by Sam Hall
“Pretty sure my butthole doesn’t need cleaning, Slade,” I said, stepping free of the hands and under the water to rinse.
“Oh, I dunno. Maybe later we can—”
“Not yet, Slade,” Brandon said, working shampoo into his hair.
“No one asked you, Doc.”
“You need to respect Jules’ limits,” Aaron said.
“Maybe with the monster dick you’re packing. Being more... streamlined, I am less likely to perform a colonoscopy on the downstroke,” Slade retorted.
“And we’re back to arguing about butt sex,” I said, smoothing the water from my face. “The circle of life.”
“Let’s save the jockeying for various sexual acts until after the meeting,” Finn said, his face grim. “We don’t get invited to these things often, and we need to make our position known. Leaving my dads, all of the men that have gone through the gate in the paws of the Volken is not acceptable.”
I took his hand, squeezing it, but the smile he gave me was strained.
Jack, Hawk, and Sylvan were waiting for us outside once we got dressed, hair slicked back and damp with fresh clothes on. Jack buried his head in the weight of Hawk’s hair when we approached, nuzzling his neck. He blinked, looking dazed and then stunned when Hawk stepped free and over to me.
“You OK?”
Was I? What the hell had happened when we were together? Why Brandon and Hawk? What the hell was that white wolf thing? I saw the slight glow in his chest in the slender gap between the buttons of his flannel shirt.
“I don’t know,” I ended up saying.
“Yeah, me too.”
“The car is arriving to take us all to the council building,” Ophelia said, arriving at the end of the hall. “Come along. We mustn’t be late.”
Were we? When we arrived, striding into the circular room as a group, the place was already packed with people. There were plenty of women in the seats, but the circular space in the centre was also filled with rows of men standing around. There was a lot of higher-pitched mumbling as we walked into the room that just got more excitable when people saw Ophelia. “Stay here,” she said. I wasn’t sure if it was to me or Kelly as we went to take a place in the crowd. “Ah, Sylvan, you look much improved.”
The black wolf was now clad in a business shirt and slacks, looking oddly debonair. I compared it mentally to the leather armour I’d seen the Volken wearing in the vision, but he seemed completely unfazed by the change.
“I’ll take a seat, shall I?” he said.
“No, no,” Nancy said, having just swept in. “You’re the guest of honour.”
He was something alright. People started to talk in earnest at the sight of him, men stiffening and stepping forward, eyes narrowing. Then, the big swinging doors slammed open, and soldiers strode in, taking up position around the central dais. They weren’t toting guns, but you got the feeling it wouldn’t take much for them to retrieve the firearms strapped to their sides. Almost as if timed, the rest of the matriarchs came next. Some wore trailing dresses like Nancy, others wore nice pantsuits and twinsets. It didn’t seem to matter. Each and every one of them exuded something I was yet to see in anyone else here, even the soldiers: pure unadulterated power.
“If I could have some quiet, please.”
Ophelia didn’t raise her voice, yet silence settled quickly over the room. She surveyed the inhabitants, supremely confident that she had their attention.
“Sanctuary is a small town. I know some of you are aware of the leadership change. My daughter, Kelly, has decided to step down in light of the most recent information, of which I will go into more detail presently. Sanctuary is about to enter a difficult time. All of you know of the incursion by Sylvan, the black wolf.” She held up her hand when the mumbling began again in earnest. “It has come to light that Sylvan did so to bring us useful information from the Volken, the black wolves. An attack on the gate, on Sanctuary, has been planned.” Even Ophelia couldn’t keep the crowd silent at that, but she sailed on. “The Volken are producing fewer and fewer sons. They blame our existence for this and think that by exterminating us, they can restore their previously exclusive patriarchal society.”
Well, that was it. The cat was completely out of the bag, and everyone was going to stand around talking anxiously about it, apparently. Finn shook his head. I took a step closer to him. There was something harder, more brittle about him, his usual easy-going nature taking a backseat. He looked down for a second when I took his hand, but then his eyes returned and remained trained on the proceedings.
