And none of that mattered.
Merrick walked around the porch toward the back of his home. Once he rounded the corner and the back lawn was in sight, his gaze fell on the tall, powerful figures in the grass, staring up at him. Four werewolves—two males and two females, he guessed, as the former were larger and more broadly built. They were hybrids of human and wolf; they stood upright on two legs, their bodies were covered in fur, and their fingers were tipped with wicked claws. Their lupine eyes glowed yellow with reflected light.
He stopped and settled his hands on the railing. The werewolves were displaying more control than he’d thought possible from their kind. Before the Sundering, werewolves—like anything else humans considered supernatural—were exceedingly rare, and only appeared in this form during the full moon. The few he’d encountered had been ravening, bloodthirsty beasts, no more controlled than wild animals.
These werewolves, on the other hand, had intelligent gleams in their eyes—at least as intelligent as a human’s.
“We’ve come for food and shelter,” said the foremost wolf in a growling, guttural voice—but in perfect modern English, nonetheless.
“I’m afraid I’ve run out of hospitality for the millennium,” Merrick replied. He held back the magic bristling within him, which intensified as the tension in the air thickened. “Come back in a thousand years. I ought to have replenished my stores of generosity by then.”
“Let us in or we’ll let ourselves in,” a gray-furred female snarled, stepping forward with claws splayed.
“Be silent,” the lead wolf said, snapping his jaws at the female.
She bared her teeth and growled but backed away, lowering her lupine snout.
The lead wolf—the alpha, most likely—returned his attention to Merrick. “We don’t mean you any harm, but we will take what we need whether you cooperate or not. This is our territory.”
“Strange,” Merrick replied. “I must’ve missed the letter from the county explaining that they’d seized my land and sold it out from beneath me.”
“Come down here, and we’ll see how smug you are,” said the gray female.
The other male and female—both brown furred—eased back a step.
“This place smells unnatural,” the brown female said. “We should leave.”
“The old rules don’t matter anymore,” the alpha said. “This land is ours now. It belongs to my pack. Accept that and cooperate, and we’ll leave you in peace.”
“More like pieces,” the gray female said.
Adalynn’s presence tingled on Merrick’s back; she was still inside his bedroom, but sensing her was a powerful drive for him—it enhanced his protective instinct and meant the wolves’ threats sparked greater rage within him. A threat to Merrick’s home was a threat to Adalynn and Danny—because Merrick and the manor were what would keep those two humans safe in this dangerous new world.
Though he was outnumbered, though the wolves were physically stronger, faster, and tougher, Merrick would not tolerate threats. Especially not threats to his Adalynn.
Merrick drew in a deep, slow breath and opened his conduit to the ley line a little more. Its song increased in strength, and its power—infinite and unfathomable—trickled into him, making the hairs on his arms stand on end.
“Where’s your remaining companion?” Merrick asked, reaching outward with invisible tendrils of magic to seek the animalistic resonance of the fifth wolf—five had broken his wards—but he couldn’t look very far in that manner without shifting his full attention to the task.
Clearly, it was a skill he’d have to improve upon over the years to come.
With Adalynn at my side throughout.
The alpha shook his head from side to side and snorted. The other werewolves exchanged questioning glances.
“Scouting ahead,” the alpha replied.
Wispy, ethereal clouds drifted in front of the moons, further diffusing the light and deepening the darkness beneath the trees bordering the lawn. It seemed a fitting precursor to what was likely about to happen.
“Disrespect, threats, and lies.” Merrick tightened his grip on the railing. He’d been wrong for all those years—the flaws and shortcomings he’d attributed to humankind were evident in people of all species. To think human cruelty was unique had been a mistake. “You’ve failed to ingratiate yourself to your would-be host.”
Merrick vaulted over the railing. He slowed himself with a release of magic just before his feet touched the ground, landing easily in the grass while remaining upright.
The wolves recoiled slightly, nostrils flaring; whether they’d seen or sensed his magic, they’d noticed it.
Good.
For once, Merrick wanted it to be known that, despite his appearance, he was anything but human—and that these wolves did not intimidate him.
This was an unquestionably risky move; he was outmatched physically, and he doubted the more aggressive pair of wolves would be dissuaded by his display of bravado, but at the very least it meant he’d be able to steer the fighting away from the house—away from Adalynn and Daniel.
“See yourselves off my land,” Merrick said, “and I’ll leave each of you in one piece.”
Keeping his yellow eyes on Merrick, the alpha lowered his snout and peeled his lips back, baring his fangs.
“So we kill him and take it all anyway,” the gray female said.
The alpha grunted. Somehow, the sound echoed what he’d said before—the old rules don’t matter anymore.
Merrick wrenched open his connection to the ley line. Magic, rawer and more powerful than he’d ever felt, surged through him, suffusing his entire being. The heat within him built to a near unbearable degree—but it could not match the heat of his anger.
“Kill him,” the alpha growled.
Merrick swept his arm in a wide arc, unleashing a wave of unshaped magical energy.
The front wolves, who’d been mid-leap already, were struck head-on. The energy swept back their fur for a fraction of a second before it blasted them both backward. Despite their size, the wolves flipped end-over-end in a pair of arcs that saw them crash down only a few yards away from the garden hedge.
Using that power was a thrill; it came effortlessly, without depleting Merrick’s magic, without drawing from his own energy. Heady as it was, he recognized the danger of it—this power would destroy him if he tapped into it too fully. But he had to use it. This was the surest way to keep Adalynn and her brother safe. No risk was too great to protect them.
And the ley line offered more than just raw magical energy. Merrick’s senses were opened wide, expanded beyond reason—he was acutely aware of the mana songs, no matter how faint, of everything around him, even the blades of grass, the tiny pebbles, the dirt under his feet and the worms burrowing through it. He held those senses in check. He knew instinctually that, should he choose to, he could expand that awareness to any point along the line. That he could sense everything along its entirety.
He also knew that to do so would mean losing himself—his self—forever.
The alpha and the gray female staggered to their feet and shook away their disorientation. Faint wisps of smoke rose from their fur. The brown werewolves had retreated several feet from their original positions, eyes wide and breath ragged.