Chapter 28: Will

Chapter 28: Will

There I stood, rooted to my spot in the forest, uncertain as to where to go. Continue my hunt for Fred and potentially endanger the lives of the thousands of people gathered in the town square, or ditch my search for Fred in favor of the townsfolk?

Once upon a long time ago, when I was Edward’s prisoner, he had injected me with a paralyzing agent that didn’t stop me from breathing or looking around with my eyes but jammed my arms and limbs, making it impossible for me to move. Then he took me out of the house, tied me in chains, and made me lay down on the lawn. This was yet one of his ways to torture me. The lawn was built in a shady place, with trees providing a canopy over it. Even though it was daytime and I craved sunlight, I never so much as saw a single ray of it.

Meanwhile, Edward walked around the lawn, smoking a cigar, talking idly as if he was talking to an old friend. He was enjoying watching me in my helpless state. Then he took me back in and threw me in the cage in the basement. It didn’t help me, going out in the day and feeling the grass under my body for the first time in decades. It only made me more desperate for escape. But the bitter irony of it was I could not move.

Just like right now.

In one far corner, my mate and all my pack members were assembled in the town square-rigged with bombs. On yet another unknown corner of this county, Fred hid from me somewhere, hoping to avoid the confrontation that was long past due. I kept asking myself where I should go, but even with this constant questioning I lacked the will to move in either direction.

Having just talked to Alexis did not help. It only made me feel more worried for her that she was there with the entire pack, without me.

I made up my mind. I’d go to Alexis. Fred could live another day as a free man. Right now, my pack needed my help. I shifted into my wolf form and raced through the forest in quick strides, eager to reach Fiddler’s Green as fast as I could. At the very least, I’d be able to help them defuse the bombs.

While I ran to the town, I wondered who it could be. Was it Blair who had planted all these bombs? Was it Fred? It could be either of them. This much I knew for sure that it was one of these two. Who else would gain to benefit from blowing up the town square on election night?

If this was Fred, it was most likely vengeance for killing his son and for anointing a new mayor for the town.

As far as Blair’s motives were concerned, I drew a blank. The man had become an enigma ever since his disappearance. No one knew where he went and what his next move was. If this is what he had been cooking up all this while, then, as horrendous a plan as it was, I had to give it to him; it was meticulously crafted. By destroying the town, he’d be able to regain his stronghold here. A city gripped by terror would be ripe for the taking. Perhaps he’d make himself the new mayor after all this was over.

Alexis, I’m coming to you, I called out, using my bond, hoping she’d understand why I had chosen to do this.

What about Fred? She asked.

Fred cannot escape our punishment and judgment. He will answer for his crimes. But right now, the town needs us. All of us.

Will these bombs have timers on them. The timers haven’t gone off right now, but they’re set for half an hour. I don’t know how many bombs there are or what will happen when the timer automatically sets off. We may stop some of them, but there’s no telling which ones we didn’t detect. The ones that are undetected as of yet can cause just as much harm, Alexis said.

But they’re all controlled through a detonator, aren’t they? I asked.

Correct. But the timer is a failsafe in case the detonator does not go off, she replied.

I would like to think we wolves are more honed in our senses than bomb-sniffing dogs, I said. Why cannot the pack detect the bombs using their noses? What good are we as werewolves if we cannot use our powers in times of need?

Because the bombs aren’t giving off any particular smell, Will. They’re tied up in duct tape and have no smell whatsoever. There’s one pack member who used to be a marine. He’s the one helping us find them. So far, we’ve found around seventy small charges spread throughout the town square. Individually, their explosions aren’t all that strong, but if they’re detonated together, they can level the town square, she said.

Hang on I’m coming, I said.

But right as I said it, a wolf howled from behind me. It was a distinctive howl, one that I could recognize almost anywhere. This was Fred’s voice, beckoning me.

He howled again, allowing me to triangulate his position. The sound came from the top of the cliffs. It turned out that Vincent was right all along.

So, Fred had chosen to confront me after all. And he had chosen to meet his fate in his wolf form. So be it. If he wanted a fight, he would get it.

I had to track back the entire route I had traveled so far and head back to the cliffs.

I am afraid I won’t be coming. Fred’s calling out to me, Alexis, I said.

I understand. The pack and I are going to take care of this problem. Don’t worry about it. You go and see to Fred, she said.

I love you, I said.

I love you too, she responded. Be careful.

I began my ascent up the cliffs, keeping an eye out for any potential danger. He might not be there alone. This could be an ambush. Perhaps he and Blair were both there. Maybe Fred had assembled the vampires to get back at me for killing their leader.

When I reached the top of the cliff, I saw that he was alone and not in his wolf form. He was seated at the edge of the cliff in his wheelchair, looking at the sea with his back turned to me.

It hurt me to see him like this. My brother, the architect of my tribulations, a man capable of so much cunning and evil, sitting there in his wheelchair. I wished that he had never betrayed me, but it was too late for such trifling yearnings. I had to be more than his brother right now. I had to be the Alpha of the Grimm pack.

I shifted back into my human form and approached Fred, trying to figure out what I would say to him after all this time after learning the truth.