He’s waiting, I realised, for some kind of mention of his dads.
Ophelia spelled it all out—what martial law meant, the closing of the gate, the way Kelly would maintain the business side of Sanctuary Metals with the stockpile of gold they’d kept for just this reason and keep the community ticking along. Ophelia, with the support of the matriarchs ringed behind her, created a calm and compelling response to the incoming threat.
By the time they opened the floor to questions, I knew Finn’s heart had to be breaking. I zoned out Ophelia’s cut-glass voice and Sylvan’s smooth one as they took questions. I watched Aaron edge forward when the soldiers began to try and get details about the potential attack, obviously wanting to be with them. I heard the rasp of Finn’s breath as it came, long and slow and rattling. I felt the fine shake of his arm when I placed my hand on it. There it was, down our bond, the anger, frustration, the fight to hold himself still. The grind of his jaw, the clench of his fingers. Finn held himself back by a thread.
Then, Jack piped up.
“So why are the...Volkmen?”
“Volken,” Ophelia corrected.
“Volken. Why are they attacking? They think we’ve stolen their male mojo, but why?”
Silence reigned within the room.
They’re not going to say it, I thought as I watched the matriarchs’ eyes dart around. Ophelia remained still and quiet, staring back at her grandson.
“Well,” one of the matriarchs said, stepping forward as the pause in conversation grew longer and longer.
“Because they’ve used the men we’ve exiled in a breeding program and proven they can have many sons, if fathered by our men.” Finn bit the words out, the implication of just who he meant clear in such a small community. I didn’t know the details of why Finn’s dads were banished, but they did. “We gave them the incentive to attack.”
Well, that was it. The thin veneer of calm the alpha and the matriarchs had been able to maintain was well and truly lost.
“They want men? Why not send some? We have so many, anyway.”
“We never should have sent them through the gate! We’ve always exiled to the human world!”
“We need to shut the gate now! What if they are already here?”
“What about the kids? How are we protecting the kids?”
“Enough!”
The lash of Ophelia’s voice was absolute and unquestionable. You could no more speak against it than walk through a wall. I’d heard the power in Kelly’s voice, but that was nothing by comparison. Everyone was pinned to the spot, unable to move a muscle. Except Finn.
“You sent my dads through the fucking portal to be fucked to death by those monsters, and for what?” He bit off the words, having to force them through his teeth to be heard. “Because Max refused to sign off on Kelly’s ascension? How are we getting them back before we close the portal?”
Gasps went up around the room. Obviously, Finn should not be able to do any of what he was doing. He should be frozen, wide-eyed, like all the other men.
“There was more to it, and you know it!” Kelly snapped back.
“This meeting has been a courtesy, not a necessity.” I could feel the growl in Ophelia’s body all the way down to my toes. “Sanctuary is under martial law, my law. Until such time as peace is guaranteed, I make the decisions here.” Her eyes scoured the gathering of people. “As I said, the miners will be recalled, the equipment that can b
e removed will be brought back, and the portal closed. We will be entering into a new era for Sanctuary, but a necessary one. We will not be sending our men through as some kind of act of appeasement. Apart from the way they are guaranteed to be treated, we do not do that to citizens of our town. But the men who were exiled... They made their choice, between adhering to the principles under which Sanctuary is run, or breaking off on their own. They chose to break off. I’ll not risk the men we do have,” she nodded to the soldiers, standing in a stiff group, “to try and save those who rejected us.”
As soon as the grip Ophelia held on us all was relinquished, Finn spun on his heel and marched from the building, the swinging doors slamming in his wake.
“You’ll need to find a way to manage him. I thought getting him a mate was supposed to help with that?” one of the matriarchs said to Ophelia as an aside. Her eyes flicked to me. “You, you’re his mate, yes? You need to keep him in line if you want to keep him by your side.”
I blinked, then shook my head, the desperate state of the men from the vision playing across my mind. It wasn’t just their pitiful state and the diabolical way they were used, it was the sheer hopelessness of it all. They faced each day knowing no one was coming, that help wasn’t on the way.
