Summit of the Wolf (4 page)

He was not much more than a boy, but his real age was a mystery. He had dark brown hair that was thick and stylishly spiked near his forehead. His eyes were a bottomless hazel color and his skin so pallid it was almost translucent. He had likely been quite attractive. When he was alive.

“Stop,” Marissa said with a voice more wolf than woman.

The boy jerked his head to the side, and his face transformed. His eyebrows lifted and his eyes went wide as though a ghost hovered before him.

The edges of Morgan’s vision blurred as she struggled for air.

“Stop, or I’ll kill you.” Marissa straightened bravely with the splintered leg of one of Lana’s tiny chairs.

“Who is she to you?” the boy whispered, as if he were in a daze.

“She is family.”

He hesitated only a moment before his iron grip loosened around her neck. She fell to the floor in a crumpled heap of desperation and dragged air into her burning lungs. The boy flicked his fingers and the splintered wood flew from Marissa’s hand so hard, it burrowed deep into the sheetrock of the wall. A dagger in the house.

“You,” he said glaring at Morgan. “Go to the corner and stay there.”

He was out of his damned mind if he thought she was going to obey him. She stood slowly and glared at him.

“Do it,” he growled out. The pupils of his eyes dilated to pinpoints, and the color seemed even more brilliant.

She head-butted him. His nose made a satisfying crack as her forehead connected, and he staggered back.

“Bloody hell,” he mumbled. “I forgot how independent and strong-willed you dogs are. It’s been a century or two since I’ve had cause to speak with you, you see.” He straightened and his nose moved of its own accord to fix the break. The cartilage in his nose crunched and cracked until it was straight and perfectly Grecian again.

Morgan couldn’t drag her eyes away from his instant heal, and he gave a jagged grin. One of his teeth was covered in blood.

“We’ll have to play this a different way then, won’t we?” He disappeared into a cloud of deep purple and reappeared beside Lana. “Go to the corner like a good mutt and stay there, or I’ll pop her pretty little head from her body.”

Marissa stepped forward, but the warning in his glare stopped her progress.

Morgan slunk to the corner. “Please don’t hurt her. She is just a child.”

His eyes narrowed. “Generally speaking, I’m not a baby killer. But make no mistake, if pushed to do so, I’ll lose no sleep.” He grinned cheerily. “That’s a joke. I don’t sleep.”

“What do you want?” Marissa asked.

He was quiet for a loaded moment as he drank her in. There was something almost human in his eyes as they lit on her face. A sadness as deep as a well stirred in their depths.

“What has happened in your short life that has made you such an old soul, child?”

“I’m not a child,” Marissa gritted out. “Never was.”

“I can see that. I’m here to assess the danger of the Silver Wolf Clan’s rebirth. Certain leaders in my community see the threat in your existence.”

“The Dragon?” Morgan whispered.

He dragged his eyes away from Marissa. “Clever little wolf. He isn’t excited about your unfortunate comeback. I, however, see the danger in beginning a war with you werewolves. As your history has probably embellished, we have been on the losing end of those efforts more than once. Our even numbers create a balance, but Silver Wolf has tipped that, now haven’t you? Do you realize, in your lifetime, you could throw a hundred pups? And each pup could mature to throw a hundred more. Surely, you can understand my concern.”

“But I don’t even know if I can have a child,” she pleaded.

“Well, that is to be determined. You have no threat from me, but I’m afraid the wheels have already been set in motion. Others will find you and try to smudge you back into the history books.” He approached Marissa and stopped only when he stood directly in front of her. He lifted a lock of her wavy, strawberry blond hair. He frowned and let the soft strands fall through his fingers. “Learn to fight, wolf. Learn to defend your family from us.”

“Morgan?” Grey bellowed from downstairs. “Marissa?”

The boy’s eyes darkened. “My name is Larius.” He bit Marissa so fast the motion was a blur. With wide eyes, she looked down at the two puncture marks that pooled blood on the inside of her elbow.

“I’m tuned to you now. Call my name if ever you are near death.” He leaned forward as if he would brush his lips against hers but disappeared in a haze of smoke. The mist hovered over Marissa for a moment before it, too, was gone.

