by Holly Hook
I swallow. Yes.
The alpha pulls his lips back and circles me. It communicates everything I need to know. Losing could mean death.
Cayden, stand back. He can't protect me. I can't count on the protective spirits to shield him from the curse, though they'll help.
Cayden obeys and stands back, but I don't miss the worry and terror in his hazel eyes. I don't want to fight a fellow Noble Wolf. But I fought Cayden already and I can do this again.
The brown wolf growls as we circle. He's twice my size. I might be a good fighter, but physics are still a problem. Our circle tightens as we lock gazes. The brown wolf's matching eyes are almost Savage, but full of protection. This is an alpha who cares about his pack. And I'm going to bring them into danger if I enlist them to fight Romulus.
He leaps as the thoughts swirl.
I backpedal into dirt and pine needles. He snaps, missing my throat by an inch.
Swiping with a paw, I strike him across the muzzle, drawing blood. The brown Wolf eyes me with shock. He'd expected a quick fight. Droplets fly and the air smells of iron. The scent draws a growl from me as the alpha's pupils dilate and lock on me.
Cayden leaps forward and growls.
No, I think.
Darkness dances at the periphery of my vision. The rival alpha snaps at me again, leaping in front of Cayden and taking advantage of the distraction. Cayden leaps, unable to stop himself.
He lands on the alpha's back as his pack mates growl warnings. The large Wolf bucks Cayden off. A mixture of light and dark battle at the edges of the world. Cayden yelps, and not just from the impact. From under the brown Wolf's legs, I see him rolling and sticking out his tongue in pain.
We shouldn't have gone all the way. We strengthened our bond too much.
The alpha rams me, head down. He strikes my ribs. One cracks from the impact and I roll back. The wave of despair roars toward me, signaling Cayden's approaching death, before it flattens back into the sea. The Coven's light spirits are doing their job.
I have to focus on mine.
I stick out a leg, stopping myself from rolling into the white wolf, who stares down at me with calculating brown eyes. That leaves me on my stomach. He closes in, teeth bared, ready to tear out my heart. And Cayden lies to my left, eyes closed, recovering from the attack of pain.
Everly growls a warning, but being the traditional one, doesn't leap. Aunt May calls my name in my head. Remo snarls. A shadow falls over me. The alpha opens his mouth, descending to my throat—
I reach out and stick a paw into his mouth. Crushing teeth explode pain through my foreleg. Bones crunch. Blood leaks from a wound that burns like fire. Then cold numbness follows. He's cut nerves. I flail my foreleg, twisting my body to stand, but the brown Wolf maintains his grasp. He bites down harder, and though I don't feel it, the sound of teeth scraping bone makes the world spin. It's a mixture of light and darkness. Of warring good and evil spirits. The trees stretch and twist.
A splitting, cracking sound fills the air, blending with growling and whimpers of pain.
And a long, dark shape falls toward the rival alpha, striking him on the back. He releases my destroyed foreleg, which screams as the nerves try growing back. I'm healing, but when I try putting weight on it, a thunderclap of agony follows.
The branch rolls off the rival alpha's back as he twists, licking the impact point. Hackles rise in distress. The huge branch rolls and stops inches from Aunt May. She eyes me and nods to the alpha. Now is my chance.
The Russells' protective spirits are working for me.
I leap onto the brown Wolf, biting his ear and pulling off a flap of flesh. I spit to the ground as blood flows down the side of his face. He growls and yelps in rage, twisting and trying to buck me off, but I remain on his back, holding on, wearing him out. I sense his racing pulse. Metallic adrenaline fills the air. The brown Wolf pants from the effort, and I dig claws into skin and hang on. Biding my time will work. It has to.
A ring of Wolves stand around us, watching and waiting. Paws shift. Eyes stay locked on us. Tension rises. I glimpse Cayden rising and backing away to join the others. He drags himself, forces himself back. The black Wolf trembles with the effort. My mate won't hold back much longer. He's still too dedicated. Too in love.
I sink my teeth into the rival alpha's eye.
