The One We Answer To: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 3) (30 page)

Trish fires at the Stricken. A bull with twisted ram’s horns takes a bullet straight in the face. It tears off half his jaw. The bull turns to Trish and grins.

Tornarsuk paces in a frenzied half circle, moaning and bellowing in rage and confusion.
 

I stand rooted, helpless, while the Stricken advance.
 

The white raven’s carrying something in its talons.
 

No. It’s carrying
someone
.

The nut-ball professor.
 

“Run!” Professor Melchuk screams as the white raven glides over the clearing.
 

No time to think. I wrap my arm around Trish’s waist and dive for the woods. We smash through a thicket and land in a heap, and when I turn I see the professor, cradled in the white raven’s gentle talons, open a leather satchel as he swoops over the Stricken. Shimmering orange power spills from the satchel, showering onto the animal-creatures. They shriek as the powder burns into them, melting the flesh from their bones. The reek of black blood fills my nose.
 

“No!” Shiori shrieks. Her wasps flies across the clearing while the white raven sets Melchuk down, then lands lightly beside him.

The professor dusts off his coat, looking mighty pleased with himself.
 

The killing swarm sweeps in behind them.
 

Trish is on her feet first, firing into the black cloud, and then I’m behind her, one of the dead soldier’s machine guns in my hand, firing into the cloud even though I know it’s useless, desperate to keep Shiori from reaching Pim and the professor.

The white raven turns as the wasp swarm widens to swallow her and the professor. She looses a quick, terrified squawk.

Tornarsuk leaps between the swarm and Pimniq and raises himself to his full height. The bear towers twenty feet over my head, then raises both front legs to the night sky, leans toward the killing swarm and
roars
.

A tremendous booming sound pours from the bear’s throat, like a rogue wave crashing onshore. Tornarsuk’s roar smashes into the buzzing wasps. Shiori’s swarm shatters and dying wasps flutter from the sky and still Tornarsuk roars.

I hear the pain in my gentle brother’s roar. The fear and doubt and heartbreak. I hear glaciers calving into a frigid black sea. I hear a sleek seal slicing through cold water, pursued by a sharp-toothed killer whales. I hear the killer whale’s hunger. I hear the cycle of death and life in the north, the months of cruel winter darkness and blinding summer light, the song’s Anik’s people sing to ward of hunger pangs and wild spirits. Songs of love and loyalty. Of hatred and betrayal. I hear the roof of the world crying in Tornarsuk’s roar, and when he finally stops Shiori’s lying face-down in the moss at his feet, naked and pale, her thin body cut and bleeding, and for a moment I believe the mighty bear had killed his sister.

Then Shiori lifts her head slightly, turns to face the growling bear and says, “I love you, Anik. Remember that. When all is done. Remember that I love you.”
 

Shiori settles her head into the moss and closes her eyes.
 

Tornarsuk settles on all fours. Whimpers. Rubs his paws over his face. Bends down and nudges Shiori with his nose.

The white raven vanishes.
 

Pimniq reaches out and grasps Professor Melchuk’s shaking hand.

I start to walk toward Tornarsuk, but a glittering blue-black snake slides across the clearing.

Trish raises her Glock.
 

I grip my friend’s wrist and say, “It’s Mia.”

“Still want to shoot that damn snake” Trish says, her face pale.

The snake approaches Shiori. Tornarsuk snarls and leaps at the giant snake. The snake lifts her head, flicks her forked tongue out, hisses.

Tornarsuk pauses, sniffs the air and takes a few steps back.

Mia’s snake reaches Shiori’s limp body.
 

Slowly, implacably, the snake winds herself around Shiori’s torso.
 

“What’s she doing?” Trish asks, horrified.
 

“Making sure.”

“We need her, don’t we?” Trish asks. “Your packmate? To defeat—”

“Not anymore,” I say, lowering the gun. “Shiori turned. Challenged her alpha and her pack. This is natural law.”

“This is
madness
,” Trish says, turning from the grisly scene.
 

Tornarsuk chuffs and whines as the ruthless snake winds around his packmate. The snake’s body ripples and pulses as it starts squeezing Shiori’s chest.

Shiori’s ribs crack.
 

Tornarsuk shuffles forward and back, moaning and whimpering, then turns and studies Pimniq, a question burning in his black eyes.
 

