Broken Moon by Laken Cane
Chapter Eighteen
As I drove to Shadowfield, I texted Jared to let him know I was on my way. He didn’t reply, but I knew he’d be waiting when I got there. The streets of Shadowfield were quiet as I drove down them on my way to the alpha’s house, but I could feel the wolves watching me.
There were always pack warriors keeping watch over a pack’s territory, town, and borders, guarding and protecting, and I knew they were well aware that I’d entered their town.
Jared hadn’t told me where to meet him, so I pulled up in front of the offices, same as I had last night. I was curious about his house. An alpha had the biggest house in the community, and it was usually passed down from an alpha to his son when the time came from the older alpha to hand over the reins.
I left my car and went to the back to gear up for the coming hunt. The beast had been injured, so he might not fly out at us like he had last night. That was fine with me. I wanted to track him, to find where he spent his sleeping and healing time. He’d have a place he considered safe, somewhere he could hole up and see the enemy approaching—or, as I’m sure he had a few times—watch for his next kill.
I buckled on my belts and sheaths and holsters, wondering if there’d ever come a time when preparing for a fight or a hunt would make me less than excited. I hoped not. It was a great outlet for my pain and energy. If I couldn’t shift, I could fight.
“Kaitlyn.”
I jerked, chills running down my spine, when the alpha spoke. I slammed shut the hatch before I turned to face him, hoping for a few seconds to control my kneejerk reaction to an alpha.
I gave him a nod. “Jared.” Yeah, I sounded completely cool and calm.
He was dressed for a hunt, as well. Since he couldn’t shift and fight the exsoloup, he wore a long blade on his back, a shorter one at his hip, and on his other hip, a gun.
I lifted an eyebrow, and he shrugged. “Some of them can be neutralized by a gun.”
I grinned. “You like guns.”
The corners of his lips lifted, and for a second, my stare caught on that smile as once again, chills chased each other down my spine. The alpha was hot.
“I’m ready,” someone else said, tearing my attention away from Jared and his mouth.
“Lennon,” I said, surprised. “You’re coming with us?”
“Jared believes my power might be of some use.”
“Power?” I asked. Lennon was a seer—not a fighter.
She reached into her coat and pulled out an ornate, crooked wand, and suddenly, without her so much as blinking, a crackling blue light flared to life and began dancing around the wand. When she waved her hand, the light sputtered and then came back brighter than ever.
“Pretty,” I said, impressed, “but I still don’t see how—”
She whirled around with a particular graceful movement and pointed the wand. The light disappeared from her wand, reappeared on a small gargoyle statue across the way, and the statue exploded into blue dust.
“I always hated that statue,” she said, as I gaped.
“Wow,” I said, awed. “I need that wand.”
She laughed. “It wouldn’t work for a non-witch, Kaitlyn, and even if another witch took my wand, she’d have to delete my energy and soak it in her own for weeks before she could use it.”
I knew that, but still. My mouth watered at the thought of adding a wand like that to my collection of tools. “I’ve heard about witchwolves, but I’ve never met one.”
She smiled and put the beautiful wand away. “You can’t say that anymore.”
“Can we get to know each other a little later?” the alpha growled. “We have a creature to contain before he kills more of my people.”
“Right behind you, boss,” Lennon said, then gave me a wink.
As we jogged toward the woods, we were suddenly surrounded by six of Jared’s warriors. One second we were alone, and the next, they were there, running grimly beside us. That was the thing about warrior wolves—if they didn’t want to be seen, you would not see them.
One of them carried what looked like a heavy canvas bag on his back, and I figured it held a silver net and possibly restraints. While in human form, the silver would not hurt a wolf—but when he shifted, the touch of silver could weaken him. If it got inside him—via silver shot, a silver blade, or particles he ingested—it could do more than weaken him. It could kill him.
Eli wasn’t with us, but with the alpha insisting on hunting, the beta would stay behind to protect the pack should an enemy attack while the alpha was gone.
