THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL

Chapter4

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*THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL*

*Chapter 4: The Witch's Mark*

It was hungry.

That howl from the woods behind Rhys wasn't a wolf howl. I know wolf howls. I've heard them my whole life even if I couldn't make one.

This one was wrong. It was too long. Too high. It bent at the end like it was laughing.

Elara was still burning up in my arms. Her silver eyes were wide, terrified, locked on mine.

"Kael? What did I do? What am I? Why is everyone kneeling?"

Everyone was kneeling. My father. Jenkins. Every Silver Falls wolf in the mud. Even Rhys's two guys were on one knee, heads bowed, like they couldn't help it.

Every wolf except me and Rhys.

And Elara, who wasn't really a wolf yet, but wasn't human anymore either.

"You're okay," I whispered to her. It was a lie. She was not okay. She was shaking so hard I could feel her teeth chattering. "You're okay. Look at me. Just look at me."

"There is nothing wrong with me," she whispered back, copying my words from the bridge, but her voice was broken. "There is everything wrong with them. Who is... what is that sound?"

"That," Rhys said, his smile completely gone now, "is the thing that killed your brother."

My father finally stood up. Mud on his knees. He looked older than I've ever seen him.

"Rhys is right," Magnus said, his voice low. "That's not rogue. That's not pack."

Jenkins was still kneeling, staring at Tyler's neck. "Four marks. Clean. Surgical. Not claws."

Rhys stepped fully across the river now. Water up to his ankles. He didn't care.

"It's a witch's claw," he said again. "One that's been bound to North Ridge for fifty years. My grandmother bound it. She said it would wake up when the white wolf howled again."

He looked at Elara.

"She just did."

Elara tried to stand. Her legs gave out. I caught her again. This time she didn't push me away.

"I'm not a white wolf," she said, angry even while terrified. She whirled around on the spot to look at Rhys fully, even from my arms, her expression becoming even more defiant. "I'm not a wolf at all! My old clothes are fine! My old life was fine! I worked at the diner! I served you coffee! You told me you liked your eggs burned, you jerk!"

Rhys actually blinked. Like he wasn't expecting that.

"You did work at the diner," he said quietly. "And you did burn my eggs. Every time."

The sight of her so homely and pretty and furious while her eyes were still glowing silver made me irrationally want to laugh and throw up at the same time.

"Elara," I said. "Your mom. Was she... was her name Sarah?"

Her head snapped to me. "How do you know my mom's name?"

My father answered. His voice was rough.

"Sarah Quinn was not Sarah Quinn. Her name was Sarah White. She was my sister's best friend. She was the last white wolf in Washington. When your father... when she got pregnant with you by a human, the witches came for her. She ran to me. I promised her I would hide you. Make you human. No shifting. No howling. No mate. Safe."

He looked at me, guilt all over his face.

"And I promised you to Kael. Before either of you were born. I promised the white wolf's child would fix my broken son. Would make him howl again."

The air left my chest.

"You... you promised me a mate?" I whispered. "You promised her to me like she was a thing?"

"There is everything wrong with them," Elara whispered, looking at my father. Her silver eyes were filling with tears again. "There is everything wrong with all of you. You all knew. You all knew and you let me work and live and... Tyler..."

Tyler.

We all looked down at Tyler in the mud. The rain was washing his red hoodie clean.

His chest moved.

Just a little. A tiny, horrible jerk.

Elara screamed.

"TYLER!"

She ripped out of my arms and threw herself back on him. "Tyler! Tyler breathe! Please!"

Jenkins lunged forward and grabbed her arm. "Don't touch him! Elara, don't!"

"It's a trap," Rhys shouted. He was suddenly next to us, moving so fast he was a blur. "The witch uses dead bodies! Get her off him!"

I grabbed Elara around the waist and pulled her back hard. She fought me. She actually hit me.

"Let go! Let go of me! He's breathing! My brother is breathing!"

"They're clothes, Elara, they cover me," I said stupidly, panicked, trying anything. "Your brother's clothes..."

"No! Let me go!"

Tyler's eyes snapped open. But they weren't Tyler's eyes anymore. They were completely black. No white. No brown. Just black holes.

And he smiled. With Tyler's mouth. But not Tyler's smile.

A voice came out of Tyler's body that was not a fourteen-year-old boy's voice. It was an old woman's voice. Cracked and wet.

"Well, well. Little white wolf finally sang. Took you long enough, Sarah's girl."

Elara went dead still in my arms.

My father fell to his knees again, but this time not from her howl. From fear.

"Mother Hessa," he whispered.

Rhys swore. "She woke up."

Tyler — the thing inside Tyler — sat up. Its head turned all the way around to look at Elara, too far, like an owl.

"You smell just like her. Come here. Let me see those pretty silver eyes."

Elara clutched my shirt so hard her nails dug into my chest.

"Kael," she whispered, her voice small. Human again. "Kael, that's not my brother. That's not my brother anymore."

I know.

My claws were fully out. My eyes were burning gold. My wolf, silent for eighteen years, was screaming one word over and over inside me.

_PROTECT. PROTECT. PROTECT._

I stepped in front of her, in front of Tyler's body, in front of everyone.

I opened my mouth.

I had never howled in my life.

And from the woods behind us, that hungry howl answered again, closer this time, and this time it had footsteps with it. A lot of them.

Something was running toward us through the trees.

Fast.