Chapter 26 - Bailey

As I drive home from the shop, my phone rings a couple of times. Instead of stopping to answer it, I decide to wait until I get to the house. I’m only a few minutes away, and how important can it be?

Hopefully, by now, Gina has gotten my surprise. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she finds out about the job at the concert hall. When my phone rings again, I’m sure it’s just Gina hurrying me home, or maybe Carla asking me to pick up something for the party.

When I pull into the driveway, Jack is standing on my front step. Even though everything looks normal, I feel a touch of anxiety tickling at me.

Something’s wrong. I can feel it.

I hurry out of the car, hoping Jack’s pensive expression is just the result of us running out of beer.

“Hey, Jack,” I call out. “How’s the party going?”

“Great,” he says. “Dad’s out back on the grill, there’s an army of women inside for the baby shower, and I think Mom is going to bury us with food.”

“All sounds like it’s going to plan, then,” I answer, but I know from his expression that he has a bomb to drop.

“Here’s the thing,” Jack says. “There have been reports of shifters in town. A rival pack.”

A shiver runs through me, like an icy touch on my spine. “Where?” I snap.

“So far, just the outskirts of town,” Jack says. “But they could be anywhere by now.”

“Okay,” I say. “Well, at least Gina and the women are safe inside. We should go for a cruise around, see if we can find them.”

Jack freezes, going pale. “Gina’s not inside. I thought she was with you!”

The icy touch of anxiety turns into raging, full-on fear. I snatch my phone out of my pocket, and when I see one of the missed calls is Gina, my heart stops in my chest.

Quickly, I flick it open and listen to the voice message. When it cuts out, I almost drop the phone as anger and fear collide inside me.

“Do you think—” Jack begins.

“They got her,” I growl, cutting him off. “I don’t think they’ll hurt her, but—”

My voice is cut off by the sound of motorbikes tearing down the street towards my house. Jack looks shocked, but I can feel a steely calm coming over me.

How convenient. Coming right to my door so I don’t have to chase them down.

“Get the women to a safe place,” I order. “Are there any men here that can fight?”

“Excuse me!” Veronica shouts from the doorway. “Some of the women can fight, you know!”

“Then gear up!” I bark. “These guys are brutal. Anyone who can’t fight, get them into one of the central rooms away from the windows. Everyone else, with me!”

I turn and stride across my front lawn as the bikes come to a stop in a wide half-circle across the curb. The sun is slipping beneath the horizon, and the light is pale but golden. On the opposite horizon, I see a shimmer that tells me a full moon is rising and will be in the sky moments after the sun sets.

The rival pack hurl themselves off their bikes, running towards the house. Some of them shift and circle around, heading for the backyard. I leap into the fight—I have no choice. I can’t fight every single wolf, and I can’t go after Gina when I don’t even know where she is.

I can see the enemy alpha sitting on his bike, watching. I half expected to see Gina with him, and not knowing where she is only deepens my fear.

Maybe she got away?

There is no more room for thought as I charge into the line of bikers. They are wielding chains, baseball bats, and knives, but I slash through, avoiding their blows and dropping them with hard punches and kicks.

Chest heaving, sweat pouring off me, I stagger through my enemies, getting closer and closer to the enemy alpha. I smash down another biker and charge at the alpha, raising my blood-drenched knuckles.

I hear him start to laugh as I get closer to him. I can’t imagine what he has to laugh about—until I feel a blow across my shoulders from behind.

They let me through their ranks to cut me off!

I turn around, reluctantly showing my back to the alpha. Most of the guys I knocked down are now standing, forming a ring around me. I hear the enemy alpha get off his bike and turn back around to face him.

He’s stalking towards me with a long knife in his hand. I know if I try to take him on, the others will jump me and hold me down so he can finish me off.

“Here, puppy,” he calls to me in a taunting voice. “Come, little pretty pup. I’m gonna bleed you out, real slow.”

I clench my fists and stare him down. I’m ready to fight to the bitter end. If he wants to take my life, I’ll make damn sure it’s not easy for him, and I’ll take as many of them with me as I can.

Suddenly, I hear howling from behind me. It’s my pack, led by Jack. Dozens of my wolves come charging out from behind the house, most of them with bloodied muzzles. They took care of all the shifters who were trying to flank us.

From the looks of it, they tore them to shreds.

My wolves run towards us and fan out in a circle around the mixed line of bikers and mangy-looking enemy wolves. The enemy pack is surrounded now, with nowhere to go. I turn back to the alpha with a smile on my face.

Let’s see you get out of this one, asshole.

But the alpha just grins at me and puts two fingers to his lips to let out a shrill whistle. A bike starts up nearby and cruises slowly into the street, rolling over to stop next to the alpha.

The bike is carrying two people, and the second person on the bike is unmistakably Gina.

My pack starts to bark and howl. The girl on the bike grabs Gina and puts a knife to her throat. I hold up a hand to quiet my pack.

“Well,” I say, staring at the other alpha, “your move.”

“I could just take her,” he spits at me. “I could just turn around right now and go, and she’d be mine.”

