20. Reckoning
CHAPTER 20
Reckoning
SHEN
M other was not happy.
“You let him leave? Do you need more assistance learning the meaning of an Alpha’s words?”
“No, Mother. He merely escaped.”
Her eyes grew golden. She stood. Beatrice settled back in her gold-tinted glass chair, her eyes showing a hint of glee.
“You know the rules around Alpha Command as well as anyone, my son. There can only be so much power exchanged within a month’s time. My last Command was completed a week past. But you understand there are other ways to enforce my words, do you not?”
I used a small tool behind my back to pinch the sensitive skin of a finger to prevent my heart rate from betraying me. She would be deposed soon if my contacts came through. I signed away my right as heir, but the pack would have an Alpha who would care for them. That was all that mattered.
“The little menagerie of those who were cast out. I wonder where they went?” Cold flushed through my bones at her words. It was a challenge to keep the growl in my chest. “The boy you took under your tutelage. Your dear cousin. He was with them, no? What a shame how hard it is for him to shift since he was once under the Red’s care . At least now he has a purpose in caring for the castoffs. Perhaps he won’t attempt to take his life once more.”
I maintained an emotionless mien even as Lycus edged forward. I worried he would be seen in my eyes, so I looked away and kept my gaze on the ground.
“Do not test me,” Mother said, her power washing over me.
I bowed my head and presented my neck. “Yes, Alpha.”
She waved her hand.
I strode out of the massive hall without a backward glance.
As soon as I escaped into the cool night air, the suppressed growl burst from my chest and ripped into the stillness of the night. A fox shot out from a burrow and a mass of crows cawed as they scattered from a tree.
When my feet touched the soft loam of the forest surrounding the huge city, Lycus exploded. I landed on four feet instead of two. We pounded through the trees, hoping we were not too late.
A light glow brushed the dark sky as I topped the hill just outside Doc’s land. My heart pounded in time to my feet as Lycus pushed us faster, our feet flying over the loam into the swaying winter grasses which Doc had just planted for his animals.
My ears pricked up when a scream abruptly cut off. Doc’s massive barn cracked and shot sparks into the night sky as a fire devoured its insides, making it glow like a massive furnace.
It was close to toppling when Doc’s mate, Madame Vika, came running from within, a girl not older than four clinging to her skirts.
Her eyes saw me and they widened with hope. “There is another in the loft—I couldna?—”
I did not wait for her to finish. I leapt through the door. A beam fell, and I dodged to the side, just avoiding being crushed. A shard snapped up from the impact and tore into my chin. I pawed at the piece and howled when it came out, leaving a hole right beneath my jaw.
I shook off the rest of the debris and stalked further into the barn. Heat beat against my fur. It sought to devour my skin and melt the fat from my bones. I ignored the pain and squinted to see beyond the tears streaming from my eyes as the smoke stung them.
“Help!” cried a tiny voice.
I shifted to human. It was the only way to climb the ladder. The fire roared with the strength of a dozen dragons. The flames leapt at me and caught my fingers and parts of my legs before I jumped from the ladder and rolled to put out my tunic.
“Where are you?” I called, choking off into hacking coughs as I searched the area for the little one. Doc stored his old medical stuff up here; I saw the old chairs and tables and some remedies, but not the child. I strained my ears to hear anything beyond the crackle of flames.
There.
A tiny breath catching as if in a sob.
I peered around a table to find a small boy curled up under a desk. His eyes were wide as he stared up at me. “Come with me, little one. Let me get you to safety,” I said, holding out my hand.
The boy’s dark brown eyes blinked at me before he set his tiny hand in my own. Then he leapt from his hiding place and clung to my neck with the strength of a werewolf. I glanced back in the direction of the ladder; it was no longer a ladder, just two swinging poles being devoured by flames.
I turned to the loft window and kicked it open. The fire sizzled behind me and the floor sagged as creaks of wood foretold what was soon coming.
“Hold tight,” I whispered in the boy’s ear. He nodded.
I jumped.
Wind screamed past my ears as the barn collapsed behind me.
My knees absorbed most of the shock when we hit the ground. It hurt, but we were alive.
“Sammy!” a voice cried out.
A growl erupted from my lips as a woman ran up to us. She stopped, her pale blue eyes widening. “Please, he’s me boy,” she pleaded.
