logic, there could be three or four. Hell, there could be a whole pack of Omegas. You shift back and tell me how many and where they are. And then I put you down. I know that might not seem like a good deal for you, but I’ll tell you what. In the long run, I think it’ll do us both some good. You won’t have to feel like your brain is on fire, burning you from the inside out. I’ll get to help a few more of your kind to see the error of their ways. And since I’m the magnanimous sort, I’ll sweeten the pot a little.” He kicked me in the back, knocking me forward. “This one seems awfully fond of you. I’ll kill you first and then him so you won’t have to watch.” He stepped on my back, pressing down heavily. “Ticktock. Ticktock.”
The timber wolf roared at him again.
“Shift back,” the man said.
“There’s no one else,” I snapped at him. “There’s no one here, you piece of shit, you motherfucker. I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you—”
A sharp crack of gunfire.
Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt bowled through me. I screamed into the ground as the silver began to burn in the back of my calf.
“He’s got a few more limbs,” the hunter said mildly. “I’ll put a bullet in them too.”
The wolf moved back. The other hunters tracked every step he took.
“Run,” I said, teeth grinding together. “You hear me? You run.”
He didn’t.
He tilted his head back and howled a rage-filled song.
It felt like a forest fire overtaking me.
Grass tickled my cheek.
Kelly crouched down next to me. He pressed his hand against my sweat-slick forehead.
“I’m sorry,” I told him.
He smiled sadly. “I know.”
The timber wolf’s howl echoed through the forest.
And as it began to die, there came an answering howl.
I’d never heard such a sound. It came from all around, as if it were in the air itself. My body shook at the heavy weight of it, the furious song of a monster.
Kelly said, “He’s coming. Carter, whatever you do, whatever happens next, you need to leave while you still can.”
“Not without—”
His eyes flashed orange. “No. It’s too late for him, it’s too late, and you need to—”
Trees crashed in the forest. The roots groaned as they were torn from the ground. The hunters covering the wolf in front of me pointed their guns toward the forest, panicked looks on their faces. The barrels of their guns shook. The surviving woman took a step back.
“What is this?” the hunter above me breathed. “What the fuck is this?”
“Alpha,” I whispered.
The woods fell silent.
The moon disappeared behind the clouds.
“What do we do?” one of the hunters cried. “What do we do? What is it? What is—”
Something landed on the house. The structure groaned and shifted but still held.
I lifted my head.
There, on the roof, was a beast.
Robert Livingstone was bigger than I remembered him being. One eye glowed bright red, the other gone, its socket empty. He bent over the edge of the roof, craning his neck forward, mouth open, saliva dripping from his fangs, tail swishing. He pulled back slowly before standing upright on his hind legs, towering over us.
“Oh my god,” the man above me whimpered. “Oh my god, no.”
The hunters didn’t have a chance to fire their guns. One moment Livingstone stood on the roof above us, and the next he jumped, landing on the group near the timber wolf. A man and a woman died instantly, bones breaking as he stood on top of them. One of the remaining hunters raised his gun, but Livingstone swung out his arm and hit the man in the chest, sending him flying into one of the trucks. It rocked up on two wheels before overturning.
The second to last hunter tried to run, but Livingstone caught him between his jaws, and he made it three more steps without his head before falling to the ground.
The timber wolf rushed toward us, the man above me distracted by the beast. The wolf leapt, and the man raised his gun at the last second. I snapped my head over, closing my fangs around his leg, and bit down. The man screamed, the gun slipping from his hand. He was knocked off his feet as the wolf landed on top of him. He didn’t scream after that.
I rolled over onto my back, my leg on fire, stomach twisting.
I blinked slowly toward the sky.
And then came an immense pressure, a tight