Wolf Moon (23 page)

I awoke on the grass the
following morning. It was when I pushed myself up that I realized my arm was
bleeding beneath my shirt. As I pulled the sleeve back, I came to the
realization that I had, indeed, encountered wolves that night, and
I had been bitten by one
. Ever since then, I have been
dreaming of wolves, running with them, hunting... I just cannot figure out why.

August 26, 1907

A strange man appeared at my
door yesterday afternoon. He told me stories of men who turned to wolves when
the moon was full. I had half a mind to slam the door in his face when he told
me in great detail what had happened in my own yard the other night. It was
eerie, and I remembered that the moon was, indeed, full that night. He had
promised to check in on me, telling me that I may have been infected by some
sort of virus. That I might become...one of them in a month’s time.

October 12, 1907

It has been a while since my
last entry. I have been busy with my lessons and have learned a great deal over
these last weeks. Creatures like vampires and werewolves exist, and are not
just tales spun in novels. I work hard every day to control what I have
become—a werewolf—and I have been educated on the threat to our
existence.

From what I have been told,
vampires and wolves never crossed paths intentionally. They were able to exist
in the world without so much as encountering one another.
Until
the vampires had become a little too greedy and risked exposing the
supernatural world to the humans.
They had grown careless in their feeding
habits, and the wolves had to take it upon themselves to police them.

As I learned more about what I
had become, I also became aware of what
Gianna
now
was: a vampire. And, newly turned, she was one of the worst ones. Her thirst
would seem unquenchable, no matter how many bodies she had drained. She needed
to be stopped, but a large part of me fought the idea.

I flipped through several
more years of entries, learning about vampires. Most of what we’d been sold
through the media was actually true. They burned in direct sunlight; wooden
stakes through the heart and decapitation were the most effective ways to kill
them. Crosses and holy water, however?
Totally useless.

January 3, 1909

My son, Reginald, was born
today. I had once thought that taking Catherine as my wife was the day my life
started, but it was not. Today, the moment I locked eyes with my boy, was when
life truly began.
 

Having lived with the
Pack for a little while now, I had learned that it was possible to have a family
in this life, but it still warmed my heart to read of the origins to how my
Pack had started. I turned another few pages. There weren’t any
entries,
instead the pages were filled with newspaper clippings
from all over North America. They mentioned mysterious murders or missing
persons, then there would be follow up notations by Pack members about how they
found these people—changed—and disposed of them permanently. While
Gianna
had been able to elude the Pack, bits and pieces of
her ever-expanding army hadn’t. Perhaps that was part of how she managed it;
she used them as diversions. Sacrificed them for
her own
survival.

One more journal entry
caught my attention, and I knew this was what escalated the war between the
races.

September 16, 1911

It has taken me weeks to write
this entry. I am still struggling with what happened, and I simply cannot find
the words to express what I am feeling.

Alas, if I do not include this
in the dossiers, then I risk valuable information being lost to the Pack. What
I started as a simple journal has now become a resource often referred to when
hunting or training new members.

Which brings me to this newest
entry.

In an act of retaliation,
Gianna
attacked the Pack this evening. There were many
casualties, including our Pack Alpha and my dear wife, Catherine.
Gianna
and her army infiltrated the manor tonight and attacked
us in our sleep. I didn’t have time to attempt saving my wife, having to go
after
Gianna
as she tried to snatch my son from his
crib. She had him in her arms when I found her, and I immediately saw red. I
controlled the building change so I could take my son from her when I ripped
her apart. While I was successful in the first part of that plan, I failed in
the second, and
Gianna
got away.

Her attack on my family drove me
to the edge of madness, and I immediately assumed the title of Pack Alpha. I
vowed on my wife’s grave that I would absolutely avenge her death, whatever it
took. It was time to put my feelings aside.
Gianna
was no longer my sister. She was the demon that took my sister’s body, and I
needed to put my sister to rest.

I continued to read on
through the years. Marcus’ great-grandfather sounded like a fearless leader in
the wake of his Alpha’s death, and his son, Reginald was equally as strong. It
was no doubt Marcus was the amazing Alpha he was; it was in his blood.

