Chapter 22
A clash of titans
They slam into each other with a thud so loud it rattles buildings.
I take a quick step back, bumping into Legion.
All I can see are flashes of sharp teeth, black fur, and dust as they whirl around, leaping and rearing up.
I analyze their movements in morbid fascination, trying to find a weakness, but I can’t see anything.
The speed and agility of these beasts has my heart dropping, their bite force is breaking through stone, and their claws leaving furrows in concrete.
While the Ravage Wolf has the other one in size, the new wolf has an aggression that is driving him back.
He might actually come out of this the winner.
Their teeth snap in a sound that sends a bolt of primal fear through me. I watch the new wolf rake claws down the belly of the Ravage Wolf, only to be thrown into a building. He’s on his feet in seconds, shaking his fur out, his eyes locked with deadly intensity on the monster in front of us.
The Ravage Wolf roars, and the other lets out a snarling, animal growl that makes my knees weak.
“We need to go, now,” Jarek hisses. “Before they remember we can be food.”
I ignore him because teasing the threads of memory is a story that I remember hearing from my mother when I was a little girl. She told me a story so wild that I dismissed it as fancy. I’d forgotten. The letter she left me and the appearance of this massive wolf have torn down a veil in my memory.
How did she know? How did she know I would find it? The thought leaves my skin pebbled and my mind a jittery mess, but her story is loud. I can’t silence it.
“That’s the Anarchy Wolf,” I say in a shocked whisper. “He’s one of the gods. In all the stories, the Anarchy Wolf is both chaos and disorder. He’s life and death. A fierce protector and an unrivaled hunter.”
“That’s great. Is he on our side or theirs?” Mordecai snaps and ducks as a brick flies past him and hits the wall hard enough to shatter it.
The Anarchy Wolf was locked in chains, chains that I freed him from. How did a god get imprisoned in a human city? How many other gods are hidden, locked up in places no one would think to look for them?
The concept boggles my mind, leaving me dizzy and breathless.
“We need to leave right now,” Jarek says again, grabbing my arm and pulling me away. I fight him, of course, I fight him, but he spins me into his chest, staring down at me, his lips pressed together. “We’re leaving.”
“No, he’s the Anarchy Wolf, Jarek,” I protest, trying to convey how important he is.
“I don’t care who he is; if he loses, we’re going to die, so move your ass, Omega.”
Jarek tows me behind him, refusing to let me go.
I look back once and see the Anarchy Wolf cutting off the Ravage Wolf’s attempt to get to us. The two clash in a booming mass and slam into a building, collapsing it. Dust flies out, and I can’t see anything. Are they alive? Are they dead?
The wolf…the Anarchy Wolf is alive in the world again.
I focus on running and not tripping over my own feet. There’s nothing I can do to help such a massive creature. I would only be in the way and be a distraction.
A god is alive and here. Mordecai’s words come back to me.
What is going on?
Jarek gets us back to the school, and I have no idea how he manages it because I was lost after three turns. I stagger because my legs are aching and fall on my ass in the tall grass. I struggle, trying to find the energy to get up, but I have nothing left.
A single drumbeat booms into the world. I freeze, my mouth going dry. Not even a second to rest, and the Beta’s Path are destroying my peace.
It’s loud; it could have come from anywhere. I stand up, ignoring the pain, the exhaustion, and the shaking in my limbs. Every hair on my body stands on end, every part of me strains, waiting to hear another beat.
It takes forever and then boom.
It explodes into the world, deep and aggressive. Familiar and haunting. The sound of the hunting drums. Every alpha and omega on the planet is terrified of that sound. At some point, I feel like it’s become a biological fear.
It means people are going to die.
A third beat is chased by the shrill screams of an agonised omega. It goes up and up; the sound is eerie and haunting. Another joins hers. Then the roar of an alpha.
“What is that?” Mia whispers, joining us. “What are they doing to them?” She edges closer, hunching in on herself. She asked the question, but I don’t really think she wants to know the answer.
“It’s the beginning. The Beta’s Path have started the torture and killing,” Bear says from where he’s approached us.
His expression is grim, and he’s got a bruise on his jaw.
“I’ve stood outside these walls every year listening and bearing silent witness.
It’s always the same. They wait a few days, but when you hear the drums, the screaming and dying always follows. ”
My skin prickles, but I can’t turn away. I’m transfixed, imagining the pain these omegas are suffering. Wishing they would cut their screaming short, but knowing that if they go silent, it means they’ve left this plane of existence.
