by Charlie Tran
“Is he sick?!” I turned to see Leon again, snarling at him.
“He caught a cold, but we’ve been giving him medicine. Don’t worry.” If that was his attempt to assure me of Xander’s health, it wasn’t working. I cradled my child against me, rocking him slowly back and forth.
“All right, you’ve got me here. Now what?”
“We’re moving out now.”
“Wait. That soon? Already? I don’t wanna have Xander out in the cold even for a second!”
“We were waiting for you. Do you think we’re cuddled up in here because we love each other so much? There’s a place I’m thinking of going to. Belonged to one of the charters of the Golden Dukes.”
A few chuckles erupted from the small crowd of people.
“Remember what happened last time?”
“They barely stood a chance.”
“They can’t even defend themselves or their territory, they don’t deserve to be a pack,” Leon announced, joining in with the laughter as my heart sank. I wasn’t a part of the Golden Duke attack, but I couldn’t understand how they could act so cruel. At the command of nothing more than a ruthless leader.
“No, we can’t do that!” I tried to argue, but Leon was still inside Jude’s wallet, ignoring my cries for him to stop this.
“All right, pack! Everyone gather what little you have, we’re going to be hitting the road soon.” Leon's announcement was met by mostly cheers, though a few groans. It seemed while the majority of the people were in favor of following Leon, at least a few didn’t give a rat's ass. They probably just wanted to get out of jail, as no one else besides the blonde I recognized as prostitutes or butlers that had been forced into servitude.
Despite what I had done to Jude, a part of me wished—hoped desperately—that he would come and save me. Save me from this Hell.
Save me from Leon, and the Grey Brotherhood.
15
JUDE
“Why won’t you answer?!” I threw my phone onto the floor as we reached the outskirts of Solara. Just outside of the city, the weather was even worse. I couldn’t speed as fast as I’d wanted to without risking all three of us in the process. Of all the times of the year for him to pull a stunt like this, of course it’d be during piss poor weather.
“Hey, ease up,” Lucas mumbled as he leaned forward, retrieving my phone from the car floor. He stared at the app I had open in another window, following the red dot highlighted only several miles away from us. “At least he’s staying put for now.”
“We’ll be there in a few minutes, I’m sure.” Jason smiled, giving me a pat on my shoulder.
“I hope so. But why here, all the way out in the middle of nowhere? It’s not like he has a vehicle.”
“He’s got enough money of yours to get him a taxi out to anywhere that he wanted. Maybe that’s why he had to take it?” Jason sighed, leaning back in his seat once again.
“My question is, why did he need to run off anyway? He was set at Jude’s place. Plus he was hookin’ him up with a lawyer for his case. What in the world would make someone run off like that?”
“I don’t know, but we’re about to find out,” Jason replied.
“Or not.” Lucas made a face, waving the phone closer to the side of my face for all of us to see. I kept my eyes darting to the road, trying to focus on the slick, icy streets, but the red dot on the phone was clearly on the move yet again.
“Shit, can’t he just stay still for a minute?!” I frowned, cautiously pressing the gas pedal to move us forward faster.
“Wait... he’s headed towards us! Super fast too,” Lucas announced, still waving the phone close to my face. It was more distracting than helpful, but I didn’t bite his head off about it just yet.
“Why are they going so fast?” Jason coughed, sticking his head between Lucas and me, just out of my peripheral vision as he took the phone from his pack mate. Their speed was picking up, going close to 76 miles an hour.
“Wait. There. Look!” Lucas shouted, pointing ahead. But I had already spotted it—a dark car appearing from just behind the thick blanket of snow that had obscured them from a distance. Before I could do anything, they swerved right past us, and I hit the brakes as hard as I could.
“Fuck!” the two yelled as we spun out for a moment, our car rotating twice before coming to a stop as I pulled the steering wheel hard to the opposite direction of our spin. The wheels lifted off the pavement for just a moment before settling down, and it was my turn to slam onto the gas.