“What the hell?” she whispered.

Morgan rushed to Lana when Grey’s shadow darkened the doorway. He breathed heavily as if he had run a great distance and was clad in only a pair of sweat pants. “What’s happened?” he demanded. “I could feel your fear from the other side of our property. He stormed the room and brushed a finger against her and Lana’s faces, as if doing so would assure him they were still there. Still warm. Still alive.

Morgan held his hand in place. “We were visited by a vampire.”

“The Dragon?”

“No. His name was Larius. He said he wouldn’t harm us, but that others would.”

Marissa was scrubbing her face with an entire miniature bottle of hand sanitizer. She dumped the last few drops into the teeth marks on her arm and winced. “I’ve seen him somewhere before. I swear, he looks so familiar.”

“Where did he go? I can’t have him leading the others here.”

“He’s gone,” Morgan said quietly. “He said he’s tuned to Marissa now. Anywhere we run, he’ll be able to find us.”

He leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I was upset over seeing my dad, but I shouldn’t have left. Not now when we are so at risk.”

“Stop it. If you have to Change, there isn’t much we can do about it. You can’t do it in the house. Wolf would destroy the place.”

Grey rubbed his hand over his face. Even his burning, golden eyes looked exhausted. “Then maybe Summit is the safest place for us right now after all.”

The waiting area in the airport was a steel trap around Wolf. Flying was their best bet. After a heated discussion, both packs had decided a road trip with a bunch of hungry, testy werewolves, the meanest and blackest of which couldn’t control Wolf’s Changes overly well, sounded like a hell-fire in the Texas desert. Grey had voted no to flying but was the only one. Majority won. He jumped as the elderly lady sitting beside him patted his leg.

“Are those contacts in your eyes, Deary?”

He stifled a growl and forced a smile. It probably looked like a grimace. “Uh, yes they are. Kind of silly looking, aren’t they?”

“They look frightening. You seem like such a nice man with your family. You don’t need those things in your eyes.” She nodded her head definitively and went back to reading her book.

“Okay,” he mouthed to Morgan who sported a big grin.

He stood to pace around a few laps for probably the hundredth time. They had all met up at the airport as close to departure as they dared so they could avoid this exact scenario. The plane was delayed of course, successfully laughing in the face of all of their planning. Having a bunch of werewolves used to open spaces milling around the middle of a crowded airport ranked right up there on the ten most dangerous things to try list. The girls seemed to be handling it all right. Other than a darting glance at their watches every once in a while, they seemed as if they did busy airports a couple of times a day. Their superior acting made him and the boys look downright pitiable. The scowl on Dean’s face would have been comical if Grey wasn’t so stressed out himself.

Brent came up behind him and steered him toward an airport store. “Come on, man. Morgan said Lana needs a road snack.”

Brent was shorter by a few inches. He had medium brown hair and friendly dark brown eyes. For a reason he couldn’t explain, Brent had always had this calming quality about him. He couldn’t figure out if it was because Brent was a submissive and Wolf didn’t feel defensive, or if it was from his laid back personality as a human. Either way, the easy friendship was welcome. It helped that Brent loved helping out with Lana and that Marissa felt absolutely no threat from him.

The tension between his shoulder blades eased with a job to do. Anything to take his mind off the claustrophobia. After they returned with a bag of snacks and a few magazines, a bored-sounding flight attendant announced it was time to board their flight. Great. It was time to strap Wolf into a plane with no escape. His inner monster howled his displeasure, rattling painfully against the walls of his head, and Grey made a valiant effort to plaster a vacant smile to his face to cover the grimace.

He loaded their carryon bag into the bin above their seats. He could do this. The flight was only two and a half hours. It would be just like Morgan always said. “Easy, breezy, lemon squeezy.”

The rows by the windows were four seats long. Grey, Morgan, Lana, and Marissa, who had wanted to sit by the window, took up the first row. Jason and Brent sat across the aisle from him, and Dean, Rachel, Wade, and Logan were in the row behind.

Grey turned and held up his wares. “Do you want a magazine? We picked up a few at the store if you want one.”

Rachel held up a worn paperback. “I have my book, but thanks.”

“I’ll take one,” Logan said.

