Torn (17 page)

That no longer
mattered. Even if I never manifested a power, I faced more threats
than Brandon. Assuming we somehow survived the coming storm I'd
still be faced with other challengers, other hybrids and it was
vitally important I be able to face them down.

I pushed, pulled and
twisted for almost two hours, long past the point where my limbs were
weak and trembling, and then took a brief break to drive into town.
The thought of leaving the pack's territory, especially by myself,
brought a pang of fear arcing along my spine, but I pushed the
feeling away.

This was during the
middle of the day, surrounded by plenty of witnesses, and if I let
fear rule me now, the end would be all that much quicker.

I called Jasmin as I
crossed into town.

"How's
everything going?"

"Just peachy.
You were right, Brandon and company seem pretty positive you're
completely out of commission. I expect they'll launch another major
raid tonight."

"Ok, we'll be
waiting for them and see if we can't roll them up and put some fear
back into them. Anything else important happen?"

"Just a little
intra-pack strife on the other side. Brandon nearly ripped Vincent's
head off. Apparently he's not too happy with the fact that Vincent's
the one turning in the wins lately. First Isaac and then you. He
just stormed out of the cafeteria with your new girlfriend."

I spared a moment of
thanks for being out of scent range from Jasmin. If she realized how
close to on target her barb was things would get even worse than they
already were.

"Right. I just
wanted to check in and make sure that things were going ok. I'll see
you guys after school."

I hadn't really
planned on swinging past the school but Jasmin's words were too much
of a lure. I slowly rounded the last corner, and then pulled off
behind the shelter of one of native juniper trees. From my position
I could just make out the school and identify Brandon and Adri as
they walked a slow circuit around the school.

Seeing him with her
roused protective instincts that usually only threats to Rachel or my
mother brought out. I nearly lost control of my shape when he leaned
in as if he were about to kiss her.

I kept myself together
enough to see him pull back before actually making contact, but it
was as if the sight had somehow closed a circuit inside me. There
was no longer any denying what motivated me.

I wanted Adriana
Paige, and I was going to do anything I could, short of a full blown
war between our packs, to protect her from Brandon. Even if she
fought me the whole way.

The ambush went down
essentially as I'd hoped. Brandon and the others came barreling
through our territory so secure in their belief we were down a hybrid
that they were even running with the wind.

We plotted their
course and then hunkered down in a shallow wash. I'd taken a nap
earlier in the day and was fully recovered. We waited until the
other pack was parallel with us and then came up over the top of the
wash and tore into the wolves closest to us.

The strongest pack
members were up at the front of the group and we did even more damage
initially than on our last ambush. I didn't even slow down as I hit
the first wolf. I felt my talons sink into flesh, and then felt a
foreleg snap as my full weight came down on him.

Jasmin was just to my
left, and she brought down another of the submissives, latching onto
his neck and whipping him around in a failed effort to snap it before
she threw him in to a tree with enough force to impale him on one of
the lower branches.

Cassie apparently was
counting on Vincent to distract me. She came arrowing through the
darkness directly at my throat, but I dodged the attack and got a
claw into her as she sailed overhead. Vincent was intercepted by
Isaac before he could come to her aid, and Dom of all people pounced
on Cassie before she managed to turn and spring at me again.

Dom was normally the
most submissive of our entire pack, but she latched onto Cassie's
shoulder and set about ripping into her with the claws that were a
cat's biggest advantage over us wolves.

Brandon came barreling
into me and I fell back on three years of aikido training, absorbing
his momentum, converting it into a leg throw that sent him more than
twenty feet behind me.

He completed less than
half a rotation before righting himself and lunging back towards me.
Trading blows with him was a losing proposition, but we'd taken
enough of his wolves out in the first two seconds of the fight that I
didn't need to beat him.

I dodged what I could
and blocked most of the rest of the blows, the force of which nearly
knocked me to the ground each time. The first exchange couldn't have
lasted more than a second or two, but seemed like an eternity.

Just as I slipped on a
pile of shale, and went down into a three-point-stance, I saw Jasmin
dart in and rip at the back of Brandon's leg. He spun around with
inconceivable speed, but he wasn't used to fighting a royal wolf,
probably didn't even know it was possible for anyone to be as fast as
Jasmin. She took a nasty looking group of slashes to her flank, but
avoided the majority of the force.

The attack bought me
enough time to right myself and charge in with both arms swinging. I
scored several deep slashes into Brandon's back and arms before he
turned, and then it was my turn to be beaten back while Jasmin
circled and looked for another opportunity to attack.

Vincent, Simon,
Nathanial and a few other injured and severely dazed wolves were
being handled quite handily by Isaac, James and Jess, while Dom
continued to angle for a killing grip on Cassi.

Isaac finally managed
a favorable clinch with Vincent, and was rewarded with a scream of
pain as his claws burrowed towards Vincent's heart. Moving almost
quicker than I could follow Brandon spun around and tore Isaac off of
Vincent.

Nathanial darted past
Jess, forcing Dom off of Cassie and then the five of them fled the
scene, leaving the rest of their pack to follow as they were able.

I called Jasmin and
James back before they could outdistance the rest of us, and then
turned back to Brandon's three wolves that hadn't been able to flee
with the rest. Now that we were past the heat of the battle I was
able to stop and see who'd been abandoned.

Jack Peterson was the
undersized wolf whose foreleg I'd broken while Sam Giles had been
impaled by the tree branch and Alison Whitaker had been hamstrung and
savaged.

James' eyes lit up as
he took in the wounded wolves, but I ordered him away before he could
act on years of pent up anger.

"We're not going
to kill them. They're free to go, or to stay here with us if they so
desire."

