by Jessica Snow
“The woods, for sure. Crystal’s always been a woods’ hunter, she hates trying to chase down prey over open fields,” Zack said immediately. “I don’t know how many hunts I’ve been on with her, and she always preferred the woods over the open plains.”
Liam nodded. It was good information and jived with what he knew about Crystal as well. “Ashley, can you set yourself up in a place where you can cover the woods?”
Ashley smiled, but it wasn’t her normal pretty smile. This was the smile of the Guardian, the woman who been trained since birth to fight werewolves and vampires and all sorts of supernatural beings. “Oh yeah. There is a billboard about five hundred yards away from the place we were talking about on the map. You get me up there, you and rest of the crew may not have to fight. I can put down five people in ten seconds from there.”
Liam still felt nervous as he watched Kat walk away from the group, heading for the meetup point. Ashley had taken off five minutes before, a bounce in her step as she anticipated finally being able to use her skills to their fullest. Liam wondered just how good her camouflage was. Prior to revealing herself to her friends, he hadn’t known her as anything other than a Guardian. However, in every interaction he had with her, he had known her as a very capable warrior. And since the attack on the Wardens, she’d come around on being a pain in the ass some as well.
Carly, who was involved for the first time in a planned fight, looked around nervously. “Do you think the little ones are going to be okay?”
Liam smiled, thinking about the people that were left behind at the cabin. “Those three have both of their grandmothers with them. Victoria Greyson may not be fully recovered from getting shot, but anyone who underestimates her protective instincts is in for a very rude awakening. And Elizabeth’s a good person too. I think she’s really starting to enjoy having that shotgun around.”
McKenzie looked nervous as well, and Liam understood why. Zack could see it as well, but Liam knew this wasn’t the time for a boyfriend, this was the time for a pack leader. “Okay. Zack, Carly, I want you both to change and get low in the grass. Get a little closer, but not so close that if Crystal and her crew shows up that you’d be discovered. Carly, I want you right at Zack’s side the whole time, you’ll be working as a fighting pair. This isn’t a one-on-one fight, this is pack warfare. You’ve never dealt with this before. Trust Zack, he’ll get you through this.”
Zack and Carly changed, slinking off slowly into the scrub brush that made up the more open areas around the meetup point. When they were gone, Liam turned to McKenzie. “Hey, I wanted to talk with you alone for a moment. You okay with Zack and Carly teaming up for this?”
“Yeah,” McKenzie said. “I think after the other day, Carly knows that Zack and I are a couple. And I trust Zack totally. If he was going to cheat on me, he would have been doing it over the past nine months. What else is on your mind, Liam?”
Liam smiled and started taking off his shirt. “I saw it in your eyes, you’re worried about what’s going to happen. Let me guess, you think that if things go down, you’re going to be clicking your fingers, wiggling your nose, or whatever it is you do, and nothing’s going to happen. Trust me, I’ve thought a little about that too. But I have faith in a couple of things.”
“What?”
“I have total faith in myself, but more importantly, I have total faith in each and every person in this pack. McKenzie, I know you see yourself as a total bad ass when your powers are on. And you’re worried that if you can’t get your powers to work, that we’re going to be in for a hard fight and that you won’t be able to help. Relax, I don’t care if Crystal brings five, ten, or fifty wolves with her. We will take care of it. Just sit back, do what you can, and it’ll happen when the time is right.”
McKenzie smiled bravely, but Liam could see that she was still nervous about something. Finally, after taking a deep breath, she spoke her fear. “What if I can’t control it?”
Liam shrugged. He’d been the one member of the pack to be closest to when McKenzie went full-on out of control and knew there was a chance they’d get their fur singed. But that was a threat in any fight. “Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty tough, and so is your sister for sure. As for Zack and Carly, they know how to take care of themselves. So, if you go a little over the top, that’s fine by me. All right, you wait right here. I’ll be right here with you, ready to throw down if we need to do it.”
