Heartsong (Green Creek 3)

“You get used to it,” Ox said.

“How?”

“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped at them. “We have to get to the others before—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rico muttered. He raised a hand in front of his face. “How do I make my claws come out?” He flexed his fingers. Nothing happened. “Huh. That’s disappointing. When this is all over and we’re regaling everyone with stories of our victory, we’re going to say that I made my claws come out right away. Deal?”

“Deal,” Ox said. He looked down the road. Above the trees in the distance, a thick black column of smoke was rising. “We have to hurry.”

I began to run down the road. A black wolf appeared at my side, eyes red and violet. I looked over in surprise to see Rico running past me, moving faster than I expected. His eyes were wide when he looked back at me. “How the fuck am I moving so fast?” he yelled. “What kind of nonsense is this?”

We ran on.

We hadn’t been gone very long.

Fifteen, twenty minutes at most.

But the compound was changed as if a lifetime had passed. Some of the houses were on fire. A couple of others had been razed to their foundations.

Elizabeth and Jessie were locked in battle with Michelle Hughes near the Alpha House. Elizabeth had a large gash on her side, but she wasn’t letting it slow her down. Michelle was snarling, tail twitching, jaws snapping. Elizabeth crouched like she was going to attack. Instead, Jessie ran up behind her, jumped onto her back, and ran three steps along her spine before leaping toward Michelle, crowbar raised above her head. Michelle moved to the right, but she was too slow, and Jessie brought the crowbar down on Michelle’s side, the silver burning the Alpha’s skin. Michelle whined and tried to bite Jessie, but she was too quick, landing and rolling away before getting to her feet again. She saw us, eyes widening, before turning back toward Michelle.

Gordo’s tattoos glowed as bright as the sun. He scraped his fingernails down his right arm, drawing blood over the raven and roses. He flung it at Dale, who stood on the beach near the water. The blood hit Dale in the face and began to sizzle, Dale’s skin peeling back. Dale didn’t seem to notice, and from behind him a large boulder rose out of the lake. Mark tackled Gordo just as Dale hurled the boulder at them. It smashed into the ground where Gordo had been standing. Even before Gordo stopped rolling, Mark was up and moving, eyes violet as he charged toward Dale. I thought he was going to make it, going to tear his fucking head off, when Dale’s fingers twitched. The ground underneath Mark’s paws seemed to bend upward before it exploded in a grinding flash of dirt and rock. Mark was thrown to the side, yelping as he landed wrong, his front right leg breaking. My stomach twisted as I saw the shiny wet knob of bone jutting out at the knee.

The sky above seemed to grow dark as Gordo rose to his feet. He reached up with his only hand and wiped the blood from his mouth, flicking it to the ground.

He said, “You shouldn’t have put your hands on my mate.”

The raven spread its wings.

The roses bloomed.

Gordo slammed the stump of his arm into the ground. Thick vines burst from the earth, wrapping around Dale’s arms and legs, black thorns piercing his skin. Wild roses bloomed along the vines as they lifted Dale into the air. He didn’t struggle, the same blank look on his face. Gordo grunted, twisting his stump in the dirt, and the vines flung Dale into the lake. He landed with a large splash a few yards offshore.

Gordo was already running toward the water. Without slowing, he stepped up onto the writhing vines, which flung him into the air above the lake. For a moment, he hung suspended above the water, above Dale, who breached the surface. And then Gordo was falling.

“Gordo!” Rico screamed.

But Gordo didn’t hit the water.

There was a terrifying snap as the temperature seemed to drop a hundred degrees in a single instant. One moment Dale was floundering in the water, head sinking below the surface, and the next the entire fucking lake turned to ice.

Gordo landed roughly on the ice, limbs flinging out in different directions as he slid along the surface.

He came to a stop near Dale’s hand, which was the only visible part of him. Gordo pushed himself to his feet before he spat down at the hand. He turned toward us. He started to grin, but then his face twisted. “Look out!”

We whirled in time to see Michelle hurtling toward us. Elizabeth was struggling to rise to her feet with Jessie’s help.

Michelle didn’t slow, and she only had eyes for me.

She jumped.

And then Ox was there in front of me, half-shifted, catching her by the throat. She grunted as her legs flew forward with the momentum. Ox brought her face close to his, roaring the call of an Alpha. He didn’t wait for a response, instead flinging her back where she’d come from.

Elizabeth and Jessie ducked as Michelle flew over them and crashed into her house. The porch shuddered and collapsed as Michelle hit the doorway. The door cracked under her weight before it was torn off its hinges. Michelle landed inside the house and didn’t move.

“Where’s Kelly?” I shouted at Gordo.

Before he could respond, I heard Tanner’s furious howl from the other side of the lake.