Chapter 9
Brick
We arrive at the game site, pulling into a snowy lot to park. A second SUV pulls up beside ours. I expect to see Sully and the rest of our party, but only Billy climbs out. He’s been giving me space, knowing he’s on my shit list. My wolf still hasn’t forgiven him for mistrusting Madison.
“Where’s Sully?” I ask.
“He stayed behind,” Nickel answers for Billy. “There was some sort of security glitch on the island.”
“What’s happened?” Madi is on the island. “Is everything okay with my ma–” I catch myself before I say mate. I’m here to pretend to find a mate. I hate it, but I have to keep up the ruse that I haven’t attached myself to a human a little longer. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s no big deal. The guards were a little late to check in, that’s all.” Sully’s team is supposed to check in every hour on the hour. Sometimes via phone or video call, but most of the time it’s done with a special code. “The internet went down for a few minutes, that might have delayed it.”
My wolf goes into overdrive, slamming against the walls of the cage. Every muscle in me tightens to keep from unleashing the beast. “I need to go.” My mate might be in danger.
“With all due respect” —Nickel faces me, careful not to meet my eyes while still standing strong—“this is probably nothing. Sully’s on it. He should be conferencing now with the head of security on the island. If anything’s wrong, he’ll fly out himself.”
My nerves are screaming red alert. “I should be there.” I shouldn’t have left. What sort of alpha am I, leaving my vulnerable mate alone?
“You need to be here, Alpha,” Jake murmurs. He and Vance crowd me, blocking others from seeing my meltdown. Beyond them, I sense Billy watching me.
“If you want to sell this, then Jake is right,” Nickel says. “Think of the pack.”
Right. The pack. I need to focus on why I’m here. A show of strength to prove I’m not moon mad.
The whole shifter world is watching.
Nickel pulls out his phone. “Do you want me to call Sully?” He tries and grimaces. “I have no signal.”
My top wolves hover around me, waiting for me to make a decision. It’s up to me.
I’ve come all this way. This is the plan–show my face at the mating games. I don’t have to stay long.
“Let’s go,” I growl.
Jake and Nickel nod, relaxing.
“Just get through one game,” Vance says. “Smile, shake hands, make conversation.”
“Right.” My voice is so gravely, it may as well be a growl. “Smile.”
“As they say in England, Stiff upper fang, old chap,” Vance says in a horrible accent.
“We do not say that,” Nickel mutters. He catches sight of my face and advises, “Perhaps a little less fang.” I glare at him, and he lowers his eyes. “Nevermind.”
“Let’s go.” I follow the scent of ash down a path that cuts through the trees. We emerge in a field. In the center, a pile of tree trunks shoots up flames taller than me. Members of the other packs congregate there in tight huddles organized by pack.
I lead my pack to a spot near the bonfire, close enough to feel the heat but not be seared by it, and out of the path of the billowing smoke. A group of wolves dressed in black march up from the opposite side of the field to stand across from us, and my wolf snaps into focus.
So does Billy. “Guys,” he mutters, and my sister, Jake, and Vance quiet. “The Adalwulfs are here.”
“Good,” Vance says. He and Jake step in front of Scarlett as if to block her from the Adalwulf pack’s view. “It’ll make things more interesting. Sometimes these games get violent. As long as no one dies.”
“But if someone falls into a chasm or suffocates in a snow cave, it’s just a horrible accident,” Jake murmurs back.
Vance smacks his right fist into the opposite palm. “Exactly.”
“Wait, where’s Aiden?” Nickel narrows his eyes. There’s no sign of Odin’s son among the wolves in black. And of course, Odin isn’t here–he’s snug in his fortress, living out his last days.
So why are wolves from his pack here? Enforcers–the biggest, baddest of their fighters.
My wolf tugs at me. Something’s not right.
One of the Adalwulfs, a big bruiser with a scar slashed across his face leaps to the top of a boulder.
“Change of plans today,” he shouts. A shudder goes through onlookers as they see his harshly scarred face. Wolves don’t scar like that unless the wound is treated with vampire blood. But Odin is known for punishing his troops with that sort of torture. “Our alpha Odin has designed a new game.”
