Pain.
Pain was the only thing I could feel.
There was a fire raging through my
body that I hadn't felt before in my entire life. Internally, I
hoped that it was all a mind game, that it was just a dream; but
despite my longing, it was all too real. My spirit felt like it was
being ripped from my flesh and I didn’t know how much more I could
take. Another little part of me said I should give in, that the
other life would bring something better than what was going on right
now. An even bigger part told me to fight, that I could escape the
situation.
That was the choice I decided to
make.
To continue fighting for my life.
“I don't think he's going to last
much longer at this rate.” A feminine voice said, her tone
completely filled with worry.
“The bastard will be fine. He
deserves it after everything he's done already.” Another voice,
male this time, retorted to her.
Within the next moment, the worst
burning sensation I had ever felt spread through my body and I
screamed in agony. I thrashed about on top of the surface I was
laying on, trying to figure out the source of the shit causing me
problems so I could fix it. Even though I knew it would probably
wear me out faster, fighting was all I ever knew. It was something
that I had grown up with, but when you were the Alfa to a pack, it
kicked in with the harshest force imagined. I had to protect the
girls, I had to protect my turf… I had to protect my own life.
The male who talked earlier pushed me
back down and leaned over my body, muttering, “It would be easier
if you just gave in… or even died for that matter.”
I attempted to throw a fist, just to
find my wrist cuffed to the table. I spat in his face instead.
“Never! I will never back down and let you take my pack!”
“Fine then. I hope you enjoy what
time you have left.” He simply replied, wiping my spit away from
his cheek.
Another ripping sensation occurred
and I let another blood curdling scream out. A sudden wave of
exhaustion washed over me after a moment but the tugging and ripping
came to a halt and I fell limp on the table. My thoughts rested on
all my girls, hoping that they would be okay, that they were safe,
that whoever these idiots were wouldn't find them. It'd be just like
some rogue pack to swoop in and take them away from me while I was
indisposed. I slipped into the unconscious world, my mind resting on
my favorite member…
I sat up with a start, panting as sweat
dripped down my face while shaking my head in an attempt to gather my
wits about me again. It was rare for me to have nightmares but when
I did have them, they knocked my world for a loop. I couldn't make
sense of what caused the dream since I hadn't done anything out of
the ordinary throughout the previous day. Forcing a deep breath in
and out, I wiped the sweat off the side of my face and looked to the
comforter for a moment or two, raising a brow when I noticed the
sheets were contorted in a strange manner besides my being twisted in
them. Gazing to my left, I noticed a splay of honey and dark
chocolate brown hair across the pillow and groaned at one of the
biggest mistakes I must have made being black out drunk.
I moved to get out of bed and instead of
getting to my feet, I landed on my ass and cursed aloud. Summoning
what dignity I had left to stand, I found myself scrambling for my
underwear drawer, yanking the first pair my fingers grasped and
slipped into them, worriedly glancing at my bed to make sure I hadn't
disturbed Heidi. If there was one thing I was certain about, it was
making sure I could escape the room without disturbing her before I
could properly kick her out of my room. The last thing I needed this
morning was for her to wake up and I'd have to go through the whole
routine of explaining what happened between us was nothing more than
a one night stand.
Heidi was Heidi Kohlberg, also known as
my third in command. She was more annoying than the younger sibling
trying to weasel in on your doings with your friends. Wherever I
went around our pack territory, she followed, even if she knew where
I was mentally through our pack network as I liked to call it. Heidi
was still a pup compared to me and I couldn't believe what I had done
to myself, or what I assumed I had done.
Maybe you really didn't do anything
with her, I thought to myself,
looking around the room and groaning when I saw the strewn clothes
about the carpet. There
goes that hope.
Of everyone in the world I could have
done anything stupid with, it had to be Heidi. Not only was she like
a pesky little sister, she was also obsessive. I've not only heard
the things she had done, I had seen them, having vowed to myself that
I was never going to go through the regime she put others through
when they tried to break things off with her. I muttered under my
breath and pulled my jeans from yesterday off the floor, quietly
getting into the closet for a clean shirt. I dove back into my
dresser for clean socks, looked back at the sleeping Heidi for
another moment then slipping out the bedroom door to escape
downstairs like a madman.
“You
stupid idiot. What the fuck did you do last night?” I chastised
myself, struggling
to get my socks on before walking into the kitchen to figure
something out to eat.
Even though I didn’t have a clue as to
what I did last night besides the one upstairs asleep in my damn bed,
it didn't stop my stomach from raging without food. I tugged on the
fridge handle and scoured the shelves for anything tempting,
grumbling when I found nothing. I shut the door a little harder than
necessary, groaning when I heard someone at the front door just
before they knocked. Cursing under my breath, I walked over and
yanked it open to find my second in command Silvyr Endres standing
there, looking the least bit pleased.