He growls in agony. I maintain my grip on his face, straining my jaw, holding him between my teeth. More blood flows. The taste of iron fills my mouth. He bucks again, but I keep my claws in his flesh, digging, urging him to submit. The alpha emits another growl, and incredulous one, like he can't believe that a Wolf half his size has bested him.
If he doesn't believe I'm a Noble Royal, he will now.
And at last, after an eternity of hanging on, the rival alpha kneels. He smashes his jaw to the ground in a gesture that's unmistakable.
He's submitting.
I've won.
And as I rise, leaving him to lie on the ground with lowering hackles and a curling tail, the other Wolves—all fourteen of them—step forward and lower their heads, obeying an ancient tradition. A sense of power sweeps over me, even stronger than the one I felt when I bested Cayden in our fight.
Though I tremble from fatigue, I know I'd smile if I could. Our pack has just gotten a lot bigger. And we're closer than ever to defeating Romulus once and for all.
Chapter Three
Cayden gives me a victory nuzzle as the brown wolf stands. His tail remains lowered and his fur smooth. He refuses to look at me as he joins the other Wolves.
Thanks, I tell Cayden.
And then I survey the other Wolves. We all stand in a ring, looking at one another. This is my first time meeting them all, and now I’m leading them. It doesn’t seem fair that I’ve disrupted everything. I might have brought danger to their doorstep. We’re all in the same pack now. Romulus has more targets.
But we also have more numbers. And if we don’t have them, all the Nobles are in danger. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.
I sense I’m to step forward. Take us to your town, I say. We need to talk.
The brown Wolf snorts, but obeys. Head slumped, he turns away from the ring and enters the forest. One by one, the Wolves peel away from the ring and follow. No one protests. This is a pack bound by Wolf tradition. What the alpha says, goes. What if I’ve inherited a whole pack of Everlys?
Cayden and I walk beside each other, in the back. Aunt May comes up beside me and faces me with proud blue eyes.
The tree branch, Cayden thinks.
We can thank the Russells for that.
Cayden snaps his gaze to me. But what if our new pack members question it?
What do you mean?
Everly sends me a warning look. Great. Sure, she’s warmed up in the past month, but with business, she’s still a lump of ice. You can‘t cheat during challenges.
I hold back my flinch. I didn’t cheat.
She keeps me in her stare. Without the branch, the fight could have gone differently. If they think you did, they might attack you.
Ugh. Comfort isn't her strong suit—the truth is, even if it's brutal. No one's questioned it.
The challenged might. Once he gets his thoughts together. Look.
I follow Everly's gaze. The brown wolf still walks in the lead—where I should be right now—weaving through trees and jumping over fallen branches. His ear's healing quickly, but he keeps staring at the ground like he's lost in thought. I don't like the way his shoulder blades pop out of his skin, pushed by strained muscle. And I don't like the sound of his heavy, angry breathing. I get sulking after losing. Cayden did it. But this is something different. I'll have to rule with authority, at least for now.
We walk in silence for a few miles, catching another wildlife trail. Cayden and I cut in front of the brown Wolf, taking the lead as we should. A trail emerges from the woods. It carries a strong Noble scent and leads us back to where the main meeting area must be. This place would intimidate any Savage who dared breach it
. These Wolves have done a good job of protecting the people in town. And as we walk, town gets louder and smells more strongly. The pancakes must come from a restaurant, complete with sausage and other breakfast foods. My stomach rumbles.
I trot forward. We need a place to change back and dress.
With a snort, the defeated alpha runs in front of me, hackles raised, and cuts down another, wider trail with quad tracks. There's a huge two-story cabin far down the trail, barely hidden by the trees. The brown Wolf steps onto the porch. No other houses stand near it. Just woods. Whoever built this place wanted seclusion.
A cloud moves over the sun as we reach the cabin. It sports three balconies, a large porch, and huge glass windows. All the Wolves stop behind me, leaving me to survey it. It carries a strong piney scent laced with dry grass—the scent of the brown Wolf. This is his home, and the scents of the other Wolves surround it as well. We're at this pack's meeting hub.
Well, it's also ours now. I have to get used to that thought.
