The Beast

LORELAI

I was on Kai’s back, perched high between his shoulder blades with Enzi nestled in a wrap against me, as he ran. Derik had a team coming in on the left, while Brax had his coming on the right. We had found the beast, and he almost had Adrenna.

It was hot on her tail, her fear permeating the air. It gave me a sick sense of satisfaction that she was as scared as we had been. She was running fast, but I could feel Zale; he was so damn close.

I threw my shadows out ahead, letting them shadow the beast as he huffed and roared, shaking the forest with his bellow. He gnashed his teeth, his feral eyes darting through the trees as he slowed down.

He came to a stop, sniffing the air, before narrowing his eyes in the dark. He let out a huff and circled the trees. He was still circling when we caught up to him, and we all waited.

I looked at the eyes in the trees. Derik, in his wolf form, was creeping forward to see what was going to happen. Brax was hanging back with the others, creating a surrounding line of defense.

“What is it doing?” Tatum asked, his want to attack creeping into all of us thanks to the link.

“I think she’s hiding—with magic or not, I’m not sure, but he knows it. I can feel it in the air. She’s here somewhere; stay alert,” I said back through the pack link, then spoke to just my alphas.

~“I’m going to use my shadows to find Zale. If we find him, we find her. Get ready for her; I don’t think she will go quietly,”~ I said, reaching out with my shadows.

I searched over the snow, looking for any disruption in the air, trying to sense any kind of magic, but there was nothing there that I could sense.

I almost cried at that fact, my heart about to burst from the pain and hopelessness that tried to fill me. I just wanted him back; I’d barely been able to hold him or see his face. I needed him, and Enzi did too.

It was a constant ache that was enough to bring me to my knees, and the thought that we might be searching another day was almost too much.

Tears prickled at my eyes as my shadows found nothing. They climbed up the trees and hovered around the beast, who huffed, his eyes meeting mine through the dark. He knew I was here, sensed me from the caves, and probably sensed Brax too.

“Kai, let me down,” I said.

He growled, ~“No.”~

“I wasn’t asking, Kai. I need to talk to it,” I said, and Derik emerged from the tree line in wolf form, the others hanging back. Kai dipped his head, and I climbed off, holding Enzi close as I walked forward.

Derik and Kai were there with me, watching, tense, and ready in case they needed to intervene. But I was pretty sure I’d be okay.

The beast wanted Adrenna, not us. It watched us warily, its eyes darting between the three of us before landing on the bundle of baby I had on my chest.

I held Enzi tighter, stepping closer.

“Stay here,” I said to my alphas, who obeyed—reluctantly. Kai cursed in my head, promising vengeance on the beast if he breathed wrong in our direction. I smiled at him, kissing his muzzle before heading over to the beast. It huffed at me.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I told you that, remember?” I said, and it huffed again, considering me. I stepped forward again.

“I want Adrenna, just like you. Can you sense her?” I asked it, my shadows still searching.

The beast looked over its shoulder before shifting in the snow, shaking off the falling flakes, and circling the trees again. It went around three of them before coming back to me with a grunt.

“I can’t sense her there. Look, can you see what I’m holding?” I asked, leaning in a bit so it could glance at Enzi. Kai inched forward, but the beast didn’t attack; it whined. I met its eyes, swallowing at the pain I heard in his voice.

“This is Enzi; she has a brother. A twin. Adrenna stole him, and I just need him back. You can have Adrenna, but I need to get my son back, do you understand?” I asked. I had no idea if it was listening. It was hard to tell when its features were so distorted and had no expression.

It was only the eyes that told me he was still in there, that he wasn’t just a beast. I hated that using the beast and handing over Adrenna willingly was what I had resorted to. Especially when Adrenna had been punished for the very thing the wolves had done with me: fall in love.

It shouldn’t have been punished, but I wasn’t the all-powerful witches who controlled the balance of the realm, so there was nothing I could do, and I didn’t want to. I only wanted Zale back before Silas got his fangs in him.

