The two Werewolves entered the abandoned site with trepidation. A heavy mist had fallen making the already cold morning even chillier. The appointment was not for another two hours, which left them with plenty of time to explore the place and make sure that nothing traitorous was going on. Steven, separating from his Beta to speed up the process, decided to check the perimeter. That left Jason to walk towards the old holding cells.
The cells were where the torture and experimentation had taken place. Chains were still hanging from the walls and the smell of blood in the air made Jason cover his nose with his sleeve. Old pipes were dripping on the floor creating small pools with stale, mouldy water. The young Werewolf took a perfunctory look around and, upon not noticing anything out of place, took the stone staircase for the next level, eager to escape the suffocating atmosphere. It felt like despite the years since the last spilt blood, the screams had taken root, imbuing the heavy stones with their echo.
Larson and his men had used the first floor for housing. Steven probably knew more about the layout but Jason didn´t dare ask. The long corridor of rooms opened into a huge, high-ceiling chamber where the so-called scientists had stored their work materials. Or so Jason assumed judging by the broken equipment that was lying around, forgotten in the chaos of a hasty retreat. He could picture it in his mind; a group of crazy people poring over notes and discussing which body to pick apart next.
His harrowing foray into the past didn´t last much longer as his strong ears picked up a faint thud. The Beta walked over to the window and looked down at the courtyard where Steven had fallen on his knees in front of a broken fountain, staring into space. Making sure everything was safe after hastily exploring every nook and cranny, Jason rushed to his Alpha´s side.
On his part, Steven, after circling the property scouting the lay of the land and checking for escape routes if anything was to go wrong, went back in search of his Beta. Entering the courtyard was pretty hard though. The sight of the destroyed fountain turned his knees into jelly and a sob rose in his throat which he tried to quell before it reached the surface. He took a staggering step forward and surrendered to his grief, the stifling emotion suddenly bombarding his chest. He could still feel the blood clotting on his hands as clearly as he could still hear his brother´s last difficult breath, whizzing past his red-stained teeth. The sting from their familial bond breaking and leaving behind an empty space -the second one that day- had been overwhelming. But above all else, it was the crass chuckles of a murderer that held his mind hostage. So absorbed he was in his visions, that he didn´t hear the -deliberately heavy- footsteps behind him.
“Come on man.” Jason put his hand gently on his Alpha´s shoulder trying to free him from the monster that had dug its claws inside his mind. Steven keeled over, letting out a shuddering breath. “I´m right here.” The Beta knelt next to his friend and hugged him close. The Alpha shook his head, working through the last vestiges of a terrible nightmare before pulling them both to their feet.
“Sorry. Fuck. This shouldn´t have happened.” Steven straightened his spine and looked everywhere but at his friend, embarrassed by his outburst. An Alpha should never get caught showing fragility. Neither of mind nor of body.
“Don´t apologise to me. She had no right sending you here,” said the Beta, obnoxiously trying to enter Steven´s field of vision again and let him know that he understood.
“Jason, just... don´t. It´s been six years. I should be able to handle myself.”
“I still can´t walk under the Hollow Bridge alone without being paranoid that someone is out there to get me. Am I weak?” Jason crossed his arms in front of him and debated whether he should use his fists to knock some sense into his friend or emotional manipulation would suffice.
“Of course not!” The Alpha´s head snapped up. “You had a traumatic experience.”
“Exactly! There is no shame in grieving for a lost life. You taught me that when you spent weeks after I turned trying to hold me together before you lost your mind.” He uncrossed his arms and let his voice soften. “So let me return the favour. Don´t be afraid to mourn your brothers in front of me man.”
“I know. I just... I´m supposed to be an Anders Prince and now look at me.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, shaking his head in disgruntlement.
“Not with me. Not all the time. We are brothers too, yeah?” The younger man asked, anticipation humming through his veins.
“Yeah. We are,” Steven admitted and the Beta sighed in relief for finally managing to break through to him. “Come here.”
The two men embraced, drawing immense comfort from each other´s touch while trying to silence their ill-concealed sniffs in each other´s shoulder.
“If you tell anyone what happened I´ll deny it,” Steven said trying to lighten the mood.
“Hey! I´m your second. Can you imagine what Erin would do to me if she ever found out? My lips are sealed,” Jason smirked. Neither spoke of the few tears that had left their marks on their embarrassed cheeks.
Sobering up, the Alpha let the commanding tone back in his voice. “It´s almost time, let´s go.”
The first step out of the courtyard and into the open, unprotected valley sounded a warning bell in Steven´s gut. The sudden silence that had fallen was in complete contrast to what someone would expect of a lively valley in a cold, yet sunny morning. The sun was almost at its midpoint signifying the arrival of noon. Someone should have been out there to meet them already.
“Do you hear that?”
“No,” Jason shook his head, “I can´t hear anything for miles away.”
