Pack

by Cassandra Chandler

  “Don’t interfere,” he said.

  “Do it,” Brock said. “Now, before it’s too late.”

  Marcus turned back to Tessa, letting his instincts guide him. The voice in his head hadn’t said anything since its outburst in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure he’d ever hear it again. He was sure he didn’t need it now.

  Right shoulder, above the injury, but close enough that his dweller nature could help her heal. Stop the bleeding.

  During their night together, she’d explained how a werewolf’s alpha status was based on how hard they fought to survive, to protect those they loved. Marcus had fought as hard as he could.

  Tessa had cut off her own arm.

  She would only have one scar from her turning, but she would still be an alpha as far as he was concerned.

  His mate.

  With a snarl, he lashed out, quickly latching onto her shoulder and sinking his teeth into her flesh. She sucked in a breath and held it. Marcus shook his head. He couldn’t stop himself.

  He needed more access. More connection. Her blood splashed onto his tongue, warm and fresh. Human.

  He’d never tasted human blood before. It was so much better than the meat he normally ate.

  “Keep it together, Marcus.” Vaughn’s voice brought him back to himself. Kept him grounded.

  The clouds hung low in the sky and the trees wove a tight ceiling above them, but they were still outside—and Vaughn was holding it together. If he could, surely Marcus could as well.

  Tessa finally let out her breath. It escaped in quick, choppy jerks. Her body started to shake.

  “Jesus, what the hell is that?” Vaughn said.

  Marcus couldn’t see what was going on. He just knew he couldn’t let go of Tessa. Not yet.

  “Take off the tourniquet,” Dexter said. “Quickly.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Vaughn made a stifled gagging sound.

  “The wound is closing off,” Brock said. “It’s a good thing.”

  The turning was healing her. Just as Marcus had hoped.

  A surge of excitement flooded his system again and his jaws tightened reflexively. She let out a grunt, then grabbed his throat with her left hand. Her grip was strong. Inhumanly so.

  His muscles were singing, his senses focused on her. The erratic pounding of her heart was stabilizing into a steady pulse. Her breath became more regular. She warmed in his arms.

  He pulled her away from Vaughn and stood, teeth still buried in her shoulder. Marcus held her close against his chest, not sure if she could support herself yet. She tightened her grip on his neck—hard enough to hurt. Tessa snarled, then shoved him away.

  Marcus staggered back, his teeth dripping. Her shoulder was wet with her own blood. She was holding her right arm close to her chest, the stump covered in smooth skin. Red stained her neck and cheek. She ran her left hand across her mouth—smearing it crimson—and stared at him.

  Stared at him with glowing gold eyes.

  He roared a laugh, then threw his head back and howled.

  Tessa let out a low, warning growl.

  “Isn’t this a happy ending. Everyone gets what they wanted.”

  His hackles rose at the now-familiar voice. Edgar.

  Marcus turned around, pulling up to his full height. “She. Is. Mine.”

  “I am no one’s,” Tessa growled.

  Marcus grinned, letting Edgar see his teeth.

  “Aren’t you?” Edgar said.

  Stepping to the side, Edgar revealed a woman who’d been standing behind him out of sight. She was wearing a tight black suit with a short skirt. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun. Her eyes were a dull, flat black, just like Edgar’s. She hooked her arm through his elbow, smiling at the group.

  “What am I seeing?” Vaughn said.

  Marcus’s brain was having trouble processing it as well. The woman… It was Tessa.

  Marcus looked back at his mate, then to the woman on Edgar’s arm. Beneath the blood and disheveled hair—his Tessa’s blood and disheveled hair—they were identical.

  “How…” His Tessa shook her head.

  “I didn’t need all of you,” Edgar said. “Leaving me your arm provided plenty of genetic material to form a viable mate. That plus your generously stocked kitchen.” He let out a genial laugh. “Like I said. Plenty of biomatter.”

  The Hive Mother smiled at them. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to awaken.”

  She leaned into Edgar and he shifted his arm to wrap it around her waist. He bent to her lips and kissed her.

