by Eva Harper
The human’s lifted their guns, but Harrison placed his hand on the fronts and lowered them.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Casey kissed the top of Emily’s head. “She’s my mate. And we’ve turned her.”
“You’re lying,” Harrison fought, slouching back.
“He’s not,” Emily seethed. “I’m not a human anymore, so if you’re going to kill them, you’re going to have to kill me, too.” As Emily spoke, she stood up straighter and stronger and eventually pushed Casey’s arms away from her. She walked forward, stumbling every few steps until she was in front of the humans. “You haven’t been the same since Mom died. She would be ashamed of you.”
Harrison’s hand reached up into the air and flew down towards Emily’s cheek. She moved and grabbed the hand as it passed it; in her newly turned strength, she clenched her fist and broke the bones in her father’s hand. He cried out in pain and brought the hand to his body.
Emily moved back to Casey, who stood next to me. I never lowed the gun.
A gun was raised, and I quickly shot the tranquilizer dart into the human’s chest. I was too distracted by the recoil to notice the human slumping to the ground.
“It’s a tranquilizer gun,” Harrison’s other nephew noted.
“It does the job,” I taunted, shooting him in the leg with the gun. The other humans raised their guns to me, aiming both at my head and my belly.
“Don’t,” Harrison warned. “If we shoot her, none of us are getting out alive.
“You’re damn right,” Rush called from the other side of the group. Half of them turned around to take in his heaving, bloody, naked form. “You touch her in any way, your death will seem like a sweet release compared to what I’ll do to you.”
“You’re surrounded,” Casey reminded them. “Everyone fighting for you has either run away, surrendered, or has been killed.”
“What’s your next move?” I asked, raising my gun higher.
Harrison seemed far too calm for the situation, and it made me second guess myself. I lowered the scope from my eye and looked around. Our wolves were tending to the injured and picking off the few humans that remained. Most of our pack was circled around us, growling lowly.
From deep in the forest, the soft thumping of more footsteps and a muted roar of vehicles shuddered through the trees.
Harrison chuckled and shook his head. “This was only round one.”
Round 2
My pale face veered to Rush, a cold sweat collected on the back of my neck.
“What do you mean, ‘round one?’” Rush asked. Harrison smiled and, despite his crush hand, laughed.
“Those were our weaklings. You didn’t honestly think that was the best we had, did you?”
“It doesn’t matter how many people you bring here, how many guns, how many weapons; we will fight you until the last one of us falls, and I guarantee you-that day won’t come while you’re alive.”
Rush stepped back from the group of humans as his body began to shake. He was fighting the shift that was trying to break free.
Harrison’s guards rearranged themselves around him as he tucked his broken hand into his jacket. I could smell his adrenaline from ten feet away, like a musty stink that protected him from feeling the full effect of his hand.
The few members of our pack that were injured were escorted towards the packhouse. Harrison viciously stood watch, looking at our wounded with a vindictive smile on his face. That look alone was enough for Rush to forcibly shift.
His head shook, snarling at the humans with a ferocity that made their guns tremble.
I stepped around Emily and moved towards Rush, lowering my weapon for the first time since I picked it up. Rush noticed me moving and quickly came to my side.
“You’ve made him very angry,” I said, gently brushing my hand on the side of Rush’s face. “I used to feel bad for you. I used to tell my pack that humans were just like us, that you all have families, that we were all the same. That’s bullshit, I realize that now. We’re defending, you’re attacking. You think you’re alive right now because you’re smart? You’re alive because we’re allowing you to be, if we wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be breathing right now. I want you to die looking at every single person you killed by bringing them here. I want you to die, knowing no one is coming to save you. I want you to die so that our wolves can each taste your blood and know that human filth like you are gone from this Earth.”
Harrison rolled his eyes at my threats, but his guards seemed shaken. I smiled down at Rush, who nuzzled my stomach. I felt Rush’s voice enter my mind, and I giggled ruthlessly.
“He just asked me what I think your insides will taste like.” I smirked. “I guess we’ll find out soon.”
The long arm of a tank pointed at us through the openings in the trees. Beside it, hundreds of humans ran at us. Our wolves braced themselves, tired but angry and seething.
Rush was able to shift back into his human form as the humans gained distance. He maneuvered through the wolves to stand at the front of our pack, boldly naked and unafraid.
“I will give you one chance!” he screamed with his hands clenched. “Put down your weapons. Look at your brothers and sisters around us who tried to bring us down! Submit, and you will have mercy. Otherwise, we won’t be so kind.”
