by Holly Hook
He's stronger than both of us.
Brie, we have to run! Cayden tilts his head to the door.
I can't let Cayden suffer another death.
So I fight every fiber of my being and run.
Cayden and I bolt together for the still-open doors of the gym. One slowly drifts shut. People shout outside as the sirens close in. The police. They can shoot Matt, but they won't do any good.
The two of us bolt through the narrowing doorway.
Then the door shuts behind us as a large shape crashes into it, shaking the handles and locks.
Matt's trapped in the gym. I turn, getting the tablecloth from the now-empty ticket table in my face for a second. On the other side of the latched doors, growls sound along with the scraping of claws. The doors buckle outward as the monster tries to get out. And we stand in the empty hall, surrounded by closed doors we can no longer operate.
He won't stay there long.
Cayden eyes me.
He's right. If any Wolf can bust open doors, it's Matt.
Car doors slam outside. Sirens peak. Matt will kill the officers. He'll murder others before he runs off into the woods to join the other Savages.
We need the pack, I think.
Only then can we take Matt down.
But we're trapped inside. Unless someone opens the doors--
"Police!" a man shouts, yanking open the outside doors.
I glimpse blue trousers as Cayden and I use the opening, leaving the officer to stare at the closed gym doors and the monster behind them. He draws his weapon.
We're leaving the man in danger, but without the pack, we can't hold back Matt.
The parking lot is red and blue flashing lights. People stand by cars, gawking. More screams rise as a group of girls spots us. I can't see Noah. Ellie. But Devyn screams Matthew's name.
Cayden lifts his head and howls. The sound rises into the night, carried on the wind.
The gym doors burst open and the officer fires two rounds. More people scream as bullets thunk into flesh. Matt whimpers and stops, claws scraping linoleum, and snaps his jaws. The officer fires a third time, drawing another growl, as the stench of terror mixes with decay.
I run back to the school. The main doors lie open, propped by the officer, and Matt stands there, bleeding from three holes in his side as the officer backs away, trembling with his pistol raised. Radios crackle as more officers run toward us.
He could shoot me and Cayden, but if we don't act, Matt will kill them.
The Savage Wolf leaps at the officer, who screams and falls back, but Cayden and I leap at the same time, throwing Matt into the wall as he continues to bleed from his bullet wounds. But already the blood flow slows. The wounds will do nothing but make him hungrier.
Matt flies into the doorway of the gym, sliding past the cookie table and hitting the leg. The table topples onto him as Cayden closes his jaws on my shoulder blade, urging me to move. We've bought the officers time. The one on the hallway floor rises, keeping his pistol aimed at us. He doesn't know we're here to help him.
Cayden and I bolt into the night as he fires, missing.
And Matt growls, rising and following us.
We need that. We have to get him away from all these people.
The two of us sprint across the parking lot and to the woods. More radios crackle. People scream and duck into cars. My claws sink into pavement and then dirt. The entrance the woods waits. Matt growls behind us. We're his chosen prey and the biggest threat. He wants to kill us first, and then he's going to turn his terror on everyone else.
I dart through the doorway and into the woods, leaving the human world behind.
Only the wilds spread out now. We're on our turf.
Branches and underbrush crash behind us. He's coming.
And the Savage is catching up. I glance back to see Matt locking his eyes on me. He closes the distance foot by foot, and within a minute, he'll leap. And then he will kill.
Keep running.
Cayden's thoughts fill with pain. We know how this will end.
Matt leaps.
I can't let his nightmare come true.
Instinct tells me to stop. I do and roll back, letting Cayden run farther down the trail. Matt lands ahead of me, biting dirt, his belly exposed.
I dart at him as he looks around in confusion and slide under him. I bite into his soft flesh, drawing blood that flows around my mouth and crushing organs. Matt whimpers again, but it's different this time. He's suffering true pain. Arteries throb and skin tries to close around my teeth. But I dig harder as Matt struggles, trying to reach me. I can still fight him. Not with strength, but with cunning.
