by Viola Rivard
Taylor glanced around at the fantastic display of laundry. Sarah gave her a sheepish grin.
“It’s hard to say. Once I got over the initial shock of being pregnant, and then the subsequent terror of it, I fell in love with it. As soon as Carina was born, I was already excited to have another. Cain wanted to wait. Back then, we had Caim, Snow, Lotus, and Sable…” She paused, blinking back tears. “There was a lot going on. A bunch of fringe towns sprang up in the east and it pushed a lot of packs around. For a few years, we were always on the move, always fighting for every inch of territory. It wasn’t a good time for another baby, and we went back and forth on the issue. To be honest, I think Cain just got tired of resisting me. After the next one, we just stopped waiting. It wasn’t always easy, but we managed.”
“Weren’t you worried, though?”
“Sure, all the time. But that’s just being a parent. In the end, I just had to have faith that if things went badly, Cain and I would get through it together. May I?”
Sarah motioned towards the pup.
Taylor was quick to extract him from her shirt though it already felt weird handing him over. She really did get attached too easily.
As soon as Taylor deposited him into Sarah’s arms, he began to cry. To Taylor’s relief, Sarah didn’t seem offended, but in fact, pleased.
“Oh, listen to you,” she said, giving him a little bounce. “You already know who’s got the food, don’t you? Smart, little baby.”
After another moment, she handed him back to Taylor, who eagerly tucked him back into her shirt. He was quick to seek out a nipple, sucking on it lazily as she rubbed his back.
Sarah asked, “What did Hale say?”
“I won’t quote him,” Taylor said. “But he’s okay with us taking Henry in. Any chance you know where he is?”
Sarah frowned. “Not really. I know he left the den with Cain a few hours back. Cain said they might not be home until tomorrow morning. He was being very dodgy with my questions, so I think there could be some trouble afoot. You might be stuck here for a few more days.”
“That’s okay,” Taylor said, lying through her teeth. She liked Sarah’s den well enough, and it was definitely nice to spend time with a fellow human, but God if she didn’t miss Alder and Fawn like crazy. However long they had to stay, she’d be counting the hours until her family was whole again.
Hale stood beside his brother, observing the felled tree, their faces sporting identical expressions of confusion and concern.
What could have done this?
True to his word, Cain had woken Hale in the middle of the night, quietly urging him from the room. Hale had been more tired than he’d realized, and it hadn’t been until they were out in the cold night air that he’d shaken off the last vestiges of sleep. From then, they had traveled east in their wolf forms, picking up the dead wolf along the way. He and Cain took turns pulling the corpse on a makeshift sled, though Hale would haul it whenever they were going uphill, which was often. Yewen’s den was on the other side of the eastern mountain. Compared to the Halcyon and Whiteriver mountains, it was really more of a tall hill and they were on Yewen’s side by midday.
No wolves came to confront them, which was the first sign that something was wrong. Wolf shifters were highly territorial and the presence of intruders would not have gone unnoticed. According to Cain, Yewen’s wolves were particularly prone to accosting trespassers and demanding tribute to use the mountain pass.
As they descended the mountainside, Hale noticed the sour scent of decay on the breeze. It could have been an animal carcass, but the smell never abated and only intensified the farther down they went.
The fresh snow was undisturbed at the foot of the mountain, but several large trees had been uprooted. This was strange because very little wind had accompanied the last few snowfalls. But what was truly bizarre were the markings on the trees. Gouges that looked like claw marks, but were as wide as Hale’s biceps.
“Did Yewen do this?” Hale asked.
Cain was scratching his beard. “I don’t smell him here.”
Hale considered the markings for another moment and then said, “They must have been carved with some sort of tool. I’d bet it’s an intimidation tactic. This is probably how those rumors of the giant wolf were started.”
As Hale spoke, Cain began walking away in the direction of the river. Hale followed him, abandoning the sled as he caught sight of what his brother had noticed.
Bodies. Or rather, parts of bodies. They had gotten caught at a rocky patch of the riverbed, a cluster of waterlogged limbs and severed heads. They counted four heads in total, but there were only enough limbs to make up two bodies. If they’d cared to take the time, they might have been able to piece them together by scent, but what was the point?
Not his pack, not his problem.
“This is a good thing,” Hale announced after a few minutes. “If these are just the ones we’ve found so far, then I’d say Yewen has a bigger problem on his hands than the one wolf that floated downstream to your territory. I doubt he’ll be missing this guy.”
Cain didn’t seem convinced by his logic.
“I recognize that one,” Cain said, pointing at one of the heads. “It is—was one of his betas.”
If one of the betas could be out there, at least two days in the water with no effort to recover his body, then Yewen’s pack was most definitely in terrible shape. Hale didn’t know enough about the situation to guess what could have happened, but his gut told him that he needed to return to Taylor and Shadow.
“We should head back and check in with your pack,” Hale said.
“We’ve come this far,” Cain said. “Yewen’s den is an hour out. Go back if you must, but I need to find out what happened here.”
Stubborn bastard.
Hale pressed on with his brother though every instinct he had protested the move. Only a few years ago, he would have reveled in investigating the macabre scene and finding the wolves that were responsible. He might still have, had he known that his mate and pup were back in Halcyon territory and under Alder’s watchful eyes.
