Warriors

By Kate Spofford

Finally Daniel, Kayla, and Zeke are reunited. But can they work together to defeat Geo?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Spofford
• Release date: Jun 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463556313

Kate Spofford

Kate Spofford is the author of the young adult contemporary companion novels Bethany Caleb and The Art Kids, as well as the paranormal / urban fantasy series Wolf Point.

Book preview

WARRIORS

a Wolf Point novel

Kate Spofford

-1-

Daniel

So this is our army? The discouragement in Kayla's voice can't be disguised. She's surveying the backyard of our home base, a rundown cabin in the middle of nowhere, where Remy is doing his best to teach all the new wolves how to turn. Most of them seem more concerned about being naked than anything else. We’re screwed.

I watch her long, tawny hair blowing the mountain breeze. She looks too young to be the alpha of a werewolf pack.

We have a lot more people than we did a few months ago, I try.

Yeah. People. Not soldiers. You realize that Geo has soldiers, right? Like, trained soldiers. And redneck gun nuts. She gestures to our pack. We don’t even have guns.

We don’t need guns. We’re wolves.

And so are they! She stands now, too upset to remained seated, and stalks back and forth.

I don’t say anything else. She won’t listen to it, anyhow. At one point she thought I was her hero, the one who would save the pack. Of course, it’s my own fault for running away from it all. I stare at my hands, which have clenched into fists.

I’m standing now, and walking toward the forest, because if I don’t I’m going to explode out of my skin – literally.

That’s right, just run away, Dan. Like you always do, Kayla calls after me.

A snarl escapes my lips and then I’m tearing my clothes off, because I can already feel the change coming, the violent prickling of hair and the shifting of bones under my skin. This is the way it happens when I try to control it, to hold it back. I’ve been working on it with Remy. Why would I need to slow it down? I had asked him, when he suggested it.

There are many reasons, the first being the ability to control whether or not you turn.

But isn’t it better to just snap into it? It had taken me so long to be able to make myself turn on purpose that the idea of slowing down sounded stupid.

Sometimes, yes – an instantaneous change can allow you to surprise your enemy, or your prey. But exploding into wolf form is dangerous if it happens without your control. Remy always talks like he’s giving a lecture, which is annoying unless you want to learn something. Plus, control means you can do a partial change, like this. He held up his hand, which morphed into a wicked-looking wolf claw.

I was convinced, and since then I’ve been working to avoid turning when I got angry. So far I’ve only been able to slow it down long enough to get my clothes off. I don’t have many clothes left, and our supplies are on the low side.

Breathe, Daniel.

When had Remy come up behind me? I growl at him. My already-clawed fingers had fumbled unbuttoning my jeans.

Breathe in, Remy instructs in a voice so patient I want to punch him. Breathe out. Breathe in the calm, breathe out the anger.

My throat isn’t human enough to argue back. I give up on my pants and try to do what he says. Even after my first set of deep breaths, I can feel my skin calming down, the anger fading away.

She won’t listen, I gruff at him when I get my throat back.

She’s young, says Remy with a shrug. We’re working on her.

He turns to look over at the picnic table, and I do too. Clare, who is apparently our great-aunt, is talking to her.

It’s so weird, I say.

Which part?

I look at him. The part where I’m not in jail for murder. He smiles, then stops when he sees I’m not. All of it, really. My grandmother’s sister is alive. I have cousins, other cousins than Kayla, I mean. I guess you’re my cousin?

First cousin once removed. I think, Remy says.

And if Will and Sophie are Clare’s grandchildren, then they’re also your cousins. Uh, first cousins once removed.

Right.

So that does that make them my cousin? I ask.

Second cousins.

Not removed.

No.

Okay. I nod. Then wince. That’s weird.

How so?

Um, because they’re Indians?

Don’t let them hear you say that. They’re First Nation. And it isn’t weird, because it’s the other side of the family that’s native, not your side.

