“You are all mine now. That is all that matters.”
So he was right, then? They’d all been human once? But who?
One by one the wolves crowded closer, her long fingers stroking through their wintry fur. He watched as they cringed under her touch even as they wiggled closer, both terrified of her and craving her affection. She seemed to grow stronger with every touch, her face slowly becoming less gaunt, and all the while, her lips bled and bled. Red droplets struck the snow, staining the ground beneath her.
She was feeding from them, Bay realized.
When the last of her wolves slunk away, one brushing up against Bay as they crowded in behind him, Morrigan turned and laid one bare palm against a tree. She seemed to shudder and a small moan slipped from her as her body rocked under some invisible force. A crack ripped through the forest and Bay startled, feeling the wolves shuffle behind him, the air around them suddenly uncertain.
Sulfur touched his nose and he breathed in the sharp scent, tasted it against his tongue. Another crack, like lightning across the sky, and bark splintered under her touch. A jagged line ripped its way down the tree trunk, ice and bark breaking loose and tumbling to the ground. Morrigan leaned closer, blood still dribbling from her chin as she blew softly on the opened tree.
It jerked, wood and bark shivering slightly, and a predatory smile slid over her face. “Wake,” she whispered and Bay felt the rumblings of magic around him. Like the wind it lifted the hair down his back, bristled in his tail fur, but more than that, he could see the black tendrils of magic dancing out from Morrigan’s skin. Tasting over his nose and he flinched backwards, but not before he felt the electric sizzle jolt through him. Then the tendrils reached out and touched the tree, sinking inside. “Come to me.”
Her voice slithered through the air, much like it had earlier and Bay whimpered against the pull of it in his gut. The wolf wanted to slink forward on its belly and grovel at her feet. The others did so without any hesitation at all, but this time Morrigan wasn’t talking to them. Her attention was focused on the tree, the split wood now writhing with long black worms.
Bay watched as the tree shuddered again, bare branches crumbling away into ash, until there was nothing more than a huge stump. Then the bark twisted and crystallized, like ice forming over the shell, and he watched as the tree took shape. A long, crooked nose, a gaping maw, huge spindly limbs. He’d seen caricatures of creatures like this in mythology books.
A troll.
A low vibration sounded in the creature’s throat as it towered over them, its body suddenly gaunt and he could count every rib along the its side, every knobby protrusion of the monster’s spine. Bay felt himself hunker down into the snow, hoping to blend in, the wolf’s need for survival suddenly kicking in. One taloned hand reached out for another wolf and the animal yelped, trying to dart away, when Morrigan laid a hand on the troll’s wrist.
“No. They are all mine.”
“Morrigan.” Her name rolled out of his mouth, long and drawn, and the troll grinned down at her. “About time you wake me.”
He snorted, a glob of ice shooting from his nose, and Bay winced, dragging himself backwards in a half-crawl. She gave him a bloody smile. “Feed yourself, Svell, the wolves belong to me as always.” She glanced back at the wolves tucked behind her, several now growing confident enough to stand. Hackles rising down their spines. “My wolves have fed me well tonight.”
She said the last with her gaze on Bay. Instantly, he thought of the fresh-killed deer and all the nights before, the bloody dreams, the hunts. God. It’d all been to
feed her
. To give her strength.
To do what?
He almost didn’t want to know. His stomach roiled at her smile, knowing damn well she knew what he was thinking. Knew he’d figured it out.
He thought of the man last night, bloody as she’d sucked him dry.
Nothing about Morrigan felt right. Evil and darkness leeched off her in waves, pulling at him, tainting him, and he stared up at the troll towering behind her, the long-fingered claws and jagged teeth. Nothing about that troll looked safe. Another monster. One he’d helped her make. She said he’d woken her the night he crashed? Had all this been because of him?