The only consolation he had was that Cain agreed to leave the body behind. There was no use in dragging it any farther. They walked in human form, conserving their energy in case they needed to flee or defend themselves.
The walk to the den was not uneventful. They found five more bodies along the way, all of them in a similar state as the first wolf they’d found. During his time defending Shaderunner, and then securing Halcyon territory, Hale had seen plenty of brutalities. Much of it, he had actively participated in. Only one of the deaths caught him off-guard. It was a large, gray wolf the size of Glenn, ripped clean in half, his upper body crushed flat. It stuck in his mind, not because of the grotesqueness, but because no matter how many scenarios he pictured, he couldn’t imagine how the body had ended up in that state.
He was still puzzling over the wolf when Cain came to a stop, holding his arm out to halt Hale.
“Yewen’s den is just past those trees,” he said, his voice low and his face grave.
The surrounding forest was silent.
Hale had a sense of what they would find past the trees but the reality of it was still somewhat jarring. The entrance to the den was blanketed in untrodden snow. There was no massacre, only three bodies, each strung on its own branch of a tall oak. All three had been disemboweled, their fetid insides hanging from their split midsections. The way they dangled from the tree, Hale was reminded of the ornaments Taylor had been hanging the night they’d left Halcyon.
“Yewen,” Cain said, pointing to the wolf on the highest branch. “And his other two betas.”
Hale was impressed that he could tell them apart. The bodies weren’t quite as well-preserved as the ones they’d found in the snow, and all the faces had been badly beaten.
Cain started towards the den, but Hale grabbed him by the arm.
“Don’t.”
Cain shook him off. “Last I hea
rd, he’d taken a mate and was expecting a pup. She could be in there.”
Hale shook his head. “Listen. Smell. There’s nothing but bad in there, Cain. We need to get back to our own mates.”
CHAPTER 6
AS THEY HEADED WEST, Hale and Cain collided with the wall of a snowstorm. The absentee winds had returned with a vengeance, buffeting them with sheet after sheet of snow. Each step forward was like trying to wade against a fierce tide.
They took shelter at the halfway point between the two dens, in a small cave that they’d passed during the daylight hours. The cavern had barely enough space to contain both of the alphas, but its entrance was situated in such a way that the winds blew away, rather than into the tiny room.
Hale and Cain sat on the cold stone, covered by snow-soaked furs and trying not to tremble. Their bodies naturally ran hotter than a human’s and they had a certain degree of imperviousness to the cold, but even they had their limits. There was nothing to eat or to build a fire with, so they made conversation to distract one another.
“When was the last time you saw Yewen?” Hale asked.
Cain understood where he was going with the line of questioning. “A week ago. The killings had to have been three days ago, given the decomposition and the snowfall.”
“So, pretty much overnight, a pack moved in and slaughtered an entire den of wolves, leaving barely a trace as to their identity or whereabouts.”
“I don’t think it was the entire pack,” Cain said. “There were nearly a hundred wolves in his pack. We found, what, a dozen?”
“The rest could have been in the den.”
“Perhaps,” Cain said, though he sounded unconvinced.
“Who in the region would have had the motive to kill Yewen?”
Cain gave a humorless laugh. “Most of the packs had motive. Like I said, Yewen was an ass. His pack was the strongest in the area and he never missed an opportunity to remind us of it. But this area, it’s filled with small, family packs. Shaderunner is the next largest. It would have taken at least three of the other packs working together, and even then, I would have known about it. I have good relations with them. If anyone was planning attack, they would have come to me first.”
Hale wasn’t so sure about that. Cain had always been something of a pacifist. When he and Alder had been planning to take Halcyon territory, they had deliberately kept their intentions from Cain, because they knew he would try to talk them out of it.
Cain said, “Furthermore, if it was one of the local packs, they would have already claimed responsibility, or at the very least, moved their pack into the area. Frankly, Yewen’s territory is the envy of many packs in the area. The location is prime and the hunting grounds are abundant.”
“The way the bodies were displayed, the marks left on the trees, it seemed more like some sort of warning,” Hale said thoughtfully. “So, do you think it was the roaming pack?”
Cain shrugged. “Every roaming pack that I’ve seen has been small, usually just a band of a few males. For a roaming pack to have done this, they must have been highly skilled fighters.”
Or one giant, fucking wolf, Hale thought.
He rolled his eyes at his own internal chatter. Now he was starting to believe the rumors.
“You should come back with Taylor and me,” Hale said. “You, and your pack.”
Cain blinked at him. “What?”
“Sarah’s done having pups, right? You don’t have to worry about one of us jumping her while she’s fertile,” Hale said wryly. “Not that we would, now that we have Taylor. That aside, whatever killed those wolves back there, it could do the same to your pack, and I’d wager that it’d be a hell of a lot easier. We need to stick together now.”
Cain smiled apologetically. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t, not now, anyway. Sarah has connections here, human women who rely on her.”
“And those women are more important than your mate and pups?”