When I got to the most
recent journal entries, I learned everything I could about how the Pack had
tracked Bobby after taking
Cordelia
until his scent
just vanished in the mountains. No one could determine how that was possible
and searched for months. They even took shifts sleeping in the wild, hoping to
stumble upon the hidden lair. Even that didn’t lead to any answers.

I looked up from the
book, glancing out the window at the mountains in the distance as I let this
all swirl around in my head until it all fell into place. Surely they’d have
checked cave-like entrances in the mountains, so how else could the vampires
just vanish like that?

I ran over every rational
theory before I realized this was probably my first mistake. The existence of
vampires and werewolves wasn’t rational, so why would the answer to this
mystery be? It would make even more sense to think outside my usual comfort
zone. I wouldn’t be looking for a locked cellar door or a second property out
in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t be looking at a group of deranged killers
merely squatting in the mouth of a cave. It would make more sense to look
deeper
…

Before I could let my
thoughts continue down this path and toward a possible theory, a loud roar
startled me, making my heart skip a beat and my entire body to break out in a
cold sweat.

Karl was awake. And he
was pissed.

“MARCUS!” he bellowed,
his voice echoing through the house until the vibration of it settled in my
bones as an out of control tremor.

My heart hammered
painfully as my anxiety spiked, and I wished that Nick would return soon. I
realized I told him to stay out there and search diligently, but I couldn’t
handle this. My mind flashed back to the other night again as the cage rattled
from downstairs. Karl cursed aloud. He’d burned himself on the bars; I could
smell traces of his charred flesh wafting up to the main level and it made me
gag.

The cage rattled again,
forcing my body to tense in preparation of the moment the door snapped off its
hinges and he escaped only to find me alone in the house with him. Part of me
didn’t doubt this was a possibility. I knew how strong he was—how
powerful—while I wasn’t. Not anymore…

“Then you need to take it
back.”

Jackson’s words pushed
through the confusing darkness that currently filled my head.
Take it back
. Something about this
suggestion made the horrifying memories in my head evaporate slowly as if they
were nothing more than a bad dream. I knew they were still very
real—could still remember how his hot breath smelled as he bit down
around my neck—but in that moment, they didn’t
feel
real. It was all kind of foggy.

Slowly, I stood from the
library table, and before I realized what I was doing, I wandered through the
house and toward the basement stairs. It was like I was watching myself from
above as I moved through the house; something else was in control. It didn’t
take long for me to recognize the wolf.

Karl’s screaming grew
louder, and the trembling in my hands had slowed substantially. I wasn’t sure
what I was going to do—what I could do—but a part of me wanted to
make sure he was still secure in the cage.

Even if that meant I
would be in the same room as him for a brief moment.

It wasn’t until I arrived
in the basement that I questioned my motives. I could feel my rage building,
burning through my veins with each step that brought me closer to my attacker,
and I wondered if I was capable of more than just a routine check. It only took
me a second to realize I wanted to hurt him. Badly.

I knew he was weak and
vulnerable with the silver and tranquilizers in his system, and it awakened a
malicious, vindictive side of me that craved his fear. I wanted to eat it up
the way he must have the other night.

Was this what Jackson
meant? Could confronting Karl be the key to getting my life back on track? The
wolf seemed to think so.

I stood in front of the
huge wooden door that led to the pit. The human side of me tried to talk my
wolf side out of what it wanted to do. It begged and pleaded to go back
upstairs and wait for Nick and the rest of the Pack to return, but the wolf
snapped, forcing the human into submission.

That was when I felt the
first bit of power surge through my veins, settling in the tips of my fingers
and warming my blood. This instilled a little of my confidence, and I reached
out and grabbed the door handle.

Karl had stopped
screaming a couple minutes earlier, so all I could hear as I took the first
stair was his labored breath.
I descended the stairs slowly,
giving my eyes enough time to adjust to the darkness as I headed below ground.
The dank air
reeked
of old water and Karl’s sweat as I
got closer. His anger still thickened the air, even though he’d exhausted
himself with his tantrum. As I picked up on all these subtle notes coming
together in the musty air, I wondered if he smelled me coming or if the silver
nitrate had weakened all of his senses. Had it kept him numb and unaware of my
arrival?

My
heart raced wildly the closer I got, but it wasn’t fear anymore. It transformed
into something akin to wicked excitement as more adrenaline flooded my veins.
When I hit the last stair, I noticed that the pit was dimly lit, possibly to
disorient Karl in his weakened state, and everything appeared to be in order
when I compared it to the first time I’d been down here.

