Wolf Moon (Alpha Wolf Academy Book 2)

by JJ King

  Pain exploded from the back of my head and I realized someone had grabbed a fistful of my hair. I grabbed for their hand and closed my fingers around a thick wrist, then pivoted to see Benson.

  I expected anger, I expected him to shake me or yell, or something. What I didn’t expect was for him to pull his head sharply back then smash it into my face!

  Blood gushed from my nose, spraying the snow in crimson. My head lolled back as bright lights exploded behind my eyes. I stared up at the starry sky and tried to capture a single thought as my legs disintegrated from beneath me.

  Pain burst through the back of my head again and I felt myself being hauled up then thrown like a piece of garbage to the ground. I shook my head, trying to clear the buzzing, and saw Benson descending on me with wild eyes and raised fists already covered in my blood.

  Chapter 20

  Something snapped into place in my brain and I rolled away from him, coming up on unsteady legs that widened in an automatic fighting stance. My fists rose to guard my face, which was already battered and didn’t need another hit.

  “You coward.” I spat blood out and wiped my sleeve across my face to clear most of the blood. My lips twisted in mockery. “Hair grabbing? What are you, a little girl?”

  My taunting worked. He lunged towards me, not taking the time to see the shift in me, the steel in my eyes now as I found my balance and rage. I twisted to the side, skimming by him, and shoved him with all my strength.

  He stumbled into the snow, hands hitting first then face smashing into the ground. I danced back from him, knowing full well he’d be back up in a moment, crazed with fury. I was so focused on him and on being in the present, that I made the mistake of forgetting my surroundings.

  Grey grabbed my arm and twisted, sending pain shooting through my shoulder. I braced for a pop, proof of dislocation, and heaved a sigh of relief when it stopped just short of that fresh pain. His fingers released me as he sent me flying.

  I landed on my hands and knees, facing away from Grey, just feet away from Benson, who was climbing to his feet now with murder in his eyes. Red hot anger exploded in my chest, spreading with my racing heart to every corner of my body. I was sick of men thinking they could push me around. Sick of men thinking they had the right to lay hands on me. Fucking sick to death of men trying to end my life!

  I twisted my head to meet Benson’s gaze as he prowled closer, banked by Grey, and opened to the rising wave of anger.

  “No!” I screamed the single word in a voice that ricocheted through the air and thundered back to reverberate like a gong. It sounded strange to my own ears, like I was listening to someone else speak. I stood up and turned to face them, shaking with emotion that begged to be released.

  I let it all out.

  My voice burst from every part of me, from somewhere deep and dark, somewhere that felt foreign but mine. It filled me up and emptied me out all at once, and kept coming when I should have been gasping for air.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and pushed everything I felt out through that strange voice, my fists balled and raised on either side of my head. Over and over, I screamed until the fragility of the past few months and the doubt that had practically crippled me was gone, leaving only a sense of strength and peace in its place.

  Then I opened my eyes and staggered back.

  Bodies writhed on the ground all around me, spread out like the dead from the crash, only they weren’t dead. They stared at me with silent screams and heads covered with arms desperate to block out the sound that had escaped my measured control.

  My head whipped back and forth, taking in the destruction, the agony written all over their faces and in their arched spines as their muscles convulsed. I slapped a hand over my mouth even though the screams had stopped already, and felt my world implode as I realized what I’d done.

  I’d spoken in an Alpha voice.

  No, I thought, pressing my hand more firmly over my mouth. No. That was impossible. I was born to an Alpha family but that didn’t mean a thing when it came to an Alpha’s power. Sylvie had told me that, hadn’t she? My brain spun with snippets of our conversations.

  Yeah. It didn’t matter if you were born into an Alpha family or not. Katherine was her parents’ firstborn and she didn’t have Alpha powers. Her brothers all did, but they’d been given them by the new Alpha Council when they’d been made Alphas.

  It didn’t make any sense. Or did it?

