Cade (29 page)

Chapter Thirty-One

Phoenix pressed himself into the upholstery of the backseat. Maybe he could make himself disappear and they would forget that they had the half-breed with them. He wasn’t so stupid that he hadn’t noticed the looks of disgust on their faces when Trevor had announced that he would be coming with them. Even the youngest, Danny MacDonald, Cade’s youngest brother, had physically pulled himself away as they sat together in the back of the car—like he might catch something if he sat any closer. Another inch and he would be perched on his mother’s lap.

Phoenix ignored them like Stephen had told him to do and stared out into the darkness. But the view out there wasn’t much better, either. All the trees were gone, replaced by fields of charred black woodlands. The sight tore at his heart. He had been the cause of this. It was because he had killed that boy and the
Humans
were looking for him. He had caused so many bad things to happen ... even Cade was locked up in the cage now because of him. Phoenix didn’t know what the cage was exactly, but it couldn’t be anything good by the way everyone seemed to fear it. Would Cade be okay? Would he make it? Phoenix bit down on his lip to stop it from trembling. He would not let himself cry like a baby in front of them.

Phoenix turned away from the view outside the window to stare ahead. Everywhere he looked, there was just another reminder of what he had done. His eyes caught Aaron’s in the rear-view mirror and the man sneered at him as he drove. Phoenix wondered how two brothers could be so very different.

They took a corner too fast and Danny went flying to the middle seat, putting his arm out instinctively to catch himself and whacking Phoenix hard in the chest. Phoenix sucked in a breath as the wind was knocked from him. Danny snapped his hand away and glared at Phoenix. “I don’t want to sit next to it,” he complained to his mother.

“Don’t be rude,” his mother reprimanded him. She offered Phoenix a smile but nothing else as she pulled he son closer to her. Phoenix knew it wasn’t him she was mad at or even upset with. Cade was the one on her mind. She had stared at the shed-like building as they were driving away until it was out of sight. Trevor had scolded her, told her that what was happening was their son’s own doing. Phoenix had seen her, more than once, wipe away a tear and then attempt to compose herself again.

Phoenix wished that Stephen had argued with Trevor when he had said he was taking him. He wished he had demanded that he come. “I’ll take the half-breed with me,” Trevor had announced, and Phoenix’s heart had sunk. There was something in the way he had said it, the look in his eyes and the smile that he had given. “I am
wolf
. I will teach him to shift properly.” He had ranted to Aaron about the insinuation of his incompetence if Stephen came along, but Phoenix suspected that was nothing to do with it.

“Pretend Cade is with you,” Stephen had said when he took him to the side before they left. “It isn’t any different.” Stephen must have seen the fear in Phoenix’s face because he added, “Don’t worry. He can't do anything to you. His hands are tied and he’ll be screwed if he goes against the Council’s orders.”

But Phoenix did worry. There were other ways people could do what they wanted even when the rules said they couldn’t.

“Stay at the back,” Stephen had warned. “No matter what. Stay behind them all, where you can see them. It is all to do with power. If you can remember that, you’ll be okay. You're new, and that means you have no power.” Phoenix had nodded, but it hadn’t eased the twisting in his gut. He had hoped that all the packs would run together, but when Malcolm had announced that they would be going somewhere else, Phoenix’s heart had sunk. He was going to be well and truly by himself.

Eventually, as they drove farther, the blackness of the burnt destruction began to give way to thicker greenery—places that the
Humans
hadn't destroyed. It was thick with trees and hedges and other plants that Phoenix couldn’t even begin to name. His mother would have loved this place; she probably would have spent days here. Phoenix pushed away the bitter thought. It was foolish to entertain these ‘would haves’, because they could never be now.

The moon was starting to rise—he could see the yellow glow ahead. Trevor, Danny and Katherine all rubbed at their arms occasionally, their breathing growing laboured. Phoenix felt nothing, however. Not a thing. Cade had spoken to him about the pull of the shift at full moons, but Phoenix felt absolutely nothing.