On
the little wooden table that stood in the center of the room were
syringes—some full, some empty—and a few vials. Then there was the
cage. The small eight-by-eight cell now housed a sturdy-looking cot with the thinnest
of blankets and a flat-looking pillow. Atop the temporary bed was the reason
I’d come down here in the first place.

His
skin looked almost ashen, but I couldn’t be sure if it was from being in here
the last few days and not having the luxury of going outside and soaking up a
little sun, the silver nitrate having a stronger effect than I’d thought it
would, or if it was just the shitty lighting that came from the table-top lamp
and flickering light.

The
plate that Miranda had made for him sat on the floor of the cage, all of the
food eaten off it, meaning Karl had a fresh dose of silver in his veins. The
sweat on his brow and his shallow breathing also indicated this.

Slowly,
Karl let his face lift in my direction, and his dry lips parted into a nasty
smile. “Well, well, well,” he said, his voice hoarse and
weak-sounding
as it rasped and cracked with every word. “If it isn’t Little Red Riding Hood.
You get lost on your way to Grannie’s house?”

H
is head turned toward
me slowly, eyes glassy, pupils dilated. The smile that formed on his dry lips
was cocky, and I had the strong urge to slap it right off his smug face. Any
apprehension I may have still had flitted away, leaving only my anger and hurt;
my thirst for retribution was undeniable.

The
wolf had taken over, but the human stayed close, skimming the surface of my
consciousness and watching as though concealed behind the two-way mirror of an
interrogation room. The only way I could explain what came over me was that the
wolf was protecting the human; protecting any vulnerability Karl might have
been able chip away at, but it did it while in the body I was most confident
in. It recognized my reservations, and for that, I was extremely grateful.
Perhaps we could work together.

I
stepped forward, my gait noticeably changed—graceful,
confident
. . . predatory—and I ran my finger along the edge of the table, dragging
my nail down the aged wood. “So I suppose you think that makes you the Big Bad
Wolf?” I pondered, cocking my head to the side as my eyes found his. I barely
recognized my own voice, but I didn’t dwell on it long, enjoying the power that
surged through my veins.

It was just a flash,
but I recognized terror in his eyes before he shook it off, and I smirked at
him, stopping within inches of the cage door. “Well, I hate to break it to
ya
, Karl, but I think you’ve got your roles a little mixed
up in this particular fairy tale.” His face remained static, but I heard his
heartbeat stutter before picking up in pace, and I inhaled deeply when the air
became infused with the tiniest hint of his fear.

I
licked my bottom lip hungrily, imagining what it would feel like to wrap my
hands around his neck and squeeze until he begged for mercy. The human was
shouting something from her little room, banging on the glass, but I couldn’t
hear her; she was slipping farther away with every advance the wolf made.

As
if he was trying to throw me off, he stood up. I studied him carefully. His
legs looked a little unsteady, but he was quick to right himself, feigning his
confidence. I’d almost forgotten how tall he was as he loomed over me, the cage
door the only thing between us. He looked down at me through narrowed eyes,
trying his best to intimidate me, but his attempt was futile.

I
was beyond his scare tactics at this point. The wolf had taken over completely,
and it wanted revenge for the other night. It wanted its strength back as much
as I did.

“Look
who’s trying to be tough,” he said, his voice rough, yet still hoarse. “I think
it only fair to tell you that it doesn’t suit you.” He leaned in as close to
the bars as he could without letting his skin come into contact with them. “I
prefer you much better when you’re meek and whimpering.” He lowered his voice
to a gruff whisper. “When I can taste your fear on my tongue.”

With
a vicious snarl, my hand flew between the bars with precision, and I grabbed
the front of Karl’s shirt. I yanked him forward so hard the cage door rattled
as I held him against it, snaking my other arm through to hold the back of his
head in place. Even beneath his roars, I heard the sizzle of his skin, smelled
it, and could even see the smoke rising off his flesh.

He
screamed and brought his hands up out of instinct, grabbing the bars to try and
push himself off of it, but immediately jerked them back when they, too,
started to sizzle and burn. Even though my arm never touched the bars, I could
feel the warmth from the silver on my skin. It grew hotter by the second, but I
maintained my position, refusing to let Karl see weakness in me again.