Silvyr had waist length coal colored
hair that normally she kept up in a complex bun but today she was
wearing it down. She was also pretty slender but she made up for it
in the swift way she moved in either form she took. The thing I
found that stood out the most about her was that her eyes were a pure
silver color, which was ironic since silver made us absolutely sick
should we touch it. I just gave her a smile despite her expression.
“Good
morning Silvyr, what
brings
you here?”
I asked, prying
at the connection between the two of us to find she had put a block
on it.
“Have you seen Heidi this morning? I
haven’t seen her since she left last night.” She questioned,
more than likely aware she was upstairs in my bed.
“Why, have plans she's late for or
something?”
“No,
she's going to be late for work if
I can’t
find
her.”
Silvyr replied, folding her arms and repressing a smirk since
Heidi's scent started wafting through the door.
“I swear you do anything and I'll come
down on you so hard…” I breathed, growling as her shit grin came
out.
“It’s
so good to watch Mr. High-And-Mighty actually fall on his ass.
Keegan, what are you going to do?” She
snickered.
“I
don't know… I don't know. Damn
it Silvyr, stop laughing at me!”
I snapped, low enough that no one else would have heard it.
“Sorry,
it's just ironic that you swore up and down you'd never do anything
and yet here you are sneaking around… you're in so much trouble.”
If
I could get away with punching her in the face
without repercussions, I would have done it in a heartbeat. “Shut
up, I know I am and
I'll figure it out later. Right now, I need you to get out of my
face so I can get the fuck out of here before she decides to -”
“Keegan, where are you going?” I
heard Heidi's voice call from upstairs.
I
groaned, looking around for my shoes
and hurriedly shoving my feet inside before pushing Silvyr aside to
reach my car so I could get to work myself… without
Heidi trying to tag along. I
ran down the steps on the veranda and through the dust to where I
kept my car parked, desperately trying to open the door. It came
open and I slammed it shut whilst
locking the car just to realize, much to my horror, that I left my
keys inside along with my license and wallet. I smacked my head
against the top of the steering wheel a few times, cursing everything
in the world for my bad luck today.
“God
damn it...” I unlocked the door and climbed out, thinking on where
I left my belongings.
For the life of me I couldn't figure out
where I left my keys and wallet, my memories were too fuzzy last
night to even remotely try and recall while thinking, wish I had a
mental connection to my belongings.
Taking a deep breath, I prepped myself
mentally before darting back in the house, listening to Silvyr laugh
as I searched high and low for my keys and wallet on the first level.
I was stopped in my tracks when a naked Heidi sauntered down the
stairs with both items I was looking for in her hands. There was
nothing I wouldn't have paid to avoid the confrontation, but that was
never my luck. When I looked into her eyes, there was nothing but
hurt and malice towards me.
“Looking for these?” She said in a
rather snarky tone.
“Give those to me right now and no one
gets hurt.” I breathed, pulling my dominance out of its normal bag
in case she tried anything funny.
“And if I don't? What will you -”
I stepped up to her, my nose just
centimeters away from hers, using my crushing dominance to get her to
crumple to the floor. “You don't challenge your Alfa Heidi unless
you're absolutely certain you can take me on.”
I grunted before taking my things from
her hands and storming out the door, turning to Silvyr who was still
rolling on the veranda laughing and barking, “You get her out of my
house and speak of this to no one.”
“What, the rest of the pack already –
Damn it Keegan, that hurts!” I threw a look that told her to shut
it after crushing her with my superiority.
“Don't even think about it Endres.”
I snapped, returning to my car.
Leuan started scratching at the walls I
kept him behind; luckily I wasn't completely out of control otherwise
I would have shifted and wrecked the interior. I assured him that I
would take him out running later, which sated him enough for me to
get the car started so I could get to work. After a moment, I turned
the engine off, climbing out before walking up to the house next to
mine and knocking quietly on the door. Keeping quiet, I could hear
someone yawn and walk down the stairs before the door became unlocked
and I was greeted with the oh-so-delight-filled face of my daughter,
Kaylee Radeke. Kaylee wasn't my biological daughter, but I thought
of her as such in every aspect of the word. I rescued her roughly
twenty-five years ago and thought back to the day as I looked at her…
I looked at the remote in my hand,
frowning softly since nothing good was on and I literally had nothing
better to do. I had closed the bike shop up early since nothing
needed to be done immediately and I was the only one who worked
there. Shaking my head, I turned the TV off before tossing the
remote aside, getting up from the couch to see if there was anything
that needed to be done in the kitchen. Spotting the pile of my
dishes that had managed to stack up, I set my mind to washing those
by hand. Just as I started filling the sink up, I heard someone
running and smelled the air, furrowing my brow when it was Silvyr's
scent. My front door opened with her yelling,
“Keegan, Keegan! You gotta come
quickly!”