  Sylvie had talked about that woman, what was her name? Dalia, I remembered with sudden clarity as the conversation leaped back to my mind. She’d called her a natural born Alpha, someone who develops the powers of an Alpha without the position. I remembered thinking it was crazy that a woman had been blessed with those powers long before the Council had deemed a woman worthy of holding the title.

  I let my hands fall to my sides and questioned everything I knew about myself. Was I a natural born Alpha?

  Did Viktor know?

  My stomach convulsed painfully at the thought. He was already trying to kill me on the off chance I’d one day stand against him and take his Alphaship. If he found out about this…

  I let the thought trail off and forced my thoughts back to the people slowly staggering to their knees all around me. Looks of confusion and fear, mixed with awe twisted their faces as they rose, watching me carefully. When I took a step towards Adeline to help her up, she made a choking sound and cringed away.

  “I didn’t mean…” I started, holding out my hands palm up to show I meant no harm. “I’m so sorry.” I remembered Daniella and twisted to find her.

  She sat in the snow with a look of shock on her beautiful face. Unlike the others, she didn’t seem to be recovering from devastating pain, but there were lines of strain around her eyes and lips, evidence that my voice had hurt her. I rushed over and knelt down in front of her.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to make things right with her. The line between her and Bash felt blurred somehow, as if she were he and part of the man I loved was sitting there, looking stunned.

  Her emerald eyes flickered and focused, then lifted to look at me. “What was that?” she said in a throaty whisper. She lifted a hand to her head and pressed a fingertip against her temple. “It was like being consumed by...” Daniella trailed off and shook her head slowly then frowned and rubbed her temple again. “It was like being in a wave with all that pressure beating down on me. I could see the others and I think they were screaming because their faces…” she blew out a breath. “Old Ones, their faces were horrible.”

  I flopped down, unable to even kneel anymore. I’d done this to them. Moments after Daniella had defended me, after I’d stood up for myself, I’d done this. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t known, trouble seemed to follow me now.

  I should have just stayed in Newfoundland, I thought with an exhausted sigh.

  “I felt it inside you.” Daniella said. “It was like pressure, building until it was impossible to hold back anymore. Then it hit me out here.” She raised both hands to her head and looked up, her eyes still wide. “Elena, what was that?”

  I swallowed and licked my lips, giving me a few precious seconds to think. She knew most of my secrets anyway and would be safe to tell, but the others… Fuck, what did it matter now, anyway? Everyone knew who I was and who was coming to kill me. I went with my gut.

  “That was an Alpha voice.” I cringed at the sound of my declaration, which I’d said loud enough for the entire group to hear. They could hear me, now that the devastating effects of my screams had worn off. They stilled and shifted to stare at me. I steeled myself for expressions of repulsion and betrayal and was rocked to see wonder and awe.

  I blinked slowly as if that would somehow wipe their expressions clean and replace them with the expected. When they kept staring at me with slack jaws and wide eyes, I decided to use whatever I had to do what was necessary.

  I steadied myself and turned inward, searching myself for the source
of that voice, of the power. Now that I’d tasted it, felt it move through me, I found it easily but was still surprised to find it inside me. Tentatively, I experimented with it, pulling it up in small amounts that didn’t overwhelm. It flowed through me and wove around my throat as I climbed to my feet.

  “We’ll talk about this later but, right now, we need to leave,” I said in a short declarative sentence, hoping that would somehow make it work better.

  Their slack jaws closed, and I saw awareness seep into their collective eyes. My gaze strayed to Grey and Benson and watched the play of battling emotions on their faces with fascination. They still hated me, Old Ones knew that was the truth. But there was more now, something reluctantly respectful maybe. I took a single step in their direction, not sure what I was about, and saw fear flash through their eyes.

  With great power comes great responsibility.

  I felt the famous Spiderman line in my gut and remembered watching the movie with Sara and Bethany years ago. We’d made fun of it, parodying it with thoughts of our principal in mind. They would lose their freaking minds when I told them about this. If I was able to see them or even talk to them anytime soon.

