Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Will

The inside of the stable looked like the sight of a massacre. The amount of blood left at the scene looked exactly like that of mass murder. The building’s back wall had been torn so brutally from the other side that I couldn’t fathom who or what had done it. There were no signs of any tire tracks on the other side of the wall beyond the commune, which left only one plausible explanation as to the cause of this—one of those soldiers had done this. If so, they were far more powerful than we had previously imagined.

Secondly, it meant that the commune was no longer safe.

Alexis lay on her back in one corner of the stable, unconscious. There were no signs of Maliha anywhere.

Vince and a few of the pack members who had woken up because of the commotion came running behind and entered the stables.

“What could have possibly done this?” Vince gasped.

“There’s a new threat lurking out there,” I said while still tending to Alexis. I sat her up and held her body as she opened her eyes.

“Will!” Alexis said. “They have Maliha. The soldier came through the wall and took the dead body and Maliha with him! We have to save her, or I’ll never be able to forgive myself!”

“We’re going to save her,” I said. The moment she had called out to me, I had just stepped out of the commune to head to the resort. When she called me, I immediately turned on my heels and went back to see this horrendous sight. This had happened within the time span of a few minutes. It surprised me that something of this magnitude could happen within such a short time.

“This is on me. Not on you,” I added. “You were the one who didn’t want the soldier to be brought into the commune. This is not your fault. It’s my fault that the dead body was tracked by another soldier.”

“What are these soldiers, Will?” Vince asked confusedly.

“They are Blair’s people,” Alexis said as she stood up. “Maliha confirmed this before she was kidnapped. Put two and two together, and you’ll understand. Blair has created a task force of soldiers who are united in their purpose.”

“And what is that purpose?” Vince asked, although I could tell from his voice that he had already understood what Alexis meant.

“They intend to kill every last one of us,” Alexis said.

“Last night, we killed sixteen of them,” I said, putting things into perspective. “So it’s best not to lose any hope. They are not an undefeatable enemy.”

“How did you kill them, Will? Is there something that we should know?” Vince asked.

“Just that their grenades are what kill them best. Ironically, they’re carrying weapons of their own destruction around their belts. But under no circumstance should they be allowed to use them on the wolves or any of the townsfolk. You understand? Right now, the five of us are going on a rescue mission to save Alexis’s best friend and an invaluable resource to us. Her name is Maliha, and she has been kidnapped by one of those soldiers,” I said.

“Will…there was something different about this one. His eyes were glowing orange, and his veins were fit to burst. It was almost as if he had gone crazy. He had no control over his movements either!” Alexis said.

“There are five of us. If two of us could take down sixteen last night. I am certain that we can take down a lot more today,” I said. “Let’s move out!”

***

For the next half hour, our group waded through the forest, picking up the scent and the footstep trail of the soldier who had taken Maliha. It was not an entirely fruitless endeavor. We eventually found his trail, which led us right to where we were all standing right now.

At an encampment.

There were ten soldiers at this camp that they’d set up in the forest. A fire was burning on one side of the tent. Five ATVs were parked along the side of the tent. As for the tent itself, it was not very large. It was just big enough to hold three people.

“There’s been something wrong with Agent Bert,” one of the soldiers said. “He disobeyed direct orders and went to retrieve the body on his own. Even now, we’re unable to subdue him.”

I looked around to see if the rest of the group had heard what one of the soldiers said. They were not wearing their helmets right now. Instead, they were gathered around the fire, sitting there and eating from their MREs. It was one of the strangest sights I’d ever seen in my life. All of those soldiers had been morphed into something that didn’t resemble humans. They looked more like aliens, and yet here they were, being civil, sitting around the fire, talking, eating.

“I guess Agent Bert’s just a little overzealous. Wants to get into Blair’s good books,” another soldier said. “Besides, they didn’t just inject us with all this stuff so that we’d be docile and obedient. They want us to behave like this. Isn’t that what you want too? To crush some wolf skulls and burn up their homes?”

“Aye, but those are not our orders. Our orders are to capture the Alpha and bring him back to Blair,” another soldier responded.

I surmised that it would be a good time for us to talk with them. Maybe this whole thing could be resolved without fighting? So I stepped out into the clearing, my arms up in the air to show that I meant no harm. Behind me, the rest of the wolves followed.

“Come a step closer, and we’ll blow your head off, wolf,” the soldier nearest to me said, quickly picking up his rifle.

