by Aubrey Rose
“That’s it, then? The connection between us?”
“It must be, I suppose. I have to admit, I’m jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Of your connection.”
“Is that why you’re alright with leaving here? To find a mate somewhere else?” Despite himself, Damien felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of sharing Jordan with someone else.
“There’s no mate out there for me,” Jordan said amiably. “It’s rare enough to find a shifter who would want to mate with another male. And with my discerning tastes…well, I’d never find someone who satisfied all of my conditions.”
Damien sensed Jordan’s sorrow underneath the joking words.
“You’ve always been a true friend to me, Jordan,” Damien said. He took Jordan’s hand warmly and pressed his other hand on top of it. “I’m sorry that I can’t be more.”
“You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. I’m happy you found your mate. Truly I am.” Jordan squeezed Damien’s hand and let it go.
They fell silent. A chilly breeze blew. The trees whispered.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Julia
Julia hugged Mara tightly. Mara seemed momentarily surprised, but then she hugged Julia back just as tightly.
“Thank you,” Julia said in Mara’s ear.
“Don’t mention it,” Mara said. “This is what packs do, right?”
“Split up?” Julia asked wryly.
“Packs look out for each other,” Katherine said, chiming in. “You need us to go ahead and scout. You can’t scout now, not in your condition.”
Kyle blushed at Katherine’s words, and Julia wondered how much of their conversation she had told him over pillowtalk.
“I’m sorry,” Julia said to both of them. “If it weren’t for me—”
“Stop it,” Katherine said at the same time that Kyle said, “Don’t be silly.”
“But your classes—” Julia said.
“I’m sure human anatomy won’t change that much before I get back to studying,” Katherine said. She had a brightness in her eyes. It still felt like an adventure to her, Julia realized.
As the three scouts filed out the door, Damien said, “Be careful.”
“You too,” Mara said pointedly.
Dee shut the door behind them. The cold winter air swirled in the foyer for a long moment before the indoor warmth won out.
That afternoon, Damien walked Julia to her lecture on the history of the Byzantine Empire. During the lecture he sat on the bench in the corridor outside the lecture hall.
The professor, a ruddy, husky gentleman in his sixties, was an enthusiastic lecturer. A little too enthusiastic, perhaps, considering the topic of today’s lecture was the Byzantine bureaucracy and taxation policies. He was also very loud. But he certainly kept Julia’s attention. Or at least kept her awake.
Still, she found herself wondering why she couldn’t just read all of this information out of a book. There was no discussion. No one even asked any questions. The professor just talked.
After class, she was walking up the aisle when someone came up next to her and said, “Hey.”
It was a boy she’d seen in class before, a short boy with gym-sculpted biceps that looked too big for his body. He was wearing a flat-brim cap with big gold lettering on the front and a tight gray V-neck. He had prominent, pearly white teeth and equally prominent pimples all over his face.
“Come to my party,” he said. “It’s at eight.”
It bothered her quite a bit that he didn’t phrase it as a question but as a command. Still, she didn’t want to be rude. She gave him a regretful smile.
“Thanks but I can’t. I have homework to do.”
“Who cares? This will be fun.” He reached forward and drew one finger down her bare arm.
Julia drew back her arm. Her smile soured on her face. “I have a boyfriend.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, really. He’s sitting right over there.”
The boy looked around. “The blind guy?” he said incredulously, and laughed. “He won’t even see.”
“Very funny.”
“Come on, it’s Friday, you don’t want to come hang out? Get drunk?” He smiled and leaned forward into Julia’s space. She felt like lashing out.
“No. I’m pregnant,” she said coldly.
That shut him up. In a huff, Julia turned away, strode over to Damien and took his hand.
“You talking about me?” he said lightly as they headed for the exit.
“Some guy was hitting on me.”
“That’s flattering.”
“He was a jerk about it.”
Damien considered that. “I could track him down and disembowel him.”
Julia smiled.
“No?” Damien said. “Rip his jugular out?”
“Ew, Damien, stop it.”
Dusk fell fast as they walked home, but Julia loved to see the moon rising over the pines as the sun set in the opposite corner of the sky. The moon was full yesterday; it had just begun its cycle of waning.
Damien squeezed her hand.
“How was class?”
“Good,” she said automatically. “Bad. I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?”
“I guess I’m just… disillusioned.”
“Did they teach you that word in class?” Damien joked.
“I always imagined college to be a place where people wanted to learn. But it’s all the same thing as high school—parties and bad teachers and people not doing their homework.”
“You’re too old,” Damien said. Julia turned to see a smirk on his face.
“Excuse me?” she said, her voice arch and sarcastic.
“Nearly a fossil,” Damien said.
“Nearly as old as you, you mean,” Julia said.
“You know why you’re there. They don’t.”
“I thought maybe I was just stupid,” Julia said. “Stupid to think that this would work out.”
“It has worked out,” Damien said. “We’re going to have our babies.”
“Our babies.” Julia could feel their heartbeats now, as reassuring as her own.
“What do you want to name them?” Damien asked.
“Well,” Julia said, “I’ve always liked Zander. Or Zinn. Something with a Z.”