The brown Wolf faces the door, and I watch as he shifts back to human form. The painful concert of snapping and popping follows the shape change. At least it's quick. Bones snap and rearrange as fur retracts into dark skin. A man in his mid-twenties stands facing the door, back to us. The former alpha must spend lots of time hitting the gym, because muscles ripple as he stretches, popping strained joints. Then he grabs a blue robe he's thrown over the railing of his house and puts it on, tying it around his waist.
I feel inadequate, Cayden thinks, facing the ground.
Don't, I tell him, basking in the warm, tingly connection I feel with him. When we're close, I feel safe, as I'm sure he does, too. Once Cayden and I took things to the next level, it intensified.
The man turns, now robed, and lifts a heavy flowerpot with ease. He almost looks royal, with strong cheekbones, a perfect nose, and neat dreadlocks. But hardness fills his eyes. He picks up a key from where the flowerpot rested and unlocks the double doors to the front of his lavish house. "You can all come in," he says, not facing me. "Quick. Before anyone sees us."
This pack has done well for themselves. How did no one know they lived so close to our territory? Where they here when my parents fell to the Savages? My grandparents, too?
There's a lot I don't know.
Cayden nuzzles up beside me. I know he feels my distress and anger. The robed man holds the double doors open while we all file inside. The house opens up. Sun pours through skylights and balconies hang overhead. I step into a living room with a grand piano against one wall. A storm of smells reaches me. Fresh carpet. Polish. A well-stocked kitchen and exotic spices. Then synthetic fibers. That smell emerges from a closed closet door on the other side of the room. The defeated alpha keeps a stockpile of clothes for his pack.
My pack. I won and felt the power sweep over me.
"We're all safe in here," the man explains with a curt nod. His lip twitches. The air gets thick and hard to breathe. "That big closet is for changing back."
The other Wolves all sit, except for Cayden, Everly, Remo, and Aunt May. I'm to go first. I enter the closet by pushing the door open and walk out of sight. It's huge, almost as big as a bedroom, and full of hanging clothes of all types. Once I nudge the door shut, I reach for the human within. The pain sweeps over me in waves of lava and armies of porcupines. Skin stretches. Bones shift. I'm now eye level with hanging coats, folded jeans and boxes of shoes. While I can still smell everything, the world is slightly dulled now as if my human form puts a veil over it. I eye large mens' overalls and pink coats for junior high girls. Some have tags. Nothing has holes. How much money does the defeated alpha have?
Why is a pack this big and well-off neighbors with struggling Breck, and have never made themselves known?
I'm going to find out.
I choose a tank top that fits me perfectly—they have every size here—and a pair of tight jeans I know Cayden will love. Once dressed, I hold open the door and smile at the assembled Wolves in the living room. The sun's out again, shining on fur and bringing every natural color. "Next?"
* * * * *
The defeated alpha sits at the piano and strums keys, masking the sounds of shifting in the other room. He's not a bad player. Cayden can sing, but this guy can play.
Since only Cayden and I have changed back so far and dressed, I nod to him. We need to size up this guy. Can he challenge me for alpha back?
"Hey. What's your name?" Cayden asks, because I'm not breaking the ice anytime soon.
"Lawrence." He strums the keys again, creating a beautiful, but angry rhythm. Music fills the room and echoes off the walls. I'm getting the idea the piano is his method of calming down.
"Great to meet you. You fought well," I say. A sniff and a metallic scent tells me that in one of the back rooms, Lawrence has his own gym. "I can tell you really care about this pack."
His lip quivers as he misses a key. The song trips on itself before he picks up the pace again. Someone else steps out of the closet, dressed and in human form, while another Wolf walks inside and nudges the door shut.
"In a manner of speaking," Lawrence says.
"Yeah, man. Looks like you guys do great," Cayden says.
"We were doing great," Lawrence mutters.
I bite my lip. "So, you prefer to stay away from other packs?" I won't blow up at him, but I need the truth. We're less than twenty miles from Breckenridge, and this huge pack might have made the difference between life and death for my parents. My pulse roars in my ears. "How long have you been in this town?"
