Wolfsong (39 page)

“They took her,” Chris said to me.

“Yes.”

“And we’re going to get her back.”

“
Yes
.”

“Ox,” he said, and I put my hands on his shoulders, pressing my forehead to his. “She’s all I have. She’s not…. She’s my sister, Ox. They can’t
do
this to her.”

“We’ll get her,” I promised him. “We’ll bring her back, and they will regret the day they took her from us.”

He exhaled heavily and his shoulders trembled underneath my hands. But I could
feel
the moment he pushed it aside, the way he tensed and hardened. The way his eyes grew dark. The way he bared his teeth.

“They think,” I said, raising my voice so the others could hear, “that we’re nothing. That they can come here and
take
what they want. That we’re
broken
.”

The wolves growled and gnashed their teeth.

“We’re going to show them just how wrong they are.”

And maybe, just maybe, for the briefest of moments, I could understand Joe and the choices he’d made.

I FELT
Gordo’s wards before anything else. They stopped ten yards before the covered bridge. We weren’t trapped. We could leave Green Creek anytime we wanted to. This wasn’t about keeping us in. It was about keeping all others out that intended to do the pack harm. And if anything was strong enough to push through, supposedly we’d know. Gordo had said he didn’t think anyone could get by them, not even his father, but they were mixed into the pack bonds, a sort of alarm system.

They hummed just under my skin the closer we got. It felt like I was warm and vibrating, and it whispered little songs in its own way. Gordo’s magic was tied to us, maybe more to Joe, but they were gone and the wards remained. I spared a thought for him, then pushed it away. I didn’t have time for memories. Not now.

He had stretched them far around Green Creek, deep into the woods. They didn’t cover the entirety of the territory belonging to the Bennetts, but enough that we were safe.

There were wolves standing in front of the bridge outside the wards.

I approached first, the others out of sight. I knew the wards were messing with the Omegas’ senses, so it didn’t seem likely that they’d know how many others were with me. Maybe they were even stupid enough to think I’d come alone.

Violet eyes watched me. I counted ten pairs tracking my every step.

I didn’t see Jessie. I’d forgotten, briefly, that I couldn’t feel her like the others. I remembered that day in my room when she and I had ended and I’d tried to do the same. She wasn’t pack. I couldn’t feel her like that.

I stopped just before the wards. Somewhere off to my right, Gordo had burned a rune into one of the trees. The invisible line before me thrummed. I took a breath. It stank of ozone.

“You come alone, human?” a familiar voice growled from in front of the bridge.

The wolf from the phone.

I said, “What is your name?” I could only make out his Omega eyes.

He said, “Where are the others? The remains of what you once were.”

“I asked you a question.”

The Omegas around him laughed as he stepped forward. He was still mostly hidden by the shadows, but I’d gotten used to the dark.

The wolf didn’t look that much older than I was. His beard was patchy, his hair pulled back and tied off with a leather strap. His fangs had dropped and were dimpling the skin of his bottom lip. I thought maybe he was smiling.

“You,” he said, voice filled with gravel, “asked
me
a question.”

The wolves laughed again.

“Your name,” I said.

“Humans don’t get to
ask
anything,” he growled. “You are the
scum
beneath our feet. The fallen king made a mockery of the wolf pack. And look where that got him. Filled with holes, his blood spilled upon his own ground.”

Easy
, I told myself.
Easy.

Because there was a very real chance I was about to launch myself at him, not giving a shit about how many there were of them.

He’s goading you
, Thomas whispered.
He doesn’t understand what you have become.

I didn’t understand either. I didn’t know what I was. Not anymore.

I didn’t think most humans felt like I did, even if they’d belonged to a pack.

Thomas had said I didn’t need to be a wolf. That I didn’t
need
to be more than I already was. He hadn’t been wanting that for me. He’d offered me a gift not because he’d wanted me to change, but because he’d wanted me to be more connected to him. To the others.

