Peanut takes another step toward me, raising a paw with razor claws glinting in the moonlight, but before he can leap and swipe at me, Jasper has broken free from his tussle with the other two and sent Peanut rolling with a thunderous headbutt. All the rogues turn their attention to Jasper, encircling him.
“MAX, GO!”
The words have barely left Jasper’s mind when the three rogues pounce as one, taking Jasper down, and before I knowwhat I’m doing I’ve turned and started running once more. Somewhere in my periphery I know that Jasper is still fighting, he’s holding his own against three hardened criminals, but even so, I can’t help wincing as he cries out in pain, the sound tearing through me. Every instinct tells me to turn around, but I have to do as Jasper says, I have to trust that Mitsuha has a plan.
So I run.
When I finally burst through the tree line into our clearing, I waste no time leaping to the top of the boulder where Jasper sits to meditate. I park my ass like a good boy begging for a treat and shut my eyes.
Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon.
The quicker I can find Walter the quicker I can get back to Jasper.
Fueled by the even more heightened lunar energy shining into the clearing, I focus and fly, sifting through strands a million miles a minute, and then finally, I find Walter’s corrupted vein of consciousness. I reach out to latch on but am repelled, somehow he’s keeping me from connecting.
But it doesn’t make sense. None of it does. Why was Walter able to communicate with me via mind-link? Why was he able to plant images in my head? Why were his wolves able to speak directly to me? And why has he been able to hide so well?
I bite down until my whole body is vibrating, my claws digging into the stone underneath me, and I try to latch on again. The strands of consciousness wrap around Walter’s rotting existence, and I fight with all my mental strength to bypass the walls he’s put up to keep me out.
But it’s no use. My muscles seize as what feels like a million volts of electricity shoots through me. I scream in agony and am about to release Walter when I feel a hand come to rest on my shoulder.
“I’m here,”Mitsuha says.“Let’s do it together, Blood Wolf.”
With a sharp breath in I refocus and reach out again, sending everything I have left into the strands latched on to Walter’s, and then with a thwip, I’m thrown into a vision.
Walter stands over Jericho’s bed, gun in hand, finger on the trigger. A sick look of smug satisfaction on his face. He knows he’s won. This is the moment he takes his prize.
I don’t have much time but I’m able to register the state of the room around him. Jericho’s bodyguards lie frozen on the floor, passed out or ... worse. Behind Walter, two wolves stand in human form, holding Yoki, the high priest from the Sanc, by both arms. The mystic’s head is tipped back so they’re staring open-mouthed at the ceiling, their eyes are completely dark. Black veins snake up their alabaster neck. That must be how Walter is boosting his mental powers, he’s taken Yoki prisoner, poisoned them, controlled their mind and used them as a conduit, to lie and keep me out.
But I can’t worry about that right now, I’ve made it through his barriers, and he’s a hair’s breadth away from pulling the trigger and finishing Jericho off for good. If I had gotten here a second later, this whole war would have been for nothing.
I bite down, whining as Walter moves his index finger.
“What?” he says, the muscles in his hand frozen. Without him knowing, I’ve taken control of his body, seized his muscles like they’re mine. “No!” He tries and tries again to pull the trigger but nothing happens. Then he looks up, directly at me.“Blood Wolf!”
“It’s over, Walter.”
I take his hand and lift it into the air, aim it at the wolves holding on to Yoki, and I speak through him.
“Release them.”
The wolves on either side of Yoki look confused, but they do as they’re told and let them go.
“Leave,” I command them through Walter.
With concerned faces they turn and exit the room. Yoki stumbles, dropping to their knees, then finally collapsing on the floor. I feel a sense of ease as Yoki’s mental assistance ends, like loosening a too-tight necktie. Any resistance on Walter’s part is now his own, and his mental control is no match for mine.
“This isn’t over,”Walter says.“You can lock me up, kill me if you want. Turn me into a martyr. I’ve unlocked something in the minds of wolves everywhere. Opened the lid to Pandora’s box and you can’t close it. It’ll never stop. I may fall but my message lives on.”
“Not if I can help it,”I say.
“But at what cost?”Walter says, his words echoing Mitsuha’s and sending an icy chill rippling through me.“Jericho may live but the alpha’s son will fall. In fact, right now my wolves are tearing him apart.”
Jasper!!!I have to get back to him. Screw this absolute piece of shit.
With a growl that becomes a scream I reach into Walter’s mind, and I tear apart every thread, I extract every bad memory, every thought of his son rotting in a prison cell, of his wife leaving him, every insecurity and trauma. I bring them to the forefront of his mind, mix it up until it’s a terrifying, mind-spinning soup of misery and pain, and finally, with a sharp bark I throw it all back at Walter. I watch as his eyes turn blank, as he stumbles backward against the wall, dropping the gun as he goes, until he’s lying curled up next to the dresser, lips twitching, gaze unfocused. I leave him there, a vacant husk.
Almost immediately, two Elite Pack wolves charge into the room. With Walter’s mind control gone they must have been able to escape whatever mental prison he put them in. I know they’ll take care of Jericho and Yoki, and Walter. For now, at least, the alpha is safe.
