by Harry Nix
Alex started eating, wondering what this Alpha stuff was about. He was soon finished and drinking more orange juice.
“So I’m a werewolf for nearly twenty-five years but I don’t know it. You come to Baxter and find this weredog tracking me. Then it howls down an alleyway, you kill it after it almost kills me and then help me shift into a werewolf? I go wild with a little w and now it’s three days later and I wake up here?”
“That’s about all of it. The weredog howled because I set up a trap for it. Do you remember it was limping? They’re normally good at finding their prey but this one kept circling around all over the place. I think maybe you had a spell on you perhaps? Maybe your magic was protecting you?”
Alex felt the words wash over him. Werewolf, magic, weredog, mage, prey, wild. It should be unsettling. I should be losing my shit he thought.
“Why would someone want to kill me? Do people just decide to kill random werewolves who don’t even know what they are?”
“That’s another thing we’re gonna find out. I have this friend Juno, she’s a witch, and she’ll-”
Both of them jumped up from the table as a long warbling howl echoed from somewhere in the distance.
“Dammit, another weredog,” Nia said. She was holding the fork like it was a weapon. Seeing how she handled the knives, Alex had no doubt she could kill with it.
A chorus of howls answered.
“That’s three... no, four more. Who sends five weredogs out to kill a single werewolf? We’re going to have to shift to hybrid to take them on. Like this, do the same,” Nia said.
Blink of the eye and she was the copper wolf girl again. Alex hadn’t realized it before but she grew a little in size when she did this. Last time she’d been naked of course so maybe he hadn’t noticed. April’s clothes complained, the stitches tearing, before Nia sliced them off with a sharp claw.
Alex felt the pull of her shift. It was like tensing a muscle that had never been tensed before or whistling a song heard only once.
He shifted... and the world shifted with him.
Fingers stretched and grew sharp claws while black hair sprouted from his body. Muscle layered him like armor and he felt is face changing shape, a muzzle forming. The colors in the room grew more brilliant and a thousand sounds crept up. He could hear Nia heartbeat, a thumping in her chest, the rush of her blood in her veins like a distant waterfall. The scent of the kitchen intensified – now bacon, peppers, egg, olive oil and other foods. Someone had spilt milk near the fridge and missed a spot underneath, where it had soured before drying.
As Alex’s awareness expanded he heard the weredogs howling and running towards them. They were close now, coming through the forest and would be upon them in moments.
“You look good,” Nia remarked and ran her claws lightly down his arm.
Alex looked down and saw he’d forgotten to take off the unicorn toga. It had been loose before but now fit perfectly, like it had been made for him. He noticed he was taller now, easily seven feet at least and still growing.
He looked at Nia, grinning, feeling sharp teeth in his jaws. “You look good enough to eat,” he said, taking in her wolf girl form. Her copper red was vivid and there seemed to be an ultraviolet tinge to it that shimmered as she moved.
Nia gripped his arm, her expression turning serious.
“Don’t mess around with these weredogs. Disable, dismantle. Try to tear into quarters at the very least. With this many there is sure to be a mage around somewhere. If you see him, kill him as fast as you can.”
“Anything else?” Alex asked, flexing his claws. He felt amazing, like he could run for miles.
“When we’re done, I’ll have a good reward for you,” Nia said with a wicked grin.
Alex felt the same surge of lust as before but this time it was far stronger. Some small part of him was surprised when he pulled his head back and howled at the ceiling, the roar of it shaking the windows.
Nia joined him, her howl resonating with his. It felt like the shift, pulling at his body, the blood wanting to follow blood.
Alex followed Nia out of the house and into the half wild front garden. He’d only seen a glimpse from upstairs. The yard was quite large with various fruit trees growing here and there. There were long garden beds filled with dark earth and freshly planted seedlings. While the rest of the yard was slowly returning to nature, someone had been caring for the vegetable boxes.
