Wolf Creek

Chapter 2-2

Josh thought he heard a displeased huff from Asher, who puffed up his chest as he spoke. “What do we have to fear from these Amazons? They didn’t even dare approach us. They sent you instead.”

Elaine fixed a gaze of such intensity on Asher that Josh heard him gasp.

“While you were struggling to grasp your inner beast…” Elaine took one step toward Asher, who looked caught between the desire to appear tough and to take a step back. Neither would lessen Elaine’s sharp tongue. “While you were fumbling in the woods learning to hunt, these Amazons would have already made their first kill. Born in blood, only the strong are allowed to remain within their halls. The weak—and they count all males among the weak—are cast out. As soon as an sss girl can grasp, she is given a weapon. As soon as she can stand, she is taught to fight. As soon as she can comprehend the difference between life and death, she is taught to honor the former and bring an end to any who seek to visit the latter on any human. Most will make their first kill of a dark creature by the time they are sixteen and earn the magical glyphs that mark them as a warrior.”

Elaine waved her hand dismissively at Asher. “If the Amazons wanted you dead, they would only reveal themselves at you at the last moment. They are sworn to kill all those with tainted blood in them, and that means you.”

Asher held his ground, but his hands trembled. Even Josh could smell the acrid scent of fear beneath his bravado.

“We will honor your truce with the Amazons.” Stephanie weaved her fingers between Asher’s. “Won’t we?”

The tension in Asher’s shoulders released. One word from Stephanie, one touch was all it took to turn the pit bull into a puppy. He nuzzled her neck and the scent of his fear abated.

“I will send word of our next meeting.” Silverbane paused in the doorway and looked around. “Some of our family are good with tools and can fix this place up a little. You don’t have to live like this.”

Stephanie winced but nodded again. “Thank you.”

* * * *

By the time Josh reached the grove where the pack had left their clothes, the fighters were already dressed and waiting for Silverbane to release them for the night.

“I hear there’s a halfway decent band playing at Roger’s,” Terrence said to Bryce, who was pacing back and forth in the small clearing.

“Who cares how good the band is as long as the taps are flowing and the girls from the climbing school are there?” Will said with a big grin on his face.

“sss dykes,” Bryce muttered. “They’ll tie you up and leave you hanging high and dry.”

“All the more of a challenge.”

Silverbane emerged from the darkness, bringing the conversation to a dead stop. Although Elaine shot Bryce and the others her bone-withering glare, the alpha didn’t seem to care how rowdy his fighters were as long as they stayed in line when he needed them.

“Go on then.” He sounded more like an indulgent grandfather than a pack alpha.

Will bounded to his feet and attempted to tackle Terrence. “Let’s go. I’m itching for some action.”

“You’ll be itching for a whole different reason if you try to hook up with those climbing guides,” Terrence said.

“Come on,” Bryce said, without looking at Silverbane or Elaine.

“Be home before morning,” Elaine called after them as they disappeared into the shadows.

The remaining fighters bowed to their alpha and his beta before taking their leave a little more respectfully. As ever, Matthew was the last to go—just as he was always the first to arrive whenever Silverbane called. He stood there, waiting for Silverbane to dismiss him formally.

Matthew was nearly ten years older than Silverbane, even though he looked like he had twenty years on him. Ever since Josh could remember, Matthew always looked weathered by hardship with his cropped white hair and lean weight that looked awkward on his broad shoulders. Everything about Matthew was taut and controlled. With a stiff bow, he faced Silverbane.

“Thank you for the privilege of joining the fighters tonight.” Matthew’s voice was still strong despite his weariness. “If I can serve you or the family by any means, you need only speak the words.”

Silverbane returned Matthew’s bow with only slightly less deference.

“You are a credit to this family and a fine example to our young warriors.” He placed his broad hand on Matthew’s bony shoulder. “You have a place by my side as long as you want to fight, but you have already more than earned your retirement and a place among the elders many times over.”

