Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2) (26 page)

"I smelt pack," the wolf growled in answer. "One of our females is with them."

Chapter 32

Bitch.

I wondered if it was worth it; taking this life and throwing it away so easily. Destroying someone else so she could rise above. Is this what we are? Are we creatures of betrayal? Snakes within the wolf, reptiles hissing under cover of fur, a sly eye disguised in savage. We test and we break one another, turning games into competition, finding weakness a drain against the many. Perhaps we've done this to ourselves - pitting wolf against wolf and expecting some other result than treachery. Or maybe our human selves - the ones learned in civilized duplicity - should bare the mark of blame, turning nature into man's twisted game. Trying to tame the beast with a connection saturated in conceit, presumptuous ego from a soul enslaved by the moon.

"Fuck sake, Conall. Put a muzzle on him." Ty's irritated voice whispered through the evening veil.

The wolf bared his teeth in answer, jaws snapping an inch from Ty's face.

Icy blue flashed in return. "You want to announce ourselves to the entire village? Go right ahead, You're going in first though."

The black wolf rumbled - quieter this time, and stilled his movements until breath fogged from his mouth, an outward sign of his inner conflict.

The night pulled close, black enough that Conall's beast blended almost seamlessly into the background. We'd found the village nearly an hour ago, when the sun had bowed out gracefully to the dark and the wood's inhabitants changed from dawn to dusk. Silence wrapped its heavy cloak around us, not a stir that snapped attention, not a single whispered word that twitched the ear of the wolf. "I need to get him." My word's stuttered on a heaving breath, tears that drowned a voice.

"We need to wait, Sash. I know it's hard, just give it a little more time."

He meant well, I know that, but I couldn't stand to watch any longer. "Look at him, Ty. I can't leave him like that." Not when I'd seen the last time he'd been in that position, not when I knew the horror he must be feeling.

Ty wrapped my arm in one large fist. "We don't know where they are, I can't let you go out there yet," he hissed through gritted teeth.

But I didn't care. Not when I watched as he slumped, such a big man that crumpled into himself, as if all the life had drained from his pores. The pole stood tall, reaching to the stars, a looming shrine of a fractured soul. Black chains slipped like oil around his arms, poisonous marks on each piece of skin they touched. Mud, like thick cement, enveloped his legs as if he were sinking through the very ground to hell. His head fell to his chest, covered in straggles of hair, bowed in surrender like he'd already relinquished his breath. The only part of Lane that moved, was the subtle rise and fall of his chest.

"I'll go." Charlie flipped his sword around, working his wrist in repetitive circles.

"Don't think that's the best idea either,
wolf-less
."

A tick registered in the brunettes jaw. "I'm perfectly capable of walking across some mud to that pole."

"Sure you are, until someone else uses your back for target practice."

Charlie remained less than impressed.

"I'll go," Ty sighed at the vacant village. "Irish is too damn crazy right now and the guard can't heal a freaking paper cut. And no, you're still not going." His eyes, piercing even in this gloom, warned my feet to stay put.

I blew out a calming breath while watching Lanes completely still form, begging the moon to shine brighter just for him, and let him know he wasn't alone. I figured Duncan would show himself as soon as one of us did. "What about the other two?"

He shrugged. "Wait and see if I draw them out, you should be able to see well enough from here, where they position themselves." He stood from his crouch on hands and knees, throwing a quick smile my way, and took the first step out of the cover of forest.

I didn't like it. My selfish side was focused solely on Lane - probably the wolf that paced in total frustration at finding him, but not being able to reach him. The smart part of me understood Ty had made the best decision, taken the only option with me being so wholly fixated on my Alpha. Understood it, but hated it none the less. The silence bothered me more than anything else, as if I could feel eyes watching our every movement and counting down the minutes to spring their trap, a hunter stalking its prey. Perhaps this moment, is all they waited for.

"How long until he can shift with those chains off, Charlie?"

He moved to kneel beside me and puffed out irritated breaths. "Possibly straight away - Fraser could use his claws. He'd been in them hours though, not days."

Conall's wolf nudged beside me and grunted in my ear, hot animal breath forcing my attention. I turned to look at the beast waving his claws at me and nodding. I frowned at his exaggerated movements."You've been in those chains, Conall?"

He bobbed that huge head up and down.

"He'll be able to use his claws?"

That head nodded in agreement once more.

I stared at the monster's black eyes, a little more crazed than usual. "Do you know that woman, the one with the white hair?"

He growled and snapped his teeth into the wind. I assumed it was a response in the affirmative, and that he fully intended to eat her.

Wonderful.

