Three #2
Several kids took off then. Had to love them—they didn’t stand around and debate or question, they simply acted. But the little girl and two others standing a bit away from me didn’t move. Instead, she slipped her hand into mine.
“What about Mommy?” she asked me in that tiny, shaking voice.
“Mommy will be fine. Go run up to the green light for me.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.” And I meant it.
She nodded, let go of my hand and grabbed one of the other girls’ hands, and then the three of them ran together up the hill.
“Teague!” I yelled after them, knowing my voice would carry. He always heard me. “Take care of the kids!”
The green light in the distance pulsed once, then got brighter, and I could see the path to him light up even from where I was.
I had to stop looking, though, as two Haviland wolves came down the steps then.
One had shifted to the size of a Great Dane but with the heavy musculature of an English mastiff, and the other remained in human form, brandishing a machete in one hand and an enormous knife in the other.
When I turned to face them, the man jolted and the wolf froze. It was probably my eyes. I knew they were glowing an unnatural shade of electric green, quite different from how they appeared normally.
“The fuck are you, man?” the guy with, I noted now, blood-smeared weapons asked as he faced me.
“I am…other,” I answered, and then I breathed out my humanity.
Normally, I took long moments to experience the change, to embrace the great passage of time, taste the weight of the history I’d witnessed before taking on the mantle of the primeval creation I was.
But I didn’t have the luxury of time at the moment, I had to stand between children and death, so I concentrated, as was necessary, and discarded the facade of a man quickly.
When I shook my head a moment later, I was there, all at once, in my true form.
Originally, I was an enormous dog, but I had altered my shape a lifetime ago, preferring the look of the dire wolves that had allowed me to run with them.
I’d always been bigger, though, and I still was, roughly the size of a cow, with long fur that allowed me to meld into the primordial forest—deep and dark green.
Most ran when they saw me. It was the natural reaction to seeing something preternatural.
If that didn’t happen at once, I gave a warning—head down, low growl, the sound chilling, ominous, like distant thunder.
It seeped into the soul, making lungs seize and muscles quake, filling the mind with terror and dread.
I was a harbinger, after all, crafted to deliver punishment and death.
But the wolves in front of me had descended the stairs to kidnap children on another’s order, and later, if they couldn’t shift, to murder them.
That meant all the children, and two of the kids had been running with infants in their arms: a girl who looked around sixteen, and a boy who I presumed, since he looked so much like Cole, was his brother, Evan.
So the reaping was upon them. There could be no other end.
It was fast. I never made anyone suffer, so I had the wolf’s neck between my jaws in seconds, his life snuffed out in one quick snap before he dropped heavily into the grass.
Even having watched the slaughter, the man still came at me and was eviscerated, a splash of blood staining the newly made wooden stairs.
I lifted my head and was myself again, or at least in the human form I’d come to think of as myself over the centuries.
I was about to head up the stairs and go inside when Tuss and eight others came running down with Cole and other Swann Pack members chasing after them.
Clearly, the Haviland heir had not understood that when you attacked people in their homes and threatened their families, they would fight to the death.
It didn’t hurt that Cole, not Abel, was leading the pack members.
His strength fortified them, whether they were aware of that fact or not.
Seeing the two men dead on the grass jolted them all, I saw it on their faces, but I gave no one a moment to think.
Feigning fear, I bolted toward the trees after the children.
Tuss and the others followed me. They had no choice; I alone had killed two of their brethren, so I had to pay with my life.
I flew over ground I knew well, keeping them close instead of using my normal speed.
I needed them to be able to see me. It wasn’t a long run, or I never would have told the kids to make it without me.
We were off the land that belonged to the Swann Pack and onto mine in minutes.
It was funny, but I saw the female black bear and her two cubs that lived on my land, and I could have sworn she shot me a look, as if wondering what I was doing out so late tearing around like a lunatic.
She much preferred me in my true form. I was quiet then.
I turned after seeing her, and found, as expected, nine men lying face down in the long grass. Moving quickly, I took all their weapons from them, then waited for the pack to join me.