“If that’s what it takes to stay here,” I said, “you better boot me through the gate before you close it.”
I took off after Finn, feeling instantly better the farther I got from the enclave and their plans. Fucking hell, I’d thought I’d landed in some kind of women-centric paradise, but it appeared—like every other bloody society—people in power worked hard to maintain that power, even if it meant keeping others down.
I heard footsteps behind me, turning once I was out under the afternoon sun and expecting to see the guys there. Instead, Sylvan grinned, noting my change of expression with frank amusement. “Frustrated with the short-sightedness of your ruling elite?” he said.
“Appalled by what your people are doing to our men.”
His smile faltered at that. He blinked and then dropped his eyes to the ground, his jaw flexing. “Me too. An unfortunate side effect of being a seer is you don’t get to choose what you see of other people’s minds or lives. Instead, I was forced to endure a visceral account of the men’s experiences during captivity since the moment I came into my powers. I drank, fucked, took as many drugs as I could find, but it never dulled. Still doesn’t.” He shook his head. “Well, you want to find that man of yours? I can take you to him.”
“Finn? How?”
“I’m a seer, Julie. It’s what I do.”
We found Finn by the fence of the gate complex, sitting down on the ground, his back against the mesh. “They’ve already changed my access,” he said, flicking a swipe card. He shook his head and then looked up. “How’d you find me?”
“Sylvan.”
“So you’re the seer, huh? Can you ‘see’ a way for me to get beyond the gate?”
Sylvan smiled, his teeth stark against his tanned skin.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
22
Which is how we ended up back at Finn’s place.
“Sorry, it's a bit of a mess. Haven’t really been here much to give it a clean,” he said as we walked in the door. He busied himself opening windows and curtains, then getting everyone drinks.
“Finn...” I said, moving towards him.
“It’s OK. I’ll be OK.”
The fact he had to say that, that his eyes remained on the drinks he was carrying and didn’t meet mine, all said otherwise. When he had distributed the waters and was seated at the table as we were, he looked up, the same friendly, open expression I’d thought was an integral part of him on his face.
“So, Sylvan was it?” The other man nodded from where he slouched in his chair, watching us with a smirk. “How can you get me past the gate before they close it?”
“Us,” I said. I watched Finn grab my hand and squeeze, but he didn’t reply to what I’d said.
“You don’t actually need me. You have everything you need within you.”
“Is this one of those Gandalf moments, where you’re all obscure, and we have to find our own way towards the goal and discover we’re more powerful than we think? Because I’d prefer some more explicit instruction,” I said.
“Jules...” Finn said.
“I mean it quite literally. You connected with the Great Wolves during your little ‘moment’ before,” Sylvan said.
“Great Wolves?” Finn said. “You make it sound like there’s more than one.”
“Because there is.”
“So there’s more than just the goddess?” he replied, looking confused.
“Is she a goddess? That I don’t know. They are extremely powerful beings, that I do. I was always brought up to believe in the male, the Black Wolf you saw in your vision. I didn’t discover the female—your goddess—until I came into my power. The clerics that trained me, they tried to discredit her existence, resorting to demonising her as some kind of diabolical force. Both of our peoples have chosen one of them to follow, ignoring the other.”
“And that’s somehow important, right?” I said.
He shrugged. “I can tell you what I’ve seen, but that’s a guaranteed way for the end result to not take place.”
“So is that normal?” I said to Finn. “The light, what... happened with all of us.”
“The mated are often close-mouthed, but no one’s ever said anything about something like... that happening.” The professional mask slipped for a moment. Finn’s smile faltered, and he stared at me for a second, eyes wide. Finally, he shook his head. “What happened was... I don’t know if I’ve got words for it. The best I can come up with is magical.”
“Magical, that’s right,” Sylvan said, leaning forward. “Your pack is magical.”
