Another Half

May 2012

The sky had begun to lighten, and Blade stared at Griggs after he issued his threat.

Hand-to-hand combat or are we in a hurry? Talon asked.

Blade burst out laughing.

“Fuck off, Griggs. You’re naked and I can’t stand the sight of that tiny pee-pee stick of yours,” she said. “By the Moon, I've seen some small dicks in my life, but yours is a real winner," she said laughing. "You’re an embarrassment to our kind.”

Griggs looked down at himself and Blade used that moment to reach into her boot and pull out two knives.

“Why you little bitch. I should’ve killed you when I had the chance," he said with a snarl.

With a hard thud, a knife sank into Griggs’s sternum and heart before he could take a step forward. He looked down as his hands reached for the black hilt sticking out of his chest as he fell back, straight-legged. He was in too much shock to pull out the knife from his chest.

“Here, let me help you,” Blade said bending down. “I’m in a hurry and I need my knife back.” She yanked the blade out of his body and watched as blood violently spurted from his chest like a red spring.

“You should have left me alone at the park, Griggs,” she said softly, cleaning her knife on the grass next to his face. He stared at her with horror, opening and closing his mouth several times like a fish gasping for breath. She put her knives back into her boot and looked at him one last time. “I wasn’t bothering anyone and I had no quarrel with you or your pack.”

She stood up and left.

You could’ve cut his throat to shorten the agony, Talon murmured.

Could’ve.

Fuck, you’re in a bad mood today, Talon said.

Blade went back to the tree behind the pack house. The light from the room where she had heard the newborn pup’s cries had gone out.

We need to leave, Blade. The longer we stay, the more dangerous it’s going to get for us.

We can’t leave without Caroline. We have to find Caroline and her baby. She’s out there somewhere, alone and afraid, and she needs us-–

Blade froze. She heard the distinctive sound of wolves running toward the Pack House.

She broke out running toward the forest at top speed. For a couple of miles, she ran on foot, unable to shake the feeling that she was being tracked, although not chased. Not yet, anyway.

Blade, let me take over. I can outrun them.

She looked down at her trusty black boots, hesitant. Her grandfather had given them to her. He’d taught her how to buy boots or any kind of shoe, and turn them into weapons. But it wasn’t just that. Her boots contained all her throwing knives Uncle Danny had given her, as well as her most prized possession: Abuelo’s knife, the one her father Emilio had made for him. It, too, would be lost as soon as she took off her boots and shifted into Talon.

But maybe there was a way.

There’s always a way, mija, she heard her grandfather say. Look around you. What do you see? Listen. What do you hear?

She looked all around before closing her eyes for a moment and listened until she found what she was looking for.

Blade took off her boots and socks and stuffed her socks in each boot. From one of the boots’ secret pockets, she took out a short piece of string and quickly tied each end to a sturdy buckle on each boot. Then she swung them up to the furthest tree branch she saw. On the third try, Blade sighed with relief when it caught the branch just below her intended target and hoped no one would bother to look up.

Then she ran knowing there was a stream up ahead. She stripped, threw her clothes on the other side of the stream, and shifted.

Talon ran downstream for a few miles. The stream they were on gave the area of the town a wide berth and she soon found herself in the general direction of the entrance of the town. She occasionally stopped to drink water from the cold stream and to listen to any pursuers, but there was nothing. Not long after, the stream poured into a large, raging river below and they could go no further.

I told you I’d lose them, Talon said.

Let’s go find Caroline.

No, Blade. We’re in too much danger. I’m finding the highway and we’re leaving this fucking pack for good. There’s too much suffering here. I can feel it.

With the rising sun to her back, Talon made her way up a thicket of trees on a small hill. She figured that the top would be a good place to figure out where they were and assess where they should go from there. Except she stumbled onto a large open field that took both of their breaths away.

A bloodied field of many dead and dying wolves lay before them.

Holy Mother of Wolves, Blade whispered in the confines of Talon’s mind.

The carnage reached all areas of what was probably once a beautiful vast field. Hundreds of wolves lay dead or silently dying on a field soaked with so much blood, there wasn’t any greenery left anywhere. Wolves with their throats ripped out lay with lifeless eyes staring into eternal darkness, while others were beheaded altogether, their head savagely ripped off their bodies and carelessly thrown aside. Different bloodied wolf body parts littered the ground not occupied by corpses. Off to one side, near a large boulder, laid Maverick's unmoving body.

It's over, Blade said with a sigh of relief. Caroline and her baby are safe.

A couple of sniffs into the air, and Talon realized that the dead were mostly omegas, all of them used as cannon fodder for a spat between two arrogant alphas.

Fuck these idiots! These omegas didn't have a chance! Talon said with a low growl. We were definitely better off as a lone wolf among humans!

Eventually, Talon realized that there were unharmed wolves walking about because they stopped what they were doing at the sound of her growl. They looked up and stared at Talon as if she were an unworldly vision.

Talon! What did you do?!

Every wolf stood still and continued to stare at Talon except for a wolf the size of a bear that slowly walked toward her. A strong breeze blew from behind Talon, and the wolf stopped in the middle of the red field, electric blue eyes wide and unblinking.

With the rising sun behind her, Talon could see that his coat was deep obsidian and it did not reflect light. He was like a black hole that absorbed light in the middle of red field. His long, thick tail was elegant, nearly touching the ground, and it was still and relaxed.

Fuck, he’s massive, whispered Blade. In all of her years, she had never seen or heard of any wolf even remotely his size; her grandfather and Uncle Danny would have certainly mentioned it. With a strong, wide chest, this wolf effortlessly dwarfed everyone around him, and he exuded strength and power so vast and deep, it was unlike anything Blade had ever felt before.

Twenty bucks say he’s the alpha of the winning team, Talon said.

Oh, Talon…

Suddenly the monstrous wolf growled, threatening.

He charged at Talon, and she swore she felt the ground shake every time his thick paws hit the ground.

TALON! There’s no fucking way we’re winning this one! RUN!

I’m going, I’m going!

Talon stepped back and quickly ran back in the direction they came from as if a demon was right behind her because, for all she knew, that was exactly what was chasing her.