Page 116 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

My eyes felt like they were filled with sandpaper as I awoke to a barrage of shouting, the flames of hell licking at my face.

No…not hell. They’d set me down on the couch in the living room and there was a wild fire roaring in the hearth, burning my cheeks with the intensity of its heat.

“Guys,” Vivian hissed. “Guys, she’s waking up.”

Cool hands fluttered over my arms, and Viv sucked in a breath. “Holy crap, she’s on fire.”

I felt the couch beneath me move jerkily backward and groaned as a wave of vertigo almost had me leaning over the edge to vomit again.

My head pounded as I tried to push myself to sitting. “Water,” I croaked, my throat drier than the Sahara.

An icy glass pressed into my palm, and I gulped it down greedily, breathless when I finally drained it and shivering as the cold water snaked a path down into my belly.

It brought with it a sense of clarity and the hydration my body needed to heal whatever ailed it. I peeled my eyelids back and stared into the worried, angry faces of my friends. Jared’s hand closed over mine, and the couch dipped as he sat down next to me.

Clay stood behind Layla and Vivian, his arms crossed over his shirtless torso. His chest heaved with hard breaths as he stared at me, his glowing blue eyes showing the fear he was trying to hide.

I squeezed Jared’s hand, trying to let him know that I was all right as I found my voice, swallowing past the diminishing razor blades in my throat.

“You should have told me,” Jared said, and I peered up at him, cut by the betrayal in his eyes.

I glanced at Clay, who nodded, telling me that they’d finally let Jared in on everything we’d been looking into.

…they didn’t even know the half of it. I dropped my head and the plastic bag still wedged between my breasts crinkled with the movement, reminding me of its presence.

“Are you going to tell us what happened?” Clay demanded. “You scared the shit out of us, Allie.”

“Would you chill out for, like, two seconds?” Layla snapped at him. “Give her a minute.”

“It was a panic attack,” Vivian added. “We told you that, already. She used to have them all the time.”

Clay huffed.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Jared, ignoring their banter. I waited until his eyes met mine to continue. “It was too awful…all the things Adam told us. I didn’t want to tell you until we had proof.”

The need to explain overtook me, and burning tears stung in my eyes.

“But you’re right. We shouldn’t have kept it from you. I wish…I wish…”

Wishing wasn’t going to get me anywhere. And nothing was going to soften the blow of this next part. My wolf blazed back to the surface and I grunted, holding her back as my rage erased what remained of the grogginess still clinging to my bones.

Jared tugged my hand. “Is it true?” he asked me, voice hard, and even though his jaw was clenched tighter than a vise, I didn’t miss the slight quiver in his chin.

With shaking fingers, I let go of Jared’s hand and unzipped Sam’s sweater, digging in between my breasts. The bag was coated in slippery sweat, but it was still there, giving life to all the horrible things we’d wished weren’t true.

I set it down on Jared’s lap as though if I jostled it too much it may explode.

He glanced down, brows drawn together as he studied the tufts of fur contained within.

For the first time, in the light, I noticed how the tips of the tails weren’t the only contents.

There was also something shiny, like copper, and small tucked into one corner.

And a swath of baby-fine blond hair knotted with a bit of string.

“Is that…” Layla trailed off and her words seemed to break whatever spell had been holding Jared still.

A strangled cry fell past his lips as he lurched to his feet, sending the bag and its contents to the floor. The tails, hair, a bit of shining copper spilled out onto the rug at Clay’s feet.

His head shook, as though not believing what he was seeing.

Jared’s blatant horror confirmed my suspicions. I’d still been holding onto a shred of hope that the chunks of fur and decayed flesh didn’t belong to his parents. I could see now that it was foolish to hope.

I could see now what needed to be done.

Clay stooped, a vein in his neck jutting out, throbbing. With his thumb and index finger he picked the bit of copper from the carpet, rising back to standing. He held it up to the light, turning it between his fingers.

It caught the light, glinting faintly. It wasn’t a thimble.

It was a shell casing from a bullet.

“Clay,” I said on a breath, seeing the exact moment he realized what it was and why it was in that bag. His face twisted, and in one quick motion, he whipped the casing across the room. The knock of it shattering a perfect circle through the glass window near the door made me jump.

He turned on me with wicked fury, eyes aglow. “You knew,” he shouted. “You knew, didn’t you?”

Hurt and scathing fury rippled across his eyes and stained his cheek red.

“Not for certain,” I told him, standing my ground. “And you know as well as I do that if I’d told you, you wouldn’t have been able to—”

“Don’t,” he snarled, and something inside me crumpled.

Jared knelt on the floor, hesitantly reaching his fingers toward the tufts of crimson-stained fur on the rug. He paused just shy of touching them, unable to. His outstretched hand balled into a fist and he pulled it back.

“Maybe…” he began, his voice oddly detached. “Maybe he just…”

I shook my head, reaching down to put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched at the contact, and I snatched my hand away. “No,” I told him. “Grey admitted everything. The missing shifters. Your parents. He told me right before he compelled me to forget it all and be loyal to my alpha.”

