Owned By The Alphas: Part Four (7 page)

Tawny vaulted onto the rock, and with wobbly legs and fast reflexes, fastened her fangs into Ali’s coat, the two of them pulling her up out of the water.

Sopping wet, Ali stared up at the she-wolf, shocked. Of all the wolves to save her, she never would have thought Tawny would be the one. With chattering teeth, she cried, “Lorn’s in trouble! Come back for me!” Tawny took off, but Red hesitated. “Please! She needs you. I’ll be okay! I’ll stay right here! Go!” He leapt into action, bounding over the remaining wet stones until he hit the snow-covered shore, and disappeared from view. Ali began to sob.

B
loo stopped on the rock
, pushing at Ali’s side with her snout, urging her to climb on. “No, Bloo! Leave me! I’m useless to you!” Tears fell, mingling with the river water. The she-wolf kicked at her with a persistent paw. Fighting back a huge lump in her throat, and wet to the bone, Ali pushed her shivering body up off the rock and climbed on. She buried her nearly frozen, bare feet in the wolf’s warm fur and bit back a sob.

With careful calculations, Bloo jumped from rock to rock until they hit shore. Blinking against the wind and snow, Ali leaned down, her heart clamping tightly as she feared the worst. They tore past riverbank bushes and when they passed a bend in the mountain, a chilling sight came into view.

A grizzly bear, nine feet tall, reared up on hind legs with long fangs lethally glinting as it roared. It had the young wolves backed into a corner against a high, granite wall, nowhere to run. Lorn was sitting naked in the snow, holding a baby grizzly in her arms, as it reached for its momma. Like Ali, tears streamed down her face, but she stared off at nothing, in shock. Next to her was Lucin, his wolf gashed up badly, crumpled and unconscious.

Was he alive?

Ali rose up, but she couldn’t tell. She let go of Bloo and rolled off, her wet body collecting everything it touched.

Her pack-mate rushed to aid Red and Tawny, her lips drawn back over bared fangs as she snarled. The three circled the grizzly from all sides as Ali watched. Her friends were in trouble. Lucin looked like he might be dead. Lorn was near comatose and no help to anyone, not even herself. And here was Ali, unable to do anything about it. She couldn’t even get to the young wolves. The grizzly barred the way. So helpless, she started to get angry.

Seeing her for the first time, Lorn screamed through pained sobs, “Ali! We have to save Lucin!”

A feverish heat exploded inside of Ali. Her pulse raced as she flashed a frantic look around the scene. She locked eyes with her friend and blinked hard, grasping her body, wrenching the coat off.
Too heavy. Have to take it off! Can’t breathe!
An unknown pain rushed through her veins, a pain she mistook for the effects of the icy water that still clung to her matted hair and pelt. Grasping for focus, she screamed to Lorn, “Let the baby go! She wants her baby! LORN! Let the baby go!”

But Lorn was holding it like a child would a teddy bear, rocking and staring at the love of her life, calling to Ali, “Help him!” like she hadn’t heard her.

A vicious snarl arrested Ali’s attention as she began to shake. Red was shepherding the grizzly, pushing it back by pacing and snarling. Courageously, he lunged and bit at the great beast’s legs, but that only made it retaliate by knocking him away with a potent blow. Bloo and Tawny were closing in on the young ones when the momma grizzly turned and started for them. Red jumped onto the bear’s back, biting its neck and holding on by his fangs. The bear screamed and Ali heard the sound as if it had been one inch away. Her ears began to bleed.

It was then that time slowed down.

Her heartbeat thudded in her ears.

The bear roared. In slow motion, it flailed powerful arms, every movement exaggerated. It knocked Red off. He rolled away, got up, and snarled. Ran at it. The bear reared up. Deadly sharp claws flashed as she swiped. Broke skin. The sound of cutting flesh ripped through Ali’s senses. Red cried out, falling back in agony. Blood glistened in his fur. He lay on the ground and with eyes locked on him Ali screamed a scream that echoed off the world.

Her bones compacted and cracked. She ripped the pelt off, literally tore it off as she twisted and turned. Fur sprang out from every pore. Her ears extended painfully upward as her hands and feet crushed into paws. Her lungs changed shape, the air she breathed tasted different, fresher. Her face narrowed, her nose and jaw lengthening as fangs replaced her teeth, shooting out of her gums to become longer sharper points. The sounds of the forest, everyone’s heartbeats, Lorn’s sobs, the grizzly’s arm whizzing through the snowflake-filled air–she heard it all.

On all fours, the wolf with mahogany fur ran and leapt onto the grizzly bear before it had a second swipe at Red, his body sunken in the snow before it. Ali’s wolf locked new fangs into the back of the beast’s neck as it swatted the air, trying to jar her off. Tawny and Bloo leapt to help, and then Ali heard a fourth heartbeat. Lorn’s. Together, the four she-wolves finished the fight until the grizzly fell to the snow with a deafening, lifeless thud.