Underbrush crashes.
Something rams into Matt, tearing him from my grasp. He rolls to the side as another large blond wolf--Remo--throws his weight into the bigger Savage. The revolting taste of Savage blood fills my mouth as I roll to my feet. Remo and Matt turn into a tangle of fur, claws, and teeth as Cayden leaps into the fray, sinking teeth into Matt's leg. The bigger Savage Wolf thrashes, trying to free himself, until at last Remo flies back, sliding into a tree. But as he lands, another black Wolf, Everly, darts into our small clearing, snapping at Matt as he pulls his leg from Cayden's grasp.
Matt glares at us.
I read it in a heartbeat. He's relenting tonight, but he promises revenge.
And without another growl, the bigger Wolf turns and darts into the night, dripping blood.
Chapter Twenty-Five
After him, Cayden thinks.
The scent of Aunt May joins the others as we run after the new, injured Savage Wolf, but the farther we run into the trees, tracking his disgusting scent, the fainter the one of his blood gets. I delivered an injury that might have killed, but Matt is healing.
He's new and already powerful.
His already vile human nature and athletic state has made him a natural Savage Wolf.
Matt runs to the border of our territory as if aware of the protection it can give him. His own kind waits there to accept him. I pump my legs as fast as I can, with Cayden and I leading the others, but the sound of snapping twigs and the stench of Matt goes stale as the night deepens. He's not only strong, but fast.
Once we reach the border of our territory, which smells of Aunt May mixed with Cayden, we stop.
The woods beyond are dark. Menacing. Beyond this point, the reek of Savage Wolf dominates. Matt's scent mixes with the others. If we cross our territory line, all of them are free to attack us.
And we won't come out on top.
Cayden catches his breath. He's out.
We've driven Matt from our territory.
But his look returns to me. He won't stay gone forever.
In the distance, more sirens wail. We've left the high school in a state of confusion and panic.
Cayden sniffs me. You did well. He draws close to me, standing by my side, and for a moment, everything feels right.
Without us both, people would have died. My instinct was there to make the right decisions, and I didn't even think of that possibility.
As if warning Matt to never return, Cayden tilts his head back and howls.
And this time, I join in.
We might have drifted apart during the last week, but tonight, we're all together, and we will be at least until morning.
* * * * *
When the sun rises, the hold my animal side keeps on me loosens. It's a strange feeling, like I've almost forgotten my human side during the night of running through the woods, patrolling, eyeing the people of Breck from a distance, and hunting deer. But as soon as the moon tucks itself under the horizon and the sun's rays peek through the trees, I stop beside Cayden, remembering that I have another life to return to. Noah and Ellie will worry about me.
And it will be without Matt.
Aunt May looks at me with her bright blue eyes and nods. We need to return home. And I don't miss the stern look in them. It's Monday. A school day.
She still expect
s me to go.
With one final touch of the nose, Cayden eyes me with warmth, apology, and pain. But the agony in his eyes has dulled. By chasing out Matthew, we've done good, and we both know there are no doubts about that.
The Lowes bound through the trees to their house. Aunt May and I run to ours. We make it to the back deck before reverting back to our human forms, and Aunt May, being prepared, has draped two blankets over the railing. We grab them and she fishes a key out from under the stone frog in the back flower garden, unlocking the way.
We both pour into the house, shivering. "Brie, let me make breakfast," Aunt May says. "I need some coffee. How about you?"
I hold back a laugh. We just finished shifting back after a night of running around as wolves, and she's talking about coffee.
"Coffee sounds great." Strength still runs through my limbs, but not as much as before. While my senses are still heightened in human form, they're not as much as they are in wolf form.
Out there, Matt might be lying in the woods, naked and surrounded by other people like him. The Savages planned to use him all along.
And a part of me knew it.
