by KT Strange
“Sorry Darcy.” Frank shuffled one foot on the ground.
“It’s not like you’re wrong,” I replied. “So…”
“He and Wolfe fought,” Frank’s voice dropped. Charlie wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Throwing magic back and forth like it was nothing, until he said something, I dunno what, I couldn’t hear it, and Wolfe just—” His eyes closed tight. “He went. He disappeared. Like nothing’d ever been there in the first place. He left us. The pain on Frank’s face broke something in me.
“What happened then?”
“I ran,” Frank muttered. “I… into the woods, I ran. Left the pack.”
Charlie squeezed him in tight.
“I didn’t go anywhere, I just hid, and watched, waited, like Wolfe taught me, I swear, I wasn’t abandoning them.“
“You did right,” Charlie’s voice was gruff, affectionate. “No way a pup could stand up to a witch that he doesn’t know, especially if Wolfe vanished on you. The pack?”
“Alive, but Creston’s got them. He did something, I dunno what, but it made them listen. He took them up to the house, and didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t there. The pack, they didn’t fight it, even Eli, even though I know he wanted to rip Creston’s throat out. Finn kept talking to him, quiet, I think maybe keeping him calm. I watched until I couldn’t see them anymore then I started looking for you.”
With a sigh of relief, Charlie wrapped Frank in a tight embrace.
“I’m damn proud of you for hiding.”
“It wasn’t the brave thing to do.”
“It was the smart thing,” Charlie said. He glanced at me. “Right?”
“Run today, fight tomorrow,” I said. I was no stranger to running. How could I ever be mad at Frank for getting out of there? He didn’t stand a chance against a witch at full power.
Frank’s shoulders slumped and he leaned into Charlie, taking strength from the older wolf in a way that was so animalistic I could picture them doing the same thing in their shifted forms. Charlie rubbed his cheek against the top of Frank’s head, holding him tight.
“Let’s get some food into you,” I said lightly. “When was the last time you ate.” My mind was spinning through our options. I was injured, mostly alone, and without the magic mentor who’d been teaching me to control my rebellious powers.
It didn’t look good, but at least we could feed Frank and then make some decisions.
“Yeah, how about some food, then you sleep.” Charlie went to the cupboard. When Frank made a noise of protest, Charlie opened another tin of cold beans. “There’s nothing we can do right now that we can’t do in the morning.” Charlie hated every word he was saying, it was clear from the way he said it, but we didn’t just have to rescue our pack; we had to keep Frank safe too.
Frank grumbled his way through the entire can of beans and, after some scolding from Charlie, crawled onto the mattress and closed his eyes. Charlie watched him for several minutes, waiting for the young wolf to drift off before turning to me.
“What do you think?” Charlie’s voice was pitched low. I glared over at where Frank lay, sprawled out on the mattress, one arm tossed above his head. His breathing was slow and even, and I was glad the young wolf was finally resting. He’d been through hell.
“They’re alive, and we need to go after them.”
Charlie gave a slow nod, a sigh escaping his parted lips.
“I don’t like this.”
“Well it’s a trap, you’re not to supposed to like it,” I said. A blot of fury had formed in my heart as Frank had laid out what had happened. That Creston would use my pack, my mates, to get to me was a depth of evil I’d never expected from him. It was the sort of old-world evil that we’d run from, as witches, when we’d come to North America after concluding that hunting down werewolves was ‘not appropriate for those of good breeding.’ The pack had opened up my eyes that the old fight between witches and werewolves wasn’t over by a long shot though, no matter what polite society said about committing genocide. A hysterical, tiny part of my brain wondered what his mother would think if she knew.
My lip curled in disgust.
“What’re you thinking, sweetheart?” Charlie’s fingers traced over my wrist, and up my arm. Nerves in my skin, newly-awakened and very aware that he was mine and I was his, tingled in reaction.
“I’m thinking Creston is going to regret fucking with my wolves.” I met Charlie’s gaze, and he gave me a humorless smile.
“That’s my girl,” he said. “I’ve half a mind to leave Frank here and take you right now, while we’ve got the cover of darkness on our side.”
