Dog Warrior by Wen Spencer Page B

what Rennie was asking.
    â€œI think he’ll pass,” Ukiah said. “He was part of Magic Boy. He seems even more human than I am. He loves Ru.”
    â€œBut if he doesn’t pass?”
    Ukiah shied away from the question and instead tried to find more evidence that his brother was worthy of living. He suspected that, if nothing else, Atticus was a far more complicated person than he was. Atticus seemed to think in multiple layers, and while the surface level had been damning, there had been occasional glimpses at something deeper and truer beneath. Unfortunately, Atticus seemed mostly annoyed at Ukiah, as if he disdained his existence.
    â€œCub?”
    â€œI know he’s flawed, but if he’s worse than I think . . .” He didn’t want to say it. It was a cold and heartless thing to think of destroying his own flesh and blood, but if Atticus was hiding a heart as barren of emotions as the Ontongard’s, then Ukiah couldn’t allow himself to be trapped by the word “brother.” “We’ll do whatever is needed.”
    Rennie nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself.
    Atticus arrived a short time later, broadcasting his concern for Ukiah. In typical Pack fashion, Rennie made sure Atticus had no Invisible Red on him prior to their reunion by knocking him into the ocean. It was a bitter thing to feel Atticus’s concern for him wash away with the salt water.
    His brother stood now in the surf, face closed and emotions so tightly controlled that there was no clue what he was feeling. How did Atticus learn that, isolated as he was from his own kind? Was it that he merely didn’t allow himself to feel?
    â€œWhat do you want?” Atticus shouted over the surf.
    â€œIt’s Pack law, Atticus.” Ukiah wanted Atticus to understand more than he had when the Pack tested him. “You need to be tested, to see if you’re human—or monster.”
    â€œTested?”
    â€œWe need to know what kind of person you truly are.”
    â€œGo to hell.”
    On Rennie’s silent signal, the Dogs swept in. Atticus was a better fighter than Ukiah; it took four of the Dogs to drag him out of the water, struggling in their grip. Once they got him to the land, the fight went out of Atticus, and he knelt in the sand where they forced him to, panting, eyeing Ukiah darkly.
    In that moment, Ukiah would have given almost anything to change history. If only he’d found Atticus at some other time, gotten to know his secret heart without this violence.
    Rennie’s lieutenant, the Cheyenne warrior Bear Shadow, came down the sand dune, pulling Ru along by the arm. Ru’s face was carefully neutral; the man guarded his inner thoughts as closely as Atticus did. Ukiah noticed that Ru rubbed his right hand, as if Bear had disarmed him with force.
    â€œI don’t want him hurt,” Ukiah silently told Bear.
    â€œHe’ll witness everything.” Bear meant that he could testify against Ukiah, if the Pack killed Atticus.
    â€œI don’t care.” Ukiah took Ru’s arm and pulled him out of Bear’s hold. “Either Atticus loves him, or, if Atticus is a heartless monster, then it was Ru who decided to rescue me out of the trunk.”
    â€œAh.” Bear nodded slowly. “He won’t be hurt then.”
    Ukiah kept hold of Ru’s arm, just in case the Pack forgot.
    Hellena stepped forward, caught hold of Atticus’s head, and held him still, cocking his head back to look up at her.
    â€œTake a deep breath.” She locked eyes with Atticus.
    â€œFuck you,” Atticus hissed, trying to twist out of her hold.
    Hellena pushed her will onto his body. “Breathe!”
    And against his will, Atticus took a deep breath.
    â€œAgain.” Together, the two took a breath and released it.
    Synced with his body, Hellena pushed into his memories. Atticus grunted with pain as his body resisted another’s control. Ukiah and