Every curse had its merit.

  Alpha sat cross-legged on the edge of the freshly dug pit, her paws on her knees. She was naked, her armor stripped and carried away by her pack, and she closed her eyes, smelling blood and the stench of loose iines. Fingers ran up and down her body, painting long bck lines with blessed oil. Shamans ted, praying to the Spirits to give the warlord strength, and Sarkeesian said her goodbyes quietly, joking even right now.

  An uing bloodlust could be used to ignore even the most grievous injuries and crush those who threatehe helpless. The numbness of body and soul helped sharpen the mind, opening clever stratagems that brought downfall to the vile. The Wolf Tribe uood the value of fws. Few were as blessed and cursed as they were.

  The ground shook, and the wind sliced across the tops of the trees, breaking some. A fresh smell touched her nose, brought from afar. Ashes. Janine’s pn worked, after all. Good. The girl had the potential, always stepping up when it mattered. But she was too obedient and feared her wild nature, worried about being her former leader. Caution was a virtue, but doubt hindered a warrior, turning her into a coward.

  Dragena had announced a rally at Houstad, abandoning all unfound refugees and vilges. Too soon, sidering the perfect ambush area around them. Alpha didn’t bme Dragena, nor did she think she was wrong. The Ice Fangs. The fuckers had rejoioo te, and the resulting mistrust cast a shadow of doubt over any cooperation. Alpha assighose she had found to escort the civilians to Houstad.

  It should never have happehis invasion, the way her sisters died, the iude of the Order, had proven the shamans right in full measure. The Tribe had bee soft, trusting and weak, burdening the Normies with the o defend and gather information. No lohe losses they had suffered here would rekihe traditions and faith in the old ways, and she herself prepared foundations to eheir safety.

  “Enough!” Starstrue, the watcher of the shamans, spped Alpha hard. “Stop overthinking! Let it go. Surrender yourself.”

  No growl left Alpha’s lips, no blow followed to finish the uppity woman, and the stro warlord obeyed, staring deep into herself. She had sinned more than many. Uanding of morality and the decision to be better had e to her in a sie when she had bitten aest subject she had been ordered to dispose of so cruelly. But emotions like love she simuted, wearing them like a skinsuit attached to her very being, in order to be a better person and to tain the wiess hidden within.

  An almost palpable, pu malice began to fill the enviro. She kept her eyes closed, shredding yers of emotion, foing for her troops and worry for civilians, and in this dreamy state she thought she saw white shapes walking, dang and creeping behind the trees, ging to the Wolfkins, mogly singing in tuh the shamans’ prayers and waiting.

  One of us. Different and still us. You py the most amusing spectacle. What will happen when you, too, grow tired of that game? She recalled their words. She didn’t deem it worthwhile to answer, for her loyalty was unshakable and absolute.

  They couldn’t be here, not yet. Even now, the Core Lands stood well defended against anything from the Wastes, and their tra nature ehat they’d never spend enough time sneaking past the wall. Nor did they have the mental trol to peek into her mind. But she didn’t dare dismiss these visions ht. Her kin’s brains worked very differently, and they might very well have predicted decades in advance, being here and had done something, just fhs, to remind her of their presence.

  Fingers tio run up and down; the ting helped her to drift into the trance, and Alpha let go of all worries about the present and the future, trating on herself and opening the door within herself that she had closed over a tury ager was not present; those fools in Houstad had unwittingly driven that coward away by reminding her of the sins she had itted. Idiot. You ’t escape the past by running away, and you ’t atohrough self-fgeltion.

  The ander’s will didn’t guide and protect the warlord, and today her greatest trial yet awaited her. Alpha shrugged and opened her eyes, sizing up Starstrue, and the lust for cruelty caused fur to rise on Sarkeesian’s back, and the woman instinctively released her cws and dropped into a defeance. Soldiers of the Alpha pack stepped back, sniffing the air, no longer reizing their leader.

  “You leave,” Alpha said, addressing four shamans and her wolf hag. As the stro warlord, she had the rgest ente of shamans to attend her, no matter how difficult the times were. Her cws twitched, and the tongue licked her lips in anticipation.