  “Okay, this is even worse than watching Tessa’s arm grow new skin,” Vaughn said.

  Marcus felt another adrenaline surge. This one wasn’t coming from his own body.

  Tessa’s hand was curled into a claw-like fist at her side. Her chest heaved with each quick breath and her eyes were glowing even more brightly.

  “Rip off their faces and shove them down their throats…”

  Bloody images accompanied the words. The voice in his head was Tessa’s.

  “Calm yourself,” he thought at her.

  She growled low, slowly craning her neck to look at him. Suddenly, those bloody thoughts were directed at him.

  He could take it.

  He remembered how it had felt right after he’d been turned. The weeks he’d spent in a cell while Dexter talked him down from changes Marcus couldn’t control. The urge to hurt everyone and everything around him.

  “You aren’t my alpha,” she thought.

  “No. But I am your mate.”

  Her eyes widened and her mouth opened as she sucked in a quick breath. Warmth flooded through him as he felt a mirror of his own feelings for her reflected back at him. The bond they had already somehow been forging strengthened as they accepted each other as pack.

  “It’s nice, isn’t it? Having someone else in your mind.” Edgar turned to them with a smile. “Don’t worry—we can’t hear your thoughts. But we know the look. Werewolves are just another type of hive. Somewhat more individuated, but a hive nonetheless.”

  “An infinity preferable one,” Tessa said.

  The other Tessa shrugged. “To each their own. I have no complaints.” She rested her right hand on Edgar’s stomach.

  Tessa stared at it. Marcus could feel her fury building.

  “Now we can be a family.” The Hive Mother turned her smile on Brock and Dexter. “I don’t have Tessa’s memories, but I look forward to making new ones with you.”

  “Not interested,” Brock said.

  Vaughn laughed. He cleared his throat when everyone looked at him.

  “Sorry. It’s just your step-mom is also your foster-sister.” Vaughn shook his head, then held his arms out briefly as if the movement had made him dizzy. “And I thought my family was messed up.”

  “Speaking of your family,” Edgar said. “We’re going to need a list of names and addresses of all your blood relatives. To get DNA as pure as yours, they must have recessive strains of curator DNA. It’s best to be thorough when stamping that out.”

  “Well, let’s see,” Vaughn said. “You can find them all at the corner of Are You Kidding Me Avenue and Go Fuck Yourself Lane.”

  “Always making things difficult.” Edgar shook his head. “It’s one of the things curators and humans have in common. We’ll just have to torture it out of you.”

  Vaughn swallowed hard. “Or, you know, use the Internet?”

  “Let’s not give the bad guys any ideas,” Brock said.

  “Sorry.” Vaughn turned back to Edgar. “Before either you kill us or we kill you, could you at least tell me what a curator is?”

  “It’s driving you a little crazy, isn’t it?” Edgar laughed. “Keeping that to myself seems like a great way to start tormenting you.”

  “Wow, you really are an asshole.” Vaughn waved at Edgar. “Marcus, could you please kill him now?”

  “No one is killing anyone,” Dexter said.

  Tessa growled at him. Marcus grabbed h
er shoulder and held her in place.

  “We need him,” Dexter said. “Brock is dying, remember? Edgar may have the key to saving him.”

  Marcus could feel Tessa’s frustration—and also her fear. She knew better than any of them what Edgar was capable of. How dangerous he was. They should have listened to her warnings from the start.

  “How do we kill them?” Marcus thought. “You lived with him for years. Surely you know of a weakness.”

  “We have to get all of their dwellers at the same time.”

  Marcus had noticed both Hive beings were referring to themselves as “I”.

  “From the way they’re talking, all of their hive components are here. But there are two of them now.”

  “We’d need a flamethrower or something to kill them all,” Tessa thought. “And with this rain, that might not even work.”

  He felt an idea begin to form in her mind.

  “I still have my stingray,” she thought.

  Marcus remembered the procedure in Porter’s lab when they had removed a dweller from her arm. Cold would slow Edgar and his mate down. Fire would kill them—and so would electricity.

