“In case of what?”
“Anything. Go again.”
And they did. Again.
And again.
And again.
IT WAS an oddity, where the wolf had wanted us to meet. An old covered wooden bridge outside of Green Creek. It was supposed to be quaint, even though the paint was peeling and the wood was cracked. People from the city came up in the fall to take pictures of it while the leaves changed around them. It stretched over a creek bed that trickled with cold water from higher up the mountains.
It meant, though, that it was out of the way, so nobody from town would get hurt.
We didn’t bother with a car. Mark met us in the trees, already shifted, eyes bright in the dark, tail twitching. Elizabeth disrobed while Tanner called, having heard her song. “Is this real?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. “They have Jessie.”
“Fuck. Chris, he’ll—”
“Get them. Meet at the shop. I’ll tell him.”
“Ox—”
“Move,” I snapped. “Now.”
He grunted and disconnected.
I turned back to the others.
Robbie was there now too, a gray wolf with black striping along his face. He was smaller than Mark and Elizabeth, and leaner, but his teeth were sharp and his paws were big. That thin thread that somehow stretched between us and him pulsed gently, and I could feel the packpackpack riding along each little wave. We hadn’t quite acknowledged it, none of us had, because betrayal ran deep. He wasn’t Osmond, but he was still part of where Osmond had come from.
But Robbie had been here. He’d trained with us. He’d eaten with us at our table. I didn’t think it’d be too much longer before whatever obstacle between us fell away.
I wondered if Joe could feel them.
I wondered if he even cared.
They followed me through the trees, running in the dark by my side. I didn’t need to look where I was headed. I knew this place, these woods, this forest. I knew every inch of it. Thomas had taught me that. He’d shown me that a territory was a home and this was my home. I knew where to jump. Where to duck. I didn’t think of how or why. It just was.
We were careful when we got to Green Creek, keeping in the shadows. It was late, very late, and the streets were empty, but there were already rumors of wolves in the woods, and we didn’t need anyone in town to think they’d walked along the streets.
The shop was dark, but I could feel them toward the back.
Their voices cut off as we rounded the corner. They looked at me as the wolves went and rubbed up against them.
Tanner tossed me my crowbar, careful to not let it touch Robbie, who had pressed his side against Tanner’s leg.
I caught it as Chris said, “We heard it. The howl. It was like….”
“In your head?”
They all nodded, looking relieved.
“You get used to it,” I said. “Mostly.”
“What happened?” Rico asked.
“Chris,” I said. “I need you to listen to me.
He frowned. “What… what happened?”
“Omegas,” I said. “Outside the wards.”
“They can’t get in, right?” Rico asked. “Why are we—”
“They have Jessie,” I said, not taking my eyes off of Chris.
He paled. “What?” he whispered.
“They made her call me.”
He took a step forward, stiff and radiating anger. “She’s alive?” he demanded.
“Yes.” And I thought she still would be. They needed leverage. We had nine minutes. Maybe ten. “I heard her voice.”
“What did she say?”
She’d screamed, but I didn’t need him to know that. “That they had her, and that their eyes were glowing.”
“Fuck,” Rico muttered.
“They took her,” Chris said to me.
“Yes.”
“And we’re going to get her back.”
“Yes.”
“Ox,” he said, and I put my hands on his shoulders, pressing my forehead to his. “She’s all I have. She’s not…. She’s my sister, Ox. They can’t do this to her.”
“We’ll get her,” I promised him. “We’ll bring her back, and they will regret the day they took her from us.”
He exhaled heavily and his shoulders trembled underneath my hands. But I could feel the moment he pushed it aside, the way he tensed and hardened. The way his eyes grew dark. The way he bared his teeth.
“They think,” I said, raising my voice so the others could hear, “that we’re nothing. That they can come here and take what they want. That we’re broken.”
The wolves growled and gnashed their teeth.
“We’re going to show them just how wrong they are.”
And maybe, just maybe, for the briefest of moments, I could understand Joe and the choices he’d made.
I FELT Gordo’s wards before anything else. They stopped ten yards before the covered bridge. We weren’t trapped. We could leave Green Creek anytime we wanted to. This wasn’t about keeping us in. It was about keeping all others out that intended to do the pack harm. And if anything was strong enough to push through, supposedly we’d know. Gordo had said he didn’t think anyone could get by them, not even his father, but they were mixed into the pack bonds, a sort of alarm system.
They hummed just under my skin the closer we got. It felt like I was warm and vibrating, and it whispered little songs in its own way. Gordo’s magic was tied to us, maybe more to Joe, but they were gone and the wards remained. I spared a thought for him, then pushed it away. I didn’t have time for memories. Not now.
He had stretched them far around Green Creek, deep into the woods. They didn’t cover the entirety of the territory belonging to the Bennetts, but enough that we were safe.
There were wolves standing in front of the bridge outside the wards.
I approached first, the others out of sight. I knew the wards were messing with the Omegas’ senses, so it didn’t seem likely that they’d know how many others were with me. Maybe they were even stupid enough to think I’d come alone.
Violet eyes watched me. I counted ten pairs tracking my every step.
I didn’t see Jessie. I’d forgotten, briefly, that I couldn’t feel her like the others. I remembered that day in my room when she and I had ended and I’d tried to do the same. She wasn’t pack. I couldn’t feel her like that.
I stopped just before the wards. Somewhere off to my right, Gordo had burned a rune into one of the trees. The invisible line before me thrummed. I took a breath. It stank of ozone.
“You come alone, human?” a familiar voice growled from in front of the bridge.
The wolf from the phone.
I said, “What is your name?” I could only make out his Omega eyes.
He said, “Where are the others? The remains of what you once were.”
“I asked you a question.”
The Omegas around him laughed as he stepped forward. He was still mostly hidden by the shadows, but I’d gotten used to the dark.
The wolf didn’t look that much older than I was. His beard was patchy, his hair pulled back and tied off with a leather strap. His fangs had dropped and were dimpling the skin of his bottom lip. I thought maybe he was smiling.