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And suddenly Bill’s hold seemed to weaken. His arms, thick and corded with muscle beneath the shaggy golden pelt, gave way bit by bit as Danny pushed out with his elbows, opening up a gap. It was only a tiny thing, a slip of space scarcely large enough for a mouse to squeeze through, but it was enough. Enough for him to rip his arm free of the press of Wolfen bodies and smash his elbow back into the bridge of Bill’s nose.
The werewolf howled in surprise and agony as the hit snapped his head back and sent him reeling. Seizing his chance, Danny jerked sideways, grabbing Jake by the throat and throwing his other arm back, the arm with his teeth still embedded in it.
A loud crack split the air as the werewolf’s head smashed against the tree, hard enough that the bark splintered in a shower of twigs. His eyes rolled back. Jake’s mouth opened in a long groan as he slumped to the ground. For a long moment, his lupin form just sat there, then the muscles began to twitch and writhe beneath the skin. Bones clicked back into place. The ears and muzzle shrank away, and the thick pelt fell away to reveal the frail unconscious human body beneath.
He looked just the way Danny remembered. Older sure, but still with the same wavy brown hair, sharp features, and small athletic build. With his head slumped back like that, he looked like he could have been taking a doze.
A quick glance back confirmed that Bill had reverted back to his natural state and was knocked out cold on his back with a very obviously broken nose that now looked more like a squashed pig’s snout. The werewolf’s regenerative capabilities would probably have him fixed up by the time he was on his feet, but he’d be feeling that for a while.
The thought had him hanging his head, all thoughts of victory tempered by the memories that these had been his friends, once. Damn it all, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. He’d only come here to talk, not-
“Well, you certainly haven’t lost your touch, Danny,” a voice from the past laughed.
Danny’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing on the figure standing on the edge of the tree line. Tall but with a wiry athletic build. Sandy blonde hair tumbling messily down to his shoulders. A shit-don’t-stink grin plastered across his narrow face.
Recognition flared deep inside my wolf. There was only ever one man in Lupus Latr with the gall to taunt a fully turned werewolf. Against what could only be considered his better judgment, Danny forced his beast back down into its cage and with it, his rich black pelt and Wolfen features dissolved away to reveal the man beneath.
With the tattered remnants of his shirt and jeans hanging off him, he nodded to the other man and asked “Shane…you up next?”
“What? Me? You mean after watching you take Pinky and Perky there apart like warm bread? You must be joking.” He seemed genuinely amused by the notion, and if nothing else, he certainly hadn’t come dressed for a fight. Werewolves fought in fur or leather, not Calvin Kline. “Nope, I’m just here to escort you up to the big house. Erza is expecting you.” He raised a hand in the direction of Lacum Hall. “After you…”
Danny didn’t argue. He’d already come this far, what would be the point? He just turned his eyes up to the summit of the hill, to where the ramparts of his childhood home reached up to stab the sky. To where he knew she was watching him and knew the time had come.
With a shrug he started to walk, going beneath an arch of interwoven branches and up along the ancient path of old moss-covered stones. “Erza knew I was coming? How?”
“Wish I knew. She rarely steps out of the house, never leaves the village, but she always seems to know everything that’s going on everywhere. I’ve got no idea how she does it. Social media has nothing on Erza,” Shane joked, falling into step beside him. “Anyway, she announced the other day you were coming home, and then this morning she told the three of us to come out here and greet you. Didn’t say when of course, just to set up and wait.” His eyes dropped down to Danny’s side. “Are you going to be alright with that?”
Danny shot him a confused look. Seeing the other man’s look of concern, he followed his gaze down to the twin rings of bite marks that circled his wrist. To an observer it would have looked like a savage wound, a latticework of torn and ragged flesh thickly encrusted with dry blood. However, it was a scratch compared to the damage Jake’s jaws had dealt him and within the hour, it would be just another set of scars. He shrugged it off. “Such hospitality.”
“Don’t give me that, Daniel,” Shane snarled, his eyes suddenly blazing the furious gold of the wolf. “You know our ways. You know what happens to wolves that run out on their packs. You’ve got to prove yourself before we offer up a fatted calf but that doesn’t mean we didn’t miss you.” And just like that, the storm passed, his features softened, and he was throwing a brotherly arm over Danny’s shoulder. “Damn, it’s good to see you mate. It just hasn’t been the same around here without your family running the show. The whole village is excited. You remember Miss Babs, the baker’s wife that used to assist at the school? She wanted to set a big welcome home sign over the village hall. Hang balloons up everywhere. She even went on about setting up some of those huge picnic tables in the square and getting everyone to bring something like they used to do at fairs in the Middle Ages. Ya know what I mean?”
Danny couldn’t believe his ears. They missed him? Were pleased to hear he was returning. The idea left him feeling strangely relieved, like a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. He never would have thought the pack would welcome him back so readily after he’d abandoned it to Erza’s fate.
Shane let out a long whistle. “Yep, we were all set to have a big welcome home party in the Slaughtered Lamb, for you, but then Erza forbade it. Said no one was to say a word to you until she’d spoken with you, well except for me of course. Though personally, I didn’t figure on us sharing many words. Thought she had just sent me out here just to make sure Pinky and Perky over there didn’t kill you. Still, it looks like the old wolf’s blood is still burning strong.” And then his expression was suddenly thoughtful. “Hey, have you heard anything about your brother?”
“Deckland?” The question surprised Danny, and he couldn’t quite keep the excitement from his voice. “No, why? What happened?”
It had been years since he’d had word from his big brother.
“No idea, that’s why I asked,” Shane shrugged, letting the arm fall from Danny’s shoulder. “He just up and vanished about the same time you did, after he lost the challenge. A few of us thought he might have sought sanctuary, but none of the other packs have seen a trace of him since. It’s as if he just disappeared.”
“I see,” Danny sighed, his heart sinking. “Last I heard, he’d gone over to Canada, but he doesn’t keep in touch. We haven’t spoken in years.”
Deckland, his big brother, their father’s heir. It had always been assumed that he would take over the ruling of the pack when their father passed. It was the role he had been born for. His whole life had been spent training for the day he would assume the mantle of their ancestors. And unlike so many heirs to their father’s throne, he was well suited to his birthright. Strong as their father but with their mother’s calm manner and rational temperament, he would have been a good heir. Then that dark day came when their father’s body was carried back from battle.
At such times, it was tradition for all the pack to gather around the fallen alpha’s body and those who wished to succeed him could make their claims. Words were said, oaths were made, claims were voiced. Then the true test would begin.
Deckland had stood up first, sworn to defend the Village and its pack with his claws till his dying breath, and none of the pack had challenged him. None but her, an outsider who had just walked into the village that very morning with nothing but the clothes on her back and a name that no one knew, but tradition said all could challenge for the title of Alpha.
So the challenge had been issued and Deckland, for all his strength and training, had lost.
Erza had ruled Lupus Latr as the Alpha from that day, and no one had seen Deckland since he had escorted her to the private ground that had been used to decide such contests since the ancient days.
“Damnit,” Shane growled under his breath, before musing to himself. “We could really use him right about now.”
That got Danny’s attention. “Yeah? Something going on I should know?”
“What? Ah, no, no, no, nothing like that,” Shane laughed nervously, before continuing in his best offhand tone. “So, er what about your mum? Mother was hoping she’d be returning with you, and you know what-”