I still don’t quite understand how I can be related to two Native American kids – twins – but I shrug and look for them among the pack members practicing their shift. I don’t see them.

(they’re inside, helping your mom put together lunch)

I give Remy an annoyed look. I don’t like when he reads my thoughts.

Then you should join the others to practice blocking, Remy says, and heads up toward Kayla and Clare.

I hate watching them all discussing strategy together. They don’t even consult me. I curl my fists and glare at the ground. If only Remy wasn’t right all the time. If I want to be the hero everyone thinks I am, I need to learn to control myself.

-2-

Zeke

I’m sittin’ on the ground staring deep into Laura’s eyes when I sense – smell, mostly – that Dan’s approaching. Pickles! Laura yelps, and laughs.

I blink and shake my head. You got me. I was distracted. We both turn to look at Dan.

My bond with Dan is stronger than Laura’s, which is how his being there distracts me more. He wasn’t the one who turned me, which would automatically make him my alpha, according to Remy. But the one who turned me disappeared, and Dan was there, and according to Remy, he’s a much stronger werewolf than most. When he first taught me to turn, he forced the change and that made himself my alpha.

It's weird, because he was only my alpha for a few days before I was kidnapped and had to become an alpha for a bunch of other werewolves. You’d think that being an alpha would make Dan not my alpha, but I guess there’s a hierarchy. Daniel is my alpha, I’m Jeff and Tucker’s alpha. I’m not sure if Jeff is still Tucker’s alpha, or if I replaced him entirely.

There is so much learnin’ to do about being a werewolf.

Remy said I should practice blocking with you guys, Dan says.

His body language ain’t hidin’ nothing, his thoughts neither. He’s annoyed at Remy and mad at himself, that’s plain as day.

I’ll practice with ya. I give Laura a sideways smile. You need a more challenging partner. She shrugs and smiles and wanders off. I can’t imagine how weird it must be to be a grown woman who now has to take werewolf lessons from a teenager. I’m the youngest one here, too. I get the sense that she finds me the least threatening.

Danny’s as tense as a bowstring, and a lot of the other men are, too. There are a few, like Mike and Terry, who don’t like being told what to do. The werewolf side of them makes them quicker to anger than a hungry rooster, and more than a few fights have broken out. It doesn’t help that we’re all crowded and hungry and part of being pack is pickin’ up on everyone’s emotions. Misty, she’s a sensitive one, she’s even gone and built herself a shelter out in the woods to escape it all. Remy don’t like that. He thinks it’s dangerous to have wolves out all alone. He thinks it makes them easy for Geo and his army to pick us off.

I myself think it’s better not to all live under one roof. Geo might have access to bombs or long-range weapons. He could target the cabin and then we’d all be dead.

So how does this work? Dan asks, sitting on the ground where Laura had been. His knees poke through the holes in his jeans.

Blocking? You have ta imagine a wall in your brain, like a brick wall or somethin’. Or like a soundproof room for all yer thoughts.

A padded cell. For all my crazy thoughts, Dan mutters. Got it.

So what Laura and I were doin’ was thinkin’ of a word, and juss repeatin’ that word over an’ over in our heads. Here, you go first. Just think of any word, but imagine the wall.

Dan’s forehead scrunches up. Any word?

Any word.

(grassgrassgrassgrass)

I wince. I could call it right now, but I wanna give ‘im a chance to imagine the wall. Give ‘im a chance to quiet his mind. But after a minute, I can still hear him, loud and clear.

Grass? I say.

He sighs, and grabs a fistful of grass between his fingers. Yeah.

Okay, how about imaginin’ the wall first, then start thinkin’ the word?

In his intensity, he doesn’t look at me. I can practically see him buildin’ a brick wall in his mind. But then

(rockrockrockrock)

Rock, I say.

He growls – not at me, though I back up a bit. That’s when I catch sight of Tucker lurking ‘round near the side of the cabin. You’ll get the hang of it eventually, I tell him. It’s hard to imagine one thing while thinkin’ of another.

