Heartsong (Green Creek 3)

We were surrounded by Omegas.

“Curious,” Ezra said, sounding unafraid as he turned his gaze upward. “I’ve often wondered how you did it, Alpha Matheson. Taking what I created and making it something else entirely. Is it just you? Your pack? The territory? No matter. It’s—”

The gray and black wolf was moving, even as it bled.

It jumped for Ezra.

Ezra caught it by the throat. His tattoos grew brighter until I could barely look at him. “A lesson, I think. You will learn what happens when you try to take from me.” He shook the wolf like it weighed nothing. The wolf tried to snap at his arm, his face, but it couldn’t reach. “Yes, you will learn very well. Let’s see what happens when your wolf is stripped from you.”

The wolf lost its shift. One moment it was scrabbling, jerking side to side, and the next he was fully human, nude, with blood coating his side. Kelly.

It was Kelly.

What happened next was over in a matter of seconds.

He cried out as the tattoos on Ezra’s arm crawled over his wrist and hand. Ancient symbols appeared on Kelly’s face. Kelly’s head rocked back, teeth grinding together.

The symbols twisted as if alive, rising up and attaching themselves to his lips, little tentacles that pulled on his mouth, forcing it open.

And then they poured down his throat.

Kelly made no sound as his body shook. His hands flexed and closed. Flexed and closed.

His skin lit up, pulsing once, then twice.

His eyes flickered orange.

And then the orange disappeared.

Ezra tossed him to the ground.

He lay on his back, blinking up at the dark sky. The wolves surrounded him, hackles raised, growling loudly.

Ezra sighed. “It didn’t have to be this way. All I want is what belongs to me. Surely you have to see that. All this fighting. All this death. What has it brought you in the end? I may have underestimated the bond between you all, and that’s my mistake. But it’s one I won’t make again. Robbie, if you please. Come with me. I have much to tell you. Would you hear me, dear?”

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

“He’s lying,” Gordo snarled, cradling the brown wolf’s head in his hands. “My father is lying to you—”

“Father,” I whispered.

Ezra said, “I am Robert Livingstone. It’s lovely to meet you again, Robbie. Now come. We have work to—”

A small figure landed on his back, half-shifted, claws sinking in.

It was a boy.

And his eyes were violet too.

“Brodie, no!” a woman screamed from above us.

Ezra grunted as he was knocked forward toward the wolves. The Omega was fierce behind him, hands moving up and down quickly as he scraped into the witch’s back.

Ezra reached up behind him and grabbed the boy by the arms, lifted him up and over his head, and threw him at the Alphas.