The Omegas went for Gordo before he could trap Richard. His tattoos flared to life again as they rushed toward him. The ground under his feet shifted, rocks rising from the earth and spinning around him. He flicked his wrists and they shot toward the approaching Omegas, knocking them back and down.
Richard ignored them.
He only had eyes for me.
I ran because I had people I loved to keep safe.
I ran because Richard had shifted his attention from Joe to me, and I would do everything to keep it that way.
The bridge was dark. I could hear the wood creaking.
Then, the pounding of a wolf’s paws against the dirt.
He was coming for me.
For a moment, I swore there was another wolf running with me, a great wolf, an Alpha wolf, a wolf I knew had died years before.
For a moment, I swore my mother ran with me, arms pumping, feet stomping upon the earth, hair trailing behind her.
I pushed myself harder.
I wouldn’t be able to outrun Richard forever, but if I could get far enough away, then I’d—
I was close to the old bridge.
I would cross it and hope it was stable enough. The drop was only ten feet to a creek below, but I didn’t want the whole thing coming down on top of me.
I hit the bridge, feet against the wood.
It groaned under my weight, the beams above me shuddering with every running step I took.
I was at the middle, sure I was going to make it. I didn’t know where I’d go next, but I was going to fucking make it through—
Osmond dropped down from the shadows on the far side of the bridge, half-shifted, face smeared with blood and dirt. I skidded to a halt, almost falling forward. I caught myself at the last second.
A wolf snarled behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder.
Richard Collins stood at the other end of the bridge. He took a step toward me.
“It’s over,” Osmond said. “You’ve lost.”
I nodded. “Looks like.”
“You would never have won.”
I chuckled darkly. “Jesus Christ. Fucking get on with it.”
Osmond narrowed violet eyes. “What?”
“Don’t fucking talk at me,” I snarled at him. “You want me? Come and fucking get me.”
Osmond growled.
Richard roared.
And they ran toward me.
The bridge shifted and groaned.
There was a crack of wood from up above.
They leapt, just like I knew they would, but flying toward me.
I waited until the last possible second, hearing the sound of claws slicing the air before I dropped to my knees.
I threw my arm up, crowbar in hand, ends facing toward Richard and Osmond.
Their momentum was too great to change directions midair.
Richard struck the crowbar first, the point end impaling his chest, snapping bone and muscle even as the silver started to burn. My arm jerked the opposite direction with the force of the impact. The curved end of the crowbar smashed into Osmond’s throat. The silver scalded, and the pressure from Richard’s impact forced the curve into Osmond’s neck, stabbing and tearing through his throat. Blood sprayed out on either side of me even as their claws cut into my arms and chest, seizing and skittering along me as the pain from getting speared with silver started rolling through them.
My arms were drenched in blood, mine and theirs. I couldn’t hold the weight of both of them up, and the crowbar slipped from my bloody hands. They fell to the floor of the bridge with a loud crash, arms and legs kicking as they both gagged and flashed their teeth, trying to pull away from the bar lodged in their neck and chest. The bridge shook and creaked.
I scrabbled away, kicking out when Osmond reached for me, pushing my back up against the wooden wall of the bridge.
They were collapsed just out of reach, connected by the crowbar.
Both sets of violet eyes were on me.
There was pain, but it was distant. I couldn’t tell what blood was my own.
The bridge groaned again, louder than it had before.
The cracking of wood became louder, the struts starting to shake.
The whole goddamned thing was going to come down.
I almost didn’t care.
I wanted to close my eyes. Maybe sleep for a little while.
There was a low growl.
I looked down in front of me.
Richard was trying to stretch toward me, but the heavy weight of the crowbar in his chest attached to Osmond didn’t allow him to move much. He craned his neck, jaws frothing as they snapped near my foot. His teeth were only inches away.
I pulled my foot back before kicking out viciously. There was the crunch of bone as he howled and pulled back, shaking his snout.
The bridge lurched nauseatingly to the left. It was only inches, but it felt like miles.
Dust filtered down from the wood above.
I laughed. Because I could.
I tilted my head back and against the wall and laughed.
“You’ll die here,” I told them as Osmond’s legs kicked weakly, hands burning as he tried to pull the bar from his throat. “Both of you. You’ll fucking die here. You failed. You didn’t get Thomas. You didn’t get Joe. You didn’t get me.”
Richard began to drag himself toward me, more bloody than not.
I had to move.
It’d be easier to not.
But I’d never taken the easy way out.
I pushed myself up the wall, using my legs instead of my shredded arms.
Richard snapped his teeth at the movement, struggling to move faster.
Osmond was starting to seize, eyes rolling up in the back of his head, mouth open, shifting between human and wolf, hands into claws and then fingers, scraping along the floorboards. His neck was pulled at a sharp angle as Richard continued toward me.
