Chapter Four
Danny’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing on the figure standing on the edge of the tree line. Tall but with a wiry athletic build. Sandy blonde hair tumbling messily down to his shoulders. A shit-don’t-stink grin plastered across his narrow face.
Recognition flared deep inside my wolf. There was only ever one man in Lupus Latr with the gall to taunt a fully turned werewolf. Against what could only be considered his better judgment, Danny forced his beast back down into its cage and with it, his rich black pelt and Wolfen features dissolved away to reveal the man beneath.
With the tattered remnants of his shirt and jeans hanging off him, he nodded to the other man and asked “Shane…you up next?”
“What? Me? You mean after watching you take Pinky and Perky there apart like warm bread? You must be joking.” He seemed genuinely amused by the notion, and if nothing else, he certainly hadn’t come dressed for a fight. Werewolves fought in fur or leather, not Calvin Kline. “Nope, I’m just here to escort you up to the big house. Erza is expecting you.” He raised a hand in the direction of Lacum Hall. “After you…”
Danny didn’t argue. He’d already come this far, what would be the point? He just turned his eyes up to the summit of the hill, to where the ramparts of his childhood home reached up to stab the sky. To where he knew she was watching him and knew the time had come.
With a shrug he started to walk, going beneath an arch of interwoven branches and up along the ancient path of old moss-covered stones. “Erza knew I was coming? How?”
“Wish I knew. She rarely steps out of the house, never leaves the village, but she always seems to know everything that’s going on everywhere. I’ve got no idea how she does it. Social media has nothing on Erza,” Shane joked, falling into step beside him. “Anyway, she announced the other day you were coming home, and then this morning she told the three of us to come out here and greet you. Didn’t say when of course, just to set up and wait.” His eyes dropped down to Danny’s side. “Are you going to be alright with that?”
Danny shot him a confused look. Seeing the other man’s look of concern, he followed his gaze down to the twin rings of bite marks that circled his wrist. To an observer it would have looked like a savage wound, a latticework of torn and ragged flesh thickly encrusted with dry blood. However, it was a scratch compared to the damage Jake’s jaws had dealt him and within the hour, it would be just another set of scars. He shrugged it off. “Such hospitality.”
“Don’t give me that, Daniel,” Shane snarled, his eyes suddenly blazing the furious gold of the wolf. “You know our ways. You know what happens to wolves that run out on their packs. You’ve got to prove yourself before we offer up a fatted calf but that doesn’t mean we didn’t miss you.” And just like that, the storm passed, his features softened, and he was throwing a brotherly arm over Danny’s shoulder. “Damn, it’s good to see you mate. It just hasn’t been the same around here without your family running the show. The whole village is excited. You remember Miss Babs, the baker’s wife that used to assist at the school? She wanted to set a big welcome home sign over the village hall. Hang balloons up everywhere. She even went on about setting up some of those huge picnic tables in the square and getting everyone to bring something like they used to do at fairs in the Middle Ages. Ya know what I mean?”
Danny couldn’t believe his ears. They missed him? Were pleased to hear he was returning. The idea left him feeling strangely relieved, like a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. He never would have thought the pack would welcome him back so readily after he’d abandoned it to Erza’s fate.
Shane let out a long whistle. “Yep, we were all set to have a big welcome home party in the Slaughtered Lamb, for you, but then Erza forbade it. Said no one was to say a word to you until she’d spoken with you, well except for me of course. Though personally, I didn’t figure on us sharing many words. Thought she had just sent me out here just to make sure Pinky and Perky over there didn’t kill you. Still, it looks like the old wolf’s blood is still burning strong.” And then his expression was suddenly thoughtful. “Hey, have you heard anything about your brother?”
“Deckland?” The question surprised Danny, and he couldn’t quite keep the excitement from his voice. “No, why? What happened?”
It had been years since he’d had word from his big brother.