“You were the start.” She reached for him and Bay launched into control, jerking the wolf’s body backwards and out of range. He would
not
let her touch him. Teeth bared, he scrambled away from her, only to watch as the other wolves rung around her, ready to defend her. She laid a hand on the one closest to her side, reassuring her pack even as she spoke to Bay. “Enough of this. You are mine. You do as you are told. I am your Queen.”
Not my Queen
. The thought resonated through him and he could feel his wolf’s surprise at that thought, but the beast didn’t fight him. Not now.
Morrigan lifted one cool eyebrow at his defiance. “Come here.”
The words came wrapped in a velvety command, one he was damn well meant to obey as her gaze jerked from his eyes to the barren snow in front of her. The wolf shivered, muscles clenching and bunching in preparation to move. There was no way he could just stand there against the force of her order. No way could he stop himself from moving. But he’d be damned if he went to her.
Pain lanced through him, burning hot through his veins as Bay took a step forward, fighting the lure of her power—a siren in the middle of a winter’s forest. And she would be the death of him. He knew it. Maybe not now, not while she still needed him like all the others, but insolence like his could not go unanswered. Not by a cold-hearted bitch like her.
Bay dug his paws into the snow and whirled, launching himself into the forest. Sharp icicle laced branches snapped at his face, but he drove through them, pouring himself headlong into a run. Fear pounded in his heart, a wild staccato beat, like the sounds of wild horses, and suddenly the wolf-spirit was helping him, pouring raw fear into the mixture until he couldn’t hear Morrigan screaming behind him.
God help him, but he was probably going to die over that.
He ran until he couldn’t breathe past the ice in his lungs and he staggered to a stop, his long jaws opened wide as he gasped for air, his sides heaving. A tremor ran through him and Bay closed his eyes. Behind him, still somewhere in the distance, wolves howled. A throaty hunting cry that sang between them, and fear latched onto the tension between his shoulders and lit every nerve in his body on fire. He knew what they were hunting.
Him.
***
Merry laughter bubbled out of her as Eden strode out of the house, nine dog bowls stacked on top of one another in her arms. It was an art form, each precariously perched on the one below, but time and practice had made her movements easy and efficient as she went from house to house, doling out food. The dogs barked, bouncing at the ends of their chains as they each waited for her to get there and pass them their nightly rations.
The school trip had been a success. The kids had each gotten to take a turn on the sled one by one. Max and Kona, her two lead dogs, had been great sports and had pulled the sled around perfectly. Just fast enough to keep the children laughing, but easy enough that no one got bounced out of the basket. The rest of the dogs had succumbed to pets and had even doled out their share of kisses.
Stuffing her hands back in her pockets, Eden watched as the dogs chowed down, tails wagging as they shoveled down their food. She couldn’t have asked for a better turn out to the day and with Dee and Rowan coming over to round out the night, things were only looking up. Max was one of the first done, nosing away his stainless steel dish, and Eden reached to pick it up when a roar thundered through air.
She ducked, instinctively collapsing into the snow, even as her head jerked around to see what had made the sound. Wood splintered and cracked, the sound lifting hairs down the back of her neck as she turned towards the tree line. A huge white...
beast
ripped up a tree. Claws gouged through the wood as easily as one might tear paper, spitting bark and splinters with the sheer force of it. A wolf the size of a bear and now this? Whatever
this
was.
Her breath shorted out in her lungs and Eden lay there, not daring to move a muscle. The dogs had gone silent around her and her gaze flicked towards Max only to see him holed up in his dog house, plastered against the back of the kennel, shaking. Her heart rammed in her throat. The monster turned, its gangly arms spread wide, and it roared in the direction of her house. Vicious looking teeth gaped from its mouth.
Every muscle in her body screamed at her to run. To get up, bolt for the house, and lock herself inside. But she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t leave her dogs out here, not as the monster staggered a few steps away from the trees, surveying the small kennel yard. Quivering, Eden watched as the monster took several more steps towards them, its bulbous nose letting out a sharp blast of air. Was it scenting?