  Cull, Alpha. The a and rang in her head and she chuckled.

  “Nah, warlord. ’t. I won’t. Loyal to the end!” Sarkeesian pressed a paw to her heart, the drills in her mouth swirling nervously. “Besides, never shrank from a challenge. Gimme your worst; I’ll survive you yet.”

  Not wicked enough. She cared for her troops still. Alpha rose to face the pit of corpses. Dead invaders, with bullet holes and bite marks, their limbs broken or torn, were dragged and dropped here like garbage. Her own Wolfkins, stripped naked of everything of value, and the civilians they had failed to save, shared this grave. Over three thousand corpses, many of them still warm and... delicious. Her stomach rumbled, inviting the warlord to partake, and Starstrue raised a massive bowl filled to the brim with the drops of blood collected from every corpse present.

  I don’t want it. Ravager, Zero, Lacerated One. Please. Save me. I don’t want to lose myself. Alpha took the , raised it to the sky, hidden by the tangled branches, and howled. Stop this cowardice! I am Alpha, the Unredeemed! Feeling sorry for yourself, bitch? What about the children who watch their parents die or cry as they are ensved or worse? Your personality is nothing pared to that. So drink up and win! You are the stro, the ultimate, and you will not lose!

  Alpha’s creators bred her to be an all-purpose model. Able to mimic pity and easily gain a prisoner’s trust, her brain picked up on the slightest ges in posture so she could alter her speech to apply the proper emotional pressure. In bat, her healing factor and innate physical ability allowed her to dominate most battlefields unopposed. Immuo poisons, bulletproof, resistant to most exoteric forces, obedient and without morals, she was also giveimate tool that helped her grow and choose to a certaient.

  Instant self-education. By tasting the flesh and blood of her enemies, she learned everything there was to know about them, down to their first cry as babies. The most vivid memories came first, naturally, but was safe, and the untrolble influx of fn influence demanded a certain moderatio she be emotionally scarred, so she tried her best not to use this quirk of her body. And now she turhe cy bowl over and poured the lives of thousands dowhroat.

  As she swallowed their fragments of personalities, their souls, their everything, the most vivid and immediate memories were those of their st moments. She was an infant, g his sore throat out, not uanding why he couldn’t breathe in the smoke and calling Mom. She was a hordeman, panig at the thought that no one would take care of her kids. An engineer died trying to gather up his spilled guts and make a brave speech to the frightened children to run, and his st wish was for a warm cup of coffee. So many lives, united in the end by a single emotion.

  Horror. Alpha’s psyche cracked; she swayed, unsure of who she was, legs trembling, body shaking, giggling drunkenly and craving more. Almost there. The tury of service, the years of training, reduced to nothing by the onsught of alien memories threatening to erase the core of her existence. She stomped, missing Starstrue who had jumped aside, her task dohe shaman was ready to sacrifice herself like her sisters, but Alpha refused. Starstrue observed and guided the most troubled individuals iribe, showing incredible restraint and maintaining a perfect bance of loyalty to both parties. Such talent was rare and to be treasured.

  Horror took root, but in order to return and really move forward, something else was needed. A betrayal of her principles and her love. She wasn’t deaf to the murmurs about her foul temper and the trail of mutited bodies she left in her wake during the challenges, but ever sihe i with Onyxia, Alpha had tried to show a modicum of trol, not to maim her sister beyond what they could have healed, not uhey truly crossed the line.

  Wolf Hag Sarkeesian was a fine soldier, and Alpha had every iion of kig her out of the pae day to lead one of the newer packs as a warlord. How many times had she saved the wolf hag’s hide, and her soldier repaid the debt tenfold by outdoing herself in battle?

  As, there was no future for her, and fear whipped in an omnidireal burst, a chaotid untrolble release that toppled several of her warriors and males. They clutched at their hearts, foaming at the mouth as the terrripped them and they suffered a stroke. Their rades carried them away, apanied by Starstrue, as the horror storm tie, unfocused and merciless, murdering animals by the score.

