by Sky Winters
But Lucas didn’t seem fazed by this. He simply gestured to the men holding Tessa and gave a quick nod. Atticus heard the cocking of two pistols sound from behind him as he closed the distance across the living room, the sound stopping him in his tracks. Turning, he saw that the two men were holding guns to Tessa, her face red as she wept in fear. As he looked at her, Atticus realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he felt such anger.
“You might get me,” said Lucas. “But you definitely won’t get them before they put a couple of rounds into that pretty thing. I may want my wife back but I want my revenge even more.”
Atticus froze in place, the feeling of impotence driving him to heights of anger that he never thought possible. He watched as Lucas strolled across the debris-strewn floor of the living room and over to Tessa. Once he stood in front of her, he placed his hand on her cheek, wiping away her tears.
“Don’t worry, Tess,” he said, his tone a mockery of sympathy. “I’ll get you away from these…freaks of nature, and back by my side, where you belong. There’s money in meth, a lot of money. I’ll make sure you never want for anything ever again.”
Tessa said nothing. Instead, she whipped her head back and spit in Lucas’s face.
Lucas took in a slow, deep breath, pulled his hand back and struck Tessa across the face.
The cracking sound echoing through the living room, Atticus felt himself boil over with rage. Only the last shreds of self-control that remained allowed him to prevent himself from shifting and carving every last man in the room to pieces.
“You’ll pay for that,” Atticus said, his voice a roar.
“Not likely,” said Lucas.
He slipped the shiny, chrome body of his pistol into the back of his beltloop and turned to address his men.
“I think it’s time to get going, everyone,” he said, his mouth curled into a smile. “But as for my little werebear friend, I’m going to leave a few friends of mine here to keep an eye on you. And just so you know, their guns are loaded with silver-tipped bullets, a material that I’ve heard your kind isn’t exactly fond of. Anyway, these men are going to make sure that you transfer all of the money in your family accounts to ours.”
“And why the hell would I do that?” demanded Atticus.
“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill Tessa.”
Atticus said nothing, instead breathing heavily through his nostrils, his animal form only barely kept at bay.
“And the rest of my crew should be returning with what remains of your pack before too long. They’ll stick around to make sure the transfer goes off. Then, once you’ve done it, they’ll kill you.”
“Then why would I help you?”
“You and the pack die either way,’ said Lucas. “You’re all simply too much of a threat to my little enterprise. But if you transfer the money, I can guarantee you that Tessa will be safe. Well taken care of, in fact.”
He cast another lecherous look at Tessa, who seemed to be partially in a state of shock.
“So! You have 48 hours from right…now,” he said, setting the timer on his phone. “Don’t disappoint me.”
With that, Lucas and his crew left, leaving a few men in the room with guns trained on Atticus. He stood with his shoulders hunched, a defeated feeling gripped his body as he considered the tragedy that had just befallen him.
CHAPTER 18
“Where the hell are they?” asked one of the men, a dirty-looking, wiry man in a denim vest and ripped jeans.
“Keep your fuckin’ pants on,” said the second of the two men, a beady-eyed youth who looked to be no older than 20. “They’re taking down that whole pack, give ‘em at least an hour.”
The third man, a fat-bellied black man with patchy hair, kept his pistol trained on Atticus, who sat wordlessly on the couch.
“I need another hit,” he said. “This is all gettin’ to me.”
“You heard Lucas,” said the man in the denim vest. “No hits until the rest of ‘em get here.”
“How would Lucas even know?” asked the beady-eyed man as he paced frantically around the room. “You think he’s got cameras or some shit in here?”
“Who knows what he can do?” said Denim Vest. “He took over our whole operation in a month. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was keepin’ some kind of tabs on us.”
