by Moira Byrne
My old Alpha, being the coward he was, took Jack's distraction as an opportunity. He leapt onto the lion's back, sinking his claws deep into Jack's side. Jack howled with pain. I darted forward and slammed my full weight into the cougar, sending him toppling off Jack. As soon as we landed, I scrambled to my feet and jumped away. I whipped around and saw that Jack had already attacked my old Alpha.
He briefly met my gaze with his yellow lion eyes. The look was only a second, but I got the message. He was telling me to let him handle it.
As much as my old Alpha had hurt me and mine, this was their fight. Alpha to Alpha. Some small part of me saw it as poetic justice. The Alpha who took me in defeating the one who had caused me harm.
As much as I wanted to see my old Alpha get torn to shreds, there were still enemies all around. I barely dodged an attack by another cougar, growling as I turned my attention back to battling my foes. I fought along the sidelines as the Alphas duked it out, taking down any cougar that dared stray too near.
Rhonda was on the other side, fighting alongside Sam's massive brown bear. A circle started to form around the two Alphas. At first, the two wolves, Maddox, and Sophie helped me keep it clear.
Before long, the two female lions and several panthers from my pack moved in to assist us. The circle grew, giving the Alphas room to maneuver. Several of the old pack tried to breach it, but we kept them out. Apparently we were the only ones looking to play fair.
I suddenly heard a loud crunch, followed by a roar of agony that faded to a pained wheeze. I looked to see Jack holding my old Alpha's neck between his mighty jaws. He held still for a moment, then let go and raised his mighty head.
A moment later, my old Alpha was lying on the ground, naked in his human form. Deep gouges covered his body. His neck was bloodied beyond comprehension from the lion's jaw. It looked like a mass of bloody, raw meat. The battle between the Alphas had clearly been decided.
I pushed through our pack members to stand next to Jack in the middle of the circle. My Alpha gravely stepped aside. His eyes told me now was my time, my chance. I shifted and crouched down beside my old pack leader. My expression contorted with disgust.
This one man had ruined a healthy, beautiful pack with his poison. I wanted to reach down and strangle what was left of his neck, but I knew he was already on his last breaths. The vicious side of me wanted him to feel each one. Feel how they grew weaker, shallower. I wanted him to know this was it, that his reign of terror was over. And it was all because of my true Alpha.
"This," I spat out, "is what a real pack can do, you piece of shit."
"Celebrate now," he gasped, his voice sounding wet. "You don't have long."
I scoffed. "You think that, do you?"
He smiled a bloody smile. "The winds are changing."
In the next moment, his smile grew slack. He was gone. I should've been happy to see such filth removed from the world, but those words haunted me. How did he know?
Henrietta, Rose's mega-clairvoyant grandmother, had said those very words to Petunia last year. It had been so odd that the entire pack talked about it for months. I'd heard it talked about so many times that I felt like I'd been there when she said it. I remember thinking it seemed so vague and silly, especially coming from a strong clairvoyant.
Those words didn't feel all that silly anymore.
I didn't have time to reflect on it, however. There were still enemies to fight. I shifted to my cougar form, ready for battle. With grim determination, I looked up to the battlefield around me.
Time to dispatch the rest of the filth. Or so I thought. As I surveyed the carnage, I realized that my pack members were standing down and slowly backing away. All the remaining members of my old pack had all shifted to their human forms.
They had all sunk down to sit on the ground, not a single one standing. As I looked from face to face, I saw they were either confused or holding their heads like they hurt. What was going on?
I made my way over to the nearest member of my old pack. I recognized him from before the new Alpha. He was with the pack when it had been good. His fear was sour in the air. When his eyes met mine, I saw sheer terror.
"Alysse? What's going on? Why am I here?" He looked around, swallowing rapidly. "Where is here? Why am I all bloody?"
How does he not know?
I backed away in alarm, then ran to the next pack member I remembered from my childhood. He sat on the ground with his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked around with his eyes brimming with tears and he rocked back and forth.
