Well, I specifically wouldn’t be seeing them coming. But somehow I’d now have to transfer new information to someone who could do something with it. Note to self: other psychos whom Icahn once worked with and who were responsible for ending our former existence would be coming after us. Great.
“Well, if more battles occur, I don’t suppose it’ll be your problem. Since you’re going to be dead. And, Dr. Icahn, I know you’re probably really pissed you didn’t let me die. Several times.
I turned to the Werewolf who would soon be hunting me. “Go ahead. I’m done.”
I spoke the words, knowing them to be absolutely true. I. Was. Done. No more Dr. Icahn, no more wondering how or when he’d harm me again. Our survival could not be dependent on him, or we didn’t deserve to live at all.
I expected Andon to tear into Icahn and, from the way the scientist shook, so did he, but what the Werewolf actually did took me completely by surprise. He charged forward and pushed Icahn over the balcony into the crowd below. I stared, stunned, as Icahn screamed his way down to the floor and certain death.
He hit hard, his neck turning in an unnatural way. Blood splattered everywhere and, for a moment, the crowd fell silent, each side staring down at the fallen leader who would never again rise, either to lead or torment.
The loudest explosion I’d ever heard followed the brief silence. Cheers, screams, and howls assaulted my ears and I covered them to shut out the noise. I looked for everyone I cared about and felt a calm overtake my strained nerves as I located them all. They were all fighting hard but fine.
I took a deep breath, letting my hands drop to my side. Andon waited, staring at me. I hadn’t killed Icahn. But I’d set Andon up to do it and I could feel I’d contributed a bit to the man’s demise.
After a moment, I shook my head and spoke to Andon. Someone had to hear what I needed to say. “I expected to feel something, anything, about this. It’s been my sole focus for so long. Isaac Icahn dead. And now there is just nothing.”
A tear slid down my cheek. No fireworks had gone off to indicate the death of the bad guy. Climactic music didn’t play in the background. This wasn’t the end of the story. My friends and family were still in danger.
I didn’t feel better because Dr. Icahn was dead. It hadn’t brought back the millions of people who were dead because of him. Nothing had changed in the moments since.
I turned to Andon. “I need to tell someone about the other scientists. Then I’ll stand right there.” I pointed to the hallway where I’d sneaked inside earlier. “Come and get me.”
Andon growled and I shook my head. “I live up to my promises and unless someone in there chops my head off, I’ll be there. I’m not a coward. I don’t run away.”
Even if I wanted to. I could grab Chad and we’d disappear into the horizon, have adventures, grow old together in some log cabin where no one would ever find us. My parents could come. I’d bring the whole habitat with me. Somehow, we’d all live together in that log cabin where nothing bad ever happened and monsters ceased to exist.
Chad would be the best person to give my information to. However, speaking to Chad would make me want to do the runaway thing and that wouldn’t be good for anyone. If I ran, Andon would chase, and if anything then happened to Chad, I’d never forgive myself. He had to be fine.
I knew he loved me. He’d miss me, mourn me, be angry as hell with me. Those feelings were familiar to me. I’d had them myself when he’d died. The day I’d staked him had changed something in my soul, an innocence I’d never recovered. Part of me had died with him.
But he would move on. Tears pushed from my eyes. I swatted them away but more followed. It didn’t matter. No one would notice I cried.
Someone else would be his wife, the mother of his children, the one whose hand he held when she departed the earth. He would remember me distantly and shake his head when he thought of all the antics I’d gotten into.
I’d become a memory to him, and life would move on without me. Even if he changed with my death. It wouldn’t end him the way he had stopped me because Chad would survive. He knew how to keep moving forward. It was one of the things I loved so much about him.
I hated the truth of it all.
Seeing the person I needed, I grabbed his arm and pulled him to me.
Patrick dripped with sweat. “Did you see Icahn go down?”
“Yes.” I smiled, or at least tried to. “I was up there with him.”