I turned back to watching Ty keep to the shadows, a murky path all the way to Lane. He had another foot or so before the moon destroyed all chance of darkness and the shadows dipped to open air and complete exposure. It quickly became just as torturous as watching Lane sink ever further into that mud - one eye on the blond and one on the brother. As if the crescent that stood so high in the sky, blankly surveying her most accomplished creations, had pitted mate against family for my attention - An agonizing choice to make. Such suffering she likes to play with - fate and her games of misery. How she loves to persecute and avidly anticipate the outcome.

My lungs expanded to capacity, air that caught and held with each carefully placed step of Ty's soft strides. He made slow progress, halting in place every few feet, to lift his nose to the breeze and sweep his gaze around the village. He managed to get maybe halfway across that thick mud before a single cloud broke away from the glow of the moon to highlight ash, white hair lifting in swirling strands towards the midnight sky. The wolf beside me instantly stilled, a tense, monstrous form that shook with vibrations of frenzy. Ty's shadowed figure came to a similar stop, hands loosely at his sides as his shoulders turned in tiny circles of impending action. He turned his head once to Lane - a figure still slumped on the ground, and then back to the female at the opposite edge of the forest, calmly watching his every move.

"Are you here to stop me?" His softly spoken words drifted on the wind toward me.

She smiled in return, almost hauntingly beautiful. A smile that, rather than relax my tight muscles, only increased those fluttering butterflies. She tutted between pouted lips, "pretty wolf, want to play with me?"

Ty cocked his head and narrowed his gaze on the woman. "Not just wolf, little female. If you want, I've got one who'd like to meet you."

Her pale eyes with only the slightest hint of powder blue sparkled as she clapped her hands together in glee. "Give me the wolf." She seemed a spoiled child with the chance of a new toy.

Conall rumbled and took giant steps forward, his claws dug into his palms leaving droplets of blood to follow. He stepped out from between the trees, that beastly head clearing the leaves as his teeth bared to let a deep growl roll into the night.

She gasped as she saw him. "Such a big wolf." Her eyes peered through the gloom, "is that you, doggy?"

Conall roared at her words and marched forward with purpose, his massive feet digging deep into the sludge with the animal's weight.

Her lilting laugh carried easily across the mile of separation. "Gotten so big, Dog. I've missed you."

He rumbled a continuous call, the light dropping out of his eyes until all that remained was vicious predator and a human that had given up all control.

"Come and play, little puppy." She pursed her lips and slapped her hands to her knees, calling Conall as if he were a pet.

Charlie winced to my left. "Ouch. She's definitely getting eaten for that."

Conall's thundering footsteps became a barreling run, squelching mud beneath bunching thighs, clearing the distance within seconds. Ty stepped swiftly out of the wolf's way, turning his attention back towards the blond on the floor and walking quickly to the slumped over figure. The female's smile never once dropped from her face as the pale blue in her gaze slowly dissipated, and white overwhelmed the pastel shade. "Pretty wolf, show me how much you miss your cage."

The wolf dropped to his knees, perfectly halted in place, a thunderous drop that shook the ground he'd run on. His claws gripped his head in furious agony, sinking deeply into flesh to sprinkle the dark mud in bright crimson. He rocked back and forth, ripping his claws from his skull only to stab them back in so deeply, he tapped bone with each scratching talon.

I jumped from my crouch to sprint towards them, Charlie catching my arm and flinging me back beneath the undergrowth. He grinned in the darkness, flashing a row of brilliant white teeth. "I'm going."

I shook my head, "you don't have your wolf right now, Charlie."

He smiled wider. "Exactly, perhaps she'll make the beast come out."

I scrunched my face in wonder at the man so happy to see if, obviously excruciating pain, would trigger the beast to make an appearance. I sighed as he casually sauntered into the open, that sword forever swinging in graceful arcs, and sank back into my crouch, flicking my eyes to the forest’s border, trying to catch a glimpse of the two wolves that surely patiently waited within its protective cover.

The females eyes flitted to the approaching guard and she giggled at his size. "Bigger wolf." She clapped her hands together again, "you want to play too?"

Charlie hummed as he steadily floated over the uneven ground, as if the thick sludge was nothing but solid concrete, to stand towering before her. "Let's see what you've got, hag."

The corners of her eyes tightened in anger and that smile slid just a little. "That's Queen to you, little dog. Fae Queen."

Charlie grinned back, "looks like they'll be needing a new one pretty soon." His sword swung, glinting off a background of silver moon, and curving a rhythmic descent to cut a shallow line across her cheek. "It bleeds," he rumbled roughly. "Perhaps it dies just as quickly."

She hissed at the cut to her face, a hand pulling back from that dripping blood in shocked anger. "Won’t be a pet now," she sneered. "I'll destroy your mind for that."