Lifesong (9 page)

I lifted a paw and licked at it before heading into the kitchen. Something crashed against one of the cabinets, and I bounded after it, nearly skating across the kitchen floor. Zarrius’ jaws clamped down on to one of my hind legs—his grey pelt had been barely noticeable in the dark.

I cried out, then growled under my breath as I searched the empty space for fur, an ear, anything I could bite. The metallic scent was stronger now. My ears flattened, and I turned, my fangs biting down on Zarrius’ muzzle. The taste of metal filled my maw, and I tried not to think about its source—my alpha, the wolf I’d followed for over a century.

He yelped, his muzzle snapping at skin he couldn’t reach. The more he moved, the harder I fought to hold my jaws in place. I wasn’t going to kill him. Gods, I could never kill him. The pack still needed an alpha, and it wasn’t a role I was willing to take. I threw the wolf against the far wall, bowing my head between my shoulders.

“I won’t let you get to her,” I growled, bristling my fur.

“Why don’t you finish it then?”

Zarrius cowered against the wall, blood caking along his side. His injuries weren’t fatal, but the glass inside his wounds would make any movement more painful.

“And release you as pack alpha?” I asked. “No. I know how much you hate that role. You want to be relieved from the pack? Do it on your own…without my help.” I started to turn away, leaving myself open for another attack.
He’ll stand down if he’s smart.

Even though Zarrius had the most experience and the more powerful role within the pack, I was stronger out of the two of us. Being a wolf gave me the agility I needed, and my ability to shift into human form allowed me to use tools in addition to my fangs and claws.

Zarrius was just a wolf—a very injured one, by the look of it.

“There was a time you would’ve killed to be pack alpha.” Zarrius coughed behind me, his breath hot against my leg.

“Not now,” I insisted, turning around to face him. Zarrius was standing on all fours, favouring one forepaw. “Not when Emma is your price.”

“She could make you immortal, you know?”

“You don’t get it, do you? I’m not bonding with her so I can live. I’m bonding with her—”

“So what…you can die?” Zarrius took a handful of steps. The alpha circled around me, holding his head and tail high, even though I could see he was hurting. “Please. You’re being even more pathetic than you were when you were a pup. Be a wolf.”

Zarrius leapt at my throat, and I rolled to the side. He careened into one of the cabinets.

“A wolf is only part of who I am,” I barked, glaring at him.

“The better part of you, you mean.”

Something bumped in the room upstairs and we exchanged a glance, Zarrius’ ears perked.

“She’s not yours to take,” I said again, refusing to move.

“Last chance, Tucker. Help me control my death, or the human is mine.”

“I’ll break your skin before you ever reach the stairs.”

Zarrius’ eyes flashed in the dark and he lunged forward. I rolled out of the way, cursing under my breath when he ran past, down the hall, right towards the steps.

Righting myself, I chased him into the living room, skidding to a halt when Zarrius jumped back through the broken window. Fearing for Emma’s safety, but knowing if I let Zarrius go he’d only come back, I stood frozen in the centre of the room.
You let him get away now, and you won’t find him unless he comes looking for Emma.
This was a warning. He’d already broken into the house and gone against our laws once. He’d do it again.

I couldn’t afford to lose his trail, not now. Not anymore. Assured Emma would remain inside the house, I leapt through the window, my paws falling onto a thin layer of snow. He ran ahead, and I chased after him, leaving tracks in the snow behind me.

* * * *

It didn’t take long for me to pick up Zarrius’ trail. The alpha dropped blood with every step he took, and when I couldn’t see it, I could smell it. With the first light of morning far in the distance, I took comfort in the fact that Emma was safe at home and I was pushing Zarrius as far away from her as I could.

I knew what he wanted, what he expected of me, but it wasn’t something I could give. Any other time, I would’ve jumped at the opportunity to take his place as the pack alpha, but not now, not when he was at such a disadvantage.

The further we got from the house, the more open my surroundings became. The forest thinned, shrinking behind me as I loped across the barren tundra. My ankle screamed with pain, and I whimpered whenever I stepped on it. It wasn’t broken, but the bite Zarrius had left behind was enough to make my joint burn.