  Cws cut, and Sarkeesian froze, bearing the pain of impalement. There were weaker, less valuable wolf hags, but it had to be her. A bond of loyalty, respect, and uanding bound the warlord aop officer, and the shamans served as her fidants. Lacerated One’s assessment was correct; to master her power, Alpha would have to desd to the lowest depths and indulge her worst impulses. The monster was thh, first ravaging the woman’s body to the brink of death, then proceeding to the rest of the victims, severing their flesh and rending their ans. Blood stained her snout red, the stists’ ands echoed in her mind, and memories of test subjects dying at her paws fshed before her eyes, and she giggled, reveling in the suffering she wrought.

  The storm of terror stopped, eased by Alpha’s reinforced will, locked in the core of her being, and she stood over the five barely breathing bodies. She regretted the deed her cws had done. She was excited at the prospect of finding out which of the toys would st the lo when she unleashed her full power. The duality formed; the potential seed of evil in her soul spread its roots throughout her body, vying for trol against the years of false love and true devotion. Alpha became oh her sister, and her trol over her power heighteo unimaginable degrees.

  Laughing and snarling, giggling and sighing, she stepped and jumped over the pile of bodies, disappearing into them like a body in a s, relishing and recoiling in disgust as the walls of cold flesh closed around her. She sank deeper, her bulk crushing everything in her path, apanied by the rasping gasps and coughs of the dying Wolfkins.

  Of her sisters. Of her soldiers. And of her toys.

  An army adva Magoda, a small, unprotected town full ees. An army that they could not stop. The fear wave expanded, p from the pit of death, engulfing the wounded, f an invisible e, and at her will, it pierced the sky, bending downward in an arc, ging into a sort of needle a the Wastes and the Ravaged Lands.

  It was a missive of sorts.

  There were two ways to save Magoda. The first was for her and First to abandon the front lines and rush to the town, praying that they’d be there in time to buy time for the citizens to escape to the Outer Lands, jeopardizing the evacuation and Houstad’s defenses in the process. This option was uable, as in the rush to escape, huo thousands will die in the heat-scorched nds of the Outer Lands, victims of the sun or local parasites. Or worse, a portion of the invasion force could get past the defenders and wreak havoc.

  The sed option roved by Dragena, the shamans, and the Dynast himself. Alpha knew who she was; she felt the extent of the taint from her crimes, and no amount er’s soothing words or Zero’s fiveness could ge that. She was a devil. What could a devil do to help?

  Why, she’ll call her blood kin.

  Fear desded upon the faraway regions, bing the settlements, waking children in cold sweat, aing in tless on discharges. Cusacks mooed, swinging their heads in searpending doom; ioids scurried to hide deep in their holes; thieves and svers abandoned any ill i; and drunks in bars suddenly decided it wasn’t worth pig a fight over nothing. Wolfkins and Ice Fangs reacted calmly, tag the local and to inquire if this was a call for help, and Wyrm Lord’s sce cshed against her, revolted at the thoughts led in Alpha’s skull.

  Alpha told the Golden Child nothing; his obligation y in proteg and g the Wastes. The Core Lands were their responsibility, and even his wings would not carry him fast enough to turide in time. Worse, that bleedi would certainly challenge Mad Hatter a his doom if he came. She searched further and found the blessed and the cursed.

  Elephantine and sinewy, muscur ahin, her sisters roamed the nd. Oopped ughing and held a baby over her open maw, dead raiders at her feet, and the weeping parents, freed from a sve cage, scratched uselessly at her furless, pale, n-like legs, their gratitude for liberation turning to despair to the monster’s glee. The creature pondered whether to sughter the child in front of the parents, or take the unorthodox step of eating the elderly, so that the young would die of dehydration, uo find a haven.

  Another sister had uhed a child’s grave in order to eat a corpse and was having fun pying with a returned brother to a grieving sister and her family who were blissfully unaware of what had eheir home and how soon a age would desd upon their vilge. For the moment, the fallen sister thought and acted exactly like the dead brother; she had bee him in every way, and would rather die than harm the child’s sibling. But the biological clock was tig, and soon she would revert to the beast within.

  The third was busy remodeling her cave, tossing out rottirails aing bored with arranged skins. The fiend wondered if she should lure unsuspeg travelers from a path into a desperate trap or just murder them on the spot.

