Wolves among men

by penelope sweet

  “Let me go!” she shrieked as he struggled to steady her. Jonathan reached over and pulled the blindfold from her eyes, turning her to face me as he tossed it behind him.

  “There’s quite a lot of fight in this one.” He chuckled, turning his face to her as she scowled. Cordillia spat, silencing his laugh and turning his amused smile into one of rage as he reached up to wipe his face. “That wasn’t very nice.” He growled as he backhanded her, knocking her to the ground.

  “Leave her alone!” I roared and lunged forward only to be stopped by the point of his blade as it pressed dangerously into my throat. Jonathan turned to me, his piercing blue eyes sharp as daggers as he glared into me.

  “Back up.” He growled. His eyes locked with mine. I did as he asked, my fists clenched at my side and my body shaking with rage as he bent down once more to lift Cordillia to her feet. He turned her toward me, pulling her back into his chest as he pressed his knife to her throat. “I didn’t want to use such force.” He smiled down at her. “But you left me no choice,” he whispered as she went limp in his hands.

  “Now, back to business.” He smiled as he turned his gaze on me. “It’s a simple choice, Ethan, come with me and you can have her back.”

  “And if I don’t?” Jonathan looked toward the van and shrugged.

  “Then I wrap up this little family reunion and you’ll just have to hope you find her before she becomes a corpse.”

  “I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong.” I was startled as Grant came to a stop at my side and I was excited as I turned to see the mass of growling faces that stood just behind us. I didn’t hear the door open and I had no idea when they decided to join us but for a moment I couldn’t help but feel empowered. He was outnumbered, outgunned and any smart man would leave with his hide intact. I could only hope he would choose not to risk it over her.

  “I wasn’t expecting company.” He sneered.

  “And I wasn’t expecting trespassers.”

  “Well then I guess that means this meeting is over.” He growled as he turned away from us. Grant stepped forward as Jonathan moved toward the van.

  “You’ll be leaving the girl,” he called loudly. Jonathan stopped in his tracks and turned back to us slowly, a condescending smirk twisted his lips as his eyes darted between us.

  “I’m afraid you have no say in that.”

  “That wasn’t a request.” Logan and Matt moved to his side and I followed as we closed in on the blond haired man.

  “And how do you intend to stop me?”

  “The way I see it you’re outnumbered, two maybe three to our thirty.”

  “You’d kill me? Is that the threat?”

  “No,” Matt chuckled. “But we’d be happy to send you back to Malik a broken man.” Jonathan’s eyes darted between us. Gauging his odds or planning attack, I couldn’t be sure. I held my breath as he held her tight, the pack closing in on him inch by inch, growling together as one as they waited for Grant’s order.

  “All this for one girl?”

  “Do you have any humanity left?” I growled as I approached him. “Or did you lose it all when you sold your soul?” His eyes softened and for a moment I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of empathy, even basic understanding before his expression hardened and a soft growl escaped his chest.

  “I’ve better things to do than stand here arguing with a dog.” He spat. He pushed her into me and shoved his knife back into the sheath at his hip. “I’ve no use for her.” He sneered as he brushed himself off and climbed into the van behind him. “You should have taken my offer,” he called behind him.

  “Not a chance in hell.”

  “That’s too bad.” He slammed the door shut before I had the chance to reply and I watched as the van sped off in a cloud of dust.

  “Good riddance.” Cordillia sneered as they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, pulling her attention back to me. She nodded and offered me a weak smile.

  “Fine I guess.”

  “Are you hurt?” She shook her head. “Were you bitten?” My questions were quick and frantic as I struggled with the rope that bounder her.

  “No, Ethan, I’m fine.” She chuckled and rubbed at her newly freed wrists. “Really.” I pulled her into my arms and held her tight against me, closing my eyes as I rested my chin on the top of her head.

  “I’m glad you’re back.” I smiled as she squeezed me back.

  “I’m glad to be back.” She chuckled as she pulled away from me. “Is there somewhere we can sit?”

  “Of course.” Grant smiled as he stepped forward and made his presence known. He led us into the factory and pulled a chair around for Cordillia at the large round table in the middle of the room. I took a seat next to her and pulled her into a quick one armed hug.