Silence fell over the men as they all considered their situation. Atticus was quiet, instead keeping in mind that Lucas said nothing about keeping these three lowlifes alive. Though he felt confident about his situation, he worried about the rest of the pack. Lucas mentioned that something happened to them, and they should’ve been back by now. Atticus cast an eye towards the tree line beyond the compound, hoping for some sign that the rest of the pack was near. But the trees were still aside from the evening breeze, darkness descending over the compound as the last traces of sun twinkled beneath the forest.
“Besides, I’m gonna start to lose my focus here if I don’t get a hit,” said Patchy Hair.
“What the hell are you two talking about?” demanded Denim Vest.
Atticus surmised that Denim Vest was the one in charge, but from the looks of things, he didn’t seem to be keeping a very good handle on the situation. He’d watched these meth heads from afar for long enough to know that they could only talk themselves out of using for so long before they gave in.
“Nah, nah,” said Beady Eyes. “I mean, things are fine now, but if I don’t get a hit, I’m gonna start thinking more about crystal than I am about watching the freak, you know?”
He pointed to Atticus with his pistol, who winced in response. He also been around these types long enough to know that accidental shootings among them were surprisingly common.
“Yeah, yeah, he’s right,” said Patchy Hair. “Plus, you know how the shit works- we’ll be way more focused once we do it, you know? And that’ll make our job even easier, and we’ll do it better.”
“I don’t know,” said Denim Vest, scratching the back of his head with his pistol. “We use and Lucas will have our asses. You saw what he did to that kid who took a hit on guard duty last week.”
“Yeah,” said Beady Eyes. “But that was ‘cuz that kid let some junkie slip past the perimeter. Lucas wouldn’t have given a shit if he would’ve done his fuckin’ job.”
Denim Vest scrunched his ugly, pock-marked face and Atticus could tell that he was marshalling his limited intellect to ponder the situation.
“Come on,” said Patchy Hair. “Just a hit to keep us steady and then we’ll finish the job. Besides, we’re here ‘till he gives up the money- that could be the whole 48 hours. You want to wait that long?”
Denim Vest considered this further. Atticus simply waited, knowing that an opportunity would soon arise.
“Yeah,” said Beady Eyes. “And when he said ‘don’t use until the job’s done,’ he was, uh, speaking, you know, metaphorically.”
“Right!” said Patchy Hair. “He was saying, like, don’t get fucked up until the job is done, like, don’t go overboard until the bear fucker gives up the goods.”
“There’s no way he would’ve expected us to not use,” said Beady Eyes. “I bet he’d probably even think it was weird that we didn’t!”
“He’d probably get mad at us, actually,” said Patchy Hair. “He’d think we fucked up by not keeping steady.”
Denim Vest’s eyes lit up with understanding, this seemed to be just the justification he needed to hear to give in to the temptation that had been dogging him.
“Fine!” he said. “But just enough to keep us on the level.”
“Yeah, yeah! Sure!” said Patchy Hair and Beady Eyes as they eagerly pulled out their paraphernalia.
A small smile crossed Atticus’s lips as he watched the junkies go to work. And that smile spread even further when he saw a long rustling along the tree line, the outside now completely black with evening dark. Yellow eyes emerged from the woods, and Atticus knew then that his pack was back. He smiled with pride, knowing that th
ey managed to get through whatever trap Lucas’s men had set for them.
Looking down at the zip ties that kept him restrained, he shook his head at how careless the junkies had been. Atticus watched the bears emerge from the woods as he flexed his muscles, the zip ties snapping like rubber bands stretched too taut.
His eyes on the junkies as they huddled over their supply, Atticus rose from the couch, preparing to shift. He glanced at the pistols loaded with silver-tipped bullets- he was sure he’d be able to get to them before they could aim them, let alone crack off a shot, but he also knew that junkies could be unpredictable. A stray round in his leg would mean he’d be out of commission for a week while he recovered, and that was time he didn’t have.
“Guys,” said Atticus, standing mid-shift, his muscles large and fur-covered.
The junkies snapped around, their eye wild and fearful as they stared at Atticus.
