Sylvia POV
There have been nearly sixty full moons since I came here. Next month will be Wolf Moon again, making it exactly five years I have been here--and my twenty-first birthday.
You would think that the torment would grow familiar. It doesn't. Each time it feels new and different. It's hell. Without a pack, without the binding force of destiny, without a mate, my own body punishes me. The ache is everywhere at once even as my heart yearns for my love, my love, my Vuko. On these nights his name is the heartbeat that drives me through the night along the pathes, through the city streets, onto the highway where I run with the others like me--all of us desperate to outpace our ache, our desire, our hunger, our grief.
Before the Cold Moon reaches the horizon and the dawn blushes its way toward day, we stop. My limbs are trembling and my paws leave bloodied tracks as I pad back toward my apartment. The ache is not gone, only dulled with my exhaustion. It begins to rain and my coat grows matted and heavy. I stop to lap at the rainwater where it has collected in a puddle. Slowly, slowly I cross the same streets I ran down earlier until I reach my apartment building. Sometimes I'm lucky and the lobby door hasn't shut all the way and I can nose it open.
I'm not lucky this morning. I pad around to the alleyway at the side of building, where the fire escape comes out.
There's already something there. A small something that sniffles in the darkness. A small human something. I flare my nostrils to catch his scent but I've already recognized him. It's the boy from the third floor. The one with the comics. He's crouched in a corner of the alley, wiping his nose with his sleeve and shivering with cold. His eyes are fixed on me and he is terrified.
My nostrils flare again and this time I catch it. It's faint but it's there. The hunter has been somewhere here. Not the alley. The boy managed to escape him by hiding here, which should be impossible.
I pad closer and the tang of the boy's sweat burns my nostrils. Blood, there's also blood.
The boy scrabbles backwards. I've forgotten how I must look. I stop. Tilt my head sideways and let out a soft, low whine. The boy stops scrabbling and listens. But his eyes are still huge, the whites in stark contrast to his brown skin.
I don't want to transform down here because Fer is physically stronger than me. She can get me back into my apartment in spite of limbs that have been pushed beyond anything that my human form could tolerate, despite her bleeding paws. If I'm just Silvia, I don't know how I'll make it up the fire escape.
And I definitely don't want the kid seeing me transform. Cover instantly blown.
Unless ... I sit and think. He's a skinny thing so maybe he looks young than he is, but I'm guessing no more than nine or ten years old. Younger kids can be persuaded that maybe they dreamed something they saw? I don't know if it's true.
But the kid is petrified. I have to do something. So I transform.
Now I'm back in the stupid waitress uniform though it's completely ruined-- I'm going to have to use tips to buy a new one-- but the kid is grinning at me like it's Christmas. I can taste the dust from the night's run on my skin. I run my tongue over my lips and I feel that my teeth have retracted. I check my hands. Also good. But filthy. My feet are bare and bloody. They are going to hurt like helll when I'm standing on them all night later at the diner.
I bend down so I'm eye level with the boy. "Hi," I say, "I'm Silvia. What're you doing here, buddy?"
He grins at me like I'm Christmas and in spite of how tired and dirty I am, I feel like a queen.
"I'm Luka," he says, holding out a blood-streaked hand.
I take his hand and trace the marks up his arm. There's one across his neck and belly. His knees are grazed too where he must have fallen. The claw marks have left deep tracks and they are wide apart. Whatever did this was big.
He's looking at me and still grinning. "I got spinach in my teeth or something?" I say smiling back at him.
"You're the lady from upstairs," he says, "With the spiky hair!"
"Ye-es," I say.
He wipes his eyes with his sleeve. "You're ... you're a wolf!" he says.
Okay, Silvia, I think, here's where you persuade him he didn't see what he just saw. But he's not done talking.
"My granny," he says proudly, "she says a werewolf in the building is a sign that the neighbourhood is improving."
"She--what?" says Silvia, "No, that can't be."