Shit, but she hoped it couldn’t smell worth a damn. She’d just fed the dogs, the stench of raw meat no doubt one hell of a lure to a monster like that. She bit down on her bottom lip to keep from whimpering. No sounds. It might only draw the beast closer. A faint echo of a howl sounded from in the forest and Eden caught her breath.
She wasn’t crazy and yet, none of this could possibly real.
But it is
, her brain niggled at her. Surely even hallucinations weren’t contagious to other people or animals. And her dogs were definitely scared shitless. No, she wasn’t imagining this. The two-legged monster gave one last snort and shambled back into the trees. Eden waited, refusing to move. Not yet. It could still be there, watching and waiting. She couldn’t take that risk.
She didn’t know how long she lay there in the snow, but the sun had begun to sink in the sky, the bright blue of day slowly turning into the dusky color of evening. Slowly, Eden crept to her feet and glanced at the doghouses. Not a single dog had crept from its kennel. She didn’t blame them. On shaky legs, Eden started for the trees. She had to know. Despite the fear clamoring in the back of her skull, scraping against her nerves with her brain still screaming for her to run, she
had
to know.
Relief left her hollow and she stood there, staring down at the huge foot prints left in the snow. Bigfoot had nothing on this beast. But there was
proof
. Undeniable proof. Eden drew her phone out of her coat pocket, and after pulling one mitten off and stuffing it under her armpit, she snapped a picture.
There.
Snow crunched behind her and Eden turned to see Kennedy’s truck pulling up alongside hers. The door shut and the other woman waved, a curious tilt to her head. Eden started towards her and stopped, glancing back at the tracks, almost scared to leave them. What if they just disappeared?
“You all right?” Dee called as she tromped across the lawn towards her. “And where are all the dogs? Can’t remember the last time I showed up and not a single one barked. Actually, I don’t think ever has been a time where that happened.”
She frowned and glanced at the doghouses, obviously confused.
“Kennedy.” Dee glanced back at her, both eyebrows lifted. Eden took a deep breath and pointed towards a perfect footprint in the snow. “Do you see that?”
“Shit.” The word came out on a startled breath and Kennedy jumped back a step before leaning forward. “Holy Hell.”
Relief flooded her and suddenly Eden wanted to curl up and go to sleep. Kennedy on the other hand was glancing wearily at the forest. “What the hell made those? Or are you shitting me?”
She looked a little hopeful with that last question, no doubt hoping it was Eden’s way of a poor joke. Eden shook her head. “This isn’t a prank, I swear. And I have no freaking clue what made these. It was huge. Scared the hell out of me and the dogs—”
“You saw it?”
A laugh, exhausted and brittle with fear, wrung its way out of her mouth and Eden felt her shoulders sag. She jerked her head in a slight nod, just as the howls started again. Eerie and dark, they sang through the forest somewhere in the distance, leaving Eden shivering in the sudden onslaught of cold night air. She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Is it just me or did it just drop ten degrees?” Kennedy said, watching the shadows of the trees fearfully.
Eden huddled down into her coat and turned towards her house. “Let’s go. We’ll wait for Ro, then I’ll rehash everything. But I want to be inside.”
They headed towards the house kennels, fetching each dog from the yard and leading them inside. Rowan wouldn’t be thrilled to have nine furry canines traipsing around the house, each one wanting to smell her because of her cats, but Eden couldn’t leave them outside. Not now.
She wrapped her hand in Smuggler’s collar, ready to lead him back towards the house, when movement along the tree caught her eye. Her heart beat wildly in her breast, suddenly making it too painful to breathe. Smug whined and pressed against her knee. There, dancing amongst the darkness in the trees, huge shapes paced back and forth. Moonlight glinted off their yellow eyes.
It could have been bears, they were all big enough. But bears didn’t travel in groups. Bears didn’t move with the low slung trot of wolves. And bears didn’t tilt their head back and howl. Trembling, Eden shoved Smuggler inside and slammed the door shut, dead bolting it behind them. Her forehead touched the cool surface of the door and she let out a long breath.