B005WNXOTE EBOK Read online

  >

  Torn

  by Dean Murray

  Copyright 2011 by Dean Murray

  Chapter 1

  The silvery light of a nearly-full moon should have been comforting. For most people it would've been peaceful even, but it pulled at my anger with surprising strength as I bounded across the arid Southern-Utah terrain.

  Darkly-furred, four-legged shapes ghosted through the darkness on either side of me as we slid between the softly-glowing pillars of trees. Jasmin, arguably the closest thing I had to a best friend, dove through a latticework of light and then it was my turn to feel the undergrowth grasping at my fur in an effort to slow my progress.

  The warm evening breeze carried a host of aromas too subtle for mere human noses to identify. In our four-footed forms each molecule was unconsciously sorted and cataloged, leaving us free to concentrate on the elusive scent of our prey.

  The other pack, a portion at least, was less than a mile away, far enough into our territory for it to be a killable offense if they were caught. They'd become increasingly arrogant over the last few months, but coming in close enough to threaten our families was a whole new level of provocation. Even their leader, Brandon, wasn't usually so bold.

  A stray eddy of wind played across my muzzle, and I knew they'd made their first mistake. I pressed into my second in command for a moment, conveying an order through posture and motion, and then nipped at Jasmin's heels, the two of us stretching out in a full sprint.

  Free from the others, Jasmin and I streaked through the night with a speed the rest of our pack couldn't have matched. Jasmin pressed at my flank, curious at my decision until she caught the scent, and then an answering growl made its way past her fangs.

  The trap was clever, but the other wolves didn't know the terrain well enough. I let my beast bubble up from the corner of my being where I usually kept it chained. Between one moment and the next, I went from running on four legs to two. As my transformation ended, a six-foot tower of muscle and claws sprang from the shadows. I ducked Vincent's first blow and retaliated with a gash that opened one side of his chest nearly down to the bone.

  A dark-furred form leaped at Jasmin, but the other wolf mistimed the spring. Most of the other pack didn't appreciate just how nimble she was. Jasmin dodged to one side and then the two of them were circling, looking for an opening.

  Vincent, the other hybrid, attacked with the strength and fury that'd earned him the position of second in his pack, but he hadn't been expecting to face me in this form. As a wolf I weighed in at a solid two hundred pounds, but would've still given up more than a hundred pounds to him.

  Now I had at least six inches and seventy-five pounds on my side of the equation, and he was the one pressed onto the defensive as the fight progressed.

  I caught flashes of action from the other fight as we circled each other. Jasmin sprang at her opponent, catching her behind the shoulders as Vincent reeled away from me in a shower of blood. I'd finally managed a deeper strike on his arm.

  The high-pitched scream of pain as Jasmin began trying to crush her opponent's spine was answered by rapidly-approaching howls. Vincent attacked with renewed strength at the promise of reinforcements.

  I was bleeding in a dozen places now, but the rage insulated me from pain and weakness. Both sides of my nature were united in hating Vincent. If I ever did manage to kill him, my questionable humanity wouldn't grieve. The world would be better for his absence.

  I could hear the other pack now, panting with exertion, our friends hot on their heels. Vincent overreached in his effort to claim the kill, and I sunk my teeth into the muscled flesh of his shoulder as I finally made it around behind him.

  My claws sank into his arms and legs as I repositioned to snap his neck, and then a hammer blow of weight struck me across the shoulders. Knocked loose from Vincent, I spun around in time to tear Simon from the air as he leaped at me again. It was the perfect opportunity to end a life nearly as evil as Vincent's, but one of the recent arrivals had bowled Jasmin over.

  Leveraging a frame that was more than capable of picking up a small car, I threw Simon into the whirling ball of flesh and fangs. He didn't hit hard enough to snap his neck, but he knocked the other wolf off of Jasmin, and then Vincent was back on his feet.

  The rest of the rival pack, save for Brandon their leader, came streaming past, but they didn't help their fellows swarm Jasmin and I over. None of them even slowed. Vincent took an angry swipe at the last, a small female, and then our pack burst from the trees. A second later, our enemies were in full rout.

  I let my bulk melt down back into my sleeker wolf shape as I joined Jasmin and the rest. We quickly chased the other pack out of our territory and halfway through the neutral buffer, but failed to catch even the wounded wolves. Jasmin normally could've run any of Brandon's pack down, but she was limping.

  Isaac, my ever-sensible second in command, brushed up against me, putting slight pressure on my right side even as he dropped his nose in submission. It was a small thing, but it pulled me out of the blood lust, and I turned our course back towards home.

  I should have seen the problem developing. James never has been very level-headed. That's a bad thing considering that, as the third hybrid in the pack, he's dominant to all of the other wolves with the possible exception of Jasmin. As the rest of the pack altered course to follow me James failed to change direction. He knocked one of the others over when she wasn't quick enough getting out of his way, and in the next instant nipped at Isaac. Less than a second later both James and Isaac's wolf forms exploded into hulking hybrids.

