Chapter 46

Forty-Six

FINN

“ D o you suppose this will be a good memory or a bad one? They look normal enough, but old me doesn’t have a record of being nice to humans,” I said as I approached the carving of people. “At least not after they killed my mom.”

I stood a few steps away studying their clothes and expressions, though nothing stood out. The kitten relaxed in his loaf form, watching me. “You sticking close in case I do that seizure thing again?”

He let out a breathy meow.

“Thanks,” I said and touched the statue.

I sank into the memory of running.

The cool night air, filled the earthy scent of the forest and the sharp tang of approaching rain, rustled my fur. I ran in my wolf form, loping through the woods in tandem with my wolf half, the two of us filled with joy and freedom as we wove around trees, bushes, and over fallen logs beneath the glowing moon. The rustle of leaves above was a symphony of nature’s whispers, and I could hear the heartbeat of another wolf nearby.

He teased me from time to time, nipping at my heels or darting out from a tree ahead of me. Faster, yet playful, we’d run this game a thousand times. Odion and I played this way for years, roaming the continent. We traveled far north, where large cats ruled rather than the wolves spreading across the south, but this time we raced along the coast near my old lands. The whispers of the curse keeping people out of the north had faded, and humans spread villages, built roads, and wandered freely through spaces meant for wild earth.

As long as they stayed out of my path, I let them live. And when the full moon rose, Odion and I ran through the thick spread of forest, stretching our muscles, and soaking up the weight of our change as the coming winter would leave us chilled. Odion hated the cold, though his fur grew as thick as mine.

I raced filled with surging primal instincts of the full moon. The wind brushed against my face, cool and invigorating, filling my lungs with the scent of damp earth and pine. The air, pregnant with the promise of rain, adding a thrilling sense of adventure. Cold could drop and add a layer of snow thick and dangerous by morning rather than rain, and I longed for it as the humans huddled from the chill.

A flash of movement caught my eye, not Odion this time. A rabbit darted out from the underbrush, its white tail a stark contrast against the darkness. My heart pounded with excitement as I gave chase, Odion on my heels. His wolf grin teasing as if to say he would catch it before I could.

The rabbit zigzagged through the trees, trying to lose me, but I matched its weave, Odion keeping pace. The ground blurred beneath my paws, and I heard the rapid heartbeat of the rabbit. The scent of its fear smell fueling its desperate flight adding to the excitement of the chase. I leapt over fallen logs and twisted through dense foliage; the forest embraced our wild spirit as though it was made for us.

Odion snapped at me, and I leapt out of his way, using the force of the jump to close the distance between the rabbit and me. My jaws snapping shut inches from the rabbit’s tail. It veered sharply to the left, vanishing into the overgrowth, and I let it go.

Odion behind me, matched my pace and gave me a teasing yip.

Yeah, yeah, I’d lost it, but we’d already eaten anyway. The chase had been enough to satisfy the desire of the wolf to be a wolf. The first drops of rain fell, cool and refreshing. I lifted my head to the sky, basking in the feeling of the chill turning the rain to tiny flakes.

Odion lifted his head, tilting it, ears turned and I froze, listening hard. Beyond the patter of half rain half snowflakes, the woods had gone silent. Odion slid himself in front of me as a handful of wolves slunk from the underbrush to surround us. The alpha of the pack, a massive wolf with fur, thick and gray, with white swatches showing his age, stepped forward. His lips curled back in a snarl, and a low growl rumbled from his chest. We were outsiders and had stumbled into his territory.

I took a step back, ready to run rather than give myself over to their destruction, but Odion stood his ground. His yellow gaze raised and challenging. The forest spanned a near endless distance, why did this small pack think it belonged to them alone? Tension tightened his stance, and I readied myself to fight.

The alpha snarled and lunged at Odion. The two wolves clashed in a flurry of fur and fangs, the sound of snapping jaws and snarls echoing through the forest. The other wolves surrounded me as though daring me to interfere. I sneered at them, snapping at the one closest to me. He swiped with sharp claws and I smacked his snout hard enough to send him flipping over the others and into unconsciousness, not dead, but a clear warning.

Odion held his own, the alpha breathing hard and bringing every ounce of rage to the fight. Two other wolves leapt out of the brush and landed on Odion’s back. The surprise gave the alpha the advantage and he lunged for Odion’s throat. Odion veered at the last second, the alpha’s bite landing on his shoulder, where it dug deep, and he shook Odion, the other two digging claws into his back.

I surged into the fight, a growl erupting from deep within me, landing between them as if I had wings, with a fury of claws larger than any normal wolf. I collided with the alpha, smacking into him like a boulder, and sending us both spinning away from Odion. The alpha hesitated, but I latched my claws into him, digging until he bled and yelped. I growled in warning, stop this or I’d end him, a challenge to the alpha's authority.

