Blackwing Wolf

by T. S. Joyce

  Was he already in her room, hurting her? Killing her? Desperation took his wolf, and Dustin ripped the Second’s throat. The wolf gurgled at his feet as Dustin looked up in panic.

  Jagger was in wolf form, but he wasn’t moving. He lay in a pile at the feet of someone equally terrifying.

  Beast stood over Jagger, shoulders heaving, eyes blazing gold, teeth gritted, scars bright red on his face, hungry gaze locked on Dustin. He was too dominant, too broken, couldn’t control his animal instinct to attack an injured animal, and Dustin was bleeding bad. He could clearly hear the pit-pat-pit-pat of his own blood on the concrete. It was like a fucking dinner bell for a monster like Beast.

  It wasn’t Axton who was going to end Dustin.

  It was going to be his own damn crew member.

  The titan staggered and shook his head hard. “Dustin, Change back.”

  What? Hell no, he wanted to live. At least as a wolf, he had teeth.

  “Now, Dustin, fuck!” Beast grabbed his head. “Can’t think, can’t think.”

  And then Winter was there, pushing Beast back off his kill. Off Jagger. “Dustin’s ours,” she chanted. Winter pointed at Logan behind Beast and yelled, “Don’t you fucking Change!” Logan’s eyes were silver and empty. He looked like a serial killer.

  With a ragged breath, Dustin forced the Change back and curved in on himself as he coughed blood onto the cement.

  “Is it done? Is it done? Right or wrong, Dustin?” Beast asked in an animalistic, feral voice.

  “What?”

  “I want him,” Beast snarled, pushing forward against Winter’s hands and lurching for Dustin.

  “Get up,” Winter commanded Dustin. And then she reared back and slapped Beast so hard the contact echoed through the parking lot.

  Dustin staggered to his feet.

  “Are you making the right decision?” Beast barked out, his face barely looking human.

  Dustin jammed a finger at Emma’s door. “I’m making the decision that protects her.” She wouldn’t hear any of this. He’d made sure to put her hearing aids in the charger before he’d left her room. “I’m making the decision that protects the crew.”

  Chest heaving, he covered the massive gash across his rib cage to hide it from Beast’s view. Warmth trickled through his fingers in a stream.

  “I knew it,” Logan said. “I fucking called it. She turned him.” He pointed at Beast. “You and Kane were wrong.”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Dustin asked.

  “Everyone knows,” Winter said, shoving Beast back again. “We know about your meetings. We know you’re still Valdoro Pack. Kane wanted to see what you did in the end. He wanted to see if Emma could save you.”

  Dustin dragged his gaze to her door. What the fuck? So much made sense now. The looks exchanged between Kane and Beast. The feeling like he was a jack-in-the-box and everyone was waiting for him to spring. The Blackwings were waiting on a betrayal. “Does Emma know?”

  Winter shook her head and looked sick. “Dark Kane wanted us to let it play out. He ordered us not to tell her.”

  “It’s not over,” Dustin gritted out. “This is the Wrecker Pack, not Valdoro.” He strode for his car keys, which had been tossed across the sidewalk with his Change. His jeans were in tatters but when he cut to make his way to his room for a new set, Logan tossed him fresh jeans and a T-shirt.

  “How many?” he asked.

  “Two if they haven’t dragged in another pack.”

  “We’ll come with you.”

  “Nope, this is my fight.”

  “But we’re crew—”

  “Not yet,” he barked out. “Parting with the pack is on me. It always was. I have to do this alone, or I’ll never feel okay joining the Blackwings.”

  “I don’t understand,” Winter murmured.

  “Axton is my alpha.” Dustin swallowed bile as he shoved his legs into the jeans. “He’s my brother, Winter. He’s my responsibility. There’s no honor in bringing a crew of titans into pack business. I have to carve my own self out of Valdoro.”

  Winter made a pitying sound. “Dustin, you’re submissive.”

  “Not tonight.” He used the T-shirt to wipe the blood off himself as he jogged to his car. “If…” Fuck, what was he supposed to say to make this okay? “If I don’t come back, make Emma understand, okay Winter? Tell her it was for her—all of it.”

