Angel
My mother flows acrossthe ground beside me, her pale silver coat gleams, but she’s one of the most dangerous hunters I’ve ever met. She trained Hazard and I well. But I never thought we’d be hunting together, not like this.
I lead the way, following the ghostly pull of the bonds. Casey is here; Riot is with her. Half of me wants to go to her, but the other half wants to bleed this pack dry.
We slip in through the pack grounds like shadows. It’s like a small suburb except it’s clear it’s been run-down and neglected. There are no gardens or painted houses. No, everything is falling apart and broken. The same red dirt covers everything, and trash and broken things lie where they were left.
Ahead of us, I see people running. I’m tempted to chase them down, but instinct keeps me going. There are lots of screams in a certain area, and a whole lot of wooden benches sat in a semicircle around a fence that is half buried. No, not buried; there is a hole down there. What is that? I zero in on it, frustrated and confused until I spot a beta holding a cattle prod. He leans down with bared teeth.
An inferno of rage hits me, and I explode.
I hear a grunt and slam into the beta, breaking ribs. I snap his arm in one bite, blood filling my mouth. He screams, and the prod falls into the hole. My mother steps past us and lets out an unhappy growl, her tail flicking mercilessly.
I rip the asshole apart. His dark red blood splatters the fence. I don’t stop until my rage is quenched, then I freeze, because I can smell lilac.
My whole body tingles.
She’s here. She’s here!
My mother noses around and finds a ladder, pushing it in. My eyes snap to the hole in the ground. Down there? Is she…
“Hey, who are you?”
Rage returns, and I whirl, springing before he can even ask another question. I rip out the throat of the idiot who dared to touch my pack.
I turn, and there she is, dirty, emaciated, but alive, her eyes gleaming.
I stand up, frozen. “Casey,” I finally breathe her name.
“Angel,” she whispers.
I rush to her, wrapping her in my arms. “Casey. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have known it was an accident. Omega, I knew you weren’t like them. I’m sorry.”
She leans into me, crying into my chest. “You’re okay; you look so beautiful. Like a dream.”
Riot joins our hugging pile and kisses her cheek. “I’m going to go help the others, but you’re going to stay with Angel and Mama, right?”
The silver wolf jerks and then wags her tail, but her eyes are fixed on us, and I know she likes what she sees. My mother and I were always close in a quiet, we-don’t-need-to-talk-about-it way.
Casey looks up at us with huge, haunted eyes. She dips her head, and Riot rushes off. I run my hand down her arm until I can thread my fingers around hers. The warmth has me closing my eyes.
She’s alive. We have her.
“I need to settle something,” Casey says in a dead voice.
She shifts into that feral omega wolf, and when she lops off, my mother and I follow on her heels. Anyone who comes into her path who is Foster, she kills with a savagery that is borderline insane.
I approve of it. I join the bloodletting, turning my fur red and pink.
I glance at my mother, and I can see the pride in her eyes, and I know she and Casey will be firm friends.
All around us are the screams of the hunted. The Khaos pack is silent, effectively eliminating the Foster pack from existence. The bonds tweak, and I feel the fury and joy of my twin. I turn in his direction just as he jumps onto a roof and lets out a spooky howl that sends Fosters exploding out of the house he is perched on.
He jumps down and kills Preston in five vicious moves. Ankle, knee, gut, wrist, and throat. He’s dead beforehe hits the ground.
I’m not sorry; if anything, Hazard was too kind.
He stops, and his tail drops. He stands there, staring in our direction. I can feel the uncertainty, the hesitance in the bond. I wish I could tell her how hard he fought for her. How he never stopped.