I'm fully Noble. And relieved. I can't wait to tell Cayden about how Matthew wet his pants.
Aunt May makes coffee and I rush up to my room, where I left my cell phone. After the hospital, I didn't dare take it to the dance, knowing what would go down.
I'm okay, I text Noah without reading all his worried messages. I'm alive. And then I do the same thing for Ellie. Realizing I need an explanation for why the police must have found my witch dress and Cayden's lab coat in the gym, I add, if you want the story, you have to meet me at Teeyah's tonight.
Olivia knows more about me than my friends do. It's not right, but I can't just admit the truth to Noah and Ellie. I'll need a good story, but I have all day to create one.
Maybe someday, I'll tell them, but not yet. Maybe one day Breck will be safe and they won't be in danger. But my friends also deserve to know and be part of my life.
Noah texts back. Did Matt actually shift into a wolf?
Oh.
Maybe they're ready for the truth.
A second text arrives. How did you get out of there?
I'll talk about it later.
We have a long conversation ahead of us.
"Brie," Aunt May says from downstairs. "I called the school and they say they're open. Nobody was found hurt last night and the police don't know what happened."
I go downstairs to find her sipping coffee. "Do you think Matthew will try to come back? He doesn't know the rules."
She nods. "He might."
"Then we need to be ready for him," I say. "All of us."
I hear Cayden's footsteps right before his scent wafts through the open kitchen window. He knocks on the door and I answer.
This morning, he's put on baggy jeans and a black T-shirt that matches his dark hair. He must have gone home, turned back, and dressed to come right back out and see me.
"Mind if I walk you to school?" he asks.
"I would love that," I say. "Just so you know, people realize we were the last ones out of the gym, and some of them saw Matt shifting. Noah did." I still have to tell him about Olivia, but after what happened with Matt, that won't be so bad. Disaster has already fallen on Breck. "People know three wolves ran out of the school."
Cayden nods. "We need to make up a story on the way to school, but it's early and a long walk. The two of us will get crowded when we get there. Everly and Remo will meet us before we go inside. They'll be our bodyguards."
"Good idea," I say. No one saw Cayden and I shifting, did they?
No one except for one person.
My enemy.
We walk, this time on two legs.
“So,” I say. “The story. I know I did some reckless stuff.”
“Actually, I forgot to tell you something.”
“Which is?”
Cayden turns the corner of his mouth up into a smile. “As my mate, you have more say in the pack than everyone but me. Almost as much as I do.”
“So does that explain why we butt heads?”
“Maybe.”
I shove him, but not without my own smile. Something's different between us this morning. “Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't want to shove more responsibility on you.”
“Come on, Cayden. You know I would have taken it.” Now I know why Everly pressured me to talk to Cayden. But what he says feels right.
“And that's what scared me.”
“Look, we're in this together,” I say, intertwining my hand with his. Cayden's strong, warm, and most of all, still conflicted. He scuffs his shoes against the pavement. The pain still exists and while we might have put a bandage on his wounds for now, anything could tear it off and make his pain fester again.
And perhaps, mine.
He lifts his gaze from the street. “Okay. Together.”
“I mean it, Cayden,” I say, planting a kiss on his lips.
With no one between us, Cayden and I make out on the street like we can save each other.
“Okay,” I say when we come up for breath. “We make up this story together. I do one line, and then you do the next, and we'll make it a game. When we saw Matt convulsing, we both froze in horror.”
We walk again. “You thought about doing CPR on him.”
“And I vomited at the thought.”
“So we both ran to the bathroom to wash off.”
“And as we were in the hall, we heard growling.”
“Neither of us know what happened.” Cayden pinches my arm.
“Not at all,” I say. The story needs work, but we have time. This morning, Breck is safe.
The two of us keep a tight grip on each other as we near the school and the storm that waits.