Although it was still early, the day was warm already. With his enhanced hearing Alex tracked bees going about their business and the sounds of small animals fleeing the oncoming weredogs who were doing nothing to hide their approach.
“Why did they howl? They should have crept up on us,” he said to Nia, still getting used to talking with a differently shaped mouth.
“They like to generate fear in their prey. Makes the meat taste different,” she replied.
Alex crouched, claws out and waited for the weredogs to emerge from the forest. Thirty seconds later they broke through the treeline simultaneously. Alex was expecting a weredog like the one in the alleyway. It had been big and looked like the unfortunate breeding result of a dog and a bulldozer but Nia had managed to kill it on her own.
These weredogs were twice as big, easily as tall as the white picket fence the separated the yard from the forest. Two were black, two brown and one was golden, its fur shining in the sun. All were solid blocks of muscle, like someone had taken a pitbull and said yeah, you know what – double that.
They smashed through the front fence like it wasn’t there. In a blur, Nia leaped, flying towards the weredogs with her claws outstretched. She was so fast she took Alex by surprise but it didn’t take him long to recover.
He focused on one of the black weredogs and sprung towards it.
For a moment Alex saw the tops of trees and blue sky as he rose up into the air, badly screwing up his trajectory. He shot over the tops of the weredogs and down into the forest, crashing face first into a solid oak tree before tumbling back to earth, feeling like he hit every branch on the way down.
With his head ringing he got to his feet and stumbled in the direction of the house. He could hear Nia fighting the weredogs, who surprisingly hadn’t given chase but appeared to have focused on her.
By the time he emerged from the trees, his head was clear. Nia had already killed one weredog, a black one, its headless body twitching in the long grass. Another was missing a front leg and hopping as it circled, trying to avoid her lunging claws.
Alex was about to jump when he saw a shimmer down the yard. It was like a patch of reality had wavered for just a moment.
“The mage,” he growled. This time he took it easy, aiming low and going for half the power.
He still shot across the yard like he’d been fired from a cannon. He hit an invisible man who smelled like rose petals, sickly sweet, tumbling head over heels before crashing into the solid log that formed the edge of one of the vegetable gardens. Alex was on his feet immediately, the spell on the mage breaking, revealing his terrified face.
“Har...p,” the mage gurgled, blood on his lips. Alex saw his chest was crushed, no doubt the result of being hit by a giant werewolf at high speed. His back appeared to be broken too, given he wasn’t moving his legs and was twisted at an odd angle. He was wearing a robe filled with many pockets.
“Kill him before he speaks!” Nia yelled out.
The mage raised a hand that was covered in rings and without hesitation Alex sliced it off at the wrist. The hand spun away towards the house, flying in through the open front door. A spray of blood shot out into the air. The mage lifted his other hand but this time Alex aimed for his throat, ripping it out and taking half his spine with it too. The mage was dead instantly.
Alex turned just in time for the golden weredog to crash into him, its teeth latching on to his arm and biting down.
The pain was enormous, that red roar again but this time instead of his bones snapping like dried twigs, they held firm.
Alex swung his arm, smashing the weredog down on the edge of the garden bed. The log gave way but there was also a crack of bones breaking under the force of the blow. The weredog held tight though so Alex smashed it again, hitting what was left of the mage. Sensing that the weredog wouldn’t let go until it was dead, Alex changed tactics, rolling on to his back and kicking upward with his powerful hind legs. He gutted the weredog, tearing its back half away entirely. It shuddered and died and only then did it release its bite. Alex shook his arm and what was left of it fell to the ground.
What had Nia said? Disable and dismantle? He looked down at the dead weredog and was surprised to find it was blinking and struggling to move on two broken front legs. It had died but come back to life. It was clearly moving in the direction of its bottom half. Would it magically reform?
There was no time to finish it off so Alex picked up its top half and tossed it towards the forest. It hit a tree and landed on the ground.
“Alex!” Nia screamed.