  My eyebrows furrowed. I’d been accepting a lot of decisions made for me or those around me in the months since the attack. It had been easier to just let others lead and just follow because it was all too much, too fast. I’d felt broken, weak, and on the verge of mental breakdown half the time. I didn’t feel weak anymore.

  I could fight back now.

  A smile curved my lips at the thought. I’d fought Viktor before and had managed to survive. I’d even been on the receiving end of his Alpha voice and it had sucked, but it hadn’t affected me nearly the same way it had Bash. Maybe I had an immunity to it. Maybe being natural born came with other side benefits that would help me kick his psychotic ass. I needed to figure this out and learn how to harness it so I didn’t hurt people who didn’t deserve to be hurt.

  Not that Grey and Benson hadn’t been asking for an ass-kicking. They just hadn’t deserved to be struck low and tortured. I glanced around at the others, Jared, Adeline, Daniella, and Rachelle. They hadn’t deserved that punishment either.

  I faced them all now and apologized. “I’m sorry,” I said as my stomach clutched in regret. “Apparently there’s a lot about me that I don’t know or understand yet.” I glanced at Grey and Benson with an arched eyebrow. “I reacted to threats, so I won’t apologize for that, but I didn’t mean to hurt you all like that and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” I mentally crossed my fingers that I could control it during the next stressful situation, which, in my life, would probably be in an hour or so.

  Adeline was the first to respond. “It’s alright, Elena,” she said in that deeply sensual voice that seemed so out of place in the middle of the wilderness. “You were defending yourself against bullies.” Her eyes flashed with malice towards Grey and Benson. “I’m ready to pack up when you are.” Her slight shoulders firmed with determination.

  I smiled at her and felt a wave of appreciation. “Thanks. We’ve got a lot to do, especially with Ms. Morgan.” I looked over at Daniella questioningly. “Can you two check on her when we get back?” I scanned the group then started walking back towards the crash, aware that every moment we wasted talking was another moment Viktor closed in on our location. “We need a stretcher, like Jared mentioned and we’re going to need to bring the blankets and whatever food we can find.” I heard the crunch of boots on snow behind me and breathed a sigh of relief.

  We worked quickly and with little discussion, gathering the necessities to survive as Daniella and Jared checked on Ms. Morgan then strapped her onto the emergency stretcher they’d found still in the fuselage, folded into a slot in the wall. She stayed unconscious the entire time, twitching at their touches as the fever burned through her body. I was worried about her, we all were. She probably shouldn’t be moved, but we had no choice. It was either take her with us and give her a chance or leave her behind. Unlike Rachelle, I wasn’t willing to leave anyone behind.

  We used whatever we could find, busted luggage, blankets tied at the four corners and looped over a broken branch like wanderers from childhood stories to carry supplies. I was helping secure a blanket full of more blankets when Adeline called out, “Connor and Joaquin are back!”

  I looked up and caught Connor’s confused gaze immediately. They were still too far away to talk, so I turned back to my task and waited for them to arrive. A lot had happened in the short time they’d been off hunting and I wasn’t in the mood to explain through shouts.

  “Nice haul,” Jared called out as they entered the clearing.

  They each lowered a string of rabbits to the snow near the big fire, which we’d left burning and would put out right before we left. No need to deprive Ms. Morgan and us of much needed warmth before we were forced to leave.

  “What’s going on?” Connor said under his breath, coming up behind me. His hand shot out and took my elbow.

  I twisted away from him and spoke over my shoulder, too busy to take the time to coddle him. “We’re getting out of Dodge. Grey found the black box, which would be a good thing, except Jared found the busted pieces of a bomb, which means we’re being tracked,” I took a second to turn and catch his startled gaze. “By the bad guys.” I put extra emphasis on “bad guys” so he’d have no doubt who I meant.

  “Fuck,” his mutter was gravelly and ripped from his throat. His body stiffened and, for a moment, he just stood there, unmoving, watching me through those uncanny icy blue eyes.

