Moon Chilled (11 page)

Sharp cries split the air and forced my attention back onto the battling wolves. My heart in my throat and my unspent breath burning my lungs, I watched as the dust settled around them and the alpha stepped back. I shook my head, disbelieving my eyes as the white wolf stumbled but remained on his feet while the dark gray wolf lay motionless on the ground. The alpha fell as well, not more than three feet from where he'd emerged from the fight. While others moved forward, their steps tentative as if they were unsure of their movements, I could only continue to stare at the prone figure of the dark wolf. Until suddenly, unbelievingly, she rose unsteadily to her feet. I could see her shaking from across the yard, her legs threatening to give way even as she forced herself to get up on them.

Shae tilted her head back, her shiny black nose pointing toward the darkening sky, and howled. Her cry fell over the pack, its hollow sound settling in their chests, and then they moved toward her. She howled again, a cry to the others that had remained at the outskirts while she'd fought the alpha. I added my voice as well, my mate's call spurring me out of my silence as I rose to my feet. My human throat was incapable of making the call I wanted, but the meaning was the same as I carried a wide-eyed Gavin to the dark wolf's side.

I placed my hand on the wolf's shoulder, my fingers sinking into her thick fur. Gavin reached for her as well, his hand going to her ear. I tried not to see the blood on her dark fur or the way she wouldn't leave her front paw on the ground for long. Instead I focused on the brightness of her amber eyes, the strength in her gaze, and I smiled down at that familiar dark face.

"Thank you," I whispered.

The wolf licked my fingertips and turned her focus toward a sound. I looked as well, my breath catching as the white wolf lifted his head and tried to rise up.

"I thought he was dead," I hissed, my fingers tightening on Shae's fur as anxious fear crashed through me.

The wolf nodded and threw her head back to release another howl. This time it was a series of shorter noises, though the effect was no less powerful. It was a call to action, and as Shae's fur faded to be replaced by soft skin, I began to understand. She rose to her feet and circled an arm around my waist. I kissed Shae's shoulder and rested my head against her warmth.

"I've left him alive," Shae called out to the gathered pack. "Those of you that want to take your revenge, do so now. If you do not wish to kill him then I will, but I thought it fair to give you all a chance to take what is rightfully yours. You have my blessing to do with him as you wish."

I turned and watched as girls began coming forward. Most no older than I was but many quite a few years younger. They were all his victims. Shae was right; I knew they had a claim to his life. Just as I did. And the debt would be settled with his death.

"Do you want to?" Shae asked, her voice soft against my temple. "I'll hold him if you want to go over there." The first blow came across the alpha's nose, and I watched as blood poured from that broken protrusion.

I shook my head. "No. I witnessed his defeat, and his death will start to heal my hurts. I don't need to touch him again."

Nodding, Shae pulled me closer. "I understand. What are they doing?"

I turned to look in the direction of Shae's gaze and frowned as well. Men had formed a crowd beside us and, as we watched, they fell to their knees. Young and old, fathers and brothers, they all got down on their knees in front of us. My frown deepened, as I was unsure of what to make of such a gesture. The crowd of young women and girls moved back, many of them sporting the bloody evidence of their actions as they joined the men. They knelt as well, though they were smiling, in sharp contrast to the somber expressions of the men. I understood their need to smile, to express happiness even as it meant the death of someone else. It wasn't glee that I felt, but it wasn't far off. The alpha's reign was over. They'd burn his body at sunset, as was our tradition, and the girls would never have to fear another such ruler ever again. The relief floating through the small pack was nearly palatable, and I breathed it in deeply, wanting to hold onto it for as long as I could.

"Shae, we're yours, command us as you would," an older man spoke up, though he didn't move from his position on his knees.

My breath caught, and Shae had stopped breathing beside me as well. "What?" Shae asked him.

There was a murmur of confusion between them as the man looked around at the others. "You've slain the alpha ... you're the new alpha."

Shae shook her head. "No, I'm not. I'm going back to my little cabin with my mate and our cub."

"But—but that's how it works," another man protested.