Even though I sometimes heard his voice, even though I sometimes walked with him and my mother, they weren’t there. These were just memories, pieces of them I’d stored away that clawed their way out of me when I least expected it.

I wondered if he’d known. What I would become.

I’d never get to ask him.

But even back then. Before. He’d watched me. I’d catch him, every now and then. Like he was expecting something from me.

I said, “I will ask you. One more time.”

“Human,” the wolf spat at me.

I brought the crowbar up and rested it on my shoulder. The metal scraped against my ear. The pack bonds were electrified. Mark and Elizabeth. Tanner. Chris and Rico. And Robbie too, his quiet pulse becoming more like a beacon. He was here now. With us. I thought Joe would be proud.

Maybe he’d even tell me that one day.

If he ever came back.

If I ever forgave him.

I said, “What. Is. Your. Name?”

“Come out here,” the wolf said. “Beyond the stickies.” He cocked his head at me, his elongated ears flickering.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I said, tired of him. Tired of all of this. “You’re going to give me the girl. Once I see what kind of condition she’s in, I’ll make a decision as to whether you walk away from here or crawl.” I tilted my head, my gaze staying on him. “Or how deep in the ground I bury you.”

The wolves didn’t laugh at that.

I saw two or three of them take a step back. I would spare those ones. If I could.

The wolf in front of me paused. “You,” he said, “are a conundrum. Why is it you are the way you are?”

“Because of my father,” I said, thinking of Thomas.

He watched me for a moment. Then he raised his voice and said, “Bring the girl.”

It couldn’t be that easy.

From the shadows of the interior of the bridge, two figures emerged from the dark. One stuttered with every step it took. The other dragged the first harshly.

Jessie.

She was walking on her own, but I could hear the low hitches of her breath. She was limping, barely putting any weight down on her right foot. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were wet. But her mouth was set in a thin line, her jaw tensed. She was scared, yes, but she was
pissed
. That was good. Anger was a better motivator than fear. It also probably meant the wolves were underestimating her. Just like they were underestimating me. My pack.

She saw me and her voice was raw when she said, “
Ox
.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Just look at me. It’ll be okay.”

“It really won’t,” the wolf said as he took Jessie by the arm. She struggled against him, but his grip was iron tight. “Tell me, Ox. Do you think that little crowbar of yours would do anything to prevent me from ripping out her throat right in front of you? Do you think you could stop me before I stop her heart?”

“Another wolf said something like that to me once,” I said quietly. “Before Richard Collins. This wolf held my mother almost the exact way you’re holding her. I bashed his head in. He died a very painful death.”

“History doesn’t repeat itself.”

I shrugged. “It can.”

“Not for your mother,” the wolf said with a nasty smile. “Tell me, Ox. You saved her a first time, why not a second?”

Easy
, Thomas whispered.

“What do you want?” I asked, barely containing my rage.

His eyes flared violet. “Simple,” he said. “You. Since your Alpha has…
abandoned
you all, he will need incentive to come back out of hiding. You will provide that incentive. We will be rewarded.
He
will put us above all others when we give you and your Alpha to him.”

“And if I don’t?”

“The girl,” he said. “She’ll die. The rest of this town will die. What remains of your pack
will die
.”

I snorted. “The wards will hold. You can’t touch them. The pack. Or this town.”

“Ox, what the hell is this?” Jessie asked, voice high and wavering.

“For how long?” the wolf asked. “Mistakes will be made. You can only stay in there for so long. I can stay out here forever. And anytime a person leaves this place, I will be there to kill them. One by one.”

“You should have told me your name,” I said. “That’s all I asked for.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know who you’re—”

“I gave you the option,” I said, finally letting my anger show. My voice deepened and I felt
something
surging along the pack bonds. “To let this go. To walk away. Or even crawl. Now, I don’t know if any of that is an option.”

BrotherPackLoveSonFriend

They were there. All of them.

Those of us that remained.

Because regardless of those that were missing, we
were
a pack. We lived as one, we ate together as one.

We trained as one.