I gave a shake of my head.
“Nah. He’s going to know I’m coming,” I said, looking over Frank’s body. “No way he let Frank go by accident. He knew I wasn’t there, and he was hoping that Frank would lead him right to me, or me back to him. He knows. He’s an asshole, but he’s a smart asshole.”
“My least favorite kind of asshole,” Charlie quipped and then looked tense. “I shouldn’t let you go. I should argue with you and sacrifice myself.”
“That’s moronic.” A feeling of evenness settled over me, like a weight of purpose. How long ago had this moment been put in my path? Everything for a reason had been my grandmother’s mantra. It wasn’t so long ago that Creston had me up against the wall in the bathroom of my parents house, trying to force himself on me.
Here he was again, forcing himself into my life, demanding I respond, holding my pack hostage and just waiting for me to show up to rescue them.
He was going to come to regret his goddamn life choices. I only hoped that I’d learned enough working with Wolfe. I didn’t have finesse with my powers, but brute strength and rage? I had buckets of that.
“We should sleep,” Charlie said. “You alright to share a bed with the kid? I’ll stretch out on the floor.”
“No you won’t,” I said, and tugged on his hand. “We’ll fit.” Charlie raised one eyebrow at me but picked me up anyway and nudged Frank over, making space for us on the bed. Frank sighed and curled onto his stomach with a small sigh. He snuggled into my side, burrowing his face between my stomach and the mattress. Charlie snickered.
“You’re good for him,” he said. I gave him a stricken look.
“What?”
“Not like that. No, like, a maternal figure, sorta.”
“Maternal?” I kept my voice down so I wouldn’t wake Frank. “I don’t think I could be maternal even if I wanted to.”
Charlie stretched out next to me, pressing himself up against my side. He brushed a kiss over my cheek.
“I’ve seen you give Finn and Ace that look.”
“What look?”
“The one that tells them they’re being children. It works really well. Seriously, I’m impressed.”
I rolled my eyes and reached for the blanket, pulling it up over the three of us. Frank mumbled in his sleep and I ran my fingers through his silky curls. They were so soft and thick. He really was the sweetest person I’d ever met. That lit off a spark of rage in my chest that threatened to consume me. Creston had frightened Frank. He’d pay for that. Maybe I wouldn’t just fry his balls this time.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Charlie said into my neck, placing soft, nipping kisses there. I squirmed and tried to relax.
“Not helping, Chuckles.”
“Don’t call me Chuckles,” he growled and settled down, his arm a band of warm weight across my stomach. We’d left the LED lantern on, the soft blue glow a comfort in the dark and quiet. Frank’s breathing deepened and he turned away from my stomach. I let my fingers stay tangled in his hair.
Yeah, Creston was gonna pay. I’d ride in on Charlie’s back, tossing lightning bolts and free my pack. Hopefully it would work. Hopefully my anger and upset would be enough to get him to back the fuck down and leave us alone.
All I had was one boot, a hysterical werewolf pup, and my mate with half-starved from a diet of canned beans. Yeah, this was going to
go over real well.
Seven
Charlie
Dawn couldn’t come soon enough. I let Darcy and Frank sleep, watching my mate curl around the young wolf like he was her own pup. It was a good thing the other guys weren’t there, because the sight was enough to give me ideas—visions of a future where we had our own pups, at least one fathered by each of us.
Darcy probably would murder me for thinking that though. I never really felt my age as much as when she would widen her eyes at the idea of being a mother herself, like the thought was foreign and mildly horrifying.
But then, given what she'd gone through with her own family, I wasn't surprised that she lacked any interest in having kids one day. It was up to us, her mates, to convince her otherwise. When we got a heartstone again, if that ever happened, and when we were, ahem, not shooting blanks anymore. The inability to father a pup was probably the single most upsetting thing about losing our heartstone, more so than anything else the witches and hunters had done to us. Take my ability to heal, even to shift, and I would survive, continue on, but to rob me of the choice to start a family, to see my mate's belly swell with my pup? That hurt bit deep, and it filled me with a bitterness that was difficult to put aside.
