She dodged the first, put an elbow to the face of the next and spun around him. But it wasn’t going to be enough. Not with the werewolves leaping toward her, all with murder in their eyes. The only way to survive this was to go full out, and that meant full monster.
God, she didn’t want to do it this way, but she’d run out of options. She had to fight free. She waited until just the right moment. They were coming at her from all sides. Fortunately, the families and the kids had already scrambled out of the way. She wouldn’t hurt any innocents. Still it ached to attack her own pack mates like this.
They were almost on her, the wolves leaping at her from left and right. So she let fly with the monster change complete with killer BO. It was a defensive mechanism unique to hybrids like her who were neither fully human nor fully wolf, but something in between. When a human caught a whiff of the stench, they started to gag. But wolves with their much more sensitive noses immediately spun away. It was instinct, pure and simple. Anything that smelled this bad had to be poisonous and no creature wanted to bite down on that.
With the wolves out of the way, she just had to dodge the gagging humans. A couple hardy souls made a stab at blocking the doors. She was impressed that they had kept focused on their task despite the urge to retch, but she couldn’t let them stop her. Thanks to Hazel’s training, they were no match for her, and soon she was out the door.
But once free of the community center where was she to go? Only one place. She had to find Ryan. She’d been a fool to think she could manage this alone. This problem had grown bigger than one person inside a pack could fix. Which meant she needed him and all the help he could bring.
But how was she going to find him? She had to call the Griz and pray that they still trusted her enough to talk.
Chapter 19
Pain swamped Ryan’s consciousness with every breath. At first, he hadn’t even realized the connection, only the steady ebb and flow of agony. But with awareness came patterns. A knife blade at his ribs, sawing at his concentration.
He also isolated a sound and a warm grip on his hand. He focused on that small heat, absorbing the comfort it brought him.
“It was my brother Raoul,” she was saying, her voice choked with tears. “No one else makes brass knuckles like that. He’s trying to make it look like a bear attack.”
Frankie.
“Yeah, we got that.” Simon’s voice was hard. “Why the fuck would he attack your father?”
“To become alpha. And he wants a war with you.”
“And why haven’t you stopped this? That’s what you promised, isn’t it? You begged me to delay so you could take care of things internally. Does this look like it’s been taken care of?”
“I didn’t think he’d attack our father!” Frankie said. “I didn’t think it was possible. Wolves can’t go against their alpha.”
“Apparently, wolves can,” Simon growled.
“It’s the serum. I should have seen it before. Brady defied a direct order in the sewers. Everyone’s more aggressive while on it.” She sighed. “Even I never contemplated taking over the pack until I became a hybrid.”
“Not your fault,” Ryan said, his voice rusty as pain burned through every word. But he didn’t stop. “Everyone waits too long to get help.”
“Ryan!” she cried out, and she gripped his hand tighter.
“You’re awake,” Simon said, and there was relief in his tone. “Can you shift?”
He couldn’t even open his eyes. But he did have the strength to squeeze Frankie’s hand. And damn, the pain from speaking was burying him.
“Ryan? It’s Frankie.”
Yes, he knew.
“You’re hurt pretty bad, but it’ll heal if you shift. Can you do it?”
Of course, he could. He reached for the energy state. He pictured himself as a grizzly and tried to slide into it. But the pain burned through him, fracturing his focus. Worse, his mind kept replaying everything that had happened the last two times he’d shifted. Torn apart by Nanook’s hybrids. Shot in the sewer. Didn’t matter, he told himself firmly. But the moment he reached for the energy state, pain shredded his intention.
Then another voice intruded. A female’s voice with the authority of a doctor. Must be Hank’s woman, Dr. Lu from the CDC. “I’ve got to give him some painkillers. He’s in so much pain, there’s no way he can concentrate.”
“If you drug him, he can’t focus enough to shift.” Simon spoke logically, as usual.
“He needs rest. Look at him. Do you really think he has the energy? Even without the pain, he’s exhausted.”
“Doctor—” Simon began, but Frankie interrupted them both.
“Just ask him what he wants.”