The road wound on itself and up it went, trees lining the sides. Phoenix pressed his face closer to the glass to get a better view. He could see the land slope down steeply, and for what seemed like miles and miles. He could hear water, too—just a faint trickle on the edge of his hearing, but it was there.

Aaron pulled the car to the left and into a car park. The moment the car pulled to a stop, Danny and Katherine opened their door and sprung out. Phoenix followed warily. The scent of the water and the trees all mingled together to perfume the air with nature, the fragrance one of musky earth—it evoked absolute tranquillity, like being home. He had never smelt air so clean and crisp before. As he closed his eyes to just take in the moment, he picked up the sound of small woodland animals scampering away, no doubt sensing that a bunch of predators had just arrived to hunt them.

There were deer here, Aaron had told Danny as they drove up. “I'm gonna catch the biggest one,” Danny had beamed, and Aaron had laughed at him.

“It’ll probably catch you. You leave the big ones to the real
wolves
.”

“Do you hear that, Phoenix?” Danny had said, deflecting his brother’s insult to where it would sting. Phoenix had stared straight ahead, trying not to let a stupid boy’s words hurt him.

There were eleven cars parked in the lot. All of them were different families, and all of them were Society members—Cade had told him that morning. That was how it worked. Every member of the pack had to be Society or they became strays. They all had to pay—it was how it was run. Ten percent of the family’s income for membership. The Society wouldn’t exist without it. It seemed that everything was just business, even in the world of the
Others
.

These people were all Trevor’s
wolves
, though one day they would be Aaron’s. Trevor was their alpha and they listened to him. Phoenix didn’t need any magical sense to notice that they all looked at him as if they would rather kill him than have him standing with them. But he did as Stephen had said and kept himself out of the way, standing back against a tree so as not to bother them.

Many of them had already removed their clothing, and they stood around in groups talking, naked, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Phoenix kept his eyes averted, embarrassed.

Despite not yet having completed its ascension, the moon was already big and bright. Phoenix had never seen it so close before. It was as if he could reach out and hold it in the palm of his hand. “I’m going to run with the little half-breed,” Trevor announced, startling Phoenix as he strode over and gave him a solid slap on his back. Phoenix staggered forward from the force of the blow.

One of the men frowned at Trevor. “You're alpha. You don’t run at the back.”

“Tonight I do,” Trevor said.

“It isn’t right.”

Trevor raised an eyebrow, and the man’s shoulders slumped a little in submission. “I am alpha, and that means I run where I like. Do you understand?”

The man nodded along with and others that were gathered there.

“If I choose to run at the back, then I run at the back, and it doesn’t get questioned. Tonight, Aaron will run up front, and I will run with Phoenix.” Trevor wrapped his arm around Phoenix’s shoulder and grasped his arm hard enough that Phoenix winced. Everyone laughed, but the message was more than clear.
You're not going to get away.

It was like the moon suddenly moved, because all at once, people started to rub at their skin and throw their heads back, sighing in pleasure from it. Everyone except Phoenix, that was. Trevor’s hand tightened on him and Phoenix rubbed at his skin to copy the rest and look normal, even though he didn’t feel whatever it was they were feeling.

“That’s it, boy, feel the call,” Trevor said to him. “Take it right in.”

Those who still wore clothes, took them off, and then they all spread out. Eyes changed and the air seemed to crack and heat up. One of the younger
Others
dropped to the ground and began to growl, and another followed suit immediately after. Very soon, they were all doing the same. Phoenix did the only thing he thought he should—he dropped down, too, not wanting to stand out. One of the young
wolves
laughed. “Look at him, he can't even do it right. He still has his clothes on.”

Phoenix looked away in shame. He didn’t want to take all of his clothes off in front of these people, but Trevor glared down at him. He lifted a shaky hand to the top button of his shirt and popped it open. He was so much scrawnier than they all were. Even the young children had more meat on them than he did—his body was built differently to theirs. Emily’s drinks were helping, definition beginning in his arms and legs and lines forming across his stomach, but still his ribs were clearly visible.

