Chapter 15, The Teeth of the Dark
Varg
The forest was screaming. Young High-Ridge warriors, driven half-mad by the burn of the coming moon, were crashing through the underbrush. They were loud, clumsy, and stinking of a desperate, unearned bravado.
I stood in the center of the grove with my paws anchored in the dark soil of my own territory. Beside me, Rhys was a smoky-gray shadow. His silver highlights shimmered as he bared his teeth in a silent snarl.
They’re crossing the line, Rhys projected through the link. His mental voice was sharp with a jagged edge of amusement. Twelve to two, Boss. Those aren’t great odds even for us.
They’re children playing war, I thought back. My own growl vibrated deep in my chest, a tectonic rumble that shook the frozen leaves above us. Just watch. They’ve forgotten what real hide feels like.
The first warrior, a bulky male with a white chest, didn’t hesitate. He launched himself across the border stones, a hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and teeth aimed straight for my throat. I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I simply let him hit me.
His jaws locked onto my shoulder. His teeth ground against my hide with the sickening sound of gravel being crushed.
He didn’t draw a single drop of blood. My skin was toughened by the shadows of Ember-Fell and a lineage that predated their entire pack.
It didn’t even tear. The warrior’s eyes went wide, and his muffled growl turned into a confused whimper as his fangs failed to penetrate.
I didn’t bite back. I simply slammed my shoulder forward, using my superior mass to send him hurtling backward into a cedar tree.
The rest of them swarmed in a chaotic mess of snapping jaws and raking claws. Two of them hung off my flanks, their nails leaving nothing but shallow white marks on my black fur. I moved through them like a ship through a heavy storm. My movements were deliberate and crushing.
Rhys was a blur of smoke and silver. He moved with a sickening agility, weaving between the heavier High-Ridge wolves and snapping at tendons.
He was upending them with surgical precision.
I hadn’t given the command to kill, so he was dismantling them instead.
He broke their limbs and their spirits rather than their throats.
They’re soft, Boss, Rhys commented through the link as he sidestepped a lunging female and sent her skidding into the mud. Silas has been raising house pets.
I dove into the center of the fray, a mass of black muscle and freezing intent.
One warrior tried to sink his fangs into my haunch.
I simply kicked back. The force of my paw connected with his jaw and sent him spiraling into the dirt.
They were biting and scratching with everything they had, but they might as well have been attacking a cliffside.
I stepped over a fallen wolf and pinned the lead agitator into the mud with a single heavy paw. I leaned down, but I didn’t tear his throat. I bit down on the base of his ear until I felt the cartilage crunch beneath my teeth.
ENOUGH! I projected. The mental command hit their minds like a physical blow, forcing their heads into the dirt.
They stumbled back with their eyes wide and rolling. They were exhausted, their teeth aching from the futile attempt to break my skin. Four of them remained on the ground, shivering in the mud.
Go back to your Alpha, I snarled into their minds. My voice was a vibration that shook the very ground. Tell Silas the shadows don’t forget. The next time you cross this line, you won’t leave with your tongues to tell the story.
They didn’t wait. Those who could walk dragged those who couldn’t, leaving a trail of whimpers to mark their retreat toward the High-Ridge village.
Wren
The Great Hall was a torture chamber of sound.
I could hear the fire in the hearth panting like a cornered animal over the constant chatter.
I could hear the rhythmic creak of the floorboards under the Elders’ feet.
I pressed my hands over my ears, huddling in the shadow of the heavy stone vestibule, but it didn’t help.
The sounds felt like they were vibrating from inside my own skull.
Then, a new sound cut through the roar of the hall. It was a frantic, wet whispering from just outside the main doors. It felt like a radio station suddenly coming into clear focus through a sea of static.
“...shouldn’t have done it,” a voice hissed. It sounded like Bjorn. He was panting, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm I could feel in the soles of my feet. “We crossed the line, Tess. Silas is going to kill us for doing this.”
“Shut up!” Tess’s voice was sharp and jagged with fear. “We tell him they were on our side. We tell him they ambushed us while we were on patrol. Just stick to the story. They can’t prove we crossed.”
My eyes snapped open. The noise of the hall rushed back in, the shouting and the scraping of chairs, but that conversation stayed at the front of my mind. It was cold and clear.
Then, the doors were thrown open.
The twelve warriors staggered inside, a nightmare of matted fur and exhaustion. I saw the bruises, horrific, deep purple welts, but there were no puncture wounds. There was no blood on them that belonged to the enemy.
“We were on patrol!” Tess gasped. Her voice cracked with the weight of the lie as she lay at Silas’s paws. “The Night-Stalkers... they crossed the border. They ambushed us on our land, Alpha. They fell on us like demons.”
The Hall exploded into a violent frenzy.
“They crossed the line?” Silas roared. His massive white wolf form trembled with rage. “They first killed one of our sentinels and now attacked a patrol on our side of the border?”
“They would be stupid for...” Rorik, the gamma, muttered next to our Alpha, but Silas shook his head.
“We will get our revenge, Rorik. Arthur, to me!”
Then Silas let out a howl of pure, humiliated fury that shook the very rafters. He didn’t know his men had gone looking for trouble. He believed the lies because they were loud and they gave him the excuse he wanted.
I shrank back into the corner, the truth vibrating in my skull.
I hadn’t wanted to hear it. I hadn’t been looking for it.
But the world was too loud to keep its secrets from me anymore.
I knew that if I spoke up, the pack would tear me apart before I even finished the sentence. What am I supposed to do?!