Page 51 of Clawless

“It’s Marnie!” I screamed, right as the rest of the players swept over us in a wave. It was only then I noticed Carter also had the ball. But as he went down under an Arras barrage, he flicked the ball sideways right at his sister. She was still standing over me in her wolf form, and when she caught the ball in her fangs, I didn’t need to see her cringe to know we were about to get flattened.

Which is so not happening!

This was Marnie’s moment, and I wasn’t going to let thirty naked shifters get in the way of her celebration.

“Run, Marnie!” I yelled and threw my body right into Baron’s path. He was leading the Arras charge, but he reared away from me as if I was electrified, and Marnie took off towards the Marshall hill. I should have probably ducked back to the sidelines, but Felix was on Marnie’s tail, and I knew he wasn’t going to be gentle. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a fancy fur and fangs uniform, but as the other Arras wolves gave me a wide berth, I realized I had something better. Jasper’s bug-zapper neckwear.

I pounded after Felix.

My boots were more for gymnasium floors than snowy fields, but running had always been my thing and I had no problems with the hilly terrain. I was never going to be able to catch wolves over any distance, but they only seemed to get about fifteen feet before another wild tackle changed up the play. And the sight of Felix’s wolf wrestling with Marnie inspired me in a raging beast kind of way.

I threw my arms around his back, making sure my collar rubbed right along his spine. He yelped like I’d hit him with a hot poker and rolled out from under me, leaving the ball free. I snatched it up and hurled it to Marnie, who was already bounding up the hill towards the red flame. A dozen shifters were in hot pursuit, but Marnie had already made a victory lap around the hilltop before they reached her.

Someone howled and the Marshall wolves went nuts. A couple of big hands slapped me between my shoulder blades, before Marnie was swarmed, and I saw Carter hoist his sister into the air. She was still in wolf form, but her glee was unmistakable, and I realized I was crying again. But this time I was weeping tears of pure joy.

“Vail, are you okay?” Reed enveloped me in his arms, sweeping me off my feet so fast my stomach spasmed. His worried gaze swept my body. “Where does it hurt?”

“Nowhere!” I grinned at him through my tears. “Look at Marnie! She’s one super-hot wolf!”

His lips quirked a little, and when he looked at Marnie’s wolf, he seemed to see my friend for the first time. Something almost like regret softened his gaze. “Trust her to be an alpha.”

I gaped at him. “What? Marnie’s an alpha?” I thumped him in the chest. “You better not be bullshitting me, Reed.” His face settled back into its rigid lines. “You’re serious? Oh, damn, where is Pearl LaRue when you’ve got something awesome to rub in her face?”

Reed brushed aside my cattiness, and turning abruptly, headed away from the hill. “You’re going to stay on the sidelines from now on.”

I gaped at him, my elation turning sour. “What? But I just helped get that last goal!” When he kept marching towards the tree line, I bucked myself forward, scrambling out of his arms. The rest of the squad was headed our way, Marnie right in the middle of the pack, and I danced out of his reach. “Please, Reed!” I panted, as the others converged on us. “Don’t kick me off the most awesome team in the history of packball.”

A dozen grinning faces watched as their alphason tried to maintain his scowl. “It’s too dangerous…”

“It’s goddamn epic!” I howled.

Which got me a round of manic hoots, and more slaps on the back from the other players. They came with a few muffled curses, but that just inspired me more. “I’m your secret weapon, Reed. Who’s going to tackle me when I come with a built-in taser?” He was still scowling, so I lowered my voice and tapped my collar. “Please, Reed. It really makes this suck a little less.”

“Okay,” he said with a huff. “But Beckett’s your shadow.” He snapped his fingers at his scary-looking lieutenant. “She gets so much as an ice burn, I’m taking it out on your hide.”

Beckett gave him a tight nod, but the next howl rang out and the shifters were on the move again. Reed morphed into his wolf, but both his lieutenants boxed me in with broad shoulders and a whole lot of skin I tried not to look at. The play was headed towards the Arras hill, and I saw a light brown wolf in the lead. When another wolf launched itself across its back, the air shimmered and Pearl’s minion, Pink Tips, was rolling free. She had the packball under her arm, and she gave the chasing wolf a nasty kick to the head before she sprinted for the hill. Reed was on her heels, snagging the ball from behind with his massive claw. She gave an ear-piercing shriek, but Reed just shifted and lobbed the ball right across the heads of the charging pack. It hit Carter’s hands beside me like a thunder clap. He pivoted and held the ball out to me with a grin. “Go for it, Secret Weapon!”