Snorting, Shae shook her head again. "Well, that's just too damn bad. I don't want to do it. Not at all. You're just going to have to find someone else," she protested.

A slow smile came to my lips. "This is it," I whispered. "This is my dream. All of it. You're the thing that he was afraid of." Laughing, I rounded on Shae to better look in her amber eyes. "You destroyed the pack."

Shae frowned. "No I didn't. Not even close. They're still there. They're just not going to have me as an alpha, because I refuse."

"You can't, though," a woman called from somewhere in the pack. "There's no one else. We need you, Shae."

"See?" I said, reaching up to cup her cheek in my palm. "You are the alpha of the Elderthorne pack. You're ours. And I'm your mate. You brought death to him and killed his reign. It all makes sense. My dreams come true, and you just made it happen."

Shae's eyes widened and she took a step back, stumbling. "I don't want to be the alpha," she protested, her voice weak. "Is there really no one else?"

I looked around at the others, searching for anyone with Shae's strength, her will. Finally, I shook my head and shifted Gavin to my hip. "No one else is a strong as you. You must do it."

Though she still looked reserved, a quiet nod of acceptance had many of the women grinning as they rose to their feet and approached their new alpha. They touched her, pressed against her, and made small noises in their throats of acceptance before moving on. The men came next, and though they were quieter about their admiration for their new alpha, the evidence of their thanks was no less there in the way they approached her.

"But what about the house?" Shae asked when the last man had left and she and I were left alone with Gavin.

I nodded and turned toward the old building. "What would you have done with it?"

"Burn it," was Shae's instant reply.

"Then that's the last of my dream. The last piece fit into place. I'll make sure it's done tonight when they burn his body," I said, a sense of calm purpose settling in my bones.

Shae turned toward me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and pulled me close. "Thank you, mate."

I smiled up at her and placed a gentle kiss on her chin.

"Take your hands off me!"

With a sigh, I turned to see what the newest interruption was. My eyes widened at the sight of two of the men dragging Diane closer. "We caught her loading up one of the cars," the man on her right said. They pushed her forward, forcing her to her knees. "What do you want done with her?"

Shae didn't move out of my hold. "Diane, you're banished. Take any of the pack that is still loyal to Ray and get off my mountain. Come back again, and I'll kill you myself."

"Might be better just to kill her now," one of the men offered.

Smiling, Shae nodded. "Probably. But I think we've had enough bloodshed for one night. Let her take those who believed in Ray's ways with her. I don't want them in my pack. Spread the word that they're allowed to leave unharmed but make sure everyone knows that if they come back that they're going to die."

The men nodded and released her.

"Oh, thank you, Shae. You were always so merciful, so nice, so—"

"You've got until I count to ten to get out of Elderthone," Shae interrupted her. Diane hesitated, her mouth falling open. When she didn't immediately get to her feet, Shae started counting. "One ... two ..."

I turned away as Diane got to her feet and ran across the grass as fast as she could. Some would leave with her. Probably quite a few. But the pack would be better without them in it. The women would be safer, the men would be protected. And Gavin could grow up as he was meant to. I smiled up at Shae and breathed deeply of the warm afternoon breeze that circled around my body. I couldn't have known what my dream would bring to the pack, but now that I'd seen the darkest of it played out, I could honestly say that it was the best vision of my life.

Chapter Ten

Shae

The smoke finally cleared as I lay near the trees with the black sky above me and Maiki by my side on the cool grass. The cub lay nearby, blankets wrapped around him as he softly snored. He was close enough to be safe but not so close that Maiki and I couldn't avoid being heard if we were quiet enough. I hated who his father had been, but he was still my mate's child. And I would have to find it within myself to tolerate Ray's continued existence in my pack through the child that bore his eyes. It wouldn't be easy, but I would have to make it work. For Maiki I would do that and so much more than ever before. I'd let her down once by not insisting that she come with me on that terrible night. I knew that now. And I would not be making that same mistake again. I'd die before that happened.