  My stomach twisted and I turned away, not wanting to be reminded of the feelings I’d once had for him. “We need to move,” I said, gesturing to the supplies I was securing. “Grab anything useful so we can get out of here.”

  I didn’t need to use my Alpha voice with him. He knew the gravity of what I’d said. Connor grunted at Joaquin to help him and disappeared into what was left of the plane. I joined my supplies to the growing pile near the edge of camp and turned to check on the others’ progress when I heard the ominous whomp, whomp, whomp of helicopter blades.

  Chapter 21

  Heads snapped up and the world went silent as if no one even dared to breathe. Then all eyes turned towards me, wide with horror, as we collectively understood that our time was up.

  Connor and Joaquin raced to Ms. Morgan and hefted her body, attached firmly to the stretcher, while I hurriedly covered the fires with snow and everyone else grabbed items they’d packed and screamed for the others to “Leave it! Hurry up!”

  I’d given a lot of thought to what our plan of escape would be when the moment came. The nearby tree line would provide almost instant cover, so it was our best bet at staying unseen, especially from above. It wasn’t surprising that Viktor would arrive in a helicopter. He’d be confident of the effects of the bomb and, if I’d made it, which I had, he’d be under the assumption any incoming helicopter would be presumed rescue. He’d have been right if Jared hadn’t found the bomb and known what it was. We’d have been sitting ducks at his arrival.

  I sent a silent thank you to the Old Ones that we’d gotten a heads up and started into the forest, carrying as much as I could.

  The moon was high in the night sky now and full, shining plenty of light for our supernatural eyesight, if we weren’t moving through the thick of the wilderness. No one spoke as we moved steadily further into the brush. I was pretty sure they were all just measuring the approach of the helicopter based on sound, just like I was.

  Connor jogged up to me and, keeping his voice low, said, “I got some disinfectant from the plane and watered it down. It’ll help diffuse our scent so they can’t follow us. I’ll trail behind and cover our tracks. Jared’s helping with Ms. Morgan.” His fingers curled around my bicep. “Be careful, okay? I won’t be far behind.”

  Even in the shadows of the evergreens, I saw the glint of his icy eyes and wished I didn’t recognize the worry in their depths. I nodded, unable to sp
eak around the thick emotion in my throat and caved to the urges that had plagued me for months. I raised my arm to his and laid my palm on his forearm.

  The connection buzzed through me, intense and unwanted, and utterly different than what I felt when I touched Bash. Heat suffused my cheeks and I pulled away after the briefest of moments, but the damage had been done. I turned on my heel, walked away from him, and led my pack further into the woods.

  Soon, the slope of the forest changed, climbing to the top of a thickly wooded hill that I’d seen from the crash site. If it was Viktor in that helicopter, we’d be able to see him from this vantage point through the high-powered binoculars I’d found in the pilot’s storage. And if it was AWA here to take us home, we’d know soon enough. The flare gun I’d also grabbed would alert them to our position in that case.

  I glanced over my shoulder towards the site and squinted. We were close enough that I could see the helicopter that had put down in the clearing, but that was it. I held up a hand and murmured, “Let’s stop here for a minute. I want to take a look.”

  Adeline pointed to a flat spot devoid of roots and rocks. “Set Ms. Morgan down here, please. I’d like to check on her. I think the infusion I gave her is working to calm the fever.”

  “Thanks.” I offered her a genuine smile. I’d decided that I really liked Adeline. At first glance she came off as meek and quiet, but the more you got to know her, the more her strength revealed itself. I wondered if she’d ever shown her group of friends this quiet strength and if she’d maintain it once we got back. If we got back.

  I shut that line of thought down immediately.

  Jared and Joaquin lowered the stretcher carefully then walked over to join me as I pulled the binoculars from the loaded pack I carried.

  “Looks dark, but it’s hard to tell,” Jared squinted down at the helicopter.

  I brought the huge binoculars to my eyes and pulled back for an instant when everything went completely blurry. We had a pair back home, but they were nowhere near as powerful as these. I put them back to my eyes and adjusted the dials.