“I think he meant more in ‘the earth moved for me’ kinda way than what you’re thinking,” I said. “What are you suggesting? Group orgy by the fence to unlock the gate? Be like a sexual Voltron, combine together using the strength of my vagina power?”
Sylvan shook his head. “You have the oddest turns of phrase. No, what I’m saying is you can tap into the power of the Great Wolf.”
“And risk the big black one coming to eat us all up?” I said with a frown. “Is this one of those ‘if you die in your dreams, you die in real life’ things?”
“If the Black Wolf catches you, you may as well be dead,” Sylvan said grimly.
“So, let me get this straight, rather than steal a key card that will get us—”
“Me. There’s no ‘us’ in this, Jules.”
“Us through the gate to rescue the dads, we have sex, tap into the mystical power of some overpowered mutt. Oh, and watch out for her Freddy Kruger counterpart, if he gets his paws on you, you're dead? That’s no fucking plan.”
“I dunno, the group sex part didn’t sound too bad.”
My head jerked up to see Slade had wandered in, Aaron, Hawk, and Brandon behind him. Just as Aaron was about to shut the door, Jack slunk in, looking super pleased to be there. The guys all took seats around the table—all except for Jack, who leaned against the couch, arms crossed.
“You go through that gate, you know I’m with you,” Slade said.
“And me,” Aaron said, “and my boys. No one’s happy about the way the matriarchs are dealing with this. A chance to do something covert and strike back at those pricks? We’re in.”
“I appreciate the support. Really, I do,” Finn said. “But it can’t go down like that. I need you guys here, looking after Jules. She’s our mate—”
“Not mine,” Jack mumbled.
“And I can’t do this without knowing she’s safe.” Finn’s eyes met mine, and he reached over and squeezed my hand. “I know you want to be a part of this, that you’re more than strong enough to be an asset, but I can’t take the risk. That you’ll get hurt, that you’ll be trapped in the other realm.”
“And it’s OK i
f you do?”
“Before we get too far into the ‘I don’t want you getting hurt. No, I don’t want you getting hurt’ back and forth, is anyone gonna address the fact we’ve basically been bonded?” Jack said. When I turned to look at him, Hawk got to his feet to put his arm around the man, but he brushed him away. “Like metaphysical shared sex, huge wolf dream, acid tripping bonded. No biting, no talking, no actually seeking permission, just bonded by some kind of mythical dog.” When he looked at me, his expression got the hackles of my Tirian up pretty quick. Those green eyes gave no quarter and showed no respect, just burned with a terrible intensity.
You have scared that one. He feels backed into a corner. Proceed carefully, she said to me.
“That was the most intense experience of my life,” Aaron said. “My parents, my aunties and uncles, they tried to tell me what bonding was, but fuck....” My head jerked around at the waver in the big man’s voice. “Nothing prepared me for that. But if you think I’m gonna sit here and listen to you bad mouth—”
“Aaron.” I meant a lot of things when I said his name. Acknowledgement, love, need, but also for him to shut the fuck up. I looked at Jack, his frown only deeper now. This was different for him, and Aaron couldn’t see it.
“You’re not taking him,” Jack said, stepping forward, his body thrumming with energy. I could feel it a little, that power some of the women in his family wielded in his voice. He used whatever alpha juice was within him to try and push his will on me. “Hawk’s not going through any fucking gate to rescue some fucking malcontents, because you—”
Jack’s voice began to rise, the power whipping within it, but Sylvan’s cut straight through it.
“All this academic arguing about what’s best to do.” Scorn dripped from his words. “Casting the Great Wolf’s gift back into her teeth. Splitting up and how to best do that. Mitigating risk. I wish for one bloody second I could be in any of your positions, that I wasn’t plagued with the visions and sensations of what goes on. They brutalise. The men, the women, the children that they bear, all of them. You have been given something sacred. You wonder if anyone else feels the same things when they bond? Allow me to assure you that they don’t. You are strongest together, stronger than any pack has a right to be. You were able to conjure up the Great Wolves themselves just by fucking. Imagine what you could do if you were able to put aside your petty bullshit for just one second.”