Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Jack
The blood coming from the scratches on his face, the pain throbbing from the tears on his chest were all an afterthought. What mattered most now was getting Aareth some help.
The sun had risen while they made Aareth as comfortable as possible. He was lying under a tree, his minor cuts washed with water, the major wound on his torso bandaged as best as it could be.
Jack now stood at a crossroads. Who was going to stay with Aareth, and who would enter the vampire-controlled town of Term to search for the doctor?
The werewolves who were so eager to tear them to shreds not so long ago roved around the forest, licking their own wounds. The glances that some gave Marcus and Jack weren’t as heartening as Jack would have liked.
Kimberly sat beside Aareth. Her wounds weren’t as bad as Aareth’s, but still worse than Jack’s. She had donned her white cloak and sat in the shade of a giant fir that sheltered her from the morning sun’s light.
“Kimberly can’t go with you.” Marcus’ eyes, so full of hope a moment ago, were dark once more. “She’s hurt more than she’s letting on. She has to take her stone sleep to recover. I can’t go with you, either.”
“The pack.” Jack looked around the clearing again. “We can’t trust them.”
“They’ll obey me well enough while I’m around,” Marcus agreed, catching the eyes of a few of the massive creatures, who looked away under his stare. “But they’re still struggling to tame their own beasts. I can’t be sure they wouldn’t turn on Aareth and Kimberly if I left them.”
“It’s okay.” Jack placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Keep Aareth alive. I’ll be back with help.”
“Are we ready to leave yet?” Kimberly interrupted the father and son as she limped up to stand beside Jack. “Our black wolf man doesn’t have a lot of time left. We must be off.”
Jack shook his head, admiring Kimberly’s will to go on, but unwilling to allow her to be further injured. One of her wings had obviously been broken. With the long, white cloak on her now, it was hard to say what else was wrong, but she was limping.
“You can’t go,” Marcus told her. “I admire your strength, but?—”
“I’m not asking for your permission, Old Wrinkly Wolf Beast Man,” Kimberly growled. “I’m going. Jack needs to know the best way in and out. He’ll need to know what building the doctor is in. Term is my town. I know it better than any other.”
Marcus and Kimberly stared at one another for a moment longer, when a third option struck Jack. It was so obvious, it had to be the answer.
“Dad—” Jack captured his father’s attention. “There can’t be that many vampires still left in Term. I mean, the main force is with Leah Eckert about to make their assault on Azra. How many do you think she left. A dozen, maybe two?”
Realization glazed over Marcus’ eyes.
“You’ve raised yourself a smart man child.” Kimberly grinned. “Jack and I can carry Aareth on a stretcher. You and your pack can clear the city.”
Marcus nodded along with the plan. He ran a hand through his once-brown hair now more of a cross between grey and white. “I think we might be able to manage that.”
The plan was set. Kimberly and Jack made a crude stretcher from Jack’s coat Marcus didn’t need anymore and long branches they cut off trees. Marcus had turned back into the giant, white werewolf, snapping and growling at his pack, motioning with his head and scratching the ground with his paws.
From what Jack could tell, most of the pack seemed to be in line with his wishes.
They looked attentively at him and bowed their heads.
All except for one—a large, brown female that stood off to the side.
Without warning, the brown female began to change.
Her thick hair fell off her shoulders and head, and long, shapely legs took form leading to a thick waist and shoulders.
Jack blinked a few times, reminding himself to focus on her face. She was breathing hard. Her first transition from werewolf to human had not been easy.
“Why do you get to tell us what to do?” her voice was clear.
The sneer on her lips spoke volumes to the way she felt about Jack and his friends.
“We should have an alpha whose main priority is the pack, not his son and two friends. How does it impact the pack one way or the other if the black werewolf over there dies or not?”
Marcus rose on his two feet, towering over the woman by nearly double her height.
For a moment, Jack thought his father had given into his beast within once more.
He thought for sure he was going to reach down with one massive paw and end her life.
Instead, Marcus also transitioned back to human form.
“This is my pack, and I am the leader here.” Marcus glared at her through dark brown eyes.
“I am thinking about the betterment of the pack. The more allies we have, the stronger we are. There’s a war happening around us, if you haven’t noticed.
There is strength in numbers. If you don’t like it, you can leave. ”
The woman let a smug smile play over her lips. She wasn’t saying anything, yet her body language told Jack she already had a plan in place. Instead of looking at Marcus, she directed her attention to the rest of the werewolves waiting to see what would happen.
“Marcus and I were the first ones to learn how to change back into being human. I can teach you how to do the same. This cost comes with my being your alpha. We can worry about ourselves instead of these outsiders. We can join whatever side of the war we want, or let them kill themselves and be done with it. I was once an officer in the New Hope army, but things have changed. I say we look out for ourselves now.”
There were a few scattered yips and howls of affirmation, but the majority of the pack seemed undecided. They looked from Marcus to the woman and back again.
“Teaching you to turn back into humans is something either of us can teach you.” Marcus placed his hands on his bare hips, glaring at the woman.
“Keep the rest of the pack out of this. If you want to be alpha, you know what you have to do. The strongest should lead, not the one most able to manipulate. If you want it, come and get it!”
Brown fur sprouted across the woman’s body once more as she called on the monster that raged inside. Muscles rippled as her face changed from smug to terrifying.
Marcus wasted no time, already lunging at her as she transitioned into the lupine monster now as much a part of him as anything else. The two werewolves crashed into one another with such ferocity Jack felt the ground tremble underneath his boots.
Marcus was larger than the female werewolf, but she was much faster and that, in and of itself, came with its own advantages. She twisted out of his grasp, and her sharp teeth found his rear left leg. She bit down hard.
Marcus let out a roar of pain that twisted into anger even before it died in his throat. He tore his leg out of her jaws, sending a splattering of blood through the air that painted the ground in crimson droplets.
The combatants circled one another like a pair of heavyweight boxers in a championship fight.
The rest of the pack howled and growled around them. The other werewolves in the pack had formed a circle around the two alphas.
Before Jack realized what he was doing, he felt pain in his hands. He was clenching his fists so tightly, his nails were digging into his palms.
Come on, Dad, he said to himself. Hurry, Aareth doesn’t have much time.