trying to hurt him. Tell him I didn’t mean it.
He wasn’t there.
I didn’t blame him.
A low whine came from the cave, pathetic and weak.
Gavin.
I went to the cave.
Water dripped somewhere inside.
Gavin’s heart raced.
The diseased heart was slow and steady.
I took a deep breath.
And went inside.
It was warmer than I expected, humid and wet. I stepped over piles of leaves. Over branches long dead. Bones littered the ground. Some looked small. Sitting on a rock was the skull of a deer, the bone stripped clean. I thought I saw a human rib cage, but I told myself it was just a trick of the low light.
The cave narrowed almost immediately. Tufts of black hair hung from the walls, as if a large animal had passed through and rubbed up against it. Above the smell of snow and stagnant water, animal parts and blood, there was something darker. Something deeper, as if it’d seeped into the earth. It burned my nose.
I found them only moments later. The cave opened up again to a larger space, and in the failing light, I saw the outline of a beast moving slowly. It inhaled. It exhaled.
And there, in the darkness, was a single red eye, as bright as a dying sun.
It wasn’t pointed toward me.
It was staring at the ground below it.
At a timber wolf.
He lay on his back, his eyes weakly flashing violet. His jaws hung open, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He struggled, legs kicking, but his father had a large misshapen hand pressed against his chest and stomach, claws like hooks digging into the soft flesh. Gavin whined again, eyes wild and unseeing. It tore at me, and I had to stop myself from rushing in, from leaping at the beast that held him down.
Livingstone leaned his head down, growling as his remaining eye flashed a deeper red.
I felt it then. In my head.
Gavin was mine.
Gavin was his.
A conduit.
It was faint, but there all the same.
It whispered SonWolfPack, mine you’re mine i am wolf i am alpha give yourself to me i can i can i can smell him on you i can smell the bennett the interloper the prince who will take you from me kill him kill him kill him you must kill him alpha i am your alpha kill him if you don’t i will i will i will.
I could hear him, hear Livingstone, because I could hear Gavin.
Gavin saying, screaming, no please no please no please no stop stop stop stop STOP STOPSTOPSTOP DAD PLEASE DAD IT HURTS IT HURTS IT—
And I said, “Let him go.”
The beast jerked his head toward me.
His eye blazed.
He roared, the sound flat and muffled as it bounced off the walls of the cave.
Gavin turned his head. When he saw me, he howled and began to kick at his father. Livingstone snarled as Gavin’s claws sliced his skin. He pulled his arm back, and Gavin rolled away quickly, pulling himself upright. Livingstone hit his head on the ceiling as he tried to come for me, but before he could reach me, Gavin stood between us, his shift melting away.
He held up his hands to his father as if to ward him off. “No. Stop. Don’t.”
Livingstone did, though he continued to rumble angrily.
Gavin looked over his shoulder, a look of sheer agony mixed with fury on his face. “Get out.”
I took a step toward him. “I—”
“Get. Out!”
“Fuck you. I’m not leaving you here!”
Livingstone knocked Gavin to the side as he charged toward me. I ducked as thick claws swiped over me, sparks falling like stars as they connected with the rock wall. I ran toward him, meaning to go under him, but he was too quick. My breath was knocked from my lungs when he picked me up, pinning my arms to my sides and slamming me against the wall. Bright lights flashed across my vision, and I felt hot breath against my face. I shook my head, clearing the lights away, only to see Livingstone’s mouth wide open.
“Youuuu,” he said, and it rattled my bones. “Always youuuu. Bennett. Another Bennett. Taking from me. You can’t have him. He’s mine.”
I thought my ribs would splinter if he applied a little more pressure. My vision was tunneling, and I thought about Kelly and Joe. They were going to be so mad at me for dying so far from home.
“I’ll do it,” Gavin said. “I’ll kill myself. Right here. Right now.”
Livingstone reared back, looking down at Gavin.
Gavin stood with his hand at his own