Damien grimaced. “Oh, please spare me.”
“What about Gabriel, then? Or Lucian. Raul?” Julia listed off names and at each one Damien groaned more and more.
“Fine, then,” she said, punching him playfully in the shoulder. “What do you think we should name them?”
“Channing means ‘young wolf”,” Damien said. “That’s always a nice name.”
“Except for when he grows older,” Julia said.
“What about the girl?” Damien said.
“Oh, speaking of wolf names!” Julia said. “I found so many good names for girls after I talked with Mara!”
“You were talking with Mara about this?” Damien slapped his hand to his forehead. “I’m doomed, aren’t I? I’m going to be outnumbered.”
“Luna, obviously, because of the moon. Also Dalia, and Nokomis means daughter of the moon.”
“Moon things. Of course. We’ll have a couple of moon children.”
“And Breah. That means beauty beyond sight.”
“I kind of like that one,” Damien admitted. “But it’s hard to spell.”
“All the good names are,” Julia said. She shrugged and leaned back, letting the crisp fall wind blow leaves past her face. “Well, we have a long time to decide.”
“And argue,” Julia added.
“And argue,” Damien agreed.
“Julia!”
Julia’s head whipped around. Dee was running up the driveway from the house.
“Come quickly,” Dee said. “It’s Jordan.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Damien
Terror squeezed Damien’s heart. His mental gears ground to a s
udden halt, as if refusing to process this situation, refusing to find out what had happened to his lifelong friend. He knew it was something bad. A ringing sounded in his ears like a distant alarm, emphasizing his stillness, his inaction.
After an endless instant, his paralysis snapped.
“What is it?” he asked. His voice was strong—his alpha instincts were kicking in. But as he waited for Dee to explain, he couldn’t breathe. Jordan.
“He was on lookout at the edge of the woods,” Dee said. “I went to get us something to drink, and when I came back he was gone. I heard him howl and I shifted. It was far away, but I sensed wolves.”
Julia made an exhaling sound that was like the ghost of a sob. Damien felt a wave of her fear and guilt, compounding his own.
“How many?” Damien asked.
“Lots. Maybe a dozen. I was going to go after him but then I saw you two coming down the driveway.”
It was times like this when Damien’s blindness was agonizingly frustrating. He wanted to be able to immediately leap into action but he couldn’t run fast enough without another wolf to go with him.
“Julia, you should go into the house with Dee,” Damien said. “Stay back.”
“No,” Julia said, “I want to come with you.”
Before Damien could respond, Dee said, “We should stay together. A house won’t keep out shifters who mean to attack us. I don’t sense the wolves anymore but that’s not to say they won’t come back.”
Damien nodded. He was struggling to think clearly through the cloud of fear closing in around him. Jordan—his best friend since they were both pups. At best, he was in grave danger. At worst...
“Then let’s go,” Damien said.
With Julia holding his hand, the three of them hurried into the backyard. As soon as Julia and Dee confirmed that the coast was clear, Damien shifted. His insides warped and rearranged themselves—as always, it was unsettling for an instant but then it was a relief, as though his body was returning to their natural state. Strength flowed through him as his muscles sprouted more fast-twitch fibers. Fur burst out of his skin, giving him a tingling, liberating sensation all over his body.
The transformation was complete in two seconds, and the scent hit his nose before his front paws even hit the ground.
“Blood,” he growled. “Stay behind.”
Dee shifted as well. She gave off a different scent in wolf form, a coarse, earthy scent. Damien placed them in his mind by their presences. Dee stayed beside Julia as Damien ran ahead.
He quickly found the source, a damp wetness of blood underfoot at the edge of the trail. This was where Jordan had been attacked. The smell of blood was so heavy that Damien could taste it, rusty and nauseating.
Trying not to let anger overwhelm his senses, he plunged into the forest, his nostrils working feverishly as they skimmed the ground. Small branches lashed his face and he scraped against one tree trunk after another but he barely noticed. Julia was behind him—he could feel her mounting fright even as he tried to ignore all emotion. The trail. Stick to the trail. Find Jordan.
Up ahead, the soft rustling of foliage stopped — a clearing. No sooner had he noticed this than a fresh wave of scent washed over him—blood. Jordan’s blood. So much blood.
There’s no way he could survive that much—
A half growl, half groan escaped his throat as he batted the thought away. He stepped forward into the clearing and his paw sank into wet ground. Blood-soaked earth, so wet it had turned to mud. The smell of other wolves was here, too, and the smell of fear. The smell of death.
A whimper up ahead made his heart clench and his head snapped up, ears rigidly upright. He hadn’t scented Jordan yet but it sounded like his voice just ahead, yes, just ahead of him. Damien’s head swam with both excitement at the thought of finding Jordan and terror at the thought of what condition his best friend might be in. Damien moved forward quickly, the danger of other wolves forgotten.
“Jordan?” Damien said.
Yes, it was him, sprawled in the mud, his body radiating sickly heat. His breathing was so faint that Damien had to bend his head down to hear it. He moved his snout over Jordan’s matted fur, assessing the damage. Jordan’s body was shredded with long gashes from which blood was still leaking freely.