“No idea, that’s why I asked,” Shane shrugged, letting the arm fall from Danny’s shoulder. “He just up and vanished about the same time you did, after he lost the challenge. A few of us thought he might have sought sanctuary, but none of the other packs have seen a trace of him since. It’s as if he just disappeared.”
“I see,” Danny sighed, his heart sinking. “Last I heard, he’d gone over to Canada, but he doesn’t keep in touch. We haven’t spoken in years.”
Deckland, his big brother, their father’s heir. It had always been assumed that he would take over the ruling of the pack when their father passed. It was the role he had been born for. His whole life had been spent training for the day he would assume the mantle of their ancestors. And unlike so many heirs to their father’s throne, he was well suited to his birthright. Strong as their father but with their mother’s calm manner and rational temperament, he would have been a good heir. Then that dark day came when their father’s body was carried back from battle.
At such times, it was tradition for all the pack to gather around the fallen alpha’s body and those who wished to succeed him could make their claims. Words were said, oaths were made, claims were voiced. Then the true test would begin.
Deckland had stood up first, sworn to defend the Village and its pack with his claws till his dying breath, and none of the pack had challenged him. None but her, an outsider who had just walked into the village that very morning with nothing but the clothes on her back and a name that no one knew, but tradition said all could challenge for the title of Alpha.
So the challenge had been issued and Deckland, for all his strength and training, had lost.
Erza had ruled Lupus Latr as the Alpha from that day, and no one had seen Deckland since he had escorted her to the private ground that had been used to decide such contests since the ancient days.
“Damnit,” Shane growled under his breath, before musing to himself. “We could really use him right about now.”
That got Danny’s attention. “Yeah? Something going on I should know?”
“What? Ah, no, no, no, nothing like that,” Shane laughed nervously, before continuing in his best offhand tone. “So, er what about your mum? Mother was hoping she’d be returning with you, and you know what-”
“She’s dead,” Danny cut him off, the words out before he could stop them.
Shane’s eyes widened and he immediately bowed his head. “Oh…I’m, I’m sorry mate.”
“It’s fine, just one of those things.” Danny forced himself to look straight ahead, resisting the burn of tears forming at the corners of his eyes. Yet he couldn’t keep the hitch from his voice as the memories flooded his head. “It’s been almost two years now. She just never really got over losing dad that way.”
“Wolf's bane…” The eternal pinning and longing wail of a wolf who had lost its mate and was cursed to waste away to a piteous end. There was no worse end for a werewolf than the slow death of a broken heart.
Just the mention of the ailment sent a shiver through them both.
Danny nodded, one stray tear rolling down his cheek. “Yes. She fought it as long as she could but…well, you know.”
“Yes, yes of course.” Shane raised his gaze and looked up through the woodland canopy to the darkened celestial sky. He’d never really known the details of the mating of the last Alpha and his mate, but their stories were legends amongst the pack’s elders. “May their spirits find each other in the great sky plains,“ he said, reciting the prayer of reuniting lovers with more reverence than Danny would have expected.
“Run far and free...until we meet again,” Danny finished, before turning to Shane, his expression suddenly hard. “What does Erza want to see me for?”
“You came to talk, didn't you?” Shane shrugged, but his grin was absent still and the nonchalance didn’t show in his eyes.
Danny grabbed his arm, stopping Shane in his tracks. “Yes, but that doesn’t explain her wanting to see me.” His hold was like iron around the other man’s wrist, his tone matter of fact. “I’m a son of the last Alpha. With Deckland gone from our lands, I’m the greatest threat to her control of the pack. Other alphas would have me killed on sight. So why does she want to see me?”
Shane wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m not supposed to-”
“Don’t give me that shit. You know something,” Danny snapped. “You just said Deckland would be useful right about now. Why? What the fuck is going on? Tell me or I’m gone. I came for answers. I won’t be a pawn in a power game.”
Torn by indecision, for a moment, Shane looked like he might protest further, then the war of his conflicting loyalties swung, and their eyes met. “Ah…alright, you’ll find out soon enough anyway, but you can’t tell her I told you. Alright?” He was more imploring than insisting.
