Page 54 of Clawless

I shook the whisper off, and peeked through the foliage.

Something was slipping through the darkness beneath me. It was about the same size as a wolf, but its torso was thicker, its legs more heavily muscled. When it lifted its wedge-shaped head, yellow eyes, bright as topaz, gleamed up at me. I held my breath, instinctively knowing it could reach me in a few powerful bounds. But it just watched me for a moment, then huffed and loped away.

It was minutes – or a whole moon cycle – before I dropped out of the tree. Both of my legs were shaking so hard I had to clutch the trunk to stay upright. When I could finally stand unaided, I hobbled back towards the scene of the shifter fight. But the shaking started up again as I took in the pools of blood and scattered body parts. This was more than just tufts of fur, I realized, my boot squelching in the mess of a jagged hind leg. This was a massacre.

As I staggered back, a black wolf appeared in my peripheral vision. While my heart hammered against my ribs, it shifted into the sneering form of Callum Sawyer. He looked me over, then gave a low whistle as he studied the gorefest at our feet. “How the hell did you manage to take out a pair of Denners, No Chance?”

I just blinked at him, and he took a step closer, his head tilted to the side. There was such curiosity in his dark gaze, I peered down at myself. But my claws were gone, and other than the blood caked into my clothes, I couldn’t see what had put that wild glitter in his eyes.

A glitter that grew until he tipped his head back and shouted. Not a howl, but the last sound I expected to hear from his throat. Callum Sawyer was laughing… and he sounded happy.

Which made my mood plummet another hundred degrees. “What?”

He swiped his hands over his eyes, shaking off his laughter. But there was something worse in his gaze now. A knowing, eager look that made my belly clench around my spine. When he took a step towards me, I wanted to scurry back, but my legs were shaking too hard to move. “I always knew you were a little freak, Vail Marrow. Just like I always knew you were trouble.” When I just stared at him, he twirled his finger, his grin almost feral. “How about you have a look at what’s behind you?”

I didn’t want to look. The only reason someone like him wanted to see my back was to shove something between my shoulder blades. But staring into his dancing eyes was almost worse, and I turned in a slow, painful circle. I took in the dark trees, the heavy snow drifts. My leg throbbed, and I was already off-balance when he yanked me back round. But instead of letting me fall on my ass, he grabbed my tail and held it up. I blinked. Not just because I had a tail, but because it looked… wrong. Not feathery, but thin and pointed. Not a wolf’s tail, but a…

Callum’s hot breath scorched my ear. “Your pussy’s now mine, Little Freak.”

Thirty-Eight - Jasper

The woods were hemorrhaging Black Denners.

Reed sensed them first, pushing out of the headlock I had him in with an almost gentle touch. He lifted his face to the moon, and when I did the same, their scent hit me like a fist. Dirty leather and old blood, with something feral underneath. My gaze snapped to Reed’s, and he said what I couldn’t. “Vail.”

We shifted and ran. I don’t know why we’d chosen to fight in our human forms, but handing control to our wolves was now instinctual. Trees passed us in a dark blur as we gave our wolves their heads. With each pounding step, I felt waves of menace rolling off Reed. When I glanced his way, I remembered what the old wolves said about rangers. First out of the cave, last on the battlefield.

It didn’t matter if it was a cave or a forest. This was our land, and they’d chosen to bring their war to us.

To the east. Reed’s wolf was locked on the nearest group of Denners, but mine was only interested in Vail. He didn’t give a shit what Warren said about her being a void. She was as visible to my wolf as a sun rising in a dark sky. And as Reed tacked east, I drew him back to our current path with my alpha power. When his wolf swung to look at me, I saw the depths of his rage. His need to hunt and gut and put every Denner in the ground. There wasn’t much of the calculating alphason left in his gaze. Until I sent him an image of Vail, alone in a dark wood. It wasn’t a true picture; just what my wolf sensed. But it was enough for a trickle of humanity to bleed back into his eyes, and he gave me a nod.

One word throbbed between us.

Vail.

We might have been focused solely on her, but there were too many Denners for us to avoid them all. I could hear where they clashed with my clan. There were plenty of shouts and snarls, with enough frightened cries to make my wolf shudder. I howled and sent a burst of alpha power back towards the pavilion. The Denners congregated there like moths to a flame, and I knew what they were looking for. Vail, helpless and unguarded among the omegas.

But she wasn’t there.

And I very much doubted she was alone.

I turned into the first knot of Denners, pulling a half-shift to mimic Reed’s. He’d perfected this way of fighting, long before the rest of us met our first real opponent. The fight with the bullies in his own pack was legendary, and had earned him the title of Ragemaster. It had also become the epitome of alpha fighting. Endless transitions, rippling shifts, so your enemy never knew if they were facing claws or fists.

It also gave me a moment of human clarity when we were done. Not any kind of feeling for the scum scattered at our feet, but an explanation for the niggling worry in the back of my mind. “She’s not there,” I told Reed. “The collar is that way.” I pointed straight ahead. “But her wolf…” I swallowed hard. “She’s back in your room. Or near enough to it.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “She won’t forgive me.”

Jealousy and anger curdled in my gut. “You don’t deserve it.” I curled my fingers into fists until my claws pierced my palm. “And neither do I. But we’re both going to fucking try, aren’t we?”

He just gave a curt nod, and then we were running in wolf form. It was a couple miles back to the school, but we made it in less than five minutes, Liam bounding up to me as we cleared the drive. Others followed - security guards and my own alphas, even a few of the faculty among them – and they shifted back to human in a wave. All were roughed up, and most were bleeding, but I pulled a partial shift and looked straight at my enforcer. “How many are still on our land?”

“Unknown. We’ve had eyes on at least thirty, but the whole security grid went down.” He grimaced and took his phone from one of his guards. “The tracker’s not moving…”

“I know where she is.” I looked out at the gathered alphas. “Get every one of our wolves back inside the school walls. Then you hunt that scum down. Consider this an act of war.”

They nodded, some yipping and growling, already partway into their shift. I flicked a hand at Baron and Felix. “You’re with me and Reed.”

They came without question, and we raced up the school stairs.

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