He turned to see the three remaining weredogs had all managed to latch on to her. Two were on one arm and the other on her leg, biting into her thigh.
Red and black rage arose in his vision, a fury that these monsters would attack his mate and then he was gone.
5
“It’s okay, they’re dead now. They’re definitely dead,” Nia said.
The rage receded like the tide and Alex found himself kneeling over a gory ruin of shredded meat and bone. He was wet to the elbows with blood and could taste it in his mouth.
“What?” he said and stood up, looking around.
They were still in the front garden but now it looked like someone had thrown the weredogs in a woodchipper and sprayed their remains everywhere. A loop of purple intestine hung from a fence picket, dripping on to the grass. Only the mage was still somewhat intact, twisted and broken against the side of a garden bed.
He turned to Nia and saw she was wounded. The deep bite marks on her arms and legs were sealed up with congealed blood and as he watched, a trickle cut off as the flesh slowly knitted together.
“You went a little wild. I’m going to help you with that because you go too far or too many times you might not come back. Let’s go check out the mage,” she said, tugging on his arm.
Alex followed her, still somewhat coming to his senses. He’d seen the weredogs hurting Nia and then... red and black rage. A howling void. It wasn’t like the black hole of lost memory. Instead it was a dangerous animal in a rage screaming to the skies. He looked down at his body. Somehow the unicorn toga had survived, although now it was saturated in blood.
“Should we shift back?” he asked as he followed her.
“Nah, you’ll heal faster like this. We’ll use the outside showers too before we go in,” she replied.
They reached the mage who was staring blankly up at them, his throat a red ruin. He looked about the same age as himself, Alex realized. Brown hair, brown eyes, he wouldn’t have given him a second glance if he passed him on the street. The scent of blood was thick but the sickly sweet roses almost overpowered it.
Nia wasted no time in stripping the three rings off his hand and then searched the body. She passed a carved stick to Alex that was inlaid with a swirling gold pattern.
“Wand, see if you feel anything,” she said.
Alex took the wand and immediately felt the magic within it. It was like electricity, or lightning. All it would take is a flick and will to fire it. He turned to the wrecked front fence and saw the metal letterbox was still hanging on to an askew post.
Flick and will.
A bolt of lightning shot out from the want and hit the letterbox, blasting it off the post. It broke into pieces as it shot up into the air, the small pieces of metal then raining down on the grass.
“Cool, bolt. Let’s not do that again though. We already have way too much to explain to April about the destruction here,” Nia said.
She pulled the robe off the mage and Alex saw that he’d broken his spine. Standing there covered in blood and surrounded by carnage he supposed that normally he’d feel bad about killing a man.
But this was very far from normal. This mage had sent weredogs and they’d hurt Nia. Just thinking it raised the hackles on the back of his neck and he growled to himself.
Nia touched him on the leg. “It’s okay Alex. I’m okay. You saved me. I’m safe,” she said, looking up at him with her beautiful green eyes.
Her touch centered him and calmed the fury that threatened to rise again. It didn’t go away though.
“I want to know who this mage is. Did someone send him? How did they find us so fast?” he asked.
Nia expertly began slicing open every pocket in the robe, reducing it to rags as she searched.
“My bet is they have some of your or my blood. Probably collected from the alleyway, which is how they got on to us so fast. We definitely need to see Juno now, get her to do a cleanse.”
Nia found another ring and a silver bracelet that she dropped the moment she touched it. Alex heard the same sizzling sound as the bacon hitting the pan.
“Silver coated. We either leave it here for April or we bundle it up somehow,” Nia said, poking at the bracelet with a stick.
“So the myths about werewolves are true? Silver hurts us? Does the full moon change us too?”
Nia stood up and took the wand from him.
“Silver burns badly and instantly. The full moon is just fun to howl at. There are other things, like the thrall, or mating madness as it’s also known but we need to get moving so I don’t have time to explain. I don’t know who this mage is or what enclave sent him but they already know their weredogs are dead. More will be on the way soon. We need to get to Juno to do a cleanse and magically destroy any blood or bodily fluids of ours they have in their possession. Follow me.”
