Oath Keeper

by Shelley Wilson

  The pack inched forward circling either side of Felicity who waved the dagger in front of her.

  ‘Stay back!’ she screamed, thrusting the blade towards Terry who froze. ‘Don’t take another step or your friend here dies.’

  ‘You’re outnumbered,’ said Terry holding his hands out. ‘You can’t kill all of us.’

  Her eyes flashed with anger as she glared from one person to the next registering Terry’s words and realising she had already lost.

  ‘I don’t have to kill you all,’ she spat, that glint in her eye like a warning light to anyone who stepped in her way. ‘I only have to kill one of you.’

  In one fluid movement she plunged the knife into Byron’s gut, blood spurting in all directions as he screamed out in agony. The pack scattered, grabbing for the redhead as she skirted past them and disappeared through the next door along.

  ‘Cut him loose,’ Terry shouted. ‘Get him out of here.’

  Two of the pack rushed to help Byron, who coughed and spluttered from the table. Terry was in pursuit of Felicity before they’d cut the first bond.

  I lurched forward almost knocking Cody off his feet as he darted after his friend.

  The three of us pushed forward until we hit the last room. This was the same room where Sebastian had kept the children that Elizabeth, Ari, and I had rescued. Instead of kids, the room now held five men. I burst through the door and saw Felicity heading straight for Zak with the blood-stained blade in her hand.

  The roar that erupted from my throat silenced the room. Even Felicity stopped and spun around, having the sense not to turn her back on me.

  I padded forward never once taking my eyes off my nemesis. Her scent was overwhelming but Sebastian had believed in me. He thought I was capable of controlling my emotions and not killing another human, however evil they might be. I wanted that to be true. Underneath this powerful form, I was just a girl. Granted, I wasn’t the same girl I used to be, I’d changed, grown harder, tougher, and more resilient, but I was still just a teenager with hopes and dreams that didn’t include taking another life.

  Within seconds Terry and Cody had freed our friends, and I had the pack at my back. Zak stood at my shoulder, his dark hair curling up at the nape of his neck. Right now, he didn’t look like an alpha, he looked like my big brother.

  ‘You’ve lost this fight, Felicity. The GA will make sure that because of your actions and cruelty you’ll be stripped of your hunters’ oath and sent back into the hole you wormed your way out of.’

  ‘Tut, tut, Zak, you should know better than that. My daddy will have the GA eating out of his hand before you even make it to the trees. I’ll be able to watch you die at the hands of the agency who’ll never know how close we came to wiping your filthy species off this earth.’

  ‘Your threats don’t work on me, little girl, you’re the most pathetic excuse for a hunter I’ve ever seen.’

  Felicity snarled at my brother, the snide remark at her expense clearly not sitting well with her.

  ‘In fact, once the GA discover what you and your father have been up to, I’m pretty certain you’ll be locked away for good.’

  ‘Don’t they lock failed hunters up with the murderous wolves?’ Terry teased. ‘Yeah, I’m sure I heard that somewhere. The kids who don’t cut it as a hunter are fed to the prey they tried so hard to destroy.’

  ‘You’re all monsters!’ Felicity screamed, her eyes sparking with an inner fire. She wasn’t going to give up easily.

  She swiped at a stack of boxes with the Evermore logo on the side. They crashed to the floor at my feet, and the contents spilled out: hundreds of silver vials like the ones we’d found earlier containing Parker’s evil serum. I lifted my paw and pounded at the tubes, smashing the casing and smearing the toxic green liquid across the stone floor.

  The door leading back towards the nurse’s office burst open, and Ethan lurched through holding his wooden staff. Felicity jumped away from him keeping a safe distance between the new arrival and the gathered pack. Ethan surveyed the room, only lingering on my wolf form for a few seconds.

  ‘You need to leave,’ he said. ‘The GA are crawling all over the grounds looking for her.’ He jerked his thumb at Felicity, and I felt a small tug of satisfaction.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ Zak’s voice was menacing as he looked over the hunter.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Terry said. ‘He’s a friend of Mia’s. Travelled up with her from Somerset yesterday. He’s on our side.’