The bushes shove roughly aside and Cadel, Willow, Sophie, and Kendric come inside, dropping to their knees and breathing hard. They all look worse for wear and are dripping with sweat. Sophie has a big gash on her hand, and Kendric is clutching his side.
“Where’s Alex?” Bear snaps as he hauls Sophie up against his chest. Sophie looks up at him and flinches.
“No!” Bear moans. The alpha snarls and turns away, but I can see how stricken he is.
“Ava?”
“She didn’t make it,” Mordecai murmurs.
Bear clenches his fists, the tendons standing out on his neck, but when I think he will explode, he doesn’t. He swallows his rage and frustration and rubs the back of his neck.
“Did you at least make any headway on the exit?”
“No,” Kendric says flatly.
Bear turns and marches away, swearing under his breath. I don’t blame him, but his lack of concern about the people who haven’t made it makes him seem cold and cruel. Is he cold and cruel or is the face he shows in public just a mask to hide the real alpha?
When I look up, he’s staring at me with something akin to frustrated expectation.
It’s like he wants to shake me or yell at me, but instead he remains silent, tension in every part of his body.
I can barely see anything else; I can almost hear his accusations.
You could have helped us. You could have said something, anything. Why won’t you help to save our people?
Cadel stomps up to me and grips the back of my neck, he brings our heads together, but instead of the kiss I was expecting and possibly fearing, our foreheads bang together, but it breaks me out of the spiral that I’d been falling down.
He exhales, and his air becomes mine. I draw in the wild, icy taste of him, losing more and more of myself to him. Bear, the wolves, Ava, Alex, everything is forgotten.
“Keres.”
It’s one word. It’s my name. But there’s so much in that one word that I reach out, grabbing hold of his shirt, holding him to me, because I can’t bear the thought of him moving away from me.
The hand on my neck squeezes slightly, and I close my eyes, wanting to stay like this forever. I flex, splaying my fingers out, feeling the hard warmth of his chest.
“Inside, now,” Mordecai says.
Cadel reluctantly pulls away from me, but those dark red eyes hold mine with a wealth of feeling that leaves me unsure and uneasy. I’m falling headfirst into something I can’t avoid, but I can see the pain that’s coming.
Cadel turns slightly but slips an arm around my waist as we walk back up to the school. I can’t remember if I have ever walked like this before. Maybe my mother did it, but I don’t think so.
“Where were you?” I ask him softly.
“Tried to stop them from following you,” Cadel murmurs, his arm squeezes me tighter to him.
“Debrief,” Legion says to everyone.
I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t know what that is, but I don’t like it already.”
Legion flashes a smirk in my direction.
I don’t know; it feels like we might have found a way to be allies, and that feels surprisingly good.
We all file into the same room that Bear used the first time they told me about the Resistance’s plans.
It’s small and clean, and now that it’s daylight, I can see that beyond the windows is a courtyard, completely closed off.
It’s little more than rubble and overgrown plants, but it gives us the privacy we need.
No one can hear our secret plans.
“What went wrong?” Bear asks coldly.
Legion huffs and starts to pace. “We got out there, heading in the direction you insisted we go in.”
The sharp tone isn’t missed by any of us. Cadel’s arms loop around my waist and pull me back against him. For a moment, I think of resisting, but whatever Bear was about to say is swallowed when he looks at both of us, observing the way Cadel is holding me.
“They found us almost straight away. We ran, but at every turn, there were more of them. They flooded the city, and we could barely stay out of their way. We found Keres and the Ravage Wolf and ran until we lost him,” Legion says matter-of-factly.
I keep my eyes down so I don’t send Legion a sharp glance, demanding to know why he’s left the Anarchy Wolf out of the narrative. That’s a pretty massive omission.
“Did you look for the exit?” Bear snaps.
“We honestly didn’t have a chance, Alpha,” Legion’s tone is bordering on belligerent.
Bear inhales, his chest inflating as he fairly vibrates with fury. “Not good enough,” he says in a clipped voice. “And, you?”
Kendric shrugs. “We went in one direction until Keres found letters from her mother. It seemed important, so we stayed, but the Beta’s Path found us. We all scattered.”
“Is Alex alive or dead?”
“Dead,” Willow says. “I saw him die.”
A pang hits my chest. I barely knew him, but he had a good feel about him; he didn’t deserve to die.
“Show me the letters.”