Fighting continued around us. I ducked to avoid getting slammed by someone’s large club. Who fought with clubs? I shook my head. This whole thing bordered on insanity.
“Did you do the throwing?”
I shook my head, wiping away another tear. “No. I wish. It was Andon. I don’t know why he killed him like that. I thought, you know, he’d tear him up, but he just gave him a good shove.”
Patrick shook his head before he grasped my cheek. “You’re crying.”
“I need to tell you something.” I couldn’t let him draw me into actually examining my emotions. It would be my undoing. Kindness disarmed me and, in this situation, I needed all of my best defenses up. “There are going to be men coming now. Other scientists. Icahn seemed sure of it. You’ll have to be ready.”
“Like the never-ending stream of evil geniuses. Back in the day, this would have been a cartoon the kids would have watched.”
I laughed, covering my mouth when the sound shocked me. “Thank you for that.”
He pulled me into a hug. “You don’t have to do this. We can kill the Wolves now. Chad is right. You have a room full of Warriors. We’ll finish with the humans and take out the beasts.”
“Look at our Warriors. They’re beaten and bloody. The Wolves would eat us alive.” No more deaths on my head. None. “I made a promise.”
The words sparked me into action. I pulled the machete off my back and handed it to Chad’s father. “Keith gave me this. Would you please give it to someone who seems lost? Someone who isn’t fitting in? Would you make sure he or she knows it was made by a man who kept us all alive for so long?”
“I will.” He stared at the weapon. “And the person he gave it to was the bravest person I knew. I’m failing you.” He shook his head. “You stay here. I’m doing this in your stead.”
I grabbed his arm. “No. This place will need you if it’s going to survive now. Just tell Chad….” What? What did I want to tell Chad? “Tell him to forgive me.”
***
I followed Andon through the woods. He hadn’t shifted back to his human form and yet he expected me to keep up.
Finally, I couldn’t run anymore. “I’m not going to make very interesting prey if I’m already winded.”
He stopped moving and shifted back, his body reshaping through snaps and breaks into its human form. “Frankly, I’m shocked you showed up. Do you not have any sense? I was actually hoping to get to tear you apart in front of your friends.”
“Charming imagery. Thanks for it.” I shook my head. Jason could be a jerk, but his father gave new meaning to the word.
Andon whistled and his Wolves appeared around him. They had to have been right on our heels. I hadn’t noticed. Being in Andon’s presence made my Werewolf senses go off. Focusing on how many there were didn’t matter very much.
I looked at the group. Once, I’d wanted to join them. As Jason’s mate, I could have traveled with this group as one of them. Now, they were going to eat me. Oh the shifts life took.
“We’re not stopping here.” Andon shook his head. “Too close. Her people might be able to track us this far.”
“I don’t think Patrick will let them.” He hadn’t asked for my opinion, but I gave it anyway. Keeping my mouth shut had never been my strongest suit.
Jason’s sister Autumn shifted into her human form. She gave me a glance of cold appraisal before speaking to her father. “It’s not Patrick who concerns me. It’s her boyfriend. He just went nuts. Frankly, he almost got Luna’s head.”
Autumn’s twin, Luna, shifted back. She didn’t even bother to glance in my direction. Once, we’d all been friends. Without Jason, however, all bets were off. One of them might be the Wolf to destroy me.
“He didn’t almost get my head. I avoided him. He’s crazed right now. I doubt he could hit a nonmoving target and I ran away. I’d like to eat him.” Now she stared at me. “Up.”
“So we keep moving.” Andon nodded. “Rachel, climb on my back. I won’t have you slowing us down.”
My feet felt frozen to the ground. I didn’t want to climb on his back. Couldn’t he simply kill me here? Why make me remember all the things I wanted to forget? I used to ride on Jason’s back. Those were our good times.
They hadn’t lasted long, but they’d happened, and they’d been real.