Thrown off, Ali panted and shook out her fur, meeting the eyes of the others. They stared at her. Bowed their heads. She dipped hers, blinking at them, unable to fully comprehend yet what had happened. In a state of shock, she looked down at her paws and blinked again.

This isn’t possible.

A groan pulled her attention and she ran quickly over to Red, feeling her fur sway, a most unusual feeling–like hair, but everywhere, and much, much warmer. He was staring at her, waiting. She nuzzled his head with her snout, aching to talk to him, to tell him they’d get Shaynah, that he had to stay alive! He licked her face once and somehow she knew he was telling her he had seen it all. Humbled and scared for him, she quickly investigated the wound and found it frighteningly bad. Licking it to help him heal, she whined and dropping to the ground, snuggling up to keep him warm. She turned her head to the others for help. She wanted to transform back so she could talk to them, but she didn’t know how. Focusing and pressuring herself wasn’t working.

She was stuck like this.

Tawny transformed, and Bloo quickly followed. Lorn threw back her furry head and howled forlornly at clouds.

“We’ll go and get the others,” Bloo quietly said. Her face was numb and her gray eyes, shocked.

Tawny stared at Red and Ali as she came to them and bent her knees to be eye-level with the frightened new wolf. “Don’t be scared. You can’t change back, can you?” Ali shook her furry head. Tawny filled with compassion as she said, “I remember that. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to change back. Give it time.” She met Red’s hazy, pain-filled blue eyes. “We’re going to get help. You stay here.”

Ali nodded and Red lowered his head to the snow. Bereft, Lorn padded back to Lucin.

Bloo asked, “Is he alive? Do you hear his heartbeat?”

Tawny nodded. “It’s faint. You hear it?”

Bloo listened and Ali made a forlorn sound letting them know that she could hear his heartbeat, too. It was weak and the thought that they would not return in time was too much to bear.

Tawny called over to Lorn, “We’ll be back soon with help!” then quieter to Bloo, “I know a direct path to the den.”

“We could get Calt,” Bloo suggested. “Shaynah?”

Tawny shook her head, frowning. “I’m not against that except it’ll take us longer to get all the way up the mountain. When we get to my den, we’ll send Thanot to get Calt and Shaynah and the others. While he’s going to get them, Motis and Jal will return with us. We will carry the wounded.”

“We should take Lucin now!”

Tawny mashed her lips together in thought. “You’re right.”

Bloo continued, “You and I will carry Lucin. Lorn can run to the den and get it ready for him.”

“It will give her something to do.”

“Right.”

Ali lifted her head and watched them go to Lorn to explain the plan. The baby bear crawled around playing with sticks and rocks it discovered buried in the snow, its little claws easily dropping them without meaning to. It made cute little noises that broke her heart and Ali wondered what they would do with the creature now that they’d taken the life of its mother.

Beige eyes blinked into action as Lorn rose with a purpose. As the two lifted poor Lucin, Lorn shifted and licked her lover’s face once. She stared at him, frozen until Tawny urged her, “Go! It’ll be sunset by the time you return. Tell Thanot to go get Shaynah, Calt and the others, and you stay and start a fire for Lucin. He’ll need warmth to heal. We’ll be right behind you, moving as fast as we can!”

Lorn took off for the river and Ali watched her go, unable to believe she was truly one of them now. Bloo and Tawny carried Lucin, their superhuman strength helping them greatly as they swiftly carted his unconscious wolf past Red and Ali. “We will be back for you and Red,” Bloo called over her shoulder.

Ali pushed her muzzle into Red’s fur and inhaled him deeply.

We are not a disease you can catch by contact.

We are born.

There have been men who decided not to be of this world.

They have left it, in the way we live it, completely.

You have a magic in you, Ali. What you do with it, will be up to you.

She gave him a couple of licks and laid her head on the cold ground.

H
e could hear
her crawling in the tunnel, coming to join him on the ledge. Calt had been up here for hours, ignoring the snow and damning the decision to not help with the search. Even though the healer had a soothing effect on his soul, he did not want to see her just yet. He did not want to feel better.

Lorn and Lucin, in love, and he had created an environment where that could not be. For what? His father’s rules? And maybe his grandfather’s, too, and the males before them?

As though the heart could be tamed.

It had worked for the packs before yours,
the demons of his mind hissed.

Aloud, he shut them down. “My pack is my pack.
My
rules. Not theirs. They are dead and have no say anymore.”

“Who are you talking to?” came the smooth voice.

He did not look over. “Have I been gone so long that you would summon me?”