A chorus of growls
sounded from the girls, and even Isaac didn't look overjoyed at the
thought of letting roughly a third of Brandon's pack leave when we
had the ability to kill them and equalize the odds.

I walked over to Sam
and carefully pulled him off of the tree, wincing a little at his
yelp of pain. He reverted back to his human form as soon as I set
him down, partially to speed the healing process and partly because
in wolf form his wounds would pull more than as a human.

"Why would you
let us live? Brandon would never do that for one of you he caught
wounded and isolated."

"You're right,
but I'm not Brandon. I've never caught the three of you approaching
the excess of Nathanial or Simon. I'm going to let you live now so
you can think about the choices you're making, about the fact you've
got other options."

"More like you
are going to let us live and send us back there so that Brandon will
kill us for you and you can keep your lilly-white hands clean."

Jack had shifted back
to his two-legged form, but in keeping with the defiant tone of his
words he wasn't curled up on the ground like Sam, and I felt the
first streak of discomfort. Brandon's pack didn't wear the ha'bit,
instead like most other packs dealing with the casual nudity and
increased fights that it could have prevented.

"I won't lie and
say you're not going back to suspicion and distrust. Brandon won't
really believe I let you go out of sheer decency. If you go back
he'll suspect you've become double agents, or maybe were double
agents all along, but I don't think he'll kill you."

Alison had shifted
back now, curled up in a ball either out of shyness or due to the
pain of her wounds.

"We have to go
back. If we don't, our parents will suffer. You don't know what
it's like there."

I managed a shrug with
the massive shoulders of my hybrid form. "I can imagine, but
that isn't the point. The point is I'm not going to compel you
either way. You can stay or you can go, but remember that it doesn't
have to be like this. The packs are evenly matched now, but if the
balance were to change slightly we'd all be looking at a completely
different world."

I watched while Sam
pulled himself to his feet and picked Alison up. Their progress was
slow and erratic, but they started back towards Brandon's territory
followed by Jack.

As we returned to the
estate, Jasmin ran at my side, and I was surprised to feel some of
the anger dissipate from her over the course of the few minutes it
took us to arrive. I wasn't so fortunate where James was concerned,
and he was in my face as soon as we stopped running.

"Why would you
let them go? We could have killed them and tilted the odds in our
favor."

It was Jasmin who
spoke up before I could respond. "The Coun'hij, James. Alec
couldn't risk doing something that would cause them to come after us.
They were in our territory, but given how aggressively Brandon's
been operating lately I think it's a safe assumption he's confident
they are going to support him over us unless he really screws up."

Her words gave James
enough of a pause that I was able to insert my follow up reason. "If
we'd have caught Vincent, Brandon, Nathanial or Simon I would have
killed them. Even if it had been Cassie that we caught I'd have
probably executed her and dealt with the Coun'hij if they chose to
become involved, but those three aren't the murderers that Nathanial
and Simon are. If we can convince them to defect it will swing the
balance of power even further in our favor than just killing them
would have."

The argument finally
subsided into surly unhappiness and I let Donovan bandage me up. A
few seconds after he finished I collapsed into my bed again.
Although the wounds would have been cause enough to get some
additional rest, they weren't my real reason for retiring so early.

I was vindicated when
shortly after dropping off to sleep I found Adri once again
participating in my dream. It seemed silly now. I was about to talk
to a figment of my subconscious mind, but I'd already promised myself
I wouldn't let any possible avenue go unexplored.

She was sitting on the
edge of a cliff on the extreme south edge of the pack's territory,
gazing out over the arid landscape. I approached to within thirty
feet of her and then called her name.

"Adri, would you
mind some company?"

She turned around
guiltily, and then shrugged. "I thought maybe I was finally
done with you in this place. You haven't been here in a while."

I took that as a yes,
walked over, and sat down with her.

"I'm not going
to apologize to you. I'm grateful for what you did at the opera
house, for shutting those guys up, but that doesn't change the fact
that your sister totally stood me up."

I felt my heart speed
up as I realized this was the first actual conversation we'd ever had
that didn't include hurled insults and instant anger.

"I don't know
what to say other than that she's sorry."

She turned away from
the view long enough to give me a questioning look. "I never
would have expected that out of you, not even out of dream Alec."

"You're welcome.
I hope those idiots didn't ruin your experience the other night."

"They didn't.
They would have if you hadn't stopped them, but it was the most
amazing night. The show was everything I'd hoped it would be."

I nodded in
satisfaction, and joined her in watching the breeze cause the sparse
vegetation to sway back and forth.

"This is usually
the part where you tell me that it wasn't as good as the London
version, or that the seats weren't as soft as the theater on
Broadway. Surely even here and now you'll find a way to offend the
rest of us mere mortals."

Asking forgiveness
wasn't usually a key part of my nature. I wasn't so proud as to
refuse to admit my shortcomings, but this was different. I didn't
care about right and wrong with Adri as much as I wanted to ensure
she was happy, that she didn't grow to hate me even more.

"I'm sorry if
I've rubbed your face in my family's wealth. It wasn't intentional.
If it were possible I'd go back and do things differently."

She'd turned her
attention to an ant that was making its way manfully across a small
stick in its path.

"I wish things
could have been different. Especially at the start. I'm in
completely uncharted waters these days. The geeks all hate me, the
popular kids are convinced I'm sleeping with Brandon to climb the
social food chain, and my boyfriend hangs out with some of the worst
bottom feeders in the school."

It was too good of an
opening to pass up, even at the possible expense of the goodwill I'd
just built up.

"In my
experience we tend to congregate with those who are most like us,
regardless of whatever shell we may present to the outside world."