  Zak didn’t look convinced, but I was in no position to defend Ethan as the only sounds I could make were grunts and growls. I had to hope my brother believed Terry.

  ‘Fine, let’s go.’ Zak gave a nod of his head. ‘We’ll leave Miss Parker to her fate.’

  One by one the pack exited the room heading for the nurse’s office and the safety of the trees beyond. I stalked forward baring my teeth at Felicity as I drew up next to her. She flinched away from me. Cody slapped Ethan on the shoulder in thanks and walked away. I didn’t want Ethan getting caught up in this and waited for him to leave so I could protect him from any last-ditch attempt Felicity might make at attacking us.

  As I reached the door, I saw the briefest of exchanges between the two hunters. Not a look of fear or revulsion but one of camaraderie. I watched Ethan pull his phone out and tap at the keys. Within seconds Felicity’s mobile sang with the notification of a message received. She tapped the screen and smiled across at Ethan, blowing him a kiss. The chill of dread slid down my contorted spine as I worked out far too late that Ethan had fooled us all. He’d tricked me into returning his phone, and now I realised my error. He’d been in contact with my nemesis all along.

  In one fluid motion, Felicity threw her dagger at me, and I roared as it struck me in the shoulder. She spun away, rolling across the floor to grasp at the remaining syringes. Ethan swung his staff around to smash into the exposed region of my head. I lurched to the side, momentarily stunned. In my clumsiness, I knocked the door closed, and as I lay on the floor trying to stop the world from spinning away, I noticed I was blocking the exit and preventing Cody and my brother from getting in to help me.

  ‘Time to die, wolf girl,’ Felicity spat the words at me as she flung the syringe at Ethan who caught it and brought it down hard on my leg. I felt the sharp sting as the needle broke through my skin and the rush of panic as he pumped the toxic contents into my system.

  No! I wasn’t ready to die.

  My reaction was immediate. I began convulsing in the same way as the children we’d found in the Somerset woods. Sebastian had saved them with his tonics. I needed Sebastian. I needed my dad.

  Felicity’s shrill laughter snapped me back to the moment. She was draped over Ethan stroking his hair and kissing his cheek. The smarmy grin I’d always wanted to wipe off his face was the only thing I could see. At that moment everything became clear.

  If it was my time to die, then I wasn’t going alone. Zak had killed for me when he’d killed the bully who terrorised my childhood. So I could kill for him, for Cody, Terry, and Byron, for the pack, and my friends, for Ari and her sister. I would kill for all of them.

  I rode the next wave of convulsions then summoned all my wolf healing to protect me from the toxins invading my system. Neither hunter was expecting my strike as I launched from the floor claws extended. I slashed out at Felicity, knocking her off balance before digging my claws into Ethan’s flesh. I felt the warmth of his blood as my nails dragged across his throat. His eyes grew wide in horror as he pitched to his knees clutching at the gash in his neck where his life force was draining away. He stared at me in shock and I realised with some satisfaction that he had underestimated me. Felicity screamed as the door burst open behind me.

  ‘You killed him,’ she shrieked.

  Her hysteria fed my rage and I growled, readying myself to pounce when another snarl filled the air. It was a sound I’d heard before and one I couldn’t ignore. It was the call of my alpha.

  Zak stoo
d behind me in his wolf form, his immense size filling the doorframe. He growled at me again, and I dropped my head in submission.

  Felicity’s screams mingled with my brother’s gentle persuasions as I stumbled from the room struggling against the rising convulsions again. The last thing I saw was the redhead cradling Ethan’s lifeless body in her arms.

  ‘I will find you, wolf girl,’ she ranted, ‘and I will kill you.’

  The door slammed shut, and she was gone. Zak led me up and out onto the car park where Terry was waiting. They herded me into the forest where I collapsed as the toxic serum burnt through my organs. The spasms rocked my body like a child shaking her rag doll. My bones creaked and groaned as I returned to my human form, and the searing pain in my joints dulled as the damp forest floor soothed me. Cody rushed to my side ripping the syringe from my leg and throwing a blanket around my naked frame.

