Cassiel
Goosebumps rushed down Cassiel’s arms and a curse caught on his tongue. He went rigid, limbs locking in place by those predatory eyes. Thoughts raced through his mind. He wasn’t armed. The trees were too dense to fly through. He couldn’t fight a beast.Run.
They had to run!
“Zev?” Dyna called to it, her voice quivering.
Cassiel’s attention snapped to her. “Your cousin is a were-beast?”
She nodded without looking away from it.
The creature snarled and moved into the moonlight revealing a huge gray wolf. It was three times bigger than an ordinary wolf but thin with bald patches in its fur. Foam lined its mouth and drool seeped through its sharp teeth as it stalked forward.
She stumbled back. “That’s not him!”
Cassiel grabbed her elbow, and they ran. The wolf lunged for them. In one leap, it took Dyna down, wrenching her from his grasp and they crashed to the ground. Her terrible scream rang in his ears. He gathered the force in his wings and spun, whipping them against the beast. The blow threw it across the glade, but it quickly rolled back to its feet.
Cassiel held his flute as he would a knife and braced his legs. Silver would kill it as long as he struck a piercing blow.
The wolf bound for them when a young man came tearing through the bushes. He ripped off his shirt and leaped into the air, shifting mid-arc into a black wolf and tackled the other wolf off its path. The monstrous beasts tussled on the ground, a snarling mass of fur and teeth.
Cassiel yanked Dyna to her feet and shoved her toward the cliffs. “Go!”
But she stayed in place staring at the creatures, hands covering her mouth.
The two wolves circled the clearing, their reflective yellow eyes glowing in the night. The black wolf was larger and much stronger. That didn’t deter the gray wolf from challenging it. They charged at each other, tearing into flesh.
Watching their attacks, Cassiel determined the fight would not last much longer. The black wolf was winning, though it didn’t aim to kill. It attempted repeatedly to herd its opponent to the woods, but the beast was relentless. It kept trying to reach Dyna. The black wolf slammed into the grey, throwing the massive beast across the clearing. It collided into a tree with a loudthwack, sending a scatter of leaves raining down. It didn’t get up.
A low growl rumbled from the black wolf. It circled the tree warily, eyeing the fallen beast. When it didn’t move, the black wolf approached. The gray wolf lunged for its throat.
“No!” Dyna cried.
The gray wolf spun to her at the shout. The black wolf tackled it, and they rolled into the underbrush out of sight. Vicious growls and snarls filled the glade. A sharp whine sliced the night air, coming to an abrupt end. After a brief silence, a chorus of mournful howls resonated beyond the woods. The haunting sound turned every muscle in Cassiel’s back rigid.
The bushes rustled and, the massive black wolf ambled out with a glistening muzzle.
“Zev!” Dyna ran to the wolf and wrapped her arms around its neck, burying her face in the thick fur. It whined softly and nuzzled her cheeks, leaving behind smears of blood.
“Thatthingis your kin?” Cassiel asked. Perhaps she called it cousin as a term of endearment.
The wolf growled, baring its fangs.
“This is Zev.” Dyna stood and brushed herself off. She hurried to the bushes to gather the strewn clothes and boots and laid them by the beast.
When she turned her back, the wolf’s form shifted and its fur receded, revealing a crouched, naked young man. Zev rose to his full height. He stood a few feet taller than Dyna; broad body layered in corded muscle. In the moonlight, Cassiel could barely distinguish the warped scars all over him. Zev’s eyes no longer shone yellow. They were a different shade not perceptible in the night, but his wayward dark hair and scruffy face hardly hid the wild, sharp features that hinted what he was.
Cassiel struggled to explain what he was seeing. He glanced back and forth between Zev and the moon peeking through the branches. This werewolf somehow shifted to his human form at night.
How?
Zev quickly yanked on his trousers and slipped on a dirty white tunic, then his boots. “Dyna, are you all right?” he asked, his gruff voice full of concern.
“Yes.” She turned around with a smile, but it faltered at the sight of blood soaking through his tunic from his ribs. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing.” He rested his hands on her shoulders. “I feared the worst when I caught your scent and realized Faolan hunted you.”
“Faolan?” She glanced at the bushes. “He’s of the Lykos Pack?”
