THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL

Chapter5

*THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL*

*Chapter 5: The Boy Who Finally Howled*

Tyler's body sat up.

Not like a boy sits up. Like a puppet pulled by strings. His back was too straight. His head turned too far to look at Elara. That black-eyed smile was still on his face.

"Come here. Let me see those pretty silver eyes, Sarah's girl."

Elara was shaking so hard in my arms I thought she would fall apart. Her nails were dug into my shirt, into my chest. Her silver eyes were full of tears but she wasn't blinking. She was frozen.

"Kael," she whispered. "That's not my brother. Kael, that's not Tyler."

"I know," I said. My voice was that other voice again. Low. Double. Not just mine.

"Kael, don't," Jenkins warned from behind me. "That's not Tyler anymore. If you touch it—"

"If I touch it what?"

Mother Hessa laughed using Tyler's mouth. It was a horrible sound. Old woman laugh in a kid's body.

"If he touches me, little Beta, I'll wear him too."

Rhys was next to me now. Shoulder to shoulder. For once he wasn't smirking.

"We can't kill the vessel," he said quietly, so only I could hear. "Witch rule. You kill the body she's wearing, she jumps. She'll jump straight into Elara. She's white. She's the perfect vessel."

My blood went cold.

Elara heard him. Of course she heard him. "What? What does that mean?"

"It means you don't get to die today, little wolf," the thing in Tyler said. It stood up. Tyler's small body stood up in the mud, bare feet in the cold river. "You get to come home with me. Your mother promised you to us before she ran. White wolves belong to the coven."

"My mother didn't promise me to anyone!" Elara screamed. She finally found her voice again. Defiant even while terrified. She whirled around from behind me to face it fully, even though I tried to hold her back. "There is nothing wrong with what I am! There is everything wrong with you! Let my brother go!"

The sight of her so homely and pretty and furious with glowing silver eyes and mud all over her diner apron made me irrationally... not scared anymore.

It made me angry.

No, not angry. Furious.

"Let him go," I said.

The thing in Tyler looked at me and laughed again.

"Or what? The broken Alpha will finally bark? You can't even howl, boy. Your father told everyone. The whole state knows Silver Falls has a mute Alpha pup. You can't save her."

Behind me, my father made a small sound. Like he'd been hit.

Elara grabbed my hand. Her hand was burning hot.

"Kael, don't listen to it. It's not—"

"There is nothing wrong with what I own," I said suddenly. I didn't know why I said it. It just came out. "There is everything wrong with them."

Elara stared at me, confused.

I looked at her. Really looked at her. Silver eyes. Mark on her neck that I didn't give her but was mine anyway. Red hoodie brother dead behind her.

"My old clothes are fine," I whispered to her. "My old life is fine. That's what you said on the bridge. That's what Tyler said. But it's not fine. None of this is fine."

And I stepped forward.

"Kael!" My father shouted. "Don't!"

I walked toward Tyler's body. Toward Mother Hessa.

"Come on then," I said to it. To her. "You want a vessel? Take me. You said I'm broken. I'm empty. Right? There's nothing inside me. Take me."

"KAEL, NO!" Elara screamed.

Rhys grabbed my arm. "Are you insane? She will kill you!"

Tyler's body tilted its head. Black eyes curious.

"You offer? An Alpha offers himself to a witch? No one has offered in a hundred years."

"I'm not offering," I said. I was two feet away from it now. I could smell Tyler under the rot. Coffee and grass. The kid. "I'm telling you to let him go and take me. Or try."

It smiled wider. Tyler's mouth stretched too wide. Too many teeth.

"Okay."

It reached out. Tyler's small hand, black veins now crawling up the wrist, reached for my chest.

I felt it before it touched me. Cold. Like ice water in my veins.

Elara screamed my name.

And my wolf — silent for eighteen years, the one everyone said was dead, the one who couldn't howl —

— finally snapped.

It wasn't a howl.

It was a roar. A howl and a roar mixed together. It tore out of my throat so loud the river jumped. So loud the rain stopped in the air for a second. So loud every single wolf in that clearing, including Rhys and my father, hit the ground on their hands and knees, heads down, whimpering.

I howled.

For the first time in my life, I howled.

And it wasn't a normal howl.

It was white.

Silver light poured out of my mouth with the sound. The same silver as Elara's eyes.

Tyler's body flew backward like it had been hit by a truck. It landed in the shallow water with a splash. Black smoke poured out of its mouth, its eyes, its nose. Screaming. Not Tyler screaming. Her screaming.

Mother Hessa screaming.

"WHITE ALPHA! IMPOSSIBLE! THERE IS NO WHITE ALPHA!"

Elara fell to her knees, hands over her ears, but she wasn't scared. She was staring at me, tears streaming, silver eyes huge.

"Kael... you... you're glowing..."

I looked down at my hands. My claws were silver. My veins were silver light under my skin.

Behind me, my father was on his knees in the mud, staring up at me like he was seeing a ghost.

"Your mother," he whispered. "Your mother was... Kael, your mother was a white wolf too. I never told you. I thought it skipped you. I thought you were broken because... oh my God."

Rhys was on one knee, head bowed, but he was grinning like a maniac.

"Well. s**t. That's new."

In the river, Tyler's body twitched. The black smoke was gone. His eyes were closed now. Normal again. But his chest wasn't moving.

Elara crawled to him, sobbing. "Tyler? Tyler!"

I knelt next to her, my whole body shaking, light still fading from my hands. I put my hand on Tyler's chest. No heartbeat.

"No," Elara whispered. "No no no, you saved him, you saved him, why isn't he breathing?"

From the woods behind us, the hungry howls that had been running toward us stopped.

Everything went silent.

Then, one by one, red eyes opened in the dark tree line.

A lot of them.

Rhys stood up slowly, claws out.

"Kael," he said quietly. "Whatever you just did? You just rang the dinner bell for every bound creature in North Ridge. They heard a white Alpha howl for the first time in fifty years."

The red eyes stepped forward.

And in the middle of them, a woman in a white dress walked barefoot through the mud, smiling.

She looked exactly like Elara.

"Mom?" Elara whispered.