The first attack had been shifters in human form, the guns in their hands proving their cowardice. But they’d been prepared for guns this time. Owen—a River Run soldier who happened to be a human cop—hid in the trees, his rifle taking out those Zackary and the other teens couldn’t handle.
“All right?” Cooper asked as the last of the enemy dropped dead. Blood splattered Zackary’s friend’s face, the gore on his hands turning Zackary’s stomach slightly.
Heaving in a breath, Zackary struggled to the surface of his wolf mind, finding enough presence to nod his reply. Shifting would come later, when his heart was no longer racing in his chest, and fear had long left his mind.
Evan’s howl came a moment after, his warning seconds before a horde of wolves shot from the trees. Zackary acted on instinct, his teeth biting flesh, blood filling his mouth, hot and metallic, and as Zackary and his friends battled to protect their home, he knew he was fighting what he’d become if he lost control of his wolf for good.
They were his worst nightmare brought to life. Inhuman, barbaric, creatures lost in the throes of bloodlust. They attacked with never-ending hunger, claws, and teeth, snarls and growls, again and again until he and his friends could no longer hold the line. The beasts plowed through into their home, straight for the building which housed his sister.
Disorder followed screams and children’s wails. Zackary fought with all he had, taking down anyone in his path as those in the unfinished schoolhouse scattered. Catching sight of Eva and Mathew, Zackary followed in pursuit.
“Zac!”
Cooper's yell altered Zackary’s path, and he barreled forward toward his friend being stalked by two wolves. Cooper shifted as the wolves leaped, and Zackary reached them at the same time. They tumbled a mass of fur and claws, each snarling and slashing until they all clambered back to their feet.
The fight was nothing civil—blood splattered, organs spilled from bodies—and by the time Zackary walked away with Cooper, Eva was nothing but a scent on the wind.
Forcing his body to shift, Zackary gritted his teeth as his wolf grappled to regain control.
“Thanks, dude. Jesus, those bastards are scary fuckers,” Copper muttered, slapping him on the back.
Screams broke the quiet.
“My sister,” Zackary gasped.
Hurtling through the trees, the moon their only light, Zackary followed instincts he barely understood as he raced toward River Run. Cooper followed at his heels, and as Eva’s screams rang into the night, his wolf ripped through his skin, fur coating his body as his bones cracked and morphed, becoming those of a wolf.
Eva was curled over on the ground, her blood rich in the air. Howling his fury, Zackary leaped at the attacking wolf, giving all control to the animal at his core. He became as deadly as the attacker, as lost to the wolf.
“Zac, enough!” Cooper yelled. “He’s dead. He’s dead.”
But the words couldn’t reach him through the wall of red rage. The boy was lost, curled up in the corner of his mind.
“Zackary.” Cooper approached, palms up, body lax. “Eva’s hurt.”
Eva….
Zackary screamed. He kicked, he yelled, and the boy broke free, gasping into his human body and collapsing to his knees.
“Sis.” Scrambling over, Zackary took her in. A gash traveled the length of her back, and slashes tore through her calf. “Oh God, Eva.” She began crying, the sound a wail. “Ev?”
Turning his sister over, Zackary gasped as Cassady’s baby was revealed.
“Oh shit,” Cooper swore. “Where are Cass and Evan?”
Taking the baby from his sister’s unconscious arms, he climbed to his feet and passed her to Cooper. “I’ve no idea, but right now, our main priority is Eva.”
“Zaccy?”
Lifting Eva into his arms, Zackary started for Jackson’s house. “It’s all right, Matty. We’re coming. Stay there.”
“Jesus, bro. This isn’t good,” Cooper muttered.
Entering the River Run alpha’s home, they found it empty except for Mathew, but Zackary couldn’t think of the other’s who’d been inside the school building and his other friends. His sister was bleeding, her human body far more fragile than his new one. Laying her on the sofa, he went in search of bandages, rifling through cupboards and pulling open drawers.
“Eva,” Mathew whimpered.
“She’s going to be fine,” Zackary called to the little boy. Please, I need you to be fine. “Coop, stand watch through the window. Look out for the others.”
At last finding supplies, he raced back to his sister and began wrapping her wounds, starting with the leg first. Eva whimpered as he did, but never fully came conscious, and as he tore her sweater from her back and packed the bleeding wound with gauze, she let out a soft cry, John’s name leaving her lips.
Swallowing the bile burning his throat, Zackary willed himself to be stronger than he felt. His hands trembled as he touched his sister’s ruined flesh, his breath becoming lodged in his lungs, and as Eva whimpered for John once again, he too wished for his alpha’s second’s grounding presence.
Stay with me, Eva, Zackary silently begged. Please, I can’t lose you too.
Chapter 51
Katalina
Pain was all she was. Physical and mental, it tore at her heart and her senses until she was one giant pulsing wound. Katalina didn’t register each new cut, each fresh drop of blood, even as it ran like rivers over her skin, falling to the floor like the steady drip of a tap.
Raven reveled in her torment, danced her knife between her fingers like she was playing the best kind of game, but Katalina’s focus wasn’t on her torturer but the family that had crashed into the barn for her rescue and found themselves inside Castor's deadly trap.
The noise was deafening. The pack of wolves
