Page 53 of Clawless

She gave a barking laugh, then shuddered, her eyes haunted as she looked around. “He might have added that little feature, but it’s a suppression tool. It’s used to keep a shifter from shifting. Think of it as a magical trap for your wolf.” I stumbled forward, the bile in my belly suddenly hot in my throat. “Been feeling sick?” She gave me a knowing look. “Stomach cramps. Hard to sleep. Hurts to eat. That’s the fucked-up magic holding your wolf in a vice.”

I grabbed the skin of my throat, flinching as I felt my pulse hammering under my fingers. “How do you know?”

“I wasn’t always Sin,” Her voice was hollow, and I felt another shudder go through her before she seemed to give herself a mental slap. “But it’s bought you your freedom, as fucked-up as that is. Your cousin flipped out when I told him you were collared, and he sent me to collect you right away. He also sent a scout to find his brother, Elijah, which is not something he does lightly. They’re your blood, but they are brutal. And when the Skin Kings decide to unleash their wrath on this place, we want to be on the other side of that fucking mountain.”

She jabbed her finger at some point in the distance, but I dug in my heels and wrenched my arm free. “Wait, Sin! I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I don’t want to hurt anyone at the school. They’re my pack.” When she made a rude sound, I amended, “I have friends there. And while I appreciate getting free of the collar, I can’t go with you.”

She planted her hands on her hips, her blonde fauxhawk glowing like a disheveled halo above her head. But instead of the smirk I remembered, her eyes flashed with an angry fire. “There’s Denners everywhere,” she said slowly, like I’d take a blow to the head. And maybe she thought that, because she added, “Fucking packball! A hundred stupid kids crashing around the woods in the middle of the night. The Denners probably think Christmas has come early.”

I shivered as I remembered the two Black Denners who’d chased me through the Horn. I tried to picture them leaping out at Nadia with her tray of cocoa and dragging Marnie’s wolf under their claws. I shook my head frantically, back-peddling in the snow. “We have to go help them! My friends don’t know they’re about to be attacked! The Denners will slaughter them.”

“Better than the Skin Kings,” Sin said mulishly, and grabbed my arm again. “Seriously, little Vail, this isn’t shits and giggles anymore. We have to move!”

“No!” I tore myself free, but instead of running, I stepped in and drove her onto her back in a messy takedown. She looked up at me in surprise, but I didn’t try to finish her off. Instead, I swept my hair off my neck and pointed to the scar behind my ear. “I have a tracker in my head, Sin. Even if I run, twenty guards could be after us in a heartbeat. We need to go back and alert them, not drag them through woods filled with Denners.”

Sin flipped back to her feet, but didn’t try to grab me. Instead, she looked at me with pity. “Jesus, little Marrow. They collar your wolf and bug your ass, and you’re still calling them your friends?”

“Pathetic, I know.” I thought of the way Reed had admitted to supplying Pearl with drugs to get rid of me, and how Jasper couldn’t trust me, even when I begged him, but I didn’t share those hurts with Sin. It was bad enough she knew about the other shit. “But we have to warn them. The first wolf we come across, we tell them to get word to Jasper. And then we run.”

“Alright,” she finally said, but I’d only taken two steps when she put a knee in my back and drove me into the snow. I squirmed to knock her off, but her legs had me pinned and her forearm locked my head in place. I felt her breath on my neck, then a searing pain. Something tugged, and I groaned into the frozen ground. “Sorry, little Marrow. But there’s no way you can visit your cousins with a tracker in your head.”

I yelped, but her tongue was suddenly lashing over my neck and the burning pain faded to a sizzle. When she let me up, the tiny device was balanced on her bloody thumb, and that crazy light was dancing in her eyes. “I’d suggest keeping it for a souvenir, but that’d defeat the purpose.” She flicked it away into the trees. “Come on, little Marrow. I’d prefer to do this without any more bloodshed…”

At that moment, a pair of shadows appeared on the snow between us and Sin spun to put herself in front of me. But it didn’t block out the two shifters grinning at us. I didn’t recognize them, but they had the same burly menace as the guys from Trey’s party, and my heart gave a sickening squeeze. Black Denners. The one closest to me ran a hand over his scraggly beard and grinned. “No bloodshed? But where’s the fun in that?”

Claws sprang from Sin’s hands, but the shifters were snatching long-barreled pistols from their belts. I knew them on sight: tranq guns. Sin obviously did too, because she whirled and thrust me hard just as the first gun went off. The thud of the dart piercing her thigh made her grunt, but she gave me another push and yelled, “Run, little Marrow. And don’t fucking stop!”

It was a shit move, but the barrel of the second pistol was already pointed my way. The loud pop from the chamber echoed in my ears, as a cold puff of air battered my cheek. Way too close for comfort, so I whirled and ran. I had a moment to see Sin hurling herself in the shifters’ path before I was buried in the trees.