“What game?” A wolf with a French accent calls.
The wind picks up, clearing away the smoke, and carrying a chilling scent to me. A soft, sweet one that doesn’t belong in this frozen landscape.
No. It can’t be. The scent smells exactly like…
“Madison.” A strangled growl bursts from my chest, right when the Adalwulf announcer looks straight at me.
“The challenge is called hunt the human.”
* * *
Madi
Icy needles prick my cheeks. I flinch, and an awful clump of freezing wet slush falls against my neck. It’s so cold it burns, and I jerk upright.
Pain pounds through my temples. My mouth tastes like ash. There’s a strange slumberousness in my limbs, but the savage wind slicing through me is waking me the fuck up.
I’m no longer in balmy Greece, with white sands and turquoise blue water as
far as the eye can see. The sky above me is gray and heavy. I’m on a vast frozen plain, lying in the snow.
Someone wrapped a thick, red coat around me and shoved my bare feet into snow boots, but underneath I’m still in the light blue sundress I was wearing on the island. My hands and bare knees are already going numb. I force my frozen fingers to zip up the coat and flip up the hood. I’m whimpering, my jaw cramping from how fast my teeth are chattering.
Where am I?I have to think.
There are tracks around me, the heavy boots of my captors imprinted in the drifts. Far to the left are signs of parallel tracks–like a helicopter landed there. There’s no sign of the helicopter now. There’s no sign of any living soul.
I’m alone.
Dark shapes topped with snow rise in the distance. I brush away the snowflakes clumping on my eyelashes and can make out massive evergreen pines. I must be on a frozen lake, and the trees are lining the shore. Beyond the forest, giant peaks disappear into the clouds.
I force myself to eat a handful of snow. The frigid sting wakes me up further. My fingers throb with pain that fades to numbness. I shove them in the coat pockets.
My last memories are of the scar-faced man dragging me through the kitchen, leaving Catherine’s broken body lying on the pantry floor.
I hope she and Ariadne are okay. I hope someone figured out how to get a signal and radio for help. Because I need someone to figure out what happened and find me before I freeze to death.
The Adalwulfs must have drugged me and dropped me in Alaska. Or somewhere with frozen lakes, mountains, and pine trees.
Not Alaska… Sweden. Because that’s where Brick is, right? The only reason the Adalwulfs would be after me is because of him.
First things first. I have to find shelter. I can’t survive out in the open like this. The only reason I haven’t died of exposure is the winter coat and boots my kidnappers gifted me with.
Thanks for nothing, asshats. They must want me to survive long enough to... what? Die tonight when it gets much colder?
This line of thought is not helping. I force myself to trudge towards the nearest shoreline, a mile away.
I’m not going to die here. I can figure this out.
An eerie sound bursts from the treeline. I stumble to a halt, my muscles freezing as the melancholy cry goes on and on. Am I headed towards it? Or away?
The howl stops and starts again. Then another and another, echoing off the mountains until the howling comes from all sides.
It might be Brick or his pack.
But it might not. And I can’t risk it.
I grit my teeth and start to run towards the shore.
* * *
Brick
I crash through the forest, branches whipping my face. I’m running, still in human form. I haven’t taken the time to shift. My speed turns the falling snow into sharp sleet slicing at my face.
Wolf howls echo all around.
She’s out there. Alone. My mate. I knew something was wrong.
And now she’s in danger. My wolf was telling me to return to her, and I let my top wolves convince me to go ahead with this charade, to put my pack first.
Did they know something was wrong? Did Sully know how bad it was and hide it from me?
Is there a traitor in my pack? Can I trust any of them to fight for a human?
But I can’t stop to think about that now. I have to find her.
I put on speed, dodging boulders and pushing through the tightly-thatched pine boughs. Branches crackle and snap, dumping snow in my wake. When I break free from the woods, Billy is running flat out beside me.
“Scarlett,” I grit out. Madi is my first focus, but I can”t forget my little sister. With the Adalwulfs making trouble, she might be in danger.