  Winter stepped back like she’d been hit in the stomach, and tears rimmed her glowing eyes. He couldn’t do this if Winter made him soft right now, so he slid behind the wheel, jammed the key into the ignition and, skidding on the asphalt, peeled out of the parking lot. He turned up the radio and forced himself not to look back in the rearview mirror at what could’ve been. At the friends he could’ve had.

  He had to keep his head on straight, and right now, he needed to heal as fast as wolfishly possible and put on one helluva show to get close to Axton. Fuck, he wanted to go back to Emma. To the Blackwings.

  Gripping the wheel harder, Dustin slammed his car into the next gear and hit the gas on a straightaway.

  A snarl rattled up his throat. He was about to try his damndest to survive tonight because he wanted that make-believe future Emma had talked about more than he’d wanted anything in his life.

  Axton was right.

  He was the grenade, and the Wreckers had just pulled his fucking pin.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Emma woke with a start when something heavy shoved her. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. For a moment, she was still back in the coven house where it should’ve been daylight hours. But staring at her in the dark were two glowing gold eyes.

  She gasped and reached for him, brought her knee up to peg him in the throat, but the sheets kept her trapped.

  Two hands held her shoulders pinned to the bed, but then her eyes adjusted slightly to the dark. “Beast?” She could barely hear her own voice.

  Shoving the behemoth off her, she reached for her hearing aids in the charger. The light flickered on, nearly blinding her. “Geez,” she howled in pain, closing her eyes tightly against the fluorescent light above.

  “We have to go.” Beast had improved at forming his words carefully for her to read his lips. Why did he look panicked?

  Emma scanned the room for Dustin, but he wasn’t here. Just Winter, who was on the phone talking too fast for Emma to read her lips, and Logan, leaned against the doorframe with his glowing, nearly-white eyes glued to his mate. Beast pulled her from the bed as she struggled to secure her hearing aids. The air smelled like feeding nights in the coven. The scent of thick iron wafted through the open doorway. What the hell was happening?

  She parted her lips to ask, but Beast pulled one of Dustin’s T-shirts over her head, shoved a pair of rain boots onto her feet, and dragged her out the door.

  “Kane has ordered us off this,” Winter said in a frantic voice. “He said Dustin has the right to handle it alone.”

  “Then fucking stay here,” Beast growled out.

  Emma nearly tripped over a body. A dead body that was lying face down, bleeding all over the concrete from his neck. Close by were two dead wolves. “Oh, my gosh,” she uttered, nausea curdling in her gut. “Who killed them?”

  “Dustin killed those two. Me the other. Emma, we don’t have time for this.” Beast turned and threw her over his shoulder like a caveman and strode across the parking lot to a blue Ford Raptor.

  “Whose truck is this?” she asked as he shoved her into it.

  Beast didn’t answer until he’d bolted around the other side and climbed in. “It’s mine.”

  “What? Why haven’t you been driving then. We’ve been riding around in Logan’s wrecked truck for weeks. Those were bodies back there. Blood. Where are we going?” she asked over the roar of the engine. Her hands were going numb. Maybe she was in shock. “Where is Dustin?”

  “Dammit, Beast!” Winter said, banging on the window. He rolled it down as he backed out of the parking spot.


  “Are you coming or not?” he gritted out.

  “We can’t! I heard the order. I can’t leave this damn parking lot if I tried. Neither can Logan. Beast, I don’t think you should do this. If Dustin’s hurt, you won’t be able to stop yourself from ending him.”

  “I’ll stop myself.”

  “You won’t!”

  “I will! He’s supposed to be crew, Winter. I was wrong. Kane’s wrong. I’m not officially registered so I give zero fucks about an order from an alpha who isn’t my alpha yet. We’ll bring him back.”

  “Alive!” Winter screamed as he peeled out. “Promise me!”

  But Beast only gripped the steering wheel and snarled. His phone lit up in the console. He immediately chucked it out the window, but not before Emma caught a glimpse of the name flashing across the caller ID. Kane.