Danny nodded. “Go on.”
“Okay. Things are bad, mate. And not just for us, but everyone. All the packs, and even the rogues in the cities like you,” he sighed. “It’s Wyverns.”
“Wyverns?” The question hung in the air for a moment, then Danny couldn’t help a dry laugh. “Yeah, so what. When aren’t they a problem? When haven’t those sheep shagging thunder lizard shifters been out to devour anyone who didn’t shit scales? They’re just a fact of life, like fleas and humans.”
“This is different,” Shane growled, his eyes lacking any hint of humour. “Look, it wasn’t just your dad who fell on Hengest’s Hill. The old wolf sent a number of Wyvern chiefs to the dark skies that day, and that power vacuum has given rise to a new power across the border. A chieftain named Emyr has been conquering any clan that wouldn’t join him. Last year he marched on the Brecon Beacons and old King Edmundwyfgit Blood Wing bent the knee and surrendered the triple crown of wing and claw to the upstart. Now he rules over all the clans.”
“How do you know this?” Danny asked slowly, disbelieving.
Wyverns were not like the other Paranormals. They didn’t mix with humans, nor integrate into society. They existed in savage tribes across Wales, in a world that hadn’t evolved since the dark ages. Shane was unlikely to have seen their movements on his Twitter feed.
Shane just shrugged again, shaking off Danny’s arm. “Erza. She’s been trying to warn the packs. Some have listened, mostly the older packs with strong ties to the village, but most send our messengers away with their tails between their legs.”
“Well, tell them to try calling first next time.” The witticism fell on deaf ears.
“This isn’t a joke, Danny. They think it’s a trap, a ploy to seize control of their packs. They don’t trust her, the lone female Alpha that unseated Alfred Long Claw’s eldest pup.”
“Well, I can’t say I blame them,” Danny laughed again, his face twisted with disbelief. “I mean come off it and have a day off, this all sounds like a bad Ronnie’s sketch. For fuck sake, if you’d turned up on my doorstep and told me that story, I’d tell you to lay off the strong cheese at night. Wyverns can’t work together. Put four tribes of the buggers together at breakfast, half of them will be dead by lunch. Everyone knows that.”
“Well, everyone is wrong. They’re out there, an army of those winged fire breathing buggers, and if Erza’s right, they’re coming our way.” His eyes were bright with the words, not the fierce bright fury of the wolf, but the fever of a true believer. Whatever lunacy had been going on here, it was obvious Shane believed every word of it. “The fight is coming mate, whether we like it or not, and we’ll need all the packs united together. Mark my words, if we don’t all stand together to meet them, the age of the wolf will be done.” Then he turned on his heel and continued on along the path up the hill.
Danny watched him go.
Wyverns amassing, was it even possible?
Just the thought sent a shiver through him.
The wolf packs had been at war with the Wyverns since they first settled in Wales, long before even the Romans dared to settle on English shores. Raiding parties would cross the border to pillage and burn and occasionally a few of their clan chiefs would band together and attack a pack head on, but an army? A real army of monsters. It was as terrifying as it was ridiculous. There had never been anything of the like. Not one of their Kings could ever have hoped to muster such numbers.
But there had been no lie in Shane’s eye. Had he seen it, witnessed it on the move? What could make him believe in the impossible with such certainty?
He double timed it to catch up. “Look, alright, say I believe you, John Snow, what does this all have to do with me? If Erza wants me to fight, she could have just asked on a picture postcard. What’s with all the secrecy?”
“Honestly?” Shane’s eyes softened. “I don’t know mate, she keeps everything close to her chest, but whatever she asks, just, hear her out and give it some thought. This isn’t the world we grew up in anymore.”
Then, as if by magic, the veil of woodland suddenly parted, and he was the boy Danny remembered once again. “Ah well, here we are. Welcome home.