“You’re
fucking crazy!” Karl roared, still trying to pull out of my grip. The silver in
his system was doing its intended job of keeping him weak. Was it fair that I
was at full strength and he wasn’t? Probably not, but I learned the other night
that Karl wasn’t someone who typically fought fair.

I
could feel my humanity trying to claw its way to the surface of my subconscious,
screaming at me to stop and think about what I was doing. I knew my behavior
bordered on barbaric and that I should stop, but the power I held over Karl all
of a sudden was intoxicating. I was high on it, and my head swam in a haze of
pleasure. I allowed it to envelope me, and I basked in my control. I succumbed
to it, inhaling it deeply…but it wasn’t just Karl’s fear that infused the air;
there was another wolf in the room. One that was stronger…more authoritative…

My
need for revenge snapped back like an elastic band, and I withdrew my arms from
between the cage bars, taking several dazed steps back as I turned to find Marcus
at the bottom of the stairs. His eyebrows were pulled together with what looked
like disapproval and his arms were crossed in front of him. His body language
spoke volumes, and I struggled with the words that could properly convey how
sorry I was…

Or
was I? Maybe I struggled with my apology because I
wasn’t
sorry.

“Marcus,” I said, my
voice wavering and barely audible. He heard me, though.

“What’s going on down
here?” he demanded, taking a step forward, his eyes leaving me and landing on
Karl.

I glanced over to see
Karl making quite the dramatic production, falling back onto his cot as he
struggled for breath. All I could do was roll my eyes. What a drama queen.

“You keep her away from
me!” Karl snarled, pointing an accusing finger at me.

I turned my gaze back to
Marcus, ready to defend myself, but I watched as his lips quirked up into an
amused smirk. “Or what?” he asked, surprising
me…and Karl,
who looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Are you kidding?” Karl
demanded. “You saw what she was doing to me!”

My jaw dropped and my
blood boiled in my veins as my anger spiked again. I turned toward the cage,
lips pulled back in a silent snarl. “What
I
was doing to
you
?” I demanded
through gritted teeth.

Marcus’ hand fell on my
shoulder, giving me a comforting squeeze. “Easy,” he ordered before turning a
murderous glare Karl’s way. “You know how this works. You wrong a member of the
Pack, and they alone decide your fate.”

“You sent her down here,
didn’t you?” Karl demanded, standing up and advancing on us both.

“I assure you, I did
nothing of the sort. I came home from a perimeter run before the others and
found the house eerily quiet, so I came to check on you.” He shrugged. “Low and
behold, Brooke seems to have a pretty firm grasp on our ways. Good to see, by
the way,” he added, smiling down at me supportively.

The room fell deafeningly
silent as I glanced between Marcus and Karl. My human conscience had returned
and was beating itself up for my earlier violent outburst. While Marcus gave
the impression that my rage was more than justified, I couldn’t let it go
without feeling an increasing sense of guilt.

The wolf paced in the
corner of my mind, huffing and puffing and itching to be let loose again. It
grew more and more anxious the longer I refused it access to my body. It was
difficult to fight it, having already been in the passenger seat with it in
control moments earlier, but I managed to maintain control. Barely, but I
managed.

“What are you willing to
let her do?” Karl demanded, his fear tainting the air again. The wolf lapped it
up, her eagerness startling me. “How far will you let her go?”

With a growl of his own,
Marcus approached the cage until the two men were nose to nose. “Whatever she
deems a worthy punishment. This isn’t about what I would do, because if it were
my
mate, you know damn well what I’d
do to you. Just be thankful I haven’t allowed Nick down here…
Not that he hasn’t tried.”

The tone in Marcus’ voice
was chilling, but what made it more worrisome was that he thought I might be
capable of killing Karl.

You are,
the wolf offered up.
You
won’t let him get away with what he tried to do to you, will you?

I shook the thought off,
knowing that if I gave into it I would be forever changed. I wouldn’t kill
him—
couldn’t
kill him…

But I could teach him a lesson.

Behind me, the sound of
something metal falling to the wooden table drew my attention. I turned,
noticing Marcus had crossed back through the room and was heading for the
stairs. My eyes fell to the table where I saw a large metal key on the corner.
It wasn’t there
before,
meaning Marcus had just set it
down.