Hearing the frantic tone she was
using, I quickly turned the faucet off and ran to the living room,
instantly smelling smoke. “What's happening?!”
“It's the Radeke house Keegan. I
don't know what happened but everything went up in smoke and flames.
The fire department won't be here for another couple minutes but the
family is trapped inside and even with my strength, I can't move
anything!” She panted and that was all she needed to say.
I took off towards the smoke, gulping
audibly when I noticed how high the flames were getting the closer I
got. From the damage done, it had been a couple minutes but I knew I
had to try and do something. I kicked the front door in and a burst
of smoke assaulted my nostrils, causing me to cough as I listened to
screams in fear and the cries of a baby. The flames seemed to
originate from the kitchen but as I glanced about there were even
more points of origin, just as if someone had purposefully started
the fire. I took a deep breath and held it as I ran inside up the
stairs towards the family that was more than likely trapped
somewhere.
I started making my way down the
smoke filled hallway, towards the baby's cry. I knew if I only had
enough time to rescue one of them, it would be the baby first since
it was too small to fend for itself. There was no trouble getting
into the room and I was surprised that it wasn't in shambles; I
scooped the pink bundle laying in the crib up in my arms, making my
way back outside. Silvyr stared at me in disbelief as I handed the
baby to her.
“I'm going back in.” I huffed,
coughing a lung up in the process.
“Keegan, you can't damn it! You're
going to get killed.” She retorted, looking at the tiny human in
her arms and calming her the best she could before I ran back inside
against anyone's good judgment.
It took a bit of time to find the
baby's parents but I dragged them out as the trucks came up to stoke
the flames and medical personnel ran around trying to save the lives
of this little family I had rescued. Silvyr walked up to my side and
handed the pink bundle to me once again. I furrowed my brow as I
took her, unsure what she was thinking since my thoughts were all
jumbled.
“She won't settle down in my arms.”
Silvyr sighed, looking down at the ground and kicking a stray stone.
I looked down at the child in my arms
and saw the most peaceful look on her face and there was something
there that I couldn't explain…
I had gone to the hospital with Silvyr
to make sure that everything would be okay. Kaylee's father died
shortly after from the burns and smoke inhalation and Kaylee's mother
held on for a couple days and before she slipped into the coma, she
had asked us to take care of her baby. It broke my heart to see them
suffer; I remembered when they had first moved in shortly after they
were married. I remembered when Emily had come over to announce her
pregnancy and asking me to be her godfather.
“Morning Dad. Aren't you supposed to
be at work?” Kaylee yawned, shaking her head before rubbing her
eyes.
“Yes and I wanted to make sure you
were doing okay this fine morning.” I answered, smoothing her hair
down from the spiked mess it happened to be in.
“What did you do this time Keegan?”
She sighed, giving me a look that said don't bother lying to her
because she’d find out about the truth anyway.
“Uhm… I woke up from being black out
drunk and freaked out finding Heidi sleeping in my bed.” I combed
my fingers through my hair and made a face in disgust the longer I
thought about how big of an idiot I was today.
“You didn’t… oh Hell… what’re
you going to do about the situation?” Kaylee’s eyes widened as
her jaw fell slack in disbelief.
“I figured I’d go to work and see if
I can come up with anything in the case something happens. If not,
I’ll just deal with it.” I shrugged, taking a step back to let
her know I was going to take off finally.
“Well I hope things go well for you
Keegan, you’re going to need it. Have fun at work otherwise!”
She said, her tone cheerful as she hugged my chest and kissed my
cheek before slamming the door behind her to get ready for school.
Cringing the smallest bit from how hard
she closed the door, I shoved it away as I started toward my car once
more, seriously contemplating what I was going to do about
confronting Heidi about our little escapade last night. As much as I
wanted to avoid it all, I knew I couldn’t dodge it forever.
Aforementioned, Heidi was obsessive and she wouldn’t let anything
go without knowing every detail or reason behind something and it
didn’t matter who or what got in the way; she would tear them
apart. It was partially why Silvyr had her as her second in command.
Once again, I found myself pausing, my
hand hesitating above the door handle. Leuan began scratching
inside, whimpering softly to be let out of his cage and it took most
the control I had to keep him in check. One of the downsides of
being a werewolf was how volatile emotions were and never knowing
when they’d snap and release the inner wolf waiting to pounce and
take over. In a way, it was good when the human side needed to
recuperate from something traumatic but in other instances, it led to
disaster. With the wolf running around, the human side had no
control over what could happen, no control over when to return back
to the human guise.