Ever since that day when Elizabeth had shifted back, things had been different. Since Tanner and Chris. Since Rico and Robbie. They’d come when we were alone and made us something more again. Maybe not whole, but we were held together. There were doubts, yes, mostly mine, because of the things I couldn’t let go. The anger of betrayal. The loss of my family. The fractured pieces Joe and the others had left behind.

But we weren’t down. Not completely.

I had my pack.

And my pack had me.

“In a minute,” I told the Omegas, “there’s going to be yelling. Probably some screaming. Things are going to get confusing. Blood will be spilled. I want you to remember something for me when that happens. All I wanted to know was your name.”

There were ten of them.

There were seven of us.

But they didn’t know that.

The wolf holding Jessie took a step forward.

They came then. To my side.

The wolves first. Teeth bared and snarling at the intruders who dared to come into our territory, who dared to try this again.

Elizabeth and Mark stood to my right. Robbie came to my left. They brushed against me, coiled muscle and bristled hair.

The others followed. Tanner and Rico stood next to Robbie. Both held guns loaded with silver bullets, something Gordo had made sure I’d always saved in case of an emergency. A year ago, Rico had never even
held
a gun before. Now he was the better of the two.

Chris came to stand between Elizabeth and Mark. He flexed his wrists, and spring-loaded knives infused with silver shot out. He’d made them himself with materials and tools from the shop. Said he’d found the schematics online. He rocked his head back and forth, neck popping loudly in the silence.

“What is this—” the wolf started.

But that was as far as he got.

Even before he’d finished the hard end to the first word, we were moving. No sound was made aside from our feet in the dirt. I didn’t even think they were aware of what was happening until it was almost too late for them.

Jessie saw us coming and didn’t wait to be rescued. She brought her right foot up at an angle, her thigh pressing up against her stomach. Then just as quickly, she kicked her foot down into the wolf’s knee, knocking his sideways, the bones cracking wetly as they broke.

I didn’t even give him a chance to register the pain before I brought the crowbar up in a golf swing upside his head, knocking him back. Blood and teeth flew into the air as he landed on his back, leg out at an odd angle.

The wolves snarled around us as they attacked each other, teeth and claws biting and tearing. I grabbed Jessie and dragged her away from the fight. I felt the wards rush over me as we passed through them. “You stay here,” I snapped at her. “Don’t come one step closer. They can’t get to you here.”

“Ox—”

But I didn’t stay to listen to her. I turned and ran back through the wards, directly toward the wolves snarling and growling behind me.

An Omega, half-shifted, eyes crazed with rage, bellowed and headed straight for me, claws outstretched as it leapt. I slid to my knees into the dirt, sliding swiftly even as my pants tore, rocks digging into my skin. I lay back as low as I could go as I slid toward the wolf. It flew over me, its teeth snapping near my neck, claws trailing along my skin. I brought up the tip of the crowbar and shoved it upward. The wolf’s skin bubbled and smoked as the silver cut into it. Bones cracked in his rib cage as I thrust it up as hard as I could, his momentum carrying him over me, splitting him from his chest down to his stomach. He landed awkwardly on his shoulder, crashing into the ground and rolling away. He didn’t move when he stopped facedown, blood pooling beneath him in the dirt.

Behind me, gunfire erupted.

I turned back toward the sound.

Elizabeth had her teeth sunk into the neck of a wolf below her. The wolf was on its back, legs kicking feebly as she tore into it.

Mark was bigger than any of the other wolves, almost by half. He took down two of them even before I could move, teeth soaked with blood.

These Omegas were far less coordinated than the ones that had come before. I didn’t think Richard Collins had sent them. They fought against us, but they didn’t fight together. They moved independently of each other. They weren’t bonded.

Robbie yelped as an Omega clawed his back. He twisted and snapped his teeth over his shoulder, trying to bite at the Omega’s legs. I didn’t wait for him to reach them. I ran full speed toward them, knocking the Omega off him. We hit the ground, the Omega scrabbling above me, teeth near my throat.