The beast stared for a second longer at Enzi before it turned away from us. I stayed where I was, not sure what it was doing. Then, it let out a roar so loud I pulled Enzi tighter against me, covering her ears, and shrank back as Kai and Derik moved in close to me.

My shadows poured out around me as it roared, louder and longer, and my shadows resonated with it. I frowned as Enzi looked up at me a second before her shadows poured out of her.

“He’s calling on our shadows,” I whispered.

~“Mine too,”~ Brax said, coming forward as his moved through the snow, joining mine and Enzi’s.

“My shadows aren’t fighting it. Are yours?” I asked, and Brax shook his head, still in wolf form.

The beast turned on us then, its eyes black, its snout releasing a misting huff before he grunted, the shadows swirling around him, his claws in the snow.

~“What the fuck is he doing? I don’t like this, Little Luna. Get your pet in line before I draw that line across his throat with my claws,”~ Kai muttered down the link, his tension making me nervous. I soothed him as much as I could, my shadows not angry or hostile toward the beast. If anything, they liked him.

“I think they recognize him from their realm,” I guessed.

~“And he can control them?”~ Derik asked.

“It doesn’t feel like he’s controlling them, just asking them to obey, like we do with them. They’re listening to him though,” I said. Derik narrowed his eyes on the beast.

Kai hadn’t stopped glaring, but I felt like the beast was showing me something, so I focused on him. His eyes were clashing with mine, and I felt the pressure in the look, the intent for me to understand, but I didn’t.

Not until he shifted slightly, and I saw what he wanted me to.

I gasped and narrowed in on the fourth stream of shadows coming from the center of the three trees. There was nothing there but those shadows, but I knew there had to be because there was only one other being in the realm with shadows like ours.

“Zale,” I whispered, and the beast grunted in agreement.

“It can sense Zale’s shadows, which is how he’s getting around Adrenna using her magic to hide them,” I said, grinning. I slipped Enzi from me, bundling her in the wrap. Brax shifted into human and took her from me.

Kai and Derik flanked me as wolves as I walked forward through the snow, ignoring the biting cold that had soaked my leather boots and pants.

“Adrenna! I know you can hear me, and I know you’re there with Zale. The beast does too!” I called into the empty space that the beast was instructing my shadows to surround, wrapping around the three trees.

She had created a hole to hide in, but our shadows were slowly suffocating it.

“The beast will find you. As long as you have Zale with you, he will always find you. Give me my son back and give yourself a chance to survive. If you don’t, he will rip you to pieces the second he gets to you,” I threatened.

Adrenna’s illusion dropped, and she stood there, her eyes wild as she took in the beast. Her smirk dropped, her face crumpling in fear and…sadness.

“Parker?” she whispered, holding Zale in her arms, wrapped in a bundle of cloth and fur. He was so fucking close, my heart faltered. I stepped forward as the beast roared, ready to attack.

“No!” I called to it, making it pause.

“I get Zale first,” I ordered. My shadows paused their obedience to the beast, waiting for the tension to snap.

They would back me if it came down to it, but the beast was not directing any hostility toward me. His giant body hesitated as he eyed me and then Adrenna with a snarl.

“He listened to you?” Adrenna asked, her voice shaky as she eyed him again.

“I’m guessing that’s part of the balance. I let him out, I got him back here—he owes me. He helps me get Zale back, and we’re even,” I said. The beast grunted in agreement.

“If I give you the child, he will kill me.”

“Yes,” I said, and she scowled.

“If I keep the child, Silas will kill me, and the beast will hunt me.”

“Yes.”

“Then there is only one way I get to win this stalemate,” she breathed, looking at the beast with a longing that had me frowning. I recognized it. I didn’t want to but I did. Until her face turned nasty and I knew we were out of time to negotiate.