Darcy shifted on the bed, lifting her head, her eyes bleary. I smiled.
“Morning, I said. “Hungry for more cold beans?” She wrinkled her nose at me and put her head back down. Frank yawned, snuggling into her, his arm sneaking around her waist as he cuddled her close.
“That's not a remotely tempting offer,” Darcy said, running her fingers through Frank's hair as he clung to her. “C'mon muppet, you gotta get up. I need to pee, and we have to go fight the good fight.”
Frank grumbled in response, but got up, looking around the room.
“You said something about more beans? he asked, hope in his voice. Darcy laughed and grinned at me.
“You feed him,” she said, “then let's get going while we have good light.”
We stepped onto the road. With Darcy's ankle stiff, sore, and bootless, I needed to carry her. Her weight sat evenly on my hips as we started off. The sun filtered through the trees, sending long fingers of shadow that dipped into the ruts and tire tracks across the rough road. The air was just beginning to warm as we crested the first of many hills. I wanted to take us up to the highway and over, following the same path I had before, but Frank had said there was a deer trail following a stream that would make for a shorter journey.
Darcy didn't seem to think much about saving time. I guessed she was dreading showing down with Creston. She wouldn't be alone when she did. I'd stand by her side until my last breath, even though I knew our girl had more power running through her body than five other witches combined.
Sometimes a persistent inability is really just someone sabotaging themselves as they try to wrestle with their true greatness. I had a gut feeling we hadn't even begun to see what Darcy was capable of.
Creston, I hoped, was about to get a face full of what she could do. Anger boiling in my veins kept me going at a steady pace, as we shifted from a walk to an easy jog. Frank loped along beside me, his young face serious. Wolfe had kept him from seeing the worst horrors that the hunters could dish out, and I was grateful for that. Creston had introduced him to a world he should never had experienced. If we'd been a full pack, made up of many smaller mating groups, Creston would never had stood a chance.
But we aren't. Be grateful you have a mate who's a witch and not totally afraid to use her powers to fight for the pack.
Darcy's weight was warm on my back and I did my best not to jostle her too hard as we jogged. I could feel how tense she was, her limbs stiff, her arms tight around my shoulders. We stopped at the stream just after turning off the main road. I let go of her legs, and she slid down my back and onto a mossy outcrop of rock.
"Ugh,” she said as she stretched. “Not saying I don't like how you look, Charlie, but if we're gonna keep doing this, you need to gain some weight or get a saddle."
"No pony play for me, thanks,” I said as I bent down to the stream and cupped my hands in the water. The cool liquid filtered over my skin and I raised it to my face, splashing myself with it. Frank mimicked me and then dunked his whole head in the water, shaking his head once he reemerged.
"What's pony play?” he asked.
"We'll tell you when you're older,” I answered at the same time as Darcy said, “You don't want to know."
I caught her eye and winked as Frank growled.
"It's a sex thing, isn't it."
"Trust me, you don't want to know. Alright, I'm good, let's go.” Darcy wobbled over on her good foot and reached for me as I stood.
"It won't be much longer,” I assured her.
"Yeah that's what I'm dreading,” she muttered as she slipped onto my back, her hands clenched in front of my neck.
We fell silent when we approached the tree line. Darcy's hand left my shoulder to press against her mouth as she leaned forward. Huge swaths of trees were blackened, their smoky stumps reaching toward the sky like accusing fingers. The grass was no more, burnt right down to the dirt, and scorch marks ran up the hill, disappearing over its peak.
Frank let out a pained noise, almost a whine, and Darcy reached for him. He pressed his face into her shoulder and she gave him a one-armed hug, still balancing on my hips.
“It's going to be alright,” she promised him, and my heart gave a pulse at the strength in her words. She believed it, and that made me feel more confident.
“But Wolfe—” Frank started to talk but Darcy cleared her throat.
“We will find out what happened to him and where he went.” She let go of Frank. “C'mon. Let's go find our pack.”
The air was thick with the scent of ash, but this time I could smell hints of the pack on the wind; my wolf-brothers were somewhere nearby, waiting for us to rescue them. We headed out into the open field. My skin itched with how exposed we were.