Distantly, I was aware that Clay had begun to pace. I could hear Viv and Layla whispering to him reassuringly, trying to get him to breathe.

“But,” Jared said, his eyes widening as realization set in, “you…can’t be compelled?”

“Apparently not.”

My upper lip curled back as my wolf hedged nearer to the surface. The presence of her mates’ wolves— their rage and anguish—stoking her fire. Our fire.

“Jare,” Clay roared, and Jared tore his gaze away from the last remains of his parents to meet Clay’s stare.

Something passed between them. A question unspoken.

Jared’s face visibly paled as he dipped his head in a single, solemn nod.

Clay kicked off his shoes and stormed to the front door, Layla and Viv calling after him.

“Jared? What did you just do?” I demanded, getting to my own feet to follow after them.

He didn’t look at me when he replied simply, “Gave him permission.”

Oh no you didn’t.

A terrifying image of Ryland standing with his canine teeth dripping blood over a prone Clay flashed across my mind.

Spurred to action, I hooked a hand beneath Jared’s arm and hauled him to his feet, a new kind of panic lodging itself like a blade in my gut. “Well, ungive it,” I hissed, dragging him to the door with me and out into the cold dawn light.

Jared pulled out of my grasp once we got outside. Layla shrieked as Clay burst from his shorts, coming down on all fours, a vicious growl echoing in the miasmal quiet.

He was past the point of no return. There would be no talking him down. I could see it in his eyes. Wild and hungry. He wouldn’t be sated until blood was spilled.

I was knocked onto my stomach as Jared shifted behind me, the hard skull of his canine head slamming against my back. I struggled to get my breath back, rolling out of the way as he launched himself down the steps and onto the dirt lawn with Clay.

Finally, blissfully, I released myself to the power of my wolf, feeling my body bend and break in a matter of a second.

I scraped down the steps and placed myself in their path, Layla and Viv taking up posts on either side of me as what remained of our clothes drifted down to land in heaps on the dirt.

Stop, I bellowed in our shared mind. Clay snapped at me. Move, Allie.

I won’t.

Do as he says, Jared chimed in, vibrating with a level of rage I didn’t know he was capable of.

No. I won’t let you get yourselves killed. Allie, Jared warned. Move.

He needs to be dealt with. Now.

I faltered.

Clay was right.

What am I doing?

It was so obvious. The road laid out as clearly as if it were made out of yellow bricks.

You’re right.

Hazel’s sad look as she told me it’s what sets you apart that will see your triumph, came to mind.

Even with a lack of experience, I was the strongest of us. The fastest. But above all, even though I’d accepted Ryland as my alpha, I was the only one of us with a will strong enough to compete with his.

Someone had to put an end to him, but it couldn’t be them.

It had to be me.

I think somewhere deep down I’d known that all along.

I’d known it would come to this; I just didn’t want to believe it.

And as much as the rational part of me pleaded that we needed to be patient.

That we should come up with a plan. The irrational part—the part that lusted for Ryland’s blood just as much as my mates, demanded to be sated.

Then there was the uncontested fact that if I didn’t do it, they would. Even if it meant one or both of them died trying.

Vengeance would be had today, but it wouldn’t be them who wreaked it upon our common enemy.

I’m going to challenge Ryland, I told them, the panic of a moment before falling away like a discarded skin. The declaration brought with it a sense of calm that stilled the tremor in my paws and evened out my breaths.

It was the simplest thing in the world, that decision.

The hell you are, Clay said, coiling his body to launch past me.

No, I commanded him, letting the full force of my will expand in my core. Letting it infuse my words with power.

Clay buckled, his coiled shoulders lowering.

Jared eyed me warily, glancing between Clay’s bared teeth and my unnerving stillness. Allie, you can’t, he said, the detached tone gone for the moment. He’ll kill you.

He might, I admitted. But I’ll make sure to leave him weak enough that you can finish what I started.

Allie! Vivian shouted in my thoughts. We aren’t going to let you do this.

I whirled on her.

Oh? I hissed, lips pulling back over teeth. And I should let them go instead?

A startled yelp left her lips, and she bucked backward, cowed.

We need to be rational, Layla said.

Allie, Clay said, strangled. Let. Me. Up.

You can’t do this, Jared added, taking another tentative step toward me. Vivian’s right. We aren’t going to let you.

That was where he was wrong.

I didn’t need them to let me do anything.

I dug my claws into the dirt and lifted myself high and proud, letting that bubble of will within grow and grow until I knew there was nothing that would stop it.

Layla and Vivian were the first to bow, emitting tiny yelps as their chins bent to rest on the dirt.

No! Clay shouted. Don’t do this. Please.

I’m sorry, I told them, watching resolutely as Jared and Clay fought against the force of my will. But no one else is going to get hurt. Not when I can stop it.

Allie, don’t… Jared begged.

Clay shuddered as he fell, his panicked stare piecing me straight through.

Your will won’t keep us here, he hissed in my thoughts.

You aren’t our alpha!

I don’t need it to keep you here, I replied, my heart breaking as I turned away from them to face the trees. I just need a head start.