Ravensong (Green Creek 2)

Joe said, “Mark.”

“Don’t.”

“I couldn’t figure out what it was. Why he seemed to be with us, but not. There’s a signal. It’s chemical. It’s the scent of what you’re feeling. It’s like you’re… sweating your emotions. And he was happy, and he laughed. He could be angry. He was quiet and gruff. But there was always something blue about him. Just… blue. It was like when my mother went through her phases. Sometimes she was vibrant. Sometimes she raged. She was fierce and proud and overcome. But then everything would be blue, and I didn’t understand. It was azure and indigo and sapphire. It was Prussian and royal and sky. And then it was midnight, and I understood. Mark was midnight. Mark was sad. Mark was blue. And it was part of him for as long as I could remember. Maybe it was always there and I just hadn’t seen it. But since I couldn’t speak for fear of screaming, I watched. And I saw it. It’s with us now. On our skin. I can see it in you, but it’s buried under all the anger. All the rage.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I know,” he said. “After all, I’m just a kid who has had everything taken from him. What could I possibly understand about loss?”

We didn’t speak for a long time after that.

IN THE border town of Portal, we came across a wolf. He whimpered at the sight of us, leather jackets, the dust of the road on our boots. We were tired and lost, and Joe’s nostrils had flared when he pressed the wolf against the side of a building in a back alley. The rain hadn’t let up for days.

But the wolf’s eyes were violet in the dark.

He said, “Please, let me go. Please don’t hurt me. I’m not like them. I’m not like him. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I should have never gone to Green Creek—”

Carter and Kelly growled, teeth lengthening.

“Why were you in Green Creek?” Joe said, voice soft and dangerous.

The wolf was shaking. “They thought—you were gone. There was no Alpha. It was unprotected territory. We—he—thought we could get in. That if we took it for our own, Richard Collins would reward us. He would give us anything we wanted, anything we—”

Blood spilled over Joe’s hand around his neck.

“Did you hurt them?” he asked.

The Omega shook his head furiously, choking as Joe’s grip tightened. “There was only a few of them, but they—oh god, they were a pack. They were stronger than we were, and that goddamn human, he said his name was Ox—”

“Don’t you fucking say his name,” Joe snarled in his face. “You don’t get to say his name.”

The Omega whimpered. “There were a few of us that didn’t want to be there. I just wanted—all I wanted was to find a pack again, to not—he showed us mercy. He let us crawl out of town. And I ran. I ran as fast as I could, and I promise you I won’t go back. Please don’t hurt me. Just let me go and you’ll never see me again, I swear. I can feel it pulling me down. In my head. I’m losing my mind, but I swear you’ll never see me again. You’ll never—”

For a moment I thought Joe wouldn’t listen.

For a moment I thought Joe would tear out the Omega’s throat.

I said, “Joe.”

He snapped his head toward me. His eyes were red.

“Don’t. It’s not worth it.”

White hair sprouted along his face as he began to shift.

“Is he telling the truth?”

Joe nodded slowly.

“Then Ox let him live. Don’t take that away. Not here. Not now. He wouldn’t want you to.”

The red faded from the Alpha’s eyes.

The Omega slumped against the wall, sliding down as he sobbed.

Carter and Kelly led their brother from the alley.

I crouched in front of the Omega. His neck was healing slowly. The blood dripped down onto the collar of his jacket.