Joe said, “You gotta get up.”
Thomas stretched his neck until his nose touched Joe’s hand.
“They’re okay,” he said, like he could hear his father’s question. And for all I knew, he could. “They’re taking care of the rest. But they need you. Okay? You gotta get up.” His voice broke at the end.
Thomas sighed, a great and heaving thing. Like his fears were slipping away.
From behind us, a wolf howled, a song of fury.
I whirled around.
Richard Collins stood, and he was angry. He was snapping his jaw and started hurling himself at the barrier. His eyes were darker than they’d been before, like he was lost to the wolf, all feral and rage. Every time he slammed into the green, the light pulsed outward, like a ripple in water. And it only made him angrier.
“Thomas,” Gordo choked out. “You have to do this. Now. I can’t—”
Thomas began to shift, slower than I’d ever seen it. By the grimace on his wolfish face and the way his body tensed, it was a painful shift. Bones that were broken before were still broken. Cuts were wide and bled freely without any sign of stopping.
Joe moaned above his father, hands shaking as he reached out. He hesitated as if unsure where to touch.
Richard screamed and continued his assault.
Joe said, “Dad.”
Thomas Bennett smiled up at him. His mouth was red and blood dribbled down his cheek. His eyes were clear.
He said, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“We have to get up,” Joe begged. “We have to get up and go. Mom’s waiting for you.”
“You’re going to be fine,” Thomas said. “It’ll hurt. For a while. But you’ll be fine.”
Joe shook his head. He grabbed his father’s hand and held it in his own. “I can’t do this,” he said. “I’m not ready.” He sounded so impossibly young.
“You are,” Thomas said. “You have been. It’s what we’ve been working toward. You’ve—”
There was a loud groan of bone and muscle. Then, Richard said, “I can save him, Joe. I can save him. You just need to give me what I want. I can help you. And him.”
Richard stood, nude and bloodied, eyes on Joe but unable to take a step forward because of Gordo’s magic.
“Don’t,” Thomas said, eyes never leaving his son. “Don’t listen. It’s not—”
“You don’t need it,” Richard said. “I can take this all away. Your father will be fine. I will be the Alpha, and I promise you that all of this will seem like a dream. You can go home, and you’ll never see me again.”
I didn’t need to be a wolf to know he was lying.
And for all he was worth, for all that he’d been through, for all the horror that he’d seen, Joe hesitated.
I saw it. It was small. But it was there.
Thomas saw it too.
But so did Richard.
And he smiled.
So I took a step forward and said, “Joe.”
Joe looked up at me, Halloween eyes bright and wet.
“He makes promises,” I said, “that he won’t be able to keep.”
Joe bit his lip. “But—”
“He’s human,” Richard said, voice dripping with disdain. “Even if he is pack. He doesn’t understand. He’ll never understand what you are. What you’re supposed to become. His kind are the reason any of this is happening at all. They betray you, Joe. They will always betray you.”
“I promised you,” I said, taking another step. “That it would always be you and me. That I would take care of you. That I would never lie to you.”
Tears tracked down his face.
“They can only lie!” Richard roared, smashing his fists against the barrier. “It’s all they are capable of!”
“Hurry up, Ox,” Gordo bit out through gritted teeth.
“You trusted me with your wolf before you even knew me,” I said. “Back when I thought I was nothing. But you showed me. You trusted me. And I’m asking you to do it again.”
His eyes were wide. His breath hitched in his chest.
He tore his gaze away from me and looked back down at his father.
“This isn’t the end,” Thomas whispered to him, voice barely able to be heard above Richard’s shouts. “You’ll see. I am so proud of you and what you have become. What you will become.”
“I can’t do this alone,” Joe wept. “I can’t—”
“And you won’t have to,” Thomas said. “Because an Alpha is nothing without his pack. And your pack will always be with you.”
“Ox!” Gordo cried in warning, and I looked over. He’d fallen to his knees, sweating heavily, chest rising and falling rapidly.
Richard howled in triumph.
“Joe,” I said. “You have to—”
Joe’s claws were out before I could finish, black and sharp. The barrier flickered as he brought them down to his father’s chest, above his heart, fingers spread to five sharp points.
Voice a-tremble, Joe said, “Do you remember? That day in the woods. We chased the squirrels. And you told me you were happy I was your son.”
Thomas smiled his quiet smile. “I love you too.”
Joe pierced his father’s chest.
The world was a large and scary place. That’s what Gordo had taught me. That anything I could think of was probably out there. There were questions I didn’t ask because I was scared of the answers I would get. There were questions I hadn’t thought to ask, but whose answers were kept secret from me anyway.
And then there were questions I wasn’t even prepared to understand. Why did my father leave? Why did Joe choose me? What was my place in all of this?
How would Joe become the Alpha?
He knew. He knew, because he didn’t hesitate. Not at this. Not when his mind was made up. I wondered when Thomas had told him. Or if it was instinct. Something simply known from the past to the future.
His claws went into his father’s skin, pressing down until his palm was flat against Thomas’s chest. Richard screamed his fury, and at first nothing happened. I thought maybe something had gone wrong. Truth was, I didn’t know what to expect, transferring the power of an Alpha from one to another.
I still didn’t know jack shit about werewolves.
It started with a tingle along my skin.
Like a whisper in my ear.
Joe didn’t move.
Thomas didn’t move.
But then my skin was crawling. There was a surge in my head and heart, and I wondered if this is what it felt like to be lightning-struck. The pack bonds were bursting in my chest and I could feel them all, every single one of them, and there was a poignant relief, so greengreengreen because they were alive, all of them, but it hurt because Carter’s was strong and Mark’s, and Elizabeth and Kelly and Gordo (because he was there too, for the first time like pack and I could taste his magic at the back of my tongue, ozone-tinged and bitter).
And Joe, Joe was the brightest out of all of them, the strongest, and there was such power there that I could barely breathe.
And Thomas.
Thomas was there too.
But his was faded. The thread was thin.
Weaker than it had any right to be.