It was like when you wore those goggles that let you play 3D games, except better. This wasn’t just a picture I was virtually standing in, I felt like I was there.
When Austin was speckled with blood, I felt the droplets on my skin.
When a wolf snarled his agony as Eli tore into his hind leg, I felt the sound piercing my ear drums.
It was insane, but wonderful to see them doing so well.
Because that was it—they were winning.
Easily.
I didn’t even have to ask Berry to step in, for her pack to help them out. I knew that would not only shame my mates, but alter the pack’s perception of their leadership, and that was the last thing I wanted, but I’d do it if I had to. If it meant saving them, I’d sell my soul. Still, there was no need. My mates had the situation in hand.
I’d come to learn that there were tenuous lines between us and the naturals.
They weren’t below us in the chain of things, but neither were they above it, or on the same line even. It was like there was a whole other scale, and they served us. By choice.
If we were weak, they’d stop. They’d leave
But we weren’t weak.
My men were strong. Powerful. And that was clear as the three of them took down the males and females who’d once helped counsel this pack.
My faith in them was such that I didn’t even feel fear over the knowledge that if one of them died, that was it for me. I was done. My life would be over too. Knight would be left alone, as, like a tumbling house of cards, my other mates would pass over shortly after me…
Those thoughts were unnecessary. A needless waste of energy for there was no need for fear. None whatsoever.
As I viewed the carnage, I was overwhelmed by just how little terror I felt.
When it was over, I shuddered, disturbed by the loss of life, the waste of it, the wreckage, and when the image disappeared, I knew Berry and I were in accord—the challenge was done.
Over.
I loved her for giving me that sense of security, for helping me, even when I hadn’t known I needed help, and even though it was crazy—even though I’d question my sanity later on—to the sounds of my men clearing up the mess they’d made, I fell asleep. The lack of turbulent energy in me didn’t last however. My slumber?
Full of dreams.
Full of questions in need of answers.
The cackle set my nerves on edge.
It was like nothing I’d ever heard before. Nothing I could ever imagine hearing again.
It wasn’t amused, wasn’t even jovial. It was wicked and evil. Bestial. It shivered along my spine, making all the tiny hairs on my body stand on edge.
It was creepy and haunting, and I twisted around, trying to find the source.
I was, I saw, in a forest.
A forest that wasn’t the one I’d come to call my home.
Berry wasn’t with me. I was alone, and it had been such a long time since I’d been that, that for a second, I panicked. My heart pounded, and when I felt nauseated, I peered down, plopping my hands on my knees, only to realize the growing baby bump wasn’t there.
Fear hit me, terror swirled inside my blood, making me feel like I was being poisoned… Then, just as my heartbeat started to rush in my ears, because I knew this was only a dream and my baby was safe, I heard it again.
It split through the blood rush, making even that seem quiet.
I whipped around, my skirt billowing in the wind, and out of nowhere, like what had happened in the other realm, I found a bow lopped over my shoulder, a quiver of arrows in my hand.
I stared at both items and realized that I needed to kill whatever was making that sound.
The Mother had granted me the weapon for a reason, and even though I didn’t understand why she did what she did, I wasn’t going to question why.
Sucking in a breath as I loaded the arrow, I positioned myself, I found my body fell into the natural balance that came after years of practicing shooting the damn thing at the carnivals I’d worked at, and I waited.
I had no alternative but to do that.
I had no idea where the sound came from, which direction or from what. There were no clues. It seemed to blanket the clearing where I stood, making the shadows seem darker, longer. Harder. Denser.
Hearing the rushing of feet, I grunted, taking note of the heavy tread of a creature running, and as I whipped around, I released the bow.
The cackle came to a halt mid screech, and I felt the atmosphere lighten.
As my arrow settled into the creature’s hide, my heart stopped pounding, and I was released from wherever the hell I was, whenever the hell I was, and allowed to drift away.
When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by my mates once more. They’d cleaned up, but a few flecks of blood remained on them. Maybe invisible to the human eye, but not to mine, and not to my nose.
While the odor should have been muted by the soap they’d used, I could smell the council on their bodies. Three clashing scents should have diminished the stench, but it remained pungent.
And I knew why.
Death. That was what I smelled.
Industrial-grade soap wouldn’t wash that away immediately…
I savored life.
Unafraid though I was to protect myself, to sow death where it was required, I celebrated creation in all its guises, abhorring destruction.
I moved a hand down to my stomach, relieved to feel my child’s reassuring kick against my palm, but even as the scent of death filled my nostrils and that wicked dream resonated in my mind, when I drifted off again, I slept the morning through. And, waking up to an empty bed, I forgot about the nightmare.
That was my first mistake.
Because the council attack was just the beginning, and we were nowhere close to the end.
Two
Austin
Seven months later
“We need help with him.”
Laughing as I watched Berry playing with her twin pups, nipping at their ears when they started to piss her off by getting in her face, I switched focus and turned to my mate and shook my head. “What kind of help? Who can help a kid like him? He’s just freaky.”
She sniffed at me. “Just like the other kids, when you were young, would call you freaks?”
My lips twitched at that. “No, babe. They called us abominations.” At her wince, I laughed. “Yeah, big difference.”
“Austin,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead with a tired sigh. “Don’t make me smile. I already want to kill everyone in your year who was mean to you.”
“Think we should tell her it wasn’t just the wolves in our year?”
“Nah,” I sent to Ethan. “I figure she knows that—”
“I do now,” she grumbled, surprising me because she was getting good about maintaining the roadblocks between us so that we had some semblance of privacy.
And my wording was right on the nose too. We had no say in it. We couldn’t control how much she could hear or if she could hear anything at all.
It was all on her.
I didn’t mind because she was very respectful, and I figured, she wanted to hear our thoughts less than we actually wanted her to know what we were thinking all the time.
Ethan reached over and squeezed her shoulder before he rested a hand at the back of Knight’s head where he was feeding.