The Altering (Coywolf Series Book 1)

by Abby Tyson

  "You owe us your freedom," added Ren, "and you know it."

  The girl shivered at his words and stopped struggling. "I do know it. Now I have two debts to repay." Yanking her arm from Ren's loosened grip, she said, "This way. I can't see her, but I know where the ona and their keepers live."

  Ren and Marley walked beside the little girl. Even though he knew his brother wouldn't like it, Marley had to ask. "What did Savi say to you?"

  "Brother," Ren growled.

  Nissa answered before Marley could defend his question. "The ona misled her."

  "Ona?" asked Marley.

  "The true name of their kind," Nissa said. "What you call werewolves. Their alpha, Ebony, told Savi that her pack wants to become human again, and could do so with my other half. The truth is that they want to become torra, and rule you humans. Ebony promised to save Savi's friends in exchange for the silver wolf."

  "So she was working against us," Ren said.

  "Ebony told her they would give you the wolf," Nissa said the words with disgust, "after they had finished with her. But that also was a lie, as the rebirth ceremony that changes ona requires drinking the warm blood of a torra -- at night as a wolf, and right after dawn as a human. Even if they didn't kill my other half for the ritual, they certainly wouldn't relinquish her."

  "So she thought she was helping everyone," Marley said pointedly to his brother. "Where is she?" he asked Nissa. "Why isn't she with you?"

  "Back at the barn, I assume," she said, indifferent. "Last I saw she was fighting Baxter."

  "What?"

  "Forget her," Ren barked.

  Marley said nothing.

  "Are you with us?" asked Ren, getting in Marley's face.

  "We can't just leave her there!"

  "She may not even be there," Ren shouted. Then, his voice quiet, he said, "If you go back there, I'm not going with you. I'm getting the silver wolf."

  "Me too," Marley said, "but I'm going back for Savi after."

  They continued in uneasy silence. Ren started scanning the forest floor, loading his pockets with rocks.

  "For the wolves?" Marley asked. An encounter was almost inevitable if they were walking into werewolf territory.

  "Yeah."

  Resentful that he hadn't thought of it first, Marley did the same. Soon they were both weighed down with pockets full of palm-sized rocks, and each carried a sturdy stick. Despite their warnings, Nissa didn't gather any weapons.

  Marley's mind wandered to Savi and their moment in the woods near the barn. Feeling her curves against him, her hand squeezing his arm... He'd been stupid enough to take that as a sign that she felt the same way for him as he did for her. But she'd made her actual feelings -- or lack thereof -- clear when she recoiled from him. As if he needed more evidence that they weren't meant to be together after her reaction by the playground.

  He kicked at a log in his path, swinging harder than he'd intended. His boot went through the brittle wood with a crack that resonated through the sleeping forest. Nissa and Ren both glared back at him. Not bothering to apologize, he continued walking.

  Nothing had happened the way it was supposed to. Marley had pictured reconnecting with Savi thousands of times over the years, but he'd never imagined she'd get mixed up in all this. She was supposed to fall head over heels for him, and then... well, he usually skipped ahead to a happily ever after, but even in his daydreams he knew that was unrealistic. As Ren was quick to point out, romance with humans was a dead end. Too soon she would start asking questions about why they never hung out at night, and he would have to end it, hurting them both.

  Maybe he'd been imagining it, but when they stood by the playground, Marley was sure he'd seen the same spark in her eyes that burned in him. His heart quickened at the memory of her shy smile, her dimples, her dark eyes remembering him, knowing him... But that was before he'd told her about Warren. And if she'd freaked out that much about his dad, how would she react to the truth about him?

  Something whirred past him, blowing a breeze across his face, and landing with a resolute thud in a tree just in front of Ren.

  "Cover!" Ren shouted. They all ran behind trees as another arrow shot past them, narrowly missing Nissa.

  Once they were hidden, the assault paused. Marley peered around his tree, but their assailants were hidden in the dark woods. The sound of a rock landing nearby started another volley of arrows. Marley ducked back behind his tree. He thought he could see Nissa several feet to his right, but he couldn't make out Ren at all.

  "Is everyone okay?" he called. His tree shuddered from the shock of another arrow sticking into it. Unsurprisingly, no one answered.

