by Lou Grimes
Surprise was the first thing that went across Campbell’s face. The need to survive was next. His bones begin to crunch as he attempted to defend himself poorly against her attacks. His shift was far slower than hers. Louvette’s wolf gained satisfaction after catching him off guard.
Her wolf bit at every ounce of skin that it could sink its teeth into. She tasted blood that was not her own and knew a few of her bites had landed successfully. On the other hand, her wolf hated when it went in for another snap and came away, biting only torn clothing.
He was massive once he had fully shifted. He could easily compete with Arsen in size. His wolf was brown and had grey highlights in it. His jaws expertly went for her neck. Louvette couldn’t comprehend a defense, but her wolf could. It easily twisted from Campbell. Campbell and Louvette collided, biting, clawing, and throwing their body weight into each other. Their wolves were fighting to kill. Louvette’s heartbeat thundered in her chest. Adrenaline kept her from noticing her injuries though sometimes her wolf would yelp or whine between attacks. She hated that sound.
His massive body knocked her to the ground and for a second Louvette thought she had lost. Her wolf threw its head into his throat as he attempted to go for hers. He tore at her neck multiple times, but he didn’t land a bite, just grazed her scruff. Finally, he got ahold of her shoulder and sunk his teeth deep into her skin. Her wolf yipped loudly, knocking him off.
She managed to get loose after scraping him off on a rock. She backed up as he jumped back onto the ledge. Blaise tried to go for the jugular one more time, but he caught his paw in a crevice in the ground and rolled. Louvette made a slash at his neck, only landing part of it. She took off into the woods. Her wolf was too small and too new to do this on her own.
Her wolf shook from the adrenaline. Another car pulling up sent her running down the forest. She could hear men talking as she fled. Louvette knew they would find her car, but she didn’t care. Being safe was her only priority.
Passing a road made her pause. She was unsure if she should follow it because they could easily catch up to her. The same thing went for the forest. Campbell could catch up in no time. Louvette dashed down the road. A murmuring sound got louder while her feet pounded the dirt road. She came to a sliding stop. A man at the end of the road had failed to notice her arrival.
One of the investigator men was sitting on a tree stump before a large setup of communication equipment resting inside the opened doors of a van. A large disk was rotating on top of the vehicle. The man was dressed in black tactical gear and had the hair to match. Louvette wondered where he got his outfit from because he was shorter than her in human form.
The man kept plugging tech in. He would turn knobs. Then, he would turn the antenna that was resting on the equipment. A static sound was coming in and out while Louvette slunk closer for a better inspection of the current situation. A gun was laid across his lap. He kept cursing.
“I’m never taking another mountain assignment with these idiots again,” he cursed. After standing on the stump to reach a few buttons, the guy finally found the right knob because the radio came in clearly.
“Team S., what’s your status on the Northline rogue?” a voice asked on the radio. The guy sat back on his stump as if answering fast was beyond him.He grabbed the detached walkie talkie and cleared his throat. When he spoke, Louvette was almost confused from the voice that came out of his body. The two did not belong together, because it was way too deep for a man shorter than Louvette.
“HQ, we are getting into position. Will confirm the capture once complete,” the man’s overly deep voice spoke.
“Team S., we are getting poor service. Move to a better location,” the voice on the radio demanded.
“Copy that, HQ,” the man said in an equally formal voice. After he let his finger off the button, he threw the speaker into the pile of communication equipment.
“Move to a different location,” he mocked in the voice of the speaker while his head twisted sassily.
He walked to the van and started chunking in his equipment. As he he ceremonially flung the things, the items crashed loudly inside.
Louvette couldn’t stop watching. The human side of her couldn’t stop laughing. The scene reminded her closely of a toddler being told to clean the bedroom before getting to play.
Lost in her thoughts and watching him, a twig snapped under her feet. Her own mind cursed and she had only a split second as he swung around, the gun in the air. It was ready to target whatever had made that noise.
Bullets went flying while she dodged them. However, she was trapped between the trees and the cliff. The only path out was through him and she highly doubted these so-called investigators hunted Lupine using regular bullets.
She waited for the tell-tale sign of a gun trigger pulled again, but he was out of ammunition. The man scrambled for another clip. Clips lined the gun belt he had on. This man had come prepared.
Louvette’s wolf took her chance and went for him, her wolf springing through the air. He tried to get his gun ready, but it was impossible. An Artic wolf on top of him, doing its best to get past him. The man shifted into a wolf before she landed on him. They went down together, struggling for true power. His lack of size had given her a chance at beating him. Now she knew why he had so much fire power because his wolf wouldn’t stand a chance against a rouge. So, he didn’t stand a chance against her.
It didn’t take her wolf long to get in the right position. It drew back for a second, halting its attacks. Louvette was only giving herself room to build up enough momentum. She slammed her body into his, knocking him off his feet. His wolf tried to get back up, but it was too late. Louvette’s wolf finished him.
The wolf shifted back into a human so terribly slowly. When the man had finished his shift, his heart beat no longer.