Pimniq’s face becomes hard, and suddenly she looks much older than her years. She looks ancient. Pimniq nods at her brother while Mia smothers the life from Shiori.
 

The bear plops on its haunches, covers its three black eyes with its massive paws and moans.
 

Shiori’s hand begins trembling, then her right leg bucks and digs into the moss, then her eyes fly open. Her tiny, delicate-featured face twists into a terrible mask of fear and pain, and I know if she had the strength she’d summon her swarm and murder us all. But instead she smacks and scratches at the giant snake’s silver-blue scales, then slowly calms as she weakens and realizes there’s no hope.

“Not like this,” Shiori whispers when she sees Tornarsuk watching. Her voice is soft and weak. “Please, Anik? Not like—”

The snake squeezes harder.
 

A pained, wet-sounding breath escapes Shiori’s lungs.
 

Tornarsuk stands. Stares me down. Three night-black eyes drill into me. I want to tell him it doesn’t have to be this way. That Shiori can live. But this is law. The natural result of Shiori’s challenging my status and joining the Fallen.
 

Tornarsuk’s eyes blaze. He’s furious with me.
 

He places a giant paw on the snake’s body.
 

Leans his weight onto Mia.

The snake recoils, lifts her head, hisses at Tornarsuk.
 

“He needs to be the one,” Pimniq says. “He
demands
it.”

Mia hesitates, then relents.
 

Silently uncoils herself from Shiori.
 

Tornarsuk waits until Shiori’s completely free, then lifts his paw off the snake.

The snake slides across the clearing and a few moments later Mia’s there, clutching her broken leg, jaw clamped tight. She shoots me a look that says I should have let her finish.

Tornarsuk bends low over Shiori. Plants a paw on her chest.
 

Leans toward her throat, his jaws opening—

Shiori’s eyes flicker open.

“Yes. Like this, poor Anik,” she says. “Like the touching of lips.”
 

I close my eyes. It’s done.
 

Twigs snap to the left of the clearing, then there’s a click and a tormented scream as Earl’s boy Steven, his face a mask of hatred and fear, unloads an AK-47 into my pack.

Trish collapses, shot or to save herself I can’t tell.
 

Steven keeps screaming as he shoots, cursing us, screaming for the filthy freaks to die, die, that we murdered his mother and father and the bullets fly into Tornarsuk and Melchuk and Pimniq and then another clicking sound as the gun empties and Tornarsuk charges across the clearing at Steven—

“Anik no!” I scream, and for some reason the magnificent bear heeds my command and digs his paws into the ground to halt his charge. Tornarsuk towers over Steven, his eyes filled with rage.
 

“The boy’s lost everything,” I say. “Everything! Have mercy, Anik. He’s only a boy—”

Steven raises his head to face the bear square-on. Lifts his hand and gives the bear the finger. “Just fucking kill me, freak,” Steven sneers, and I know by his tone that he means it.

“Mercy, Anik,” I say, walking slowly toward him and trying to keep my voice calm. “You’re not all animal, remember? Not all predator. There’s a
person
in you. A person capable of mercy—”
 

“Mercy?” a mocking, buzzing voice says from behind my back. “Mercy is weakness. Cowardice. Death.”
 

I whirl to see Shiori rising from the ground. My packmate flashes me a thin, triumphant smile, then gestures at Pimniq.
 

No. Please no.
 

“I did it!” Steven screams, driven insane with fear and grief. “I fucking did it! Ha! I killed the freak kid!”

No. Not Pim. Please.

“Mercy, Anik. Please. The boy has suffered—”

“I shot the little bitch!” Steven screams.

Trish takes three quick steps across the clearing, slides between Tornarsuk and Steven, catches Steven square in the jaw with a solid right cross.
 

Steven’s eyes roll up in his head and then he’s out cold before he manages to get himself murdered.

“I’ll help your sister,” I say to Tornarsuk. “Don’t look at her. Please? I’ll help her like I did before. I’ll summon my animal and we’ll heal Pim—”

Tornarsuk swings his great head, sees his little sister, then bellows at the sky. The sound slams into me, knocking the breath from my lungs. Trish, who’s closest to the bear, screams and covers her ears and staggers away.

Pimniq’s lying in her side, staring at her brother, the proud spirit-bear, tears streaming down her cheeks, clutching her belly. Her hands are smeared in blood. She’s breathing. Barely.
 