Dan looks over his shoulder, where I spotted Tucker. Are you worried about him at all?

It’s hard to say. Tucker hasn’t exactly ingratiated himself with anyone else in the pack. Some of that’s ‘cause Jeff refuses to trust him, and everyone likes Jeff. Mostly it’s Tucker’s personality. He’s smart, and aims to make the people around him feel stupid.

A little. He’s a good person to have on our side, ‘cause he’s ruthless and smart, and he’ll be useful once we start talkin’ strategy. I just don’t… trust him, not all the way.

Turning to look at me, Dan doesn’t say anything. Not out loud. In my head I hear

(me neither)

-3-

Kayla

I don’t know what I expected being an alpha to be like. With all the prophecy crap my mom spouted about Daniel, back when everyone (everyone being my mom and Aunt Jenny) thought Daniel was the alpha, I guess I expected it to be like walking on water. Being a hero. Being a king.

So far, I’ve had none of that. I don’t know if it’s a sexist thing, or an ageist thing, but it’s really starting to piss me off.

All these people are here because of me. I saved them.

I found Daniel back when he was starving and alone and didn’t even know he was a werewolf. Even if I didn’t physically bring him back with me, I got him on the path toward home.

Misty, Laura, Martin, Terry, Mike, Phil, Tricia – all of them are here because I went to where they were being held prisoner and freed them. They should be grateful. Instead, Martin’s a walking panic attack, Misty’s off in the wood meditating, and none of the men listen to me. At all. Laura’s okay, I guess, but I get the feeling that if I asked her to do something unpleasant, she would give me a hard time.

Okay, so it wasn’t me who brought Jeff, Tucker, Clare, Will, and Sophie here. That was Zeke. For a little kid he’s pretty amazing. And I swear, that kid gets way more respect than I do.

Even Remy is making me crazy. You need to go out there and talk to Misty, he’s telling me.

She doesn’t want to talk to me, I say, squinting in the direction where I feel her pull. It’s weird, this tug I get when someone wanders too far or is having intense feelings.

Sometimes people avoid things that are better off confronted.

I roll my eyes. Can you stop with the Obi Wan Kenobi shit already? Great, you know everything there is to know about everything. Maybe you should be alpha, I snarl, even though he’d have to pry the title of alpha out of my cold, dead claws.

It doesn’t work that way.

No shit!

Remy laughs a little and puts his fists on his hips, looking away. God, could he not look just like a model for some mountaineering company, just once? He shakes his sandy blond hair. Sometimes you are just such a teenager, he says.

What’s that supposed to mean? I demand.

Nothing, he says, and turns his gaze on me. Suddenly I’m brought back to when my mom was pushing me to become Remy’s mate. Yeah, I wanted no part of that. Want no part of that. Sometimes, though, I wish no one had tried to force him on me. Maybe I would have turned to him on my own. Those pale blue eyes are so piercing. Just, sometimes, I forget that you haven’t had a lot of life experience.

I open my mouth to say, Excuse me? But he holds up a hand.

You’ve lived a fairly isolated life. You haven’t had a lot of experience in dealing with conflicts. That’s all I meant.

I went to public school. I had friends. Two friends, who weren’t very good friends, but still.

Forget it. All I mean is, Misty is avoiding you. She went through a traumatic experience, and you saved her. Can you imagine if you had been in her position, and had to be saved? Wouldn’t you feel a little resentful?

I want to say no, but I do know what he means. I would have hated being saved. But Laura and the rest of them went through the same thing.

Everyone handles things differently. And many of them have had more time to deal with what happened to them than she has. Just go and talk to her.

I heave a sigh. I know I should go talk to her. I just don’t get why it’s so important. I mean, I know we need the numbers, but if she doesn’t want to be part of the pack, can’t she just leave?

I think we should make a special committee. That sounds like the most awful thing ever. Don’t give me that look – you know what our pack meetings have been like. I want our calmest, most influential members. He raises his eyebrows, and in my head I hear

(Me, you, Zeke, Jeff, and Misty)

It takes a moment before I realize who’s missing.

