Remington “Rem” Riley's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The ice groaned under the beasts' weight. Rem felt it flex through his boots. The black wolf and Marcus crept closer, spreading wide across the frozen lake. Their claws scraped the glass-smooth surface. A crack ran between Rem's feet, thin and white. If the ice broke now, it would drop them all into black water. Rem needed solid footing, and he needed it fast. "Rem." Beth's voice was clear. The fall had burned the sap from her blood. She stared at the two beasts, then at the axe, then at the cracks under their paws. "They're heavy. Heavier than us." She grabbed his sleeve. "The ice is thin where they're standing. I can pull them onto it." "No." He knew what she meant. "You have the scent on you. They'll come." "That's the point." She was already stepping away from him, out onto the weakest ice. Her cut hand still carried the red moss. Both beasts' heads snapped toward her. The wolf's red eyes locked on. Marcus's yellow eyes followed. The scent pulled them like a rope. "You break it. I run." Rem's chest went tight. This was the detective who once hunted him for a killer. Now she offered herself to save him. He had no time to argue. He gripped the heirloom axe with both hands. Beth ran. She cut across the lake, waving her bloodied hand high. The beasts charged after her, side by side, all their weight bunched on one stretch of ice. Cracks spread under them like spider legs. Rem lifted the axe over his head. His ribs screamed. He drove the blade down into the ice ahead of the beasts. Once. Twice. The head glowed red and bit deep. A crack shot out from the wound and raced toward the wolf and Marcus. "Beth, jump!" he shouted. She threw herself flat onto thicker ice near the rocks. The wolf and Marcus never slowed. The scent had them blind to everything else. The fractured sheet gave way beneath them. Black water swallowed both beasts to the shoulders. They thrashed. The wolf howled and clawed at the crumbling edges. Marcus's human groan broke out of the beast's throat, then choked off. Rem crawled to Beth and dragged her farther from the hole. They watched the two beasts fight the freezing water. The wolf did not drown. It hauled its huge body onto the far ice, dripping and shaking, red eyes burning brighter than before. But Marcus went under. His clawed hand slapped the surface once. Then the black water closed over him, and the human sound stopped for good. Rem held the axe tight. One beast was gone. But the Bloodmoon Wolf still lived, and now it stood between them and the only shore. He had drowned the guest he'd hoped to save. The true beast was still his to kill.