Chapter 13 - Dorian
My head feels heavier than ever, the weight of it dangling from my neck exhausting the measly flicker of strength left inside me.
I no longer have the will to fight. My eyelids grow heavy, and I’m about to surrender to another unconscious spell where not even my dreams can soothe my broken heart.
It’s been weeks since Amelia was able to escape, but no amount of time could ever mitigate the excruciating pain I feel in every waking moment.
I’d much rather be lost to my dreams where reality becomes a blur and I get to meet my mate in heaven construed by my imagination. The longer I spent immersing myself in my dreams, the more I was able to see the face of the golden angel morph into Amelia’s angelic face.
I’m about to drift into the abyss of my mind when I’m struck by a ruthless fist that sends my head lolling off to the side.
“Wake up, motherfucker!” Jackson’s familiar but unwelcomed voice growls just as he grabs a tuft of hair and tugs at the roots to force my face up. I have no desire to look at him, keeping my eyelids heavy to shield them from his torturous face.
Not only has Jackson grown stronger with every drop of blood he’s taken from me, but he’s becoming more and more horrifying to look at, even in human form. With the eyes of his human revealing his monstrous nature with their dark, deranged appearance, his teeth grow askew and his skin is almost as greasy and slimy as his fur.
It’s hard to believe that his research was once aimed at the salvation of humanity. He’s lost the plot and turned greedy for the powers that are too strong to be kept in a human body. It’s those powers that are clearly taking a toll on him, but his mission to rule the world has outweighed his attention to his outer, human appearance.
He’s crazy.
“I’m not done with you,” Jackson rumbles as he releases my head and tugs at the chain holding up my arm as he chuckles bemusedly.
After getting Amelia out, I was left to deal with the army of rogue wolves all on my own, without the ability to shift into my wolf form. The only reason they were ordered to keep me alive was that Jackson needed to continue siphoning my blood. I was alive, but barely, and then restrained to silver chains cemented in the ground and built into the steel trusses lining the ceiling’s solid frame. Like a sacrificial lamb, I’ve spent weeks tied here and kept so weak, that it’s a miracle that I’m still breathing.
It’s a sacrifice that’s worth the outcome of Amelia’s freedom. Of course, Jackson tortured me to the brink of death and kept me alive only to suffer the consequences.
I have no regrets, knowing that Amelia is out there somewhere, living her life hidden from her torturous brother.
He’s become somewhat sadistic since he has me bound to the chains that keep me up when my knees are too weak to stand. He rolls over his table of medieval-like torture devices, lifting a set of pliers with a brutish grin on his face.
I don’t look forward to losing another fingernail, but I’d rather take the punches and blows in Amelia’s absence.
“Which hand are we gonna—” Jackson begins but stops abruptly to snap his head around.
“What’s that?” he asks no one in particular, sending the group of henchmen in the warehouse rushing toward the doors before they receive the order.
Though my senses are almost non-existent at this point, I’m able to hear the faint sound of shuffling outside. I’m too weak to see clearly, but through the haze of my vision, I notice Jackson’s horror before he runs to join his men near the door.
“Get out your wolves!” Jackson roars before the air rustles with the wind from their shifting into wolf form. Even Jackson does the same, transforming into his mangled form. The doors come crashing in and a storm of heavy, paw-like steps rush into the warehouse.
I’m so close to passing out, that I couldn’t care about what’s going on. By the looks of it, it’s a war that’s broken out at the front of the warehouse, with howls and barks echoing faintly in my incapacitated eardrums. With slumped shoulders bearing me down, I let the weight of my head take over when a strange yet familiar scent enters my airways with the gust of wind that blurs past me. I’m able to lift my eyes high enough to see the wolf that came plummeting toward the wall closest to me, and the little air in my lungs slips out with a gasp.
“Damian…?” I murmur when the wolf rises on its paws and stands tall before me, the distinguishable streak of light brown fur blazing across its back.