“There are more cars behind us too!” Jason shouted, now back in his seat and looking out of the rear window. “A convoy?”
“Fuck them. We’re only here for Glenn,” I growled, as we sped off after them.
I couldn’t see into the back of the car, the windows tinted far too much to see who was inside. There was only a bit of movement from the darkened silhouettes. There were only two bodies within, so who was he with?
Whether simply angry about being robbed or jealous of who the fuck Glenn could be fleeing with, I didn’t let up on the gas. I started to go even faster, as did the car in front of us.
“You’re gonna kill us! Jude, slow down!” Lucas screeched dramatically. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him gripping desperately onto the side of his door.
“We’re gonna ram them off the street!” I replied, going as fast as I could, reaching speeds well over 80 mph.
“You’re gonna flip them and us off of the road!”
“Hang on!” I warned them through gritted teeth as I slammed my foot onto the pedal. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as we grew ever closer to the fleeing vehicle. In mere seconds, we were there, right on them. In the next moment, our vehicles collided with both of us going so fast, it wasn’t a hard slam. Even after letting partially off of the brake, both of our vehicles went into a hard slide, turning horizontal instead of vertical on the road.
“If we die, I’m gonna kill you!” Lucas kept on shouting, but his voice was partially drowned by the screeching of our wheels, our cars spinning once again in a full circle before slamming hard into one another, both flying off the street and into an embankment of ice and snow. The small ditch was just deep enough and filled with enough snow to keep us from flipping, but the other car was totally wrecked in the process, hitting the ditch first and shielding us from the majority of the impact.
Whoever it was in the driver's seat, they surely had trauma from the way we all hit. But it didn’t matter, and I didn’t care about the smoke coming up from the other car as I left my vehicle. My door was bent inwards, digging part way into my thigh, the scent of my blood thick in the cold air, but it was pushed away as Lucas and Jason both exited the car, and I crawled out of the passenger door as well.
I could barely feel or acknowledge the cold tingling across my skin, even without my coat on. I sprang to my feet, noting the blood from my leg soaking into the white blanket of snow, the pain barely present.
The way we had slammed sideways into the other car, with the nose of ours facing the tail of theirs, didn’t stop the two people from getting out. Their windshield spiderwebbed with cracks from the impact, suddenly burst open with a kick from the driver.
“Jude?! Jude!” I heard Glenn shouting from inside.
“Glenn!” I shouted back, running towards the front of their vehicle, only to see him emerging onto the hood of their ruined car accompanied by Leon, with Glenn gripped by the collar of his shirt, Xander in his arms.
Shit, that’s why he was here? Leon had Xander the whole time?!
“I was wondering who had the nerve to ram into our car like that,” Leon smirked, blood dribbling down from his hairline, a monstrous grin directed towards us. I snarled at him, gnashing my teeth out in anger.
“Let Glenn and Xander go before I kill you!” I warned, but his eyes looked past where we stood. “Look out!” Jason shouted, just in time for me to look over my shoulder and see a car speeding right at where we were standing. I flung myself to one
side, but it the edge of the vehicle slammed into my already wounded leg, as I was just a hair too short of getting completely out of the line of impact. I felt the bone crack within and I winced, having been tossed onto my back in the snow.
“Jude!” Glenn continued to shout my name, and I saw him struggling to get out of Leon’s clutches. The driver that slammed into us wasn’t the only one, however, as more and more cars pulled up to us, most coming to a clean stop with just a few piling into the others.
“Get up! Get up, damn you,” Lucas urged as he rushed to my side, sinking his claws into my shoulders, and trying to lift me up as best as he could. But after I got steadied onto my one good leg, I shoved him away, ignoring the multitude of Grey Brotherhood and ex-officers now exiting their vehicles and approaching us.
Three wolves versus two dozen?
“This doesn’t seem like fair odds, Leon,” I smirked, smearing the blood dripping off my lip now with my ice-coated fingertips.
