“Lesander, what are you doing here?” I said, standing up and moving away from the living room, trying to pull his gaze away from Owen and Talissa. Then two people stepped into the cabin behind him, each one of them carrying a firearm. My heart started to pound. Humans. He’d brought humans here. Lesander wouldn’t look at me. “Lesander!” I barked. That got his attention. “What’s going on?”

“I see you two have made amends,” he snarled. “I didn’t expect you back, your Jeep isn’t outside.”

“It broke down,” I said flatly. “And I’m going to ask you again, Lesander. What’s going on?”

“A slight change of plans it would seem,” he said. “A leadership challenge.”

I scoffed. “You’re cracked,” I said. “Get out, calm yourself down and speak to me in the morning.”

“No, Dante, it is now.” The muscles in his arms were bulging, the rage in his voice stretching all the way to his eyes. “I challenge you for the leadership of Eastwind, and I challenge you now.”

“You’re actually serious,” I said. “It’s proper for us to have leadership challenges take place at a Howl. If this is really that important to you, wait until then.”

“Oh, is that what’s proper, Dante?” He laughed. What had happened to him? “Is that what you tell yourself when you think of your own leadership challenge?”

“Lesander, don’t do this.”

“You killed him in cold blood!”

“I didn’t touch him!”

“If you didn’t touch him then where is my Dad?” he roared. I saw Owen flinch out of the corner of my eye. “You killed him and took this leadership from him, a leadership that was rightfully mine. This should be my pack. I should have inherited it when my Dad passed but you just couldn’t let me have it, could you Dante? You had to take it for yourself.”

“Dante, what is he talking about?” Owen’s voice sounded so small next to Lesander’s roars. I looked to him. He looked so frightened on that sofa, his mother close by his side.

“Don’t listen to him, Owen,” I said. “He’s lying. You seem to have a habit of doing that at the moment, don’t you Lesander?”

He scoffed. “Consider it payback.”

“What?”

“You took something that belonged to me, so I’ve done the same to you,” he shrugged. “It didn’t seem to have the right effect first time around, so I figured I would just have to try again.”

I looked at him carefully, looked for those same signs of madness I had seen in his father’s eyes on that fateful night but I couldn’t see them. I could only see Lesander, and Lesander wasn’t about to let any of this go. I had to know what he was thinking.

“I didn’t take anything from you Lesander,” I said. “Your Dad was sick, you know he was. And what happened was…” My entire body went cold at the thought. “What happened was an accident, you have to understand that.”

“You killed him,” he said. “Everyone else may believe you’re some perfect albeit soft alpha, but I know you killed him. My dad would not have fallen from that cliff edge, not without being pushed.”

“So you’ve been holding this grudge for five years and now you’re wanting payback?”

He smiled. No, he didn’t smile, he smirked. “You think this is my first bit of payback, Dante?” He laughed again, the humans at his side joining in. Where had he found these people? Had he joined them? “Oh you’ve not been paying attention,” he continued. “All the more reason you are not fit for this leadership.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t remember my dad’s funeral, do you Dante?” he said. “It wasn’t so much a funeral as it was a party; you taking over the pack and us leaving the ways of my dad behind. It was disgusting, a disrespectful way to remember our former alpha. I couldn’t believe it. So I took action.”

My blood ran cold as I remembered the night, as I remember the aftermath in the morning, the horror of it all, the bloodshed, the loss.

“Lesander, what did you do?”

“You took something that belonged to me,” he said. “So I took something that belonged to you, something I knew you cared about.”

“Lesander–”

“We may not get on with these humans, Dante, but they sure can be innovative when they need to be,” he said. “It was actually my friend Duke here who helped me.” He pointed to the bald, tubby white man on his left. He didn’t seem to really have a clue what was going on but nodded along with it regardless. “People should have been more careful with their drinks. Everybody knows it’s unwise to leave drinks unattended at parties.”

“Lesander, what did you do?” I barked.

He chuckled. “While everyone was sleeping, knocked out really. I got into every single cabin, into every single tent, and I took every single pup I could find. And I killed them.”

“Lesander, no–”

“I spilled their blood and I spread it all over the campsite,” he growled. “And I did a mighty fine job of making it look like the humans had done it, didn’t I? Got everyone all riled up. I didn’t expect you to make me your second in command, but guilt is a funny emotion, isn’t it Dante?”

“How could you?” I managed, the words catching in my throat. He was a monster. He was a monster and he had been hiding in plain sight this entire time. “How could you do this to your own pack?”