Steven eyed the thick forest at the edge of the valley with suspicion. They could seek cover there but risk being more easily ambushed. Hopefully, their heightened senses would allow for some warning so he signalled to Jason and they quickly started towards the trees. Halfway there Jason´s steps began to falter and only Steven´s quick reflexes stopped him from hitting the ground.
“What´s wrong?”
“I don´t know. I can´t feel my legs.”
“Did you touch anything weird inside the castle?”
“What? No! You think I´m stupid?” Jason´s outrage would be amusing under different circumstances.
The hiss from a bowstring was what alerted Steven to the danger and -before he had the chance to cover his Beta just in case- an arrow landed on the ground in front of them exploding into a white light. The Alpha pulled Jason´s arm over his own shoulder and curled his free hand around his friend´s waist, supporting his entire weight. He tried to reach the forest but the air began to thicken with smoke, depriving him of much needed oxygen and making his vision swim. Jason became dead weight in his arms.
“Come on. We are almost there.” Steven kept taking small but sure steps forward.
“I hate to say this, but it looks like I was right. This is a trap.” Jason was panting despite the fact that he wasn´t the one doing all the work.
“You have my full permission to gloat when we get out of here,” the older man said, grimly setting his jaw.
“Do I have your full permission to yell at your sister too?”
“Shut up.”
“I´m just saying... Her informants suck.”
Steven felt a prick on his left side and staggered forward. Pain shook his entire body and his shirt got soaked in blood in seconds. “Shit!”
“What? What´s wrong?” Jason, now fully paralyzed, couldn´t see the predicament his Alpha was in.
“Nothing,” the Alpha tried to reassure but, even in his own ears, it sounded weak. A new arrow zipped past them and almost pierced through Jason´s head.
They reached the forest wheezing, Steven from exertion and Jason from the panic slowly rising in him. They were under attack and he was powerless to defend himself, let alone protect his Alpha. He didn´t need to stress about that though as Steven, curving an intricate path under the trees, managed to make their hunters lose their tracks easily enough. Guiding them deep into the woods where
the air was less suffocating, he dropped his Beta on the ground making sure his back was supported by a tree trunk.
“Do you see anyone?” Jason asked unable to turn his head around.
“No. I can´t see, hear or smell a single person.” Steven knelt in front of his friend giving him a full view of the arrow protruding from his side, piercing through the skin there and coming out his back.
“You are hurt! Why didn´t you say something?” The younger man indignantly demanded.
“I´ll be fine. Calm down.” He gripped the arrow´s end and broke it in half leaving only the point hanging out from the gaping wound on his back. He took a deep breath and reached behind him, pulling the rest of it out as he felt weakness overcoming him.
“You are not healing! Why are you not healing?” Jason´s voice had a fine layer of fear in it.
“I don´t know.” Steven took off his shirt and tied it around his middle in a makeshift bandage. “We need to keep moving.” He picked up his friend again and started walking deeper into the forest.
“They should be here by now,” Erin said, moving from one side of the council room to the other in nervous energy.
Jen dismissed the Beta´s worries earning a few wrathful looks. “They are only half a day late. Probably the meeting ran later than expected.”
Erin went completely livid. “Someone is hurt! I can feel it!”
Jen just stared holes at her and all the insubordination but Moira shared the pack´s concerns.
“Do the rest of you sense something wrong?” The former Alpha inquired.
“I can feel confusion and uncertainty,” Ian said.
“And I can sense fear. Jason is afraid.” Danny directed his eyes at Moira, fidgeting.
The Queen flung her hands up in exasperation before crossing them over her chest and looking at the people in front of her. “How can you all feel different things?”
“Each one of the wolves has a different connection to Steven and Jason, based on the experiences they shared and their relationship with them,” Mark explained. “Danny, for instance, is closer to Jason so he feels overwhelmed by what he is feeling right now instead of concentrating on Steven.”
“You can´t ignore the emotional bonds between a pack. You of all people should know better than that,” Lynn stated, unafraid of Jen glaring daggers towards her.
“Send us there. We can go get them,” Erin said and her friends nodded in agreement.
“I´m not sending more people in blindly. We don´t know what´s going on,” Jen announced to the room at large and a small commotion rose around her.
“We don´t have to go in blind,” Moira´s voice boomed and she turned to Lynn, giving her orders. “Bring the girl in.”
Lynn bowed and left the council room in a hurry.
“Mother! You can´t be serious!” Jen exclaimed.
“I´m not losing another son!” Moira turned to her daughter accusingly, making even her husband and brother quiver. “So yes, I´m serious. Whatever it takes.”
“Your mother is right,” John finally decided to step in. “Steven may not be in our pack anymore but even I can feel a discomfort coming from him. They need help.”
Lynn re-entered the room, an apprehensive Cora trailing behind her.
Jen was on her before the young girl had a chance to figure out what the general mood was and if she should be afraid. “It looks like your chance to be useful has come.”
“What do you need from me?” Cora frowned, suspicious.
“Tell us everything you know about the ruins at Bay Valley,” the Queen commanded.
“That is a nasty place,” the younger girl said. “Why do you need to know about it?”