  “Ethan, I’m fine.” She smiled as I planted a kiss on her forehead before letting her go.

  “I know. I’m just glad to have you back.”

  “We all are.” Logan smiled as he and the others took a seat around us. A slight blush colored her cheeks and she looked down as Grant pulled a chair around, dropping himself into it with a loud sigh.

  “What’s wrong?” He shook his head.

  “I hate to be the storm cloud on your happy day but I just can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.”

  “What do you mean?” I turned to him, confused and more than just a little worried.

  “I’m very glad to have solved one of our problems and reunited you with your sister but I think we have an even bigger problem to deal with.” He leaned forward on his knees and took a few deep breaths.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Did it occur to you that he might have let her go too easily?” I thought for a moment and shook my head. The thought hadn’t occurred to me, hell I was just happy to have her back but now that it was mentioned the thought began to loom over me like a shadow.

  “I guess you’re right but we should be fine,” even I didn’t believe what I had just said.

  “Jonathan’s a pretty messed up guy, Ethan.” Cordillia looked down at the table top as she slid her fingernails gently and nervously across its surface.

  “How so?” I turned to her.

  “Well, he’s sadistic for one. Malik told me that he liked Jonathan because he was willing to do things that others wouldn’t do.”

  “Whoa!” I put my hands up to silence her. “You met Malik?”

  She stammered quickly, “Not exactly, I spoke to him.”

  “Well where is he?” She shrugged and shook her head.

  “I don’t know. It was just a phone call.”

  “Okay well what did he say?”

  “Jesus you’re excitable aren’t you?” She chuckled lightly. “Jonathan called him, while I was tied up, told him I wasn’t one of them. That I was just human and wanted to know what Malik wanted done with me. I don’t know what he said but I do know that he asked to speak to me. He offered me the same thing Jonathan offered you, said if I became one of them he would make sure I was safe, have eternal life and all that crap.”

  “What did you say?” I recoiled slightly. She rolled her eyes at me and smiled.

  “Ethan, come on who do you think I am? I told him I’d think about it. I figured if I said no there was a good chance he would kill me.” I nodded. “But anyway I started asking some questions about him and what he believes and somehow his relationship with Jonathan came up. He didn’t say much but he did tell me that he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty unless he has to and that training pups was beneath him or something like that. He said he needed someone who would do anything he was asked without question and I guess Jonathan is that guy.”

  “Did you learn anything else?”

  “Yes, Jonathan and Malik met during world war two in Germany at one of the internment camps. Jonathan was particularly good at a few things. One was keeping hidden and keeping their experiments under the radar even from other soldiers
who weren’t so quick to agree with everything Malik did.”

  “And the other?” my eyebrow rose with increasing interest as she spoke.

  “The other was planning every possible outcome ahead of time. He called himself a strategist, there was no plan of attack that he hadn’t already seen coming before the other side even thought of it, at least that’s how he tells it.”

  “It’s not uncommon for people to embellish their strengths,” Grant added quietly.

  “True but it was Jonathan that got the two of them out of Germany well before it was invaded so there kind of has to be some truth to the story.”

  “So do you think he knew that this would happen?” I sighed heavily and leaned back in my chair. Cordillia nodded her head.

  “I’m sure he planned for it.”

  “Why would he want you back? He said there’s no use for you?”

  “He doesn’t want me, Ethan, Malik does. He knows that if he has me he can get to you without a fight.”

  “Your sister’s a smart girl,” Grant finally broke from his silence. “We have to be prepared for attack.”

  “Okay but still, why does he want me?” Cordillia rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.

  “Don’t you pay attention Ethan? You broke a treaty and now he sees you as amassing an army to go to war against him, he either wants you dead or on his side and like it or not you’re in this pretty deep,” she laughed uncomfortably as she spoke. “Do you remember when we were kids and we would watch movies together late at night?” I smiled as I nodded my head.

  “Yeah but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “So you remember the movie marathons but you don’t remember getting lost in the middle of every one of them and making me explain it to you?”