"I didn't want to do it," he said with a heart-wrenching sob.
I ran to another, then another. Each one was as lost, terrified, and confused as the last. I didn't understand. I thought they had all taken to the new Alpha and he had slowly converted them to his awful lifestyle of subjugation and general misogyny, but something wasn't right.
My paws dug into the grassy earth. I was racing toward Rhonda before I even realized it. I shifted in front of her and her eyes widened.
"Alysse," she gasped, "I can see all your girly bits."
"Just look at me from the shoulders up." I shrugged. "Do you have any idea what's going on with these guys? It's like they were drugged or something. Could it be magic?"
"Oh, yes." Rhonda looked out to the field of carnage and shuddered. "I could feel it in the air."
"Feel what exactly?"
"It was definitely a spell. I'm not sure what it was, but it broke when that man died. The only type of spell that acts like that is blood magic." Rhonda looked toward the lifeless body with a hint of sadness. Sadness he didn't deserve. "Speaking of which, I need to get a look at whatever Ben came out here looking for."
"I don't know where it is. I didn't even know about it until a little while ago."
Rhonda nodded and turned her attention to the members of my old pack. She eyed all the disoriented men with narrowed eyes, then slowly started to nod to herself. She crooked one long, red-painted finger at a man who was holding a hand to his head.
"You," she said in a voice so commanding that my brows rose.
The man's head snapped up in an instant. I recognized him as one of the lower ranking men from the old pack. He was one of those who came in with the new Alpha. I only remembered him because I hated his clothing with a passion. He wore khakis with velcro pockets, for heaven's sake. He didn't even use the pockets.
As a woman who would kill for usable pockets on all of her pants, it was outraging in more than one way. But what was his name? I called him many things in my head, but never his actual name. Was it Steve, maybe? I was going to call him Steve.
Steve was blinking rapidly, like he was trying to clear something from his eyes. All the while, he looked up at Rhonda like a lost puppy. If I didn't hate my old pack so much, I might have actually felt sad.
Rhonda approached him and he carefully got to his feet.
What was she doing? My cat's curiosity winning over, I shifted once more and followed after her, padding carefully through the former battlefield to avoid anything particularly gruesome.
"I heard someone was practicing some nasty magic here. Take me to it."
"N-Nasty magic . . .?" Steve asked.
"Blood magic."
The man blinked some more, then finally something seemed to click. "I remember. The woman. She wanted to be stronger. She wanted to be stronger. It's . . . it's over there."
"Show me."
Under Rhonda's command, Steve immediately started to move toward a far part of the field. Was this the mysterious smell that fascinated Ben? I had nearly forgotten about that in the heat of the battle.
As I followed, I hoped it was nothing. I couldn't stomach the thought of Ben coming out here, trying to help protect us, and stumbling into something nefarious. Nefarious things didn't happen in Fayoak, right? It was such a happy, kitschy town.
Every place had its dark side, I reminded myself. I mean, c'mon, just last year Heather was selling black market potions to a psych
opath. A psychopath who tried to kill my sister and her boyfriend.
I tried not to let the dark thoughts suck me in too far as I followed behind Rhonda and Steve. I glanced back and saw most of my pack was gathered around Jack. It was just those of us who met up at the orchard who were following Rhonda.
In my brief look, I noticed that Sam was lumbering a little more than usual. His bear's gait was unsteady. Did he get hurt? He didn't seem that bad off, but his limp was noticeable.
Rhonda and the cougar from my old pack stopped and I hurried to catch up. I didn't want to miss this.
"It's here," Steve said, averting his eyes from a congealed pool of blood on the ground. It smelled absolutely wretched, but it was otherwise unimpressive. I didn't even feel the sense of revulsion I'd felt when I entered the field earlier. That was it? I looked up at Rhonda and her expression was torn between horror and amusement.
I shifted again and she jumped away slightly. "Jesus, child, could you warn me first?"