“Headed back to the hotel under guard. Sully will keep her safe.”
If Sully can be trusted. Dammit!
Behind us, a long, low bugling sound rings out. A hunting horn.
“What’s that?” Billy asks.
“The start of the games,” I answer grimly. Now more wolf packs will be out to find Madi.
“Nickel stayed behind to explain. The packs wouldn’t–”
“Some of them would.” Some of them would find hunting a human distasteful. Some of them would relish it.
Howls break out. Among the rest, I recognize Jake and Vance’s distinctive song. Billy says, “I told them to spread out and watch our backs. The Adalwulfs are up to something.”
The wind shifts, blowing bonfire smoke our way, and I lose the faint floral scent. I halt, floundering in the snow.
“This way,” Billy says, and I follow him to higher ground. We come up on a rocky hilltop, overlooking a thick pine forest. Beyond the frosted tree tops lies a large frozen expanse. “There, on the lake.” He points. There’s nothing but white, but then swirling snow settles, revealing a tiny red dot. A figure struggling across the snow-covered ice.
Madi. My mate.
I’m off like a shot, speeding down the hill.
“Alpha,” Billy shouts. “Wait!” He’s running too, but a few feet behind me. So when I plow into the waiting Adalwulfs, he’s able to avoid their attack.
Giant black and brown wolves surround me on both sides, leaping to bring me down. They’re half feral, with huge fangs and bright red eyes. Odin’s enforcers take a potion to enhance their strength–the side effect is red eyes.
The leader, Scar Face, strides forward, still in human form. “Odin sends his regards. He will relish news of your death as he did that of your father’s.”
He leaps, shifting into a giant black wolf, and goes for my throat. His followers score my sides. I snap at them, and they retreat, only to press into me. Teeth graze my legs, my flanks. A heavy weight lands on my back–a wolf trying to pin me, so Scar Face can tear out my jugular.
In a fair fight, I could destroy every one of them and not break a sweat. But I‘m outnumbered, ten to one. The sheer number of bodies threatens to crush me.
Billy stands free of the wolf pile, lunging at anyone who comes close. He’s looking for an opening, ready to jump in to help me fight.
In a burst of energy, I throw the wolf on me off and rear up. I climb over the seething black mass of wolves and leap to freedom. I’m running again, with a whole host of red-eyed wolves lunging at my heels. They’re not going to stop until they’ve dragged me down.
All the while, Madi is out there, freezing to death. How can I save her?
Billy pushes close, knocking a few of my pursuers off their feet. He’s at my side, fighting.
He’s never made a secret of how much he hated Madi. I’ve been punishing him for that. He used to be my right hand wolf. My top fighter.
I have to trust someone. Madi’s life is on the line.
“Billy!” I slash my hand out, waving him off. “Go!”
Two more Adalwulf wolves tear out from their hiding spots under the snow laden bushes. I dodge them. I don’t have time to stop and fight.
Billy dashes around them, too, and glances behind. I don’t have to look back to know the Adalwulfs are growing in number. And who knows how many wolves they have waiting to trap me.
“Go,” I shout to him again. I can’t bear to say this, but I have to. “Save her for me.” I want to be the first to reach her, but the Adalwulfs are going to keep attacking me, and they’ll slow me down. The minutes are precious for a frail human–the difference between frostbite and hypothermia. And she”s in danger, hunted by hostile wolves.
If I know she’s safe, I can lead these Adalwulfs into a trap of my own. Jake and the others will catch up with me eventually. I can hear their howls in the distance. They probably stopped to fight as many Adalwulfs as they could, and now are coming to level the fighting field. We’ll deal with our enemies and meet up with Billy and Madi as soon as we can.
“Alpha,” Billy says. Indecision wars on his face. “You’re sure?”
In the past few weeks, I’ve shunned him for how he treated Madi. I’ve cut him out of my inner circle and withdrawn my favor, wounding him the best way I know how.
But now he’s Madi’s only hope. And he’s still my pack. The fiercest wolf I know. I trust he will find my mate and defend her to the death.