Liam stripped off the rest of his clothes, and let his body undergo the change. He felt the familiar mix of freedom and regression, as he lost the power to speak, but gained so much more. When he was finally finished changing, he went over to McKenzie, who was looking at him with a little bit of fright in her eyes. In a definitely non-alpha act, he nuzzled her hand, lifting it to rest on the top of his shaggy head. McKenzie got the message and scratched him on top of his head, and he gave her a very wolf like slobbery lick on the cheek in return, hoping to relax and reassure her. He was still worried, but he knew that there was no more time for worry. It was time to fight.
Chapter 50
Kat felt slightly stupid standing alone in the middle of the road, waiting for Kevin. Every instinct in her body told her that this was a mistake, that really she might as well have had come get me, I’m the target here written on her T-shirt. Seriously, this plan had to be one of the stupidest ideas they’d ever had. Sure, Ashley had given her a little wave when she got up on top of the billboard, but that didn’t mean that she was totally covered. In fact, she felt very vulnerable and very scared.
It would have been easier if she had been able to control her change. However, like her sister, Kat still was not sure about how to do what she needed to do. She knew that Liam understood, but she didn’t let anyone else in the family in on her concerns. It wouldn’t have helped. But while she was confident enough in her abilities, even unchanged, to handle one or two wolves, there was a little voice inside her telling her this wasn’t going to be a small skirmish, but the closest thing she’d ever had to a full on pack battle. And she suspected that Crystal would have the numbers advantage.
“Get it together, Katerina,” she whispered to herself. “This is not the time for any sort of self-doubt.”
A rumble came from down the road, and Kat saw a truck that she assumed was Kevin’s approaching. Her vision was sharp enough that even at a quarter mile away, she could confirm the driver, and she could see that he was alone. It didn’t reassure her, but it didn’t really matter. Things were starting to happen, she had to go with it.
Kevin stopped his car about twenty-five yards from her, getting out and sauntering over, a cocky grin on his face. “Hey, hot stuff, my God you’re looking sexy.”
The first words out of his mouth, and Kat already knew that she had nothing to worry about from him. He was still the same pathetic loser that he had always been, and most likely always would be. Still, she had a role to play. She fawned a little and batted her eyelashes. “Oh Kevin, thank you for coming. After everything that happened yesterday, it’s nice to have somebody I can depend on.”
“That’s what I’m here for, babe,” Kevin said. “Kat, you know what you really need to do right? Let’s just ditch this whole thing, this whole crazy scene. I always remember that you are the best I’ve ever had, and yeah, I screwed up. But I’m not gonna screw up again, just come with me. I’ll take you away from all of this.”
The time for deception was over, and before Kevin could reach out to take her in his arms, Kat stepped back, holding up her hand. “You mean that you want to take me to your vampire masters, don’t you? So, what did they give you, Kevin? How did they make you sell out?”
Instead of being surprised, Kevin stepped back and laughed, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Oh, they didn’t have to compel me to do anything. That tight little spinner Violet approached me at a club, and she didn’t need to do anything. I can see it in your eyes, you think that she had to fuck me to be able to get me to do something. Not my ty
pe, although if she wanted to take a ride on Space Mountain I’d be more than happy to give her one. No, I sold you guys out because I… I just didn’t want to put up with you not coming back to me. So, when she asked for where you were, I was more than happy to….”
Kevin’s words were cut off with a sharp snap as Kat stepped forward and blasted him as hard as she could with her fist, sending him flying. It was a hard punch, half hook half uppercut, catching him just under the chin and snapping his head back. He hit the blacktop in a boneless heap, already unconscious, but before Kat could step forward and finish the job, a massive howling filled the air as Crystal led her pack into battle. It was a lot bigger than Kat had anticipated. She thought that from the information that Sherry and the other three turncoats had given Liam, that Crystal would have no more than five or ten wolves with her. Instead, what emerged from the trees on the west side of the highway was a massive group of almost twenty. At their head was definitely Crystal, whose monstrous appearance would have been scary even if she wasn’t a werewolf.