I beamed back, and while he threw himself in the path of Felix, I shot forward like a bullet. I knew Beckett was right behind me, but as the moonlit woods flashed past, it felt like I was alone. I caught a glimpse of my wolf inside me, watching me bound across the snow while she was trapped by the snare. A ragged cry tore from my chest. I wanted to be running with her. Her paws, not my clumsy, slippery feet. Her fangs buried in the packball’s tough hide, instead of fingers cramped with cold. For a moment I wanted to collapse on the snow and howl, but the Marshall hill reared up before me like a red beacon.

I churned up the side, my breath sawing in my lungs, and was almost at the peak when Jasper’s wolf came over the rise.

Thirty-Six - Vail

He was lit up from behind by the full moon, and when he lifted his muzzle and howled, the ground seemed to tremble under my feet. At first I thought it was the Arras squad on my heels, but as I turned to look, I saw that everyone on the field had stopped dead. As his howl continued to spiral into the sky, I realized this wasn’t the same joyful, rousing cry from the pep rally. This was force and fury. Punishment and control. A Clan Alpha laying down the law, so that every shifter went to their knees, and every wolf was driven onto their belly.

I struggled to keep my own feet as Jasper’s howl broke off and his wolf looked my way.

In three massive bounds he was right in front of me. Behind him, the Frost Moon seemed to shimmer and boil at its edges. His alpha power was so potent, it was rising off him in a haze. I started to lower myself to my knees, but as soon as his fur peeled back to reveal golden skin, he tossed me over his shoulder and stalked towards the darkest knot of trees.

The moment my body smacked against his naked back, I was hit with a barrage of images. Sunlight on snow. Claws on skin. Slaps, and kisses, and faces in mirrors. The sight of myself strolling down the hallway on Reed’s arm made my chest ache, but other pictures quickly followed. Of the collar in a box. Of my dad in a diner booth. And a green dot moving slowly across a black screen. But then every image was of me. My eyes. My lips. The tips of my hair and the curl of my ear. When an image of my sleeping face on Reed’s pillow filled my mind, I began to kick. “What the hell are you doing, Jasper? Put me down!”

He took another few steps then set me on my feet. But instead of backing away and giving me some room, he put his hands on my shoulders, whirling me around. I looked down and saw Pearl kneeling in the snow. She was dressed in designer jeans and a leather coat, but instead of her usual bitchy expression, her head was lowered and her shoulders curved in like she was crying. I looked at Jasper for an explanation, but the rage in his face made me take a step back. Which was a good thing, since when he spoke, his voice slammed into me like an avalanche. “Tell her, Pearl!”

The Arras alpha lifted her face, and it wasn’t tears on her cheeks, but three deep red grooves. Claw marks, I realized, curving from her brow down to her mouth. “I gave you the Wolf Fire,” she said in a low, tight voice. “In your champagne, the night of the Hunter Moon Formal. Dana had gone through your backpack during gym, and saw a bottle there. Some kind of drug, I don’t know what. But when we gave you the Valentino purse, we hid our vial in the pocket. You admitted to taking something, so it wasn’t hard to convince people it was Wolf Fire.”

“This is scent shield,” Jasper told me, and held up a brown vial like the one my dad had given me, back when I still believed he was my dad. “Was this what you were taking, Vail?”

I just stared at him, my arms wrapped around my body. Did he want me to thank him for making Pearl kneel in the snow and tell me I wasn’t to blame? I hadn’t put the pieces together – which knowing the bitch, I really should have - but I’d always assumed it was some kind of mix-up. My dad giving me the wrong serum, or it reacting badly with my wolf. One thing I’d known for certain was I never meant to hurt Jasper, or to put Baron and Felix in danger. I shivered and looked back the way we’d come. “Can I go now? I’m cold.”

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