Chapter 35 #3
Staying close on Ace’s heels, I shadowed my mate, loving the freedom of the night and the gentle breeze that whispered through my honey-toned fur.
Behind me was Blitz. His pelt was so pale it almost appeared white in the dark of the night.
Protecting our rear was Domino, the biggest wolf of us all.
His grey pelt, flecked with black, blended into the forest seamlessly despite his great size.
It made the menace of muscle appear almost boneless as he loped quietly behind us, vigilant for any potential threats that should come our way. My pack.
My stomach gurgled then, and I realized I was starving, though not for food.
It was for vengeance. Ace paused and gave my cheek a reassuring lick.
Licking him back, I tried to communicate my need for revenge, and I prayed he understood my clumsy effort.
Coming to a full stop, Ace’s ears pricked as he intently listened to the forest sounds around us.
Mirroring the pack’s stillness, I awaited their next move.
Then, when I thought we’d lost him, I spotted what they were all fixated on: atop a gentle ridge in the distance, Kane, in human form, stood there in the moonlight,.
He was cornered by three wolves I didn’t recognize but must belong to our pack.
Kane was a fully mature ware. Even with no experience as a wolf, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to take down such a specimen.
However, after a surreptitious look at my pack—yes, my pack, my family—I knew each one would be able to end the daunting beast even if on their own.
But we weren’t on our own. We were a unit.
And together, we could achieve great things.
Pointing his front paw in the direction of the demented animal, Ace crouched low and began to creep forward. Blitz and Domino wordlessly understood their leader’s plan. The former went left, while the latter went right.
Uncertain what I should do, I began to restlessly paw at the ground until a voice in my head communicated that I should relax and watch from a distance.
They weren’t so much human words that spoke to me, more like pictures that conveyed the meaning well enough for me to understand the overall intent.
This was our wolf language, our pack bond in action.
Hanging back, I laid on the ground and peeked through the brambles to see what would happen next.
With beautiful precision, the pack silently approached the leader of Los Lobos.
Like a dance that had been perfectly choreographed, they joined our brothers already flanking Kane and now circled the monster on all sides, effectively blocking any potential route of escape.
Unwilling to just meekly submit to death, Kane broke free of the Night Stalkers and turned to run in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately for him, Domino was waiting for such a move.
Try as he might to give the giant wolf the slip, Kane, still in his weaker human form, was wholly unsuccessful and nearly ran straight into the oversized beast’s jaws.
In the end, the kill didn’t come from Domino, Blitz, or even Ace.
It came from a wholly unexpected source.
While the other wolves respectfully waited to see if they would need to join the fight, Ace trotted proudly forward.
Kane could do nothing but watch, bug eyed and frozen as the pack surrounded him, blocking any possible exit.
Even if he’d been in his wolf form, he couldn’t take us on.
As a human, he was practically helpless.
For the first time in his adult life, Kane had to accept that no amount of brute force could save him now.
When Ace lunged, Kane tried to swat him away like a gnat.
But this was no mere bug he was up against. It was a fully shifted ware, and the supreme alpha of his pack.
The first blood spray came from Kane’s shredded hands, as Ace’s sharp teeth ripped them away from his face, and the delicate juncture of the throat he was attempting to protect.
Once the leader of Los Lobos was felled to the ground like a toppling Red Wood, the “struggle” was over.
Kane snarled fruitlessly while trapped in Ace’s powerful jaws. Glancing over to where he’d bade me wait, my mate growled at me to join him. When I arrived at his side, he nudged me toward the pinned body of the man who’d done so much damage to so many.
I didn’t need words or images to know what he was saying.
Ace was giving me first rights to the quarry he and his brothers had so valiantly felled.
Feeling honored, and ravenous for vengeance, I stood over evil personified and captured his defeated eyes in my victorious gaze.
Feeling my lips pull back over my sharp, white teeth in a slavering snarl, I leaned down, and sank my teeth into the warm flesh with more gusto than any meal I’d ever had in my human life. And I ripped out Kane’s throat.
The hot blood poured from a major artery at a speed that left the vicious creature unconscious in seconds, and dead in only a handful more.