Lawrence hits another couple of keys, masking the noise of someone shifting in the clothing room. A gulf grows between us. The living room has dwindled to five Wolves. The others have returned to human form, dressed, and exited the room one by one. People open cabinet doors in the kitchen and someone starts a hissing coffee machine.
"We're in Colling," Lawrence says. "Colling is your territory now."
Colling. A tiny dot on the map less than twenty miles north of Breckenridge. A nothing town, surrounded by woods. I've never thought about it before.
I look to Cayden. He nods. We just won ourselves a one stoplight town. I hope he's right we still have our territory around Breck so long as no one takes it from us, that defeating another alpha doesn't force us to give up or original home. Watching over two territories doesn't happen often. Very few alphas have managed the feat for long.
But his smile says I might be the first. I love him. He makes me believe I won't screw everything up.
An old woman, dark like Lawrence, steps out of the closet, buttoning her blouse. She smiles and waves to me. She's warm and might be related to Lawrence because she has those same strong cheekbones.
"Hi!" I say, injecting warmth into my smile. I need an ally.
"This is Brie, and I'm Cayden," Cayden says.
The woman strides over with a slight limp. She was the white wolf. Her hair in human form is the same color. I imagine she's got to be in her late seventies or eighties.
"I'm Abigail," she says, giving me a firm handshake. "This is my grandson, Lawrence. Welcome to Colling." As she speaks, she studies me, no doubt wondering why a small, blond girl defeated her strong grandson. With her gaze, she indicates I'm to follow her onto the porch.
This pack might not know about the Royals next door, but this woman tells me that's doubtful.
Cayden and I follow her while Lawrence goes back to playing. Once the three of us stand on the porch, Abigail wastes no time.
"Don't let my grandson give you a hard time. He thought the Noble Royals were all dead. And before you showed up, so did I."
"Huh...what?" I ask.
Abigail smiles. "How else could a girl your size have taken down such a powerful Wolf? Lawrence and I come from an old line of Nobles, almost as old as yours. I have to admit that's gone to my grandson's head. He was the top dog since he challenged me for alpha seven years ago and won. And he deserved it, too."
My pulse calms. In my anger,
I forgot that the Royals had ceased to exist, through the use of our silver pendants, for several years in Breck. The Russells and Aunt May alike hid our existence from everyone. I shouldn't blame other Nobles for that.
"You used to be alpha?" Cayden asks.
Abigail's taller than me, but even seven years ago, she would have been old. How strong is she? "Twice. Before Lawrence's parents died about fourteen years ago, and after he challenged me for my position. There aren't many female alphas out there." She winks at me. We have something in common. "At least my son and Lawrence's mother were both lawyers. They left us the means to keep our territory."
But at the same time, I shudder. Lawrence can try to become alpha again, then.
"You know we're from Breckenridge?" I ask.
"Where else would you have come from?" Abigail's eyes betray tears of relief. "Should have known. The whole Remus line has bright blue eyes like you. Or had. My pack used to travel the world with theirs, protecting them. We called ourselves the Guardian Wolves, because we came from the oldest lines of Nobles. The first Wolves Remus turned, in fact."
"Is that how Lawrence's parents died? Trying to keep the Savages from reaching my town?" I ask, slipping my hand into Cayden's.
Abigail swallows. "Yes. I'm sorry. Our pack fought hard." Her chin quivers as she speaks. Abigail might be strong, but she struggles to hold back emotion.
She turns away as if she's let me down. And I can't help it.
I hug her, squeezing out all the anger I felt towards this pack.
"Brie!" Abigail says, stiffening.
"I had to do that," I say. "I can tell you give a crap. That Lawrence gives a crap, too. He wants to protect the pack and then I took that away from him." No wonder he's angry.
But instead of disagreeing with me, Cayden nods.
"But he also needs to understand the natural Wolf order," Abigail says. "You won, regardless of what he will say."
I drop my shoulders in relief. Someone's on my side. Another former alpha, in fact. "If he'll listen," I say, "then tell him I thank his parents for their service." My words feel hollow.