"Okay," he says, "Maybe not werewolves. But she did say magical creatures."
"Luka?" I say, thinking that it's impossible but figuring if I'm going to persuade him this is a dream, then I can ask anything anyway, "Is your granny a witch?"
"Yes," he says, "She would have known what to do tonight."
"What happened, Luka?" I take him by the hand and pull him up. "Let's move this inside and you can tell me about it." I'm already thinking about how I'm going to get the ladder down for fire escape so I can climb it with these weary human limbs.
But Luka is pulling back. He's shaking his head, gripping my hand back--hard.
"It's not safe yet, Silvia," he says, "We can't go back in there."
"Why, Luka?" I say, thinking of the scent of the hunter. Surely he's not inside the building? It's unnatural territory for a werewolf. It would be against all training to hunt inside a place that you don't know or understand. It makes no sense.
About as much sense as a witch in the building?
"Who did this, Luka? Did he attack you in the building? Is he still in the building?" I ask him, suddenly my adrenaline has me wide awake and I feel Fer almost vibrating with panic.
Luka can't answer. He points. His face is ashen with terror, his mouth opening and closing before he can catch enough breath to whisper, "That's him!"
I turn to look.
At the far end of the alley stands the biggest wolf I have ever seen. Its head is lowered and it's mouth is pulled back in a snarl as saliva drips from its mouth.
Vuko POV I'm yawning so hard my jaw cracks and then, just when I'm mid-yawn, I sneeze because of the dust from the training ground. Anahita thrusts a coffee at me and I've never loved a member of Waterwolf pack more. "Where's your Beta?" she asks, sipping at her coffee while we watch the younger pack members warm up. One of the benefits us Named claim is the right to not warm up properly and stand around drinking coffee while the young ones go through their paces. "Abir?" I say, "Beta Abir is doing whatever the hell he pleases." She looks at me and I know she wants to say more. Anahita is about ten years older than me and a different pack. She's Waterwolf to my Firewolf. But while I had a shitty older brother who would beat me to near death and call it training, she has been the older sister I dreamed of. Silvia would always take me to her first after Jedan had been at me and Silvia would bind my wounds and tell me to be patient because one day I was going to be bigger than Jedan.
Vuko POVHe's big and I haven't seen him before. I glance at Ana but she's transfixed. Her eyes are wide. I'm guessing she hasn't seen him before either.The other Alphas have begun to crowd the field. Among them is Didi's father. He steps forward."You are not Ironwolf," he says.Didi--and Silvia's--father was once an imposing sight. Tall with silver hair, he was the only one who ever stood up to my father. Since Silvia's banishment though, he has become stooped, old.At first I think he is talking to Didi. But he is addressing the giant who will be Didi's champion.Didi answers for his champion. "No, he is not Ironwolf," he says to his father and I'm relieved that there is still respect in his voice. But he is also resolute, "You need to step aside, Dad. This is a new pack. My pack. You have no jurisdiction over us."I'm aware of the murmuring of the crowd at the edge of the field. Didi has just declar
Vuko POV Beta Abir disapppears again for the rest of that afternoon. I feel like an idiot going from pack to pack asking if they've seen my Beta so I give up after a bit. Nobody had seen him but apparently my battle against the champion has gained me some fans. Ana has to rescue me from one waterwolf who is all but sitting in my lap rubbing against me. The waterwolf (Tina? Bettina? Trina?) is really pretty and sweet. I admit that I was enjoying the attention. But mostly I was embarrassed. I'm male, I'm nearly twenty-one and I've been separated from my true love for four years. Can you even imagine how hard that is? Ana has little sympathy. "Your face!" she keeps saying, then bursting into laughter till the tears are running down her face, "Mr I-defeated-a-giant-but-turn-to-jelly-with-the-girls." Not like jelly at all, I want to say, but keep that to myself. As I finish my rounds, with Ana at my side as a sort of female-attenti