“Mere!” I heard Cole call out. Funny that he shortened my name just as most people who knew me well did.
My heart gave a lurch that wasn’t at all normal for me, and I worried about it for a moment before he came into view. He was bloody and bruised, shirt torn, with slash marks that I knew he could heal but were still hard to see.
“Are you all right?” he rasped when he reached me, cupping my face and checking me over, the concern clear in his voice.
“I’m fine.” I knew then and there that I was going to need to explain to him precisely what I was, because if I didn’t, it would feel like lying. “Are you?”
“I’m a wolf, I can heal this.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” I said, gently putting my hand on his cheek.
He leaned into my palm a moment, then stepped forward into my space and buried his face in my shoulder, arms around me, clutching tight. I hugged him back, letting him feel my strength so he knew I could care for him.
I had the overwhelming urge to tell him everything about myself right that second.
Normally, I justified not showing people what I was as a concern for the sanity of mortals, because not everyone could take that kind of shocking reveal and not have a mental breakdown.
But Cole was a wolf, something that also was normally kept hidden, so not trusting him to handle something he dealt with every day was irrational.
But to show him right then didn’t seem like I’d be doing him any favors either. One surprise at a time seemed kinder.
“Mere,” he whispered. “Look at me.”
But I didn’t want to stare into his face and see uncertainty there, or maybe even fear. If he wasn’t sure of me, he couldn’t very well trust me.
“Mere,” he whispered again.
I looked up and saw his smile.
“You protected all the kids. You were amazing.”
I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until I saw the warmth in the depths of his eyes. And all of it was for me.
“When this is over, we’re going to have a talk, you and I.”
It was the worst idea ever.
“Say yes to me.”
But absolutely no good could come from this flirtation, and—
His hand was around my throat so fast I gasped. Not from fear, but excitement.
“I’ve never felt like this before, so I need to figure out what—” His voice cracked, and he took a deep breath through his nose. “—this is.”
I took a couple steps back from him, out of his reach. “It’s just the adrenaline,” I assured him. “The others are close, so—”
“It’s not that at all, and you know it.”
But I didn’t have time to say another word before the rest of the pack crossed onto my land, joining us to stand over the fallen men. Their expressions said it all—they had murder on their minds.
“Wait,” I warned them, but it was too late. Several of them suddenly dropped to the ground beside their attackers.
It made no difference to the boundary I’d drawn whether a death was warranted or not, necessary or not. Violence was violence, be it due to hunting or revenge for the death of innocents.
I felt terrible that I was causing these men and women any additional pain as I turned to look at Cole…who was smiling.
“Why are you—”
“It’s good to know how safe we all are just this close to you, Mere.”
He was out of his mind. “This should terrify you.”
“And yet I find it quite comforting.”
“As do I,” Abel said, walking up beside Cole and putting his hand on his shoulder, looking at me in awe. “You’ve already been such a blessing to our pack, Merritt.”
“Where are our children?” a woman asked me, and several other concerned voices joined hers.
“Before I call the kids back, we need to move the dead men from in front of the main house. All of us know the killing was necessary, but the kids won’t understand.”
“Oh my God, that’s right,” the woman said, grabbing hold of my arm and turning to Abel. “And what are we going to say to the police and—”
“We’re not going to say anything,” I told her, taking her hand gently in mine after prying her fingers off my arm. “We’re going to bring those men up here, and the kids need to go to their homes once I call them down. They can’t be anywhere near the alpha’s house until that area is clean.”
When I was done speaking, I turned to Abel. “With your permission, Alpha.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course.” He stared at me a moment before turning to the others. “Do as Merritt says. Let’s get this done quickly.”
Cole, who was already healing rapidly and looking much better, which I saw several of the wolves who weren’t so lucky notice, immediately directed others to follow him.
Five men followed Cole, and Abel turned to me. “Were you an alpha at one time, Merritt?”
I shook my head. “I’ve just always owned my business, so I’m used to giving directions. If you want to handle everything yourself with Tuss’s father—”
“Matthias. His name is Matthias Haviland.”
“Well, if you’d rather I—”