I stood above him. Above the wolf. He glared up at me, tongue lolling as he bared his teeth near my foot.
I said, “You’ll never have him. You’ll never be an Alpha. You lost. And now you’ll die. For nothing.”
The bridge began to break apart, the floorboards splitting, a large crack running up the wall as the wood splintered off. The walls and ceiling began to shift to the left, the bridge about to collapse.
And with all that I could, I ran again.
Every step hurt, my arms useless at my sides.
But I didn’t want to die in here. Not with them. Not like this.
I had protected my pack from them. Joe would find me. Everything would be all right.
I tripped near the end.
A floorboard had snapped up, hitting me in the shin.
I crashed to the ground, turning to land on my shoulder to avoid hitting my face.
A wolf roared behind me as the bridge broke down.
A voice whispered in my head.
It said, get up.
It said, we’re almost there but you need to get up.
It said, AlphaBrotherLoveSonPack get up get up get up.
It said, we love you.
It said, we need you.
It said, you’re our Alpha and you need to GET UP.
It said, GET UP GET UP GETUPGETUPGETUPGET—
I got up, because I would do anything for them.
Everything hurt, but I got up.
The bridge was tilting now, the roof coming down around me, so close that I could have reached up and touched the ceiling.
I took those remaining steps, and the moment, the second my feet touched dirt, the bridge crashed into the creek below in a cloud of dust.
There was a loud cry through the bonds, the threads that stretched between us, a call of horror, of no no no and OxOxOx DON’T YOU DO THIS OX—
And I said, “Hey, Joe,” because there was no one else that would have screamed for me like that, no one else who would have sounded so desperate to hear my voice.
And the song he howled wa
s a wondrous thing, filled with such green relief that it caused my eyes to burn.
It echoed in the trees around me. He was close. So close.
I needed to see him. To make sure he was okay. To tell him how sorry I was. That I never wanted to leave him. That I never wanted to be anywhere but by his side. All I ever wanted was to keep him safe. Ever since that first day on the road, when he spoke and moved like a little tornado, all I ever wanted was to make sure nothing ever happened to Joe Bennett.
He was coming for me.
I tried to focus on the rest of the pack, to make sure they were all right, but Joe was overwhelming. Everything was him. He was all I could hear and see and taste and smell.
I stumbled my way down into the creek bed as carefully as I could. The debris from the bridge lay spread out in the water, piles of boards and nails strewn everywhere. I didn’t feel them. Richard. Osmond. The Omegas. Not anymore. The poison was gone.
My feet hit the water, boots and pant legs soaked.
I could hear them now.
The pack.
Joe.
I started to climb up the side of the creek bed. Blood dripped down from my arms into the dirt, but it was okay. It was all right. I was almost home.
I reached the top.
And there he was. The white wolf with the red eyes. Only yards away.
There was the familiar shift of bone and muscle. And he stood there, watching me with wide eyes and not a stitch of clothing.
He said, “Ox.” His voice was hoarse and broken. “I thought… I thought—”
So I took a step toward him and said, “No, it’s okay. It’s okay, I promise you, he’s done, it’s done, I promise, Joe. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad. Please don’t be mad at me. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m—”
There was an explosion from behind me.
I whirled around.
The remains of the bridge were blown apart as a half-shifted Richard Collins rose from underneath and landed in front of me, body bloodied and broken, claws extended.
One hand landed on my shoulder and pulled me toward him.
“Alpha,” he snarled in my ear.
And then I was impaled by his other hand, claws slicing into the skin of my stomach, punching in until his whole hand was inside me.
Joe screamed behind me.
I’d never heard him make such a sound before.
It broke my heart even as Richard Collins tore his hand out of me.
I coughed, unsure of what had just happened.
I looked down.
Blood was gushing out of me.
Part of me was hanging out, a wet and red meaty-looking thing.
I looked back up. I felt like I was moving in slow motion.
I was very tired.
Richard took a step back as I fell to my knees. Blood began to pour from my mouth.
Richard tilted his head back. Popped his neck from side to side.
The lacerations on his body started to heal.
He opened his eyes.
They burned the red of an Alpha.
For those next long few seconds, he had gotten what he wanted. What he’d started so many years before had finally come to an end.
He roared.
I felt it down to my very bones.
It was a strong sound.
A powerful sound.
But it was cut off when Joe Bennett placed his hands on either side of his face, claws extended, and then tore Richard Collins’s head from his shoulders.
Richard sank to his knees, mirroring my own pose.
Except I bled from the wound in my stomach.
He bled in great bursts from the ragged stump of his neck.
It was fuzzy. My everything.
I couldn’t swallow.
I didn’t think I could breathe.
Joe dropped Richard’s head to the ground, and I wanted to ask why he was moving so slowly. He was an Alpha, but it was like he was underwater and I didn’t understand why.