Her wolf had killed someone else, but she had done it to survive. Louvette didn’t have any idea the lengths her wolf would go to preserve her.From everything that had happened, she wondered if there were any lines other wolves wouldn’t cross.
Realization came back to Louvette. Campbell and the rest of the men were out looking for her, and she had wasted so much precious time fighting this man. She took off again.
She made it about a mile in when it seemed like the forest fell out from under her. The trees were gone. There was no sunset to follow anymore. The sound of the forest was deadening silence. There were no mountains towering above her anymore. Everything was black.
Her wolf began to panic. She didn’t even know if she was going the right direction anymore. Louvette could very well be running toward Campbell and his men.
Louvette remembered Arsen’s words about Campbell’s Gift. He was an illusionist. This wasn’t real, she thought desperately. She tried to see past her own panic. She tried to see past her wolf’s panic, which was the worst. It could sense that it was mentally trapped. The world was not right. She focused on her surroundings, looking for a weak link. Everything was grey and not distinguishable in her confused eyes, as if she had suddenly gone colorblind.
This isn’t real, her mind screamed frustratedly. She hated this loss of control. Louvette tried harder this time. She had never tried harder in her life, maybe because her life had never depended on it before. For a moment, there was a silhouette of trees and a glowing orb that couldn’t be anything but the sun.
At that moment, Louvette decided that she would not be controlled. So, she forced her mind through all the false illusions. She managed to achieve it, but quickly grew confused when all the grey disappeared to something more foreign. A voice not her own rambled inside her head. She realized that this was not her own mind when she recognized the voice.
Campbell Campbell’s voice was repeating that he had to trap her, not kill. He was going to sell her to the highest bidder. Then, he’d never have to work another day in his life. Never have to take orders again. He’d probably get appointed into a pack official position for handing Louvette over.
At his thoughts, a small sense of relief washed over her that he wouldn’t kill her on purpose. However, accidental death was highly possible when dealing with Gifts like his because they bet on her reaction. If she had the wrong reaction, then she could die.
Her eyes rolled from his delusional dreams that kept growing grander and grander with each thought he made. She doubted that they’d even pay him. They would not make him a pack official. She thought it was highly likely that they would probably force Campbell to keep her a secret. However, she wasn’t going to let him get set up for the rest of his life because of her.
She wondered what his plan was for the rest of the men that were sent here because they weren’t included in his ideation at all. Louvette tucked that bit of information into the back of her mind for good old fashioned blackmail later.
“I’m not going anywhere, and greed will get you nowhere, too,” Louvette promised in his mind so loud she rattled his bones. She tried to make herself sound wrathful like the gods in video games. It wore Louvette so thin to the point that she seemed weakened.
“What? Is she in my head?” Campbell’s horrified voice whispered hoarsely. His attention turned to his illusions and she had no strength, but she still gave it her all.
A silent power struggle ensued on the level of mind versus mind. This was the first time that Louvette had tried to use her Gift purposefully. Campbell had been playing minds through illusions for longer than Louvette had been alive. Feeling him gather everything he had available due to the shock of her intrusion, she braced herself for the total force of his Gift. He locked her out in no time and the grey world came back.
The ground disappeared beneath her feet for a second as she tumbled into a hole. Her body hit the ground. Her vision blurred for a second, her head throbbed. When her sight cleared, the dark, star-splattered sky came into focus. Almost knocking herself out was the true trick to breaking whatever illusion Campbell had trapped her mind in. Her breathing was unsteady while she attempted to catch her bearings.
Louvette lost her struggle to stay awake. The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was the bitter metallic taste of blood as the stars darkened to black.
Chapter 13
Louvette’s body ached as she rose thanks to the cold metal beneath her. A wolf snarl made her realize she was still in wolf form. Underbrush snapped beneath her massive paws. Her paw flicked a rock into the wall. It clanged loudly, perking up her ears, setting her even more on edge than before.
A cage, Louvette thought sickly. Moonlight came from the tiny slit lines up top. Louvette could tell it was either still the same night or another night. She hoped it was still the same night as she paced the length of the cage over and over again.
She knew that her happening on Campbell had been a set up. They had planned to draw in the “rogue” using her as bait. Louvette ran right into their trap, thanks to Campbell’s illusions. When they found one of their team members dead, they would put a bullet in her regardless of whether she was a rogue or not. She doubted that they would even look in the cage before shooting her. If they did, it would be to torture her.
Her thoughts came back to the fact that she had broken free of Campbell’s Gift, and she wasn’t quite sure how, either. She had somehow delved into his mind. Arsen never mentioned mind control when it came to all the different kinds of Gifts. Louvette believed the closest he got was manipulation, but that was more of putting ideas, action, or other things into someone else’s mind.
Louvette slammed her body against the cage, attempting to break out. Her wolf howled mournfully, wanting to be free of its jail. Wolves were not meant for captivity. She beat the cage walls for an hour, testing for weak spots. All it would take was one weak link. But nothing gave, and her body was left more bruised than she had ever been in her entire life.