All it does is whimper before bowing its furry muzzle as if to confirm that he’s my younger brother. I’d spot that wolf from a mile away with his distinctly unique fur. I chuckle lowly, allowing unconsciousness to wash over me with hopeful intent this time around.
My brother found me. He came for me. My dying wish is fulfilled, and I can go with peace, knowing that Damian didn’t give up on me.
***
Heaving as if I’m feeling air crawl down my throat for the very first time, my breath returns as a high-pitched wheeze. My eyes fly open and my vision is immediately slammed by the brightest blinding light.
“Dorian!”
I blink against the white light I would have mistaken for the prophesied light at the end of the tunnel that illuminates the gates of the Moon Goddess’s heavenly abode that appears in the afterlife.
I was so sure I was going to wake up dead if that’s what happened. Frowning now, I finally adjust my vision to the bright light until it clears up and I see Damian standing beside me.
No! I hope he didn’t die too…’
“Damian…?” I croak hoarsely, my dry throat indicating that I’m still very much alive, which means my brother is alive too.
Thank Goddess.
Attempting to sit upright, my dismally fragile movements are intercepted when Damian comes to my aid. He uses a remote control device to raise the back of the bed I’m lying on, then stuffs another pillow behind my hand.
“Hello, Dorian,” he greets with a half-smile as he pulls over a chair and takes a seat. “It’s good to have you back,” he says, and it warms my heart to see the genuine concern in his eyes.
I never thought I’d see the day when my brother would be my brother again when it would feel like everything that happened to sever our relationship would be buried for dead.
“How long have I been out for?” I ask, frowning as I inspect my surroundings. This time, the continuous beeping of the machine beside me isn’t daunting, but rather hopeful.
I made it out alive in one piece, even if every bone in my body aches to the point that I have no desire to move.
“A week,” Damian informs me with a sigh. “You were in really bad condition, Dorian. Simon’s doctors kept you comatose so that your wolf could recover.”
“The fight… Were there any casualties on our side?”
Damian shakes his head. “Alpha Cyrus was injured, but he’s recovering in their clinic in Little Rock. We rounded up all our fighters, and they fought bravely against the rogues. We found you in a supposedly abandoned warehouse in Wichita Falls,” Damian goes on to explain. “Thanks to Alpha Flynn and Alpha Cyrus, we were able to track the location of the warehouse.”
Damian continues to explain the finer details, and how the Alpha Council and their soldiers won the war against the rogue werewolves, but some managed to run away. I’d been brought to Edmond—Alpha Simon’s hometown and the Misty Creek Pack’s territory.
“Did you catch Jackson?”
“The rogue leader?” Damian shakes his head glumly as if he’s recounting their encounter with Jackson. “Unfortunately, he got away. We needed to get you out of there. You were gonna die.
I nod slowly, my mind drifting to thoughts about Amelia. If Jackson is still at large, she isn’t entirely safe.
“About the rogue leader…” Damian continues, snapping me from my thoughts. “... The Alpha Council has been waiting for your recovery so we can go after him. They’re in the waiting room right now.”
“Bring them in,” I instruct sternly, my recovery allowing me to feel bold and capable of meeting with the Council of allied werewolf leaders of the Council.
One by one, they enter the ward when Damian goes out to call them. They gather around my bed while I recount the nightmare I lived when I’d been kidnapped by Jackson and his rogues.
“... He’d been using my blood to turn into the monster you guys faced that night,” I say, clenching my jaw as the magnitude of the horrors I’d faced is realized.
The only thing that no one knows is that I wasn’t alone all the time.
When I’m done recounting my nightmares, the air is left dense with the disbelief of the Alphas of the Council.
“We have to find him before he exposes us. Him being out there is dangerous, especially if he can’t control himself,” Alpha Simon warns.
“We’re gonna find him and kill him,” Alpha Theodore of the Blackmaw Pack adds with a snarl.