“I just wanted to talk, seeing as that’s what you’re doing. I take it from your dialects and accent that you were all military men. Well, I was a military man myself once upon a time, and I believe in the military code of conduct. Do you as well?” I asked.

They nodded, lowering their guns.

“Very well. Then let’s parley and discuss this before we let it escalate,” I said. Behind me, I could see that Alexis and Vince, and the others were becoming restless. This was a very nerve-wracking situation that I had to somehow balance with the utmost sensitivity.

“There’s no point talking to them,” Alexis said.

“Yeah, Will. Let’s just get this over with. Do you think these jarheads are going to listen? They’re fucking doped up!” Vince whispered.

“Hey, I heard that,” one of them said, pointing his knife at Vince. “And for your information, we’re not doped up. We’re chemically enhanced. There’s a difference. A difference you’ll be able to tell when I fucking kill you!”

“There’s no need to kill anyone,” I said, stepping forward. At my stepping forward, they all raised their guns and aimed them at me.

“You killed sixteen of our good men,” another soldier said. “That precious military code of conduct you talk about states that we do the same to you and your lot.”

“We did that in self-defense,” Alexis said, coming up behind me. “We were ambushed.”

“Yeah, princess, cuz that’s what the mission was!” the soldier standing nearest to us said. “We were sent to capture you both.”

“Instead, you captured an innocent human being,” I said. “I’ve come here to talk about her release.”

“It’s simple, wolf,” the soldier said. “You come with us, and the girl goes free. You don’t come with us, we’ll kill the girl, and then we’ll kill you.”

“Listen, now, I’ve been very patient with you up until now. If you so much as mention killing again, I will see to it that you have a very painful and prolonged death,” I said slowly. “You think you know pain? I will drag you myself to the lowest circle of hell and ensure that you burn there for an eternity if you even think of harming anyone close to me. That includes my entire pack and that girl you’ve got in that tent.”

“Is that so, wolf? Why don’t we see how strong you really are? Let’s have at it, you and me,” the soldier said.

“Sure, come at me without all that armor, and we’ll see what’s what. Don’t think I don’t know that all your strength comes from your armor and those weapons. Without them, you’re nothing but a drugged-up junkie.”

“And what are you without everything?”

“Without everything, I’m still a werewolf at the end of the day,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter,” the soldier said. “Within a week, there will be no werewolves in or around Fiddler’s Green. Blair has created an entire army full of soldiers like us, all of whom have one purpose—to kill all the werewolves in Fiddler’s Green. Eventually, we’ll spread out throughout the country and kill all of your kind. That’s the kind of man our leader is. He’s devoted, fanatic, passionate, strong, and intelligent! He wants to reclaim this country from the horrible beasts who killed his father and who have been terrorizing these lands all this time.”

“You think we terrorize these lands? We settled these lands. We never terrorized anybody. It was Blair, with his propaganda, that terrorized the people. His father kept me as a prisoner for more than seventy years. That’s why I killed him. For my life! Don’t come here and talk to me about what’s fair and what’s not. You don’t know the half of it. You’re just a foot soldier in a deranged lunatic’s chaotic game of chess, and you don’t even know it,” I said.

“That’s it. I’ve had it!” the soldier said, then quickly put on his helmet. The rest of the soldiers copied him, armoring up and picking up their weapons. What they didn’t count on was my rage for retribution. I shifted immediately, and behind me, all the wolves did the same. With five of us on one side of the field and the ten soldiers on the other side, it didn’t feel like a fair battle.

We’d win without a doubt.

I pounced on the soldiers standing closest to me, using all my feral strength to jam my claws into their throats. Sludge-like blood spouted from their jugular veins as they fell to the ground. This left only eight more. Through this attack, I had just learned one of the most powerful techniques for fighting these soldiers—their armors were weakest at the necks.

Alexis and Vince leaped from behind me, falling on two more soldiers and tackling them. The other two wolves who had come with us did the same with the rank of soldiers behind the tent.

Perhaps it was because the wolves were greater in number, or perhaps because we’d caught the soldiers off guard, but this fight did not take as long as I had expected. I killed two more of them using their own grenades against them by pulling the pins and pushing them off the forest slope. As they rolled backward, their grenades exploded, killing them that very instant.

In the time that I’d killed four, the rest of the pack had taken care of the remaining six. This left only one soldier who had refused to come out and join the fight, Agent Bert.

I entered the tent in my human form and saw him standing there with Maliha in front of him. Agent Bert held Maliha by the throat and had a gun to her head.