Alex digested this as he followed Nia around the side of the house, leaving the bloody destruction behind them. They found the outside showers and soon he was washing the gore off him under the hot water after he stripped off the unicorn toga. He and Nia took turns soaping each other, the wolf girl standing on her tip toes to reach the back of his head. Nia also took the opportunity to wash the rings and wand clean. She’d left the silver bracelet by the dead mage. Alex noticed his wounds looked days old now, as his body rapidly healed them.
There was an outdoor cupboard filled with towels they used to dry themselves. Alex had to wonder why this outdoor shower existed in the first place – did they get a lot of muddy or bloody werewolves coming by? He sensed though by Nia’s haste that this was not the time for questions.
Once they were clean they went back inside, briefly passing through the front yard again. It was a stinking mess but Nia assured him someone would be along to clean it and they could leave it be.
Inside they found the mages other hand. This one had four rings on it. Three they took but one was silver so they left it on him. Alex experimentally touched a finger to it and then pulled back as the silver burned him, as though he’d touched a hot frying pan.
How did such a thing work? Before he’d shifted he’d touched plenty of silver? Why now the extreme reaction?
Nia threw the hand out into the yard and then turned to Alex.
“We’re going to have to do a quick search for any clothes for both of us. This place is distant – about a hundred miles from Baxter and at least forty from the nearest main roads. If we can’t find anything, we’ll detour to steal something. But we need to be gone in the next five minutes, okay?”
“So no reward after the battle then?” Alex said with a grin.
Nia kissed him, which was still an odd feeling being they were both in their hybrid werewolf forms.
“Once we get to Juno and cleanse then we’re going to get to know each other, you know?”
She headed upstairs while Alex searched the rooms downstairs. All he found were girls clothes and none of it would fit him, not even in his human form. He was pondering fashioning another toga
from a unicorn sheet when Nia reappeared, holding a bundle made from a unicorn sheet.
“Nothing for you so we’ll find something on the way. We gotta run now. We’ll take turns carrying the magic stuff and clothes I found for me,” she said.
Out the front, past the red ruin and then around to the back of the house. Alex saw more signs that someone had been working in the garden. April’s house seemed a mystery. Where were all the people? The rooms had clothes in them and it was clearly set up to house a large number but it felt abandoned and empty. Some of the rooms he’d explored clearly hadn’t been opened in years.
“Now follow me,” Nia said. She put the bundle on the ground and then shifted, changing into the beautiful copper wolf he’d seen before.
Alex felt the pull of it and let himself follow.
The shift seemed faster than human to werewolf. This time he shrank down, although not by much, his hands turning into paws and his body growing pitch black fur. Within a moment he was a wolf – albeit a large one, far bigger than a standard wolf.
“Come with me,” Nia said. It was clearly difficult for her to speak in this form. The lack of lips to form shapes affected her speech. Alex nodded in return as she picked up the bundle and set off.
As they ran, questions teemed through his mind. The big one was: how had he been a werewolf for twenty-five years and not known it?
Damn, I missed my birthday!
In the rush of everything, Alex realized that Nia had told him it had been three days since he’d transformed. That meant he’d missed his twenty-fifth birthday entirely. He’d even arranged drinks with Puzo and Howey and some others at a local bar, The Elephant. Given he hadn’t gone to work, hadn’t answered phone calls and now was missing for days, were the police out looking for him?
Alex shook his head as he ran, wondering what he’d tell Puzo and Howey. Oh, yeah, by the way, I’m a werewolf and some crazed mages are after me. Yup, had to kill a bunch of weredogs and I have this hot werewolf mate now.
At that thought, Alex let his mind wander about Nia and what exactly she was to him. That calm certainty was sitting there, implacable. She was his. He was hers. Until death. There was no question to it.