Claimed by the Pack

I recognized him immediately as the guy I’d snaked a wave from. The hook-nosed goofy-foot I’d dropped in on twice actually, and left in the soup

on one of the best waves of the day.

In all honesty, I hadn’t even thought about it. I’d never seen him before, so he wasn’t a local. He had no style either, and I sure as hell wasn’t out there to make friends.

He seized me, and I remember knowing in that very instant I couldn’t possibly fight him. His strength was terrifying. His expression… even more so.

He’d left me there when he was finished, bleeding into the sand. Crumpled and helpless. Barely clinging to what was left of my life. I would’ve died if it hadn’t been for a group of random kids who stumbled over me, on their way through the dunes.

Being made like that was cold. Cruel. I had no idea who I was, or who I would become. Or why I’d be going through such a thing at all.

The first time the change happened I didn’t even remember it. The shift occurred at such a primal level, it wiped out any human memory. I woke up naked in Malibu’s Equestrian Park, with some woman’s horse sniffing over me. I was huddled and cold. Disheveled and covered in filth. My limbs ached like I’d just run three marathons, and my head still spun from the reverse metamorphosis.

In time, I’d learn what happened to me. I’d learn how to prepare for it, how to recover — even how to control it, thanks to Xiomara Magoro.

But for several long months? My life was a whirlwind of confusion and constant dread. A twisted, living nightmare, from which I could never fully wake up.

I shook myself back to reality as we crossed through the broken expanse of the stronghold’s inner courtyard. Nature had claimed back most of the interior, but not so much with the cobbled floor.

“How old is this place?” Serena was asking.

“Twelfth century,” Broderick replied casually. “Although the cathedral went up about two hundred years later.”

The cathedral…

It had been the center of our lives for a while. The one place we all belonged. Meeting up with Broderick, Karessa, and the rest of my breed wasn’t like just hooking up with a group of like-minded people. It was more like finally coming home.

We got closer and also quieter. The shattered arches of the once-beautiful Gothic cathedral loomed above us, obliterating the moonlight as we stepped into its shadow. It was here that we’d gathered. In and beneath this hallowed place, we’d all been together as one.

Broderick held up one fist, silently stopping us in a military gesture. The three of froze utterly still.

“I don’t sense her,” he whispered.

“That a good thing?” asked Serena.

“Yes and no.”

“Why yes and—”

“Because eventually we need to face her,” he said. “She’s the one with my totem.”

“Oh.”

“But it would be best to face her alone.”

He motioned us forward. Together we passed beneath stacked arches, and into a wider area that had all the signs of human life again. Broderick was doing his best to remain expressionless, but I knew this part was hard for him. There were memories here that definitely—

“STOP.” I said the word a little louder than I meant to.

“What is it?”

My heart was suddenly pounding out of my chest. It happened too suddenly, though. Too quickly to be—

“You feel it, don’t you?” asked Broderick.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“How close is it?”