Mistress of Blood and Fur

Chapter 29 - Sacrifice

Grace

“Let her die then!” Dash exclaims after hearing Sarah’s revelation.

I watch the Opium Hills bride with wonder. I crawl closer to her and touch her neck. Her pulse is steady, a little faster than usual but not by much. With all that’s been happening lately, I’m not surprised. She should be terrified, whether she’s Dennington’s daughter or not.

“She’s telling the truth, but why would she be telling us about her father?” I wonder aloud. Then, I turn to her. “Sarah, why did Dennington want you to come here as a bride? Did he want you to claim Onyx?”

“Yes, that’s what he wants. Believe me, I’m only here because he wants me to be,” she says, curling into herself. Oh, what being tied up while being hunted down by a shapeshifter has done to change her so much in such a short time. I feel pity rising from inside me, even as I try to temper it. I feel for this girl, even if I should be wiser, colder, and harder.

“So, you expect us to believe you. Tell us why we shouldn’t let you die right now. You just made it easy for us to wash our hands off your death.” Dash is red with anger, and I can’t really blame him.

“We can’t let Dennington’s daughter die,” Onyx says. “He already hates us. Her death may signal a greater war. We won’t be picking up sticks and silver the next time around. We will be running away from silver bullets. Or worse.”

I shiver at the thought. I’ve heard of packs being massacred by humans near the country’s eastern border. The more humans know about us, the more that we will become a dying breed. Yes, we can be terrifying in our wolf’s form, but we aren’t primed to hate and kill like humans are. We only fight back when cornered, and that’s not something I want to see in my lifetime.

“He will hate us more and more no matter what you do,” Dash protests, and I understand him. I really do. But there are other things that we must consider.

“Sarah dying means that we haven’t done anything about the shapeshifter,” I remind them. “It’s a problem we can’t brush under the rug.”

“We’re still too weak to battle the shapeshifter, Grace,” Fox says solemnly. “But we can protect Sarah, and drive her doppelganger away. For now.”

“What do we need to do?” Onyx asks. He stands up. At his full height and with a serious look on his face, he looks every bit as the future chief of Opium Hills. Pride blooms in my chest. He deserves the honor. It’s his birthright, even if he no longer believes in the meaning of that word. He’s all about freedom and fairness. In another life, we could just be young lovers with no care for the world. We wouldn’t be anxious for our lives.

Fox follows suit and stands up, as well. His is a quiet strength, but it is a steadfast one.

“We need to sacrifice something,” he declares gravely, raising his right hand and closing its fist.

I immediately see that a shadow seems to pass on Onyx’s face. I want to know more about what he feels about the shapeshifter.

“Sacrifice?” I ask, as Dash groans and pulls at his hair. He has had enough of this. We are all tired and our decisions have made things worse and worse. If we had found out about Sarah’s identity before we had the shapeshifter use her form, we could have just reported her to Alpha Kele. Hindsight is always 20/20, but we all can admit that we knew we were being stupid all along.

“I’m not going to sacrifice anyone, Fox. While we may not be guilty of Tobias’s death, we are guilty of hiding his corpse. Opium Hills wolves operate as a pack, a family. We have hidden so much from the rest of the wolves. Maybe it’s time to tell my father. He can punish me all he wants. I’ll tell him it’s my idea because I didn’t want to be tied up by Sarah’s claim.”

“You can’t do that,” Dash says. “We are all in this together. If you’re going to your father, we will go with you. I’m done with our petty grudges.”

“I appreciate that, Dash. Now, Fox, what do we need to sacrifice to get the shapeshifter off our backs even for a little while?”

“And then we’ll tell your dad?” I prod.

“Of course,” Onyx replies, his lips pressed together.

“We need to kill a wolf. A non-shifter. An animal.”

Everyone tenses. Even Sarah gasps, her hand flying to her mouth. It’s the opposite of a sacred thing to kill a wolf. It’s like blasphemy for us, a vilification, even though our gods have long abandoned us.