“No, it doesn’t. I like those odds.”
Jason and Lucas backed closer into me, and I felt their backs actually press up against mine, just like a pack of wild wolves defending their leader from getting snuck up on and attacked from behind.
“Why don’t you just make this easy for us and offer your necks? Make it short and sweet.”
“No,” I growled, falling to one knee as I attempted to take a step forward, the other wolves closing in on us.
“No? It’d be better for all of you if you did. We might even let one of your friends go.”
“You’re the Alpha here, aren’t you?!” I barked at the wolves coming closer, Jason and Lucas creeping off of my back to step closer to them, gnashing their teeth as well to try and get them to back off. But it was as though they were waiting for their leader to give them the okay to dive in and rip us all to shreds.
“Of course I am.”
“Prove it.” I attempted to stand again but was totally unable to with how wrecked my leg was now.
“Why? When we have you right here?”
“I challenge you!” I shouted. The wild barking and growling of his pack began to quiet, and the angry howls were replaced with whispers and mumblings.
“Challenge me?” Leon cocked a brow curiously, finally releasing Glenn as he jumped onto the ground in front of me and took a step or two closer.
“Yes! As small as my pack is, I’m still an Alpha. And I challenge you right now. For Glenn, and for you to let us walk away out of this unscathed, never to bother us again.”
“Interesting. And what do I get if I win—inevitably?”
“You have all of our lives,” I offered, hearing an exasperated gasp from who I assumed to be Lucas coming from behind me.
“A-are you sure that’s a good idea? Your leg is pretty banged up,” He warned.
“If he doesn’t, we’re all dead anyway,” Jason whispered, pulling Lucas away as the group formed into a semi-circle around us.
“You have me, please! Don’t worry about them!” Glenn pleaded, but his words fell on deaf ears as Leon came even closer.
“It’s lose-lose for you anyway, and it's your right to challenge me as our codes dictate. See this, men? This is what it takes to be Alpha! And any of you who crosses the line will be put down like dogs, just like he’s about to be!”
I was given no time to prepare myself, as Leon was ready to go. The next step he took in his rush towards me, his form flashed, and black hair began to sprout from his body, his muzzle open wide, foam flying from his wolfen fangs.
I rolled to the side, whimpering at the impact on my leg, now rising to stand on three paws, my back left leg raised up to keep it from touching the ground painfully now that I too was shifted.
I didn’t expect Leon to be so massive, his form three times the size of a normal wolf and twice as big as my own.
I watched him with my head low, the gleaming in his pupils, eyes hazed over and drowning in his own bloodlust while his tongue lolled out of his mouth. Pacing back and forth in front of me, he looked as though he was waiting for me to make the first move. But I only watched.
“Hurry up!”
“Kill him!”
The other wolves cheered, trying to get us all to fight.
He tore through the snow, kicking it up as he raced towards me. I barely had any time to react, his teeth sinking into my shoulder, close—too close—to my neck as I tried to turn around. I cried out at the pain. He released as I shook, and I quickly bit back, my teeth latching onto his tail as I bit it as hard as I could. I could feel the satisfying crunch of his bones in my mouth.
Leon yelped, raising back onto his hind legs before landing hard enough onto me as he swerved around to knock me back into the snow with his front paws. The force was abnormal, the strength of his blow sending me sliding close to the crowd. Those still in their human forms kicked at me as I came to a halt close to them, and those who had also shifted nipped at my hair, pulling at it until Jason and Lucas ran over to stop them.
I was panting already, the pain in my leg overwhelming now, more so than the wound that spilled forth more of my blood from my shoulder.
Leon continued to stalk closer, trying to make me back up further into the crowd, only a few feet of distance between us as I limped away from them.
“Leon, stop this! Jude, please! Just run!” Glenn shouted, clutching onto Xander tightly as he whimpered.
“Finish him!” The crowd began to chant.