Men murmuring paused her endeavor to escape. A sharp scent met her nose as they neared. It was a mix of gun powder, steel, and something else she had never smelled before. But, every cell in her body knew that she didn’t want it near her. She was positive it was wolfsbane.
“Dang it, I can’t call it in. I’m just getting static. I knew Sloan would screw this up. All he had to do was relay our messages to HQ and still he manages to screw it up,” a man who had a rough voice said to another member. It took a second for Louvette to realize that the man she had killed near the van was Sloan. At least she was lucky enough to have time before any backup came.
“Well, keep trying. Do you remember the ass chewing we got the last time we didn’t call in first?” a nervous voice asked. Louvette honed in on that tiny sign of weakness in that particular one for a second. The voice was high and didn’t sound like it belonged with the others. It was a voice of a man who’d be making small talk at the coffee shop.
“Yea, I’m not going through that again,” a third voice said.
“We should just kill it. I mean, just listen to it. It’s definitely a rogue,” Rough Voice replied. Louvette didn’t realize up until that moment that her wolf had been snarling her head off at the current conversation while banging against the bars every chance she got.
“Can’t get paid if we can’t identify where it came from,” the third man snapped at them.
“Let’s just toss it at the job that has the longest unsolved date,” Rough Voice said.
There was silence for a moment as the men contemplated their situation.
“What are we going to say once the pack identifies the body?” another voice questioned.
“We are going to make it unidentifiable,” Rough Voice said.
There was a chorus of agreements. The boots started heading toward her cage. Louvette’s hackles rose. If she was going out for something she didn’t do, then she was dragging someone with her.
***
Time blended together as her wolf watched, listened, and waited for its moment to strike. It now knew their names. The nervous one was Greg, and Greg shouldn’t have been there. He was pretty much a desk jockey filling in for someone else. Louvette’s wolf had scoffed out of pure amusement when she heard his name. The one who had the rough, raspy voice was named Rocco. That sounded like he killed for a living, which he did. Then last but not least was the third man, and his name was Dean. Dean was a newbie hunter that was just in it for the payday.
“There you are,” called Rocco to someone approaching their little congregation. Louvette could smell the trash before he spoke, thanks to her wolf’s nose.
“Here I am. Why are you still here?” Campbell asked sarcastically. His tone was still unnerved from what had happened between him and Louvette
“Where’s Sloan? He isn’t a very good relay,” Greg asked, ready for this whole thing to be done.
“Sloan is dead. The rogue killed him,” Campbell informed them. She could feel his eyes on her when he said this.
“What?” Greg stammered, stepping further away from her cage like she’d bust herself out any second and eat him. Louvette’s eyes rolled in her mind.
“What’s the plan, then? We have no method to contact headquarters,” Dean pointed out.
“Screw headquarters! We are taking this one to someone else” Campbell said.
“I need to get paid,” Dean snapped back. Campbell snarled at him, clearly in charge.
“Why don’t you leave the planning to me from now on? We will never have to work another day in our lives if we take this rogue to the right buyer” Campbell told them part of the truth to get them to be complacent. However, Louvette could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t going to tell them what she was. Probably out of fear that one of them, if not all of them, would stab him in the back.
“What do we have here, Blaise? Or more specially, who do we have here?” Rocco asked. One couldn’t be an investigator without at least having a tiny bit of intelligence and old Rocco had apparently caught on. Amusement entered Louvette as she watched this unfold. She liked the idea of watching Campbell squirm like a fish caught on hook beca
use he’d eaten the wrong worm.
“Just another brat from a different pack leader, but a bargaining chip none the less. I’ve seen him on my visits to the Eastland pack,” Campbell answered nonchalantly, trying not to draw attention to the fact that he was clearly lying through his teeth. Louvette was offended by his answer, but it was probably for the best that he didn’t tell them what she was. She was waiting patiently for the right time.
“Okay, then how do we get ahold of the alpha? I doubt he is listed in the yellow pages,” Rocco asked sarcastically. The others just looked over at Louvette, either realizing something was up or thinking about that paycheck she was about to earn them. They didn’t believe him so that made them even more a threat to her when he revealed that he had to go call a few people.
Louvette’s wolf’s hair stood on end like something out of a horror film. It didn’t like that they were talking about it in this manner. Thoughts of it ripping out their throats flashed across Louvette’s human mind. They were lucky that she was trapped, otherwise she would have lost control.
“I have my ways. Until then, stay put and get everything ready to go. I don’t want to waste any time when I come back. They will probably arrange for immediate transport via helicopter,” he commanded them. Again, showing them another sign of distrust because he was the only one that could contact them. Campbell stalked off, leaving the rest of them alone.
The men were only silent long enough for Campbell to be out of hearing distance.
“Come on, let’s get the stuff ready, guys,” Greg said to the remaining members of the group. When no one moved, he threw his hands up like a kid about to have a tantrum. Greg started picking up things and putting them in the utility task vehicle that had been equipped to haul an extremely large cage. A cage similar to the one she was unfortunately trapped in.
“What do you think? You’re the only one that isn’t brain dead here. Sloan wasn’t so bad, but now Sloan’s dead,” Dean said to Rocco.
