Wolfsong (40 page)

Before I could throw it off, Chris was there. He punched the wolf in the back of the neck, knife shooting forward from his wrist and into the spinal cord. The wolf convulsed on top of me, legs skittering and scraping against my skin. Chris jerked his arm back, the wolf’s head rising with his arm until the blade slipped free. Chris was moving again even before I pushed the dead wolf off.

Tanner and Rico were moving in tandem, standing back to back, arms extended, firing into any wolf that came near them. They kept moving in a slow circle, firing in short, even bursts. When one reloaded, the other watched their back.

One wolf slunk in low from the side, trying to remain undetected as it stalked toward them both. Its teeth were bared and it crouched, ready to jump.

“Two o’clock!” I shouted at them.

Tanner ducked immediately as Rico whirled around, arm sweeping over him, moving until the wolf fell within the gun’s sight. He fired once, the bullet catching the wolf in the throat. The wolf fell back, and I knew that the bullet was breaking apart internally, the silver spreading in the bloodstream, poisoning the Omega, slowing its healing enough that it wouldn’t survive.

The sounds died down around us.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Rico and Tanner lowered their guns.

Chris was already running toward Jessie, who stood behind the wards looking shell-shocked.

Pain flared briefly in my arm. There was a gash near my shoulder, not deep, but long. A tooth or a claw had caught me at some point. I probably needed stitches or it would scar. I didn’t think it mattered one way or another. Scars showed what I’d been through. That I was still alive. It was bleeding sluggishly. It’d be fine. For now.

Mark was standing near Robbie, growling at three Omegas who hadn’t shifted during the fight. They were near the bridge, the fear evident on their faces. I didn’t know if they were here by choice or if they’d been forced. Thomas had told me once that Omegas were lost, mostly. On their way to being feral. Marie certainly had been. I didn’t know if they’d be able to find their way back or not.

Elizabeth was standing over the wolf that had been doing the talking. He was conscious, still, body burning from the silver. I knew he’d heal, eventually. If I let him.

There were six dead wolves lying on the ground. The gunfire would be noticed soon. We didn’t have much time.

“Rico,” I said.

“On it,” he said. He pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as he started to walk away. “Yes, hello? I think I hear gunfire. Has anyone called that in? It sounds like it’s coming from out near the south end of town, so hunters? Maybe in the woods?”

Which was in the opposite direction.

I walked over to Elizabeth. She was growling low in her throat, a consistent rumble as the wolf below her bled and choked.

I ran my hand down her back as I knelt beside her. She pressed into the touch, but didn’t look away.

“Gah,” the wolf said, a bubble of blood bursting from his mouth. A thin red mist dotted his cheeks and forehead. “
Gah
.”

“You should have told me your name,” I said quietly. “But that wasn’t your first mistake. I wouldn’t even say coming here was your first mistake. Do you know what was?”

“
Gah
.
Gah
.
Gah
—”

I said, “Your first mistake was underestimating me. My pack. I may be human, but I run with wolves.”

I stood and moved toward the other Omegas.

Mark and Robbie had herded them up against the wall of the bridge. They cowered as I approached.

Mark and Robbie parted briefly to allow me to step between them. They crowded my sides immediately, pressing their warmth against me.

“You didn’t shift,” I said to the Omegas. “Why?”

There was fear in their eyes as they watched me. None of them spoke.

I took another step toward them.

They whimpered.

And then bared their throats at me.

I stopped.

Because that shouldn’t have happened. That was only for—

I wasn’t—

I
couldn’t
be—

Something in my scent or the beat of my racing heart must have given me away, because Mark was there, Robbie was there. Elizabeth was there, all three touching me, running their noses on my legs and arms. Rico and Tanner and Chris were there too, somewhere. I could feel them in my mind, bright and loud. Robbie’s thread was stronger than it’d ever been before, and it pulsed with
friend
and
home
and
packpackpack
.

I could barely breathe.

