Thrown To The Wolf (Pack Heat Book 3)

by Sam Hall

  “Should we give the little white bitch a seeing to before drop off?”

  The rest of my body went limp as I craned my neck as much as I could. I saw the familiar backs of two beasts pulling the cart along, and riding them? The fucking Uldariel.

  “Want to see if she barks like a dog when you stick it in her?” a different voice said. “Don’t know how tight she’d be, what with the dick she was taking.”

  “More like a howl, wasn’t it?” The first guy did his best to imitate a wolf’s song, turning it into some kind of exaggerated yodelling sound. It sounded ridiculous, but both of them snickered afterwards, so I assume it suited their purpose.

  “Not as good as that little morsel we caught last night. They taste all the better after running them down, something we need to include in next year’s celebration.” The second warrior wriggled on his beast’s back, doing his best to imitate the cries of a raped woman. He ended it with a raucous laugh, joined by the other man enthusiastically.

  I lay there, against the fucking base boards of a fucking cart we’d been dumped into like wild animals, and felt a sharp hollow feeling inside me. I took one shuddering breath, my lungs burning with the effort due to the weight compressing my chest, and then opened my eyes.

  I’d thought I’d saved the wolf woman. I’d thought we were in a safe enough place to become a pack. Instead, we’d been drugged and she’d been caught, and now we were about to be delivered to our enemies. It wasn’t just the weight of the bodies pressing down on me that had me lying face down on the worn wood.

  Get up, my Tirian said.

  Fuck off, I said, sinking into the darkness of our psychic space. It was soothing, I could pretend for a second that none of this was happening. The drug was still in my system, I could feel its chemical pull like a tide, drawing me inexorably under.

  Get up, she insisted, but I paid her little mind.

  I was aware my lungs were struggling to draw breath in, but the effort felt like too much hard work right now. I let my face mesh with the floor of the cart and just let go.

  Get. Up.

  The words rang through me like a bell, my eyes jerking open, and there she was beside me. She stood in all her translucent glory, the spirit of the White Wolf, and she looked around, at the cart, at my men, at the warriors on horseback. She nosed each of my pack, their eyes fluttering at her touch. It took a while, too long, for them to open, but when they did, they wore the exact same expression—one of wonder.

  It was Sylvan who was lying on top of me. She touched him last, and he finally rolled off me, which felt just dandy on my bruised flesh. His eyes darted to me, then the cage, and then the Uldariel.

  “We’ll pull up in the forest just before the drop off point. She’ll still be too groggy to fight much. A few punches to the head should sort her out,” the guy on the left said.

  “But the Volken will throw their daughters at us the minute we get in the gate. Shouldn’t we just wait?”

  “They’re tighter when they fight, and watching the light go out in their eyes just makes me come harder.”

  The growl was out of my throat before I’d even thought about it. A hand slapped over my mouth, and I turned to see who the hell it was.

  Sylvan. My teeth pulled back from my fangs. Of course, it was the fucking seer. His eyes widened as he studied mine, as if he wasn’t sure what he should be doing, so I gave his chest a shove to sort that out, once and for all. He pulled back, especially as my pack stiffened and drew closer.

  The White Wolf, obviously having little interest in our squabbles, looked to the Uldariel perched on their beasts, and our eyes followed her green gaze. There were more beyond them, I’d be willing to bet Ralnor was leading the convoy, his hungry looks when we’d first arrived all making sense now. Come to a feast, he’d said. We have your gear, he’d said. We’d presented ourselves, made ourselves vulnerable in his presence by making our bonds. He must have thought the whole thing was hilarious, but he’d obviously forgot one thing—we were apex fucking predators.

  See what you want to happen, the White Wolf said, and by the flinches around the cage, everyone heard it. Gather your will. Everyone can dream, but magic is the ability to turn that dream into a reality.

  And how do we do that?

  Through me.

  We must have looked like pod people, as all eight of our heads turned at the same time to look at our captors beyond.