I immediately silenced the growl raging in my chest. She took Sammy from my arms. “Thank ya, sir. Thank ya, thank ya,” she said over and over, clinging to her pup as much as he clung to her.
“It was my pleasure—” My voice cut off as I saw a commotion in the trees. My body was quavering with the after-effects of adrenaline and my ears rang as my lungs sucked in greedy gulps of air. I wanted to give Lycus time to heal us before we fought again.
But it was only Matilda, a grin on her face as she sauntered into the clearing with a group of about ten children clinging to her skirts.
“See, I told ye the Alpha would come. He’s a right good sort, he is.”
“I am not the Alpha, Madame,” I said with a slight smile.
A hint of the tangy silver and the timeless echo of loam hit my nose a moment before a dark outline emerged behind Matilda and the children. Instinct sent a cold warning through my veins. I ran.
Matilda saw where my eyes were and she turned. She shoved the children away as a man in black stepped from the edge of the woods.
A sword erupted from Matilda’s back. The objective part of me noted the blade was silver based on the way her werewolf blood sizzled on contact. Lycus howled as fury descended and scorched a blazing pathway through my soul.
The being in black scowled, jerking the sword from her chest.
He had not a chance to move before I dragged a blade across his throat and let his gurgling carcass fall to the ground as I caught Matilda. I gently lowered her to the ground, a low whimper escaping her.
More beings paused as they saw my speed and the flash of my werewolf. My growl built to a crescendo. A whistle sounded from deeper within the trees and they disappeared back into the thicket at the signal for retreat.
Sammy’s mother fell to her knees next to Matilda. “Ma?” she whispered, clinging tightly to Sammy, who had his head buried in his mother’s shoulder.
Fen met my eyes across the clearing. His eyes were dark with promise and edged with a dangerous insanity I knew could come with his wolven side. “We hunt. Go,” I said.
He nodded and bowed his head, his eyes blazing. No one attacked our pack—no one. He took off into the woods after the beings who were escaping. They would pay.
I pushed back the silver hair from Matilda’s sweaty brow. She was the one who was there from my earliest memories, the grandmother I never had.
The children were ushered off by Madame Vika. Their faces paled upon seeing the blood, a few had tears beading in their eyes and the sharp, bitter scent of grief filled the air with the sweet copper tang of blood.
Matilda looked up at me, her body jerking with pain. She reached up a hand and I grasped it, her daughter silent beside us. “Take care of them, Alpha,” she whispered.
I was no Alpha.
She smiled, blood dribbling from the corner of her lip. “Ya have always been Alpha, my boy.” She paused, her breathing labored as her wolf struggled to heal her, but the silver was too much. “You always looked out for the weakest of us. A true leader, ya is. I only wished I’d be there to see the day ya are free to meet the person ya were always meant to be.”
“I will take care of them,” I vowed, my voice deep with promise.
She patted my cheek. I suppressed the burning behind my eyes.
Matilda turned to her daughter, who was blinking rapidly to hold back the tide of tears. “Darling Daisy, take care of yourself, ya hear? And never forget how much I love ya,” she whispered, her eyes squinting as if she could not make us out any longer.
“Love ya, Ma, always and forever,” Daisy said, her voice strong despite the tears trailing her cheeks.
“We’ll meet again on Seventh, love. I’ll be waiting—” Matilda’s eyes went behind us and widened. I turned, but no one was there. “Harald? Is that truly ye?” Matilda gasped, her voice hoarse with hope as her eyes filled with tears.
Her hand went limp.
Daisy bowed her head to her mother’s chest and wept.
I closed unseeing eyes and kissed Matilda’s cheek, fury building in my chest.
A howl called from the trees. Fen had found them. It was time to hunt.
Time to kill.
I stalked off into the woods, rage eclipsing my good sense. Lycus roared in my soul, feeling the loss of her as if she had been the mother he had always needed.
I followed Fen’s trail, losing myself in the killing. The pain and fear drove me to the extent of my sanity where I toyed with losing myself to it. Something whispered in my mind, but I did not wish to listen. Here, in this place, I was free. Free of the pain. Free of Commands. Free of anything that could damage my soul.
A hint of sunshine brushed across my nose. I turned, following the scent, and Lycus finally came out to play. Fur sprouted along my arms and my nose elongated until I was on four feet instead of two.