“You will take them from here,” I managed to say. “Your wolves. You do not leave a single trace. You will go back to where you came from. If you see Richard Collins, you will tell him what happened here today. And if I ever see your faces again, I will not let you walk away.”

They were moving then. The Omegas rushed toward the dirt roadway, gathering up dead wolves. The wolf that had been the only one to speak was slowly pulling himself to his feet. His jaw was obviously broken and stuck out at a sharp angle. He was bleeding profusely from the mouth. He took a staggering step toward us. His eyes were filled with hate as he glared at me.

I said nothing as he stumbled by, following the other Omegas across the bridge. I could hear sirens in the distance, far away and getting fainter. They weren’t coming toward us. At least not yet.

I stared into the shadows on the bridge for a very long time.

Movement occurred around me. Rico and Tanner picking up shell casings. Chris kicking up the dirt and covering the blood that had been spilled. Jessie muttering, demanding answers, wondering who those people were, what the hell had happened, were those
wolves
, oh my god, Chris,
what
is
all of this
?

Robbie and Mark were somewhere off to my left, sniffing along the ground. I knew they were tracking scents to make sure no other Omegas or anything else lay in secret waiting until our backs were turned.

It was Elizabeth who approached me.

She moved around me until she was in front of me. She sat down, head high, regal and proud. She waited until I could no longer ignore her gaze. I looked at her. She flashed her eyes at me. There was a pull in me at the sight, one much stronger than I’d ever felt before.

“I can’t be,” I told her.

She didn’t move.

“You know I can’t be. I’m not a wolf.” I didn’t know who I was trying to convince.

There was a brush along her thread. It said
silly boy
and
it doesn’t matter
and
pack it’s what is right for pack
and one other word I didn’t want to hear. One other word that shouldn’t be possible. One other word that felt like I was betraying Joe.

“I don’t want it.”

She huffed and looked stern.

“I mean it. I can’t. I
can’t
—” Then another thought struck me and caused goose bumps to prickle along my arms. “Did you know?”

She cocked her head at me. It wasn’t an answer.

“Did
he
know?” I demanded.

Not Joe.

But she knew who I meant. I could feel the gentle wave of sadness run through her.

“Answer me!” Because the thought that they had known since the beginning, since that very first day when they’d stood on the porch of the house at the end of the lane was all I could think about. It wasn’t true, it
couldn’t
be true, but
what if
? What if all of this had been to get to
this
moment,
this
fucking realization? Did anyone have a choice in this? Did Joe?

Did I?

Mark came over then, sitting next to her. He pressed his nose against her ear before looking back at me with an identical expression on his face.

Robbie came too, but he was moving slower, as if unsure of himself. His shoulders were lowered, his ears pressed to his skull. His tail was curled between his legs. He looked spooked, as if he thought he’d be rejected if he moved any quicker. He kept his eyes averted as he sat next to Elizabeth.

“What the fuck is going on?” I heard Jessie ask from behind me.

“They’re recognizing him,” Chris said quietly, and it was another blow to whatever wall I’d hastily constructed in the face of this damning recognition. If
they
felt it, then—

“As what?”

“Why?” I asked as a last resort. My voice cracked and I could do nothing to stop it. “I am not
anything
. I am not
anyone
. You shouldn’t be doing this. This isn’t what was supposed to happen! It’s supposed to be
him
. He’s going to come back, okay? He’s going to come back and you need to—”

There was the telltale sign of a shift, the creak and groan of bone and muscle. The wolf took human shape.

But her eyes remained the same.

She said, “
Ox
.”

“So… this is a thing,” Jessie said faintly. “Mrs. Bennett is naked and this is a thing.”

We ignored her.

I waited for Elizabeth to speak again, because I had nothing left to say.

I didn’t have to wait long.

She said, “Sometimes, it’s not about being able to shift. Some of us are already born with a wolf in our heart. The color of your eyes doesn’t matter. The fact that you are human does not matter. What matters is that you have taken your place like you were meant to.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” I told her, desperately so.