My wolf came awake, alerting me to the change in the woods off to the left of them before I ever heard the men approaching. It gave me the extra minute I needed to wake Maiki from her deep slumber beside me. Maiki went to the cub, and I moved in front of her. I was tense, every muscle in my body poised to react as I got my first whiff of a fresh kill on the night breeze. The cub and Maiki spoke in soft tones behind me. He sounded worried. On the insistence of the whining wolf in my mind, I reached back and briefly touched him, offering my comfort to him as well as to Maiki. Though my actions didn't silence him, at least he grew quieter in his muffled worry.

I let go of him to step forward and greet the five men coming toward us. I forced myself to shift quickly, welcoming my wolf and letting her out to what I hoped wouldn't be more fighting. But I wanted to be ready for it if there was. They were dragging something on the ground behind them, and though my nose immediately told me it was a buck, it took me another moment or two for my eyes to adjust well enough to see the dead animal. I moved closer, trying not to become distracted by the smell of the fresh kill and intercepting them before they could come within distance of hurting Maiki or the cub in her arms. I didn't stand much of a chance against that many adult men, but by fighting them I could give Maiki a better chance to run. When I met them, however, they dropped the carcass to the ground at my paws before moving back several yards and falling to their knees in the grass.

I moved forward and took a big bite. The fur on my face was smeared with blood and the meat of the fresh kill quickly filled my belly, but I worked further into it until my paws were also covered in the thick, sticky blood. I was only satisfied when I had my prize between my teeth. The deer's heart was big enough to be a meal all on its own; though I didn't understand, my wolf knew to take that best part for myself. I carried it over to Maiki, who was sitting on the grass and pulling parts of the meat off for Gavin.

Once I had my piece secured, I tossed my head back and let out a long, low cry into the night sky, calling the pack around me to come to dinner. They came on foot, looking uncertain as the men that had brought the buck down started eating. There was some semblance of order, though it was a lot less defined than I would have preferred it, but while the human was lazily relaxing in the back of her mind, my wolf kept a careful watch on each of the people as they ate. There would be no fights on her watch. When it looked like something would break out between a pair of teenagers fighting over a piece of the buck's liver, I got to my feet and growled sharply at them both. Order quickly came back over the feast, and soon the heart was gone and my wolf was left licking the blood off her mate's hands as the people slowly ate their fill.

If they'd been wolves, there would have been hardly any waste. I intended to change that as soon as possible. I refused to be alpha to a group of humans. The crowd slowly dissipated, and I shifted back into my human form. The wolf was full and ready to relax while I wanted to rinse the blood off. It was a fair trade. Silently, I took Maiki's hand and brought her and her son down to the stream. Even if the house had still been standing, I wouldn't have gone back in there to get cleaned up. I'd spent far too many nights cleaning blood off myself in the upstairs bedroom.

Now what had stood as a reminder of the pain of my youth only that morning was little more than a pile of rubble. The smoke had cleared, but it would take work to get the remaining pieces of the house that hadn't been willing to burn down out and away from the site. I didn't know what they'd put there, but it was winter in the Colorado mountains and they'd need to find a home to sleep in. Fortunately I held nothing against the ones that had been abandoned by the men that left with the woman that had once been my mother. They'd sleep there when the cold came back around the high face of the mountain above them. For now I wouldn't worry about it.

I stepped into the river, its icy chill making me gasp, and I smiled as I began to clean myself. Leaving Gavin on the sandy bank, Maiki joined me in the shallow part of the river, washing the blood from her arms and face as well. Once I was clean, I looked to Gavin and, seeing that he had grown a bit dirty too, reached to clean him off. But he backed away from me, his eyes wide.

"I won't hurt you," I promised him, the words sounding foreign to lips that weren't used to speaking to people, especially not children. My wolf wanted to whine at him, wanted to put her ears back and her tail between her legs as she crawled on her belly toward him. Showing that she wasn't dangerous would have been best. But after such a recent shift I wasn't about to do it again, and so I knelt down in front of him and offered him my hand, palm up. Maiki came out of the water behind me and placed a hand on my bare shoulder.