  But electricity wouldn’t kill a werewolf.

  Conveniently, there were ample puddles around. They just had to maneuver their prey into position.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” He felt her approval as a wave of tingling warmth down his spine.

  The only question that remained was—could she control herself once she changed?

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “My son is dying?” Edgar cocked his head to the side.

  Tessa wanted to rip it off his neck, but not if he could help Brock. She had to control herself until she was sure.

  It wasn’t easy.

  Her teeth felt sharper than normal. The hairs on her skin kept standing on end as frissons of sensation swept over her body. She felt exhilarated, energized.

  Hungry.

  Brock, Dexter, and Vaughn had meat. Blood and meat that she could claw through with ease—once she let the waves of her transformation sink bone-deep. She kept her focus on the two dwellers in front of her, pushing the human…ish beings out of her awareness.

  Dust and leaf rot. That’s what the apex ghouls smelled like. Unpalatable.

  “I guess that explains why hydra are so rare,” Edgar said. “If they can’t survive on their own, they aren’t a viable hybridization.”

  “Don’t worry,” the Hive Mother said. “You can always make more as we need them. And the next ones, we’ll raise together.”

  Tessa’s stomach heaved. Seeing herself reflected in that warped mirror—the future that could so easily have been hers…

  Tessa shook her head, hard, wishing her ears were longer, her fingers sharp.

  “It wouldn’t make a difference. I can barely slow them down, even in this form.”

  She heard Marcus’s voice in her mind. A voice of reason and comfort. Her heart pounded harder at the warmth that flooded through her body knowing he was close. He was hers.

  No wonder they had bonded so quickly. If this is what he’d been feeling toward her all along…

  Visions of slashing Edgar filtered into her consciousness, Marcus sharing his memories of fighting Edgar. Brute force might not be enough to kill an apex ghoul, but it could help maneuver them into a situation that was fatal.

  “You won’t help Brock.” She didn’t bother making her words a question.

  “Natural selection at work,” Edgar said.

  Tessa snorted. “There’s nothing natural about any of us.”

  “You need to expand your thinking.” Edgar’s smile broadened. At least he wasn’t grimacing anymore.

  “I have something else in mind.” She drew her stingray out of her pocket, glad that it was already on her left side.

  Her stomach lurched as she remembered why that was a good thing. Her arm...

  She pulled her thoughts sharply back to task. She didn’t have time to freak out. Not yet.

  “I don’t need your toys anymore.” Tessa tossed the weapon to Vaughn.

  Vaughn scrambled to catch it, his hands still shaking. He cleared his throat and said, “That’s actually hurtful.”

  “Get over it.” She glared at him, eyes narrowed, hoping he would catch on that they had a plan.

  His brow furrowed. She locked her eyes on the nearest puddle pointedly, then looked back to the weapon. Reaching out for Marcus in her mind, she could feel that he was ready.

  Finally, she let go.

  The gooseflesh that had been rippling over her skin intensified, a pleasure so intense it almost hurt. It soaked into her muscles, vibrated in her bones, reached into her marrow, and then exploded outward.

  She ripped off her shirt as her chest changed dimensions. Marcus was at her side, tearing at her cargo pants with his claws. Her feet elongated to the point that she could simply step out of her boots. She shook off her socks.

  The world was changed. Halos surrounded everyone around her—Brock’s and Dexter’s a soft orange, Vaughn’s more gold-tinged. She could feel their warmth, hear the blood rushing through their veins. It took effort not to lick her lips.

  “Not prey,” Marcus thought to her.

  She repeated it like a mantra. “Not prey.”

  She felt his warmth most of all. Affection blossoming into something stronger. A bond that connected them on a physical level, energy flowing between them somehow. And his scent…

  Cool wind after a summer storm. Warm earth that was just overturned. A hint of cinnamon mixed into his fur.

  Edgar and the other Tessa were surrounded in a dark, somber blue. The only thing Tessa heard from them was the soft squicking sound of their dwellers crawling around within their humanlike carapaces.