Not good, one hundred percent not good, Kat thought, immediately trying to change. In her head, she tried to find that place that Liam had been showing her, that spot in her mind where her inner bear waited to be let out. She could feel it, and she knew that it was ready and looking forward to some combat, but something was stopping her. It was like the bear was locked up in a strong metal cage, and no matter how hard she pulled at the lock, it just wasn’t coming loose.
Kat started backpedaling, trying desperately to put some distance in between her and the attacking wolves, but it wasn’t fast enough. Crystal, who was so far gone in her madness and the sickness that was eating away at her from her constant consumption of human and werewolf flesh that her own fur was falling out in chunks and tufts, making her look like a monstrous mangy dog, leaped at her, a snarl tearing from her throat. Kat raised her arm to fend off the flying wolf, but then deliverance came from above, as the crack of Ashley’s sniper rifle signaled the beginning of her side of the fight. The first silver bullet round smacked into Crystal’s shoulder, sending her tumbling and screaming in a half wolf, half human sound that was barely intelligible to either side.
More familiar, reassuring snarling sounds came from her other side, and Kat knew that her small family had joined in the fight. Zack and Carly slammed into a trio of attacking wolves, Zack’s teeth flashing like white daggers in the sun as he tore out two throats in less than three seconds. Ashley’s sniper rifle cracked out again and again, and Kat could see her amazing mate engaged in a battle of his own, trying to fend off half of the pack single-handedly while behind him, McKenzie was struggling to get some sort of spell going. Kat struggled harder, trying to free her inner bear as she saw Crystal get to her feet. “Come on, she-bitch,” Kat said, squaring off. “This seems to come down to you and me anyway.”
Crystal Lilly might have been insane, but the insanity gave her boost at that moment as she fought off the pain of the silver bullet in her shoulder and attacked. Kat knew that Liam could see the fight happening, but with him struggling to protect McKenzie and dealing with five or six attackers himself, there was nothing he could do. And Crystal was still smart, at least battle-wise, and she ducked the punch that Kat sent towards her head, her jaws whipping around to fasten on Kat’s forearm. Fiery hot pain jolted through her body, along with a little bit of panic as well. Crystal snapped her head side to side, jerking Kat off her feet, and as her back impacted with the warm asphalt, she felt it. The lock inside her opened, and her bear was loose.
Kat’s scream of pain stopped, and she smiled into Crystal’s slavering face. “It’s on now, bitch. You better get ready.”
Freedom. After so much struggle, I’m finally free, her inner voice roared in triumph as the energy from her bear side jolted her body. With a powerful jerk of her arm, she sent Crystal flying, the shreds of her forearm already healing as her body spasmed and began to change. Her clothes tore, and the pain was mixed with elation as Kat got to her feet, towering now nearly a dozen feet in the air, power and grace and strength wrapped up in one shaggy, furry package. The battle stopped for a moment, wolves on both sides stopping to stare at her as she roared, her eyes glowing with power and her nearly eight-inch-long claws were razor sharp and gleaming in the mid-afternoon light.
Now, let’s end this.
Chapter 51
Watching his mate emerge in her bear form never failed to fill Liam with two conflicting emotions. On one side of him was a thousand generations that said that wolves and bears were mortal enemies, that the appearance of such a being on the battlefield meant that he was supposed to set aside all his issues with any other wolf and attack the enemy. It was fear speaking, he knew, fear of a being stronger and mightier than him showing up. It was already working on the wolves that had been attacking him, as each of them wheeled to run at Kat, who looked like a massive wall of death ready to receive them all.
It was that same strength of Kat’s that filled him with intense pride and fierce determination because he knew that this creature, strangely graceful for something with such massive size, was also his mate. She was beautiful, unique in this world maybe, and she had given herself to him.
