Raptor
The pain in my jaw sends me to a place that I forgot I had. Like a door swinging open, I surge through and take control.
I look up with a smile. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
The guy in front of me widens his eyes and slides his foot back half a step. I step up gracefully, standing to my full height and glancing around, taking it in.
The pack are fighting in the trees, it’s just me and this asshole, and the sky full of thunder and lightning. I inhale, drawing in the sharp tang and taste of the world. The driving rain and wind, the storm so wild, leaving me feeling so alive.
I wait and time it all perfectly.
Strike! The lightning crashes down, lancing into the Earth, turning the world white and purple. The hairs on my body lift, but I’m focused on the idiot in front of me as his face twists with fear. I wonder if he’s realised what I am or if it’s the storm that’s scared him.
I attack, my hand driving hard into his solar plexus. His breath expels out of him, a harsh explosion. His eyes bulge as the light fades.
We both look down at the knife in my hand. I giggle in absolute delight.
“Whoops.”
Boom. The voice of God roars across the world, shaking the very rock we stand upon. It’s like he’s cheering me on.
My knee comes up, breaking his nose and jaw. My laughter mixes with the storm, twisting in the world.
“You do bring me the most interesting situations, Merle,” I murmur in appreciation.
Strike. Another white light punching down, I attack, like an artist painting a portrait with his pain.
He’s off centre, and a punch to the rib sends him stumbling to the right.
Boom, God is laughing. He knows what I’m about to do. I giggle, too.
This foolish beta looks up, blood dripping from his face, stunned. I don’t think he expected me to fight back, but Father trained me to be the best. And violence is all I know. It’s how I speak.
“Send my best to the Devil,” I bite my bottom lip and kick him hard in the chest.
He flies out over space, his arms windmilling, his scream is sharp and short and covered by another boom that makes my ears ache.
“Right, who’s next?” I shout to the world.
An alpha is standing in the tree line watching me in horror. I shrug my shoulders and try to look as cute and helpless as possible. Maybe I can entice him to play with me.
It’s hard because I feel so fucking alive. So free. It’s like stretching properly for the first time in hours. I don’t want to pretend.
Merle’s fear is gone, fading out of the body, my anger’s a blanket that has heated my bloodstream. I lift my head, almost tasting the lightning in the air.
Another scent hits me. Roses and sandalwood. It throws me off, almost pushing me out of my dance.
He’s here!
Excitement turns my body molten. It’s him, finally. Where? I’m distracted by him, by the need to find him, and that’s why I’m slow to react to the alpha that comes running at me, a knife glinting in his hand.
Aaron Roseland bursts out of nowhere, cutting him off. He spins, shoving the alpha back and away from me. Saving me again.
Swoon.
All the feelings that we’ve buried, the ones we’ve held onto long into the night and every night since, the feelings that kept us going. The promises. It all returns.
And the day it all collapsed.
I’m back in that moment, watching him get stabbed.
“Roseland!” I scream, echoing the memory.
I scream with everything in me. His name tearing from me, if my voice alone could will him to safety, if my wish alone could save him, it would be done.
It’s a memory, but not mine. It doesn’t belong to me, but we all know it.
It’s now. It’s the present and past colliding.
I see the blade sinking into him; I see my future turn to ashes. My past collapses.
“ROSELAND!” I scream again, the agony of seeing my scent match die again in front of me tearing my mind apart.
Merle shrieks and dives deeper, while the rest of us shore up our defenses.
“He’s alive!” I snarl. “Look. Alive. Stop it!”
My inner world steadies. I steady.
He falls back, hitting the rock, lying still in the cold rain, his body completely lifeless. In my mind, I see the blood pooling, spreading. No, wait, that wasn’t real. I never saw that, he sent me away.
No!
He’s breathing. He’s alive.
I shake my head, irritated all over again. Real, not real. This is what happens when she makes us forget. Fucking Merle.
I snarl, turning on the one source of my agony I can do something about, ready to separate him from his pitiful life.
I surge forward, snatching up a fallen blade.
I spin into the alpha, hit, hit, hit. Stab, strike.
Slice. His eyes widen, his blood turns the air metallic.
He stumbles to his knees, but I keep moving around him, striking, stabbing, until he’s so riddled with holes that he’s just a dead body that hasn’t fallen yet.
I grab his arm and drag him to the edge, then throw him off, too.
When I look up, King is standing in the rain, staring at me, his chest heaving. Lightning illuminates him, and I see blood has streaked his upper arms and knuckles.
He looks beautiful. My violent dance. How Merle could never see what he was is beyond me. How she missed what they all were, just a waste. An absolute waste.
My killers.
Movement tears my gaze from him, and I turn and find Roseland getting to his knees. He shakes his head and looks up.
“Merle.” Her name on his lips.
I hate it as much as I love it. Say my name. Know me.
It’s the only thing I hear. But then they come out of the dark, out of the forest. These alphas, her alphas, come. They are pretty, I will give her that. They move like the promise of death, all silence and grace.
Proper predators coming to save their queen. Except…I’m not her, and it won’t take them long to figure it out.
I cock my head to the side and put my hand on my hip, grinning at them.
“That was fun.”
They startle. I wonder if any of them have heard us speak yet. Merle never says a word. Ever.
Blaze is wearing an expression I can’t interpret. Sage’s smile is in place. King is scowling. Roseland hasn’t been able to look away, but Rolly lets out a whoop and rushes me. I’m a little nervous about how this is going to go. I hum, considering whether to go or stay.
He stops before he touches me, circling me and looking me up and down before he pulls me into his arms.
“Merle? You’re okay. And you can talk?”
I let out a sharp bark of laughter and shove myself free of him. “Bzzzz. Sorry, boys, Merle isn’t in right now. Call again later.”
“What?” Sage asks dumbly.
It’s almost cute.
I flash them a wicked grin and then fly at the side of the cliff. I leap off, soaring into space, ignoring their shouts.
“What the fuck!” Rolly shrieks.
I catch hold of the tops of the trees I’d planned to land in and shimmy down, disappearing before anyone can even think of following.
I land on the ground but am pulled up short and shoved into the tree trunk. My eyes flare wide.
“Hello, lover.”
Pix glares at me. “Who are you?”
I grin, but my grip loosens, and I’m not the one who answers him.