Kai’s nostrils flared and he glared at hismother, sending ripples of fur down his body. “I forbid it!” he roared.
The man who had challenged him glared at me.“Too late. She accepted. If I win, I take this pack and you become my second,” hetold Kai, “…if I let you.”
“Then when I am healed I will challenge youagain and kill you. Withdraw your request!” Kai roared at the man.
“No. Challenge accepted.” He started toshift.
Okay, this was just another guy who preyed onweak people. I had prepared my whole life for this moment. All of Safe Haven,my martial arts training; it was all to keep bastards like this from takingadvantage of the weak. I wasn’t weak though and I was going to prove it. I tooka hint from Kai’s style of fighting and shifted instantly, running at the manfull speed. I slammed into him knocking him back in his half shifted form. Iglanced at Kai. He had shifted into his werewolf form. His mother had a chunkof his fur in her hand, holding him back. I knew then, that if it looked like Iwas losing, Kai would intervene and the council would later kill him.
I tore at the werewolf’s jugular as his half-clawedhands raked down my back causing me to let out a high-pitched yelp.
‘Don’t drag this out. You want a fast kill.He is wolf born. I can feel it. No powers,’Kai told me.
I backed out of his hold and came from adifferent angle. He was fully in wolf form now. I lunged at him but he rolledto the side. I caught his tail in my mouth and dragged him towards me as hehowled in pain. When he was close enough, I used my front paws to dig into hishind legs and pull him underneath me. Being underneath your attacker was theworst and most vulnerable position possible. He was squirming and strong, but Iwas fast. I saw an opening and lunged forward taking his neck in my mouth. Hewas swiping at my belly with his hind paws but I ignored the pain as I chewedinto his neck. Sister wolf had taken over. Nothing about this grossed me out.The vegetarian Aurora was nowhere to be found. I wanted him dead. I wanted hishead separated from his body. I wanted to taste his blood, to protect my mateand my pack. This was a means to an end.
Once I had a good hold, I shook his neck inmy jaws and his body flopped like a rag doll. With one last burst of effort, Igave a hard pull to the right and ripped his head clean off. His body crumpledbeneath me and I turned around to see Kai’s wolf two feet from my face. He was readyto intervene at any moment. Luckily he hadn’t. I gave a loud howl and the packbegan shifting. It was unspoken. We needed a run, together, for the first timeas a new pack in our new territory.
‘Don’t ever do that again.’ Kai told me and ran off to runbeside his brother, Jai. I sat there in silence for a moment and then followedwith my tail between my legs.
Reunited
The next morning I sat in Kai’s office withIsabelle and Kai. She held his phone in her hand and it was shaking. She set itback down. “I don’t even know if he has the same number. If he has remarried. Idon’t know what to say.” She looked at her hands and picked at her nails.
Kai had agreed she could reunite with herfamily and depending on her wishes, we would figure out a living situation. Kaibarely talked to me last night for fighting in his place. He slept in his roomand I barely slept in mine.
“Let me call him. I can start the call offand you can jump in when you are ready. Okay?” I offered.
Isabelle began to weep. “Is this reallyhappening? You guys will let me see my family? I can see my kids? Everyday?”
She had limp brown hair that framed a facefull of scars. This woman had taken many beatings, with silver I don’t doubt.Only silver would scar a werewolf this bad. She was emaciated and broken. Idon’t think she believed us, that this was really happening. Poor thing. Mythroat tightened.
Kai walked over to her slowly. “Dane wasn’tan Alpha; he was a power-hungry monster. An Alpha takes care of his pack likefamily. I will treat you like you were my own sister. I would NEVER separate amother from her children. I can clear it with the council. In rare cases,humans are permitted knowledge of our kind. Your children can come live here onthe mountain with you and we will protect them as pack. Your husband can too,if you like. Children are a treasured gift in werewolf society. It doesn’tmatter if they are human or not.”
Isabelle gave a weak smile. “I can feel yourwords are true. Make the call, Aurora. I will give you the number.” She handedme the phone.
The phone was ringing. I cleared my throatthinking of a story.
“Hello, this is Tristan.” I had the phone onspeaker and Isabelle squeezed my arm hard at the sound of his voice.
“Hi, my name is Aurora and I live up in MountHood.”
“What can I do for you?” I could hearchildren in the background laughing.
“I have a woman here who says her name isIsabelle. She looks pretty shaken up and underfed. She says she escaped captureand is your wife.”
There was silence. “You people don’t stop, doyou? You’re sick. Prank calling bastards.”
“Tristan!” Isabelle shouted.
“Oh my God!” He started sobbing and I felt mythroat swell. “Izzy! Oh my God! Is that you?”
“It’s me.” She wept.
“Are you okay? I’ve never stopped looking foryou. Have you called the police? Where are you? I’m coming. KIDS! Mommy is onthe phone.”
“It’s been a long time and it hasn’t beeneasy but I’m okay now. I thought you might have moved on.” She let thatsentence linger. I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t be in here, witnessing thisvery private conversation.
“Are you crazy? No, no, no. Where are you?Give me an address right now. The kids are so big. Violet is four and Connor issix. I show them your picture every night.”
