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  A tug pulls at my insides, begging me to give in. I resist, but then it happens again. Something deep begs me to follow it. I want to snap at the sandy wolf. Backing away, I let out a breath and give in to the strange new instinct.

  Pain explodes and spots dance in my vision. Clothing rips. Gunshots go off in my bones over and over. Breathing fills my lungs with fire. Ribs pull and spasm. The world turns black. I can't scream. Nausea overtakes me and I pray for death, but on the other side of a blink, the agony leaves.

  Vibrant greens and blues surround me. My senses popped before, but now a curtain's lifted. I stand over my ripped T-shirt on blond paws, eye level with the wolf challenging me. This one is a female—one of the young women who came with Travon. Her savage brown eyes, rimmed with red, promise pain.

  She lunges.

  Without thinking, I dodge her snapping jaws and rake claws down her side. Three lines of blood appear on her side as droplets fly. With a growl she returns the favor. Pain flares, but it's far away. The fight takes up everything. Instinct takes over, controlling my movements. My body craves the conflict. I turn and charge the sandy wolf before she can land another blow, pinning her to the ground. I snap at her ear and catch it in my jaws, drawing a yelp from her.

  You're doing great.

  Cayden's voice echoes in my mind as I renew the attack. My opponent yelps again and tries to buck me off. On her third try, I fly back, landing on my back. But as the sandy wolf leaps at me, aiming for my underside, I raise my feet and catapult her into the underbrush. She strikes a tree trunk and lets out another yelp.

  I don't understand.

  I'm new. There's no way I should beat an experienced wolf. I've never even used this form before, but something in me knows what to do.

  Rolling over and rising, I find Cayden deep in a fight with one of the smaller gray wolves. One of the brown Baltic Wolves pins Everly, who growls and struggles to break free. Remo, the large blond wolf, runs to her aid. His voice explodes in my mind in a tangle of curses.

  I can hear their thoughts.

  Remo reaches Everly before I do, locking his jaws on the brown wolf's shoulders and pulling the savage beast back with his teeth. The creature snarls and claws at Everly, drawing drops of blood, as she yelps and struggles to get up. I leap, biting the monster on the back. The horrible taste that matches the Savage Wolf's stench fills my mouth. It yelps, backpedaling off Everly and allowing her to get free. Backing away, I let Remo, who is twice my size, leap on our opponent and claw away.

  Three wolves gang up on the Lowe parents. The pair circle Travon, who snaps at them both as his minions leap.

  As if they planned to distract Cayden's father, all three leap on the black wolf, his mother.

  Terror explodes, freezing me as they snap and tear. Cayden and Remo continue to fight beside me while Everly picks herself up. Cayden's father leaps into the fray, turning his back to Travon.

  Watch out, I think.

  Travon leaps, locking his jaws around the neck of Cayden's father.

  With one twist of his powerful head and jaws, the alpha's neck snaps.

  A jolt runs through me, forcing me to pause. Beside me, Everly stops. Remo rises from his fight, letting his opponent run into the underbrush. Cayden drops his fight and allows his enemy to run to the periphery.

  The alpha's dead.

  And, I realize as the other three wolves rise, so is Cayden's mother. The blood and lack of movement will haunt me forever.

  Travon faces us, the alpha's neck still in his jaws. Cayden's father stares at us with empty eyes, his head limp, as Travon drops him like a prize. A growl of triumph emerges from his throat.

  Cayden whimpers.

  I feel his despair and horror. He and his siblings must feel the shock worse than me. They're incapacitated.

  I will not back down. I'm part of this now.

  Aunt May charges the three wolves who murdered Cayden's mother, snapping her jaws with a ferocity I didn't think she had. She rams into the first and they turn into a ball of snapping jaws and flying fur. She's the only one fighting. The sandy wolf and Cayden's opponent emerge from the underbrush, ready to finish the job. There's only one way to free Cayden from his shock.

  I leap at the huge gray wolf.

  No, Cayden thinks.

