Chapter 6: Everett

Chapter 6: Everett

By the time evening rolled around, I had heard of Aislin’s onslaught against Sebastian. He’d confessed with some measure of guilt that he had taken it upon himself to visit Grandbay and speak to Muriel on behalf of the Mythguard, leaving annoyance to fester quietly behind my lips. I didn’t dare express what I felt about this. Even though I was the Alpha of Eastpeak and a correspondent of the Mythguard, Sebastian still had superiority over me. The Mythguard could very well make decisions without consulting me if they felt that was best, and apparently, they had decided among themselves that it was worth attempting a visit to Grandbay without me giving approval of the idea. Sebastian had to learn the hard way exactly how unwelcome the Mythguard was. It didn’t surprise me that Aislin had lost her temper like that. She was too foolish and aggressive to ever be a legitimate candidate to work with the Mythguard. Despite all the attempts she’d made to join the Mythguard, I had never once vouched for her.

Sebastian was lucky we had to work so closely, or else my aggravation at him would have shut the Mythguard out of Eastpeak’s affairs for the next couple days. I couldn’t afford to lose them as a resource, though, especially given my impending meeting with David.

I insisted on going alone, as I told David I would. Sebastian urged me to reconsider, but I couldn’t afford to let David find out about another deception. That night, I transformed and carried a bag of clothes with me to the outskirts of Eastpeak territory, scaling the mountainside with deft feet in spite of my size. I was mountain-bred, and even though the Gunnison terrain was more like tall hills than real mountains, me and my Eastpeak packmates were remarkably more nimble than our neighbors.

The smell of Dalesbloom tainted the air once I’d reached the perimeter. It had begun entwining with the stench of the dragons, carrying a sweet, floral rot that offended my nose. I was the first to arrive, as far as I could tell, and shifted back out of my wolf form. In the darkness, I got dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The overcast had cleared as the day went on, and now moonlight was captured in the twinkling moisture that coated the trees and grass, turning the forest serene.

That serenity evaporated when the churning darkness revealed a body coming my way. I tried not to disclose my discomfort in body posture, but my muscles were stiff all the same. By height and the way he carried himself, I knew it was David. What I wasn’t expecting was the second body to appear from behind him.

The only reassurance I felt was recognizing it as Colt, and not any of the dragons.

Father and son stood before me, looking paler than I recalled. Healing wounds littered their bodies, the smell of scabs and antibiotics hovering among their natural musk. David’s beard was unshaven, his eyebrows sitting darkly above his eyes and beneath wrinkles in the brow. Beside him, Colt had shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweater and slouched with the weight of the world on his shoulders. His cheeks—usually clean—had started to turn scruffy. Neither of them seemed to be coping with Catrina’s death very well.

I decided against pointing out that David had stepped outside our agreement to see one another alone. Empathy made sense of his decision to bring Colt along, whether for moral and emotional support or just to try to advise his son on how to conduct Alpha business. Grandbay’s plan of searching for a new Alpha lingered in my mind, then I found my empathy challenged, realizing that if David was training Colt to take after him, it would mean training him in the habits of a tyrant.

But maybe that wasn’t what was happening. Maybe David and his son were merely seeking comfort in what little familial solidarity they had left. I couldn’t settle the indecision I felt when David and Colt had attacked Taylor just hours earlier.

“Tell me in earnest, are my packmates in danger if they stumble upon your subordinates or the dragons?” I began.

David rolled his neck, and I could tell he was deciding how honest to be with me. “Any shifter not aligned with Dalesbloom is aligned against us,” he said. “We’ve made our intentions clear. If you get in our way, we will remove you.”

His voice was cold and empty of emotion. Usually suave, David now lacked the charisma he employed to win the opinions of whoever he was speaking to. That was worrying, because a man who didn’t care about appearances was a man who wouldn’t hesitate to make questionable choices.

“My packmates have done nothing to slight you, David. They don’t deserve to be punished for the actions of Grandbay, or my actions, for that matter.”

“I don’t care if your packmates are fresh out the womb. Like I said, you’re either with us or against us.”

My fists clenched. “Would you kill them?”

“I nearly killed Taylor,” confessed David. “Were it not for the Mythguard just waiting for an excuse to terminate my pack, you would have found him dead. And you would have been next.”

His heartlessness sent a chill down my spine. “So the only thing keeping you from slaughtering us is the technicality that prevents the Mythguard from euthanizing you.”

“The Mythguard confirmed that they won’t intervene until we kill someone. There’s no point in challenging them until we’re closer to getting what we want.”

“Which is Muriel,” I pointed out.

David’s mouth quirked.

The implications were that David had every intention of slaying Grandbay, and possibly my pack, too, but not until they got their hands on the unicorn. At that point, David seemed confident that in his Lycan form, he wouldn’t have to worry about the Mythguard. Either he saw their efforts as futile, or he just didn’t care about the fate of Dalesbloom after he had achieved what he wanted. I chose my next words carefully. “It doesn’t have to be this way. The Lycan ritual won’t fulfill what you’re missing. It will destroy you,” I muttered.

Colt glanced at his father, but David stared firmly at me. “You don’t know the extent of what I’m missing, Everett. Nor do you understand what motivates me to side with the Inkscales. I’ve heard Lothair’s plight straight from the dragon’s mouth, and it’s far more poignant than anything the Mythguard would have told you.

“The Mythguard claim themselves to be defenders of the shifters, but they oppress us more than they protect us. Even wolves. The way they watch us like we’re criminals, just waiting for us to make a mistake. Coddling humanity as if humans themselves haven’t committed the worst crimes of all. They destroy the world that should belong to us. They push us further into corners that we can’t get out of, and then give us a death sentence when we finally bite back. Not just dragons, but wolves too—I’ve seen the way they treat you, holding rewards over your head like you’re nothing more than a stupid mutt. Man’s best friend is a wolf shifter, right?”