For the first time since we formed the alliance, I feel like I truly belong, seeing how strongly the Alphas of the Oklahoma packs feel about my shuddering. But when they collectively decide that the best thing is to kill Jackson, all I can think about is Amelia.
After everything Jackson did to her, he’s still her brother. Glancing at my brother, I can’t imagine that any amount of hatred between us could ever warrant me accepting if he was murdered, even if his death was to avenge me.
“No,” I shake my head with my objection, cutting into their discussion as they make plans to kill Jackson. “We can’t kill him.”
“Why not, Dorian?” Damian frowns, stepping forward with fists of fury curled at his sides. “After what he did to you, we can’t leave him out there.”
I gulp nervously, shifting on the bed and avoiding my brother’s dubious stare. “Find him, but don’t kill him,” I say, lifting hopeful eyes at the Alpha of Misty Creek. Simon is the only one who might understand me while the others can’t see beyond their anger. With his pharmaceutical company thriving in the human world, I imagine he values medical research for the greater good of our species.
“He’s one of a kind, even though it’s not in a good way,” I begin, clearing my throat to hide my ulterior motives for wanting to keep Jackson alive. “But he was able to do what no one else could by turning into a hybrid human-werewolf just with my blood. He should be captured and researched.”
Simon nods warily. “You’re right. He shouldn’t be out there, but we should run tests on him to figure out how he was able to steal your powers so we can prevent it from happening in the future.”
“What good will it be?” Alpha Flynn asks, prompting me to turn slowly with my head bent, unable to meet his eyes.
For the longest time, Alpha Flynn was hostile toward me because of his brother’s death almost a decade ago. He’d always suspected that I was behind the cause of his brother’s death, but now he addresses me as if the past is forgotten.
Perhaps my abduction proved to the Council that I was not consorting with the rogues and never did. The group that Finch and I stumbled on back then were just gypsies passing through the valley, and we were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“... It’s not like he’s worth keeping alive. For all we know, he might have been behind my brother’s murder,” Flynn continues, and I’m finally able to meet his eyes.
“Initially, he was researching a cure for cancer,” I explained. “If we can take his research and make something good from it for the humans, then why not?”
“Since when do you care about humans, Dorian?” Damian scoffs with a skeptically raised brow. “You live in Cedar Valley, isolated from human civilization.”
I chuckle nervously. “Well, you live amongst the humans. And maybe we can do more than just fight internal wars and power struggles.” I purse my lips after making the suggestion, hoping that it’ll cover up what my true intentions are for keeping Jackson alive.
It’s what Amelia would want, and I’ll spend the rest of my life doing better in her honor, even if I’ll never see her again.
She must be safe somewhere out there, living her life. I can only hope that she moved on, even if it pains me to make that wish for her.
“Dorian has a point,” Alpha Theodore of the Blackmaw Pack chimes in. “I think we can all agree that we’re friends now, and if we put our heads together, we can make a difference in the world.”
Flynn slaps Theodore’s arm playfully. “Since when did you get all philosophical?” he chuckles.
“Since you became a family man,” Theodore jokes.
With the air lighter now, discussions move along and the Alpha Council of the Oklahoma Packs plans how to grab Jackson. I give them all the information I have, and that I suspect he’s hiding out in his hometown of Fayetteville.
Flynn offers his black ops expertise when they decide to move in with a stealth plan by using weapons and silver-laced ammunition. With everyone on board and the animosity gone from our alliance, there’s only one thing left that plagues my mind.
Amelia.
As the days go by and I make a full recovery, I’ll have to work on my mental health and emotional well-being by coming to grips with the sad reality that Amelia isn’t by my side, as my mate.
I’d rejected her just to ensure she made it out alive, and even then, I wasn’t sure that she’d have me. Now, I’ll never see her again, but it’s a price I have to pay to make sure she’s alive and happy out there in the world.