by SJ Himes
“Thank you,” the alpha said, grabbing Ghost’s wrist when he pulled away. “I thought we were going to die here.”
“You’re welcome.” Ghost said quietly, and patted his hand. “Let me go check on the youngling.”
“He’s…” the alpha paused, his strength intermittent. Ghost would need to heal them all, and soon, or the rescue would be for naught as the silver killed them from within. “The youngling is not human. He’s something they called a hybrid. I don’t understand how, but the humans made him.”
“I know,” Ghost replied, trying to reassure. “He is safe. I will not let anyone harm him. I swear.” The alpha nodded, releasing his wrist, accepting him at his word. Ghost was grateful that the automatic trust wolfkin had in shamans was helping them accept his help despite his age. He caught the Suarez family alphas casting startled glances in his direction was he opened their cages. His age never bothered Ghost, but then he forgot it was important to humans and wolfkin alike. To both species, he was barely older than a cub.
Burke was cradling the youngling in his arms, and the youngling was gazing up at Burke like the Speaker was the most marvelous thing he’d ever seen. Ghost titled his head, and on a wild guess, shifted into his Spiritsight.
The sky-blue soulstar of the youngling mingled with the darker reddish hues of Burke’s soulstar. The thinnest of bonds, but it grew stronger with every beat of their hearts. Ghost chuckled, and dropped the Spiritsight. He knelt beside the pair, and they youngling nervously huddled against Burke, watching Ghost with wary, frightened blue eyes. He gently brushed dirty hair back from the youngling’s face. He saw again the resemblance to his mother’s portrait. Ghost smiled at the person who looked enough like him to be his brother, but likely was born from the forced union of Roman’s seed and an unfortunate human female.
“He’s cold,” Burke said, without looking away from his mate’s face. “Ghost, we need to get him out of here. He’s human, you can’t heal him. Wren needs human medicine.”
His cousin’s name was Wren. A shy forest bird with a beautiful song. It fit, somehow. And their Goddess called this one her lost wolf. Ghost was sure his magic would work on the youngling.
“He’s the hybrid, Burke.” The Speaker finally tore his gaze away, and Ghost nodded when he saw Burke’s eyes go from dark brown to liquid gold. “Wren is your soulbonded mate, and he isn’t entirely human. His soul is wolfkin. Hold him close. I’ll heal everyone once the fighting is over.”
Burke nodded, his eyes wide, but his jaw set with determination and he somehow managed to get an even tighter, more protective grip on the small creature in his arms. The youngling was smaller than Ghost, though they were of the same age. Not so much a youngling, then, and Ghost gave his cousin a soft smile before standing.
His mate still fought Julian, Caius at his side, the two greater alphas trading off against the mad wolf. Ghost would go and help, but he refused to leave the Ashland wolves and Wren alone with only Burke to protect them. Burke was formidable, but his mate lay sick and injured in his arms and he was unlikely to let go in case of danger. Ghost didn’t blame Burke at all—if it were Kane lying naked and emaciated on the cold concrete floor, Ghost wouldn’t leave his side either. Kane and Caius were handling Julian well enough, and hopefully this would be over, and soon. He spared a quick glance; Remus was still unmoving.
The plastic curtain was pulled halfway, and Ghost knew what he would see. He pulled it back, got a handful, then yanked it free from its moorings in the ceiling. It fell, metal clasps pinging in the shadows, and Ghost got a clear view.
The slumbering wolf lay quiet, soulless still, and only the low, soft beat of a heart told Ghost that the body lived. His entire being rebelled at the abomination the human wrought—they corrupted the divine gift of the wolfkin Goddess and tried to craft themselves a wolf of their own.
Save him, so that you may save Caius.
Her words found him as if She stood at his shoulder, and Ghost’s heart raced. He took another step, then one more, and reached out. Machines beeped and chimed, a steady, soft rhythm, one that spoke of death gathering in the corners, the shadows deepening. His fingers touched the white sheet that covered most of the soulless wolf, and he pulled, careful, and it fell away.
