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Kade closes his eyes tight, unable to do anything to defend himself, and waits for the killing blow.
Howling.
Howling coming from everywhere!
His eyes fly open.
His head is held high, whipping from side to side as the howls close in all around. He rears up, pawing the air, and bugles a sound of retreat.
But he doesn’t get away.
Kade watches as a huge wolf, bigger than he’s ever seen before, leaps over him and sinks its teeth into the Elk’s face.
Everything is a blur of animals screaming and blood spraying as a pack of wolves Kade doesn't recognize converge on the camp. The shifters are running for their lives, some notmaking it away, their bodies returning to their human form as they die.
The elk bugles, thrashing his head and yanking the wolf from side to side, but the massive wolf doesn’t let go. With a cry of pain the elk rears up, kicks out at the wolf, and finally dislodges the animal.
Except the wolf doesn’t come away hurt. In fact, he comes away with the Elk’s eye and cheek hanging from its jowls.
The Elk rears back again, but instead of kicking the great wolf, it shifts into a giant raven and takes flight. Screeching into the air, it sounds for its followers to retreat, crying a mournful sound at those dead and dying below.
The wolf lets out one final howl before turning to face Kade. It spits out the flesh of the elk as if it’s disgusting, and as it approaches him, it shifts back into a man. Caring hands reach out to Kade and cup his face, addressing his wounds before the stranger reaches down and starts to let Kade loose from his sleeping bag. He holds Kade’s shoulders down as he addresses the shallow puncture wounds up and down the younger man’s torso from the Elk’s horns.
“Your sleeping bag saved your life,” he says.
Though it’s painful and Kade feels as if his brain is rocking in his skull, he manages to shake his head.
“No, you saved my life…” Kade whispers.
The man nods sadly, his dark brows pinching together over darker eyes. “Only your life, I’m afraid. We weren’t fast enough?—”
Kade sits up with a start, looking around. Everyone’s dead. The only wolves still standing are those he doesn't recognize. A sob rises up in his throat, the last sob he’ll ever cry. The last bit of weakness he’ll ever let himself show.
They’re all dead.
The pack who took Kade in when he killed my family, they’re all dead.
The last time Kade saw a slaughter like this, is when he did it to his own foster family.
He’s eight years old,sitting in front of a Christmas tree. Kade and his foster siblings are ripping open presents with abandon, glee filling our faces. Tommy gets a BB gun, Jane gets a new makeup set. Kade opens up his present and sees the one thing he asked for, the one thing he’d always wanted, but no foster family ever cared enough to listen.
With glistening eyes Kade looks up at Bill and Rosy, their smiles so bright and eyes just as misty as his. They listened. They actuallylovehim. Kade’s hands hover reverently over the art set and the two pads of sketch paper they came with.
“That’s a girl's present!” Tommy laughs, pointing at Kade with his BB gun. “Are you a girl, Kade? A little sissy girl who likes to color?”
“Tomas, that’s enough!” Bill warns him, and Rosy moves over to Kade to hug him around the shoulders.
Tommy is their kid, and he doesn’t like having foster siblings.
“I don’t like to color, and I’m a girl!” Jane snaps to Kade’s defense, putting her hand on his foot.
“You certainly paint your face enough! Ha ha, just a pair of girls. I didn’t know my parents brought twogirlshome for Christmas!” Tommy laughs, cocking his BB gun and pointing it straight at Kade’s chest. “Prove you’re not a girl, Kade. Cop this BB right to the chest. If you can take it, you might just be a boy!”
“Tomas, no!” Billy roars.
Except he’s not fast enough. He lunges forward to stop his son, but the BB gun fires and the little metal ball hits Kade straight in the chest.
Pain rips through him, pain that shouldn’t be this bad.