  See what you want to happen.

  The words hummed in our minds as we studied the cage, the beasts, the road ahead, and the men riding down them.

  Not far from Leifgart, Sylvan said, and there was a faint rustle of surprise down the pack bond that he’d been able to join us.

  Then we’re close to where we need to be, said Brandon.

  But no guns, no supplies. We’ll be walking into the lion’s den, like lambs to the slaughter, Aaron said.

  So, we visualise what we want, Finn said.

  I want to be home, naked, and in our fine new pack house with my mates, drinking beer and watching the footy, Jack said. I want a nice leisurely repeat of what went down in that room on the regular.

  That’s what we’re fighting for. For that, and for everyone to have that, Finn said.

  So, let’s dissolve this cage to dust, rise out of this thing like fucking gods, and take these cunts down, Slade said.

  I want the one who threatened to rape Jules, Hawk said. I’m twisting his fucking head off like a bottlecap.

  And you, Jules? Finn said.

  I had plenty of murderous impulses I wanted to indulge. Hell, listening to the brief description of what they’d done to the wolf woman made me want to bathe in their blood. But as I turned to my mates, I found it hard to focus on that. Instead, I felt the pull of them, like the pulse of my heart, and Sylvan slowly faded in my mind, despite remaining physically there. I looked down when I felt a vibration in my pocket, and found it was the crystal that was trembling, not my phone. When I fished it out, it was glowing green, and so were the guys, sort of.

  They were all waiting for me to reply, waiting for me to give some kind of direction to what we’d do, despite Aaron having better tactical sense and Finn having much more experience leading groups. God, every single one of them had more skills than me in this situation, but as the crystal pulsed, I saw it.

  There, glowing between the seven of us, were green lines connecting us all together. Some lines were thicker, like the ones between me and the guys and the ones between Jack and Hawk and Brandon and Aaron. Others, like those between Finn and Slade, were just different, as if to show the platonic bond there. I looked back at the unwitting Uldariel, too stupid to position warriors behind the cart as in front of it, to keep an eye on us, so secure were they in their belief in what was going to happen, obviously borne from having done this so many times before. Then I looked across at Finn.

  These are the men that have taken our people and funnelled them to the Volken, made sure they couldn’t make another life here. They would have put your fathers in this cart. I reached out a hand, and he took it, then both of us turned to face the enemy.

  Our fingers touched the cage that held us, welcoming the warm feel of the metal, so solid and strong, right up until the point it began to dissolve. We watched the trail of ferrous particles blow away and leave a reddish trail behind us. The cart disintegrated in a wave, leaving us standing on the green grass to watch the moment when the warriors realised what was going on. The White Wolf padded at my side, the pack fanned around us. We waved a hand when they belatedly reached for their weapons, loving the looks on their faces when they too went to dust, then we moved.

  Hawk strode forward and yanked the guy who’d described the way he wanted to rape me from the saddle, then both he and Jack transformed into wolf form to rip the man to shreds. Their fur was white now, though I could tell which one was which by the differences in size. The rest of the pack brought the others down, their mounts watching placidly on as their masters were slaughtered.
We glanced away from their bloody muzzles as Ralnor rode up.

  “What the hell is…?”

  We relished all the tiny expressions that marked each stage of Ralnor’s realisation of what had happened—the cage, the cart, the weapons, his warriors. Those that had been riding up the front with him were hemmed in a tight bunch, only one swinging his mount around and taking off, but my pack made short work of him. The crystal throbbed in my hand as we considered what to do with the rest.

  They would go back to their village if we let them go free. It’d take them a while to get there, but once they reached it, they’d repeat the same shit with any more of our guys, if they came through, and the poor wolf woman on the hill would still be on the receiving end of their abuse.

  The White Wolf regarded the lot of them as they talked rapidly between themselves in a language I didn’t understand. She thrust her nose up into the air, as if to scent it, but a portal appeared instead. I heard Sylvan’s gasp as another desolate view of Wolflantis came into being. The warriors turned, their speech getting louder and faster as they heard the howls go up from within. Then, as if pushed by an invisible hand, they were shoved through.