“Rachel?’ Andon growled. “Are you going to make this difficult? Because I can give you pain before I let them kill you.”
I walked forward. “You do whatever you have to do.” He could threaten me if he wanted to. It seemed kind of pathetic. What kind of Alpha had to bother giving a human an ultimatum? “If you need to shift, do it. I’m not getting any younger.”
He shook his head. “You were much more polite when you were younger. At fifteen, I could actually see you with Jason. We took you on family trips.”
“You took me because Jason wouldn’t go without me. I don’t want to reminisce with you. I’m not interested in remember-whens.”
Nothing good came out of talking about the Before Time.
Andon shifted into his Wolf form and I walked toward him. Jason used to have a harness I could use to make riding easier. His father would have no such concern for my well-being.
I hauled myself up and tried to grip him with my thighs like I would a horse. I wrapped my arms around his neck to hold on even tighter. If I broke my arm, I wouldn’t be as interesting a chase later. Andon wouldn’t want me to be a lesser revenge.
Or, at least, I hoped that proved to be true. I really had no idea how much pain he intended to deliver to my person before I got eaten.
Luna said Chad had gone nuts. I pushed the image from my imagination. I’d never seen him really lose it and I didn’t want to try to picture it now. I’d only stopped crying a few minutes earlier.
Don’t hurt, Chad. I sent the thought to him, knowing he wouldn’t hear it. As a plain-old human, I didn’t get to communicate telepathically.
It couldn’t hurt to wish someone could make my words come true. Maybe if some being existed who helped control our destinies, that being would interfere and help him to find relief from the pain of this.
I really didn’t know about any of that. Believing had never been something I did very well.
Andon ran through the woods, me on his back.
Jason would have hated this and yet I knew he wouldn’t have interfered. As supreme Alpha, Andon’s word constituted law. He wanted me dead.
I would be.
Chapter Eight
I’d thought my death would be fast. I’d been sorely mistaken. I washed another dish and shivered in the cold air. Andon hadn’t taken us south to avoid my friends; he’d taken us north. Very far north. We’d traveled for days, and I didn’t have clothes warm enough to handle the constant assault of cold air smacking at me.
The Wolves didn’t care. They had fur and, during the brief times they shifted to their human forms, they had clothes to wear. So far, no one had wanted to share anything warmer with me.
I sniffled. Sick prey wouldn’t run as fast. They knew this but tormenting me with illness amused them too much to stop.
Luna came and sat down next to me. She stared at me while I worked, not uttering a word. Did she expect me to say something?
I looked up, meeting her eyes. “Do you need something?”
“No.”
I stared back down at the bowl I scrubbed. “All right.”
“Why wasn’t he enough for you?”
I took a deep breath. “Because he wasn’t. Jason decided I was his mate. Maybe if we could have been together, if your father hadn’t separated us the way he did, those kinds of feelings would have developed for me, too. The time we were apart opened me up to other options. I know you don’t get it. You’re a Wolf; I’m a human. Sometimes the chemistry doesn’t match up even when we want it to.”
“He died for you and I can smell another man all over you.” She took a deep breath. “You lost your virginity to someone else. You have given no respect to my dead brother.” She growled. “None.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. We weren’t on good terms when he died. Obviously, I’m enormously grateful to him. I wish he could have moved on. Fallen in love with one of your packmates. I wish we’d never dated in the Before Time.”
“Then you’d be dead.” Autumn came and sat next to Luna. “Besides, those were fun times.”
“Until he went all psycho on me and punched my dad.”
They both laughed like I’d reminded them of the best joke they’d ever heard. I rolled my eyes. It hadn’t been at all funny, not to me, anyway.
“Our mother grounded him for a week.” Luna shook her head. “Jason only paid attention to Dad.”
I’d been acutely aware of how much he valued their father. Even after his dad had driven us apart, Jason hadn’t been able to let him go.