The others paid him no mind after a moment. They’d had their moment to laugh at him and then gone back to their own things again. It was easy for them to ignore him, and Phoenix was grateful for that. He liked to be ignored. He just wished that Trevor would do the same and find that he wasn’t worth his time. Once Phoenix had taken his clothes off, he closed his eyes as if that would help make him invisible, the shyness still there. The moon was higher now, lighting up the sky from where they stood. Phoenix knelt down in the dirt, Trevor still standing over him. This was the worst moment to screw it all up, the moment when Trevor could really decide that he wasn’t worth being a
wolf
or being part of his pack. He struggled to close his eyes and search for his
wolf
, but his
wolf
knew what to do and answered his call happily.

Shifting was such an odd experience. It walked along a fine line between pleasure and pain. Just one more hurt, one push too far, and perhaps the pain would be just too much. But it always turned out to feel like a refreshing snap of his bones—a way to cleanse the soul perhaps. He invited his
wolf
in willingly. He relished every bone-popping moment as all the parts in his body realigned and became his
wolf
.

When his shift was done, Phoenix stretched his front paws out, lowered his head and stretched his tail out behind him. He pushed out with his head as far as he could manage and let himself revel in the feel of it. The sounds around him had grown louder, more distinct than before.

The whole pack had shifted now, howling from deep within the confines of the trees. Their paws pounded against the earth and Phoenix got so lost in the moment that he suddenly realised he had forgotten all about Trevor. He turned abruptly, but he was gone. The scent of him was there, deep and musky, much like Cade’s but maybe stronger, deeper and older. He padded along the edge of the woods, careful to stay just on the edge. Would they welcome him in there? He didn’t dare to enter. Maybe they wouldn’t want him in their territory. He remembered reading that wolves were very territorial. He slunk into the darkness around the edges and vowed to keep himself there and away from them all.

The scents were thick in the air, so many different smells that it was difficult to distinguish them. Cade told him that it was possible to, but maybe that was because Cade was pure but Phoenix wasn’t. The sound of hooves against the hard earth made Phoenix spin around and he caught sight of his first deer. It raced towards him, but then bucked when it caught sight of him. She didn’t stand a chance, though. Three
wolves
leapt from the shadows and took her down, a huge, black wolf biting the back of her neck and pinning her down. A fourth
wolf
ran out of the darkness, but not at the deer—it came straight for Phoenix.  It swiped a paw in front of him and snarled.
Get lost.
The message was clear.

Phoenix backed away a couple of steps, and the
wolf
returned to where the deer now lay dead, its lifeless eyes staring out at Phoenix, its face contorted in fear and desperation, the last moments of its life etched on its expression. The coppery scent of blood filled the air but instead of feeling pity, what Phoenix felt was hunger. His stomach rumbled, demanding to be fed, but the
wolves
already feeding on the deer in front of him told him that that was not going to happen.

The tree line went all the way around what seemed to be a circle. Phoenix followed it, slowly at first, but then he built his pace up until he was running. He had got only so far when Trevor suddenly stepped out of the shadows and blocked his way. Phoenix dug his unsteady paws into the ground to stop himself from crashing right into him. Trevor hadn't shifted—he was still man, and Phoenix didn’t understand why or how. He thought that all
wolves
had to answer the call. Maybe being alpha made him different.

“Even for a half-breed, you're a magnificent wolf,” Trevor said, reaching down and stroking his hand through Phoenix’s fur. Phoenix tensed. “It is a gift that should never be given to
Humans
. Your type don’t ever deserve it.” Trevor twisted his fingers in Phoenix’s fur, just enough to feel it. Instantly, he curled his lip as if to snarl, but stopped himself. Trevor had seen the small sign of mutiny, though. He laughed. “Feisty. I like that.” He squatted down in front of him. “You know you can never really be one of us, don’t you? My son has the heart of his mother, so it isn’t his fault, but he sees the good in everyone. Even
Humans
. He forgets what you are. Not even
Human
children are worth anything. The sourness is bred into them from the start. It germinates with you all in the womb. Do you know that Cade will lose his place in the pack if this is allowed to continue? I fear for him. He is too soft and he will become a stray … and I can't do anything to stop it.” He stroked his fingers through his fur once more. “Do you know what a stray is Phoenix?”