Gods, he’s more injured than you are.
But he had more experience. He’d fought other wolves and brought down large prey on his own. The pain didn’t bother him. And now, he had the advantage. My body threatened to shift, my guts twisting as my vision blurred.
Emma.
I breathed her name, focusing on my muzzle, my tail, paws and fur.
Emma.

I howled into the open air, ears perking when I heard the other guardians howl their replies. A she-wolf raced to my side, her white pelt barely visible against the snow.
I’d know that coat anywhere.
Luna…

“Protect Emma,” I barked, baring my teeth in her direction.

I sent her a single image, projecting a snapshot into her mind of Emma and the house. Luna bowed her head and averted her eyes in submission, falling behind me as I pressed forward. The other guardians knew better than to get involved. Fights within the pack were rare, and when they did happen, save for the pair sparring with one another, the rest of the pack kept its distance.

But now, after Zarrius had been the alpha for so long, I didn’t doubt that he’d made allying with me a crime. Especially when it came to the alpha and his going feral. I thanked the she-wolf well after she’d gone. I understood her need to protect the current alpha, but she’d known we had to protect Emma even more.

Nearing the crest of a hill, I slowed my pace, wheezing around the tension in my chest. What I did now was for Emma. I was protecting her, and that was something I knew the other guardians could understand.

Chapter Twelve

Emma

It was hard to tell how long it had been since I’d locked myself in the bathroom, but the noises from earlier this evening had stopped long ago. I kept expecting Tucker to call me, to knock on the door. But he never came. I considered opening the door numerous times, but the possibility of seeing him injured—or worse—glued me to one corner of the bathroom.
He should’ve been back by now.

And then I heard it, a mournful howl, joined by others, the closest one sounding as if it were right outside. I jumped from my hiding place and cautiously opened the bathroom door, shielding my eyes from the early morning light. The room was empty. I studied the lock on the door, which was still in place.

I checked the windows, but the wolf I thought I’d heard wasn’t standing out back.

It has to be at the front, then.
My body shivered from the chill outside, and I grabbed a heavy coat from Tucker’s closet before opening the door to head downstairs. I froze halfway down the steps. Pools of blood and shattered glass covered most of the living room floor. I closed my eyes, afraid some of it might belong to Tucker, while at the same time hoping it didn’t. A series of paw prints covered the carpeting, and I knew it’d have to be replaced. Tucker wasn’t anywhere to be found.

I peered down the hall to the kitchen and then at the broken window. Stepping over to what had been the front window, I caught a glimpse of a white she-wolf from the corner of my eye. The wolf kept far from the house, bowing her head as soon as I looked at her.

“Where’s Tucker?” I called out, refusing to open the front door. The she-wolf lifted her head and perked her ears at the mention of Tucker’s name. “Zarrius?” The wolf bowed her head, her shoulders shaking.

Drawing in a lungful of air, I unlocked the front door, opening it to the she-wolf, who then stepped towards the house, her stomach flat against the ground. I pulled on my shoes and knelt down.

As soon as the wolf was within range, I reached a hand out to touch her. The wolf cowered on her stomach then rolled to show her underside in submission.

“Where is Tucker?” I asked again.

The she-wolf sat up and shook her furred mane. “Over the ridge.” The wolf’s voice was soft, sounding way too young to belong to one of the guardians I’d envisioned from Tucker’s stories.

I stepped into the open air and shut the door behind me. “Take me to him.”

The wolf dipped her head. “This way.”

Snow crunched under our feet as I chased after her. When the she-wolf ran too far ahead, she turned back for me. As soon as we entered the woods, I started to wonder if running after a nameless wolf was a good idea.
Not all of the guardians are bad.
But Zarrius was, and I didn’t know what the white one was loyal to—her alpha or their laws.

The she-wolf canted her head to one side when I slowed down. “He’s this way. Come on.”

She sounded a little too excited for my liking, but unless I felt like going back to the house on my own, I had no other choice but to follow her. Trees crowded around us, and I followed the ghostlike wolf as she wove between the trees. The forest felt familiar, almost like the one Tucker had taken me to so long ago. And even though I couldn’t see them, I could sense the other guardians, which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Iron filled my lungs, weighing me down. “Are you sure this is the right way?” I leaned over to catch my breath.

