other than holding ourselves together as best we could, especially when more Omegas arrived every few days, still drawn by the pull of their Alpha.
But the new moon was tomorrow, and the sky would be dark.
“Shop looks good,” Ox said, and I sighed, knowing what was coming. I’d hoped we could avoid all this, but it was probably time to get it over with. “Everything almost looks back to normal. The diner’s about to reopen. Lighthouse is on track for March. Main Street repaired from all that storm damage.”
I snorted. “Storm damage. Right. I forgot about that.”
“I’m sure. But everything is going good with the garage, in case you were wondering.”
“Great.”
“Since you haven’t really been back to town in a few weeks.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not very subtle. You know that, right?”
He shrugged. “Not trying to be. The guys know you’ll be back when you’re ready.”
“Oh?”
“Well. They’re giving you until the New Year to be ready.”
“Figured.”
“I thought you might have. You need to go back.”
I refused to look at him. “I’m needed here.”
“Why?”
“Mark. He—”
“Mark is fine. I’ve got him. Try again.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah. Sounds about right.”
Mark turned to look at me at the uptick of my heart. He cocked his head, and it was gordo gordo gordo in a constant hum.
“Thank you,” Ox said quietly.
“I’m not going to do this. Not with you.”
I felt that big hand of his on the back of my neck, squeezing tightly. “You saved me. Again. You always do that, don’t you?”
I stepped out of his reach. The wooden porch creaked underneath us. Mark slowly rose as I glared at Ox. “I’m your witch. It’s what I’m supposed to do. You would do the same for me.”
“I would.”
“So then don’t. I don’t need your gratitude. I don’t need your pity.”