"Say that again," I say to Frey, unable to believe my ears. We are standing on the edge of the training field, the sky darkening around us, a chill in the air. I think about Winter coming and Beta Abir's news that Didi is planning an attack on the stores. I shiver. That would mean the destruction of his own family's pack too. Surely not? "I have information about Silvia, where she is," says Frey again. Silvia. For the past four years no one has said her name. Let alone told me where to find her. I have spent every day of the four years tormented by how I wasn't there for her. The night that was meant to be ours. Her Naming Ceremony. We had told each other that our wolves would find each other that night. It would be an early blessing from the Goddess--a confirmation of the destiny we have always believed in. We could not believe that the Goddess would make us wait another five years. We were such fools. So when Beta Abir came to me the afternoon befor
Silvia POVThe wolf looms in the alleyway, his fur almost blue-black. The streetlights behind him tip his dark fur with a glow like fire. He looks like he's just escaped from hell. He stalks closer, his lips drawn back from his mouth in a drooling, growling snarl.Silvia Ironwolf, the hunter mindlinks, You have been avoiding me.That's all the invitation Fer needs. I feel her push at me and I know this is her time. I glance at Luka--all of his attention is on the dark wolf--before the sweet-pain of my shift takes over and then I am Fer, standing with my tail and head held high, my paws planted firmly on the asphalt. She is unafraid. I am unafraid.Or so I tell myself.I do not know you, says Fer and I'm so proud of how fierce and low her voice is, You have terrorized this child. Explain yourself.I have a message for you, says the wolf.They say you see the attack fir
Silvia POV We stare at the pages before us. Luka has drawn us. Me and Fulvio. I look up and see the Witch--Esme--watching me with a smile. "I like your piercings," she says. I want to fall into bed and sleep for five years. My feet are still bleeding. I'm in a ripped and bloody pink waitress uniform. I've been attacked by the biggest wolf I've ever seen. Then rescued by another biggest wolf I've ever seen. And discovered my downstairs neighbour is a seer and his granny is a Witch. The same Witch who was at my Naming. Who is now complimenting me on my piercings. "Thanks," I say as she continues to grin at me. "I can't wait to find out how you're using your precious gift," she says. My precious gift! If my feet weren't so damned sore I'd run over there and ... I look down. My feet are still bleeding! I look behind me and see that I have left bloody foot prints in Luka's apartment. I look at his mom who has gone f
Silvia POV Fulvio changes back into his clothes after his shower and we find ourselves once again in front of Luka's apartment. I've changed into jeans and a t-shirt as well and brushed my hair out so it's more like I used to wear it. I'm not wearing any make up. In the bathroom mirror I stared at myself for a long time, wondering at this person I was seeing. It was like seeing an old friend after a long, long time. My eyes huge and dark, my hair falling in waves around my face. A little older and sadder than I once was. I try not to think about how Fulvio looked at me when I came out. He had that hungry look again and I didn't hate it. Fulvio knocks and we hear running footsteps and then the door is flung open. It's hard not to be happy yourself when someone looks that happy to see you. Luka is smiling and chatting already, telling us about the dinner his mom has made. I interrupt the flow of words to ask if he has a
Vuko POV That night I llie in bed and I stare up at the ceiling. It should be simple. Frey tells me that he knows where Silvia is. I go to fetch her. Happily ever after. The end. But it's not. I'm now Alpha of the pack responsible for her banishment. Oh, and she's been banished. But more confusing even is that tonight I feel like I saw Ana for the first time. Now I can't get her out of my mind. Ana is smart and funny. She challenges me. She's caring. She has incredible strength and agility--I have seen her run. I have seen her wolf, Akira, run. I've always known all of this. But now I have also seen that she is beautiful by any measure. She has the pale blue-tinged skin of all of her pack. Huge green eyes framed with thick black lashes. That froth of white hair around her head like river foam. Now I have seen her as female, with curves and smells that are intoxicating ... I groan and rubbed my fists in my eyes. Stop! I told my