The humans slowed their running as the tank stopped. Teenagers at the front lines looked at each other and at the dead bodies of the humans around us. One girl stepped forward and dropped her gun, running to a body strewn across the field.
“Ada!” she cried, arms out.
She was shot as she moved and collapsed on the ground beside the woman she knew. She was no older than fifteen; large brown eyes lay open, staring forward at us.
“They’ll never listen to you!” Harrison snarled; his large mouth hung in a slacked smile.
“Your own leader doesn’t care if you live or die!” Rush shouted back at them, desperately trying to save some of the young soldiers that waited on the front lines. “If you surrender your weapons, we can protect you.”
Two teenage boys looked at each other, tears filling their eyes before they looked at us again; a quiet determination fought past the tears. Their lips trembled but never parted.
“They don’t trust us,” Jonah said sadly, standing beside Rush.
“We’re trying to help you!” Rush yelled, looking across their faces. “We don’t want to hurt you, but we will protect our family. Our arms are extended to you.”
Harrison whistled, and the tank began plowing forward again. Rush sighed and ran his hand over his face. I knew he was fighting the urge to cry; I could feel the heaviness in his chest.
“You tried your best,” I reassured him.
“Not good enough.”
Casey and Emily stood behind me at the edge of the packhouse. Three gunmen remained next to us eagerly awaiting orders.
“Don’t shoot anyone who surrenders,” I told them softly. “Especially the young ones.”
They nodded and lined up their scopes once more.
The tank was much larger than I imagined, and it knocked down the trees in its path. It was older, riddled with rust and chipped paint, probably from the last human war a hundred years ago, and its large arm was broken at the front. The beige tank pushed past the humans and started moving towards our wolves at a quickened pace.
Rush whistled an order as he shifted and darted to the right while Jonah ran to the left. The wolves parted down the middle and followed Rush and Jonah around either side of the packhouse. The tank followed the group of wolves to the right, along with a small collection of human soldiers.
The wolves that ran left slowed and braced themselves to fight off the rest of the humans. The young humans raised their weapons and marched towards us.
The previous fight had been bloody and ruthless, but these young humans were scared and doe-eyed. They expected us to hesitate, to be gentle towards them. The older humans stood behind the t
eenagers, using them as a blockade.
“They look terrified,” Emily whimpered.
“Rush gave them a choice,” Casey said stiffly.
“They gunned down the one girl who tried to surrender,” Emily whispered back.
“Enough,” I warned softly, holding my hand up to stop their conversation.
Jonah let out a howl, and our wolves charged forward. Instead of attacking the front lines, the wolves diverged in two lines that wrapped around the human group. Our pack began to attack the back lines if the group, the older humans that were quietly waiting for us to kill the younger ones.
The younger humans were forced forward into the ample open space that existed before the packhouse. A few of the teenagers, boys, and girls, started attacking our pack. The others turned and looked around, wildly searching for an order or someone in power.
“Put your weapons down!” I screamed, raising my own gun to protect myself.
Many of them were crying, shaking, and stepped towards us.
“Casey, go help them,” I ordered.
“Help them?” he spat.
“They’re not even old enough to know what war is. They’re children, they don’t deserve to die for someone else’s mistake.”
Casey leaped over the divide angrily and approached the young ones. He held his hands up in the air while ordering the humans to set their weapons on the ground. Most of them listened and huddled into a smaller group.
“Bring them inside,” I mind-linked him. Casey followed my orders and led the small group of children inside the packhouse.
The teenagers that decided to keep fighting were dealt with swiftly, with mercy in their deaths. More of our wolves were becoming injured against the advanced fighters. My hands shook as I watched our family struggle.
Suddenly, the ground shook with the sound of an explosion.
My gun lowered, and I grabbed onto Emily’s hand.
“Where did that come from?” I asked frantically.
“From the west,” she answered.
“That’s where Rush is.”
Both the humans and wolves paused at the sound; no one knew what the explosion meant or who was injured.
“You were right,” Rush yipped in my mind. I let go of the breath I was holding. “A big hole in the ground is very effective. The tank is gone.”
“You’re okay?”
“Perfect, sweetheart.”
The group of wolves running with Rush bounded in from the west side of our land, aiding the wolves that were fighting on the grounds in front of us. The humans didn’t last long without the help of their tank, and many surrendered to our wolves.
Rush’s large wolf stalked towards Harrison's group. A few Warriors flanked him, walking directly towards the small group of humans guarding Harrison. Casey appeared beside Emily again and pulled her away from the closing battle.
The last group of humans was being rounded up and led into the woods where our wolves would give them the ultimatum of surrendering or dying.