“I know,” she said softly. “But you are what we need.”

“My father….”

Her eyes hardened. “Your father didn’t understand the value of who you were. Of who your mother was. I’ve seen you in his shadow. I know the words he spoke to you. But you don’t belong to him. The moment my son found you on the road, you belonged to us.”

“Did you know? Even then? Did Thomas know? Is that why you did all of this? Is that why Joe…”
gave me his wolf?
But I couldn’t get the words out. Because the thought of Joe being forced into something that he didn’t have a choice over, that he didn’t even
want
, made me cold.

She knew, though. She always did. “No,” she said quietly. “We knew you were a remarkable young man. Ox. Kind and caring. We knew that from the very start. And that you’d make a wonderful addition to our pack. But the rest? This? Ox,
this
is something we never thought would happen. You can plan for life, but life
always
has plans of its own. If Thomas hadn’t died, if your mother hadn’t died, if Richard Collins hadn’t escaped or even focused on our family to begin with. If, Ox. It’s always about the
if
.” Her eyes flared orange and I felt the
pull
like I’d never felt before. “But it’s not
if
now. Now it’s something else.”

Mark tipped his head back, baring his throat.

Robbie did the same, tail thumping nervously.

Elizabeth tilted her head to the side, the long column of skin muted in the starlight.

She said it then.

The one word.

And I hoped that Joe could forgive me.

Because as much as I wanted to fight this, I didn’t think I had the strength.

Not anymore.

“
Alpha
.”

the third year/mystical moon connection

IT WAS
in the third year that Robbie moved into the main house, shortly after being recognized as part of the Bennett pack. His superiors didn’t seem surprised. A gruff man came to the house, wearing a wrinkled suit and a skinny tie. His eyes widened briefly when I entered the room, able to sense something about me I still didn’t quite understand.

He was blunt and to the point. There had been no sign of Richard Collins, no tangible proof of him for well over a year. The teams that had been searching for him since he’d fled Green Creek were coming back with nothing. There weren’t even rumors of him anymore.

The same was said of Joe and the others. We hadn’t heard anything from them, though Elizabeth kept insisting that they were alive, that she would
know
if something happened to them, to her sons. I didn’t have the heart to disagree with her, though I lay awake at night imagining a hundred different things that could have happened to them. That they’d found Richard and he’d killed them, becoming an Alpha. That even though they were alive, they were never coming back. That I’d never see Carter again. Or Kelly. Or Gordo.

And Joe, of course. Because he was on my mind more than the others.

The gruff man told us that they’d continue the search, but it seemed halfhearted. They spoke as if Michelle Hughes was going to be long-term, to finally have someone permanent take Thomas’s place as the head Alpha. “We’ll give it time,” he said, sipping black coffee. “But we can’t wait forever.”

He asked to speak to me privately. I glanced at Elizabeth, who nodded before agreeing. She pointed toward Thomas’s old office, and I hesitated only briefly. The others left the house. Tanner, Rico, and Chris were at the shop.

The gruff man waited until he was sure they were out of earshot before closing the door to the office. I sat behind the desk, more intimidated than I expected to be. I tried to push it down, but I think he knew.

Then, “She’s curious about you.”

I didn’t expect that. “Who?”

“Alpha Hughes.”

“Why?”

He snorted. “Because you’re human, and somehow you’ve become an Alpha. Of the Bennett pack, no less.”

“Joe’s the Alpha of the Bennett pack,” I said. I was just temporary. I’d accepted it more than I had before, but it was still a work in progress. One that I hoped would be over very, very soon.

“Joe’s not here.”

“He will be,” and I wondered if the gruff man heard the traitorous thump of my heart.

“How did you do it?” he asked. “She’ll want to know. Not because you’ve done anything wrong or because she’ll want to take anything from you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why go there first?”

He shrugged. “Because you did. And I don’t blame you. Neither does she. This pack has been put through… a lot. Which is an understatement. You don’t hand out trust easily.”