“Tell me you’re not inventing this s**t now, Fox,” Dash complains, pulling at his hair. For an EMT, he’s far from the calm and collected that he was when I first met him.

“No. We need something that will attract her. So, one of us has to run and shift with Sarah, baiting her to follow. When she’s near, we release the wolf. She’ll take its form, thinking that she’s becoming like one of us. Then, we kill it right in front of her. She must be the one to kill her target. If someone else does it, she’s back to her limbo, at least for months. Heck, even a year.”

“Maybe we should just kill Sarah,” Dash suggests, eyeing the whimpering girl. I wrap my arms around her, not knowing if what I’m doing is wrong or right. For all we know, she’s sold us out to her father and his men. She may just be biding her time, waiting for the m******e for her to escape. But my heart makes decisions for myself. It’s the same heart that pounds wildly whenever Onyx speaks. It’s the same heart that drives me wild, one that is connected to my body and soul. Even the pulsing between my legs gets worse and worse. I’m a woman who is only attracted to someone physically after my heart has been caught. I’m caught alright. I study the emotions flickering on Onyx’s face. He’s tempted. Oh gods, he is.

“The wolves would have done away with the Dennington girl,” Greta growls.

“It’s tempting,” Onyx admits. “However, we can give it a try. If Sarah dies, at least she dies with us trying something.”

“Who will run?” I ask.

“I will,” Dash says, narrowing his eyes at Sarah. “I’m going to watch her this time. If the shapeshifter doesn’t take the wolf, I won’t let it take anyone else but her.”

“Seems fair,” Fox says, his throat bobbing. Sarah watches him in despair. He’s the kindest hearted among the three men, and she’s lost him, too.

“My father hates me, too. Of course he knows I’m a wolf. I’m just bait. I’m human bait. Now, you’re going to use me as bait, too.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Onyx declares. “We need time to prepare for a proper annihilation. I want to destroy the shapeshifter and take back all the things she took from me.”

So, it’s been decided. We will run tonight.

**

The moon isn’t quite full yet. It’s supposed to be at its fullest on the night everyone expected Sarah and Onyx to go through the mating ritual. Tonight, a different event is to come. Sarah makes sure she passes by the brides’ cabin, where the shapeshifter can sense her.

We wait. Dash and Onyx strip and shift into wolves with ease. They run to the edge of the forest to wait for Sarah to take her first run.

The lights turn off in the cabin. It looks like Josie and Elaine are ready to sleep. The lights in Sarah’s room also turn off, and we get ready. Fox and I are in our human forms. I’ve disguised our scents. I change them so that they’ll blend with the nocturnal animals’ scents, not wolf, though. We’re not the prey tonight, but mere guardians.

The front door opens and Sarah’s doppelganger appears. It’s Sarah’s signal to strip.

“So, this is how you want to play your game?” the shapeshifter says softly, but there’s no hiding the smile on her face.

Sarah growls softly. She may be almost in her wolf form, but her fear is palpable. Its scent is strong. My ears can hear something in the distance. It seems like Onyx of Dash has caught a wolf. The yelping is too low for other creatures’ ears, but my heart clenches for the animal, anyway. I don’t pray to the wolf gods, but I do now – for forgiveness.

Then, Sarah bounds into the forest where three wolves await, two shifters and one natural wolf. The shapeshifter runs after her as a human. Sarah can’t change yet, until she’s close to the natural wolf – close enough to confuse the shapeshifter.

I run, too. Fox follows. I need to get to the natural wolf and change its scent. I’ve never known how much I’ll be able to use my mother’s abilities but I’m glad I can. As Fox and I reach the clearing where three wolves wait for the bait and the predator, I see something blaze behind them. It’s a flicker. Then, it’s gone.

What was that?

“Focus, Grace!’ Greta shouts in my head.

So, I do. Just as I see the naked Sarah and her doppelganger get close, I make my move. My eyes catch the graceful and rapid shifting Sarah does into a wolf, just as she gets close to the natural one about her size. I raise my hand to swap the scents as the doppelganger gets close.