Thirty-Eight - Jasper
The woods were hemorrhaging Black Denners.
Reed sensed them first, pushing out of the headlock I had him in with an almost gentle touch. He lifted his face to the moon, and when I did the same, their scent hit me like a fist. Dirty leather and old blood, with something feral underneath. My gaze snapped to Reed’s, and he said what I couldn’t. “Vail.”
We shifted and ran. I don’t know why we’d chosen to fight in our human forms, but handing control to our wolves was now instinctual. Trees passed us in a dark blur as we gave our wolves their heads. With each pounding step, I felt waves of menace rolling off Reed. When I glanced his way, I remembered what the old wolves said about rangers. First out of the cave, last on the battlefield.
It didn’t matter if it was a cave or a forest. This was our land, and they’d chosen to bring their war to us.
To the east. Reed’s wolf was locked on the nearest group of Denners, but mine was only interested in Vail. He didn’t give a shit what Warren said about her being a void. She was as visible to my wolf as a sun rising in a dark sky. And as Reed tacked east, I drew him back to our current path with my alpha power. When his wolf swung to look at me, I saw the depths of his rage. His need to hunt and gut and put every Denner in the ground. There wasn’t much of the calculating alphason left in his gaze. Until I sent him an image of Vail, alone in a dark wood. It wasn’t a true picture; just what my wolf sensed. But it was enough for a trickle of humanity to bleed back into his eyes, and he gave me a nod.
One word throbbed between us.
Vail.
We might have been focused solely on her, but there were too many Denners for us to avoid them all. I could hear where they clashed with my clan. There were plenty of shouts and snarls, with enough frightened cries to make my wolf shudder. I howled and sent a burst of alpha power back towards the pavilion. The Denners congregated there like moths to a flame, and I knew what they were looking for. Vail, helpless and unguarded among the omegas .
But she wasn’t there.
And I very much doubted she was alone.
I turned into the first knot of Denners, pulling a half-shift to mimic Reed’s. He’d perfected this way of fighting, long before the rest of us met our first real opponent. The fight with the bullies in his own pack was legendary, and had earned him the title of Ragemaster. It had also become the epitome of alpha fighting. Endless transitions, rippling shifts, so your enemy never knew if they were facing claws or fists.
It also gave me a moment of human clarity when we were done. Not any kind of feeling for the scum scattered at our feet, but an explanation for the niggling worry in the back of my mind. “She’s not there,” I told Reed. “The collar is that way.” I pointed straight ahead. “But her wolf…” I swallowed hard. “She’s back in your room. Or near enough to it.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “She won’t forgive me.”
Jealousy and anger curdled in my gut. “You don’t deserve it.” I curled my fingers into fists until my claws pierced my palm. “And neither do I. But we’re both going to fucking try, aren’t we?”
He just gave a curt nod, and then we were running in wolf form. It was a couple miles back to the school, but we made it in less than five minutes, Liam bounding up to me as we cleared the drive. Others followed - security guards and my own alphas, even a few of the faculty among them – and they shifted back to human in a wave. All were roughed up, and most were bleeding, but I pulled a partial shift and looked straight at my enforcer. “How many are still on our land?”
“Unknown. We’ve had eyes on at least thirty, but the whole security grid went down.” He grimaced and took his phone from one of his guards. “The tracker’s not moving…”
“I know where she is.” I looked out at the gathered alphas. “Get every one of our wolves back inside the school walls. Then you hunt that scum down. Consider this an act of war.”
They nodded, some yipping and growling, already partway into their shift. I flicked a hand at Baron and Felix. “You’re with me and Reed.”
They came without question, and we raced up the school stairs.
Principal Bregman was guarding the door, a gray and brown wolf with blood on his muzzle. He stood back as we thundered past, and I headed over to the elevator. As much as I wanted to tear up the stairs in my wolf form, I knew this was the quickest way. We piled in, all disheveled from our shift and grimy with blood and dirt. The sudden silence, broken only by our heaving breaths, was eerie and I clenched my fists against a wave of unease. “She’s up here,” I told my lieutenants. “We don’t know why, or in what state. If they have her, if she’s a hostage, I will lay them flat and get her out. You clean it up.”
They nodded, but Felix pulled a face in the mirrored doors. Reed caught it and eyeballed them both. “I was responsible for Hunter Moon, not Vail. You can take it out on my hide once she’s safe.”
Even though there was no scent of a lie to his claim, my lieutenants exchanged a dubious look. I thumped their shoulders. “She was drugged by someone else. We’ll sort it out, but know that we all fucked up. And we all owe her.”
The doors opened on the alpha floor and I felt Baron and Felix shift behind me. We were at Reed’s room in a flash, but a scent teased from another direction and my head drifted to the left. I flicked a hand towards the next door over, right as Callum opened it and looked out. He didn’t say anything. Just took a step back and waved us through.
My wolf’s hackles began vibrating as we approached his bedroom door. Vail was sitting on the edge of Callum’s bed, her hands in her lap and her chin tilted to the floor. No light in her face. No pain. She looked blank. Wooden. But when she saw us, she flinched. To my surprise, Callum crossed the room and sat beside her. Shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. A grin from ear to ear.
And it was unlike any smile I’d ever seen on his face.
Reed, on the other hand, made a low whining sound in his throat. “Jay. Her wrist.”
My wolves went still around me, but the sight of the claiming mark sent a shudder down my spine. I must have lurched towards her, because she pulled her arm out of reach, covering the mark almost protectively. And when Callum reached for her hand, she didn’t fight him. In fact, she threaded her fingers through his until the knuckles glowed white.
“Clan Alpha, Alphason Reed. Callum Sawyer has claimed me as his mate,” she said, her voice hollow, but also without a hint of a lie. “With your blessing, I’m now the Luna-in-Waiting of the Sawyer Pack.”
TO BE CONTINUED …