“Move one step closer, and I’ll fucking blow her brains out!” he yelled. I could see now that Alexis was right about him being utterly deranged.

“Will! What is happening?” Maliha whimpered.

“Shh. It’s okay,” I said, raising my hands.

“Don’t lie to her. I’ll kill her first, and then I’ll kill you!” Agent Bert said, his eyes glowing fiercely.

Before he could make good on this threat, the tent opened up from behind him, and Alexis pounced at him from behind in her wolf form, catching him off guard. Agent Bert hadn’t been wearing his helmet. As he turned around, Alexis bit down on his head and ripped it off his neck.

“Holy fuck!” Maliha yelled as she witnessed this macabre spectacle of a larger-than-life wolf beheading a maniacal soldier. She came running to me and then hid behind me, peeking from under my arms. “What is my life right now? What is happening?”

And then, Alexis, now done with dismembering Agent Bert, shifted back into her human form. “There’s something I have to tell you, Maliha.”

“Alexis?” Maliha stuttered, then swooned and fell unconscious.

I looked at Alexis and said, “I can understand how it can be hard for someone to see their best friend shifting from a wolf.”

Alexis sighed, then lifted Maliha in her arms. “She’s had a hell of a day. I’m going to take her back to her apartment and wait for her to wake up. Then I’ll explain everything to her and swear her to secrecy.”

“Take Vince and the others with you. I will not let you go without protection. It’s not safe out there,” I said.

“What about you?”

“As you can see, I can take care of myself,” I said, pumping my muscles in the air and waving my arms at the fallen soldiers. “They’re not hard to beat once you learn the trick.”

“Hit ‘em in the neck?” Alexis asked.

“That’s my girl!” I said, patting her head.

She grinned at me, then delivered a quick peck to my cheek before exiting the tent.

I, in the meantime, looked around the tent to figure out what the soldiers were doing here and what kind of weaponry they had left behind. It would prove to be very useful if we could use their weapons against them.

Once all the werewolves were gone, and I was left entirely alone in the clearing, I did something I’d intended to do ever since I’d laid my eyes on it. On every soldier’s body, there was a comm that was still working. A comm that undoubtedly connected to Blair. I picked one up and pushed its button. Static noises came from the other side.

“Hello?” I spoke.

The static continued for a whole minute, and then a voice spoke from the other end of the line. “Well, well, if it isn’t Wilhelm Grimm.”

“Don’t you dare take my name with your filthy mouth,” I said.

“Ah, there’s that spark that I’ve been missing in my life. I missed you, Will,” Blair said sardonically from the comm.

“Why are you sending these soldiers? Haven’t you had enough? Or would you rather I tracked you down and killed you like I killed Ralph and Maurice?” I snarled.

“Not to mention your own brother…tsk…tsk,” Blair said. “How terrible is that.”

“Don’t preach morality to me,” I said. “You’re hardly one to talk.”

“Oh, I’m afraid that this is all about morality to me. You see, Will, the day you killed my father, I swore an oath. I promised myself that I’d kill you no matter what it took. Granted, this is an extreme measure, but I’m afraid that I have to take it. You’re proving very difficult to kill. If past experience is any indication, I guess it would take an army to kill you again. Oh, right, I did kill you the first time, didn’t I? Well, this time around, I’ll nail the fucking coffin myself to make sure you can’t get out,” Blair said.

“Big words from a man hiding behind shadows. Why don’t you come out and face me yourself?” I asked.

“And let you do to me what you did to Griswold? No thanks. I’ll stay a safe distance away and let my cronies take care of you. I don’t need to kill you myself. I just need you and your pack of rabid dogs to die. And soon, I’ll finally be able to complete my father’s work. After this, there are going to be no more wolves left howling in the night,” Blair said. “It was good to catch up with you. Hopefully, the next time we meet, it’ll be me looking upon your beheaded head on a silver platter.”

“We’ll see whose head is on a platter,” I said. “Now that you’ve threatened my pack know that I will do whatever’s in my power to end you and your army of drugged-up mercenaries.”

“Blah, blah, talk is cheap. Show me you mean it. Why don’t you try to find me? I’ll be impressed if you do,” Blair said, then hung up.

“Oh, I will,” I said to myself, looking at the crates of weapons that the soldiers had left behind. I opened them up and saw, to my surprise, that they were filled with grenades and those special guns that the soldiers used.

That was their first mistake. They would regret losing these weapons.