“Let me ask you something.” I spoke to both of them. “When you find your mates, will you let anything keep you away from them?”
Autumn spoke first. “No.”
Luna, always the brighter of the two, considered my question. “I know what you’re referring to. It’s complicated for a Wolf. Jason held obedience to our father. Dad told him you didn’t want to be there, and he believed him.”
Right. I’d heard this argument a million times from Jace himself. I stood up and they growled. Much as I wanted to pick up a stick from the small, burning fire to my right, and jab at them with it, I forced myself to sit back down. I’d agreed to this. Icahn had died because of them. My friends and family could now be safe.
I had to eat my discomfort and wait out my days.
Chad had told his father off because he hadn’t liked his father plotting with me. That was something a human would do and not something Jason could manage. Ever. Not even for his so-called mate. I’d needed someone who could put me first, above all other things or people. Ultimately, that fact, coupled with Jason succumbing to his curse again, ended our relationship.
Then, of course, Jason had died.
I closed my eyes.
“It’s going to be tonight.” Autumn spoke softly. “I shouldn’t tell you. We weren’t ordered not to. Still, I imagine Dad would prefer you not to know.”
“Right.” My head throbbed. I guess I didn’t need to bother asking them for something to wear. I shivered and I knew it had nothing to do with the cold. It had been weeks since I’d seen a friendly face.
Andon really did know how to torture me. I’d expected a quick death. Instead, I got a long separation from the people I wanted to be with more than anything.
“Well.” Luna stood up. My sudden fall in mood would be a drag on her senses. She wouldn’t like it. “We’ll get going.”
“Hey.” I looked up. “Are we in Canada?”
I don’t know why I suddenly cared. Locations didn’t matter very much anymore. Borders were for the time Before. I still wanted to know.
Autumn laughed. “We have no idea. How would we?”
I nodded and went back to scrubbing my bowl. It had to be super clean at this point. At least it gave me something to do.
“You didn’t appreciate him.” Luna added one more time. “And he was the best person on the planet.”
“Everyone should have someone who thinks they’re the best person on the planet.” I smiled. “He was lucky he had all of you.” And because I never knew when to leave good enough alone, I added. “Maybe you could ask yourself how Jason would have liked you doing this to me.”
“Dad says we have to honor him
by destroying his destroyer.”
“Too bad Dr. Icahn is already dead, then.” I smiled.
They rolled their eyes in unison, a trick only twins seemed to be able to manage to do.
When they’d left the vicinity, I stood up to stretch my muscles. I wouldn’t live through the night. That didn’t mean, however, I had to roll over and die. If they wanted a run, tonight I would give them one.
I smiled. The person who always enjoyed this side to my personality the most had been Jason. He would have grinned at my sudden belief in myself. Maybe it was the fact his family had surrounded me for weeks, but lately I’d been able to smile when I thought of him.
That had to be better than the ways I’d dwelled on him in the past. I’d meant what I said to Luna. People should remember us fondly.
I held my hands over my head. Attitude had to count for something in this strange life I led.
***
Andon stood in front of the Wolves, all dressed in their human skins. They stared at him like the God he thought himself to be. I barely paid attention to what he said. The night air, so much more frigid than the cold daytime version, beat at my skin.
Running was going to prove challenging. The air would burn my lungs. I’d have to remember to breathe through my nose as much as I could. A scarf would have gone a long way to help.
I intended to run south for as long as I could. I’d hide if I could find a way to stay downwind, where they wouldn’t scent me. I’d promised them a machete-free go at me. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t defend myself if I could figure out another way to do so.
“This woman is responsible for the death of the Wolf who should have been your Alpha upon my death.”
I looked at Andon. It struck me as strange, the way they were more concerned about their pack hierarchy than their familial relationships. How about, “This girl is responsible for your brother’s death?” I shook my head. I’d never gotten them and I doubted I ever would—not that I had much time left to contemplate such things.