Page 1 of Wolfsbane

CHAPTER 1

Viktor

The light slanting through the trees said the sun would soon be gone for the day, but that was fine. Perfect, even. The waning light was plenty to see by, not that I needed it to find my quarry.

The woods were silent, and that was all I needed.

Because woods were never supposed to be this quiet. There should be birds and squirrels making constant noise. Their silence meant both that their territory had been invaded, and that those doing it were clumsy oafs. The lack of animal noise made it easier for my ears to pick out the sounds of my prey.

Breathing.

The shuffling of feet, impatient for action, waiting to dishonorably involve themselves in a challenge fight.

It would have offended Aleks to know what they were doing. My brother was a creature deeply invested in the idea of honor. In the belief that we were supposed to be something more, something higher than the basic beasts we had come from.

Breaking rules and ignoring the notion of honor didn’t offend me so much. It simply didn’t fit into my plans for the future, so it needed to be stopped.

Adam was the first, and his heart was beating so fast and loud I was surprised that alone hadn’t led me to him. He was grinning like a jackass, peering around the side of the tree he hid behind. So desperate to involve himself in a fight he hadn’t been invited to, he was practically panting.

He didn’t even hear me approach.

He wasn’t looking for threats at all.

I let my claws grow out as I stepped in behind him, taking care not to so much as rustle the leaves on the forest floor.

He never saw death coming.

The only indication he understood what had happened at all was the surprise in his eyes as he lost the strength to stand, falling to his knees in front of me. The only sound now was the gurgling noise in his throat as he tried to breathe through a trachea that I had neatly severed, as blood bubbled out and down his neck before he stiffened and fell forward, onto his face.

I stilled, going completely silent as I returned to listening.

There was another. Odd, since I thought there should have been two more, but for the moment, I had to focus on the ones I could locate.

Besides, if Ajax Fyse weren’t capable of killing three wolves to defend himself, was he worth helping? Five was perhaps too many, but three? Any leader worth his life could handle three.

Aleks could, I was sure.

Well, in a fair fight.

My brother, innocent that he still was, believed all fights should be fair.

There. A twig broke in the distance, too loud to have been any small woodland creature, even if they hadn’t been tellingly silent.

My head snapped to one side and I sniffed the air. I stalked through the falling twilight, letting my ears and nose guide me. It wasn’t hard. Grant’s lot weren’t terribly efficient at bathing, so I could smell them yards away.

I wondered sometimes if they were lazy or afraid of washing their own asses.

Maybe both.

John was worse than Adam, not even looking for the fight. Just hunkered down behind a tree, drinking from a small flask that constantly stunk of foxglove. So desperate was he to feel something, that he poisoned himself.

Weak.

The pack would be better without him.

He was taking a long swig from his flask when I reached the opposite side of his tree, his head leaned far back, exposing his throat for my claws. He fell even easier and faster than Adam, his life blood spraying out in an arc when my claws bit deep enough to sever his carotid artery.

When I closed my eyes and listened then, I heard nothing. No more wolves lying in wait to ambush Fyse during the fight.