I hadn’t gone more than five steps before a howl went up that shook me to my spine. Jasper! I had no idea if his alpha power could reach this far, or if it was the barrage of rage and fear that nearly drove me to my knees. I pivoted towards the sound, searching desperately for the packball flames. I thought I saw a flash of bright green off in the distance and began running that way, but there was a crash behind me, and the thud of heavy feet. Too many for two men, but just right for a pair of wolves. Panic licked over me and I almost slid into a downed tree.

Get a fucking grip, Vail!

I might not have been able to shift, but I could run a mile in six minutes, even in this terrain. I clung to that fact as I scrambled over the log, pushing myself forward so fast I could feel my thigh muscles burn. The moon was slipping in and out of cloud, throwing crazy shadows in my path, but I forced myself to focus on that green flame.

Green was Jasper. Green was Nadia and Jasmine. Green was even Baron and Felix, who I would have leaped at with glee if their surly asses appeared in front of me right now. But instead of the Arras alphas, a group of three shifters stepped into my path. They were older and harder than any student, and though they were wearing all black, it wasn’t the uniform of Jasper’s guards.

“Look at what’s rabbiting through the woods, boys,” the biggest of the three said. He was so tall, his head scraped the snowy branch above him, and when he opened his arms wide, it felt like he could scoop up half the forest in his hands. The leer on his face made my insides twist as he purred, “Prime Marrow meat.”

I tried to dart sideways, but one of those long arms snagged the front of my sweatshirt and jerked me off my feet. I slid forward on my knees, his hand snatching at my ponytail as I tried to scramble past them. He dragged me around by my hair, bending at the knees so he could grind my face into the crotch of his grimy jeans. “Hungry, princess?”

I bit down hard. Mostly it was just sweaty denim, and I tried to keep my bile down as I spat out the nasty cotton. But the asshole was howling and my gums were throbbing, and there was blood gleaming up at me from the snow. A shifter’s bite. The thought brought a feral smile to my face, but it was quickly stripped away as a huge fist connected with the side of my head.

“Shit! Don’t kill her, Argus!”

I didn’t think I was dead, but something definitely broke. I thought it was my skull. A punch with that much force could tear my neck from my spine. But as the exploding lights settled behind my eyes, I realized he’d knocked something loose in my vision. Everything was hazy, the colors muted to a gray wash. But as I lifted my throbbing head, I didn’t need to see much more than a few feet in front of me.

I sprang forward, ten black claws glinting in the moonlight. The fucker with the killer punch only had a second to gape down at me before I drove both hands deep into his thighs. Blood exploded on my chest, like black syrup in my rattled vision. I tore them free, sending him crashing to his knees. His giant hands still tried to swipe at me, but I was already on my feet and running. The frozen underbrush scraped my sides as the other two shifters leaped after me. My wonky eyesight was reduced to a gritty tunnel, but all of my other senses throbbed: the scratch of paws on hard-packed snow; the scent of blood soaked into my chest; and the taste of my rage, hot on the back of my tongue. Nothing that could save me from the assholes behind me, but I felt a flash of elation that my wolf was finally pushing up through my skin. Even if they tranqed me, I’d have these last moments of freedom, just me and her on a moonlit run.

Free! The word sang in my head like the most delicious music, and my wolf tilted my face upward, towards the moon. It was a pale blur, like a frosty breath on a windowpane. I swished my head back and forth, bathing my face in a light that was almost pleasurable, and I felt a howl rattling in my chest. But before I could let it loose, a giant paw raked across my left calf.

Pain exploded like I’d stepped in a bear trap. But that image in my mind seemed to set off my wolf, and she tossed me into a roll. I narrowly missed hitting my head on a tree, but her quick reflexes had me back on my feet. I almost screamed at the agony in my calf, but both shifters were on me, and I had to force myself to dance sideways. It was clumsy – all left feet – but it put me in range of a broken branch and I speared it with my claws, swinging it with all my might at the nearest wolf. It snapped his head sideways, driving him into a snowdrift. The other wolf ducked and sprang, and I struggled to get the branch around to drive it into his face. But I was too slow. Off-balance. And then another wolf was flying past me, midnight black fur brushing my face.

The two shifters came together in mid-air. The force of their impact knocked me backwards, and I had to hop to keep my balance. But the ferocity of their attack made me wish I hadn’t. This wasn’t alpha power, or a packball tackle, but a fight to the death. Blood exploded, scraps of fur littering the snow around me.

I took another dozen steps before my bad leg ground me to a halt. I wasn’t going to make it much further before it gave out altogether. My face lifted again, the frozen landscape a canvas of black and white slashes before me. But the moon was still calling me, and I looked up, right through the canopy. As if summoned by the moon’s glow, I was moving before I made the decision to, my throbbing leg forgotten as I felt the massive hemlock shudder under my weight. My claws dragged me up, puncturing the trunk beneath the snow, while my good leg propelled me higher. Soon I was nestled in the evergreen’s dense foliage. It was the fastest ascent I’d ever made. And so much higher than my perch in the ponderosa back home.

Look to the sky…

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