  ‘We need to get her away from the academy,’ he said, a thread of panic in his voice.

  ‘She needs Sebastian,’ Terry said.

  I wanted to agree with him, tell him that’s exactly what I needed but I couldn’t form the right words. I was delirious, and anything that came out of my mouth would sound like gibberish. My skin was on fire, and sweat trickled down the side of my face. Cody scooped me up from the floor and cradled me close to his chest. The heat was too much, and I felt like I was being burnt at the stake. I wriggled and moaned, and I knew he thought it was the serum doing its job, but I couldn’t tell him that he was killing me with kindness.

  A noise up ahead put everyone on high alert, and I felt Cody shudder as he tried to prevent himself from turning. Somehow, I knew he was willing himself to stay human so that he could hold and protect me.

  ‘It’s okay, it’s Sebastian,’ someone called out, the voices travelling back to where we stood. Sebastian was making his way through the trees, heading in our direction.

  ‘Where is she?’ His face filled my vision, which swam as I tried to focus. He lifted my eyelid and shone a light on me. I tried to flinch away, but Cody held me steady.

  ‘We need to get her home. Follow me, the academy minibus is behind the school and the keys are always left in it.’

  Cody jostled me back and forth as he hurried after Sebastian and bundled me into one of the seats. The engine started, and the vibrations carried through the metal and into my very soul. Everything hurt. The entire journey was torturous as I bounced around in the bus. Cody tried to soothe me as Sebastian drove like a maniac through endless dark lanes.

  He finally stopped and I retched, first on the floor of the minibus and then again on the driveway.

  ‘Quickly, get her inside.’

  I looked up at the building ahead of us as Cody nestled me against his chest, the blanket tucked around my body. This place was unfamiliar. The stone cottage gleamed as we hurried through the front door. There was a cosy feel to the entrance hall with its flagstone floors, but I didn’t get to see much as they rushed me through to a bedroom at the back of the cottage. Cody manoeuvred me into bed making sure I was covered up and kissing my burning forehead.

  ‘What can I do to help?’ he asked as Sebastian rolled up his sleeves and set to work unrolling a cloth with an assortment of vials and potions on it.

  ‘Pray for her,’ he said. ‘The serum was only ever intended for a young child with the wolf gene. The modifications that Evermore made have mutated the strain so that the host gets pure poison. In a wolf child, this will accelerate the turning process as the body tries to heal and protect itself. By rights, all the children should die, but some of them have been able to resist.’

  ‘How can they resist it?’

  ‘I’ve only managed to look at some of the files so I’d need to do proper tests, but my early findings show that the children who survive have hunter DNA as well as wolf.’

  ‘How is that possible?’

  ‘I believe the barriers between the hunters and the wolves have been changing for some time, but clearly nobody dares talk about it. The horror of what Mr Parker has done might shine a light on a new era, Cody. One that you and Mia are already a part of.’

  ‘What does it mean for Mia? She turned, Sebastian. I mean, fully turned.’

  ‘Hmm, I know, but I’m not sure what will happen now. She was a hybrid with the strength of a hunter and the healing power of a wolf, but now…’ He shook his head. ‘I never stabilised the serum to cure lycanthropy, I only ended up killing her mother.’

  I groaned and tried to speak. He had to know that it wasn’t his fault, but I was slipping in and out of consciousness. The ceiling danced above me and joined hands with the walls. They spun together like they were dancing around a maypole. I thrashed my head from side to side trying to stop the whirling, but it didn’t help. Cody’s blonde hair filled my vision as he leaned over me, dragging a damp cloth across my forehead.

  I willed him to tell Sebastian that he wasn’t the one to kill my mother. I wanted to shout it out loud, so the entire world knew my father wasn’t an evil man.

  I wanted to, but the world was slipping away. Darkness played at the edges of my mind, creeping forward like a game of hide and seek. I felt the sharp scratch of a needle in my arm and hoped that whatever Sebastian was doing would work and bring me back.

  The darkness grew, and the voices of my father and boyfriend became fainter. I felt like I was travelling down a long tunnel and there was no way back.