Gray fur. Soft and thick beneath his fingers. A sob burst free, and tears ran down his cheeks, scalding hot. He dashed them away, and with shaking fingers, plucked the wires and sticky pads from the shaved pieces of skin along the wolf’s side. He did not understand what cloning truly was, nor how the science worked, but the mad impossibility staring back at him was irrefutable proof cloning worked.
Gray Shadow.
His grandfather, dead all these long years, stolen from his peaceful afterlife and made flesh again. Ghost leaned over the slumbering wolf, and buried his face in the thick fur along the wolf’s shoulders. Somehow, the scent was the same. Memories came rushing back, and Ghost was once again a small cub cowering behind the great gray wolf that towered over him, between Ghost and a human man with a shotgun. He could feel the river, the current horrific, smothering him, battering him against rocks and trees, his lungs burning as he drowned.
An image of an astral wolf guiding him through his first Change, saving his life and ending Gray Shadow’s. He clung to the sleeping form that lay on the cold, steel table, and wept now as he could not then.
My shaman. Do not grieve. Save him.
“How?” Ghost whispered, choking on tears. She did not answer, but a gasp from not far away drew his attention.
A human man in a white coat stood shaking in the corner, the plastic sheeting falling to the ground revealing his hiding place. He was kneeling behind a desk, and he had a gun in his trembling hand.
Ghost breathed in, cursing himself mentally for not paying better attention. The scent of the wolf was strong, and carried human scent markers as well. Including the human who cowered not far away, staring at Ghost like he was monster.
“Stay…stay away from me! I’ll shoot!” The human cried out, standing, edging his way. Ghost moved, placing himself between the human and the slumbering form of his grandfather. Ghost snarled quietly, and sucked in another breath. He smelled blood, sweat, and fear. The human gulped, hand shaking even more. “I won’t shoot if you let me go.”
“Ghost?” Burke called, worried. “What’s going on?”
“Burke, stay with Wren.” Ghost ordered, and when the human glanced over toward Burke, Ghost flicked his fingers and sent the gun flying from the human’s grasp and into the shadows. The human shrieked, and Ghost snarled at him again, claws pricking each fingertip as they grew.
“What are you?!” The human cried, knocking into a table covered in metal instruments. They were bloodied, and stunk of terror and pain.
“Shaman,” Ghost said past his fangs as they dropped. The human screamed, but there was no mercy in Ghost then, not after everything. He lifted his hand, and sent the human flying backwards across the lab. He smashed into the far wall, bones shattering, and fell to the floor in a limp jumble of limbs.
Dead.
“Ghost!” Burke’s shout made him jump, and Ghost spun, just in time to see Simon Remus getting to his feet. He pressed hand to his head, the other reaching under his suit coat and pulling a gun.
Ghost ran, leaping over Burke and Wren, and he sprinted around the Suarez wolves. He barreled into Remus before the human even managed to lift the weapon and aim. They tumbled across the wet floor, and Ghost managed to knock the gun to the floor. He slashed at Remus, who shouted in pain, but managed to get an arm up and swung at Ghost, punching him across his jaw. Ghost stumbled, and he crouched, eyes narrowed at the man who was responsible for so much death and suffering. Remus cast about, looking for an escape, but Ghost darted between Remus and the doorway.
Remus swore at him, but brought his hands up, fists ready to strike at Ghost again. Ghost did not know how to fight like
a human, with hands and feet. He knew tooth and claw, though, and Changed so fast in a flurry of silver-white energy that he was leaping at Remus before his clothing hit the floor.
He landed on Remus, sending them to the ground, and Ghost tore at his arm. Remus screamed and pummeled him with his free hand, striking at Ghost’s head and back. He shook his head, worrying at the limb like he would a rabbit, and blood spurted over his tongue. He did it again, and bone broke.
Remus rolled, and managed to fling Ghost off him. Ghost was readying to leap again when the concrete wall beside them collapsed with a deafening roar. Dust and debris flew, and Ghost scrambled to avoid the bigger sections of the wall as it fell. Remus ducked to the side, and Ghost lost sight of him in the chaos.