  Isaac has always been the most even-keeled of us. His ability to carefully pick his battles is what's always allowed him to edge James out when it comes to ranking inside the pack. Even so, he couldn't allow James to attack his girlfriend, Jessica, without responding. When it comes to no holds barred fighting, Isaac's margin of superiority is much slimmer.

  The two males clinched and went at each other with claw and fang while I was still spinning around. My own hybrid form tore itself free, and I crossed the intervening twenty feet in two long bounds as both James' and Isaac's girlfriends circled each other warily.

  James was on top, tearing at Isaac's writhing form with all of his considerable strength. My backfist knocked James into a tree. He rolled to his feet like he was ready to take both Isaac and me on at the same time.

  Dominic, James' girlfriend, abandoned her posturing and wrapped her long feline body around James, calming him with a speed nothing else seemed able to accomplish. Even so, it was still more than a minute before Isaac and James had cooled enough to get them both moving again.

  The girls ran in the middle of the pack, keeping the boys separated from each other as much as possible. I probably should have chosen that moment to reestablish dominance over both James and Isaac, but my shoulders itched the entire time we were motionless.

  The sensation of imminent danger didn't lessen until we were back into our own territory. Even then it didn't disappear; it just faded back to its normal level, back to something I could mostly ignore.

  Everyone but mother was waiting for us as we limped across the vast expanse of ankle-deep grass that led up to the house. The parents, those present at least, breathed sighs of relief as soon as we were close enough for them to count noses. Jessica's father, Andrew, took in the bloody gashes along Isaac's chest, and her scratch-free figure with the same worried eyes. He tiredly pushed his wheelchair forward as soon as we stepped into the light.

  Addison, James' mother, looked agitated. She took in her son's condition and then favored me with the kind of look some dominants kill over. She hadn't liked me for as long as I could remember. It had bothered me more when I was younger, before I realized sh
e doesn't live in the same world as the rest of us. She actually still had friends in Brandon's pack.

  She didn't really believe the other pack meant us harm. It was only one of the many reasons why she'd been given the guest residence several hundred yards away from the main house. Nobody really thought she'd go so far as to spy for her old friends, but it made us all sleep a little better to know she wasn't lurking in the next room. James was already conflicted enough. There wasn't any reason to court disaster by giving her an opportunity to make him choose once and for all between us and her.

  Shifting more smoothly than most of us were able, Isaac melted back into his human form. Jess was next; she took Isaac's hand, leading him to her father, who clasped them both in a frail hug before breaking out into a series of racking coughs. The cold night air always aggravated the old shape shifter's wounds. Isaac picked Andrew up out of his chair and after looking to me for a nod of permission, carried him inside.

  I followed the other three wolves, or rather the two wolves and Dominic, the rest of the way to the house. I wasn't looking forward to speaking to Addison, but squelched the urge to transform back to my hybrid form to hold the discussion. I'd already worn too many shapes tonight. The cramps were likely going to be bad as it was. Adding yet another change to the abuse I'd put my body through would be a very bad idea.

  "You split the pack up and let James get hurt didn't you?"

  Donovan, the family retainer, made as if to hush James' mom, but I stopped him with a glance. The last thing we needed was to give her venom additional targets, especially targets that couldn't defend themselves against James.

  "I split the pack up, but that isn't how James got hurt. His injuries came when he jumped Isaac while we were still only a mile or so outside of the other pack's territory."

  Addison's eyes practically glowed at the thought of her son attacking the wolf just higher than him in the pack hierarchy. She was convinced I was holding him back, that he wasn't being given his due. She was going to get him killed at some point, but there was no way for me to convince her of that.

  James looked like he was going to interject something indignant, but I cut him off before he could say anything.

  "I was within my rights to break the two of you up, James. The other pack had plenty of time to regroup and return. The last thing you should have been doing was spilling our blood when we were so close to their home."

  I could see comprehension begin to dawn. He'd never thought it through, never realized just how much danger we were in, just how easily the other pack could have appeared out of the darkness and torn into us. He'd assumed I was just too injured to press our advantage, and had resented Isaac stealing his opportunity for glorious, bloody battle.

  Addison hadn't managed to follow the logic, but it wasn't a lack of ability, it was willful refusal. She envisioned a higher place for her son, a place beyond our small pack, wrongly assuming his obtaining it would result in true safety for the first time in her entire life.

  She'd never understood that his achieving her impossible dreams would just set both of them in even more precarious circumstances.

  "You know what my rights are, James."

  Now I saw actual fear streak through his eyes. Fear and resentment. Dominic crowded closer to his side, concern written large on her expression, but obviously making an effort to calm both James and his mother.

  I held James' gaze for several seconds and then waved him away.

  Jasmin met my eyes and then limped into the house, leaving me alone with my sister Rachel and Donovan. I tiredly moved the rest of the way into the artificial lights and Rachel gasped as her human eyes were finally able to make out what Donovan had been able to see since I'd stepped out of the trees.

  "Alec, you're hurt."

  I smiled at my little sister and then looked down to take inventory of my battered body. My ha'bit was shredded, the important parts were still covered, but the garment showed the wear and tear from our high-speed chase through some of the thickest underbrush in the area. My skin had almost as many holes in it as the tattered fabric. Vincent hadn't managed anything crippling, but he'd been well on his way to bleeding me out.