“Not yet.” Matthew forced a smile. He remained serious, even though Silverbane wore an easy-going smile. “Not ever.”

Matthew bowed once more to Silverbane, then to Elaine, before he vanished into the forest shadows.

Josh stood and waited to be released as well, although not so much from a sense of duty than a fear of reprimand. No one really paid much attention to him anyway. If he stood still enough, they would probably forget he was there altogether.

“You shouldn’t be so permissive with the young ones.” Elaine helped Silverbane put on his jacket.

“They need discipline.”

“Aren’t they getting a little too old for discipline?” Silverbane’s smile was so playful that even Josh felt some relief after a night of tension.

Elaine, on the other hand, growled her disapproval.

“You were too lenient on those rogues too.”

Josh shifted from one foot to the other, deliberately snapping a twig to remind them he still existed and hadn’t been given freedom to leave.

“Why are you still here?” Elaine asked. “We have no more need for you. Wait by the car, and I’ll take you back to town. You’ve caused enough trouble for one night.”

“No.” Silverbane’s steely eyes were stern again. “I will take him home. You can go.”

For a moment, Elaine hesitated and stared at her brother. Josh had never seen her question Silverbane openly. The comments they exchanged seemed almost superficial to the undercurrent of thought they shared. Veiled glances were usually all they needed to communicate with each other, and Josh wondered if it was because they were twins. They seemed to know each other better than anyone else.

“He needs discipline as much, if not more, than the others,” Elaine said. “He even tried to talk me into killing him tonight. Not that it would be much of a waste. But I’m sure you’ll want to deal with him yourself.”

With another glare in Josh’s direction, she bowed toward her brother and left.

“You don’t ever go out with the other boys,” Silverbane stated rather than asked.

He lowered himself onto a fallen tree even more slowly than he had in the rogue’s farmhouse. When Josh didn’t move, Silverbane motioned to him to come sit next to him. There was a price for running away, and Josh resigned himself to another lecture. At least it wouldn’t be as sharp-tongued or violent as the ones Elaine gave. Where she was much more liberal with her discipline, Silverbane had rarely said even an unkind word to Josh. It almost made Josh feel guilty about running away so often. The old alpha always looked so disappointed in him when Elaine returned him to the pack.

“You did well tonight,” Silverbane said after a few moments of silence, looking at the sky instead of at Josh. Sunrise was still hours away, but already the navy sky was graying. “Your mother would have been proud.”

The backhanded compliment struck Josh as sharply as any one of Elaine’s reprimands or blows. He knew he was not even a tenth the negotiator that his mother was.

“It was a lucky guess.” He stared at the ground.

“You underestimate your value. A pack can’t survive without an omega any more than it can survive without an alpha. This family needs you to maintain its balance between the beast and our humanity.”

It was a speech Josh had heard time and again from his mother when she explained why she came home with bruises or had to spend the night at the main house after she had promised to return to their apartment in town before sunset. It was the same speech Silverbane gave her in hushed words as she lay sobbing on her bed while Josh listened from the next room. It was the same goddamned speech Josh’s whole life had been based on, and it made no more sense than if Silverbane had been speaking a foreign language.

“But why does it have to be me?” Josh was struck with the sudden urge to move. His body, every fiber of his being screamed out that question every second of his existence. “Why does it always have to be me? I’m no good at it. Back there, that was just luck. Anyone could see Stephanie and Erin were pregnant. Anyone could see that Asher and Terry were protecting the rest of their pack. A smart alpha doesn’t jump into the middle of a fight without knowing his or her enemies’ strength.”

Silverbane smirked. “Am I not a smart alpha?” Josh sighed.

“You knew you wouldn’t lose even if you had to fight the entire pack.”

“As I said,” Silverbane continued, “You see things that others see, but you can also understand those things. Of course I could tell that the females were with young. That’s why they weren’t about to fight. But you saw what neither I, Elaine, nor anyone else could see.

You saw the whys behind their actions.”

