Chapter Thirty-Seven
I parked in front of my house, sighing when Lucy rushed from the front porch, Ash at her heels. My mother, of course, would already have called her. Zach followed her, but slower.
Jared parked beside me, and before he and Joe had time to get out of Jared’s car, I heard Remy’s car roaring down the long lane.
“Sam’s on his way,” Lucy murmured. Then, “This isn’t supposed to be what Silverwood is for, Kait. Having its woods used for a monster to hunt the Silver Claw alpha.”
“And that’s not what it’s going to be for now,” I told her. “Tonight the Silver Claw alpha is going to hunt a monster.”
Her eyes cleared immediately. “That’s right! No mutant wolf is going to mess with you.”
“Oh he’s messing with me,” I said. “But I’m going to make him regret it.”
“You go get him, boss,” Joe told me as Remy skidded to a halt and jumped from his car. “We’ll be ready to move when Rick wakes up.”
Jared said nothing, but I could see in his eyes that he was thinking the same thing I was thinking. Gavin Voss wouldn’t put himself in a situation where he’d be in danger come dawn. He had a plan.
And I had no idea what that plan might be.
It was hard to anticipate the motivations of a crazy man—especially one who was a moon-drunk werewolf.
“Are we seriously just going to stand around while Kait faces off with Voss?” Remy asked. “Seriously, that’s what we’re doing?”
“He’s going to let Rick die if I don’t do what he wants, Remy,” I said.
He took me by the shoulders—and that was maybe the first time Remy Simon had ever touched me like that.
“Kait. I know you need to believe something shiny so you can get through the night, but there’s a real good fucking chance that Voss can’t save Rick.
He magicked him to death, and he’s going to play with you all night long and then use you as a shield to get himself out of these woods.
” He looked at Jared. “You know that, don’t you?
Because if you know that and are still planning on standing here like a dick while she’s getting the shit beat out of her, then—”
“Remy,” I bellowed. “Stop.”
And that was maybe the first time I realized Remy Simon truly cared about me and was worried I was about to die.
Remy let go of me and took a step back. “Kait,” he murmured.
“If you go into those woods alone, Voss is going to do shit to you that you won’t heal from.
I know men like him.” Again, he looked at the silent alpha.
“I don’t care what you do. Stand here if you want.
But when she goes into those woods, I’m going with her. ”
“Remy,” Joe said. “Have a little faith. After everything you’ve seen, do you really think a mad werewolf is going to take her out?”
Sam arrived, and with a cry of relief, Lucy ran into his arms. “You’ve got to help her,” she told him. She said it quietly, but I was a wolf. I heard her.
Sam led her back to us, looking around the little circle of somberness with a glint in his eye. “You ready, shapeshifter?” he asked me.
“I’m ready, shapeshifter.”
And Sam shifted into me.
I wasn’t going into the woods alone. I was going in with another me. Voss wouldn’t know what hit him.
“We’re about to fuck up his whole world,” I said.
And finally, Remy got it. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered, grinning. “Okay then. Carry on.”
Then Jared lifted a hand. “Wolves,” he said. “They’re coming. Remy, Zach, stay with me. My wolves are here, as well.”
“Anika Draper, too,” I said, then shrugged. “I called her. You’ll be missing me, Rick, and Sam. Anika can make up for that.”
And at that exact moment, Gavin Voss’s wolves poured from the woods. Poured. They came to intimidate, loud and aggressive, and there weren’t just a handful of them. There were dozens. They just kept coming.
Jared roared and went to meet them, and I had a split second to wish I could yank him back and forget the whole thing. But then Gray Shadow wolves converged, and it was…it was just chaos.
I saw Lucy disappearing through the doorway of the house, Ash in her arms, and my people began to fight the enemy.
Sam raced into the woods at the side of the house, and I straightened my spine and ran to the woods at the back.
Gavin Voss might have a plan, but he wasn’t the only one.
Max had called me when I was halfway to Huntersburg. “There’s nothing, Kait. Nothing. He has no weakness other than silver, but that might not help you a whole lot.”
“I have silver blades,” I said. “At least there’s that.”
“Call Anika. She owes you.”
“She can’t help me, Max.”
But I was wrong.
“I’ll help,” she’d said. “Stay alive for as long as you can, Kait, and I’ll get you what you need. And then we’ll be even.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We will be. And I could use you in the fight that’s coming to Silverwood.”