“Jordan, we have to get you back,” Damien said. The tense quality of his own voice scared him even more. He heard Julia and Dee behind him but couldn’t smell anything. It was the blood, filling his nostrils so thickly that it blocked everything else out. “I’ll carry you back to the house. You can tell me what to do—”
“Damien?” Jordan’s voice was strangled, weak.
“I’m here, Jordan,” Damien said. “I’m here. It’s going to be okay.”
“Damien, love,” Jordan breathed. “Leave now. I’m dying.”
“No,” Damien said. “No.” He didn’t know what to do. He needed to stop the bleeding but didn’t know how, didn’t even know where to start. Jordan’s heartbeat was rapid and feeble, the flutter of sound coming muted through his wet pelt. Why were Julia and Dee not helping? Damien couldn’t sense them at all anymore. Everything was blood, blood.
“So many of them,” Jordan said. “Run…you need to run…”
“Wolves? How many?”
“More than twenty.”
“Twenty…” The word came out in a despairing, groaning exhale. Damien’s paws and snout were soaked, and his cheeks were wet, too, wet and hot with tears, and they ran down and mixed with the blood and he was pressing against Jordan’s body, what was left of it, trying to hold his dying friend together. Then for a single flashing second, he felt their connection, blazing between them like a supernova, and he felt the love emanating from Jordan and the pain, too.
“Jordan, please…”
“Run,” Jordan said, and Damien cringed at the fear in his whine. “Run.”
“Jordan, no—”
“Run!”
The raw terror in Jordan’s voice whipped through Damien’s wolf body and made him intensely aware of the sounds around him. A high wind whistled through the trees above, the air seething through the branches.
Julia was in danger. He had to protect her. He had to protect them.
He rose from Jordan’s body, the wind chilling his wet fur and sending shivers skittering down his limbs. He tried to think and sense clearly but Jordan’s fear intruded and he had to push it away. There were no other wolves around now, not that he could sense. Still…
“Damien…” Jordan’s low growl was barely audible. The fear had dissipated, replaced by a peaceful ebbing of emotion.
“I’ll always love you,” Damien said.
Jordan’s emotions wrenched through Damien in one last surge, then faded into nothingness. It wasn’t a weakening of the connection. He was simply gone.
“Jordan?” Damien rested his snout on the still body underneath him, turning to hear. Jordan’s heart was silent.
Damien would not have been able to see even if he were not scarred, for tears filled his blind eyes and streamed down his cheeks. Jordan was gone. Jordan, the wolf who’d nipped his ears when they were both pups and had just learned how to shift. Jordan, who’d come with him after he lost the fight that cost him his eyes, who’d saved him from death time and again. Jordan, his best friend. Damien could never have imagined losing him, could not have fathomed it, and now…now he was gone.
Damien raised his head and howled, the cry rising into the pines and twisting into the dissonant wind. The sound seemed like it might go on forever, but finally it faded.
As he lowered his head, Julia called his name, a hushed, uncertain call. Strange—he could not feel the connection to her as well as before. It seemed to flicker in and out. Perhaps his connection with Jordan had temporarily interfered with—
The thought jolted him like a full-body electric shock.
Why was Jordan left alive?
“Damien!” Julia cried, and then the full force of their connection slammed back
into place. Her fear gripped him at the same time that the scents swirled in his nostrils. A dozen—no, two dozen—no, more—
Wolves.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Julia
Julia’s legs stopped moving of their own accord well short of the tree-line, refusing to enter the scene that awaited them in the clearing beyond. The ground around Julia’s feet was white with frost as though it was winter, pure and glistening, but in the clearing there were great swathes of scarlet, like some grotesque art installation. The centerpiece was a motionless mass of tattered fur, sprawled in a steaming bath of blood. Julia instinctively put her hands across her belly protectively, her throat gagging.
Damien was in the clearing, sniffing the ground. He had not yet reached Jordan. It tore at her heart to see her mate groping his way toward his lost friend. Damien probably still had hope that his friend could be saved. He couldn’t see what Julia did. Couldn’t see that there was no hope.
Julia’s maternal instincts screamed at her to flee from this place of death as fast as she could, but she could not leave Damien here, not now, and Jordan had been her friend too.
She took a step forward, but Dee moved in front of her. “Let him say goodbye,” she whispered.
Damien was now standing beside Jordan and moving his head back and forth over the body as if he didn’t know what to do. Julia tried to send him her love across the distance between them. She tried to feel his anguish in a desperate attempt to take some of the weight off his heart.
But something strange was happening. She’d thought she understood the Calling by now, but the connection that had been growing ever stronger between her and Damien had frayed as they followed Jordan’s trail. Now it was flickering in and out. Or was she imagining it?
Damien howled. The sound seemed to tear its way out of his throat, so raw and full of anguish that it froze Julia’s blood. Dee stiffened at the sound, her hackles rising.
But no—Dee wasn’t reacting to Damien’s howl. She was looking in another direction.
Julia whipped her head in this direction and found herself staring into a pair of yellow eyes glowing through a tangle of bushes just ten yards away. She turned to bolt but there were eyes that way too. They were all around her.