“Brother,” I say, and his expression transforms, the harsh lines in his face melting away. He can see how much I need him, and for the first time in weeks, the chasm between us disappears. “Go.”
The fastest Adalwulfs have gained on us. I see their black heads out of the corners of my eyes. Their scent is everywhere--they probably mapped out this territory and planned this route. That and their sheer numbers are the advantage they have in this fight.
Teeth snap at my legs.
I tear off my coat to make it easier to shift and skid to a stop.
My abrupt halt makes the wolves on my tail go flying past me. I leap, shift midair, and land as a wolf. I knock two of the Adalwulfs aside and veer left, leading my enemies away. The last thing I see before the red-eyed wolves close in is Billy’s white and gray wolf, bounding down the mountain towards the lake, with two black Adalwulfs hard on his heels.
Hang on Madi. Help is on the way.
* * *
Madi
By the time I reach the treeline, my body’s sagging, my heart’s exploding in my chest. As grateful as I am for the boots, they don’t quite fit me. I have to half trot, half shuffle to keep them on, and my calves and shins are screaming. Snow’s fallen in and frozen my feet.
But the wolves are coming. Their howls have intensified, blending with the whistling wind.
My boot hits a slippery patch, and I go down. The fall knocks the air out of me. I crawl until I can rise. My palms throb and so does my ankle. I can’t put my full weight on it, but I do the best I can, limping forward.
Two black wolves race out of the swirling snow, their paws pounding on the ice. It’s almost a relief to see them, to put a face to the ones hunting me. They’re eating up the distance like it’s nothing, heading toward me.
A third wolf appears between them. My heart leaps. Is it Brick? But the closer the trio come, the less I feel certain it’s him. Brick’s wolf is tan with a black streak running from chin to chest. This wolf is gray with white splashed around its muzzle.
They’re so close, I see their glowing eyes. A pair of blue between two red. And I don’t know if they’re friends or foes.
Ice coats my lungs, making my breath sob out of me. I whirl and limp the final feet to the trees. Each step jars my ankle, making pain radiate up my leg, sparking tears. I can’t run, not like this. I can’t outpace my hunters. But maybe I can hide.
In the shadows of the towering pines, the snow’s mounded under a thin crust of ice. I stagger into the deeper drifts, crying out as my chafed hands break the crust and plunge into the powdery depths. Each step is like lumbering through sand.
The wolves are less than a hundred feet away. I’m not going to make it–
With a snarl, the gray wolf turns and leaps on the black wolf on its right. They disappear in a flurry of snow. The wet sounds and growls tell me they’re fighting.
A new wave of adrenaline hits my bloodstream, carries me a few feet more.
Behind me, the single black wolf dashes the last bit of distance towards me. In no time, it’s on me, all horrible teeth and fur and crazed red eyes. Something tears at my calf, and I cry out. I throw myself to the side, trying to get out of the way, and my jacket tears. Feathers fill the air. The black wolf rises to hind legs, the end of my jacket in its jaws. It pulls me off my feet. I’m thrashing and crying, trying to get free of the coat. I’m yanked back, then the coat goes slack. I fall–hard–on the ice, and it scrapes my face. The jacket’s still half on my aching arms. Its hem is torn, but the black wolf is gone.
Not gone, fighting for its life. The grey wolf is beside it, snarling and snapping at its side. They reach the lake’s edge and plow into the drift, the gray one on top of the black.
I detour right and fight my way through the deep snow, thrashing until my feet find purchase. It’s a stroke of luck that I don”t lose a boot. I clamber out of the drift and find solid ground under an evergreen bush.
I scramble on hands and knees. Twigs poke my face, but I hunch, head down, and push to the other side and into a clearing. The way ahead is through an endless forest of black trunks.
Behind me, there’s a whimper, then a roar blasts my back. One of the wolves has won. It’ll come for me.
I grab a fallen branch and force myself upright, favoring my unhurt ankle. I can’t run anymore. And I can’t hide, not in this bright red parka.
The gray and white wolf pushes past the underbrush. It’s huge, with bright blood soaking the white fur under its long fangs.