Dean shook his head and sighed.

“What?” Logan asked through a grin. “I like to keep up with the latest gossip.”

Grey tossed him one and slumped into his seat to give Morgan and Marissa the others. Lana was quiet for the moment so he would keep the snacks until he needed a secret weapon. Morgan leaned her head on him as the stewardess stepped forward to give the safety precautions. He slid an arm around her and brushed his finger in lazy circles on the exposed skin of her arm. She stretched up and brushed her cheek against his. It was amazing how she could do that. All she had to do was touch him and Wolf settled.

“You think we are doing the right thing, don’t you?” she asked. “Bringing Lana along for this?”

The runway blurred outside the window as the plane took off, and he frowned. He had been asking himself the same question on a continuous loop over the last couple of days.

“Trying to keep you guys a secret didn’t work out, and people got hurt. If we are upfront about everything and what we want, hopefully it will be taken into account, and we can reason with them. We can’t have everyone listen to hearsay about you and Lana. We have to be direct, avoid the rumors, and try to control the information that is out there as much as we can.”

“I know. I just wanted to hear you say it again. I guess I’m a little scared.”

Her admission was a pinprick. “Don’t be. I won’t let anything happen to you guys.” He lifted her chin with the tip of his finger until she met his eyes. “Okay?”

Her kiss was answer enough. Their bond hummed with her trust in him.

His worry how Lana would handle her first flight was for nothing. She colored for a while and then took turns with Marissa looking out the window before she nodded off in Morgan’s lap with a packet of cheese crackers clenched in her little fist. Morgan sighed heavily and leaned back against her chair. Lana cuddled tightly against her, sleeping without a worry in the world. Her eyes were a clear, crystalline blue as Morgan watched him. He moved a strand of her dark hair off her cheek. She was so beautiful it hurt. She smiled at his touch and brushed her lips against the palm of his hand. No matter the cost to him, he’d find a way to keep them safe.

Luckily, everyone had survived the flight. Grey shoved the last suitcase into the back of the black Hummer he had rented. The wolves were in different stages of chaos as Dean finished loading the identical vehicle behind them.

“Hungry!” Marissa offered.

“You are always hungry,” Dean said with a smirk. “Like a blond-haired garbage disposal.”

Jason spoke up. “I could eat.”

Logan popped his head out of the window. “I’m starving.”

“All right, all right,” Grey said, shutting the trunk. “We’ll find somewhere close. Fast food or sit down?”

“Sit down,” Dean said. “It’ll likely be the last peaceful meal we get for a while. Let’s enjoy it.”

Dean pulled off at a restaurant specializing in home-style buffet. The wolves shoved tables together and joked between bites. So far, it hadn’t been as terrifying as he had imagined the trip would be. The wolves hovered around Morgan and Lana, partly out of an ingrained instinct to protect, but mostly because they obviously loved spending time with them. It was evident in their genuine smiles. It likely had to do with children in a pack being so rare. Lana brought a lightness that hadn’t been there before. She eased the seriousness of their teetering situation without even knowing it.

He and Dean had actually managed to make it through the entire meal without even so much as a rude snarl or overprotective growl. For all intents and purposes, they were a team with a similar goal. Protect Silver Wolf and Lana. They were on neutral territory with little time for a dominance war. Despite the crackle of power that hung in the air between them, Wolf grumbled but acquiesced. They needed each other to get back home in one piece.

The biggest social experiment happened when he allowed Brent to ride with his pack the rest of the way to Summit. Grey watched Marissa through the rearview mirror to see how comfortable she was with being in a confined space with another male, but she seemed at ease and happy enough. She laughed and joked with him and took turns playing games with Lana.

Dark had descended on the towering mountains and the winding roads that weaved between them. Dean approached the gate and shook the hand of the wolf in charge of check-in. He talked cordially for a few minutes, and his occasional good-natured laugh drifted this way and that through Grey’s open window. Grey pulled in next and gave a short, stout man his name. The man scribbled onto his clipboard and gave him their cabin number. He leaned to the side and tried to look past Grey, probably to get a glimpse of Silver Wolf.

Morgan threw him a bone and leaned forward. “Thank you,” she said with a cheery wave.