  The fear wave touched more sciousness, and Alpha heard a loud pop. One of her sisters died. Four remained. And it didn’t even sadden her. Alpha expahe fear wave, trying to tact every cursed one.

  A monstrosity covered in iridest tonic sat crouched in front of a hastily assembled b. Fihat ended in cws rger than those of a warlord nimbly plucked at rainbow vials and activated strange maes whose purpose eluded Alpha. Rusty engines reassembled into a strange industrial line, surrouhe madwoman, and from her mind, the warlord uood she was w to cure a small pgue afflig the local vilge. Then the idea became b, and the thing snarled, grabbed scattered details and began to assemble a device to destroy the surroundings. plex calcutions, willingly shared, flooded Alpha’s brain.

  That creature had never experienced a nuclear explosion and was curious if it would hurt or sting or both.

  STOP! Alpha anded, her demand toug her sisters, and they dropped everything. The little one was returo his parents; the little girl wailed in anguish as her ‘brother’ torted, head turned in a full circle, and the body itself grew, breaking through the ceiling and leaping away; the travelers were left untouched, and the sick mind had fihe vae and tossed it to the suffering vilgers, relishing the prospect of having a statue erected in her honor.

  Sister! It’s been so long! Arms emerged from the many crevices of the Wastes and Ravaged Lands; bleak forms rivalling her in size danced in perfeison and cohesioe hundreds of kilometers separating them. Oh, you shouldn’t have ged yourself so much! You were so cute before! Here, have some back! Joy and unditional love met the fear wave, flooding directly into the warlord, and the crack of her psyarrowed, increasing the uanding and the torment at f her soldiers to suffer nearby. She almost lost trol of the fear wave and her veins swelled, threatening to bulge as Alpha tried frantically to hold the wave in her recovered state. Gift and poison in one. Such were the skinwalkers. What fun we shall duct! Is Mother near?

  Alpha knew she should be surprised that they reversed her mind link to talk to her, but in dealing with the skinwalkers she had learo expect the most inexplicable things. If there was a fighting style, these women mastered it in nanoseds. If there was a plicated stifi, they ied a solution and then fot about it.

  The skinwalkers stopped whatever they were doing and danced, with several of them ign shots of the panig settlers and bandits firing at them from cle. Left legs went up, stomping into the ground, sending ripples, arms twisting at impossible angles, fluttering rapidly in the air, the bodies swayed , hairs flying as heads were thrown up in celebration, then right legs stomping before the process repeated itself. Amber orbs looked in Alpha’s dire, despite the vast distance, and any wounds appearing on the perfect bodies were immediately swallowed by the white flesh.

  Their dance resembled the simplest tribal celebration, performed by the younger cubs on their birthdays or to mark a first kill, as the emotions overwhelmed them. But where such dances marked a joyous occasion and praised life, the ied mockery of the skinwalkers served both to amuse and to ruin their bodies, so that they could drink from both opposite ends.

  Sister! So long! Sister! What ails you? Whom do you o kill? Tell us, direct us, sick us!

  Not killing. Not this time. Alpha hasteo dampen her enthusiasm, but it only piqued their i, and it heaved at her, threatening to squash her like a bug.

  Sister, you are so clumsy! The burden lessened. Who is it with you? Is it because of them you had tortured yourself so?

  None of your business. Alpha answered. Our… My friends are in trouble and in need of a rescue. I am sending you the coordinates. you do me this favor? Without mischief or double-crossing me?

  Succor! Oh, such a wonderful game! I haven’t pyed it in years! Gosh, I had pletely fotten how funny it was! We’re going to see new nds, kill… rescue people! Not them then, huh? Succor! Succor! What fun, what rapturous joy, what a curious task! t! But you know the rules… The mind link transmitted a ge in their voices, a deep, pyful intonation that gently massaged Alpha’s strained mind.

  Alpha’s eyes opened wide and amber light shone brightly from beh the corpses as she demanded obedience. And the Bane of Humanity responded, all three hundred and sixteen of them. Three hundred and sixteen beings stronger and smarter than warlords. Motivated to win.