It’s only when we’re halfway home that I realise Wrath isn’t with us. He’s almost as strong as Khaos, sometimes stronger. It’s hard to pinpoint because we’re all on a sliding scale, but if anyone could shake off a command like that, it would be him. I don’t dare say a word, though I notice Hazard keeping his head down and carefully avoiding looking around as well.
I spot the cabin, and as soon as Khaos sets a paw on the porch, the command disintegrates. I spin and race back the other way, faster and faster.
RIOT!
I ignore the call, running at speeds I’ve never reached before. My heart beats her name. Something’s wrong, really wrong.
The trees are a blur. My paws find purchase in the dirt, off rocks. I bound faster and faster; this deep unease won’t let me settle. Why the hell does she live so far up the side of a mountain?
My ears swivel, picking up the sounds of pursuit.
The pack’s coming with me.
Good.
She’s going to need us. I know it in my gut. Trees whip by, and I weave and dodge, thanking the moon goddess for gracing me with agility and speed. If all I do in my pitiful life is save this woman from what I fear is coming for her, then it’s a life worth living.
The thought makes me stumble. How deep do my feelings for her go?
What wouldn’t I do for her?
Not much.
The terrain gets steeper but sparse. I leap, flying several feet before I land lightly and take off again. Rocks shift and fall, tumbling around me, but I just keep leaping, trying to sprout wings.
Our pack hates me. I am the disgrace, the scapegoat. The joke. If something goes wrong, it’s my fault. If there is a fight, it’s my fault. All my life, Khaos has stood in front of me, protecting and stopping them from exiling me from the pack. I have been the bone of contention between him and his father for my whole life. But Khaos has never wavered.
He believed in me.
They believed in me when no one else did. They loved me when no one else could.
Not even my own parents stuck around to love me, they shot out before I could even walk.
I would do anything for this pack, but I can’t ignore a threat to Casey. Even if it means I fuck up, and I let Khaos down. Because that feeling that he feels for me, that deep knowing that I am important to him, that I am part of him…I feel that for her.
If I could save her, just once, I think all my sins, all my failures, all that love I lacked that burned and ruined me would be washed away, and I could be okay with that.
She is something special. A comet, a rainbow. Elusive and spectacular.
I can’t let anything happen to her.
I get close to town, but I don’t stop, not even when I hear Khaos’ warning yip. He can suck it. I’m not giving him a chance to bark me again.
I just fly across the road and into the shadows, racing through the town, trying to find her scent. I head towards where we left the car, but the town feels weird, wired. Something is wrong, that thought just keeps returning, pounding into me. And then I catch another scent, one that leaves me with no doubt she is in trouble.
It smells like burnt flesh and musk. I let out a vicious growl and lift my head, peering around to see if anyone is watching me. Another growl escapes, and I flick my tail hard.
I turn, circling the spot as Hazard catches up to me. He lowers his head, inhaling the scent before revealing his teeth. The red wolf looks absolutely feral when he’s mad. I don’t know why people fear him over all of us, but right now, I can see it.
There are shifters in town.
The Foster Pack is here, but not the scents we smelled at the cabin. These are alphas, strong, in their prime, and they are hunting.
And our owner, our friend, is here with the very people who want to force her to be a breeder.
I look at Khaos, who pauses to take in the scent. For the first time, he looks uncertain. He lifts his head to the wind, inhaling the stench of all the alphas and betas who have invaded.
He hesitates, but Angel shoves him back the way we came. Khaos can’t be caught here.
