THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL

Chapter6

*THE ALPHA WHO COULDN'T HOWL*

*Chapter 6: Sarah White*

"Mom?"

Elara's voice broke on that one word. It was so small I almost didn't hear it over the rain.

The woman in the white dress kept walking. Barefoot through the mud. The red eyes in the trees parted for her. Whatever those things with red eyes were, they let her pass.

She looked exactly like Elara. Same brown hair, same small nose, same mouth. But older. Tired. And her eyes... her eyes were silver. Solid silver, glowing like Elara's were right now.

"Mom?" Elara said again, louder. She tried to stand. Her legs gave out. I was still holding her waist.

"Elara, wait," I whispered. My voice was still hoarse from that howl. My hands were still faintly silver. "That's not—"

"Don't," Rhys said from my right. His voice was low, urgent. "Kael, don't let her go to her."

My father was on his knees in the mud behind us, staring at the woman like he'd seen a ghost.

"Sarah?" Magnus whispered. "Sarah, you... you died. We buried you."

The woman in white smiled. But it was a sad smile.

"I did die, Magnus. Almost. Hessa tried to take me when Elara was eight. Car crash? You remember that story? It wasn't a crash. It was Hessa. She dragged me into the river. I shifted and I ran. I've been running for ten years."

She looked at Elara. Her silver eyes filled with tears that glowed.

"My baby. You grew up. You howled. I heard you from the North Mountain."

Elara was crying hard now. Full body sobs. "You... you left me. Dad said you left us. You said... Tyler... Dad said you didn't want us."

"I never left you," Sarah said. She took another step closer. The mud didn't stick to her feet. "Your father lied to protect you. I told him to. If Hessa knew you were alive, she would have come for you sooner. I had to stay away so you stayed human. So you stayed safe."

She stopped ten feet away. She looked at Tyler's body on the ground. Tyler who wasn't breathing.

"Oh, my boy," she whispered. "My little boy."

The thing is, Tyler wasn't her boy. Tyler was Elara's little brother from her dad's second wife. Not Sarah's son. But Sarah looked at him like he was hers.

Elara felt it too. "He's not breathing," she choked out. "He's not breathing, Mom. He... that thing... it was inside him."

"I know," Sarah said softly. "Hessa used him as a door. She does that. She wears the dead to talk."

Rhys swore under his breath. "I told you. Witch's claw."

Sarah's eyes flicked to Rhys, then to me. To my silver hands. To the faint mark on Elara's neck that was now bright silver, pulsing.

"You did it," she whispered to me. "You howled. Magnus said you never... Kael, you..."

"There is nothing wrong with what I own," I said without thinking. The same stupid line again. My brain was fried.

Elara actually let out a wet laugh through her tears. "Kael, shut up."

"No," Sarah said, and she was suddenly serious. Her glowing eyes locked on mine. "There is nothing wrong with what you own, Kael White. There is everything wrong with what you were told you owned. You were never broken. You were never mute. You are a white Alpha. Like me. Like her."

White Alpha.

My father made a noise behind me like he'd been punched.

"Your mother," Magnus said to me, voice shaking. "Your mother... your mother was white too, Kael. I told you she died in childbirth because she was weak. She wasn't weak. She... Hessa took her. Because she had you. A white Alpha boy has never been born before. Never. The witches wanted to bind you."

My head was spinning. Too much. Too many secrets. All tonight. All while Tyler lay dead in the mud.

"Okay, enough!" Elara suddenly shouted. She pushed herself out of my arms and stood up. On her own. Silver eyes blazing. Mud on her knees, blood on her apron, hair stuck to her face. And she looked... she looked like an Alpha. Even with her diner uniform on.

"There is everything wrong with all of you!" she yelled at all of us. At her mom, at my dad, at Rhys, at me. "My brother is dead on the ground! My brother is dead! And you are all talking about white wolves and promises and eggs! I don't care! I don't care what I am! I want my brother back!"

The sight of her so homely and pretty and furious and glowing made my chest ache.

Sarah stepped forward and held out her hand.

"Come with me, Elara. I can save him. I can bring him back. White wolves can. But you have to come with me to North Ridge. Now. Before Hessa comes back into his body. Before the bound ones behind me decide they are hungry."

Elara stared at her mother's hand.

"Go with you?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"What about Kael?"

Sarah's face went hard for a second. She looked at me.

"Kael is... Kael is your mate, yes. I can smell it. But he just howled for the first time. He can't protect you from what is coming. He is new. He is weak. If you stay, Hessa will take you both. If you come with me, I can teach you how to save Tyler."

"Don't," I said. My voice came out broken. "Elara, don't."

She looked at me. Silver eyes meeting gold-silver eyes. The mark on her neck was burning bright now.

"There is nothing wrong with me being here," she said softly, repeating her line from the woods. "But there is everything wrong with Tyler being dead. If she can save him..."

"She can't," Rhys said suddenly. Loud. "Sarah White, tell her the price. Tell her what it costs to bring back a vessel that Hessa wore. You didn't tell her, did you?"

Sarah flinched.

Elara looked between them. "What price? Mom, what price?"

Sarah closed her eyes. A tear of silver light ran down her cheek.

"A life for a life," she whispered. "White wolf law. To bring back one that a witch has touched, another must take its place in the veil."

"Whose life?" Elara whispered.

Sarah opened her eyes and looked straight at me.

"His."

The red eyes in the trees growled. All at once.

And behind us, Tyler's body gasped — a horrible, wet, sucking gasp — and sat up again, but this time his eyes weren't black.

They were red.

And he looked at me and smiled with too many teeth and said in my dead mother's voice,

"Hello, son."