THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL

Chapter9

*CHAPTER 9: The Girl In Black*

Kael didn't move.

For three seconds, the whole clearing stopped breathing.

Elara was standing behind him, her hand still clutching his jacket, her real heart hammering so loud she could hear it in her ears. And in front of him — ten feet away, barefoot in the snow that wasn't melting under her feet — was another Elara.

Same face. Same dark hair. Same mouth she saw every morning in the diner bathroom mirror.

But wrong.

This Elara wore a black dress that looked like it was made of night. Not fabric. Shadow. Her eyes were not brown. They were white. Completely white, like moonstone.

And she was looking at Kael like she owned him.

"Hello, mate," she said again. Softer this time. Like a caress.

Kael's hand found Elara's behind him — his real Elara — and shoved her further behind his back. His shoulders rose. A low sound ripped out of his chest that Elara had never heard before.

A growl. Not human.

The girl in black tilted her head. She smiled. "You don't remember me yet. That's okay."

"Who the hell are you?" Elara shouted. Her voice cracked. "What sick witch trick is this?"

The black-dress Elara finally looked at her. Really looked at her. Her white eyes traced Elara's face, her cheap diner uniform jacket, the way she was shaking.

"Oh," she whispered. "You don't know yet. She didn't tell you."

"Who didn't tell me what?" Elara stepped forward, but Kael's arm locked.

"Don't," he said. His voice was rough, like his throat was full of gravel from the howl. First time he had spoken in minutes.

The girl in black laughed. It sounded like Elara's laugh, but played backwards.

"Your mother," she said to Elara. "The woman in the white dress. She made a deal, Elara. Ten years ago. A daughter for a daughter. She gave you away to close the veil. And she gave _me_ away to open it again."

The air went cold. Colder than the snow.

Elara's stomach dropped. "My mother died in a car crash."

"No. She walked into the woods. Barefoot. Just like me. Because she heard the river calling." Black-dress Elara took one step closer. The snow still didn't melt. "She asked Hessa for power to save your brother. Hessa said — every white wolf needs a shadow. So when you were born white, I was born black. Two halves. One soul."

Kael went rigid. "Hessa."

At the name, the woods whispered. Far away, a branch cracked.

The girl in black's smile widened. "He knows. The little Alpha who couldn't howl. You felt me, didn't you? All these years, when you tried to howl and nothing came out? That was me. Holding it. Because you weren't ready for us."

Kael's hand was shaking. Elara could feel it through his jacket.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"You," she said simply. Then she looked at Elara again. "And her. We were supposed to be one, Elara. But she split us. Your mother split us to keep you human. To keep you weak. In the diner. Tolerated."

Elara flinched. That word — tolerated — was the exact word she used to describe herself. The exact word from her own blurb, from her own thoughts.

How did she know that?

"Stay away from her," Kael snarled. His eyes were starting to flash — not brown anymore. Silver. The white Alpha coming up.

The girl in black didn't even blink. "You can't protect her from what she is. You couldn't even howl until she bled. Watch."

She lifted a hand — Elara's hand, same scar on the knuckle from the fryer at the diner — and pointed at Elara.

Elara gasped.

White light shot up her arms. Not a glow. Lines. Like veins of moonlight, running under her skin, up her neck, into her face. Her eyes burned.

"Stop it!" Kael roared, and this time his howl was there, half-howl, half-scream, silver tearing through the clearing.

The light stopped.

Elara fell to her knees, panting. Her hands were normal again. Brown eyes. Human. But she could still feel it buzzing under her skin.

The girl in black looked disappointed. "You see? She can't hold it. Not without me. She will die at the next full moon if she doesn't merge. The veil will take her. The way it took your mother, Kael."

At the mention of his mother, Kael snapped.

He moved so fast Elara didn't see him. One second he was behind her, the next he was across the snow, hand around the black-dress Elara's throat.

He didn't touch the ground. She was taller than him now. Floating.

"Don't say my mother's name," he whispered, silver eyes burning straight into white ones.

She didn't choke. She smiled, even with his hand around her throat. She leaned in, her lips almost touching his.

"You still smell like her," she whispered to him. "The first night you marked her. In the woods. You said 'There is nothing wrong with what I own.' Do you remember how she tasted?"

Kael threw her.

She flew back ten feet and landed standing up, like gravity was a suggestion. Her black dress didn't even move.

"So possessive," she said, brushing her throat where his hand had been. No mark. "That's why I chose you. Out of all the Alphas. You're the only one broken enough to love a broken thing."

"I'm not your mate," Kael said, walking back to Elara, pulling her up. His hands were desperate, checking her face, her neck. "You're not her."

"No," black-dress Elara said. "I'm better. She is the human they tolerate. I am the wolf they will kneel to."

She looked at Elara one last time, and for a second her white eyes flickered brown. Real brown. Scared brown.

"Find Hessa before the next dead boy crawls out of the river," she said, and her voice was suddenly Elara's voice. Young. Terrified. "She's lying. Your mom is lying. And Tyler—"

The woods cracked.

A hand shot out of the snow behind black-dress Elara — a pale, water-logged hand — and grabbed her ankle.

Tyler.

But not Tyler. His eyes were completely black, no white left. River water pouring out of his mouth.

"Found you," he gurgled in a woman's voice. Hessa's voice.

Black-dress Elara looked down, annoyed, and kicked him. He flew into a tree and didn't get up.

Then she looked back at them, her eyes white again.

"Tick tock, little white wolves," she said, and stepped backwards into a shadow between two trees that shouldn't have been there.

And was gone.

The shadow closed.

Silence.

Elara was shaking so hard her teeth were clicking. Kael grabbed her face, forced her to look at him.

"Hey. Hey, look at me. You're okay. You're here."

"She had my face," Elara whispered. "Kael, she had my face and she knew—"

"I know. I know."

"And Tyler—" She turned to where Tyler's body was slumped against the tree. He was breathing now. Real breathing. His eyes were brown again, confused.

"Elara?" Tyler whispered. "Why am I in the woods?"

Kael didn't answer. He was staring at the spot where the shadow had been. His silver eyes were fading back to brown, but not all the way.

Behind them, far down the hill, the diner's lights were on. Normal. Human. People who didn't know about white wolves and black dresses and dead boys in rivers.

Elara clutched Kael's jacket. "What did she mean, I will die at the next full moon?"

Kael finally looked at her. And for the first time since she had known him, the boy who couldn't howl looked scared.

"She meant we need to find Hessa," he said quietly. "Tonight."

He picked Tyler up over his shoulder like he weighed nothing.

"And we need to get you off this mountain before your mother finds you."