Wolf Creek

Chapter 1 So close; he had been so close. Josh had hitchhiked the hundred miles to Bangor, Maine. From there, he planned take a bus to Boston or New York. He didn’t care where, as long as it was a big city. The distance might not be enough to sever the blood bond he was born into, but a life on the run was better than the pathetic life of an omega. Welcome to Wolf Creek. Caught in the high beams, the sign’s reflective letters traced a familiar path in Josh’s brain for the third time in as many months. Wolf Creek was the last place he wanted to be and the one place he couldn’t escape. “You can’t keep running away from your duty, from your family—Look at me when I’m speaking.” Even though Josh was nearly twenty years old, Elaine still treated him like a child. She treated everyone in the pack like they were beneath her. And, other than Silverbane—her brother and leader of the pack—they were; no one more so than Josh, even though he was technically a part of the family. As far as Josh was concerned, his mother was his only family, and she had died two years ago. He was more determined than ever to make his escape. “Of all nights to pull this stunt.” Elaine kept her eyes focused on the road. “Didn’t you get Silverbane’s messages? He must have called you a dozen times. You are even more useless than Jessica.” Josh saw disappointment in her windshield reflection, but it was no more than usual. The better part of Josh’s life had been spent in his mother’s shadow. Being the omega had secured her a place in the pack: at the very bottom. To the pack, Josh was some freak of nature to be at best ignored and at worst punished just for existing. He could almost get used to it all if he didn’t feel that wretched omega need for approval. It disgusted him to think of what that need had driven his mother to do, all in the name of keeping the peace. Josh was going to make a different fate for himself. “Why didn’t you answer Silverbane?” Elaine’s demand for an explanation couldn’t be ignored. The longer he waited to answer, the tighter his stomach twisted until he had to say something. The involuntary call of her authority as second in command was something no one in the pack could resist, much less Josh. It was almost as bad as when Silverbane himself gave a command. Fortunately, Josh was an expert at only giving away as much information as was expected. He could deal with the guilt and sense of worthlessness as long as it got him far away from the pack. “My phone was stolen.” That was essentially true. The fact that he had left it by the sink in a truck stop restroom was a detail he wasn’t going to offer. If Silverbane knew Josh was losing his cell phone on purpose, he might command Josh to have the phone with him at all times. While Josh could evade ambiguous questions, a direct command from Silverbane was something no one in the pack, not even Elaine, could refuse or ignore. The very need to comply was in the flesh and bones of everyone who was either born into the pack or took the blood oath to serve the alpha. Fighting it was about as useful as willing yourself to stop breathing. Resistance could only last so long, and there were always consequences for it. “That’s not the first phone you’ve lost this year,” Elaine said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were losing them on purpose.” It wasn’t a question, so Josh didn’t have to answer it. Instead, he stared out at the side of the road revealed by the headlights. Elaine didn’t need to confirm what she already knew. If Josh could get away from the pack, he would. That was no secret. The problem was that even though most of the pack believed him worthless, Silverbane didn’t. “If you hadn’t been stupid enough to lose another phone, you would have known this isn’t just another patrol. A band of rogues have set up a den at the old Shaye farm.” Elaine down-shifted and swerved around a beat-up pickup that was in no hurry. “Silverbane wants you there. So you are going to be there, even if it means I get stuck playing babysitter.” Josh wondered if he’d be lucky enough to die in a car crash. As this speed, all it would take was one miscalculation from Elaine, or maybe the old-timer driving the pick-up would veer into the other lane. “Why Silverbane doesn’t let me take a stripe out of your hide is beyond me.” Elaine stomped on the gas pedal. The car whined as it lurched forward. Josh watched the pick-up disappear in the side mirror. “Then again, you’d probably enjoy that.” Even though her quick temper was legendary in the pack, Elaine was more tense than usual. It was those little details that Josh couldn’t help but see and react to; another unwanted trait he’d inherited from his mother. Reading body language was so intuitive to Josh that he was dumbfounded when the rest of the pack missed what to him were glaring neon signs. The tightness in Elaine’s jaw and her narrow gaze fixed on the road ahead of them. She was worried. Josh didn’t kid himself that it was about him. The only person that could make her worry was Silverbane. Not even her own son, Bryce, would get that much emotion from her. The last thing Elaine wanted to do tonight was to track down Josh. Her place was at her brother’s side. That was just the kind of knowledge Jessica had known how to use to her advantage, and even though Josh didn’t have a tenth of his mother’s skill, he had to try. “I’ll just run away again.” His heart thumped hard against the seat belt strap. “Which means you’ll spend more time chasing after me than by Silverbane’s side.” Risking Elaine’s wrath would be worth it if he could provoke her. Elaine would do whatever it took to protect Silverbane and his rule. Her loyalty went beyond that of a sister, or even a twin. Nothing was worth more to her, not her life or even the life of her own husband. “You can’t keep me in Wolf Creek,” Josh continued. “Even if you lock me up at the house, I’ll find a way to escape. Without