‘Don’t drag this out. You want a fast kill. He is wolf born. I can feel it. No powers,’ Kai told me.

I backed out of his hold and came from a different angle. He was fully in wolf form now. I lunged at him but he rolled to the side. I caught his tail in my mouth and dragged him towards me as he howled in pain. When he was close enough, I used my front paws to dig into his hind legs and pull him underneath me. Being underneath your attacker was the worst and most vulnerable position possible. He was squirming and strong, but I was fast. I saw an opening and lunged forward taking his neck in my mouth. He was swiping at my belly with his hind paws but I ignored the pain as I chewed into his neck. Sister wolf had taken over. Nothing about this grossed me out. The vegetarian Aurora was nowhere to be found. I wanted him dead. I wanted his head separated from his body. I wanted to taste his blood, to protect my mate and my pack. This was a means to an end.

Once I had a good hold, I shook his neck in my jaws and his body flopped like a rag doll. With one last burst of effort, I gave a hard pull to the right and ripped his head clean off. His body crumpled beneath me and I turned around to see Kai’s wolf two feet from my face. He was ready to intervene at any moment. Luckily he hadn’t. I gave a loud howl and the pack began shifting. It was unspoken. We needed a run, together, for the first time as a new pack in our new territory.

‘Don’t ever do that again.’ Kai told me and ran off to run beside his brother, Jai. I sat there in silence for a moment and then followed with my tail between my legs.

Reunited

The next morning I sat in Kai’s office with Isabelle and Kai. She held his phone in her hand and it was shaking. She set it back down. “I don’t even know if he has the same number. If he has remarried. I don’t know what to say.” She looked at her hands and picked at her nails.

Kai had agreed she could reunite with her family and depending on her wishes, we would figure out a living situation. Kai barely talked to me last night for fighting in his place. He slept in his room and I barely slept in mine.

“Let me call him. I can start the call off and you can jump in when you are ready. Okay?” I offered.

Isabelle began to weep. “Is this really happening? You guys will let me see my family? I can see my kids? Everyday?”

She had limp brown hair that framed a face full of scars. This woman had taken many beatings, with silver I don’t doubt. Only silver would scar a werewolf this bad. She was emaciated and broken. I don’t think she believed us, that this was really happening. Poor thing. My throat tightened.

Kai walked over to her slowly. “Dane wasn’t an Alpha; he was a power-hungry monster. An Alpha takes care of his pack like family. I will treat you like you were my own sister. I would NEVER separate a mother from her children. I can clear it with the council. In rare cases, humans are permitted knowledge of our kind. Your children can come live here on the mountain with you and we will protect them as pack. Your husband can too, if you like. Children are a treasured gift in werewolf society. It doesn’t matter if they are human or not.”

Isabelle gave a weak smile. “I can feel your words are true. Make the call, Aurora. I will give you the number.” She handed me the phone.

The phone was ringing. I cleared my throat thinking of a story.

“Hello, this is Tristan.” I had the phone on speaker and Isabelle squeezed my arm hard at the sound of his voice.

“Hi, my name is Aurora and I live up in Mount Hood.”

“What can I do for you?” I could hear children in the background laughing.

“I have a woman here who says her name is Isabelle. She looks pretty shaken up and underfed. She says she escaped capture and is your wife.”

There was silence. “You people don’t stop, do you? You’re sick. Prank calling bastards.”

“Tristan!” Isabelle shouted.

“Oh my God!” He started sobbing and I felt my throat swell. “Izzy! Oh my God! Is that you?”

“It’s me.” She wept.

“Are you okay? I’ve never stopped looking for you. Have you called the police? Where are you? I’m coming. KIDS! Mommy is on the phone.”

“It’s been a long time and it hasn’t been easy but I’m okay now. I thought you might have moved on.” She let that sentence linger. I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t be in here, witnessing this very private conversation.

“Are you crazy? No, no, no. Where are you? Give me an address right now. The kids are so big. Violet is four and Connor is six. I show them your picture every night.”

Isabelle was sobbing and I rattled off the address, telling Tristan not to involve the police. That we would explain why later.

Diya helped put make up on Isabelle’s bruises and scars to make her more presentable for her family. I lent her some clean, colorful clothes, and Kai and I waited outside with her. I prepped Isabelle to tell her husband she didn’t want a media circus. That the man who did this to her was dead and she was safe now. Meanwhile, Kai put in an urgent call to the council to ask for permission to bring three humans into the pack. He said in rare cases like this, it was approved.

He thought the fact that there were children involved would get it approved. Children in packs was rare, even if they were human. Also, Dane did a bad thing and brought a person into the pack after mugging and attacking her. Then he kept her hostage. She could go to the media and expose our kind. This all made a good case for telling her husband of our kind. The kids could learn later, when they were older. When I questioned how pack bonds worked on humans, he said pack magic worked to bring any species into the pack, if an Alpha allowed it.