Keegan, please, let me out. I’ll
behave, Leuan begged, lightly
scratching at the door a second time.
Not gonna happen Leuan,
I thought back.
But if you let me out, it’ll give
you time to think about how to tear Heidi and Iavora apart,
Leuan suggested, a dastard-like grin lacing his rather cheery tone.
Which I can do just fine without you
running around rampant, I rolled
my eyes.
I
climbed into my car a third
time and shoved the keys into the ignition, slamming the door closed
and taking a breath to try and calm down. Today wasn’t shaping up
to be the best…
Parking
in front of the mechanic shop, I turned my car off and sat there
quietly contemplating what
had happened already this morning. I had to wonder if it would get
any better as I climbed out and found the front door was already
unlocked. My brow furrowed and I was instantly wary while pushing it
open. One whiff of the air settled my insides down. The shop had
two main
employees: myself and Tessa Muhr. Tessa was one of my pack and loved
to tinker with vehicles that
people dropped off for oil changes or new brakes on top of selling
car products. Occasionally
I’d bring Kaylee in to help her pay for college and cover the front
when we had a vehicle in dire need of help.
She was
on the short side and looked like a human toothpick but her small
hands could reach things that mine couldn’t quite manage. She
kept her brown hair shoulder length and pulled back into a pony tail
while working. It never failed that she had a handkerchief in her
back pocket to wipe her hands of grease and oil when bent over a hood
of a car.
One
look around the empty store front told me she was already in the back
working on a project. I walked into the shop and passed the door
frame that led to the garage. Tessa was standing on a stool bent
inside the hood of a 2007 Ford F-150 working on who knew what; I
didn’t remember the truck being brought in whatsoever.
“When
did this come in?” I asked her, watching her jump and listening to
her yelp, my eyes lingering
on her butt for a bit longer than should be appropriate.
“Damn
it Keegan, don’t startle me like that!”
– She stood up straight and pulled her kerchief out, wiping her
hands before climbing down and walking up to me – “I came early
and someone needed an oil change. I figured it’d be okay.”
“That’s
fine… and how the hell did I startle you? You can hear things a
mile away.”
“I was too busy concentrating on the
engine to notice… that and I closed our connection after the ruckus
with – don’t give me that look! I’m not gonna say anything
more on that subject!” She answered as I gave her a glare when she
was going to mention Heidi.
“Good. Anyway, I’m not going to
stay long today. Do you think you can handle it alone or should I
ask Kaylee to come when classes are over to cover the store?” I
asked.
“It’s your store Keegan. If you
want her to come in to cover the front, by all means let her work. I
can handle it back here.” She assured me with a smile.
“Okay
then Tessa. Call if you need anything, but I’m going to be
unavailable for the next hour. I’m going to take Leuan out for a
run while figuring out what to do with… well… we
both know.” I answered, heading back for the car.
“Gotcha Keegan. You be careful out
there and hopefully you don’t die when said person gives you hell
over last night.” She tried not to giggle as she climbed back up
on the stool and returned to work.
I
rolled my eyes and left the garage, walking into the front of the
store. I made sure the bell was out on the counter in visible site
and the closed sign was flipped over to read that we were open. Once
outside I pulled my phone out
and shot Kaylee a text asking if she wanted to come in and work
before slipping it back into my pocket and
thinking on a good place to take Leuan out.
Can I come out now Keegan?
Leuan whined, pitifully scratching at the door he was behind.
If you’ll let me think of where to
run first, I replied.
Wait, something’s wrong… we need
to go home, Leuan said.
As soon
as Leuan said something, the hair raised on the back of my neck.
Prodding each connection I had with the girls, nothing seemed
abnormal but I wasn’t going to risk the gut feeling. I climbed
into the car and drove as fast as legally possible, thinking that
something happened to Kaylee since she had yet to answer my text
back. Dust rose from the ground as I skidded to a stop in front of
the house. Climbing out, I looked about the settlement. All
the houses were intact and a couple of the girls were on their way to
work.
Leuan, I think we were mistaken,
I thought.
Leuan
shook his head vehemently. How many times have I ever been
wrong about something?
Never,
I sighed aloud.
Something’s coming through the
forest right now, Leuan said,
growling softly.
I
couldn’t help but growl as well, listening to the footsteps of
something that was entirely too big to be an
animal. Silvyr’s scent hit
first as she came up to my
side before the scent of
blood hit my nose. A woman came running through the trees, sobbing
hysterically. She was covered from head to toe in the crimson
liquid. She paused at the edge of the houses, looking down at her
stained hands.
“What
happened?” She breathed right
before passing out.