  “What’s going on?” Emma asked.

  “Buckle your seatbelt,” Beast demanded. His face was terrifying right now.

  Emma clicked it quietly into place and clasped her hands in her lap. She wore the oversized T-shirt Beast had dressed her in, but no pants, and it was cold. Gooseflesh covered her entire body.

  Beast cast her a quick glance and turned the heat on full-blast. “I forgot you are human,” he muttered.

  “Beast, where is Dustin?” She was really trying not to have a full-blown panic attack, but Beast was going sixty on a winding and wet road.

  “Dustin isn’t what you think he is.”

  “A werewolf?”

  “Exactly that, but he isn’t crew. He isn’t eligible.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s still a member of the Valdoro pack. And I don’t know exactly how this is going to play out, but my gut tells me you need to be here for whatever goes down.” Beast nearly went up on two wheels as he jerked the wheel and skidded across the pavement onto a muddy back road.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the place Dustin has been secretly meeting his pack for weeks.”

  Emma’s heart sank down to the pristine floorboard of Beast’s truck. “No,” she said on a heartbroken breath. “He wouldn’t.”

  “And yet…”

  “You followed him?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  “Because like I told you, stalking is fun, and that wily wolf made the game interesting. His pack is the one who hunted Lexi of the Bloodrunners.”

  “Air Ryder’s mate?”

  “That’s the one. They hunted her, and the Bloodrunner Dragon burned their asses. Ate most of them, but a few of them got away. Far as I could tell, Dustin didn’t join the hunt, and he’s being punished by his alpha.”

  “Axton. His brother.”

  “Who he still gives fealty to. We would’ve offed his dumbass earlier, but Rowan demanded we let you try to save him. Kane and I have been prepared to pull the trigger on the weremutt as soon as he picked a side.”

  “Choose a side? Valdoro Pack or Blackwings?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And has he? Picked a side?”

  “Those bodies back there? They were coming after you, Emma.” Beast cast her a significant look. “They’re dead because he picked you. He chose the Blackwings, too, but he should’ve asked for backup. He doesn’t understand how a crew works.” Beast swerved this way and that, avoiding tree stumps and mud holes in the road. “Or fuck, maybe I don’t understand. I’m used to a pride, and you breathe, bleed, and die for each other no matter what. Winter and Logan should be in the backseat. The fucking dragons should be in the air headed our way. They’re not, so it’s you and me. And Dustin if we reach him before those wolves tear him apart.”

  Beast slammed on the brakes and cut the lights and engine. He reached in the back floorboard and pulled a rifle out of the darkness. “Please, woman, tell me you know how to use one of these. You lived in a coven. Tell me they gave you some form of self-defense training.”

  Emma realized she knew almost nothing about Beast. This was the most words he’d ever strung together in front of her, and now he had a Raptor, knew everything about Dustin, he’d been Kane’s secret right hand in the crew, and had a really nice weapon that he was currently shoving bullets into.

  “It’s a two-seventy. Yes, I can use it fine, but we’re kind of fucked if the rainclouds open up right now. Also it’s really low light, so if there isn’t an artificial source, this is useless.”

  Beast handed her the weapon, careful to keep the barrel pointed out the door she’d just kicked open. “Pray for headlights. Let’s go. And for God’s sake, be quiet. Fucking humans are loud as elephants in the woods.”

  Emma looked down at the billowing T-shirt and pink galoshes Beast had shoved onto her feet. This right here was a man with impossible expectations. Shaking her head, she slid out of the truck and shouldered the strap of the gun, then closed the door as softly as possible.

  She followed Beast quietly, but not two steps into the woods, a long, low howl lifted into the air, then was joined by another, and another, and another, and another…

  “Shhhit,” Beast muttered. “Valdoro pack should only be two wolves. Axton must’ve brought in reinforcements. Screw making noise, Human, move those legs.”

  “What are they doing?” she whispered as she sprinted behind him on a trail he’d obviously used before.

  “Hunting. Or killing.”