his second by his side, Silverbane will respond to any challenge personally. What if something happened to him when you weren’t there to do your duty?” Elaine veered the car down a road that was little more than an overgrown dirt path. Once they were out of sight of the main road, she slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. Josh watched in anticipation and dread as she stalked around to the passenger side. She wrenched the door open and pulled him out like a rag doll. Without a word, she threw him on the hood of the car. The engine whirred beneath his back. Elaine’s gray eyes held an eerie glow in the dark. Her breath was ragged and short. Josh tried not to tense while he prepared himself for the worst. “You are a disgrace to the Silverbane name.” Elaine’s clenched jaw muscles pulsed with every word. “If it were up to me, I’d have you beaten until you appreciated your birthright.” “That will never happen.” “Then I would make sure you were sent to join your mother.” Elaine punctuated her sentence by crushing Josh into the hood. The hot metal burned his back. “At least Jessica knew her place.” Josh took a sharp breath despite the fresh waves of pain. “Yeah, beneath Silverbane, just like everyone else.” The words hurt even though it was Josh saying them. The truth in them re-opened a wound that he could never heal. It was the same truth that he saw reflected in the eyes of nearly every pack member when they looked at him with derision and revulsion. The truth he heard every time he was berated whenever one of the pack needed to blow off steam. Even though his mother had extolled the importance of words, more often than not she used her body to subdue the passions of the pack males. No one claimed her or Josh because the truth was that any one of half a dozen men in the pack could have sired Josh and none of them wanted to admit it. Not in a pack that valued family and heritage. Josh was a mutt without lineage, little better than the rogue his mother had been when she convinced Silverbane to take her into the pack in exchange for her services as a mediator. Josh’s heart twisted at the thought of his mother’s tactics. Elaine hated what Jessica had done almost as much as Josh did. Instead of finding a mate of his own, Silverbane used Josh’s mother for his pleasures and left the pack without an heir. The pack wouldn’t necessarily follow Elaine if something happened to Silverbane. Josh knew Elaine resented her brother for not ensuring the future of the pack because of his attraction to its lowest member. That was exactly the sore spot Josh could use to put Elaine off-balance. Maybe even enough to give him an opportunity to make his escape. “Ungrateful bastard,” Elaine’s voice barely rose above a whisper but carried a dire warning. “My brother made a mistake when he allowed your w***e of a mother to join the pack. He should have just let her die. If it weren’t for her abilities, she would have met the fate she deserved and you would not exist.” “Maybe that would have been for the best,” Josh said. Adrenaline numbed his body. It was the only thing that kept him from shaking. Every muscle and sinew hummed with a strange energy, kinetic and unpredictable. Somewhere deep within him was the ability to use his words to push Elaine into a rage that would end his suffering. If only it was as easy for him as it had been for his mother. She could manipulate and control even Silverbane to a certain extent. But that was a pathetic existence of groveling and cajoling that sickened Josh to even think about, so instead he focused on the release he so desperately needed. Even if it meant death. “Maybe you’d be doing your brother a favor by wiping out his mistake.” He chose his words carefully. The right ones could chip away the last of Elaine’s patience and maybe earn him his escape. The wrong ones might let loose a fury that would destroy him. As terrifying as death was, it was better than living as a punching bag. One way or another he would be free. The strength of Elaine’s grip rattled Josh’s teeth, and her unblinking eyes bored into him with a multi-layered hatred. He almost had her. All he had to do was to offer her a possibility she already wanted. “No one would know.” He said the words so softly, with a hint of suggestion prickling the tip of his tongue. He lowered his eyes in surrender to her strength and his fate. “Maybe you didn’t find me. Maybe I just disappeared.” A growl escaped from Elaine’s clenched mouth, and her focused eyes brimmed with the possibility of Josh’s suggestion. She wasn’t just going to let him walk away after that, and he readied himself for the only escape that was left to him. “I won’t dishonor my brother by lying to him about finding you,” she said, as if she didn’t want to acknowledge what he was proposing. “I know.” Elaine licked her lips. Josh could almost see the web of words materializing into influence. All he had to do was to convince her to carry through on her promise to send him to his mother. The certainty of her desire was as scary as the possibility of release from a life that was killing him. How would she do it? Would it hurt? Would his mother be waiting for him on the other side of the darkness for his final hunt? Or would he be alone forever? Doubt and fear clouded his focus. The web of influence slipped from his mental grasp, and a bitter smirk spread across Elaine’s lips. The suggestion evaporated just as it was starting to take hold. “You’d rather die than serve Silverbane?” “If there was no other way.” “Get back in the car.” Elaine released him. “You are nowhere near as convincing as Jessica, but you certainly are her son. My brother believes you bring balance to the family. So, once we have dealt with the rogues, Silverbane is going to hear about your foolish death wish. You may not like your family, but it is the only one you have. And you will serve it until he severs your blood tie or kills you himself.”