“They'll be up at the main house, if I'm not mistaken,” Darcy said into my ear, keeping her voice low. Frank nodded in agreement and we set off, climbing the slowly rising hill. There was a ring of trees that surrounded Wolfe's home on the compound, and while we didn't see anyone as we approached, we could hear voices.
The smell of fire on the wind made me pick up the pace, and the snarl of my pack-mates raised all the hair on the back of my neck.
The roar of fire sounded out, a burst of flames that was so hot we felt it through the cover of trees. Darcy exhaled and pushed off of me, hobbling through the brush as we broke through to the other side.
In an instant everything went to shit. Finn was bound in the center of the clearing in front of Wolfe's home, the rest of our pack caged by bars of what looked like living fire. Creston stood over Finn, his hands outstretched to the sky, flames dancing along his pale, bare chest.
Finn looked like hell, soot streaked across his face and burn marks marring the skin of his arms, like someone had lashed out at him with fire. He was on his side, ropes criss-crossing up and down his body to hold him there.
Creston brought his hand down, the flames forming a ball just above his palm, and he pressed it toward Finn's face.
Thunder crackled despite the clear blue sky, and lightning arced toward Creston from Darcy's outstretched hands. It hit him in the shoulder, and he cried out as it knocked him over, the blaze dying. I ran at him, Frank a second behind me, snarling.
Creston rolled over, his eyes widening when he saw us. His lips moved and I felt the heat before I even saw it.
My hand shot out, grabbing Frank by the shirt collar and I hauled him backward as a wall of flame roared to life in front of us. It would have engulfed us entirely if I'd been a second later. Frank stumbled against me, eyes wide. Inside the cage, the rest of our pack shouted, not able to break free or even touch the bars without burning themselves.
“Creston,” Darcy's voice rang across the clearing. The rage that coursed through her tone, and my veins, ne
arly had me shaking. I hung onto Frank, afraid to let him go or take a single step forward.
The flames died down, leaving the fire witch standing there, his eyes wild as he took us in. Finn was still on the ground, fighting his bonds. Creston's upper lip curled in disgust as he took me in, but then he glanced past me. I felt Darcy come up on the other side of Frank, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the fury in her every muscle and movement.
A breeze picked up, and in the distance more thunder rumbled, ominous and heavy. The power radiating off of Darcy was searing, and when she stepped forward, in front of me, she barely faltered even though her ankle had to be killing her.
She barely spared a glance for Finn, her eyes fixed on her ex-boyfriend.
“I'm going to give you one chance to get out of here,” she said, each word dripping with venom. Her shoulders were thrust back, and I wondered if she knew that her fingers were spread far apart as she held them on either side of her hips, or that tiny sparks of light, like static shocks, kept flaring up in her hair. She looked like she was about to throw down, in the most electric way.
“So you do choose them, filthy c—” Creston never got to finish his word. Darcy lifted her hand and lightning crackled between them, knocking him down into the dirt, hard. He groaned, one arm flailing in the air as he struggled to get up.
Frank darted to Finn, kneeling down beside him and began to furiously work to untie the bindings. From the cage, the rest of our pack paced restlessly, and Eli's gaze was murderous as he stared at Creston.
Darcy took slow, deliberate steps into the center of the clearing. I followed her, tense, and ready to back her up the moment she needed me to. The other guy clearly had a lot more firepower than our girl did, and likely years of experience on him.
He got to his knees and spat a mouthful of blood, before grinning at her, his eyes half-closed.
“Was that my chance?” he mocked. “Are you going to kill me now? For touching your precious littl—
“Shut the fuck up,” Darcy's voice swelled to fill the entire clearing, the command so clear that Creston's mouth snapped shut and he stared at her, his eyes wide. Frank had gotten Finn free of the ropes around his chest, and the two of them were working him out of the ones that tied up his legs. Finn was moving slowly, and I saw the shadow of bruises peppering his body, like he'd been beaten badly and healed overnight. White, icy anger spread through my body.