22. Finley #3
“Finley, don’t you dare come here,” Elias snapped. “We will handle this. They are here for you. It’s the only thing that makes sense. They don’t want the press conference to happen.”
“You know I can’t just sit back and watch. What if one of you gets hurt? I’m the best option we have to keep everyone alive,” I argued as I kept moving.
With how fast the group of wolves were moving toward us, it didn’t take long before our scouts and my men were upon them.
The hawk flew off, knowing it was no longer needed, but this left me blind to what was happening.
Thankfully Ayla appeared at my side, waiting for instruction, so I sent her ahead of me.
I understood why the guys didn’t want me to make myself a target and I would be smart about approaching the situation more stealthy, but I was going to be there no matter what.
The sounds of a wolf fight were incredibly distinctive.
Snarls filled the air, followed by whimpers or yelps as their attacks hit home.
We had the element of surprise on our hands with them not realizing we knew they were coming.
Slinking along the underbrush in the shadows, using my dark-colored fur to my advantage, I made sure no one was slipping through the cracks.
Then I saw a naked man trying to climb up one of the trees, his rifle strapped to his back.
Reaching out to the forest, I shared my desire for the tree to trap this man or knock him off back to the ground.
The tree was more than happy to get the thing crawling on him off and used some branches to smack him off.
Once the naked man fell to the ground, I pounced, baring my teeth as I snarled.
The man froze his eyes wide as I shifted back but left my hands tipped with claws.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
When the naked man saw who I was, he started to fight. Slashing him across the chest with my claws, he screamed and writhed on the ground. I used them to cut the strap to his gun and tossed it away from him.
“I’ll ask you again, what the fuck are you doing here?” I snapped, slamming the man down on the ground roughly. “I can make this an easy death or a slow one, your choice.”
“I’m not scared of an omega bitch like you,” he spat, his spit landing on my cheek.
Ignoring the nasty feel of it sliding off my face, I settled my hand over his neck and carved my claws into his skin. He gushed blood everywhere as I cut the artery in his arm.
“You should be terrified of me,” I whispered. “Do you want to know why?”
The man didn’t answer as he started to gag on his own blood, the acceptance of his death in his eyes. Too bad for him I wasn’t going to let that happen any time soon. Flooding him with my magic healing the damage that I’d done, bringing him back to life.
“See, I can kill you and heal you forever, with no end in sight of when I might choose to let you die for real,” I taunted. “Tell me what I want to know and I’ll actually kill you.”
“Fucking bitch,” he spluttered, taking in deep breaths of air now that his lungs worked. “I’ll never tell you anything.”
“We’ll see about that,” I warned as I started to inflict as much pain as I could in the most tender of places. It wasn’t until I’d healed him two more times that he caved. Just as I was about to test the theory of if I could regrow body parts starting with his dick.
“Stop,” he screamed. “I’ll talk. Please just don’t do that. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“I’m listening,” I said, holding his dick in my hand.
“The Senate sent us. We are soldiers of the Senate here to kill you for inciting fear within the community. You can’t hold that press conference tomorrow.
If we don’t stop you, then they will send others.
We aren’t the last of it. In fact, we are just a distraction,” the man said with an evil grin on his face.
Fear raced through me as I reached out to the forest to see if he was telling the truth.
In response, the forest around me started to shake as the roots of all the trees rumbled under the ground sending out a warning to the far-reaching parts of my land.
Soon I would know if there was anyone in the five hundred thousand acres that I controlled.
The farther out from here, the magic was weaker, meaning the forest was as sentient, but it would respond to the call of its brothers.
Having gathered all the information I needed from this man, I ripped out his throat and tossed it aside. When I turned around, I was faced with one of my own pack members with a shotgun in his hands. “I’m sorry, Finley, but they have my family, and I’ll do anything to save them.”
Knowing what was coming because I couldn’t move fast enough to dodge it all, I twisted, ensuring that the most vital organs were turned away as the blast went off.
The pain that bloomed in my side and back had me screaming in agony.
It felt like hot lava was being drilled into my body, burning its way through me.
They’d used lead and silver in their shotgun shells for maximum impact and I dropped to the ground in a heap.
“Finley!” Colt bellowed, his voice echoing through the woods as I gasped for air.