Jared ran his pack differently than my old alpha—Adam Walker—ran his. It was fascinating, really, and even more than the excitement of the coming hunt, I felt the joy of belonging to a pack. Not that I did, officially, not yet, but I felt with everything inside me that I would. And not even the way they’d treated me in the past was bigger than that.
“What’s with the muscle?” I asked Jared. “Last time it was just the two of us.”
“Eager to be alone with me, Kaitlyn?” he asked.
My cheeks burned. “My wolf, maybe,” I snapped. “Definitely not me. An alpha would not be on my list of desirable mates.” But his spicy alpha wolf scent wafted into my brain and I could feel the almost irresistible heat coming from his body. I had a very bad feeling that when my wolf was finally free, I was going to be all over the alpha.
“Careful not to protest too much,” Lennon murmured, and I could have smacked her.
Then we crossed the field and entered the woods, and everyone went silent. It was a relief to slip away from sexy thoughts and into hunt mode. Not to brag, but I was a damn good hunter. And now that I’d had a run-in with the exsoloup, I had his scent to latch onto. I had the feel of him in my bones. He was prey, and I was a predator wolf.
Everything else faded away.
Ten or so minutes in, I saw something on the ground. I crouched, using a stick to gently touch a black stain. Exsoloup blood.
One of the warriors—who I’d pretty much forgotten—spoke. “Is that—”
“Quiet,” I snapped. I closed my eyes and reached below the excitement of the hunt, the fear of the exsoloup, and the pain of my wolf, and I found the slightest hint of the creature. It was his scent, sort of, but mostly it was just the feel of him.
And when I opened my eyes and began walking once again, sliding through the darkness with the alpha at my side and the others at my back, I understood something I’d overlooked before.
“He can’t see very well,” I said quietly, and though I couldn’t have known for sure, I still felt it was the absolute truth. “He can’t see, and he can only smell wolf. Because we’re in human form, if we’re quiet, he won’t know we’re here until we’re upon him. After this point, do no speak, and above everything else, do not shift.” I looked at Jared. “We’re close. Have your men hang back.”
Before he could say anything, one of the warriors, a muscular wolf with shaggy brown hair, got in my face. “Do not dare to command us,” he snarled. “The alpha is ours to protect, and you will not put him in danger with your careless human ways.”
“There are too many people,” I said calmly. “Even if we don’t make a sound, he’s bound to feel the threat of so many warm bodies. I think it’s—”
“It does not matter what you think,” he said, rather viciously. “You do not command a Gray Shadow warrior or attempt to manipulate the alpha into leashing us.”
I had hurt his pride. Warriors were respected and depended on for protection of their pack. They were not sent away.
Also, I was an outsider to them, and I understood that. Not only was I an outsider, but I was, in their minds, human. It didn’t help that I came from a traitorous father. For a second, I was overwhelmed with despair. This pack would never accept me as one of them.
That was why I’d been less than thrilled when they’d shown up. Their presence complicated matters, and they would rather die than take orders from me.
“Micah,” Jared said.
The warrior snapped to attention, hearing something in his alpha’s voice. “Yes, Alpha.”
“You will hang back. If I need you, I will call you.” He looked around at the wolves. “You will all hang back, and you will keep your silence.” But he wasn’t done yet. “And if any of you address Ms. Silver again, it will be with respect. Do you understand my words?”
“Yes, Alpha,” they murmured.
I sighed. They were going to hate me more every time Jared interfered or defended me against them. It probably wouldn’t have stopped him, but I wasn’t sure he understood that he was making it worse. Actually, I wasn’t sure he gave a damn about making it worse. He was threatening them. Leave her alone, or I will kick your asses.
When we began walking once again, no one moved but me and the alpha. Not even Lennon stepped forward until Jared beckoned her—and she was the only one who would have been happy to stay put.