Leon’s tongue lapped at my blood painted around his maw before releasing a long, high-pitched howl. It was a howl wolves did to gather their clan around, to prepare them or warn them for death.
Cocky bitch.
But as he did, it was my turn to race towards him as fast as I could on three legs, my mouth wide open as I rushed him, and threw my body against him, sinking my teeth into his leg. His howl was cut short as he cried out. I bit hard, just like on his tail, feeling the flesh and tendons in my mouth as his own blood poured inside. We rolled on the ground, rustling, and I felt a rip at my ear as his teeth came too close for comfort.
I yanked my head out of the way and felt the cartilage and flesh tear off. He had effectively ripped my ear off of my head, but I didn’t stop. His eyes widened as we fell to the ground, but thinking I was gonna take him down so easily was a mistake. When we came to a standstill, it was him who stood on top of me, my exposed stomach open to him, panting even harder.
I was starting to feel dizzy, the pain hitting me all over my body now, blood soaking the terrain around us. I knew most of it was mine. A paw stood on my chest as I stared up at him, my one good ear tilted backward in fear as he eyed me. Angrily, but triumphantly.
He offered one more look to his pack mates around him before he practically smirked down at me, his fangs glistening white and muzzle wrinkled as he bared his teeth, raising his head and lunging in for a final strike to my throat.
I tucked my tail between my legs to assure no damage to it, and with my one good leg, I kicked into his stomach as hard as I could, my claws raking into his flesh as I pushed against him to force myself away, a large gush of blood escaping from his soft underbelly. He kept himself grounded so as to not fall over again, but during his moment of surprise, I leapt up and lunged again, using the muscle of my broken leg, the muscle screaming for me to stop as I used as much force as I could to sink my teeth into his neck, crushing his windpipes hard enough for no final howl or whimper to be let out.
And I didn’t let go, shaking my head as hard as I could, ripping his throat to shreds to the tune of sirens—sirens from police cars in the distance.
“Fuck, the cops! They’re here!”
“Finally!” Jason shouted, both he and Lucas rushing towards me, as I had yet to let Leon go.
“Jude!” Glenn shouted in fear, and finally he and my pack were at my side, pulling me off the deceased Alpha.
The blood loss, the pain, and the ear-piercing sirens that had finally reached us were all too much for me to handle, and I collap
sed right on top of Leon.
GLENN
“Uh... where am I?” Jude asked, shaking his head. His hand shot up to his ear, feeling the ridged shell. More than two thirds of it had been removed and stitched up totally to help it heal.
“You’re at the hospital. We’re all here,” I told him quietly, holding onto Xander. He’d been asleep for a while after receiving a flu shot, and had gotten through the worst of his ailment.
“Where’s my pack?” he asked coldly, staring me down. I backed away a step, watching him with a pitiful gaze.
“They’re in the maternity wing. Silver went into labor. All of them are there. Even Alfie insisted on being wheeled down.”
“But not you.”
“Not me.”
There was a thick air of uncertainty as he sat quietly, simply staring at me. Finally, the Alpha scoffed, turning his head to the side.
“How long have I been out?”
“Just a day. Not too long. Jude I... I can’t thank you enough for what you did.”
“Then tell me why? Why did you leave?” He looked back at me, the sadness on his face replacing the hate and disdain. It was enough to break my heart, knowing I’d betrayed him, running away to Leon like that.
“Jude, I’m so sorry. Jason did a good thing calling the cops. They arrested all of them. They’re back in jail.”
“And Leon?”
“He’s dead.”
“Tell me why! Why did you run from me?! Ugh...” He winced, lifting up the blankets to inspect his casted leg.
Me? Didn’t he mean from his pack?
“He had Xander. I had to go to him to get my son.”
“And you didn’t ask any of us for help? What the hell were you thinking?”
“You aren’t my pack. I didn’t want to assume that any of you would help or put you in any more danger. It was best for me to get out of your hair before Leon did something dangerous.”