“Now!” I screamed and launched my shadows at her as she raised clawed fingers, ready to slash at my baby. My shadows and magic entwined, grabbing Zale from her, throwing her away with a heave so fierce, it yanked inside of me.

She went flying, smashing into a tree close to Derik’s team. They snarled and cornered her as the beast roared, shaking the snow from the trees.

My shadows brought Zale back to me, and I curled him in, holding him tight, tears slipping from my eyes as the lump in my throat made a sob fall from my lips.

“I found you, baby. I got you. I’m so sorry,” I whispered to him, kissing his forehead as he slept soundly.

“Please, no! I didn’t hurt him! I wasn’t going to give him to Silas!” Adrenna begged as the wolves fought her. She did a good job at fighting them, keeping them away with her magic, but she was weak with the beast there.

He kept her fear so strong, that it made her reckless, defeatable. Brax stood beside me, Enzi in his arms as she squirmed.

“She knows he’s back.” Brax smiled and put her close to him. She wound her hand around his and Zale’s eyes slowly fluttered open. He looked up at me, and my heart filled. I finally felt whole.

More tears fell as a warmth spread through my body. I wasn’t letting them go again. Not for anyone.

I walked over to Adrenna, who was still lashing out, the beast waiting for his chance, waiting for the okay from me.

“What were you going to do with him?” I demanded. Adrenna scowled at me.

“Keep him. I deserve him. I have nothing left thanks to those fucking witches, and I’m not an idiot, I know Silas will kill me the second I hand him over. He proved that when he had me kill your brother,” she shook her head.

“He doesn’t care who he uses to own the world, he only wants power,” she murmured.

“Then you chose the wrong side. You could’ve been with us, survived, had us at your back, but you chose to do the one thing that would guarantee your death.”

“I chose my side! I was stuck there in the shadow realm, Silas got me out. I’m just trying to survive, to find happiness. But what would you know? You have everything. Your alphas. Your heirs. Your family. You don’t know what it’s like.”

I scoffed at that. “You are not the only one who has had to fight for everything they have. I lost my father and brother to a war that they were brainwashed into. I fought to survive shadows that could have killed me,” I screamed at her.

“I fought to birth these children who were never meant to be born from a human body, but I did that! You do not get to take that!” I bit, getting angrier, my magic whipping out of me.

It snapped around her neck and shoved her against a tree as the wolves hovered. The beast salivated, and Derik turned to take Enzi so Brax could hold our son.

“And what would you have done if the witches had forbidden your love with the alphas? Told you they would not let you be together? Took every ounce of happiness you had and turned it into something that only knew violence? Only had one goal—to kill you?” She snapped.

I hated that it made me sympathize with her plight.

She was an evil bitch who had done so many bad things, but what if she was only jaded because of the hand she had been dealt? What if, while we were distracted with the witch, Silas was making his moves?

He was the real evil, he was the one who had pulled her strings. He needed our anger, the death I owed him was not about to be wasted on Adrenna.

“I’ll give you a head start. You have three seconds to run, then I send the beast after you. I suggest you use it and don’t come near my wolves again. It’ll be the last mistake you ever make,” I snapped and pulled my magic back.

Adrenna gasped then took off, taking my warning. I counted to three then looked to the beast.

“Go. She’s yours now. Don’t let her near us,” I said. The beast bellowed out another roar before taking off after his soul mate because fate was a fickle sadist bitch. I shook my head and turned to the wolves.

“Let’s get back to the city before Silas finds out we have Zale back and Adrenna dealt with,” I murmured, my heart heavy with relief but also with pain. I couldn’t imagine one of my alphas being burdened with what the beast is.

He is still in there, and that meant he knew who he was hunting, who he was killing, and couldn’t do anything about it.

It was an impossible situation, and maybe I could talk to Tabby or Cain about getting him back to human, but until then, I was going to enjoy my family being whole again and enjoy being home again.