Fred wheeled around in his wheelchair and looked at me. This time, there was no acting or faking. I could see the spite in his eyes and the malice on his face as clear as day. Had I not seen this, I’d have had a hard time believing that my brother was working against me this entire time. But I saw how he loathed me, witnessed his hateful glare, his pursed lips, and his furrowed brows, and I knew.

I knew that Fred had been the one all this time.

“Well?” I called out as I walked over to him. “Aren’t you going to say anything? What explanation do you have for all of this?”

“For all of what?” Fred asked, his voice sardonic and his manner of speaking very condescending.

“You know what you did, brother,” I said.

“And it took you this long to find out,” Fred said.

“I have just one question. Why?” I asked.

“One man’s heaven is another man’s hell,” Fred snarled. “And I have been burning in hell ever since you moved the pack to this accursed continent. Is that reason enough for you?”

“You could have left at any time. You could have moved back to Germany after the war was over. Why didn’t you? Why choose to relent against me and ruin my life?” It wasn’t that I was trying to get a confession out of him; I genuinely wanted to know what drove him to such an extreme length that he sought such drastic measures against me. It wasn’t a small thing when your brother betrayed you. At least, I deserved an explanation.

“How can a wolf leave his pack and still be called a wolf? All my family, the people I grew up with, flocked to you at every command. What good would I have done as a lone wolf back in Germany? You think that you’re so wise and intelligent. You’re nothing but a fool. You made us all give up hectares of our land in Germany in favor of what? A shoddy commune where we’re all piled together like lambs and pigs? Wars come and go, but truly wise men never let go of their heritage, their lands, and their property. You did all of that, and no one ever questioned you,” Fred said. He slowly put his hands on the wheelchair’s handles and got up. So he had been faking his crippled condition. He walked over to me quite normally, without even a little shuffle in his steps.

“Did you hate me so fiercely all this time?”

“I loved you, brother,” Fred said. “I looked up to you when we were little. You were the world to me, especially after our parents died. But you never saw me as your brother. You saw me as some helpless, hopeless sap who was too far gone for his good. You never really bonded with me. Never in your life did you ever ask me, your younger brother, for counsel. I had to grow up living in your shadow. Do you realize how humiliating that is?”

“Look at what you did all for the sake of your ego! You had me imprisoned, or do you deny having a role in that?” I yelled at him. Fred scoffed in response and looked over my shoulder at the town in the distance.

“I will not deny anything. I did what I did, knowing what I was doing. And imagine my surprise to see you come out alive and unscathed from his prison and not even aged a single day. That drove me mad. And all the subsequent times that I tried to end your life, I kept falling short. It was as if fate was itself favoring you over me. Well, after tonight, I’ll be known as the wolf who bent fate to his will, and you will have lost everything you held dear,” Fred said. He then revealed a remote that he was holding in his hand, solving the mystery of who had planted the bombs in the square.

“I held you dear all my life, brother,” I said. “Only for you to have betrayed me like this. And now you want to blow up the town? All for what?”

“I want to make sure that this beloved little town of yours, this so-called Fiddler’s Green, gets razed to the ground, and you can see it for the hell it truly is. I want you to lose everything like I lost everything. I will relish seeing you hear your mate’s dying scream as the flames envelop her body. It will be enough for me to know that even though I could not kill you, I took everything away from you. Only then will I consider us even,” Fred said and put his hand on the remote detonator.

“Don’t do it,” I said, raising my hand. “By all the gods, do not do it.”

“Oh? And you think I’m going to listen?”

“Please, Fred. Whatever you did in the past is another matter entirely. But there’s no coming back from committing such a huge crime. You’re about to mass murder thousands of innocents. Don’t do it.”

“I never seemed to get it across to you that you’re not my boss. You may be the Alpha of the pack, but you were never my Alpha. I never listened to you back then. What makes you think I’ll listen now?” Fred asked, putting his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

“Because I have something to say,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“What could you possibly have to say that would stop me from doing this?” Fred asked and then laughed loudly. I waited for him to quiet down.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “I should have counseled with you. I should have paid heed to your words and decisions. And I wanted to say that I forgive you. For all that you did to me, I forgive you.”

There was a glint in Fred’s eyes that I mistook for tears. His lips moved, but words did not come out. He was taken aback, and now his finger was not on the trigger any longer. The next moment, he suddenly pushed me and snapped, “Your charade fooled me for a second. I thought you’d meant it. And if you had, I would have reconsidered. But you’re not sincere, are you? You never were. You’re just buying time. Pathetic.”

“Before you do it, I want you to confess,” I said, hoping Fred would take the bait.

“Confess what?”

“Confess everything that you did to me. Before you take away the lives of my pack, my mate, and the townspeople, I want you to confess that it was you who threw me to Edward Beckett,” I said.

“Fine,” Fred said, waving his arm. “I confess. It was me. I even helped Blair with concocting Wolf’s Bane. I take all the credit. Now can we please enjoy the best fireworks that you and I will ever get to see?”

Alexis, please tell me that you’ve got the situation in control, I called out desperately. Because I don’t. Fred’s the one who planted the bombs. He has the detonator. At any second, he can press the button and blow the entire square.

I’m on it. Don’t worry; we have the situation under control, she said.

I turned my attention back to Fred and smiled at him. “You never really had any faith, did you, Fred?”

“What does faith have anything to do with any of this?” Fred scoffed.

“You’ll see,” I said.