  No. No, no, no. Dustin was out here, and she got the awful feeling something bad was happening to him. He’d chosen the side that was going to get him hurt, or worse. Bile crept up her throat as Emma pushed her legs harder. Beast was too fast, his strides twice the length of hers. He was graceful like the big cat that dwelled inside of him and apparently had fantastic night vision.

  Up ahead, she could make out light through the trees. Her legs and lungs burned, but still she pushed herself faster, squishing through the mud, slipping and sliding and scrabbling for purchase as Beast lengthened the distance between them. Beast disappeared into the night, and Emma had a horrifying moment of panic. Up until the point he grabbed her ankle and dragged her down beside him. He’d flattened down behind some brush, so she settled the rifle on a strip of grass in front of them and did the same. Through the branches, she could see them.

  In the high beams of several cars, there was a loose circle of wolves, ducking in and out, dodging, some lowering to their bellies before standing again, ears erect, lips curled back. Their teeth weren’t white, though. They were red. The howling and yipping was constant.

  The circle thinned in front of Emma and Beast, and she gasped at what she saw. A massive black wolf was tangled in a vicious fight with two gray wolves.

  Emma bolted upward, but Beast dragged her down and slammed a hand over her mouth, then shook his head and gave her the deadliest look she’d ever seen.

  Read my lips, he mouthed. There is no honor among wolves. He’s giving them hell, but they will eventually kill him. Which one is Axton?

  She shook her head. Dustin never told me what he looked like.

  Fuck. I’m going in. If you figure out which one the alpha is… Beast gripped the barrel of her rifle and shook it gently, then raised his eyebrows. End it.

  Okay. Beast! She grabbed his arm. They’ll kill you.

  Beast shrugged and smiled sadly. All I have to live for is the D-Team. He hesitated a moment more, stood and pulled off his shirt, and then strode into the clearing.

  His battle cry tapered into a roar, and the massive, broken lion he kept tucked inside of him ripped out of his skin. Some of the wolves scattered for a second, but as Beast charged, the pack rallied.

  Emma couldn’t take her eyes from Dustin. He was brutal, and already three lay dead around him. He was holding his own with two, and with Beast taking heat off him, he was moving more freely, snapping and snarling and connecting with flesh so fast he blurred from one position to the next. A submissive animal shouldn’t be able to do what he was doing, but perhaps the pack had finally broken him. Perhaps they’d finally pushed h
im too far.

  She had to figure out which one was Axton. He couldn’t be one of the dead ones, or the wolves would’ve pulled off the attack. Unless the alpha of the other pack here was calling all the shots now. God, she wished she understood pack dynamics better, but Dustin had always seemed to want to live in the here-and-now and forget about pack stuff when he was with her. Now she realized he had been protecting them in a way. She hated their hold on him.

  Dustin and Beast were fighting side by side, mauling the wolves as they lunged. More were trotting in from the woods to the east, though. Axton had called in multiple packs, and all for what? To kidnap her? To kill her? No. The psychopath had pulled in packs to kill his own flesh and blood brother. She fucking hated them.

  Emma pulled the hammer back and shoved a bullet into the chamber, took off the safety, and carefully aimed the rifle through the branches. She couldn’t hit a single one or the ricochet could be catastrophic. The scope was picking up some light, but she was limited on where she could aim. Several parked cars had their headlights on, but even if she could get a clear shot, Dustin and Beast were everywhere. Two killing machines with empty eyes and blood-soaked muzzles. Dustin’s fur was matted, but if he was hurt, he wasn’t acting like it. He fought without a limp, fought without any impairment—just lethal precision.

  He’d joked about being submissive, even told her about hating that part of himself, but he wasn’t giving his neck to anyone tonight.

  Dustin was war in motion.

  The brush rustled behind her, and with a gasp, Emma rolled over onto her back, dragging the gun with her. The wolf that ran from the ferns was hideous. He was a mottled black and gray wolf with white eyes and burn scars down one side of his body. He looked like he had mange since his hair only grew in patches. His lips were curled back, exposing razor sharp teeth. He was lanky, but bigger than Dustin’s wolf by several inches. His face was the stuff of nightmares. Axton, she would venture to guess.