“I hope you brought enough for the rest of the family,” he said, gesturing to the pack of bears that were currently crawling through the tree line, their faces painted with rage as they drew closer.
“Shit, shit!” cried Beady Eyes, fumbling for his gun.
But none of the three were quick enough. Atticus retained his mid-shift form, not wanting to become the larger target that fully shifting into his bear form would result in. With blinding speed, he rushed at the three, striking Denim Vest with his razor-sharp claws, cutting through his skin and sending him flying backward against the wall. Patchy Hair and Beady Eyes, both going for their weapons, were next. Atticus grabbed Patchy Hair and threw him against the wall on the other side of the room, his body connecting with a sickening thud-crack.
Then, Beady Eyes managed to raise his gun and fire a round, the pop from the shot cutting through the air, the bullet going wild and hitting wide. Atticus shook his head and drove his claws into Beady Eyes, plunging them deep into his stomach, the junkie grabbing Atticus’s wrist feebly before dropping to his knees.
Atticus backed off, sighing as he surveyed the mess made of his home. But before he could think for too long, Ian, Roland, and Clyde appeared in the door frame.
“Wow,” said Ian, looking over the wreckage. “What’d we miss?”
CHAPTER 19
“What the hell happened?” demanded Atticus, looking over the pack as they stood on the grounds of the compound.
“They surprised us,” said Clyde, his voice weighed with shame.
“They lured us into a damn trap,” said Ian, slamming his fist into his open palm.
“How?” demanded Atticus, noting that his men all looked ragged and tired. They were barely able to stand at attention as the cool evening wind whipped across their bodies.
But he noted they were fewer in number- three of the men from the tribe were missing. Atticus’s stomach tightened when he realized what had likely happened.
“They must’ve known that we’d been on the lookout for meth labs and other signs of their presence,” said Roland, crossing his arms over his chest. “They left evidence strategically placed in the woods.”
“Like a trail of breadcrumbs,” said Ian.
“I should’ve known better,” said Clyde, shaking his head sadly.
“By the time we realized that what we were finding was too good to be true, it was too late,” said Roland. “They all came out of the woods, dozens of them.”
“Richard, Tyler, and Martin sacrificed themselves,” said Ian, looking over the men as they nodded at the sound of the names of those who gave their lives. “They created a distraction that allowed us to break through the circle that Lucas’s men formed around us and turn the tide.”
Atticus repeated the names of the men aloud, making sure that everyone heard them.
“Remember those names,” he said to the men, who all nodded in understanding.
“And what about Tessa?” asked Clyde.
Atticus clenched and unclenched his fists.
“Lucas was here and he took her,” he said. “The gang knows about us- they know everything. We’re the only thing keeping them from taking over this town and turning it into anarchy.”
“Then they won’t stop until they’ve rid us from the region,” said Roland, nodding his head in understanding.
“And what’s more,” said Atticus, his voice lined with anger as he thought of Tessa’s face, wet with tears as they took her, “They want our money.”
“Fuckers,” said Ian. “It’s not enough they want us dead, they want our resources to fund their operation.”
“We have less than 48 hours before they kill Tessa,” said Atticus, the last two words paining him to speak. “We’re going to have to make a full-on assault on the farmhouse where the gang operations are centered.”
“That’s the plan?” asked Ian, incredulous. “To just smash in through the front gate?”
“No,” said Atticus. “There are too many of them for that. But one way or another, we have to destroy that house and the facilities inside. If we don’t, Lucas’s gang will just get more and more powerful until we won’t be strong enough to beat them. They’ll take over this whole region and turn it into a meth-addicted hellhole.”
He turned to the men.
“You all get some rest if you need to and if anyone has any bright ideas, let me know. But just remember, not only is the fate of Tessa on the line, but everyone in this town. Dismissed.”
And with that, he turned away from the men, moving towards the main house with determined strides, thoughts of saving his love the only ones on his mind.