Liam took advantage of the pause in the battle to attack, seeing Carly and Zack still working as a pair, fending off a group that was trying to circle them. He sprang at one of the attackers, lowering his shoulder to knock his enemy off his feet and send him tumbling, where Carly was on it in an instant, tearing the enemy wolf’s throat out, blood spurting high into the air.
Follow me! Stick together! Liam communicated with his eyes to Zack and Carly, the three of them working together while Kat went into a berserker rage, her massive paws, easily the size of a wolf’s head, catching two of Crystal’s pack quickly, literally tearing their heads off to send the bodies flying. Liam was no slouch either, his trio slashing and cutting away members of Crystal’s pack, Liam and Zack knocking them down for Carly to deliver the final, fatal blows.
Ashley stopped firing, the battle had gotten too confused for her to take clear shots with her rifle, but that was okay to Liam. She’d inflicted more damage than any human had ever done to a pack before, to his knowledge. And Ashley, with her human skills and her Guardian training, was a valuable member of the team. But this wasn’t a human fight, with human tools and human motivations. This was a battle to be decided by the law of tooth and claw, blood and muscle, not gunpowder and silver.
Liam heard a growl behind him and he turned, seeing Crystal approaching him even as the chaos of the battle swirled around them. He dismissed Zack and Carly with a jerk of his snout, this was an alpha-only fight. Besides, the human side of him knew that he shouldn’t include Zack in this, he shouldn’t have to fight his sister. Not with blood on the line.
Crystal was a mess, plain and simple. Ashley had made a remarkable shot to save Kat’s life, but the wound wasn’t fatal, just messy as the silver went through and through, bleeding like hell but that was it. What was more disgusting was the way her hair was falling out, her eyes glittering like cheap costume jewelry with madness and disease. The Kuru was tearing through her, only her regenerative abilities keeping her from being paralyzed by the disease already. There was a reason cannibalism wasn’t supposed to happen, and Liam knew it. Now Crystal was suffering the consequences, looking more like a monster than a wolf.
Still, despite her outer appearance, Crystal was still a dangerous adversary, and as she shot in, aiming for his throat he wheeled, his teeth snapping only on thin air as Crystal twisted her body just out of the way. They circled, slashing and attacking, the flash of tooth and the slash of claw putting a final chapter on the saga of their relationship.
Liam was scratched in a good half dozen places as the battle raged, but Crystal was in worse shape as he got a bite in on her left flank, his teeth slicing through the tendons and making her effectively only three legged. He drove his shoulder into her side one more time, sending Crystal bowling over and onto
her back. A moment later, his teeth fastened on her throat and he bit down, the hot taste of her blood filling him with revulsion and victory at the same time. He stepped back, away from her body as Crystal’s jaws worked once… twice… and then stilled forever. As she died, her body rippled, but instead of going back to the human form that most wolves did, she became a twisted mess, caught halfway in between her wolf and her human form, unrecognizable.
Liam turned away, looking around at the carnage. Of the eighteen members of Crystal’s pack who had emerged from the woods, none remained except for the dozen corpses that littered the highway and the surrounding fields. Kat, his amazing mate, stood tall and proud in a circle of wolf bodies, while the others were scattered around where they’d been felled by bullets or by other means. Carly was limping a little from a bite on her right hip, and Zack had his face torn open, but they were both healing.
There was only one missing. McKenzie. Liam looked around, and shifted back to human form, needing his voice. “Where’s McKenzie?”
Kat snapped her head from side to side, her eyes going wide and Liam cursed himself. He’d tried to protect her as she struggled to make a spell, a fire spell he thought, her own fear and concern getting in her way, but when the opportunity came to turn the tide of the battle, he’d trusted that Ashley could cover McKenzie, she’d been in the open grassland and not the woods. Apparently, he was wrong.
“Zack! Follow her scent! The rest of you, track her as best you can! ASHLEY!”