“For a brief two seconds,” I say as I start to walk towards him. “My wolves would rip your pack to shreds, and I’d be right on your heels. You wouldn’t get far.”

His eyes glint in the dying light, and I can see his fear. His lips raise in a snarl, and he trembles a little.

“You and me, right here, right now!” I yell, my voice echoing around to the ear of every shifter present. “A fight to the death. When I win, you let Gina go.”

The alpha laughs. “Like you won last time?”

“This time, my pack is here, too,” I snap. “You will have to fight with honor.”

The alpha advances on me, taking long strides into the middle of the circle. He raises his knife.

“Drop the blade!” Jack yells from somewhere in the crowd. “Or we turn this into a blood bath!”

From the way the alpha looks around, I can tell he doesn’t care that much about his pack. He obviously still holds some hope he might get out of this with his life. And with Gina, too.

He drops the blade, shaking his head as he takes a couple of steps away from it. I wait for him to get closer, wondering how he’s going to attack.

Suddenly, he lunges at me, thrusting his shoulder into my guts. He takes me off-guard, and we both hit the ground. Before I can recover from the shock, he punches me in the face. I flip my body and throw him over my head, using the momentum to jump back up on my feet and spin to face him.

He comes at me again, but I’m ready for him this time. I sidestep and land a kick in his ribs that makes him stagger away from me. I charge in again, hitting him in the knee, and he falls.

The wounded alpha gets up on his knees and stares up at me. There’s a trickle of blood at the edge of his lip, and his eyes look dull and defeated.

I step forward, coiling the strength of my whole body into one devastating punch. As I commit to the movement, I see a flash of triumph in the other alpha’s eyes and a glint of silver by my face.

The knife!

He deliberately moved the fight back to where he dropped the knife on the ground so he could try to use it to kill me. I can see it flashing towards my neck, but I can’t avoid it. The best I can do is twist in midair, and the blade cuts into my shoulder.

A cry of pain rips out of my throat as I hit the ground. I can hear Gina screaming, a note of pure terror that cuts through the sounds of barks and howls from the other packs. I know my wolves want to jump in, but they have honor, and they won’t move against the other alpha.

Small skirmishes are breaking out, though, as enemy wolves break ranks to try and join the fight. As I roll on the ground in a pool of my own blood, I wonder how these disgusting creatures could even be related to me.

As I roll onto my back to look up and face the other alpha, I feel a tingle run through me. It intensifies in my blood until it feels like I’m surging with electricity. It’s so powerful, it feels like my hair is standing on end over every inch of my body.

The sun finally slips away, and the golden light leaves the sky. On the opposite horizon, the silver light of the moon lances across the countryside, almost dizzying in its brightness.

Even though we don’t need the full moon to shift, we are always more powerful under the full moon’s light. I can feel the change coming over me, and it’s never felt like this before. With every breath, I seem to be drawing strength from the land, the sky, the stars, and the moon.

A scream bursts from my throat that swiftly becomes a howl as my body changes. I feel bigger and more powerful than I’ve ever been as I spring off the ground at the other alpha, straight at his throat.

He yells in surprise as I crash into him, dropping the knife as he hits the ground. He manages to hold my snapping jaws away from his face, but he can’t rise, either.

That’s when I realize whatever magic is affecting me, he can’t feel it.

He might be in touch with his wolf, but he is not in harmony with the mountains!

I go for his throat with my jaws, and he slithers out from under me, finally shifting. Compared to me, he looks like a skinny, shrunken dog. I charge him, and he drops to the ground, coming up underneath me to snap at my throat.

He latches on but can’t get a good hold through my thick fur. I shake him off, and he rolls away, coming up on all four paws to snarl at me.

I wait, crouching in front of him, feeling all my strength and power running through me. I see the faint shiver run through him as he prepares for his final move.

Now .

The alpha leaps, and I meet him in the air. There is a brief struggle, but I manage to get my jaws around his throat before we hit the ground.

With one swift shake of my head, I snap his neck.

Silence falls around the circle. The girl on the bike lets go of Gina, who runs towards me. I shift back and hold out my arms to her. She wraps her arms around me, and I hold her close against my chest.

The enemy wolves stare at us and the dead alpha. My pack begins to close in on them, and I can hear a low growl rising in the circle.

Feeding frenzy imminent.

“You have one chance, right now, to leave!” I call out to the enemy pack. “Any wolf who flees here now shall have their life—but only if no member of your pack ever returns here.”

I wrap my arm around Gina even tighter and look around to make sure all of them can hear me.

“If any of you ever set foot in my territory again, my pack and I will hunt you down and kill you. Every last one of you!”

There is a brief moment of stillness, then all the enemy wolves flee. Some run for their motorcycles and ride out of town, while others scamper off in wolf form as fast as their paws can carry them.

I look down at Gina. Even though her eyes are full of tears, she smiles at me.

“Hey,” I whisper.

“Hey, yourself,” she whispers back.

In that moment, as our eyes meet under the light of the full moon, I know we’ll never be parted ever again.

I lean down and kiss her, feeling her reaching up for me. As our lips meet, the pack goes wild around us, baying, howling, and barking their joy into the moon-silvered sky.