“The reasons are our own,” Jen snapped. “If you don´t have any information for us you can return to your room.”
“Jen enough!” Moira jumped out of her seat and turned to Cora. “My son went there on an errand and we haven´t heard from him since. Jason is with him. We need to find them but we don´t know what might have gone wrong. Can you help us?”
“Why would you send them there?”
“They went on official business.” Jen tried to rein her anger in, believing that the chances of Cora helping them would diminish if she knew she had sent her brother there to trade her.
“Then you sent them to their death,” the witch said and Danny couldn´t hold in a gasp.
“How dare you! I had scouts all over the place for days. It was perfectly safe,” the Anders Queen hollered.
“Then they either betrayed you or they were fooled.”
“How so?” Joe asked.
“Magics managed to reverse the spell your people casted on the place years ago. Magic runs freely there now.”
“That doesn´t mean anything,” Jen shook her head.
“You don´t understand!” Cora continued. “This is not the first time they trapped Werewolves there after the war. My father uses the place as a decoy.”
“Decoy for what?” Lynn cut in.
“He lures them in, thinking they are safe, and then attacks them with a silencing spell. They lose their heightened senses slowly until their entire body shuts down. He has woven the magic into the land. Every Werewolf that enters that place gets hit by it without ever noticing,” the witch explained.
“How do you know this?” John questioned.
“I´ve been eavesdropping,” she shrugged. “My guards liked to gossip.”
“So you are telling me that my son and his Beta are lying paralyzed somewhere into Magic land?” Moira said.
“Jason probably,” Cora threw a worrying glance at Danny, “but Steven with his Alpha powers and a born Werewolf should be able to withstand the spell longer.”
“Okay, that´s good.”
“Not really. They were probably attacked the minute they stepped foot outside the castle if they did so on their own two feet. He doesn´t have much time.”
Danny once again couldn´t hold in the panic. “Oh god.”
“I´m sorry but it´s true,” Cora shrugged. “You can´t go get them without facing the same fate. Your Humans could though.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Mark said. “Let´s go get ready.”
“I did not give you permission for this!” Jen cried out making Mark stop short.
“Bite me Jen. My pack is out there dying or worse. We are not going to stand here catering to your need to have the last word.” Mark stared her down until she gave a nod, chewing her bottom lip in shame. She knew he was right but her pride made her oblivious to her own shortcomings.
“I´ll come with you,” Joe said. “You´ll need someone to get you there safely and the Betas are too emotional to handle this.”
“You´ll become an extra burden for them once they reach the castle,” John reasoned.
“He won´t. I can counteract this spell, I think.” Lynn looked at Cora, silently asking if the potion she had taught her to make during one of their afternoons spent together could work on something like this. The Princess nodded.
“Okay, then. Let´s go,” Joe prodded.
“Follow the small stream that runs through the forest,” Cora stopped them to offer a last piece of advice. “If Steven is still conscious he likely followed his instincts there. The air is cleaner and the caves around it provide a natural cover. Whatever you do, don´t step foot into the valley.”
The trio nodded and left the council room in a hurry.
“You need to get some rest,” Jason begged his Alpha.
“I will as soon as I get you out of here.”
Steven´s skin was clammy and his face had lost all of its colour. His ashen-grey complexion worried the Beta. The Alpha´s shirt was soaked through with blood and his limbs had started shaking over an hour ago but he hadn´t stopped moving. Jason admired his strength and resolution but he wasn´t ready to let them both die. “I´m slowing you down.”
“Don´t even think about it,” Steven gritted his teeth, about to lose his last ounce of strength.
>
“You should leave me and go find some help,” the younger man insisted in vain.
“I think we lost them. So what we need is to find cover and wait. The pack should have figured out by now that something is wrong.”
They crossed a small stream until they reached a shallow cave. Steven hid Jason inside and made to leave in order to make sure they really weren´t followed.
“At least wait to catch your breath.”
“I´ll be fine. Are you comfortable?”
“I can´t feel anything so I´m going with yes.”
“I´ll be right back.”
Steven walked down to the stream slower than his usual pace. He kneeled on the bank and untied the shirt from around his waist. The blood that came out was black-green, the poison from the arrow taking its hold. Around the wound a crust of dried pus had formed. He found a clean part of the shirt and dipped it into the water trying to clean the injury as much as possible but his strength was swiftly leaving him. His head was swimming and his vision started to blur as bile rose in his throat. He was feeling as if someone had turned his skin inside out. Sensing that he didn´t have much time, he tried to get back to Jason but his foot got stuck and he hit the ground clumsily, his arm twisting in an unnatural angle. He screamed in pain and lost his consciousness without having the time to even try to get up.
Back in the cave, upon hearing his Alpha´s scream, Jason let out a cry of his own, an invisible noose tightening around his neck. Unable to do anything else but blink, he sat and waited until someone could rescue them; if the Magics didn´t get to them first. That´s how their pack-mates found them almost a day later, the Humans in his company slowing Joe down notably.
WolfHeart Page 5