Shiori raises a thin, almost skeletal arm, points and accusing finger at me, then says to Tornarsuk: “See, Anik? Your little sister means nothing to her. You mean nothing.”

“That’s not true, Anik,” I say, very quietly. “You know that’s not true.”

“Kill our weakling sister, my love! Have vengeance. Have strength. Murder them all. Murder them and feed on their beating hearts, Anik! Then join our packmate at the Pyramid of the Sun. Pimniq will be safe there. I swear it.”

“I brought you back,” I say to Tornarsuk as he growls down at me. “Shiori says you mean nothing to me? Says I should be judged by what I’ve done?” My blood begins to boil. I feel my animal surging beneath the surface. I’m too weak to call her…but she’s there. The apex alpha. The All Encompassing. “I brought you and Pimniq back from the Bloodless Land. From the dead, Anik! And
you
,” I say, whirling to face Shiori. “I brought you back as well. After the Guardians cut your throats. I gave up my
son
for you and your sister, Anik! My unborn child!” My voice breaks into a wracking sob. “I’ve done everything for my pack. Sacrificed
everything
!”

Tornarsuk swings his great head between Shiori and me.

Steven comes to, lifts his head, glares at me.
 

“Run, Steven,” I yell. “Run…and I swear, if I ever see you again I’ll murder you myself.”

Steven pushes to his feet runs, crashing madly through the night forest.
 

He’ll die out there. That’s the cold truth. But I can’t let Anik murder him in hate-filled revenge. It will break Anik’s already wounded heart.
 

“See?” Shiori shrieks at the bear. “She let him go! Look at Pimniq. Look what your loyalty to the weak has wrought.”

A small cloud of wasps flies from Shiori’s mouth.

“Choose, Anik,” I say, my voice hard as stone. “Choose the pack you roam with. The alpha you are loyal to. Now and forever.”

Tornarsuk looses a pained roar, then charges at Shiori.

I blink, not understanding. I was certain he would choose Shiori over me. Certain I’d failed him as alpha.

Shiori’s body dissolves into a buzzing black swarm, and before either Tornarsuk or I can stop her the cloud envelops Pimniq and lifts her into the sky.
 

Tornarsuk rears up, pawing at the air, bellowing, his massive jaws frothing spittle and his eyes like inky black pools of despair.

“It’s too late, Anik,” a voice within the swarm says from overhead. “Harm me and you harm your beloved sister. You chose
wrong
. But you will join me at the Temple of the Sun whether you choose to or not.”

The black cloud rises far into the night sky, blotting the stars, then begins drifting south.

Tornarsuk lower to all fours, glowers at me, then at Mia.

The bear takes an uncertain step left. Pauses. Takes another hesitant, anguished step right. Whirls in a confused half circle. Then he fixes his gaze on me.
 

“Shitballs,” I whisper.
 

Tornarsuk charges across the clearing, a thundering mountain of death, his massive jaws open wide, his fangs as long as a man’s forearm, his black eyes glittering like opal and I feel my creature shriek and rage to the surface, feel my skin glow hot and then Tornarsuk lifts a massive paw back and I try and leap to the side but I’m too stunned to move and the polar bear’s paw arcs through the air and at the last second my plated scorpion tail flicks around like a shield to prevent Tornarsuk’s claws from cutting me in half.

The bear’s powerful swipe catches my armored tail and sends me flying through the woods, slamming through trees, splintering branches and there’s an explosion of blackness behind my eyes and I struggle to stay conscious—

Tornarsuk whirls and bolts into the forest with a thundering roar, smashing through ancient old-growth, chasing the fleeing wasp swarm that’s holding Pimniq captive.

I’m lying flattened against a pine tree, everything broken, too shattered and grief-stricken to cry. My right eye is swelling closed. My animal’s still in me, pacing and snarling, mocking my weakness.
 

Mia looms over me. She looks even more pissed than usual.

“Everyone else…okay?” I ask.

“Trish is whole. The Professor’s been shot. Prolly die soon.”

“I failed them,” I say. “I…failed to lead…my pack.”

“You sure as shit did.”

“I can’t…” My words trial off.

Mia gives me a grim look. Like she’s deciding whether to cut her losses. Then she says, “You better start thinking about what you can do, Lily, rather than moaning about what you can’t.”