  But it's too late. I crash into Travon, leaping onto his back, opening flesh with claws. He growls and bucks me off, and I slide through tall grass and strike a large rock sticking out of the ground.

  Cayden snaps out of shock. He leaps at the savage alpha, growling, snapping his jaws, every inch beast. Behind him, Everly, May, and Remo battle the other wolves. Blood flies. I rise as Travon crashes through underbrush, closing in for the kill, and dodge in time for him to leap onto the boulder instead. It gives Cayden a chance to catch up. He jumps onto the bigger wolf's back, grinding teeth into flesh.

  Brie, get out of here. You can't fight him!

  But no one else will die because of me.

  Charging, I snap at the gray wolf's throat, but he dodges, turning his body away. The others are too busy to help. Travon bucks Cayden off and turns on me, raising a huge paw. I duck, dodging the blow, and then I rake the gray wolf's chest. He grows and backpedals into Cayden, who bites into his shoulder again. The gray wolf turns, shoving me back, but the urge to tear him apart fills me.

  And then I know what to do.

  Snapping at Cayden, Travon keeps his back to me. I leap, closing my jaws around the nape of his neck. Hackles fill my mouth as I pull my body weight back so far my feet touch the ground. Travon rises onto two legs as I maintain my grip, drawing blood, even as he tries to wrench out of my bite.

  Cayden leaps.

  He closes his jaw around the soft flesh of the gray wolf's throat.

  The force shakes me off and I fall to the ground, only to find Cayden digging two rows of sharp teeth into the gray wolf's flesh.

  The vulnerable spot.

  Blood flows. Travon growls, refusing to die, but Cayden maintains his grip. Tightens it. A horrific gurgling sound follows and the gray wolf sags as blood pools on the ground, flowing down rocks and towards the spot where Wyatt lay last night.

  Cayden releases the savage alpha and the world stops. He looks up at me, blood staining his black fur, adding to the highlights already there. His hazel eyes are wild and victorious.

  As the other Baltic Wolves scatter into the wilderness, leaving their dead leader behind, Cayden lifts his head and howls.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Once Cayden and the other Noble Wolves stalk off into the underbrush, leaving me alone, I realize it's a signal to return to human form.

  Changing back is agony, and not just because of the physical pain that comes with it. Joints pop and bones explode as soon as I make the decision, taking me by surprise. A scream escapes my throat. The world shrinks as I stretch, standing on two legs. I grasp at a nearby tree trunk with the fingers of a newborn.

  Cayden's parents are dead.

  And now we have to face that fact.

  The curtain of darkness and pain lifts, and I stand at the edge of the clearing, in the underbrush, facing the corpse of the gray wolf. Tall weeds caress my skin as if telling me that everything will be all right, and I realize that I'm minus my clothing. My shirt and jeans lie ripped in the clearing, but no one living occupies it right now. The others have scattered to change back in the underbrush and sounds like muffled firecrackers fill the air. It's a sound I missed during the age of lies. My hearing is enhanced beyond what I imagined.

  Though naked, a sense of humiliation never comes. I feel almost okay walking over and grabbing my clothes, like I'm just wearing another outfit. It's another change in my thought process. I hope the others feel the same. A search for Cayden doesn't reveal him—he's wandered off in wolf form, making sure the Baltic Wolves aren't returning—but there's no need. I can no longer smell them on the wind.

  I put on the undergarments first, which have survived, and then my tattered shirt. Tu
rns out it's ripped on the side, but it will work until I get home to grab a new one. I focus my thoughts on clothes because it's less maddening than the death in front of me. The Lowes have killed one of the Baltic Wolves, which lies beside the corpse of Cayden's mother. The dead wolves are already reverting to human form one inch at a time. It's as if all their wild energy is going back into the earth. A bare human foot has replaced the back paw of the first gray wolf while Travon's hands have reappeared. Cayden's parents have begun the same process. I have to turn away as fur retracts. There's no life in that. The two of them will never run again.

  “Brie.”