“They stopped being my pack when they pledged their allegiance to you,” he spat. “I thought it would ruin you. I thought they would abandon you, especially when you wouldn’t march against the humans. I knew you too well Dante, I knew you well enough to know that you wouldn’t dare fight, even after everything that had happened.” The smile faded from his face. “But it wasn’t enough to ruin you. They decided your way was correct. They followed you. And now here we are.”

“You want my leadership, you will have to fight me for it,” I growled. “And I will kill you Lesander, don’t think I won’t do it.” I knew I was all talk. I hoped to God that he didn’t know that. How could I kill Lesander? Even after all he had done he had been my friend for so many years, how could I kill him?

“I can think of something much worse.” He grinned broadly, not taking his eyes off me. These weren’t the eyes of the Lesander I knew. This was someone else. That Lesander was long gone. “Whenever you’re ready Duke.”

Duke moved quicker than I could, raising his gun and pointing it in the direction of Owen. And in that moment everything seemed to go into slow motion. I saw him pull the trigger, I heard Talissa scream and throw herself in front of Owen. The bullet burrowed into her and she fell to the carpet, writhing around in agony.

“Mom!” Owen shouted.

Then Lesander moved, leaping across the living room towards Owen. I leapt too, trying to grab hold of him, to tackle him out of the way, but I was too slow. I managed to catch his leg, pulling him off course, but he still reached Owen. I didn’t see what happened but Owen screamed, a painful scream that ripped through my soul. He was on the floor, hands covering his face, blood running out from beneath.

I saw red. I saw red and I advanced on the humans.

I approached Duke first. He backed off, fear in his eyes, his entire body seeming to shake as he made for the door. I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed his head between my hands and cracked his neck. It was satisfying watching him crumple to the ground.

I bent down and took the gun from him, shooting the other man in the chest. He crumpled too, but Lesander was back on his feet and running towards me.

He lashed out, his fist flying towards me. I blocked him, holding onto his fist and punching him hard in the stomach. He doubled over and I kneed him in his face. He stumbled away, holding his nose which was pouring with blood. I didn’t have the time to waste. I shifted quickly, my muscles bulging, fur breaking out over my body, and I dived at him, clattering into him and throwing him out of the window.

We fought and scuffled on the ground, punches flying, blood pouring from open wounds. Other members of Eastwind came out to see what was happening, either out of curiosity or out of fear from what all the commotion was. Had they heard the gunshot? Were they thinking the worst?

I saw Horus coming out of his cabin, hurrying towards us. Seeing my opportunity, I kicked Lesander off me, just far enough that I could give myself some time and I shouted to Horus. “Go in the house,” I panted. “Owen is hurt. So is his mother, help them if you can. Please.”

Horus didn’t waste any time, heading inside as Lesander launched himself at me again, sinking his teeth into my neck. I screamed, crying out, and punched him hard in the stomach, again and again and again and again until he let me go and sunk to the ground in a heap.

I put my boot to his neck, pressing down until I heard him choke. He wrapped his hands around my ankle, unable to get me off.

“Don’t do it, Dante!” Eric shouted from behind me. “You know it’s not worth doing this, send him away.”

Lesander’s hands were around my ankle, clawing at me, trying to make me let go.

“You know it’s not worth this,” Eric said.

I looked down at Lesander, his eyes wide, his face bloody. He looked a mess. Eric was right. I’d done enough.

“I thought...” He coughed, blood spattering onto my boot. “I thought you were going to kill me, Dante.”

“No,” I said. “I think you’d enjoy it too much.” His eyes widened. Had he really been expecting me to kill him? After everything we’d been through I wasn’t sure I would manage it. Maybe he was hoping I would. “Get away from here and don’t you dare come back.” I took my boot from his neck. “If I see you here again, I will kill you, Lesander.” I kicked him hard in the stomach and watched him as he slowly got to his feet and hobbled away into the woods without another word. The rest of the pack stood around just stared at me, a couple made their way to the edge of the forest, watching Lesander go. They hadn’t seen me in this state before. They’d never had to see me fight.

I shifted back to my human form, out of breath and spent, cuts up and down my arms and legs. I was sweating and worn out. I needed to sit down I–

Owen. Owen, no.

I rushed back inside the house to where Horus was tending to Talissa and Owen. She was on the sofa, an old t-shirt pressed against a gunshot wound in her shoulder. She looked pale, paler than she looked before, and she was crying. Why wouldn’t she be crying? I wanted to cry after everything that had happened.

Then I saw Owen. He was on the floor, crying, screaming, rocking back and forth, Horus at his side.

“What is it, Horus?” I managed.

“He’s in a bad way, Dante,” he said gravely. “Call an ambulance. You need to get them both to a hospital. Now.”