The Ripple Effect

(A/N: This one has some more disturbing parts; but for the sake of keeping it from getting too gruesome, I did edit a decent amount out of the final cut. I will mark this general area beginning with ** and ending with **. I don't think it's too graphic or bad, but we all have different sensitivities. Regardless, all you need to really know is , SPOILER ALERT , that some people die.)

Iah grew even antsier as the days passed. As far as he was concerned, this was our pack; and my body was keeping us from protecting and leading them. I was burdening our progress. As a result, Iah had kicked it into overdrive. He redirected all of his efforts to healing me; but as a direct byproduct, all of my energy was drained as well. I was all but a walking zombie, and Zeya was quick to tell me how “boring” I was. Eliana the Acquaintance was quick to tell me that my wolf needed to stop or he would end up doing more bad than good.

Iah didn’t much approve of the woman.

Papa! You’re not watching! Zeya wailed in my head, and I whipped my head around to see the wolf scowling up at me with her rear planted firmly on the ground.

“I’m watching, love,” I promised, patting her furry head quickly. “Now, what is so darn important?”

She gave me an impish grin before the wolf took off. I watched her with unfocused eyes, as I had seen her bounce around the forest a million times before... But of course I wouldn’t tell her that.

“Can I ask about her father?”

I kept my eyes on Zeya, but my jaw tightened. I did not know the man, but I hated him more than I hated Daniel. And if I ever did meet the man, I would gladly allow Iah his merciless takeover.

But my voice was completely void of all of these emotions as I asked, “What about him?”

“You told me your life story,” she said quickly, but I could not tell if it was just teasing. “But you skipped over hers. I know she is a black wolf, so that basically guarantees she’s from the pack that we are out to stop. But...You said she was being brought up as a weapon. Normally the females decide if they want the warrior’s life. And she’s too young to have made that choice.”

“It’s exactly what you think.”

“I had hoped it would not be that way...”

“I’m sure Zeya wishes so, too.” I glanced fleetingly to Elaina, but she would not meet my gaze. “I don’t know everything that happened. But I know that she is the Alpha’s first born, so he searched for any reason to get rid of his daughter. When he found one, he pounced—even when it meant killing his own mate and Luna.”

“He... He killed her?”

It was the most desperate and broken string of words I had ever heard. My heart ached for her.

“Did you know Zeya’s mother?”

She opened her mouth, but a soft sound slipped past her before she shook her head.

“I just always thought...mates were sacred.”

“I lost my faith in mates a long time ago, Eliana. Some people... Some wolves are just rotten, and not even the kindest of mates could change that. They will just be another casualty, just another obstacle to their evil desires. I didn’t know Zeya’s mother, but she gave her life to save her pup, as any devoted mother would do. So clearly not even a doting mate could change Zeya’s corrupt father.”

Eliana refused to speak more, watching Zeya in complete silence and with complete attention. I must have said something that gravely upset her, but what was it?

That locket... I was so sure it was the key.

But she had made it very clear that she had no interest in being anything but non-enemies with me. Yet here I stood, wanting nothing more than to understand who had hurt her so badly.

The next thing I heard made my blood run cold, and the woman beside me faded into the background as my feet pushed against the soggy marsh attempting to pull me under. The harsh, blood-curdling scream just kept looping in my head, making me run faster until I finally found her.

How could I have been so blind? She begged me to watch her, and I hadn’t!

Zeya was whimpering and crying, and panic was in her eyes.

“I know it hurts, sweetheart,” I whispered, reaching forward and placing my hand gently on her furry back. “But do not shift. Okay? Just focus on this for me, Misa.”

The little wolf was shaking worse than any house in an earthquake, and her eyes were fixated on the bloody, metal jaws clamped around her right paw. But I couldn’t just pry the damn thing open, could I?

“Oh, my God!” Eliana screamed in my ear, reaching around me and placing her hands on the bear trap.