"You live in Fayoak. Shouldn't you be used to this?"
"I live here because it's safe. Not because I want to be in the middle of all this hocus-pocus." She sighed and took another long look down at the dark, disturbingly wiggly mound of blood. "It seems like this sort of thing just pulls you in anyway."
"So, what is . . . that?" I asked.
"It's definitely blood magic. But whoever did it was an amateur. They're still learning and—" She glanced at me, then looked up at the sky. "Aly, it is so damn hard to talk to you with your perky boobs staring at me."
I folded my arms across my chest. "Better?"
"It'll do. Anyway, this spell was interrupted, then the idiot came back and tried to use the old blood anyway."
"I don't feel anything anymore," I said with a frown. "When I got here, it was so bad that I wanted to puke."
"It's spent. Whatever she'd planned to use it for is done. I'm sure she got a little juice from it, but not much."
"Juice?"
"You sacrifice a life, you get yourself a little extra boost in power." Rhonda frowned. "It's only temporary though. Not worth a life."
I rewound back through our conversation. "Wait, you said 'she.' Do you know who it was?"
"Mhm. There's a magical fingerprint of sorts. I gotta warn you, though, it's not very surprising."
A yip on the other side of the blood tore my attention from Rhonda. I looked over just as David shifted.
"Ben was here," he said, his eyes wild.
Rhonda slowly raised her brows. "I think Heather might've gotten her hands on your friend."
Heather was the one practicing blood magic? Panic tore through me.
She had Ben.
14
Ben
I woke to a dull, throbbing pain in the back of my head. I lifted my hand and gently probed. I winced when I felt a lump. How did that get there?
I drew in a breath and frowned. Where . . . where was I?
I stared at a white ceiling as I tried to figure out where I was and what my nose was telling me. There was an overwhelming perfume in the air. A nagging feeling at the back of my mind told me I should recognize it. The perfume was so strong that I couldn't pick up any other scents. Something told me that should alarm me, yet . . . it didn't.
I'm so thirsty, I thought. My mouth was dry, yet it felt coated, somehow, like I'd drunk a thick syrup. Nasty. I was desperate for a cup of water.
I sat up, my weight sinking into the soft bed. The blanket that had been covering me fell to my lap and I noticed I wasn't wearing a shirt. Was that important?
Looking around the room only made my confusion worse. I didn't recognize anything. Again, something told me I should be worried. But I was so calm. It was as if I was in a dream. Nothing would harm me. I was okay.
As I swung my legs out of the bed, I wondered why I was in a bed with light pink sheets and a dark pink blanket. I wouldn't pick colors like that, would I? I tilted my head to the side. I was certain, at least, that I would never buy a ruffled pillowcase.
I was in some sort of dollhouse. It couldn't be real. Everything was so perfect, shiny, and pink. I looked around the room, trying to find something familiar. The bed was in the middle of the wall, with nightstands on either side. A layer of sparkling white rhinestones covered the base of each lamp.
There was no way this was my room. I didn't even know how I got here. Curiously, none of this alarmed me.
It struck me as odd that there were no pictures on the walls. The room had no windows, either, but there were three doors. Two on the left side of the bed, and one on the right. I stood up, and my bare feet sank deep into the plush rug. Pink again. Was I in the room of a teenager . . .? Why?
The rug was ugly, but at least it kept my feet off the cold tile. My frown deepened as I wondered why I was only wearing sweat shorts. At least they were gray instead of pink. Had I been sick? Was that why I didn't recognize this room? Why wasn't I worried about anything?
The questions slipped out of my mind before I could really think about them. Something told me to move. A distant sense of urgency. Like someone was yelling at me from far away. Too far. I couldn't understand. Trying to appease the voice, I walked to the nearest door. The knob turned easily in my hand. I swung the door open to find a small closet.
