Chapter 33
DOGFIGHT
Moonlight shines in beams through the trees. My panting breath roars in my ears, the ground is soft underneath me, but I find my footing easily. Errant roots rise like arching serpents but none manage to trip me up.
I’m heading for high ground from which I’ll have a good vantage point to survey the forest. We know via Salazar’s scouts that Walter is planning to strike when the moon is high, around midnight, which will give both sides a mega boost of lunar energy.
How they were able to infiltrate the Axis Pack is a mystery to me, but those scout wolves are probably a little more subtle than I’ve ever been.
The forest is large. There is more of it than even I knew or could discern the first time I was here. Quickly, tapping into my superspeed which seems to be with me tonight, I arrive in unfamiliar territory.
I climb.
Uphill, away from the camp, toward the west. We figured seeing as the camp is on the eastern edge of the forest, deep into Elite territory, Walter would be bringing his wolves from the other side.
Eventually, I come to a stop. A jagged rock wall faces me, a cliff.
The flat top of which is roughly the same height as the surrounding trees.
That would make an excellent spot to reach out from.
Although the route up looks more than perilous, there are enough divots and protruding rocks that I think I can scale it easily enough.
My first few steps up the wall are simple, and I make it halfway in pretty good time.
Maybe I have a future as a rock climber or one of those people who clamber all over the boulders in Central Park.
But as I go to place my foot in the next divot, a rock comes loose underneath me and I slip. Jolting as I lose my footing and my grips, I begin to fall, only just managing to grasp a curling root.
“Sweet moon gods,” I say, holding on with one hand, swinging dangerously about twelve feet off the ground.
Somehow, I fight back the fear and am able to regain my composure and my footholds. Slowly, slowly I Spider-Man my way up the rest of the wall.
When I reach the top, hoisting myself over the ledge and onto flat earth once more, I lie on my back panting, staring at the sky.
“Thanks,” I say, winking at the moon.
When I’m ready, I stand on shaky legs and look out across the forest. The canopy sits like carpet before me. The mountains rise in a circle, nodding in every direction. In the distance is a gap in the pine tops that I think has to be the camp.
This is the spot.
I sit crisscross applesauce, take a deep breath, inhaling the earthy pine scent of the forest, and close my eyes.
Darkness. The void.
I expand my consciousness, reaching out for wolves within what has to be a five, six-mile radius.
Jasper is the first wolf I find.
“Hey,” I say to him. “I’m in position.”
“Great,” he replies. “So are we.”
I scan the woods around Jasper and find the wolves of his battalion, their positioning gives me an idea of the landscape, the undulating rise and fall of the terrain, the gaps where trees might be, and my mind fills in the blanks.
Like luminescent clouds the pieces of the forest come into view.
I construct a visual of the trees and boulders.
I’ll need a clear idea of where everyone is and what their surroundings are.
“The other battalions should be in position too,” Jasper says. “Can you find them?”
“Aye, aye.”
Breathing in through my nose, my chest rising, I gather more energy and then send it out across the Lunar Plane. Like bioluminescent water splashing over rocks my mental map of the forest expands and I’m able to locate the other wolves.
Here is the moment I’ve been worried about.
Jasper has assumed that with the heightened energy from the moon I’ll be able to, if not exactly mind-link with the rest of our army, insert messages into their heads so they know what to do.
It took months and a near-death experience for me and Jasper to mind-link, and now we’re counting on me being able to speak to every wolf in our pack just like that.
“Beta Salazar, this is Max, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear,” he says in response, shocking me so badly I nearly tumble backward. It worked—and even better than we’d planned. My mind and Salazar’s are linked, which means . . . I should be able to link with any wolf I want to. Thank you, Selene.
I have to admit it’s weird letting a voice into my head that isn’t Jasper’s, but this turn of events is a real boon for us and could be instrumental to pulling off our strategy.
“My wolves are in position,” Salazar continues.
“Good. I’ll check with the others then report back to you.” I scan more of the forest. “Olivia, can you read me?”
Her bioluminescent figure looks up as if she’s heard the snap of a twig.
“That you, Max?”
“Good, you can hear me too. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve connected with the other officers.”
One by one, I link up my mind with the other officers, including Morven and his beta.