  I’ll admit, my heart pounded and my eyes burned with a terrible glee when I saw them sprawl out onto the broken parquet stones. Their faces held that stricken look of fear, one I’d seen on too many faces, but not theirs. But it didn’t last long. The red lights of the smoke wolves' eyes bobbed in the distance as they ran towards the portal.

  Watching someone face down certain death is a curious kind of pleasure that few experience. Acting as judge, jury, and executioner was probably not called for, but I couldn’t find regret within myself. Even in the human world, underneath the thin veneer of civility Western cultures worked so hard to promote, men raped women, people abused kids, killed their partners, and enacted a thousand little acts of domestic terrorism every day, and all with what felt like few consequences. There was something inhuman about us as we watched them scramble to their feet and then make a dash for the portal to get the hell away from the predators closing in on them.

  And then the world turned sideways.

  At first, I thought the godawful howl was being transmitted through the portal, but as it ululated, singing a terrible song of threat and menace, I realised it came from the bowels of the earth. As if in response to this awareness, the ground shifted with a low rumble that unsettled us at first, then sent us staggering, looking for some way of staying on our feet, but there was none. The world shook as the wolf howled, the sound growing louder and louder, until my eyes jerked up. I collapsed to the ground as I saw the red lights converge, merging into two larger points, staring out of the darkness of Wolflantis at us. The White Wolf whined, then shifted as the portal grew bigger, and she took involuntary steps back as it began to enlarge. Rather than a ragged tear in reality, it resolved itself into the mouth of the Black Wolf, its white teeth slicing down into the portal, the Uldariel now swallowed within the absolute darkness between them.

  The White Wolf strode forward, head dropped down as she growled, a throaty sound of pure defiance. She stepped closer and closer as the Black Wolf’s head became more and more corporeal, then threw her muzzle back and howled as we clung to the earth, unable to do anything else as it shook. Then she whipped her head around and said to us, I must go. It isn’t time. And with that, she leapt away, sprinting off over the open savannah we lay upon, and soon disappeared off into the horizon.

  Normality was restored just as abruptly as it was taken, and I listened to the rapid pant of everyone’s breath now that the earth no longer roared its displeasure. When I looked up, all that remained was a couple of dazed looking mounts. The portal, the warriors, and the Black Wolf had all disappeared, leaving only us.

  “What the fuck was that?” Slade asked, rolling up into a seated position.

  "I dunno, but now is as good a time as any to find out,” Finn said, looking over at Sylvan with a hardened gaze.

  21

  I pocketed my crystal and came to sit by my pack, who were loosely circled around the Volken seer.

  “How the hell did we end up in the cage?” Aaron said.

  “Mead was drugged,” I replied. “Lemme guess, you guys passed out before the main event?”

  “Main event?” Hawk asked.

  “The woman with the wolf skull? She was supposed to ‘slake the lusts’ of the warriors. I thought she’d gotten away, but… Then Sylvan came for me.”

  Everyone’s eyes swivelled around to where the seer sat nursing his head.

  “What?” he said. “It’s what happens every Longest Night. If you’d bloody told me you were a conduit for Branwen, I could have made sure I was as far away as possible from you. Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to chase me down if we’re here for Shortest Night.”

  “No, I fucking won’t,” I replied. “I’d rather eat dirt.”

  “Shouldn’t you have known, seer?” Slade said.

  “About this? I saw your pack opening the gate and getting me to Branwen. I saw the White Wolf coming to Leifgart, but never in my wildest dreams had I thought that it’d be you bringing her here.” He smiled at this, but it was one of the most desolate things I’d ever seen. “This is not how it was supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be you, it was supposed to be her.”

  I thought of the woman in his dreams, her eyes still gleaming bright green in my mind’s eye.