“Do what you need to do,”
he told me as he ascended the stairs. “You’ve got an hour before the others
return.”

“Marcus, you can’t be
serious!”
Karl cried, anger and desperation both lacing his words.
“You’re not going to just leave her down here with me! Marcus! This isn’t
fair!”

Stunned, I slowly turned
my icy glare to Karl as he tossed his cot across the cage. It banged against
the bars so hard my teeth rattled. My temper flared, and the wolf rejoiced when
I dropped my guard and gave her access. “Fair?” I seethed. “What’s wrong, Karl?
Feeling a bit…
inadequate
?”

Karl sneered from his
place in the middle of the cage, the look on his face transforming quickly to
mask his apprehension. “It figures you’d wait until I wasn’t at full strength
before confronting me. Afraid you couldn’t take
all
of me, princess?”

His sexual implication
made my lips twitch with anger as the wolf lunged forward, snapping, but I held
it back. I wasn’t ready to let it take over; I didn’t think I could trust it
enough to stay in control. “Coming from you, that’s almost hilarious.” Keeping
my eyes on him, I walked around the small wooden table. “Ever since I arrived
here, you’ve been watching me. Studying me. Don’t think I hadn’t noticed—that
Nick
hadn’t noticed. He knew what you
were capable of. He warned me about how you operated, and I figured I’d be able
to handle it, because I had been…” Pausing, I glanced down at the table and
spotted the key. I picked it up, and the wolf exulted inside me, hopping around
in anticipation of being released. “Until you overheard me tell the girls how
uncomfortable I was as a wolf still. That was when you planned your attack,
wasn’t it?”

Karl didn’t say anything
as his lips curled up into a sinister smirk. “Paranoia doesn’t become you, princess.”

I took another step
forward and noticed Karl balk slightly before recovering. Smiling, I tilted my
head to the right. “Look who’s talking.
”
A low growl
filled the room, Karl’s lips pulled back in an angry snarl, and I stopped
before him, directly in-line with the cage door. He was trying to make me
believe he wasn’t nervous, but the look in his eyes told a different story.

“What exactly do you
think you’re capable of doing?” Karl challenged. “Kill me? I don’t think you
have it in you.”

His words challenged the
wolf, and before I knew what I was doing, I slid the key into the lock and was
preparing to turn it. Before I could disengage the lock, Karl’s left hand flew
between the bars, his fingers wrapping around my throat and preparing to choke
me or pull me forward. My neck was still tender from his initial attack five
days ago, and the unexpected attempt to grab me caught me off guard. Awareness
and a hot streak of panic shot straight through me at the threat. My heart
pounded, and I struggled for breath. Hundreds of self-defense moves ran through
my head, but before I could properly carry any of them out, the wolf sprang
free with a snarl.

The key remained unturned
in the lock as I brought my right hand up and slammed my palm into the back of
Karl’s elbow. An angry scream echoed in the small dungeon-like room, barely
covering the snap of bone as his elbow bent inward, effectively breaking it.

“You bitch!” he shouted,
pulling his limp arm back through the bars and cradling it.

I tried to keep my
composure, tried to let the human maintain in command, but I couldn’t. My anger
returned, bubbling beneath my skin, and my hands trembled as the fever raged
through me. It was like my body was preparing itself for the change, but I
didn’t feel any of the other signs that it was going to happen. There was no
burning in my shoulder, no pain, no breaking bones, no screaming as my body
transformed. Instead, I felt in control of my body—powerful—and I
realized I’d felt this way once before: when I killed
Gianna
.

The wolf had taken over
on the inside while containing itself on the surface. Wolves were hunters—I
knew that feeling, even remembered enjoying the thrill of the hunt with the
Pack—but something about this felt even more deadly. I was stronger and
more confident in this body, and the wolf knew that. She was utilizing it to
our mutual benefit; she wanted to avenge what had happened the other night just
as much as I did. I could sense that it was in her nature to do whatever was necessary,
but I knew I had to hold back a little. Just because it was in
her
nature, didn’t mean
I
would be able to live with her decisions.
There had to be a line I refused to cross, but I had to admit, it seemed a
little blurred at the moment.