“Just a little further. Promise,” the wolf replied, then ran so far ahead I lost sight of her.

There was a break in the trees in front of us, and I ran for it, swallowing around the cough that was creeping up my throat. My knees buckled as soon as we cleared the trees, throwing me to the ground. I winced at the cold against my palms and coughed from the frigid air.

The she-wolf returned to my side, and I met her gaze. An image filled my mind, similar to the ones Tucker had shown me before. She showed me Tucker, and another wolf I didn’t recognise.

“Zarrius.” I breathed the name. It wasn’t a question. The she-wolf probably wouldn’t have shown it to me if it hadn’t been Zarrius.

“Not far,” the she-wolf promised, nuzzling me under the chin.

Taking a shaky breath, I tested my legs, growling at the ache in my knees when I stood back up. There, not five hundred feet in front of us, sat what appeared to be a pack of wolves, each of their pelts just as magnificent as the last.
They’re guarding something.
It didn’t take much to know what that
thing
was.

Act like an alpha.
There’s only one alpha to a pack. If you act like you belong, they’ll go away.
It wasn’t something Tucker had told me, but if the she-wolf had submitted just from me looking at her, it was worth a shot. I couldn’t have gone back to the house even if I’d wanted to. I didn’t know the way. I took a step forward, holding out my arms to balance myself when I thought I was going to fall.

The she-wolf pressed against my side, and I rested a hand on her back. The other guardians turned to face us, most of them growling in our direction. The she-wolf’s fur bristled under my palm. She growled back, head low between her shoulders. I immediately thought about the comment I’d made the other night about the fire poker and how I could use it to hurt the other wolves. The hand I pressed into the she-wolf’s fur tensed as I searched the ground for something I could use. I picked a brittle stick up off the ground before waving it in front of me.

“Back away,” I growled. One of the wolves turned around and snapped at another wolf who was lying on the ground. “Get away from him!”

The other wolves scattered. There, out in the open, lay Tucker, his fur matted with blood. White bone peeked through a gash in his leg. He was injured, but not enough to count for all the blood on the ground. My grip on the she-wolf lessened as I bit back my nerves.

I stared at the other wolf. His eyes were closed, and most of the fur along his muzzle and neck was torn out of place. The amount of blood on his coat and the shards of glass protruding from his pelt told me more than I wanted to know. Blood stained the ground between them.

I dropped my stick and knelt beside Tucker, placing a hand under his muzzle to lift it from the ground. His nose wiggled as a whimper escaped his lips.

“Emma.” Tucker lifted his head to look at me. “What are you doing here?”

I threw my arms around his neck. “I thought you said we were safe. I thought you said they couldn’t get in the house without a human.” I gritted my teeth. “Damn it, Tucker. What were you thinking?”

“They aren’t supposed to go inside the house.” Tucker glared at the other wolf. Zarrius didn’t move, but after watching him, I could tell he was still breathing. “It’s the law. And unless a wolf has hands, they wouldn’t…
shouldn’t
be able to break through the doors.”

“What about the windows?”

“He was a fool to go through them. He could’ve been killed.” Tucker roused himself, leaning against me before stalking towards the older wolf. “You could’ve been killed.”

“Would that have been so terrible?” I asked, pulling back on Tucker’s shoulders.

“Emma!” Tucker’s head snapped back to look at me.

“All this time you’ve made him sound like he’s this evil wolf, so excuse me if I have mixed feelings. Hell, Tucker. If he’s as bad as you say, why didn’t you confront him before? Why did you wait for him to break into the house? Why do I still see him breathing?”

Tucker bowed his head. “Emma, if I’d left you to chase after him, I would’ve been running after a ghost. It wasn’t until he broke into the house…that’s the only time I ever would’ve gone after him. If I kill him now, I take his place, and that wouldn’t be fair to us or the pack. If you want to be alpha, that’s fine, but I already told you what happens to guardians when they sing with their bonded.”