A smile could be heard in her voice. “No. I just couldn’t wait alone anymore. I needed the company.”

He softened and hit the snow-covered grass at his side. “Come. Join me then. I had assumed you were here to lecture me.”

“Not this time.” She lowered herself beside him, both of them naked. “It is cold. Do you need a pelt?”

“The pain keeps me alert.”

“Ah.” She looked up at the clouds, the sun recently gone and the sky a charcoal gray. “Who were you talking to?”

“My ancestors.” He grunted. “Now that I have been thinking about Lorn and Lucin, of course they would fall. They are perfect for one another. So similar.”

Shaynah chuckled. “I agree. Do you want to hear about when it happened?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I do.”

Shaynah picked up a handful of snow and sculpted it into a ball as she talked. “It was Lorn who lost her heart, first. It was before we came here. On a snowy night, like this. She and Lucin were playing on a mountain. Remember the time we went to the ski slopes when the blizzard closed them down?”

Calt smiled, thinking back. “My father. He knew how to play.”

“As do you. Do not forget the waterfall.”

“Mmm.”

“Well, I was nearby, exploring and generally staying out of the ‘play,’ but I saw Lucin transform, laughing as he ran after Lorn’s wolf, trying to grab her tail. She was quicker than he was of course, in that form, but after a few times, she let him catch her and she shifted, falling with him onto the snow. It was normal for them, but something caught my eye. It was the look in hers. He pinned her and was telling her how fast he was that he had captured her, and she looked up at him. Her smile changed, as did her expression. He was going on and on about his speed and strength, and being very boyish…and she stared at him as if he were the moon.” Shaynah tossed the snowball over the cliff and listened for its soft fall. They both heard it become like dust, softly coming apart.

“The females always know first,” Calt muttered, thinking.

Shaynah glanced at him. “No. Rait loved me before I, him.” Then she added, bumping his shoulder, “I will not miss Borhan.”

Calt stared at her and then burst into laughter, his grin showing all of his teeth. “You know what? Neither will I. He was not fun.”

Shaynah said, on a laugh more subdued than his, “No. One could not describe Borhan as
a good time
.”

An unfamiliar bark brought Calt and Shaynah to their feet. It echoed again down the mountain and they looked over to see one of the brothers from the other pack running toward their den’s entrance, his pace erratic as he climbed.

“Thanot?” Calt rushed to the hole.

“This cannot be good.” Shaynah followed him.

Lowering himself down, Calt scraped up his body on the tree roots in his haste. He crawled quickly through the tunnel and as soon as he could stand, ran to meet the wolf. Shaynah was right behind him and as Thanot rushed into the cave, he shifted awkwardly, mid-run to talk to them. Bent over and clutching his middle from a cramp, he sputtered, “Are you the healer?”

She frowned, her voice grave. “I am.”

“Good! Good!! Okay…we need you to come right away. There was a bear. A grizzly!”

The blood drained from her face.

Calt rushed forward to grab the wolf’s shoulders. “WHERE IS IT?”

Thanot exclaimed, “It’s dead!”

“Who is hurt?! Are they dead? TELL ME!”

“Lucin and Red!” At Calt and Shaynah’s expression, he hastily corrected, “No! They’re alive, but in bad shape. And more than that! You’re not going to believe this, but…Ali’s a wolf! She turned, I think when the grizzly got Lucin. I don’t know. I wasn’t there, but she’s a wolf! A wolf, just like us!!! That’s what they said!”

Both jaws on Shaynah and Calt dropped and neither spoke at first. The healer got her bearings first and asked, “That’s what
who
said?”

“Tawny and Bloo. They said it! They were there! She changed! Can you believe it?” Calt staggered back as Thanot yammered on. “My brothers have gone to help them. And Kyren’s stayed with Lucin and Lorn.” He turned to Shaynah. “Lucin is in bad shape! And Red–I haven’t seen him, but they say the grizzly got him bad. We need you!”

Calt started for the door, acting fast. “Where are they now?”

Shaynah was at his side as Thanot ran to keep up. “Lucin is at the sequoia. Red and Ali are still where they were attacked. She stayed with him.”

Calt’s blood pounded in his head. He growled, “WHERE?”

“I don’t know! All the wolves who were at the fight, went back to get them!” At the rage he saw brewing, he cried out, “I really don’t know! I swear!”

Shaynah grabbed Calt’s shoulder, their paces picking up speed. “Come. We’ll go to the den. Lorn will know.”

“Oh, right! Lorn. She was there. I forgot! But the thing is, she’s kind of out of it.” Thanot stopped walking as the two shifted into an enormous black wolf, and a graceful, white one. “Okay. I guess you can try.” He transformed, too, struggling to catch up as the three raced down the mountain.