The more he said, the sicker I felt that he would believe this. Not just that, but he’d try to make me believe it, too. “The Mythguard have only ever treated me fairly. They keep order in a world that would otherwise see shifters crucified for their existence.”

“The Mythguard expect our best behavior then put strikes on our record for aspects of ourselves we can’t help,” David shot back, speaking swiftly on my heels. “Wilderness is savage, that’s what we are. Not all of us are lucky enough to be marked by a fated mate so that we can be in control of our beasts. My son—if he were to lose control of his wolf and kill three deer instead of one, do you think he would deserve a penalty for overhunting? Your friend Gavin, had he lost control and raided a campsite for their food—does he deserve to be euthanized for it?”

“If the actions of shifters endanger those around us, then yes. They deserve to be corrected,” I reasoned.

David sneered at me. “This coming from a man who has never had the guts to give his wolf the reins.”

“My wolf comes out only when I need it to,” I said harshly. “An Alpha should have control over his facilities in excess.”

“And yet you align yourself with a juvenile prone to temper tantrums,” said David.

“Gavin is marked. He’ll be wiser going forward, if you give him a chance instead of ripping Grandbay away from him.”

“I don’t take issue with Gavin’s temperament. Like I said, wilderness is savage. Nature has ripped itself apart for millions of years. I intend to see the natural order returned.”

David’s certainty was ominous. This entire time, I felt like I’d been holding my breath. “Do you agree with him, Colt?”

The young Hexen stiffened, not expecting to have my attention, and it seemed neither had David. His face screwed up in annoyance.

Colt looked down. “Don’t act like you have the moral high ground, Everett,” he said bitterly. “You were there when Gavin killed my sister.”

“One offense in retaliation to the many that the Hexens had already enacted.”

“She didn’t deserve to die!” shouted Colt.

His anger nourished my own. “She killed Joseph Nym, Colt. You can’t believe she was innocent.”

“Don’t you dare disrespect my daughter,” David cut in. “She was stronger than any of you pathetic excuses for Alphas.”

There would be no enlightening David on the error of his ways, no convincing him to change his mind about what he had already done and what he planned to do next. Lothair’s plight was a persuasive one, especially when David had already lost so much. Now, in a desperate bid to scrape together his dignity, he would wield the Lycan ritual to reclaim what was taken from him. Freedom, vengeance... control, in a sense. Control didn’t necessarily mean rationality. It just meant domination.

“Understand that your actions will end our alliance,” I told him.

“You already committed to estrangement when you sent your Beta to spy on us,” growled David.

My stomach spoiled with dread that they had found the phone or discovered the bug in their alarm system.

“Besides... sooner or later, Everett, your allegiance to the Mythguard would have induced your death anyway. If not of the body, then the soul. Wolves aren’t meant to serve man.”

No. He was wrong. We didn’t serve anyone, we were free... weren’t we?

Regardless, our meeting had come to an end. I was done negotiating with David and all too eager to get back to the safety of my territory, but it seemed David had other ideas.

The shadows around us split apart and morphed into more bodies. My difficulty breathing had impaired my senses, or maybe I’d just been so distracted with the Hexens that I didn’t realize the burning oil stench that began to saturate the air. Low, fiendish growls punctured the night, and before I could get myself to a safer position, I was already surrounded. Five dragons slithered around us, their wings flaring in the night, blotting out the sky.

“You said you’d come alone,” I shot at David.

“All’s fair in love and war,” he repeated with a hum.

But he wasn’t planning to kill me. Just punish me for opposing him, like he warned that he would.

Assessing my surroundings, I turned and sought a route of escape, but darkness obscured too much of the forest for me to see where I could go. The dragons closed in around me, and behind them I glimpsed David smirking before he took Colt’s arm and they retreated out of sight, leaving me to the gnashing teeth. I swore under my breath, gut curdling with rare panic. I never panicked. I always had the situation under control. But five dragons—I didn’t think I could handle this.

They launched at me all at once, dogpiling on me from every direction. One of them knocked the breath out of my lungs and sent me to the ground. Another took hold of my arm and began to drag me as I grunted in pain. Teeth ensnared my leg and yanked me in a different direction, the dragons contesting each other for my body and in that moment, I felt helpless, like I was nothing more than a chew toy. “Get off me!” I shouted. “Urgh!”

All I felt was agony as the dragons rained down on me, shredding flesh on my arms and legs. My clothes were torn under their claws, their writhing mass suffocating me. I tried to push them away to no avail. If I’d been in my wolf form, I could have at least fought back, but as a human I could do nothing. Perhaps in a way, David was right—I was stripped of my defenses by the Mythguard’s necessity for the shifters to disguise themselves. But I was human for more reasons than just because the Mythguard said I had to be! It was my decision! He was wrong, this vulnerability had nothing to do with them. I kicked and jabbed at their eyes, but it was futile. The dragons could have dismembered me if David told them to.

The moment they took their teeth off me, I rolled to my feet and ran. But the tightness in my chest prevented me from getting far. I couldn’t breathe. I stumbled and gasped, and it was like I had fluid in my lungs instead of air. The dragons were on me again in an instant, taking every opportunity they had to cleave into me.

I was an Alpha. I should have been strong enough to fend them off, and even if not on my own, then my fated mate should have given me the strength to do so. But whatever was wrong with her had become something wrong with me. She dragged me to the ground and made me choke, and as I suffered the wrath of the dragons, I hated nobody more than I hated Aislin Mundy for doing this to me.