My jaw has cramped, it barely opens enough to let out my scream. This is it. Brick will find me here, torn to pieces. I use the last of my strength to raise the branch. Maybe he’ll know I didn’t go down without a fight.
The wolf paces towards me. Its eyes glow electric blue. It’s not Brick. His wolf has amber eyes.
The wolf is almost on me. My legs are close to giving out.
It’s now or never.
I slam the branch toward it. It jerks back, and I miss. The wolf rears to hind legs, morphing before my eyes. White fur disappears, becomes white and pink skin–something human. I should hit it now, when it’s vulnerable, but my next swipe overbalances me, and I have to use the branch to prop myself upright. By the time I raise the branch again, the wolf has become a man.
A familiar looking man. Scowling face, strong jaw–I know him.
It’s Billy, towering over me. Barefoot, ankle deep in the snow and very, very naked.
Of all the wolves to catch up to me, it has to be the one from Brick’s posse who hates me most. He’s probably here to kill me and tell Brick the Adalwulfs are responsible.
Fuck him to infinity and back. I swing the branch at him again and get a solid hit into his chest. Rage gives me strength.
“What the fuck! I’m trying to help you.” He grabs the branch, and we struggle. I’m bellowing nonsense, doing my best to drive the branch through his solid pec into his heart. I get a few whacks in before he wrenches my weapon out of my trembling arms. He glares at me, bits of bark clinging to his stubbled jaw. “Stupid human.”
I lunge at him, lose my balance and fall. He waits until the last moment to catch me, scooping me up. We glare at each other, faces mere inches apart. I would choke him out if I could move my arms.
He curses. “I have to get you to safety.”
“L-l-let me go.” My teeth clatter.
“I can’t. Brick will kill me.”
“W-w-where–”
“He’s coming. The Adalwulfs are doing their best to stop him. It’s a dogpile.”
His shifter heat seeps into me, keeping frostbite at bay. “T-t-they d-dropped me here.”
“Yeah, I got that.” He carries me to the lake edge, hesitates. A howl breaks out, and his whole body tenses. “That’s Vance. Hang on.” His grip tightens, hauling me close, so he can run.
The snow blurs the world around us. His speed turns the snowflakes into needles, driving into my scraped cheeks. Everything hurts. My tears are frozen tracks down my face.
The howls have started up again. A wolf with a gray face and black back leaping towards us, and I flinch. It swerves to fall in behind Billy. I jolt, and Billy murmurs, “It’s okay. That’s Jake.”
I’m still gasping with the need to run away. After what I’ve been through, the sight of a strange wolf isn’t reassuring.
A second wolf, black with some rust markings on its sides and on either side of its throat, joins it. I bite back a warning because it seems to be guarding our flank with the first one. It has glowing amber eyes, like Brick.
Billy’s heading for the north side of the frozen lake. I hunch against him, ready for him to flounder in the drifts by the trees, but he simply gains speed and leaps high over the bushes, landing in a rocky area. We’re heading uphill, and both he and the wolves are running like they’re on flat land. Billy’s not even out of breath. Like Brick, his temperature seems hot, warming me through to my skin. I’m sweaty under my parka.
Above our heads, snow slides off a giant rock outcropping. Billy curses, narrowly avoiding the mini avalanche. Nickel peers down at us.
“This way,” he shouts. “We’ve secured a chalet.” He’s bare chested, but doesn’t seem to mind the cold.
Billy ascends to the rock, and Nickel falls in beside us jogging, naked. “Hello, little red riding hood.”
Billy snorts.
I hate them both. I’m too cold to talk, so I raise a frozen hand and extend my middle finger as far as I can.
Nickel smiles grimly. “Still alive, I see.” To Billy, he says, “Come on, we’ve got to get her out of the cold.”
“No, I thought we’d stop for tea,” Billy snarks. He and Nickel head higher, running through an obstacle course of trees and boulders like it’s a child’s play. The two wolves behind us fall back, standing on the rock as if looking out for enemies.
“Where are the Adalwulfs?” Billy asks.