A large red and black wolf rolled past Ghost, regaining all fours as Kane and Caius boiled into the room through the fresh hole in the wall. Julian was a mess of bites and claw slashes, blood dripping from jaws and his sides. Ghost howled, and leapt at the clan leader, landing on the much larger alpha’s side, claws digging in. He bit the back of Julian’s neck as Kane charged into him from the front.
Julian was three times Ghost’s size, and Ghost’s jaws were too small to break past the thick muscles of the alpha’s neck and slice the arteries. Kane’s momentum knocked Ghost off Julian, the two alphas rolling over the floor, snapping and snarling furiously. Caius ran after them, and just as Julian and Kane broke apart, Caius took the lead in the attack, harrying Julian back across the room.
Kane ran to Ghost, nosing him gently. Ghost was sore, but he got back to his feet, and he nudged at his mate. They needed to end this, and now.
A movement to the side made them both look—Remus had the gun. He pointed it at Kane, who covered most of Ghost. Kane roared in challenge, and Remus fired.
It felt like time stopped, his heart lurching in his chest, the bullet meant to shatter his mate’s skull screaming across the short distance between them. Ghost tried to raise a shield, as he had when the bomb exploded at their cabin weeks ago, but Remus and Kane were too close and the bullet was moving too fast. He had no warning. She had warned him with whispers before the bomb blew—here, not even his Goddess could be heard over the chaos in the lab.
A dark blur slammed into them, knocking them both off their feet and to the side. Kane regained his feet in seconds and leapt, landing on Remus. Blood sprayed, Remus dying instantly as Kane bore him to the ground.
Ghost struggled to his feet in time to see Julian run from the room. Shouts and gunfire came from the hall, and screaming. The wolfkin teams were trying to stop the mad wolf from escaping, but it didn’t sound like they were succeeding.
He was about to follow, but he stopped. He had to, his feet were unable to move.
Caius lay not far away.
Still, quiet.
Blood dripped from his thick, dark fur, and puddled on the floor.
Ghost regained his human form quickly, instantaneous. He ran to Caius, hands searching desperately for the wound than was making his grandfather bleed out. Ghost was crying. He was kneeling naked in his grandfather’s blood as he lay dying. A warm hand landed on the back of his neck, and Ghost shook off his fear and reached for his magic.
Caius was damaged by teeth, claws, the bullet, and bruises that littered his body. Caius’ heart was strong, and Ghost called to his light. Pushing it from his center into the wounds that covered most of Caius. He found the bullet, and used his mind to yank the offending silver from the flesh beneath. Caius jerked, his whole body reacting, and Ghost went faster. He chased the silver remnants away, and closed the wounds.
Ghost fell back, and Kane caught him in his arms.
“Will he live?” Kane asked, covered in blood and gore and looking wondrous.
“He should,” Ghost gasped out, wrapping his arms around Kane’s neck. “He took the bullet meant for you.”
“He did,” Kane agreed quietly, and ducked his head, pressing their foreheads together. “He could have stopped Julian, but he saved me instead.”
They stood quietly for a moment, and it took the sound of many running sets of feet to break them apart.
The Black Pine wolves ran into the lab, some of them still in their human forms, most of them wolves. Gabe was at their center, Michael beside him. Gabe smiled at them, relieved, then a shout from the Suarez wolves drew his attention.
“Father!” Gabe screamed, and ran for the alpha warped between his two forms. “Father!”
Gabe launched himself at his family, who caught him eagerly, gathering around the young alpha.
They watched, and Ghost was gently lowered to his feet, though he refused to let go of his mate. Burke and Wren still huddled together not far past the family reunion, both smiling.
Michael approached, nervous. “Kane.”
“Julian got away, didn’t he?” Kane said, without recrimination. Michael blanched, and nodded.
“He may not last long. We shot him several times before he got past us, and he was already wounded. Two of your wolves went after him. You should hear back from them soon.”
“We lose any of our own?” Kane asked.
Michael shook his head. “No. We have some silver poisoning, but with Ghost’s help, they should be fine. Your wolves found several human scientists hiding nearby. They’re dead now. All human guards are dead, too.”