  “It’s not like I’m stupid,” I laughed. “I just suck at paying attention sometimes.” Cordillia chuckled and nodded her head.

  “Yeah you do and this is like those marathons all over again except that this isn’t a movie and you don’t really have the freedom to not pay attention.”

  “She’s right.” Sam sighed. I looked up at her sheepishly.

  “I guess I’m kind of failing here aren’t I?”

  “Not at all.” Grant smiled. “But regardless of whether or not you have been paying attention in the past there is the threat of war coming and now would be a good time to start listening.” I nodded.

  “Where do we go from here?” I sat up as he sighed softly.

  “Well we could start with fortifying this place, keeping someone on watch at all times.”

  “Maybe start training for war?” Matt added. “Hand to hand combat that kind of thing.”

  “That sounds like a good start, can I trust you to do it?”

  “Eight years in the service, I think basic training is something I can handle.” Grant smirked and offered Matt a quick salute. “We can start this afternoon?” It was more of a question than a statement. “That’s if Ethan is up for it.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah,” He looked to me quickly and smiled. “I’ve never seen you fight but judging from the fact that you were mostly dead when we found you it’s probably safe to say you could use some training yourself.” The table burst into soft laughter and a slight blush warmed my face.

  “You’re probably right.” I nodded.

  “Have Colt help you, he has some military training as well.” Matt nodded as he leaned back in his chair.

  “James and I can make some calls,” Mack piped in from one of the dark corners of the room. “Maybe see if we can get some more warm bodies to help out.” A light came on in my head as he stepped toward us, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the piece of paper Robert had given me.

  “Hey, Mack, can you do a check on this guy?” He walked over to me and took the paper from my hands.

  “Never heard of him. Do you think he can help?” He asked shoving it into his own pocket.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “But a friend told me to get in touch with him. It’s worth checking into right?” I looked up to him as he nodded.

  “Sure, man, I’ll see what I can do.” I looked back toward Grant whose expression was beginning to lighten as more and more of us began to step up to the plate and do what needed to be done without question or complaint.

  “Sam,” Grant called behind him. “How about you and some of the girls see if you can come up with a way to hide the kids.” She laughed lightly.

  “Why me old man?” He looked up at her and smiled.

  “Because there’s a series of tunnels underneath the factory and I thought you might like to go down there and take a look.” Her face lit up as she considered his offer.

  “That sounds like fun, I can also check to make sure there’s no way that they can get in from under there as well.”

  “Exactly.” Grant beamed. He turned his face back to me and smiled.

  “What about me?” Cordillia chimed in. His smiled warmly as she waited for him to give her a chore to do.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Isn’t there anything I can do?” Grant considered her question for a moment before he reached over to pat her leg gently.

  “Of course, if you want to help you’re more than welcome to. What do you want to do?”

  “I want to fight,” She answered quickly.

  “No!” I nearly shouted. Grant lifted his hand to silence me as he watched her thoughtfully.

  “Why?” he asked simply.

  “Because I can’t have Ethan watching my back all the time.”

  “Cordillia, I can protect you and you’re just a-”

  “A what?” she barked. “A kid? Ethan, I know I’m a kid in some ways. I also know that I’m the only human in the room but I can do this.” She glared at me.

  “I can’t let you put yourself in danger like that.”

  “And if you spend your whole life watching out for me you’re going to miss the monster coming for you and get yourself killed.” I stood quickly and shook my head.

  “No, Cordillia, and that’s the end of it.” She jumped up just as quickly and pressed herself against me, anger and defiance poured out from her eyes as she stood tall.

  “You don’t have a choice, Ethan. I’m not stupid, I won’t go running into the heat of battle but I want to help”

  “It’s suicide!” I barked.

  “Then teach me to fire a gun!” she screamed back. “Anything that can kill a wolf can kill a human right?”

  “You’re not using a gun either it’s too dangerous!” I shouted.

  “And it isn’t for you?” she screamed. “You’ve never gotten into a fight in your life that didn’t almost get you killed what makes you think you can do this better than I can?” My thoughts stopped and I couldn’t help the slight smile that curved my lips as her words echoed through my head. She was clever, quick and there was nothing I could say after a truth like that.