  Another rock hit a tree nearby, and another arrow fired. Marley understood what his brother was trying to do, and pulled out some of his rocks and threw them. The archers fired a few more times before they must have figured out what was going on, because they stopped taking the bait.

  Or they ran out of arrows, Marley thought.

  Ren must have been thinking the same thing, because a dark mass became visible, running toward Marley. Just before he dropped behind another tree, an arrow landed in his back.

  "Ren!" Marley screamed, unable to distinguish his brother from the forest of shadows.

  The sound of growling from behind the archers drew Marley's attention. He saw the two keepers who had been at the barn step away from their hideouts. They started yelling and waving their arms at the wolves, but the snarls didn't stop.

  "Climb!" Ren yelled.

  Instead, Marley called to his brother. "Are you okay?"

  Ren's voice came from above. "Yes! Climb!"

  A shriek sounded from one of the keepers, and Marley watched in horror as two of the werewolves jumped on him. The deep, primal fear that Marley could never quite extinguish siezed him, screaming at him to run. The other keeper continued shouting, trying to scare the remaining wolves away, but it was no use. One jumped on him, then another, and another.

  "Brother!" Ren shouted, snapping Marley out of his terror. "Get Nissa! Climb!"

  Marley ran to Nissa, who was still on the ground, watching the wolves. He picked her up and lifted her as high as he could. "Climb up," he ordered.

  "Put me down!" she cried, kicking him in the face.

  Doing his best to hold her flailing body, he shouted, "What are you doing? I'm trying to help you. They'll come for us next."

  A growl behind him told Marley that next was now.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  "You!”

  The lab was lit when Savi fell in, but she had been too busy falling down the ladder to notice that Jameson was still there.

  "You did this to me!" he screamed, lunging at her.

  She dodged behind the ladder, but Jameson grabbed her ponytail and wrenched her to the floor.

  "You killed me!" he shrieked, spraying her with spit. The stench of smoke that clung to him made her eyes sting. His face was so close to hers that Savi couldn't help but meet his crazed eyes. His hatred for her was tangible, a rope of fire that he cast deep into her core. Top may have threatened to kill her, but he had never been consumed by such deranged and violent hostility.

  "Jim!" shouted Baxter, jumping down the last few rungs of the ladder and yanking Jameson off of her. Savi's head burned as Jameson dragged her with him, his fist tangled in her thick hair. She struggled to get back on her feet. "Let go of her, Jimbo!"

  Gabe started climbing down. "Get Mama," Baxter yelled at him.

  "She'll ruin everything," Jameson cried, spinning Savi around and trapping her neck in the crook of his elbow. The suffocating stink of smoke crowded what little air reached her lungs. "She'll kill all of us!"

  Savi jerked her elbow back, jabbing Jameson hard in the stomach. He doubled over, pressing most of his weight onto her. She jabbed again as Baxter grabbed his loosening arms and wrestled Jameson to the ground. Savi took a few shaky steps before falling to the floor by the ladder to catch her breath.

  "What are you doin', Jim?" Ba
xter cried, pinning him to the floor.

  Still flailing, Jameson kept screaming "She killed me!" over and over.

  Just as Savi started to get her wits about her enough to think of escaping, Marcia's voice called down from above.

  "What is going on down here?" she shouted as she climbed down with Gabe right behind her. "Can't an old woman get a moment's peace?"

  "Mama!" Jameson cried, switching from crazed shrieks to weeping.

  Marcia looked from Jameson, still trapped beneath Baxter, to Savi, crumpled on the floor. Stiff gray curls stuck out from her bun, crowning her face, which was still red and smudged with black from fighting the fire. "What did you do this time?"

  "Are you kidding me?" Savi croaked.

  "Jimbo attacked her," Baxter said.

  Marcia walked over to them. "Leave him, Baxter."

  With a long "Oof," Baxter slowly stood. He looked so tired, his shoulders hunched, his usually smiling eyes puffy and red, that Savi was surprised he'd been able to take Jameson down. A streak of dried blood ran down the side of his face, and at first Savi thought it was from Jameson, but then she remembered hitting him in the head with a rock when they were fighting in the woods.