(No Daniel?)

He’s too volatile.

(Not my mom? Or Clare?)

Remy shakes his head.

I do understand having Zeke and Jeff there. Zeke actually dealt with Geo – so did Tucker, but I trust Zeke way more. And Jeff has the same dreamwalking abilities I do. I feel heat rising to my face just thinking about him.

So why Misty?

We need her, Kayla, Remy says. I want a representative from those who were at Ben’s camp… and I think she knows something. It’s hard to tell, because she’s quite good at blocking without any practice. But you might be able to break through.

I’ll try, I say.

-4-

Misty

Hey, Misty! Wait up!

I heave a sigh and try not to turn around. I'm only glad that I'm on a trip away from my tree house to gather firewood rather than heading toward it. The tree house is a secret.

Ever since I came here, alone time has been near to non-existent. Now I’m living with thirty or so other werewolves in a one-bedroom cabin and it’s the next thing to hell on earth. I now know what hell on earth is like, so I can say that in all honesty.

Kayla runs to catch up with me, her long legs springing over the uneven ground. Even when she’s not a wolf she’s got this animal grace. It doesn't take a genius to see why the most powerful werewolf in North America would amass an army just to make her his mate.

Not even breathing heavy, she arrives at my side and says, Is something wrong?

Have I done anything to make you think something is wrong? I ask flatly.

Um, I don’t know if you remember, but I can read your thoughts. Kayla flips her hair over her shoulder.

I press my lips into a line. You said you weren’t going to do that to me.

I know, I know, sorry. I didn’t really read your thoughts, she says quickly. More like body language and emotions. I don’t really think of that as reading your thoughts. Like, I can look at you and get a sense of how you’re feeling, more than anything specific. Which is why I asked you.

What emotion are you getting right now? I ask her.

Finally she has the good sense to blush.

It’s not that I don’t like Kayla. I mean, she rescued me from the werewolf pack that turned me. They weren’t exactly nice. I guess I didn’t really appreciate how she rescued me. The way she forced me to turn even though I told her I didn’t want to. After everything I was forced to do while with Ben’s pack, being forced to do one more thing makes me wonder exactly how different this pack is. Maybe all werewolves are the same.

And I’m now one of them.

Look, I know this situation isn’t ideal, Kayla says.

You’re damn fucking right, I say, totally ignoring the fact that Kayla’s only fifteen and I don’t normally swear. You wanna know what the ideal situation is? If I was home in my apartment with my job and all I had to worry about was getting my laundry and grocery shopping done. That would be ideal.

Kayla chews on the inside of her cheek and looks like a chastised little girl. She’s supposed to be the alpha, and most of the time I forget how young she is.

I sigh. I know none of that is your fault. I guess all I’m saying is that it’s hard to adjust, not knowing if I’ll ever be able to have that life back again, okay?

Okay, she says.

I’m used to having a lot of alone time, I tell her. I’m an introvert. I don’t really like people. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a little crowded back there. So I’d like to go for a walk. By myself.

Okay, she repeats. As long as you’re not mad at me?

I heave another sigh. No.

Okay, good. Um, so Remy would like to have a meeting tonight, and he’d like for you to be there.

Another pack meeting? These hadn’t been going so well. Just a couple of days ago, a bunch of new wolves had shown up, and it’s caused a lot of tension. Jeff, this Asian kid who Kayla apparently likes, wants to kill Tucker, this nerdy-looking dude, because apparently Tucker killed a friend of theirs.

See what I mean about all werewolves being the same?

After the regular pack meeting, we’re going to have a special meeting. Remy wants only a few certain people. Like you.

Me. I stare at her. And who else?

Me, obviously, you, Zeke, and Jeff. That’s it.

What, are we going to be the high council or something?

She shrugs. "Something like that. I think it makes sense. Maybe no one will freak out and start to turn