The other two wolves and their friends, joined the fight against Odion behind me, but he’d been play fighting with me for decades, and he battled like he fought a dragon as sometimes he had.

The alpha’s eyes blazed with fury. He tried to break free from my claws, but I held tight, grip digging bone deep. He snarled, unwilling to back down. I leapt away, baring my teeth in warning as Odion smashed his way free of the others and slunk to my side.

The rain intensified, soaking our fur and mingling with the scent of blood and earth as we glared at each other, a challenge. The pack circled us, nearly a dozen strong, but all bleeding, while Odion and I were barely winded. I held onto the threads of my control with a firm grip, knowing I could change and destroy them all.

Odion yipped at the alpha, a warning.

The alpha growled and snapped his jaws around Odion’s front leg in a move nearly too fast to see, trying to cripple him. I twisted, gliding between them, and clamped my jaws around his neck, jaws closing, and blood flowing. A final chance to submit, or die. He let go of Odion’s leg, and the others slunk away.

I waited, the alpha relaxing into my hold, his exhaustion and blood loss getting the better of him. Once he dropped to his belly, I let him go and stepped away. A moment later he began to change, a long painful process not nearly as fast or beautiful as what either Odion or I could do. The others followed suit, changing, their whines of pain filling the evening air with grunts and groans.

I waited until they stood around us in human skins to make my change, one form to the next in a heartbeat. Odion’s taking only a touch longer. They all stared at us in awe and horror.

“What are you?” The alpha demanded. “You are not wolves.”

I snarled at him with my human teeth. “This was my land before your curse fell upon it.”

The alpha met my gaze, confusion in his eyes. “I’ve been a wolf for nearly a hundred years.”

Odion stepped to my side. “And he is the terror of the northern woods that your ancestors have whispered about for centuries.” He spent more time among the humans than I ever dared, learning their languages and ways, finding things to trade, and listening to their stories. Without Odion I’d have lost myself in the shadows much like my sire had. Perhaps become a raging monster hunted by all. And I didn’t understand their ideas of time. The sun rose and set each day giving way to the moon, endlessly. Why count them?

“The beast?” The alpha whispered, his gaze turning to his pack.

I shifted again, wings expanding and towering over them as the demon things I was. Odion unphased by the change, the others dropped to the ground in fear and submission.

The alpha met my gaze but dropped to his knees. “We didn’t know this was your land.”

“You attack any who enter?” Odion demanded.

The alpha flinched.

“And the humans that the nearby village claim are missing?”

“We sought to expand our pack, adding strong males to our number. Not all of them survived the change.”

I snarled, which sent them all into quivering puddles huddling on the ground, but shifted to my human form. “You forced them to change?”

My anger over being cursed by one of their number never truly ended despite my years of learning to control it. Something about the blood curse flowing in my veins disrupted my control over my other half. Twice I’d lost myself in the dark, waking weeks later to Odion’s prodding and begging me to return to myself. The aftermath of whatever destruction I delivered often meant smoldering forests and blood.

“Humans hunt us,” the alpha said.

“And you hunt them,” Odion growled. Even as a human male, his size outmatched mine. He towered over me and the other wolves, glare filled with rage. “No more.”

“We need to eat.”

Humans. They were eating humans. Even my other form didn’t do that.

“There isn’t enough food in the forest to sustain us,” the alpha said.

“And yet you sought to forcibly expand your pack,” Odion reminded him.

Something dark flipped through the alpha’s gaze, a wriggle of power and lust for control. I’d seen that same expression a thousand times in the faces of men dying beneath my fangs as they’d tried to kill me. He lunged, wolf talons where human fingers should be, swiping for my throat, and midsection as the human form was fragile.

The pack gasped, half holding their breath, likely waiting for me to die, but I deftly evaded the attack, caught the alpha in mortal hands and snapped his neck, dropping his lifeless corpse to the ground. His partially changed hands returned to their human form. Bloodied, as I realized he’d caught me, tearing thin gouges in my flesh.

I turned toward the others, scratches on my stomach seeping with blood as they resealed and healed in a few heartbeats. The other wolves bowed.

“We do as you bid, Alpha,” one of the wolves said.

“Yes, Alpha,” the others followed.

A surge of energy flowed through me, the pack becoming mine as I could sense them all, hear their thoughts, filled with fear and worry. Would I kill them, too? Their strength added to mine, allowing my grip on my power to tighten.

Odion met my gaze. “No more killing humans.”

“No changing anyone,” I said, voice low and harsh. My pack, my rules. Odion and I had never infected any with our curse, and I wanted to stop its spread, even if it meant the wolves would die out. I stared at my new pack and decided any wolf crossing our path would obey or find its end. The nightmare stories trickling through the countryside from town to town would fade much as mine had, and we’d remain in the shadows until none remained to cast the world in flame.