Howl 4 Novels & Stories

--- **The Howling** The cabin explodes. Not in fire-in *sound*. A howl older than the Veil, older than the Silence, erupts from the locket's remains. The storm answers, the Song answers, the static answers. The Silence screams. The girl watches, her form dissolving. *"Clever. You hid a *heart* in the memory."* Kael's ghost grins. *"Damn right."* The howl intensifies, shredding the Silence, the ash, the false sky. Eden grips my hand as the world dissolves.

It was my mother’s voice, echoing through the neural link one last time. "Thank you for the data, darling. The Purge was just the beginning. Now, let's see how your rebels handle the 'God-Wolf' I just built with your frequency." A massive explosion rocked the Hive. The tunnel doors were torn off their hinges not by a bomb, but by a hand. A massive, white-furred beast stepped into the red light—it looked like Dante’s Void-Wolf, but it had Elena’s white-gold eyes and Silas’s lethal smile.

My jaw drops. In front of me stands a massive ember wolf with four heads—that’s right, four heads each with razor-sharp teeth. Fire rippling through her fur. She takes off, tearing the two witches apart without even stopping. She is in front of her beta in a flash and shreds the witch within seconds. Her beta shifts into a deep black wolf with fire-red eyes and black smoke coming off of her. Andricia lifts all four snouts to the sky and lets out a howl. Instantly, every pack member of hers shifts into the same black wolf, with black smoke trickling off of them. Hellhounds—they are a pack of hellhounds. They all rip the witches apart quickly, and the witches start to retreat.

POV: Neoma Solstice Hope was a digital counter ticking upward. Neoma stared at the holographic projection hovering above the central table. Her eyes burned, dry and gritty from hours of not blinking enough. A low, persistent hum from the server banks vibrated through the soles of her boots, travelling up her shins to settle as a buzz in her knees. "Current tally: 12%," Wolfy stated. His voice was flat, stripped of inflection, but the scent of ozone radiating from him was sharp enough to taste. He tapped a key. "Time remaining: Four hours."

One of his enforcers was down—ripped apart by a Dread Stalker before the spell Ava cast earlier sealed off the fear trail. We advanced, one step at a time, through the open files and towards the main gate of the forge which was open. I could see the inside now—high, black, smoking from whatever they were making and the shadow creatures. A second blast shook the air, louder than the first. Then came the came a scream A howl so loud, it didn’t just touch your ear it rattled your bones. Every wolf paused. Even the enemy. Then it dropped from the sky. The Howling Horror creature.

As I shifted, revealing my massive wolf that stood at 4,5" when on all fours. My paws were as big as a human face. I sniffed the air once again and followed her smell. It stopped by the lake where Damian had investigated earlier. I caught sight of the footprints on the ground. I saw two lines which indicated feet dragging and knew it as hers. Then I saw the bottle of scent covering spray at the end of the tracks. In a nearby bush. I tried to sniff out other scents but there were none. Just mud was all I could smell. I howled in hopes of maybe hearing her howl back. My heart skipped a beat at every second that passed that I didn't hear her. Then I hear her howl. My feet started pounding into

He chose her as his Luna and he died protecting her, and now here I am, his brother, taking everything that was his. His pack, and his mate. The guilt sits heavy in my chest but it doesn't change the fact that I meant what I said in that stable. I'm going to find her later tonight and finish what we started… A howl cuts through the forest, long and mournful and achingly familiar. I stop running so abruptly that Marcus almost crashes into me. All twelve of us freeze, our ears perked up, listening. The howl comes again and my blood runs cold. That's Kade's howl.

Then I thought of Evan screaming under my hands because he had followed my scent into a trap. I exhaled slowly. “I’ll learn,” I said. Colton closed his eyes for one brief second. Mara nodded, as if she had expected nothing else. “Good. We start now.” Outside, another howl rose from the northern trees. One voice became three. Three became many. The sound rolled through Grimfang land, deep and furious and alive, until the windows trembled in their frames. My body shook with it. Colton opened his eyes. The wolf looked back from them, but he stayed where he was. Beside me, like he promised.