  Rachel slipped under my arm, trying to support me as Donovan led the way into the house. The gesture wasn't needed. Rachel was a small fifteen, nearly as slender as Jasmin and lacking the unnatural strength common to the shape shifters, but I appreciated her desire to help.

  Jasmin's wounds had looked like the kind you could tend with your own set of hands. Even if they weren't, she wasn't the type to seek help. I'd have to remember to check on her later, but for now I was the only patient in the examination room.

  Donovan reappeared with his graceful lurch, carrying a fresh set of towels and some water and then set about cleaning out the worst of the wounds. It'd become a longstanding ritual. I bled from one confrontation or another, and then while he patched me up, he updated me on the state of the family holdings.

  Rachel handed Donovan tools with the expertise of an experienced nurse as he began his ministrations.

  "The Montana situation seems to be resolving itself nicely, sir. Our factor there has managed to secure ninety percent of the water rights we're expecting to need for the first phase of the project, and there isn't any uptick in prices yet. He hopes to be able to come in under budget for the first two phases. With your approval, I'll tell him to put together a proposal for beginning construction?"

  I grunted my assent, and then flinched slightly as his probing fingers found a particularly deep wound. I could see the gash in the overhead mirror, and it was all the way to the bone at one point. In a human it would be cause for concern, possibly hospitalization. For me, the worst would be healed within forty-eight hours. Impervious to all known diseases, and we healed back to one hundred percent from anything that didn't kill us. Almost anything. The thought made me glance at Donovan's leg. His immaculately-pressed pants hid a disturbing array of scars.

  Donovan worked through the list of open business items, ticking off of a mental list as he applied butterfly bandages and gauze to hold the deeper wounds closed. I listened, approving his decisions or occasionally confirming previous discussion, until he wound down to the last item.

  "Sir, I assume you remain resolved on the Paige matter? It does bring an element of risk with it. Each additional human in the town represents another set of eyes to be avoided by the moon born."

  "Yes, Donovan, I'm resolved. This town is already starting to implode. It's too stagnant. You saw how everyone responded to the new doctor and his family. If we don't get new blood into Sanctuary we're going to have people eating each other at some point. Unless you've found something worrisome in the preliminary background check, we go forward with making it possible for them to move in."

  "Very good, sir. The background check, rudimentary though it's been, hasn't turned up anything concerning. I expect we'll have to make some payments. Brandon's bribed some of the local officials, but we should be able to get the Paige's safely into their new home for less than fifty-thousand."

  Donovan taped up the last gash deep enough to need attention, and then cleaned up. As he turned to leave I reached out and stopped him.

  "The infighting's getting worse isn't it Donovan?"

  The older shape shifter, the man that'd been my surrogate father for nearly as long as I could remember looked up to meet my eyes with concern on his features.

  "I wasn't present for the latest outburst, sir. That being said, it does seem as though they are increasing in intensity."

  The weight of the night suddenly seemed to settle fully on me and I wanted nothing more than to go straight to my bed.

  "What would my father have done?"

  "That isn't a fair question. Your father never faced this. At that time the closest rival pack was more than a hundred miles away. Not only that, there were enough of us that exile or execution would have been feasible alternatives for anyone causing excessive trouble. Unfortunately in the curre
nt situation you need every wolf you can nominally count on, and James represents too great an asset to push away."

  Donovan bowed gracefully and then limped out of the room leaving me alone with Rachel, who hadn't stirred since she'd helped put away the last of the medical implements.

  "Alec, you wouldn't really kill James would you?"

  She deserved an answer, she'd suffered and bled almost as much as the rest of us, but I knew she wouldn't push, so I chose the coward's route and didn't answer. I didn't want to kill part of our extended family, but the pack wasn't healthy, wasn't balanced. We had too many dominants with too few submissives to serve as a buffer between the more forceful personalities.

  "You should have been in bed hours ago, Rach."

  "I tried but I couldn't sleep."

  For the first time I noticed how red her eyes were, and cursed the preoccupation that stopped me from noticing it earlier.

  "What's wrong? Did mother say something?"

  A brave smile met my words, but she couldn't hide the hurt. "No worse than usual. I just didn't react very well to it tonight."

  "She doesn't mean to hurt you, Rach. She's sick."

  "I know. Sometimes I think it would be better if I just stopped visiting her, but she really does seem to do better when we don't leave her in as much isolation."

  It was a silent recrimination. I hadn't visited mother frequently enough lately.

  "I'm sorry I've left that for you to take care of. I haven't spent much time with either of you lately."

  "It's ok, Alec. I understand. Brandon's been pushing and he's got more bodies to push with. The pack's being run ragged, you more than anyone. It's just lonely around here when you're all gone."

  I pulled myself off of the examination table and hugged her. It only took a few minutes to walk her to her room and tuck her in, but even once I reached my bed I was unable to fall asleep. I needed to find a solution for Rachel's isolation, needed to chart a course through the coming war with Brandon, and solve a half-dozen other problems. My mind continued to grind away at the worries long after the rest of the house went quiet.