“You ready to do this?” Mason says, standing at the head of a small battalion of his own.
“Yeah, I think so.”
Once I’ve connected with everyone, I’ve got a clear image of where all of our troops are located plus the layout of the entire forest, from my position to the eastern edge of the campsite and then some.
The wolf troops have fanned out in a one-sided radial burst with the camp at the center, trying to cover the most ground as possible while leaving only small gaps.
Morven’s wolves have then formed a barrier between those gaps and the lodge.
And of course there is the security detail standing guard outside Jericho’s room.
I zoom in on the great hall, where Katie and the healers are waiting, arranging cots and organizing their medical supplies.
“Katie,” I say, trying not to spook her. She almost drops the box of gauze she’s carrying and looks around like she’s heard a ghost.
“Max?”
“Yeah, we’re all in position. Okay if I communicate with you when the first wave of casualties comes in?”
“Yes, of course, I can let the others know.” For a moment she sits on one of the cots, fiddling with the edge of the box in her hands. “Where are you, Max?”
“On the edge of the cliff about four miles from camp.”
“Are you scared?”
“What did we say, Katie? We’re going to be fine. Jasper’s plan is solid.”
“I know but are you scared?”
“Hell yeah.”
She breathes a little sigh of relief. “Me too.”
“But that’s good, I think,” I say. “It means we’re prepared for the worst.”
“Yep. It’s weird talking to you like this. But I like it.”
“Me too. But I’ve got to go,” I say a little reluctantly. Believe me I’d rather sit here and mind-link with Katie than think about the invasion that could be happening at any moment. “I need to scan for Walter’s army.”
“Okay, go. And . . . good luck, Max. Love you.”
“Love you too, bestie.”
With the woods to the east mapped out I turn my attention behind me. Swiveling to face the western edge of the forest and sending out exploratory ripples across the ground, I search for any sign of wolf energy, for another consciousness. But I find . . . nothing.
For what feels like an hour, maybe two, I scan continuously.
It’s difficult. It takes a lot of energy to stay in this state. I can tell sweat has broken out across my forehead, feel it dripping down my temple. But I do my best to ignore it and stay focused.
“Anything yet?” Jasper asks.
“Nothing,” I say.
The forest is quiet except for the buzzing insects and the wind rustling the leaves. Overhead the sky is clear, the moon is high and big and flooding the forest with energy. It’s eerie and discomforting. Something must be up.
“You don’t think they’ve found a way to mask their consciousnesses do you? Like the rogues at the Sanc.”
I shake my head. “Even if they did, there’s no way I wouldn’t be able to sense something at that volume.
And besides, that many wolves . . . there would have to be a few hundred I could still sense even if they were trying to block me out.
These Axis Pack wolves can’t all be that attuned to their spiritual side. ”
“Right.”
Suddenly a shiver runs down my spine.
“Wait!”
I grit my teeth, focus harder.
“What is it, Max?”
I focus and focus. Leaning forward until I swear my chin could touch the mossy ground in front of me. Then, like a spark, I sense it. I sense someone.
“It’s a wolf.”
“The army?”
“No.” I shake my head in confusion. “It’s just one guy. He’s alone. But he’s running, fast, he’s . . .”
“Max?”
“He’s coming straight for me.”
Just as I realize the lone runner is heading in my direction, I hear the rustle of branches and the scrape of feet on stone.
I open my eyes just in time to see him break through the trees right in front of me.
He leaps into the air and as he does his clothes tear, his face morphs, his limbs break and recalibrate.
Fur covers his body and in an instant he’s a snarling wolf, landing just feet away.
“Max!” Jasper’s voice still reaches me.
The wolf snarls and snaps its jaws at me.
“Shift Max, you have to shift!”
But I have no time to shift, because as this Axis Pack wolf rears back, pushes off the ground, and dives at me I realize exactly what’s happening.
Walter knows I’m here. He knows I’ll be using my powers to prevent him from sneaking up on us.
He knew to take me out first.
The wolf lands on me, its jaws clamping down on my shoulder, making me cry out in pain.
I struggle under its weight, panicked and trapped, not knowing if I should shift or if that would render me vulnerable for too long, long enough for him to dig his teeth in further and finish me off.
So instead, I do the only thing I can. I close my eyes, let my body go limp. And reach out.