I didn’t really understand her reluctance. She had huge power. Power that would definitely injure the creature. But she wanted to stay home and see things, not fight things. Honestly, the alpha was paying me to collect the creature. I’d rather they all stay home.
Except, maybe, for the alpha.
But I didn’t say a word. As long as they stayed out of my way, it was all good.
I found the exsoloup not five minutes later. We crept along, and I was nearly past him before something made me pause and draw my blade. Jared stood beside me, his stare following mine to the dark shadow that didn’t quite fit in with others. The creature was high in in the fork of a bare tree, hanging almost like a giant bat, and even in his sleep, a weak and soft but high-pitched wheeze was pushed from his mouth.
“He’s hurt,” I whispered. “Very hurt. We can take him, if we can get him down from there.”
“I’ll shift,” Jared murmured. “Because he’s injured, he’ll need to absorb someone to regain his strength and begin to heal. He’ll sense me the second I’m in wolf form.”
“Not you,” Lennon hissed. “You’re the alpha. What will happen to the pack if you die? Call one of the warriors to shift.”
He looked at her, his frown stern. “Be ready with your wand, Seer. We can end this thing tonight.”
She shivered. “I’m ready.” She lifted her wand as quietly and quickly, Jared began to undress. It was always best if a wolf could rid himself of his clothes and weapons before shifting. He lay the weapons in a pile on the ground, kicked off his boots and then, before I could tell myself to look away, he peeled off his shirt. He didn’t hesitate to shove his pants over his hips, and Lennon leaned over to drag the clothes into a pile beside the weapons. I would have helped, but I couldn’t move.
At the end, just before he shifted, his eyes met mine, and I felt that look like a bolt of lightning. There was the sound of bones snapping, and his eyes changed so quickly I couldn’t help but gasp. Then he gave a muted roar, and he transformed. He shifted. His wolf burst into being, that big, shaggy animal, and his was one of the smoothest shifts I’d ever seen.
It took mere seconds.
The wolf threw his head back, pointed his nose at the dark sky, and howled. And even though he’d told his warriors to stay put, his howl called to them, made them think he was in trouble—they knew he wasn’t supposed to shift—and they rushed the clearing with rage and deadly intent. But they did not shift.
And the creature, who needed the wolf to live, zoomed from the tall tree like a heatseeking missile, and he aimed himself at Jared.
I was waiting for him. All his attention was on the only shifted wolf there, and as the warriors grabbed their silver nets and prepared to entrap the exsoloup, I threw myself between the creature and the alpha, and with every bit of my considerable strength, I drove the demon blade through the creature’s throat.
The blow was so intense that the blade went through his flesh and deeply pierced the bark, pinning the exsoloup to the tree in which he’d nested. He grabbed at the handle of the blade, his eyes bulging, as black blood gushed from his throat and cascaded over my hand like a putrid waterfall.
Jared had already returned to his human form, and he dove for his weapons even as Lennon rushed into my vision and lifted her wand. The blue flame sparked to life, and her lips moved as she murmured something.
Then, chaos.
The exsoloup did something I didn’t know he could do, something I hadn’t read about when I was researching him. He opened his mouth as wide as he could, showing discolored rows of sharp teeth, and he screamed. It wasn’t like the shriek I’d heard him do the last time, though. It was a weapon, that scream, and unlike the power that sucked the life from the wolves, this one slammed into us. It was like being hit with a wall of ice, freezing the brain, the heart, the body.
Still, I ducked, somehow, and Lennon got the brunt of it. It struck the alpha, as well, and the warriors who attempted to reach him. Even though I’d ducked most of it—a very good thing considering that I was practically in his mouth when he screamed—I was hit, and that cold power wrenched me away from the creature and threw me at least five yards, and for a few seconds I lay on the ground unable to hear, think, or see.
Even my wolf was quiet, like the creature had knocked her cold.
When I finally sat up, I looked around, disoriented, and saw Lennon lying in a motionless heap. She’d gotten a much bigger hit than I had, so I could only imagine what that strange power had done to her.