No clothes hung on the bar, but there were plastic boxes on the shelf. I wondered what was in them, but the urge to move still gently pushed at me. I felt like I needed to go somewhere, but I didn't know where. Instead of pulling down one of the boxes to investigate, I closed the closet door and opened the one next to it.
I blinked as the continuing theme of pink and white assaulted my eyes. I had no idea they made pink toilets. The pedestal sink was white, but the tiles on the floor were pink and white alternating squares. The walls were white, but all the towels were pink. The shower curtain was pink. Even the bath mat was pink. What was this place?
I had never seen so much pink in my life. Again, the thought crossed my mind that I should be alarmed, but it fluttered away before it could take hold. I was fine. Everything was good. A click sounded behind me, and I turned around to see the door on the other side of the room opening. A woman with blonde hair was pushing the door open. I couldn't see her face as she was looking over her shoulder as she stepped in.
"Don't bother me unless it's an emergency," she said in a sharp tone to someone outside the room.
A male voice started to reply, "But—"
"Emergency only," she snapped as she turned around, an annoyed look on her face.
Her eyes went to the bed, then snapped up to look me in the face. A slow smile curved her lips as she ran her eyes over my body from my feet up. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it. Who was she?
"Hello, handsome. I didn't expect to see you up already." Her eyes roamed over my body again. I had a strong urge to wrap a blanket around my bare chest. I clasped my hands over my shorts when her gaze lingered on my crotch. She licked her lips. I had no idea who she was, yet there was something about her that completely revolted me.
"Who . . . are you?" I asked as I studied her, carefully keeping my tone even.
She licked her lips again and slowly lifted her eyes to mine. "I helped you. I gave you some medicine to make you all better."
"How did I get hurt? Where am I? How long have I been here? Who are you?" With each question, I felt like anxiety should be mounting, yet I felt detached. As if I was participating in a play. I had this nagging feeling that I knew her, but when I chased that thought, it disappeared like a wisp.
"Now, now," she chided with a sly smile, "we don't want you to get upset."
She pushed away from the door and stalked around the bed toward me, swaying her hips rapidly from side to side.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She paused, looking surprised. "Why would you ask that?"
"You're walking like there's something wrong with your feet."
A look of irritation momentarily crossed her face. If I hadn't
been watching so closely, I might have missed it. She was already giving me her bedroom eyes again.
"Maybe I should sit down, hm?" She sat on the edge of the bed and reclined, posing seductively. At least, I thought that was what she was going for, but everything about her felt so wrong. I had no idea why. She was pretty, I guess. I could see men being attracted to her, maybe, but she wasn't my type.
She patted the side of the bed next to her, looking at me with half-closed eyes. "Come join me, you handsome man."
I took a deep breath, but the heavy perfume overwhelmed all the other scents. My stomach churned. "I think . . . I think I need to leave." The feeling of something urging me to leave was steadily growing stronger.
There was only one way out. I would have to pass her on the bed to get to the door. That same something told me I shouldn't take my gaze off her. I had to be careful. But why?
The smile didn't leave her face as she narrowed her eyes at me. She stood up and I took a step to the side. Her hand reached out to touch my chest and I took a hasty step backward. I didn't want her to touch me.
Her lips formed a pout. "Now, don't be that way, honey."
"I'm not your honey." At least, I didn't think I was.
"Of course you are, silly." She let out a tittering laugh, yet her eyes studied me with a calculating look. "With all that we've shared, how could you say otherwise?"
"I don't—"
She bit down on her lower lip and widened her eyes. "Don't you remember, baby?" Her throaty voice sent chills down my spine. "All the wonderful times we've shared?"
I had no idea how I managed to keep the distaste from my expression. She continued to look at me as if she expected me to jump her bones at any second. I didn't want to. I had to get out of this room, but she was between me and the door.
How could I get past her without letting her touch me? For some reason, I felt that something bad would happen if she touched my bare skin. My earlier calm was starting to disappear. A knot formed in my gut at the thought of her touch, even though there was no logical reason for my loathing.