END OF BOOK TWO
Magic Bound
The Alpha Legacy #3
By Holly Hook
Copyright Holly Hook 2018
Chapter One
"I'm not looking forward to this." Cayden keeps both hands on the wheel of the SUV as we crawl through a fresh layer of snow. Armies of flakes collide in the night, burying the tire tracks of other brave souls.
I grip the front passenger seat, detecting every slip of the tires. My vision catches the depth of the ditch even in the dark. Ten feet. Too bad being a werewolf doesn't give Cayden any extra control over a vehicle in these conditions. All it's doing for me is showing me how screwed we are.
Some way to spend our first day of holiday vacation. Hunting for a captured girl wasn't on my bucket list.
"We could have run out there in wolf form," I say. "At least the snow wouldn't have—Cayden, crap!"
The back end of the SUV goes out, swinging us toward the ditch. Cayden's hand scramble around the wheel as he compensates. We get back on the road.
"Bad idea to go in wolf form," Everly says from the back. "We're not even in our territory anymore. And being in the SUV blocks our scent from reaching the Savages."
We left the Breck city limits minutes ago. And now, surrounded by all the tall, snow-covered trees and the boulders from the mountains, we're in unclaimed territory where our rules don't apply. Any pack of Wolves may attack us, just as we can attack any who breach our borders.
And according to Leonora, Alesha from school came out this way with Matt, a turned Savage Wolf we drove out of Breck two months ago. She spotted them at a gas station. Though Matt hasn't returned to town, people have seen him hanging around just outside our territory. Ryan from the Drama Club saw him talking to his friend Ted when he went to Moe's Station outside town. Others have spotted him around hiking trails, never close enough to ask questions. But no attacks have been reported.
Until now.
"You said Matt took Alesha down a trail into the woods?" I ask Leonora.
She sits beside Remo and Everly. "I didn't follow. I've seen the Savages out in the woods a few times since October. They look at me and my parents like they'
re just waiting for us to venture out."
She smells of metallic fear. And she should. Leonora's family might be into witchcraft, and she may have a silver dagger imbued with wolfsbane on her belt, but she's still human and vulnerable. I know the real reason she's come along and it's Remo. Though Cayden's adopted brother pretends he and Leonora have nothing going on other than business—Leonora's family used to help hunt Savage Wolves, after all—I've seen otherwise.
"Leonora shouldn't leave the van," Everly says.
"She deserves to be here," Remo tells her. "Her family knows things that can help."
"She won't get a spell set up in time to deal with a pack of Savages."
"I know what I'm doing," Leonora says.
I fear the same, and judging from the way Cayden's shoulders rise, so does he. While he hasn't pushed me away again, the pain and worry remains in his eyes. He's stopped talking about Wyatt and his parents and that worries me. Since Matt, Cayden has carried his burden as alpha in silence. And I'm part of the reason why.
The tension remains.
And as his mate, some of that falls on me. And I'm glad I can take some off him.
"If Leonora wants to be here, that's her right," I say, "so long as it's okay with Cayden. She knows the risks." I speak more for him than anybody.
Cayden nods. "We need all the help we can get."
I'm eager to see what Leonora can do. While Aunt May and I got her to admit to doing witchcraft, and that her family has spent a lot of time helping werewolf hunters—including my mother—I've seen none of her tactics yet. She might not know more about the hunter side of my family than I do, thanks to her parents telling her nothing, but she has to know magic.
Cayden rolls down the windows. "The cold makes scent less detectable." He drives us towards the gas station where Leonora spotted Matt leaving with Alesha. The lights are on, inviting terrified drivers to stop and take a break.
"I smell them," I say.
Cayden brakes, sliding at first, and then pulling into the parking lot of the station. Ted's Station and Eatery. No one's here right now. It doubles as a snack food place and a restaurant. Lights shine inside as it's still open, and a single woman wipes down a counter. Then I spot Alesha's convertible parked on the side of the building, already covered in snow.