Richard fell backward.
I did the same.
Before I hit the ground, arms came underneath me breaking my fall.
I blinked up as I was lowered the ground. The stars were so very bright above.
And the moon. Ah god, the moon. I wished it was full. Because full moons were my favorite kind of moons.
Joe’s face came and blocked it away. I decided that was okay, because I loved his face more than I could ever love the moon.
I tried to tell him as much, especially since he was crying, but I couldn’t seem to find the words.
But we were underwater. I didn’t think I should talk when we were underwater.
His lips were moving, he was shouting and crying, but I couldn’t make out the words. I could hear him, but it was in my head and chest and he was saying no and please and you can’t do this i won’t let you do this do you hear me do you hear me Ox you’re my Ox and i can never let you go i will never let you go i need you i need you more than anything because i love you i love you Ox mate pack love home you are my home home home and without you i won’t ever be okay.
There were others too.
I could see them, crowding around along the edges of my vision.
They were crying too, yelling for someone to do something, to fix this, please fix this we can’t lose him it can’t end like this not like this. There were so many of them, all their voices running together saying why is he bleeding so much oh god he can’t die he can’t leave us AlphaAlphaAlpha we need you here we are your pack how can you leave us ox OxOxOx don’t go please don’t go you are my son you are my brother you are my friend you are my love.
They said, they said, they said—
Alpha.
Alpha.
Alpha.
One voice broke through the rest. He rose above the storm, my little tornado.
He said, i won’t let it end.
He said, not like this.
you hear me
OxOxOx
this isn’t our end
it’ll hurt
and you’ll feel it
but you have to fight
fight
for you
for your pack
and for me
OxOxOx
i need you to fight for me
I had so many things to tell him.
So many things I should have said
So many things I’d never gotten to be for him.
He needed to know.
What he meant to me.
Everything he’d done for me.
I forced my eyes open.
I took in a gurgling breath, blood spraying from my mouth. I choked, but pushed through it.
I looked up at him and garbled out, “Thank you for choosing me.”
A tear fell down his cheek.
He said, “No.”
He said, “Please.”
He said, “You can’t, you can’t, you can’t.”
He said, “I will always choose you.”
And then his eyes were so red, I thought he was burning up from the inside.
Hair sprouted along the sides of his face, white like the snow.
He lowered his head, mouth open, fangs descending from his gums.
I’d never seen a more beautiful wolf.
I closed my eyes.
There was a bright splash of pain between my shoulder and my neck, but it was green, so fucking green that I couldn’t be bothered to take another breath.
So I didn’t.
And as I died, I smiled a bloody smile.
wolfsong
I OPENED my eyes.
The moon was full and fat overhead.
I raised my head.
I was in a clearing in the middle of the woods.
I knew this place. I knew it because it was mine.
It was home.
I sat up in this clearing.
The grass was warm under my fingers. It felt vibrant.
It felt green.
I took in a deep b
reath.
I could smell the trees.
I could hear the leaves fluttering on their branches.
I dug my fingers into the earth.
A rabbit moved a half mile away, running through a thicket.
I didn’t know how I could hear it, but I did.
I rose to my feet.
Something was coming.
I could feel it in the vibrations in the air.
The way the forest seemed to bow around it.
Whatever it was, it was the king of the woods.
From the trees came a howl like I’d never heard before.
The song it sang caused my bones to quake.
It was love. And hope. And anguish. And every terrible, beautiful thing that had ever happened to me. To mine.
I tilted my head back and sang in return.
I put everything I had into it.
Because I didn’t know if I was dreaming.
I felt pain, but it was an ache in my heart.
Our songs intertwined. Harmonized. Became one.
I’d never howled like that before. I hoped one day I could again.
There was a tug in the back of my head.
It hooked itself in and pulled.
I felt my eyes sharpen. My gums itched. My hands shook.
The pull became stronger and I wanted to run.
To hunt.
To feed.
To feel my paws on the earth, tasting the wind on my tongue.
I raised my hands in front of my face.
As I watched, that pull in the back of my head became sharp, and claws slid out from the tips of my fingers, wicked black hooks that glistened in the light of the moon.
The king was closer.
I could hear him now. The steps he took. The breaths through his nose.
Soon he would appear.
I dropped my hands back to my sides.
The noises around me died and all was silent.
I said, “Hello.”
The forest held its breath.
A great wolf moved into a clearing.
He was white with black spattered along his chest and back. He was poised, holding himself regally, every step he took deliberate. He was larger than he’d ever been in life. My eyes burned. My throat closed off. That ache in my heart grew larger.
It wasn’t that I was dreaming.
It wasn’t that I was awake.
It was that I was either dead or almost there.
Thomas Bennett stood in front of me, face level with mine.