Chapter 10

I ran out of the cabin in my pajama pants, falling repeatedly, tripping over my own feet. "Get down!" My dad shouted as I burst through the front door. He grabbed me and forced me down on the ground behind the cover of his truck.

"What's going on?" I asked, my voice strangled by panic. "Is it the cops?"

"It's your crazy ass girlfriend, again!" Dad snarled. His bones began to shift.

"Where are you?" I heard Dinah scream from off in a distance. "Fucking monsters! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!" We flinched as another shot gun blast shattered the usual early morning silence. Buck shot riddled the truck full of holes.

Dinah! Have you lost your mind? I thought angrily. I peaked around the truck to see where the others might be. I found Carl huddled behind the Red's Cabin with Wyatt wrapped protectively in his arms. The twins were with him, crouched at either corner. They were both watching the chain link fence intently. I followed their gaze.

I could just make out Dinah standing on the other side of the fence, madly firing a shotgun from her hip, not aiming at anything in particular. Oddly, she swayed back and forth on her feet, as if she were unsteady.

"Come out you cowards!" She screamed, her speech slurring. Something was definitely off with her…and I had a good idea as to what it might be.

"She's drunk." I muttered beneath my breath.

"Good, looks like they're making their move." I heard Dad whisper. My attention shot back to the twins. While Dinah was busy firing away at the truck, they were making a break for the main cabin. They were transforming. Boaz's leg bones were twisted backwards, his nails and teeth sharpened and Trevor's handsome face was twisted into a canine muzzle. Their human skins were flaking off of them behind them as they ran.

My breath caught in my throat. I knew what they were planning. Inside the main cabin, under an old chest was a door to a secret massage that led out to the woods, outside the fence. It was our escape route, should we be found out, but now it would serve as a weapon. If the twins could get out to the woods, they could sneak up on Dinah, no problem. She'd be dead before she ever realized what hit her.

I could see it now, quite clearly in my mind's eye, her body broken and mutilated; her blood turning Boaz and Trevor's pale coats as bright and as brilliant a red as the jacket that always hung from her shoulders. The thought of it set the scar that ran down my spine on fire. The skin peeled away as easily as if I were removing a piece of clothing, revealing the matted, brown fur that lay just beneath the surface of my human flesh.

I was running on all fours in what felt like an instant. The pain of the transfiguration of my bones barely registered. The only thought on my mind was the image of the corpse she would soon become if I wasn't fast enough.

I ran in a zigzag pattern in an attempt to dodge the oncoming besiege of buckshot. I could hear the pellets whizzing past my ears, close enough to shier through my fur. As I came to the fence, she came clearly into view. Her eyes widened. She shakily raised her shot gun and pointed it squarely at my head. Her finger came to rest on its trigger. Just as she began to squeeze, I leapt over the fence, barely clearing the barbed wire. My front feet, hit her on the shoulders, knocking her to the ground. As she fell, she pulled the trigger, sending a hail of buckshot into the woods. I grabbed the gun with my teeth and flung it away from her. It went skidding into the heavy brush of the forest and disappeared.

"Dinah, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I barked, pressing down harder against her shoulders to keep her down. "Do you want to get yourself killed?" She was squirming beneath me, trying to worm her way out. Her hands grabbed at my fur and pulled at it until it hurt.

"Get off me!" She yelled. The strong stench of alcohol and vomit on her breath bombarded my sensitive nose. Her face was slick with tears and snot, like she'd been sobbing uncontrollably. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was knotted. I'd never seen her look so disgusting, or so pathetic. Her red eyes glared up at me as she bore her own teeth. "Where's Iris, Eli? You damned prick." She spat at me. Foul smelling spit splattered against my muzzle. "Fucking monsters. You're all fucking monsters. I'm gonna kill ya. Every last one. And your fuckin pet too."

"Good. You got her."

"Tear her damn throat out."

I turned my head at the sound of the twins' voices. They stood not 12 feet from me, creeping side by side. The bright early morning sunlight glinted in their eyes. They parted as they drew nearer. One circled around the left, closer to the fence, while the other circled down my right side, along the tree line.

