Waiting

19

Simon POV

We had barely reached the pack house before Damien bolted from the passenger seat and shifted.

There was no warning.

No command.

No explanation.

One moment, he sat rigid beside me, his beast straining at the edges of his control. His broad shoulders trembled beneath his shirt, muscles rippling and distorting as the anger he had refused to speak about during the drive finally consumed him.

The next—

He surrendered completely.

His beast tore through every shred of clothing he wore.

The sound of bones breaking and reforming cracked across the pack house driveway like branches splitting beneath the weight of a storm. Damien dropped forward as his spine bowed violently beneath the transformation. Muscle surged beneath his skin. His shoulders widened. His hands struck the earth, fingers lengthening into claws that carved deep furrows through the soil.

Dark gray fur erupted across his body in a thick, rippling wave.

He grew larger.

Then larger still.

By the time the transformation finished, the man had disappeared completely.

In his place stood the most magnificent wolf I had ever seen.

I turned off the engine and stepped out of the car.

As I closed the door, my gaze caught on the passenger seat.

The stuffed wolf Damien had been holding during the drive lay shredded across the leather. Its fabric body had been ripped open, and white stuffing covered the seat and floor like fresh snow.

The similarity between the harmless little toy and the beast now standing before me was almost mocking.

Damien’s Alpha wolf towered above every other beast in the pack. Even on all fours, his back rose nearly level with my chest. Thick gray fur covered his enormous body, darkening along his spine and deepening to charcoal around his legs and massive paws.

His chest was impossibly broad.

His legs carried the dense strength of tree trunks, ending in paws large enough to crush bone beneath them. Every muscle shifted visibly beneath his coat as he moved, controlled power coiling through him with each breath.

His muzzle was long and severe, his teeth too large and too white when his lips drew back.

But his eyes—

His eyes were what made every wolf nearby lower its head.

They burned with the fierce, icy blue of an Alpha in his prime.

Magnificent.

Untouchable.

Terrifying.

The sight of him stirred immediate pride within me.

That was our Alpha.

The beast strong enough to defend the pack against any threat.

The wolf whose bloodline had been chosen to lead ours.

The creature every one of us had sworn to follow.

My own wolf pressed closer to the surface, recognizing Damien’s dominance before my human mind could fully process it.

But instead of answering with the familiar pull of loyalty, he hesitated.

A low unease moved through him.

Not fear exactly.

Something older.

More instinctive.

Danger.

I stilled.

Damien’s wolf had always carried power. Every Alpha did. Their presence pressed against lesser wolves, demanding submission even when no command was spoken.

But the force surrounding him now felt different.

Heavier.

Sharper.

Unpredictable.

It rolled from him in slow, oppressive waves, slipping beneath my skin and making my wolf pace restlessly inside me.

The familiar authority of our Alpha was still there.

His scent was the same.

His strength was the same.

His position over us had not changed.

And yet something about the way he carried all of it had.

My beast recognized Damien.

He knew him.

Trusted him.

Submitted to him.

But he could not settle beneath the weight of his presence.

Part of him wanted to bow.

Another part wanted distance.

That had never happened before.

I looked toward the clearing.

The others felt it too.

Pack members who had been speaking near the house had fallen silent. Several younger wolves stood frozen near the tree line, their attention fixed entirely on Damien. Even the older fighters shifted their weight subtly backward, though none would openly acknowledge it.

No one knew what had changed.

Only that something had.

Damien lifted his massive head.

His nostrils flared.

The night went still.

Then he howled.

The sound erupted across the grounds with enough force to shake the trees.

It was not merely a call.

It was a command.

The Alpha order crashed through the pack bond and seized every wolf connected to him.

Shift.

My body reacted before I could question it.

Pain tore down my spine as my wolf surged forward. My knees struck the earth. Bones fractured, lengthened, and reformed beneath my skin. My jaw pushed outward. Claws split through my fingertips as fur swept across my body and my beast ripped free, shredding everything I had worn in my human form.

Around me, the clearing filled with the sounds of transformation.

Cries of pain.

Bones breaking.

Breath turning to growls.

Claws striking earth.

Clothing tearing beneath bodies no longer shaped to contain it.

Within seconds, men and women had vanished beneath fur, muscle, and instinct.

A sea of wolves surrounded the pack house.

Gray.

Brown.

Black.

Silver.

Dozens of eyes glowed beneath the moonlight as every beast turned toward our Alpha.

Damien stood at the front of us.

Larger than all.

Still as stone.

For one brief moment, he looked over the gathered pack.

Then he turned toward the forest and ran.

We followed.

There was no hesitation.

There could not be.

The pack moved as one body beneath the trees, paws striking the earth in rolling thunder. Branches snapped against our shoulders. Leaves and damp soil scattered beneath us. The night air rushed through my fur, thick with pine, cold stone, and the layered scents of living things hidden throughout the forest.

Usually, a pack hunt carried a certain rhythm.

Scouts moved ahead.

Hunters spread outward.

The strongest drove prey toward the waiting jaws of the others.

Even beneath instinct, there was order.

Purpose.

This hunt carried neither.

Damien did not wait for the pack to arrange itself around him.

He charged ahead.

His enormous body tore through the forest, smashing through brush the rest of us moved around. He did not slow to test the air or study the ground.

He followed the first scent he caught.

A deer broke through the trees ahead.

Damien was on it before the animal had taken three full strides.

He struck from the side.

The impact sent the deer crashing hard into the earth. Before another wolf could close in, Damien’s jaws locked around its throat.

One twist.

One brutal wrench of his head.

Stillness.