  That's what you get for kidnapping someone, she thought, shrugging away a twinge of guilt.

  "What happened, Jameson?" Marcia asked, her voice dripping with maternal sweetness.

  Jameson rolled onto his back and lifted his legs and arms limply into the air. Savi had seen him take the same pose when he was a caged wolf.

  "Mama," he groaned, heaving with sobs. "She killed me, Mama. Top told me it was her. He told me what she did."

  "Thomas?" Marcia glanced up the ladder. "That boy..."

  "She'll kill all of us, Mama," Jameson blubbered, getting on all fours and rubbing his head against Marcia's legs like a dog. "We need to stop her."

  "I didn't know it was going to happen," Savi said. She pointed at Marcia. "And she made you bite me. If you want to be angry at someone, you should be angry at her."

  Jameson's eyes flared. He let out a wild howl and dove for Savi. Baxter caught him just before he reached her, but Jameson flailed and tried to wriggle from his grasp. Savi jumped up and put one of the steel lab tables between them. Gabe came over and stood beside her, blocking her path to the ladder.

  "Jameson!" Marcia shouted. "Stop this."

  He went limp in Baxter's arms and whined.

  "Come on, Jim," Baxter said, struggling to hold him up. "Let's go."

  Marcia cupped Jameson's face in her hands and said, "If you still want to be a savior then you can't be weak. There are millions of people in the world waiting to take your place if you're not strong enough."

  Jameson stiffened, his fear at Marcia's words palpable. Leaning against Baxter, he stood, straightened his shirt, and walked to the ladder.

  "There's my good boy," Marcia said. "I'll be up in a sec."

  Savi watched him, still on alert. Only when he was nearly all the way up the ladder did he meet her gaze, his venomous stare telling her that this wasn't over.

  Gabe grabbed her arm and led her toward two hospital beds at the far end of the lab. One bed was empty, one was not.

  "George," Savi gasped, forgetting her decision to switch to his real name. He was strapped to the hospital bed, his eyes closed, wearing a hospital gown. She stopped walking, but Gabe jerked her forward. Baxter took her other arm.

  "What did you do to him?" Savi cried. Neither answered, proceeding to half-drag, half-carry her onto the bed. "No!" she screamed. "Let me go!"

  Baxter threw himself on her, trapping her on the bed. Sharp and throbbing pains shot out from her back, still raw from being towed through the forest. One by one, Gabe held her limbs against the bed as Marcia buckled the leather cuffs around Savi's ankles and wrists.

  "Gabe, go on upstairs," Marcia said. "Make sure Jameson is waiting for me."

  As Gabe went back up the ladder, Marcia started opening and closing drawers. Without talking to anyone in particular, she said, "My poor Jameson. He's mad because I won't let him alter again until after we know exactly what happened. It could happen to the savior who bites him, so I'm afraid he'll have to wait."

  Remembering Jameson's canine behavior and insane eyes, Savi said, "He's mad alright."

  "You took something important from him," said Marcia. "He has a right to be upset."

  Savi rolled her eyes, and they landed on George, who hadn't moved since she'd first seen him. "What did you do to George?"

  "I already told you, his name is Glenn." Marcia's chipper, sing-songy tone did little to hide the razor-edged threat in her voice. She pulled something out of a mini fridge. "He's been sedated and prepped."

  "Prepped for what?"

  "An experiment." Marcia's detachment when speaking of her own son was chilling. Before Savi could probe further, she said, "It doesn't concern you."

  "But --"

  "So you're Monty's daughter?" She chuckled, placing equipment on a tray the same way she had earlier. Savi couldn't see what was on it, but she guessed it wasn't going to be good for George -- Glenn.

  "Glenn has been keeping secrets from me much longer than I thought. Monty told me he was expecting, but then I never heard anything more about it. I assumed his girlfriend lost the baby. Your mother must be... what was her name... the blonde with the sisters?"

  Savi didn't answer, but Marcia made the connection anyway.

  "Chloe," she said, snapping her fingers. "She was a beauty. You look much more like your dad, though. He was a handsome one too." She smiled sadly at her son. "My baby loved him so much. What a shame."