Even in their natural state, when they seemed like mirror images of the same grey wolf, I could tell them apart almost instantly. Even if I wasn't certain, as soon as they opened their mouths, it was made abundantly clear.

"Kill the red riding bitch" Boaz coaxed, licking his chops hungrily as he padded slowly by. His tail brushed the cold metal of the fence, making it sing.

Trevor's ears swiveled back to lay flat against his head. "No, let's just let her go this time." He whined nervously.

"What?" Boaz snarled, his lips peeling away from his sharp teeth. "She just turned the compound into Swiss cheese and you want to just let her go?" He stopped beside me. His ears were held up in full alert, his head lowered in a threatening posture. His teeth snapped as he spoke. "Kill her, Eli! If you won't, I'll do it for you!"

Trevor's tail went between his shaking legs, "But Boaz, Carl said..."

"I know what he fucking said!" Boaz snapped at his twin, barely missing his leg. Trevor wheeled away, dodging behind me, as if I could protect him. "I don't care what he said, the old man is wrong! If we let her go, this will just happen again. You know that don't you, Eli?" He was staring at me, waiting for a reply. Now that Trevor was not on his side, he was looking for my support.

I looked down at the girl beneath my paws. She turned her face away from me, exposing her throat. Her eyes watched me from their corners, never faltering from my own. Silently, she was challenging me. Who are you going to side with, Eli? Go ahead; show me what you truly are.

"Eli? What's it gonna be?" Boaz hissed, his silvery eyes, watching my every move expectantly.

"Eli, you can't. Despite what he thinks, Boaz isn't alpha yet."

"Traitor!" Boaz lunged for Trevor again, but before his teeth could catch him, my own teeth sank down into the scruff of his neck.

Boaz yelped as I threw him down. He had not been expecting me to do that. Neither was I. "Enough!" I yelled. We snarled at each other with bared teeth and prickled hackles between our shoulder blades.

Boaz's spine arched threateningly. "So this is how it's gonna be?" He snapped. "You're both gonna follow Carl to the grave?"

"You're not the alpha, Boaz! Hell, you're not even the delta! You're an omega, just like the rest of us, and I don't take my orders from you!" I growled.

"This pack is going to die out, thanks to Carl's stupid bleeding heart. Dad's too much of a coward to say anything. I'm the only sane one in this damned pack, looks like. We let her go, we're dead. You understand? Trevor, you know I'm right."

"You are." Trevor agreed sheepishly. "You're totally right, but we can't risk making Carl any angrier with us."

"We already have to hunt one lone wolf; I don't want to add you to it, Boaz." I said.

Boaz's eyes shifted back and forth between us. His ears and tail lowered in dejection. Slowly, Boaz's hackles slicked back down against his back and his lips covered his teeth. "Do whatever you want, but don't say I didn't warn you." He huffed. He turned and ran away without as much as a second glance at Trevor.

"He's not going to forgive you for that any time soon." I whispered Trevor, my eyes intently watching Boaz's retreating form.

"I know," Trevor replied, easing out from behind me. His ears pricked back up and his tail rose high. "But I'd rather deal with him being angry with me for a while, than have the whole pack after me. I love him, but I don't want to die just for the sake of his ambitions."

"Are you done chatting, girls, cuz if you ain't gonna kill me, I'd really like to get up now." Dinah grumbled.

"Oh, so what are you going to do with her?" asked Trevor. His tongue lulled lazily out of his mouth. When he wasn't around Boaz, he seemed like an entirely different person.

"I'll take her home. She's in no condition to drive. You go ahead back and tell Carl we need to up our fortifications so this crap won't happen again. I'll be back shortly."

"Right." Trevor started to canter off, but stopped mid-step. His scruffy head tilted questioningly, "You are coming back, aren't you, Eli?"

"Why wouldn't I?" My eyes shifted away from him, self-consciously.

"I could ask the same thing about why you'd come back." He said with a small, breathy chuckle. "I know you tried to take off again yesterday. Dad told me. Don't do that, kay? "Don't leave me. Promise me." His ears drooped slightly with concern.

"I…can't."