“I hope you have something in your bag for this,” I mumbled under my breath, trying to keep Zeya deaf to our conversation. She wouldn’t like the idea of pain even worse than the trap clamping on—and that was the clamp coming off.

“I think... I have some—”

I clamped my hand over her mouth, letting out a low breath. Their footsteps were quiet, but humans had very peculiar foot patterns.

“Hide,” I whispered, giving her a push toward a bush. “I’ll take care of them, and you help Zeya once they’re distracted.”

“But—!”

“Go!”

I shifted quickly, the thought of restraint far from my mind. These horrible creatures had been waiting for that trap to go off... And it was their fault that my Zeya was ensnared and crying.

Iah growled low in his throat, slowly padding toward Zeya and positioning himself in front of the crying pup. Three humans emerged from the brush, two already aiming their rifles. The other had only a large knife.

I was holding back, but they weren’t making their case very well. They were just laughing and nudging each other. And it was really starting to piss me off.

Iah snapped at them, growling even more; but they just kept approaching!

“What’s the matter? Big bad wolf isn’t so big and bad?” one of them cooed, a creepy grin forming on his crooked lips.

“I’m more than happy to show you how wrong you are,” Iah growled. Of course, they couldn’t understand him... But trash-talking worked well on wolves—which was usually the only type of creature we had to fight off.

“Papa, I’m scared!”

Then everything went blank.

I remember the loud explosion of the bullet, and I remember landing on the one who had shot at me. But the rest was a blur. I just knew that the man stopped squirming and screaming eventually, and his friend didn’t say much either.

**
But time finally slowed back down to normal, and all I could taste was blood in my mouth. What was once a human was now a mangled pile, hardly discernible from wild animal remains. Iah just had that sloppy grin on his blood-covered face.

Then I remembered the friends. Iah whipped his head to the side, and the human stared at me with wide eyes. His rifle was on the ground... But he was looking past me.

I followed his gaze, and I saw Zeya whimpering on the ground, perfectly human again. Eliana must have released her from the trap. But the relief was quick to leave as my eyes continued their path.

And I was looking at Eliana: the woman with slits for eyes, fangs for teeth, and claws where her nails should have been. A full grin split her face in half—her face that was absolutely covered in blood—and she was laughing. A shaky breath was pulled from my lungs at the complete sense of terror that ran up my spine. The limp body in her hands was clawed to absolute hell, and the head in her hands was at an entirely impossible angle.

And a huge portion of his neck was missing.

The body suddenly fell, and Eliana started shaking. Like she had just realised what she had done. She hadn’t just killed the man... She had been mauling a corpse long after his soul had gone.

I started toward her, but the man behind me suddenly screamed. Hell! He couldn’t just go out there and tell everyone what he saw!

Iah lunged after him. Though my heart was bittersweet about the execution, Iah enjoyed every second until the man stopped screaming.

**
With the three men no longer posing any threat, I forced the shift upon myself, and I stared at the ground for a moment before turning to face Eliana.

She was on her knees, holding Zeya and... She was crying.

“Zeya, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, kissing every inch of the little girl’s face. “I should have been there! I love you, sweetheart! Tell me you’ll be okay!”

I had never seen a woman so frantic over a child she hardly knew.

I slowly dragged myself toward them, collapsing with them and running my hand through Zeya’s hair. Eliana’s eyes were wide and shaking when she met my gaze, like she was just waiting for me to force her to tell me what the hell had just happened.

I reached out and brushed my thumb over her cheek, clearing away a stray splattering of blood. She closed her eyes as soft, tearless sobs wracked through her body and her lip trembled.

And I noticed that the locket was wrapped around her right hand even as she clutched Zeya close to her body.

Even still, there was something even more haunting about this whole thing. My wolf had a very distinct evil grin, and it was a grin that reminded me of Zeya’s grin when she had killed a bug. But the grin that had been all but plastered to Eliana’s face...

It was a whole new kind of evil.