  "A shame that you murdered him?" Savi snapped. "I'd say that's criminally insane, not a shame."

  Walking back toward the bed, Marcia said, "What Glenn said before is true. We didn't know about the shortened lifespan until well after Monty was altered, and he was affected even earlier than most. It was a tragedy."

  "It wasn't a tragedy, it was murder."

  With her back to Savi, Marcia placed the tray on the steel table closest to the bed.

  "We're saving humanity here, Savannah. I thought you understood that, but now I see it was all a ruse. I opened my home and heart to you." She turned, holding a syringe full of a clear liquid up to the light and tapping it. "And you took advantage of my trust."

  Marcia nodded at Baxter, who put his hands down firmly on Savi's arm.

  "What are you doing?" Savi asked. "I thought you were running an experiment on George?"

  Marcia slammed her hand down on the hard table. "His name is Glenn!" It was the first time Savi had seen Marcia lose control. The corners of her mouth twitched down in a series of severe frowns, and the muscles in her neck bulged. Just before Marcia closed her eyes, Savi caught a glimpse of the same enmity that had burned in Jameson.

  Baxter looked as startled at Marcia's outburst as Savi was. "It's been a rough couple nights, Mama," he said. "Maybe you should take it easy."

  Casting cold eyes on him, she said, "Old men lose their tempers and they're vigorous. Old women lose their tempers and they need sleep."

  He tugged his ear, appearing childish in his discomfort. "I didn't mean anything by it, Mama. You're the strongest person I know." With a nervous laugh, he said, "Maybe I'm the one who needs sleep."

  After a deep breath, Marcia gave him a smile and nodded toward Savi. With another nervous tug on his ear, Baxter locked Savi's elbow in place, pressing all of his weight down on her upper and lower arm. Savi tugged at her bonds, earning nothing but a fresh jolt of pain from her bruised back for her efforts.

  Holding her full syringe up to the light again, Marcia said, "There are going to be casualties along the way; I accept that. I don't seek it, but I accept it. Your father was one of those casualties. His sacrifice was not in vain."

  "You're crazy! Let me go!" Savi continued screaming as Marcia leaned over and stabbed the needle into her vein. She could feel its contents streaming into her, mixing with her blood. "What are you doing?
Stop!"

  Marcia didn't answer until after the syringe was back on the tray. "This is a scientific venture as much as it is a moral one. No, we haven't solved the lifespan problem, and no, we haven't found a way to ease the altering, but we have learned much."

  Baxter moved to the other side of the bed and leaned against the wall, closing his shadowed eyes. Placing a bandaid over the prick on Savi's arm, Marcia sat on a stool by her bedside.

  "A person is turned into a werewolf when human blood is exposed to a specific organic compound -- we call it the lupa compound -- that is found only in werewolf saliva. In our quest to extend the lifespan of werewolves, we've tried a few different means of creating and transferring lupa, but with disappointing results on both an immediate and long-term scale. The tried and true method of the bite, however, had never failed, until last night."

  Her academic tone irked Savi. No matter how Marcia framed it, Savi was no science experiment.

  Marcia nodded at the empty syringe. "This is our most recent effort in recreating lupa. If the bite didn't work on you, maybe this will. Although," she eyed Savi's still human body, "the evidence isn't looking good for that hypothesis. How are you feeling?"

  Savi scoffed, but didn't answer. The truth was that Savi's head was throbbing, but that could be attributed to Jameson as much as Marcia's mystery potion. Savi squinted as the fluorescent light above her grew brighter. She fought against it, but finally had to close her eyes.

  "Hmm. Light sensitivity, that's a good sign." Marcia's voice perked up considerably.

  Savi was uncomfortably warm. Her back became sticky, stinging where sweat leaked into open wounds. Her ankles and wrists were soon dripping with sweat. She felt a hand on her forehead and arm.

  "Feverish. Interesting." Marcia's clinical diagnostics sounded far off.

  Something was crawling on Savi's arm. She instinctively reached to brush it off, and groaned when she couldn't. Braving the lights that were now almost too bright even with her eyes closed, Savi glanced at her arm.

  There was nothing there.

  She closed her eyes, then looked again, the tickling on her arm too real to ignore.