  “Are we going to do this or what?” the Hive Mother said.

  Tessa took a deep breath through her long muzzle, taking in the symphony of scents in the air—rainwater, traces of her human blood on the ground—and focusing on the ones she was about to end.

  With a roar, she leapt forward.

  She sensed Marcus’s attack more than she saw it. A blur of gray in her periphery, clawing at Edgar. Tessa focused on her target—on the thing that had stolen her form.

  Slashing wouldn’t work. It would only spread their dwellers around. Plus, with only one hand, she couldn’t do as much damage as she’d like. At least the wound had healed over. Her arm would be an effective bludgeoning weapon.

  Tessa swung at the Hive Mother. The creature only grinned, letting the blow connect. Her cheek collapsed on itself, but then reformed around Tessa’s fur-covered arm and held it fast.

  Tessa could feel the dwellers in the thing’s body wriggling around what was left of Tessa’s forearm—the outside of her arm.

  They would never get under her skin again.

  The Hive Mother smiled. “There’s no way you can win. We shouldn’t be fighting in the first place. We should be working together.”

  Tessa didn’t bother trying to pull her arm free. With her left hand, she grabbed the Hive Mother by her neck and lifted her from the ground, crushing what would have been her windpipe if she was human.

  It didn’t seem to make any difference at all—and why would it? She was a bag of maggots. Too bad Tessa didn’t have any bug spray.

  But she had Vaughn.

  She heard the distinctive sound of the stingray powering up. A high-pitched whine she hoped only she and Marcus could detect.

  “Give us the curator,” the Hive Mother said. “You have to feel that he needs to die. You’re one of us now.”

  “And he’s one of my pack.” Tessa tightened her grip, crushing the Hive Mother’s neck further.

  “Tessa. Here.”

  A loud splash coupled with Marcus’s words in her mind helped Tessa maneuver to the puddle they would be using to ensure the apex ghouls’ destruction. She slammed her prey to the ground. With her stump still buried in the thing’s face, it was easy to push the Hive Moth
er under the water.

  “Fool,” the Hive Mother said. “Fighting against us. Not using your claws or teeth. You’re thinking like a human.”

  Tessa didn’t understand how the Hive Mother was still talking. The voice was coming from her chest.

  Looking down, Tessa saw another face pressing up just past the thing’s collarbones. She felt the dwellers morphing, changing to escape Tessa’s grasp. Shapeless tendrils of gray flesh wrapped around her arms and started to squeeze.

  The face in the Hive Mother’s chest grinned, showing all of her teeth as her mouth stretched closer to Tessa’s neck. From the corner of her eye, she could see that Marcus was in a similar situation.

  “You can’t drown us,” the Hive Mother said.

  “We’re not trying to drown you.”

  The Hive Mother narrowed her eyes in confusion. If she figured out the plan, she would have a chance to try to escape. They were out of time.

  “Vaughn, now!” Tessa said.

  “This is going to hurt,” Vaughn shouted.

  Tessa heard the high buzz of the stingray grow closer, then a splash as it landed in the puddle.

  Her vision turned to molten white. Pain arced through her body, dancing through each nerve-ending. Marcus roared, his pain adding to hers. She could feel the Hive Mother convulsing beneath her. The tendrils wrapped around Tessa’s arms hardened and then snapped off.

  The pain receded.

  An etched outline of the thing beneath her became visible, its outer shell bubbling and morphing, until finally melting into the puddle. Thousands of the little maggoty dwellers floated to the surface.

  Tessa looked over at Marcus. He was panting, staring with wide eyes at the water they were crouching in. She heard his voice in her mind again.

  “Did it work?”

  Soft blue light illuminated his chest, catching in the drops of water falling from his pelt.

  She turned back to the puddle.

  The one Marcus had chosen for their trap was huge, and glowing so brightly it hurt her eyes to watch. Still, she wouldn’t let herself look away. She didn’t dare to blink. After all these years, she had to see Edgar’s end—and the destruction of the thing he had created from Tessa.