The creature was gone, flapping his torn and ragged wings as he flew away, but I’d injured him badly. He hadn’t yet recovered from the first round with the demon blade, and he’d been hit again. I was nearly certain he wouldn’t get far.
I just wasn’t certain how I was going to kill the bastard. The woods were suddenly loud and seemingly crowded as it appeared every wolf in Shadowfield had heard that scream. They’d shifted to get here fast, and though shifting was a definite no-no while the beast lived, I knew he wasn’t going to be able to attack. Not for a while.
Before I could actually find the strength to climb to my feet and check on Lennon and the alpha, the pack shifted back to their human form and converged upon their wounded, tending them with a practiced, coordinated, and eerily silent ease. They ignored me.
I saw the alpha, finally—he’d shifted to heal himself, and he loped across the ground, nosing his people, helping the ones who were conscious to shift. They’d heal so much faster in their wolf form. Unfortunately for Lennon, maybe because of what she was, the alpha could not bring her shift.
The beta, Eli, cradled her tenderly in his arms and after a long look at his alpha, he rushed her from the woods.
I managed to get my feet under me and I stood, but I could not shift, either, and my healing was going to be a little slower. Not as slow as Lennon’s, but slower than the ones who could shift.
It was like I’d been hit by a train and struck by lightning at the same time. I felt bruised and burned, my body shook with an unfamiliar and deep pain, as though my very bones had been crushed and were attempting to reknit.
I lurched forward, accidentally stumbled against a burly man who was hurrying to help his people. He shoved me away and I lost my precarious balance, falling to the ground once again. Someone stepped on my hand, and as I cradled my fingers to my chest and attempted once more to stand, I saw Jared loping toward me, his lip curled in an angry snarl. He shifted back to his human form just before he reached me. He would have been better off to stay as his wolf for a while to heal, but he’d taken what he could from his wolf and shifted back to help his people.
Only he was angry, apparently, and wanted to deal with me first. I’d have trouble protecting myself against an angry alpha if I were completely well. And right now, I wasn’t exactly well, though I felt about a hundred times better than I had five minutes ago.
I recoiled when he reached me, and that was the moment I realized I’d lost my demon blade. Son of a bitch.
I scrambled away from him and his anger, but I had not yet managed to stand. As he loomed over me, I held up my hands to ward him off, sure he could see the plea in my eyes. “Don’t hurt me, Alpha,” I said, but my voice was barely above a whisper.
I wasn’t in my right mind, or I’d have realized Jared wasn’t going to hurt me. He wasn’t an unfair, sadistic asshole like my last alpha. But my mind was cluttered and confused and at that moment, reality was just a little distorted.
The awful anger in his eyes softened, and he lifted me from the ground and held me against his chest. “Sweetheart,” I thought he whispered, but of course I was wrong. Why would the Gray Shadow alpha call me sweetheart?
The fucking exsoloup had warped me.
Then Jared was running through the woods, and I wanted to kick my way out of his arms so I could find my lost blade, and also, I did not want the alpha or his pack or anyone to see me as a victim.
I also did not want to be the one the alpha helped when his own people were lying injured and dying on the ground. God knew they hated me enough already. Hopefully they’d understand that because I was unable to shift, I was too weak and injured to help myself. Unfortunately, I was the most delicate person left in the woods. And that was just embarrassing.
So I did nothing. I couldn’t find the will to fight against the alpha’s help. He wanted to carry me from the woods, and I would let him.
As if I could stop him.
I sighed, though, when I realized that before the night was out, I’d likely have to return to the woods to find my demon blade. Maybe I was a little obsessed with the thing, but that was only because deep in my soul, I knew that blade had reformed the moment it had tasted my blood, and it was part of me now, like my heart, or my wolf.
Somewhat stronger in my body and clearer in my mind, I relaxed against Jared’s chest and let his body warm me and for the first time in forever, I felt safe, and my contentment was larger than my pain.