“I wouldn’t miss it. I’d like to see Zach fighting again. Good luck, kitten.”
I couldn’t even get mad about the awful nickname.
“I’ll stay alive,” I muttered, wondering if Voss would see me first, or Sam. I didn’t like Sam shifting into me, but sometimes you had to do something you didn’t like. So when I called him and he came up with the idea, I agreed.
I left the sounds of the fighting behind me and shut out the worry. Worry was distracting, and I didn’t want to be distracted. Voss wasn’t going to play in a gentle way. He was going to hurt me.
I walked quietly through the woods, my senses on high alert. The moon was high and bright, and I felt every bit of her. She made me a stronger wolf. A better wolf. She wanted me to shift, but my wolf was used to her now, and I had control.
Control that Voss didn’t have.
I absorbed the night sounds, the hoots and bird calls and frogs, the sticks that snapped and, in the distance, the howl of a werewolf.
Gavin’s howl.
I jogged in that direction, my head swiveling, my stare probing the shadows, because even though that howl had been distant, I didn’t trust that Gavin wouldn’t have stashed some of his people in the woods.
I took two silver blades from my belt—one for each hand—and again, I heard a howl. It was distorted, that howl, and not a normal wolf’s howl. It was a werewolf’s howl.
And I could admit that it struck fear into my heart. A werewolf under the full moon was about as close to evil as a person could come without being a demon. Add magic into the mix, and he could cause a real problem.
It wouldn’t be an easy night, but there in the deep woods with the full moon above me, I began to feel a sense of excitement. Joy, even. As long as I didn’t think about my people and the battles they were facing, I could feel happiness in my own battle.
A wolf did love to fight. Voss was in my territory, and I would defend it.
Game on.
Wolf versus magic.
“Wolf versus monster,” I whispered.
I’d forgotten he could mask his scent, so when he slipped up behind me, I was aware only because I heard the crack of something dry snapping beneath his feet. I whirled and crouched automatically, and his hand sailed over my head.
I immediately rammed him with my shoulder and brought up one of the blades to slice him, but he was fast. Quiet, and fast. He avoided the blade and leapt back, and I had a few seconds to really see him.
He was grotesque. He’d looked hideous when I’d seen his wolfman before, but the moon had changed him even more. He in no way resembled Gavin Voss, Gavin’s wolf, or even the previous wolfman I’d seen.
He was taller than me by at least a foot, and his body was covered with dark, patchy fur, through which I could see bulging brown muscle, streaks of red, and patches of skin that looked raw and shiny, as though he’d rubbed himself against stones or the rough bark of a tree.
His face was half covered in fur and the strange red patches, as well, and some of those were seeping a clear fluid. His mouth didn’t close completely, and I could see his teeth, surprisingly white, very crowded, and ending in sharp points that could easily rip through his target’s flesh.
His claws sprung from his huge fingers, long and thick, with sharp, curved points at the tips.
He was completely naked, of course. No clothes he’d been wearing as his man would fit any part of the huge atrocity that stood before me. And his genitals had grown with the rest of him.
Good. Those unprotected parts would be the first things I went after.
He roared and thrust his hips forward, exactly as Voss had done when I’d first seen him. Maybe he thought I’d be impressed.
I jumped backward, out of his reach, full of energy and light on my feet. “The moon has made you an absolute abomination,” I told him. “Never in my life have I seen a creature so ugly.”
I could tell he understood my words, but his eyes were piggish and small in the vastness of his hairy face. He was more animal than man, like a hungry bear that wanted to rend and roar and had only the barest of human intelligence lurking.
But in the next second he lowered his head and grinned at me, then proved that no matter what he looked like, Gavin Voss was still inside him, and he was still thinking intelligent thoughts.
He spoke.
“Little wolf,” he murmured, his words thick and his voice rough, “let’s have some fun.” He lifted his hands, and as I watched, the yellow fog of his magic began to swirl around his palms.
And this time, I had no demon blade to deflect it.
“Run,” he whispered. “I’ll give you a little head start.”
Of course he would. He craved the chase, the warped bastard. But his magic wasn’t anything I wanted to challenge.
“Lose the magic,” I told him, as I inched backward. “Make it a fair fight. Don’t be a coward, Voss.”
He made a fist and lifted his arm, preparing to sling some magic at my head. I didn’t know what it might do to me, even if he held back, and I didn’t want to find out.
I did exactly what he wanted me to do.
I ran.