Kane lifted his head, and spoke loudly enough for all to hear. “Send wolves for the SUVs. Burke, contact the mansion and have the betas send more cars. Assist the wounded upstairs. We’re going home.”
Love, Like the Soul, Never Dies
Ghost nodded to the Suarez wolves as they thanked him profusely, the Black Pine wolves helping them out of the lab. He would heal them all once they were back at the mansion. Burke carried Wren, the small hybrid wrapped in jackets donated by the strike team, swaddled until not even his head was showing, but for his brilliant eyes. Several Black Pine wolves grabbed computers, notepads, and hard drives, smashing everything else. Remus’ body was searched, his personal items removed from his body, the same with all the humans. IDs were left behind, but anything electronic or capable of carrying information was stripped away.
A few Black Pine wolfkin came back from the vehicles with white bottles full of accelerant, and they doused every corpse, and the cages, and the instruments. Kane said that anything that could hold DNA or organic traces would be destroyed.
“Ghost? We need to leave. I have charges we can detonate once the building is swept again.” Kane spoke quietly from behind him.
“I need you to carry him to the SUV,” Ghost said, and Kane looked confused until Ghost nodded at the slumbering wolf. Everyone had been either helped or carried out of the labs but for the clone, still attached to the thing Kane called a respirator.
“Little wolf,” Kane began, perhaps to talk him out of it.
“She wants us to save him,” Ghost interrupted. “She would call him home.”
“It’s an empty shell, love,” Kane replied. “An empty shell without a soul or mind or spirit—it’s not alive, not like you and me. Machines are breathing for it. Mercy would be to unplug it, and let it die before we burn this building to the ground. Maybe calling him home is letting it die in peace.”
“If we save him, we save Caius.” Ghost argued, and went to the machine that breathed air into the wolf’s lungs.
“Caius is still unconscious, and I am thankful for it. If he saw this…this abomination, it would destroy him, not save him. Caius will survive his injuries, and he’s been coming out of his grief. Gray Shadow is dead, and gone. Little wolf, let him go. This isn’t your grandfather.”
“I already smell like Gray Shadow, Kane. Wren bears my mother’s features, and is likely my cousin through Roman’s seed. How do you think Caius is going to react when he learns he has a new grandson who’s half human, looks like his dead daughter, and his other grandson sme
lls like the wolf he loved above all others and should be dead and burned? Do I then lie to him, despite the fact he can smell the truth and sense my lie? Or maybe tell him that there was a clone of his great love, and we let it burn with the building? Imagine if he had stayed behind. You would be dead from a gunshot wound to the head, and Burke would be left to defend Wren, trying to explain why I went feral and ran away after you died, and why he didn’t save Gray Shadow. Caius would snap for certain, likely kill Burke and anyone else strong enough to stand up to him, and then go berserk until the humans gunned him down.”
“Ghost.” Kane sounded sad, but not as certain as before. “This may drive Caius insane if we take it back with us.”
“I will not lose Caius. I will not.” Ghost declared. “He won’t survive this unless he has a reason to. The clone’s scent is everywhere. I recognized it immediately, and Caius will too. If he learns about this clone the wrong way, he will break. This sleeping wolf will give him a reason to stay, to hold onto his sanity.”
Kane appeared pained, his hair a mess, bruises on his face and neck standing out stark on his exhausted frame. His mate shrugged, at a loss, and Ghost couldn’t blame him at all.
Ghost sighed, stroking the soft fur below the wolf’s eye. He pried gently at a piece of tape that held the lid closed, and when it came away, a hint of light glinted. Silver eyes. Same as his. He looked back at his mate. “Do you trust me?”
Kane opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, shoulders drooping. “I do, little wolf. I fear this will end badly, though.”
“I promise that everything will be okay.”
Ghost picked at the tape that held the tube in the wolf’s mouth, and carefully pulled it free. Kane moved closer, as if afraid something might happen, hands up to yank Ghost away. The tube came out next, and Ghost hoped the wolf would keep breathing. It was close, but the body continued to draw air into its lungs. “Can it breathe without help?” Kane asked quietly, face pale, obviously disturbed by the clone.