“Most of my pups come from those women,” Cain said patiently. “However, if it comes to it, if I feel we are in real danger, I won’t hesitate to come to Halcyon.”
“How many warnings do you think those fuckers had? Do you think they knew they were in danger or did they just wake one night to their insides being turned into outsides?”
Hale had no idea why he was advocating so strongly for Cain to come to Halcyon. He got along with him well enough now, but they had fundamentally different styles of leadership. If Shaderunner really did come and take up residence in the valley, he had a feeling they’d be constantly at odds. Not to mention, Cain and Alder were more alike than different, and it was easy to imagine a future where the two of them would be constantly overruling Hale.
In the end, Hale would rather picture that future, than one in which he found Cain and Sarah hanging from a tree.
“Those killings looked purposeful,” Cain said. “If it was a roaming pack, then perhaps they were passing through and Yewen tried flinging his weight around. Maybe he underestimated the wrong alpha.” He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. That still doesn’t sound right. All I know is that no one has cause to harm our pack. As I said, we are well-respected in the region.”
“Maybe the motive was just to kill. Some wolves are like that. They just have a bloodlust.”
They fell silent for a moment, their eyes on the whipping winds, tossing snow in loose, swirling funnels. Hale’s mind went to Taylor, as it often did when idle, but this time he didn’t imagine laying his head between her soft breasts or sweeping his tongue through her hot mouth. He imagined her hanging from that fucking tree.
“We should leave soon,” Hale said, cracking his knuckles.
It felt wrong, sitting there while his mate and pup were so far away, in a den that was guarded by Clover and a handful of juveniles.
“We can barely see two paces in front of ourselves. We’ll cover just as much ground if we wait for the snow to pass.”
“Maybe you can’t travel as quickly in the storm, but I can,” Hale said.
As with many things he said, Hale instantly regretted the words. Cain cast him a withering look that slowly transitioned to one of reluctant resignation.
“Perhaps.” Cain sighed the word. “I am getting old.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Hale said, though he kind of had.
“I’m already the same age as Father when he passed. I don’t heal as quickly as I used to. Some days, my leg aches. And my hand…” He trailed off, taking his left hand out from under the furs. He held it flat in the air, and Hale noticed a slight tremor. “It started last year. I don’t know what causes it.”
“Have you asked Sarah?” Hale said.
“I haven’t told her.” He tucked the hand away. “I’ve lived a good life, and I have every intention of living for many years to come. I won’t have her worrying about me.”
Hale wasn’t sure what to say. It felt like the sort of conversation Cain might have had with Alder, and he tried to think of how his twin might respond. The best he could muster still felt inadequate.
“Well, if anything happens to you, I’ll drag your mate to Halcyon by the hair if I have to. Your pups, too.”
Cain gave him an appreciative smile. “I’m sorry, Hale.”
“Sorry for what?” he asked, cocking his head.
“You’ve grown up, and I have grown old, and in all of these years, I’ve never apologized to you.”
Understanding dawned on Hale. “You thought I stole your mate, got her pregnant, and saddled you with our bastard. If anyone had done that to me, I’d have killed him.”
Cain closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the stone. “I spent so long hating you. By the time I found out that Snow was Alder’s daughter, I had exhausted all of my malice. I had none left for Alder.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
In truth, the words had a strange effect on Hale. Part of him had been waiting to hear them for over a decade, but a larger part
of him had understood all along.
“I miss Snow,” Cain said wistfully. “I never wanted to get attached to her, but I loved her as much as any of my own. More than some of my own, if I’m being honest. Now she is gone, and Caim, too. Sable and Lotus left this past spring searching for him. I got a message from them in the summer, but I haven’t heard from them since.”
“Why didn’t you tell me they'd run off? I’d have helped you hunt them down.”
“They aren’t pups anymore. Lotus is only seven years younger than you, and Sable is not much younger than her. I didn’t want to let them leave, but I had to respect their decision.”
All of Hale’s memories of Lotus and Sable had been when they were pups. Lotus had been scarcely a juvenile when Hale had left to form Halcyon. He suddenly felt quite old.
They reminisced about the old days, back when they’d been a family unit. They talked about the fond memories, deliberately avoiding the harsher realities of their lives in a small pack. The memories were nice to visit, but even the best of old times paled in comparison to his present life.
The snow did not abate, but the wind began dying down as night gave way to early morning. He was glad when Cain was the first to stand, announcing that they should be getting back to their mates. Hale could barely think of anything else, and he was rocketing out of the cave before Cain had finished speaking.
He shifted into his wolf form before remembering that he hadn’t eaten. Without sufficient energy reserves, the shift took longer than usual, almost a full minute, and it was uncomfortable, bordering on painful. Once he’d come fully into his wolf form, he needed another moment to get his bearings. Briefly disoriented, he thought he saw dark figures moving through the trees.
“Hale.”
Cain did not raise his voice. In fact, he spoke softly, but with urgent command. Hale turned to look at Cain, who was still hanging by the entrance to the cave. There was a wild look in Cain’s eyes and he made a quick gesture towards something beyond Hale. Hale turned to face the trees again, his vision sharpening to reveal a procession of unfamiliar wolves passing by, the closest one only a few yards away.