But Damien did not feed.

He released the animal and ran again.

My wolf slowed for half a heartbeat.

That was wrong.

A hunt was not waste.

A kill fed the pack.

We honored what we took because survival demanded it.

Damien had barely tasted the blood before abandoning the body.

He was not hunting from hunger.

At least, not the kind I understood.

Another scent crossed the wind.

Boar.

Damien changed direction so sharply that three wolves behind him nearly collided.

The boar burst from the underbrush with a furious squeal, tusks lowered as it charged.

Damien met it head-on.

The impact shook the ground.

The boar slashed upward, one tusk catching beneath the thick fur along Damien’s shoulder. Any ordinary wolf would have been thrown aside.

Damien barely moved.

He brought one massive paw down across the boar’s skull.

The animal collapsed beneath the force.

Damien tore into it before it could rise.

Blood darkened his muzzle.

His growl vibrated through the trees.

The sound should have carried triumph.

Instead, it sounded frustrated.

Restless.

As though the kill had done nothing to ease whatever had driven him into the forest in the first place.

The other wolves circled at a distance, uncertain whether they were meant to feed or continue following.

No one approached while Damien stood over the carcass.

His head lifted.

Blood coated his teeth.

His icy-blue eyes swept across the pack.

Every wolf lowered itself instinctively.

Including mine.

But beneath the submission, my beast remained tense.

Watchful.

Damien had always been dangerous.

That was part of what made him Alpha.

His strength had always carried purpose.

Control.

Now, my wolf could not determine where that control ended and instinct began.

Damien turned away and ran once more.

We followed because he commanded it.

Because he was Alpha.

Because pack instinct was stronger than doubt.

But the farther we traveled, the more uneasy my wolf became.

Damien killed everything that crossed his path.

A second deer.

A wild goat trapped between rock and fallen timber.

Two coyotes that scattered when they scented the pack.

He did not hunt cleanly.

He did not kill for food.

He chased anything that fled and destroyed anything that challenged him.

Each death seemed to drive him deeper into whatever rage had taken hold.

His gray coat became streaked with dirt and blood. Foam gathered along the edges of his mouth. His breathing turned harsh, but he showed no sign of tiring.

If anything, he became faster.

More vicious.

More desperate.

The pack began to fall farther behind him.

Not from exhaustion.

From caution.

No one wanted to run close enough to attract his attention.

I pushed harder, forcing my wolf forward until I drew near Damien’s flank.

The pressure surrounding him intensified.

It moved through the pack bond as a chaotic force rather than anything I could clearly understand.

Anger came through strongest.

Restlessness.

Frustration.

Something possessive enough to make my wolf instinctively bristle.

But the feelings were too tangled to separate.

Too violent to examine.

I could not tell whether they belonged to Damien, his beast, or simply the force of both of them crashing together without restraint.

My stride faltered.

My wolf did not want to remain beside him.

He knew Damien was our Alpha.

He knew we were meant to follow.

But something in the way Damien moved, hunted, and watched the rest of us warned him not to come any closer.

I had trusted my wolf’s instincts all my life.

Now he was warning me about the one creature we were never supposed to fear.

Our own Alpha.

Damien veered suddenly from the trail and disappeared through a dense wall of trees.

A frightened elk burst from the other side.

Our Alpha followed.

He launched himself onto the animal’s back, claws sinking through hide as the elk thrashed beneath his weight. Its antlers struck the branches, splintering wood while the rest of us closed in.

Damien could have ended it quickly.

He did not.

He dragged the animal down and allowed it to struggle beneath him. His jaws closed along its shoulder, then released. He bit again, lower this time, driving the elk into greater panic.

The sound of its terror filled the forest.

My wolf snarled inside me.

This was no longer a hunt.

It was torment.

Damien finally seized the elk’s throat and ended it with one savage movement.

Silence fell.

No wolf approached.

Damien stood over the body, chest heaving, muzzle dark with blood.

Moonlight filtered through the branches above him, catching the harsh lines of his enormous form.

He looked magnificent.

A creature born from strength, violence, and ancient blood.

Our Alpha at the height of his power.

And yet, as I stared at him, the pride I had felt when he first shifted had begun to sour into something else.

Unease.

Dread.

I could not explain it.

I could not point to one thing and say there.

Nothing about Damien was different enough to name.

But everything about him felt different enough to notice.

Damien lifted his head and looked directly at me.

My beast went still.

For one breath, neither of us moved.

Then Damien’s lips pulled back from his teeth.

Not quite a warning.

Not quite a challenge.

But there was enough aggression in it to make my wolf lower himself closer to the ground.

I dipped my head in submission.

This time, I looked away.

Not because I believed Damien would attack me.

Because, for the first time, I was no longer entirely certain that he would not.

The thought chilled me.

The forest had become painfully quiet around us.

Even the insects seemed to have gone still.

Damien stared at me for another moment before throwing back his head and howling again.

The sound ripped through the night.

The pack answered automatically.

Dozens of voices rose around me, joining his call until the forest itself seemed to tremble beneath it.

I howled with them because he was my Alpha.

Because his command lived inside my blood.

Because every instinct I possessed demanded that I answer.

But my wolf did not celebrate.

He listened to Damien’s howl and searched for the strength and certainty he had always known within it.

They were still there.

But something about them had changed.

Sharper.

Rougher.

Less controlled.

I could not explain it.

Neither could my wolf.

We only knew that Damien had gone into the forest angry.

And whatever rage he was trying to outrun was not disappearing with every kill.

It was getting worse.

For the first time in my life, my wolf did not feel safe answering the call of his Alpha.