“Scattered. I took two out and called for backup. Found this place.” He points up. We’re on the side of a mountain, and halfway up the peak, sunlight glances off a set of windows. “It’s an empty chalet. Remote, defensible. The road’s out, so it’s unreachable except by helicopter. We can secure it.” He says all this while leaping over boulders, not missing a breath. “Our Austrian allies are guarding the north and west perimeter in case more packs come to hunt the human.”
Hunt the human?Seriously?
“Where’s Brick?” Billy asks.
A roar echoes off the mountain. It’s answered by a chorus of chilling growls.
Nickel and Billy curse in unison and increase their speed. The trees fly by. Nickel dashes ahead. He jumps off a boulder and shifts mid-air, morphing into a giant white wolf. It lands on all four paws, its coat blending with the snow, and darts into the trees.
“He’ll try to distract them.” Billy’s voice is tight. “But I think they’re trying to stop us from getting to the–”
The trees part, and we’re in a huge clearing, right under the cliff that holds the chalet. And it’s a war zone.
A snarling pack of black wolves swarm a central figure. The creature in the center roars and throws five of them off at a time. The bodies go flying, one of them striking a tree trunk and cracking it in half. The other four gain their feet, shake their heads until the rabid foam flies from their fangs and leap back into the fray. The group writhes as they try to drag the center creature down.
It’s Brick. He’s in wolf form, his fur matted with blood, red staining the tan. There are wolves trying to bite his back, his sides. Giant wolves with red eyes and slavering jaws. He tears into them, flings them off, only for them to attack again and again. There are so many demon-eyed wolves. How has he survived?
Billy skids to stop on the edge of the clearing. The two wolves we left behind–Jake and the other, probably Vance–come hurtling past us and join the pile. They rip at the wolves attacking Brick, dragging them off one by one, and pinning them down to rip out their throats. Blood sprays, spattering the snow with bright red.
Billy stands, holding me, every muscle in him tense. “Billy,” I have to shout twice before he blinks at me. “Help him!”
I struggle, and he has to set me down. My ankle screams, and I bite my lip. I stagger to a sapling and hang on. “Go!”
“I can’t leave you.” He looks torn. He thinks he has to stay to protect me.
But the enemy wolves aren’t focused on me. They’re closing in on Brick, slinking on all sides to attack him.
They”re not playing ‘hunt the human.’ They”re focused on Brick.
I grab Billy’s arm. “You need to help.”
Brick is standing strong, but his fur is soaked with blood. I can’t tell if it’s his or the enemies’.
Three of the Adalwulfs close in, one of them going for Brick’s neck.
“I’ll be fine.” I give Billy a shove. “They’re killing him!”
With a curse, Billy whirls and runs toward the fight. He leaps and shifts in midair. A giant white and gray wolf lands on the wolf in front of Brick, pinning it before it can tear into Brick’s neck. Brick turns on the wolf to his left, savaging it with brutally efficient moves before turning on the wolf to his right. Snarls and growls echo around.
Blood sprays.
I lean back against the sapling, steadying myself. My head is dizzy with heat, and my good leg doesn’t want to hold me up, but I’m going to hold on.
Then I see it: a huge scar-faced wolf lurking a few feet away. It’s got its eyes set on Brick. A sharp bark, and six more wolves pour out of the trees, dancing over the carnage to surround Brick. They’re going to hold him for the scar-faced wolf to tear out his neck.
I don’t think, I just move. I stagger forward, losing a boot as I run. With a shriek, I rip off my red coat and toss it at the scar-faced wolf just as it starts to lunge.
The coat flies through the air, landing on the scar-faced wolf’s head. It’s a pitiful distraction but it works. The wolf charges forward like a bull charging a red cape, only to get tangled for a moment.
That moment is long enough. Brick surges, knocking the scarred wolf to the ground. The remaining enemy attacks him, but Billy and Nickel are at their backs along with Jake and Vance.
This was the enemy’s last stand. My heart is in my throat as I watch the melee.
The flying fur settles, and Brick stands triumphant over the scar-faced wolf.
I did it. I saved him.
My legs give out like I’m a puppet whose strings have been cut.
Brick turns to me just in time to watch me fall.