CHAPTER 20
Tessa stared at Lucas with murderous eyes as the luxury car bumped along the unpaved road leading to the gang’s farmhouse. She thought of Atticus and how angered he looked as Lucas took her from him. She sat on the cool leather seat across from Lucas, her hands bound behind her back. All she wanted was to lunge across at him and wrap her hands around his neck, draining the life from him.
But instead, she sat helplessly, two gang members flanking her, her former love sitting across from her in the cab of the car with a silver gun in one hand and a drink in the other.
“I can’t believe that you’ve done all of this,” she said, her voice a hiss.
“You can’t believe that I’ve done what, exactly?” asked Lucas through a grim smile. “That I was able to go from a starving artist to a drug kingpin?”
“Among other things,” said Tessa. “How you could live a double-life and still look me in the eyes would be another.”
“It was easy. You and I had been growing apart for years,” he said, the car making a slow turn on the road towards the property that she had visited where she learned that Lucas was cheating on her. “But you didn’t even seem to notice it until it became blindingly obvious.”
“What’re you talking about?” asked Tessa, her eyes flicking towards the ramshackle settlements that had cropped up along the road since the last time she’d been there.
“I’d been getting more and more into this world for the last year, why do you think I’d been abandoning my art? I started by hanging out with these guys after drinks at the bar. It just kinda grew from there. Turns out I’ve got something of a knack for this business.”
“A ‘knack?’” asked Tessa, feeling as though she were talking to someone she’d never met before.
“Yep. Making connections, distributing, supervision, production- all that. These guys were small-timers until they found me. I was able to do for their business in the last few months what they’d been unable to do in the last two years. They just needed someone with a little imagination.”
“You must be very proud of all this,” said Tessa, gesturing towards the road that led to the compound, the fields on both sides strewn with vagrants and junkies eking out meager existences for the sole purpose of being near the meth lab.
“Cost of doing business,” he said, seemingly immune to the sight of the human misery around him. “This town was on the brink of collapse anyway, it just needed a little push to fini
sh the process.”
“But why?” asked Tessa.
Lucas’s eyes narrowed.
“Because I was tired of our boring life, nothing happening day in and day out. I wanted excitement, while you wanted nothing but the same things every day.”
“So, you thought this was the way out.”
“It was the way out.”
The farmhouse grew closer, another party raging out front, just like the one that Tessa ventured into the night she found Lucas.
“I did this for us, by the way,” said Lucas, looking out the window at the party on the lawn. “You have no idea how much money I’ve been able to make so quickly. I was going to buy the life that we’d always wanted.”
“Is that why you cheated on me?” asked Tessa, not buying his altruistic explanations.
“Hey, when you’re the head of a meth empire you end up getting a lot of attention. You say ‘no’ 49 times, on the 50th, you’re gonna crack.”
Tessa glared at Lucas.
“Besides, that’s all over now. Once we, well, I’ll tell you about the rest of the plan later, but now that you’re here back by my side where you belong, away from those bear freaks, we can get back it just being you and me.”
“’Bear freaks’?” demanded Tessa. “You don’t know the first thing about them.”
“I know that they’re standing in the way of me expanding my market. Do you have any idea how many labs this crew has lost to them over the last few years? Too many, that’s for damn sure.”
The car attracted a crowd as it pulled through the party towards the stretch of land behind the large farmhouse. The crowd was comprised of everyone from junkie hangers-on to teenage groupies to tough-looking gang members, all recognizing the car as Lucas’s, all wanting to discuss business with him…business of one form or another.
“And these yokels here in Branlen all figured they were forest spirits or some crazy shit like that. They needed someone with half a brain to realize that there was something weird going on with that compound that the Swift boys owned, something probably connected to what was going on in the woods. Needless to say, one of my first orders of business was to wipe them off the map. And when I found out that they were loaded, well, so much the better.”