  “Branwen, Lonan, they aren’t the names of the Great Wolves, no matter what those fucks back at the feast said.” I saw the moment the Great Wolves shimmered into human forms at the festival I’d seen in Wolflantis. “They’re like you, conduits to their power.”

  He snorted at that, then jerked his head up to meet my gaze. “I guess you could make that comparison, but it's like comparing you to a monkey. There’s plenty of similarities, but the comparison strips away so much detail, it makes it essentially meaningless.”

  “So, help us out.” My eyes darted to Brandon, the low menace in his tone so uncharacteristic, I could only stare. “Tell us what the differences are.”

  “Lonan, Branwen, they held the spirits of the Great Wolves inside them for millennia, built the city of Eomis, brought an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity, and created a haven for learning and innovation. The place was a marvel.”

  “Looked like a desolate shit hole last time we opened the portal,” Jack drawled.

  Held the spirits inside them, I mused at that, thinking of my Tirian, how it was both a part and separate to me.

  You aren’t a part of me, are you? I asked her.

  Yes, no.

  Which is it?

  Both. You are our means of affecting reality, we are your means to transcend it.

  And Lonan and Branwen?

  They're a means to distort and control it.

  “So, I’m thinking now would be about the right time to tell us why you’re looking to ride off into the post-apocalyptic wolf wasteland,” Slade said. “That place is fucked up beyond all recognition. There’s no ‘city of peace and prosperity’ there now, not unless that’s some kind of code name for those fucking smoke wolves.”

  “It’s her, Branwen,” I said, putting it all together. I’d seen her make the white Tirian from the women, saw her wound around Sylvan like a jewelled python in his dreams. I crawled towards him, something that provoked a growl from the guys, but I just took his chin in my hand and stared deep into those blue eyes. He returned my gaze mulishly, but I wasn’t looking at him. I looked past those bright blue eyes, searching until a shine of green covered his irises before fading away again. “She’s in here,” I said, tapping his head. “She wants you to come for her, in that place.” I squinted, looking at him closely, listening to the harsh whistle of his breath. My hand slipped down, fingers digging into his throat, while his came up to cover mine and struggled to pull it away. “That’s why you bit me, why you’ve been playing these fucking games. It’s her, all her.”

  “Jules
…” Aaron said as I felt a burn in the palm of my hand, that fucking hidden crystal of Sylvan’s appearing again and singeing my hand. Fine, I was fucking done with this, anyway. I threw Sylvan backwards, getting to my feet.

  “You fucking bit me and forced a mating mark on me. I almost died! You fucked with my head, almost had me gang raped by all those guys. People lost their mate bonds! You came into my dreams, in between me and my pack, and for what? It’s fucking her, isn’t it? You’ve upended everyone’s fucking lives for some woman. Is that place, Eomis, or what’s left of it, is that where Branwen is?” He just lay there, his hand covering the livid red marks my fingers had left. “Well, is it?”

  “Jules…” someone growled, but I strode over to the seer, standing over him.

  “Last chance, Sylvan. Did you do all this shit to save some woman you think is left in that place?”

  My claws pushed out from under my skin, curving long and cruel as I approached him slowly.

  “Yes!” he shouted as I flexed my fingers. “All of it, every fucking bit was for her. She is everything to me. She held me through all the fucking shit that went down in that shithole,” he said, stabbing his finger at the track that led to Leifgart. “I dove into her each time they got to me, and she held me as it went on. She picked up the broken pieces of me and put them back together. I am nothing without her. I would do all you accuse me of and more to free her.”

  His voice was ragged with pain, and as it died away, he scrambled to his feet and strode off into the trees by the side of the track.

  “We shouldn’t let him get too far,” Hawk said as he watched the man go. “We still need him for Leifgart.” He got up and followed Sylvan into the stand.

  “So that’s what this is all about. Is there even an attack planned?” I half whispered to myself.

  “Love…” Finn said, coming closer.

  “We’ve been played the whole fucking time. All of it so he can get his fucking dick wet.”