  Somewhere in the blackness of this passageway, I could hear my friends. Elizabeth, Terry, and even Miss Ross. They whispered, but I was comforted to know they were there, somewhere.

  Before I drifted off into sleep that might very well be eternal, I heard my brother’s voice, clear and bright like he was standing right next to me.

  ‘Come back to me, little sis,’ he said. ‘Come back to me.’

  THROUGH THE COTTAGE window I could see the blue sky and noticed the leaves on the treetops were starting to turn. The oranges, reds, and yellows of autumn approached and with them a new school term at Hood Academy.

  I’d been lying in this bed for days as Sebastian worked hard to stabilise the poison that pulsed through my body. When I wasn’t hallucinating, I was vomiting, and when that was done, I’d start convulsing. It was a cycle that never seemed to end.

  Elizabeth hadn’t left my bedside unless it was to get me food and water. Her friendship was keeping me anchored to the here and now.

  So many times I’d wished that the damn serum would finish me off and let me climb off this wheel of torture, but it wasn’t done with me yet.

  In between my turbulent fits I’d listened in on the conversations between my friends. The news that the GA had Felicity in custody had lifted my spirits, but the disturbing fact that her father was still missing worried me, and the pack.

  Sebastian had been good to his word and handed himself over to the GA. They extended him the courtesy of listening as he explained about Evermore and the serum. He’d exposed his vulnerabilities by telling them about his part in the death of my mother, and the blackmail threat Parker held over him. I was proud of my father, and I made a mental note to tell him that fact when I recovered.

  ‘Morning.’

  Elizabeth leaned forward and removed the flannel from my forehead and replaced it with a fresh one, the coolness giving me immediate relief from the burning beneath my skin.

  I smiled at my friend. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Ten past two. You’ve been drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours. Zak went back to the farm with Cody and the others to talk about what to do next.’

  I licked my cracked lips and Elizabeth jumped up to grab a glass of water off the bedside table.

  ‘Here, have a sip.’

  She lifted me gently into a seated position and held the cup for me. The water tasted so good, and I drained the contents.

  ‘Where’s Sebastian?’

  ‘He’s back at Hood Academy talking to the GA. They want him to file a report against Parker and Felicity so they
can take further action against them. He told me the GA are getting ready to leave as they’re satisfied with the review.’

  ‘They’re leaving?’

  ‘As far as I can tell. They’ve sided with Sebastian and there’s some talk about reinstating him as headmaster when they go.’

  ‘That’s great news,’ I said, flinching as a spasm of pain shot through my gut.

  ‘Careful, Mia. You’re still very weak.’ She fluffed up my pillow and squeezed my hand as she sat beside me on the bed. ‘Sebastian’s honesty has saved him. They understand the strain he was under thanks to Parker’s threat, and they’re willing to give him another chance.’

  I was happy, truly happy that Sebastian would be staying on at Hood Academy. It was more than a job to him; I understood that now. It was his ancestral home, and, I guess, mine too. I wasn’t sure if that would even be a possibility now I was a fully fledged wolf, but I knew Sebastian wouldn’t turn his back on me, wolf or not.

  ‘What happens next?’ I felt like I’d missed so much since I’d been here. The pack was still rallying around their alpha to eliminate the Evermore threat, Parker was out there somewhere doing God knows what, and I was stuck in bed drinking foul-smelling potions, and riding each wave of pain as it rushed through my system.

  ‘Zak’s liaising with the other alphas around the country to destroy the Evermore dispatch warehouses. Liam arrived the other day with a few of the lads from Somerset. They’d contacted Headmaster Gregory from the local academy and explained the situation. From what I hear the wolves and hunters worked together to take down the warehouse in Somerset, and I also heard that Adam rallied the Cornwall academy to approach the packs and tear down the Evermore branch in the south.’

  ‘Did anyone tell Gregory about Ethan?’ I hadn’t dared bring up the subject of me killing the hunter until now. I could scarcely believe it myself. When I nearly killed Felicity in the woods, Elizabeth, Zak, and the rest of the pack hadn’t been able to look at me let alone speak to me, and yet now I’d crossed that line.