  Aunt May stands at the edge of the clearing, wearing her bulky sweater and her ripped jeans. She holds a blanket in one hand and tosses it to me though I already have my pants on and don't need it. They're only ripped on the side of my hip and I can hold them up. I let the blanket fall to the ground. Someone will need it more than I do.

  “You fought well,” she says. “I can't believe how well—”

  She's cut off when Cayden and the others return to the clearing, back in human form and dressed in jackets and ripped jeans. Everly steps out last and lets out a wail as her gaze falls on her parents, limp and halfway between human and wolf. Now I know why Aunt May has tossed me the blanket. Picking it up, I rush over and cover the two bodies, who lie just two feet from each other. It does nothing to block the smell of blood, but Everly buries her face in Remo's chest, her sobs abating to hiccups.

  Silence falls. Then birds dare to chirp.

  The five of us stand in silence. I have to break it.

  “What now?” I look to Remo, the biggest.

  He thumbs to Cayden, who stands in shock. “Cayden's alpha now. He killed the alpha of the other pack, so the spot goes to him.”

  Cayden nods, but he doesn't smile. His shoulders sag as the weight of it falls on him.

  “You're the alpha now?” I explode.

  He takes my arms, rubbing his thumbs along my bare skin. “Yes. It's my duty. Brie, where did you learn how to fight like that?”

  “I just did. Something took over. Isn't it like that for everyone?”

  “You held off a much bigger wolf by yourself. And you fought two others. How?"

  Everly lifts her face from her adopted brother's chest. She hiccups. “No offense, but you shouldn't have even been able to land a scratch on a Savage Wolf alpha of his size and experience. Our father couldn't even hold his own against Travon.”

  I try to keep my gaze off the two changing lumps under the blanket. “Travon got distracted.”

  “We all were,” Cayden explains, stepping between me and his sister.

  “Don't blame yourself for this,” I say. “Please, don't. We drove them out.”

  “Brie, how did you fight like that?” Cayden asks, repeating his sister's question. “It's unheard of for a new wolf to do that. It's unheard of for any wolf.” The mystery burns in his eyes.

  “Something just took over, and I knew what to do,” I say. “Doesn't that happen to everyone?”

  Remo shakes his head. “Even born werewolves take a long time to master fighting. But you were a natural.”

  I look to Aunt May, but she shakes her head in confusion. “Your father and I avoided the werewolf existence as much as we could,” she explains. “I have no answers for you.”

  “It might have something to do with the fact you already had wolf blood when you got bitten,” Cayden says. He, too, avoids looking at the blanket. “I don't know. I've met no one like you, Brie.” A noble tenderness fills his eyes, but he lets go of my arms.

  But this time, he doesn't turn away.

  “We need to bury the bodies,” Everly says. She's dry. Dead.

  “And then we need to leave Breckenridge,” Cayden says.

  “Leave?” I ask. “The Baltic Wolves are gone. We killed their leader. There's no need to leave if this is our territory.”

  “Brie,” Everly says. “Cayden is the alpha now.”

  “And there are only five of us,” Cayden says. “We might not defend ourselves if any other Savage Wolves come back. They know how decimated we are. Word will spread.”

  I've entered a new world only to get pushed to the side again. “But this is our home,” I say. “My family's been here for generations. Both families. And it's our job to protect humanity. If we leave, we abandon the people of Breck to everything bad out there that wants in.”

  “I, for one, agree,” May says.

  I face the Lowes. First Everly, and then Remo and Cayden. “Do you like it here?”

  Remo is the first to nod. Then Everly follows.

  “It's on you, Cayden,” I say with a smile. “We fought to stay. Do you want to let the Baltic Wolves control your life all over again?”

  Cayden looks around at the surrounding trees. Then he nods. “Maybe Brie has a point,” he says. “We need to stop running all the time. What's the point in that? This is our territory.”

  END OF BOOK ONE

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  Holly Hook is the author of several Young Adult fantasy, science fiction, fairytale, post-apocalyptic and adventure series. She has been writing since very young and publishing her work since September of 2010.

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