Josh shook his head. He didn’t have or want his mother’s curse. Being a werewolf was bad enough.

Being the pack’s omega would destroy him.

“I saw nothing. I understand nothing.” He felt helplessness welling up in him, ready to break for the surface. The tears would come so easily if he let them, but he wouldn’t cry in front of Silverbane. The others fed off his weakness and took pleasure in tormenting him, but Silverbane would only try to console him. The last thing Josh wanted was pity. “I wanted out.”

“I know.”

The flat answer only aggravated Josh all the more.

“I’ll run away.” He quivered as violent emotions bubbled up from the pit of his stomach along with a measure of bile. “I’ll hurt myself.”

Silverbane frowned. “No, you will not.” This time his voice was as hard as steel.

“You can’t stop me.”

Josh felt like he was on the edge of a precipice, and jumping was something he had imagined himself doing many times. Unlike Elaine, Silverbane did not take Josh’s defiance—usually grounds for the most severe of punishments—as anything more than a cry for help. The confidence in Silverbane’s voice grated at Josh. He felt the pull of the alpha’s command, but it was nowhere near as strong as Josh’s conviction that he would die if something did not change. If it meant hurting himself, he knew in that moment that he could and would do it.

Pain replaced Silverbane’s steel will, and he hung his head. In that rare moment, he looked like a man. Not a werewolf, not an alpha; just a man. Josh felt the sting of shame. If anyone else in the pack could see Silverbane at that moment they would take it as weakness; a weakness that was rooted in Josh’s refusal to be what his alpha needed him to be.

“No, I can’t stop you,” Silverbane said. “I know how hard it is for you, how hard it was for your mother. She was as valuable a member of this pack as Elaine, or even me. Without her, how many rogues would have been killed? How many arguments would have ended in a mortal challenge if she hadn’t intervened?”

To hear Silverbane talk about Jessica as a hero rather than a w***e, as she was commonly referred to by everyone else in the pack, did nothing to make Josh believe that there was any honor in what his mother had accomplished. Silverbane’s praise felt hollow now that she was gone. Josh knew how much it would have meant to her to hear those words spoken aloud to the rest of the pack even once. Maybe then she wouldn’t have been treated like a stray dog and Josh wouldn’t have been doomed to follow her path.

“I might not have agreed with her means,” Silverbane sounded almost regretful. “But in the end she kept us all together. Before she came, there were challenges and many deaths. A family is only as strong as its weakest member.”

“Don’t you think I know my place in this pack?”

Josh spat the words that burned on the tip of his tongue.

He knew how much it bothered Silverbane to hear his family referred to as a pack, but that was exactly what they were to Josh.

“Family. We are a family.” Silverbane shook his head. “Packs are for animals. Don’t you see? Physical strength can be gained by training. But it is weakness of the mind that spreads like a sickness and corrupts a family into a pack.”

“I won’t do it anymore.” Josh could barely hear his own words. His heart raced so fast his chest ached. If he didn’t say what he felt now, he might never have the courage to say out loud what he’d felt for so long in silence. “I can’t be the w***e my mother was. I won’t be a punching bag anymore. It will kill me. It is killing me.”

Silverbane stepped closer to Josh and put a hand on each shoulder.

“I know this life isn’t ideal,” Silverbane said, “and that’s why I’d rather let you go now than lose you forever.

“You cannot be the omega your mother was. That was her choice. But neither can you deny who you are and what you can do. Back there with the rogues, you revealed only a fraction of the skills an omega possesses. You have more strength than you know. You are more important to this family—to me—than you can ever realize. But I will sever your blood bond to the family, if that is what you truly want.”

He stared at Josh and for a moment looked as if he wanted to say more. Josh felt his tears break free in spite of his best efforts to hold them back. But, instead of attacking Josh’s weakness, Silverbane pulled him to his chest. He wrapped his arms around Josh in a move that was so protective and so genuine that Josh only cried even harder.