Harrison and his men walked forward to meet Rush and the two Warriors. I began walking toward them as well, Casey and Emily walked behind me. We met in the middle of the battlefield, riddled with dead bodies and blood.
The guards were ripped away from Harrison, leaving him vulnerable and open. He continued to stare at us with little fear.
“You don’t look scared,” I pointed out.
“I’m not.” He looked over at me lazily.
“You should be,” Rush barked. “Your army is gone.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Harrison smiled.
He lifted his hand, and before we could move, his fingers moved back and revealed a small silver gun. The tip of the gun pressed against my pregnant belly.
I chocked on the air in my lungs as I struggled to stand.
“You make one move, and your future dies,” he chuckled to Rush. “Pick up the gun.”
Rush’s face paled, eyes glued to the gun on my stomach.
“I said, pick up the gun!”
Rush mechanically reached down and grabbed a gun from one of the Warriors at his feet. He stared forward.
“Now,” Harrison drawled. “You have an option. You can either kill yourself with that gun, or I kill your woman and your child with this one.”
My legs shook, and I nearly collapsed until Casey grabbed my arm. No one wanted to fight Harrison.
“You’ll kill them after I shoot myself,” Rush pointed out. “That isn’t an option.”
“That’s your only choice, boy!”
“You’ll have to kill me yourself with that gun if you want me dead.”
“I don’t think you’re listening to me!” The trigger on the gun clicked back. “You do it now, or I pull this trigger.”
Rush raised the gun, eyes flashing between Harrison, the gun, and my face. Tears leaked down my face.
“Don’t do it,” I pleaded. “Don’t do it, please, Rush.”
The gun pressed against Rush’s temple, gently brushing the skin like the other gun was brushing against my clothed stomach. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Before I opened my eyes, a shot was fired.
For a moment, I thought I had died. I felt no pain, but when I opened my eyes, I realized it was because I wasn’t the one who was shot.
Rush stood in front of me, the gun now at his feet. I slowly turned my head and saw Harrison on the ground with a bullet hole through his forehead.
Hysterically, I started shaking and holding onto my belly. Rush moved forward and wrapped his arms around me. As I tilted my head, I noticed the boy who shot Harrison.
It was the human that I saw in the woods months ago. He didn’t fire then, he ran, but now he stood heaving in the middle of the battlegrounds, two bullet holes in his abdomen.
I broke away from Rush and hurried to the boy’s side. His knees buckled first, and then he fell on his side. His adrenaline smelled a lot like fear, unlike Harrison's prideful stench. Rush knelt on the other side of the boy, fixing his legs, so they didn’t fold behind him.
“Sweetheart, can you hear me?” I asked, brushing the boy’s hair away from his head. His large green eyes flashed open as he grabbed onto my arm. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You were so brave,” Rush told him. The boy looked at him, panting to get air. He couldn’t be any older than thirteen, probably a few years younger.
“I don’t want to be alone,” the boy cried, his fingernails dug into my skin, but I grabbed onto him with as much fierceness.
“You aren’t,” I promised him. “You are family now. I saw you in the woods before, you were a good boy. You saved our child.”
“Yeah.” The boy fought to smile. “That was me.”
“You’re a hero.” Rush touched his cheek gently. I moved my hand down to the boy’s stomach; I knew I couldn’t heal him from an injury that severe, but somehow, I hoped I could lessen the pain. The boy was fading quickly, scared, but we never left him.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
“No.” I grabbed his chin. “You don’t be sorry. You did nothing wrong.” His head nodded slightly. His eyes began closing, the pale, sweaty skin of his eyelids closed the vibrant green. “We’re here, we aren’t leaving you.”
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“What’s your name?” Rush asked, stroking the boy's head.
“Theodore, sir.”
“You’re a good man, Theodore.”
With a small, wistful smile, the boy told us, “My friends call me Theo,” and moments later, he was gone.
Theodore
“Isn’t he just the sweetest thing?” Cordelia cooed, bouncing our son on her lap.
“You keep telling him that, and he's going to get a big head,” I warned, folding a small onesie against the dresser in the nursery.
“He’s a Weston boy,” she said bittersweetly. “It doesn’t matter what I say or do. He will be as his father is, and his grandfather is, and the many before him.” Cordelia
held the baby out to me as I approached her. She stood up from the rocking chair and handed me the purple burp cloth from her shoulder.
“Hey, baby boy,” I whispered as I patted him on the back. He gurgled and wiggled in my arms. “Why don’t we go see your daddy.”
We wandered out of the room, peaking in the other rooms to find Rush. I heard the distinct sound of chopping wood and rolled my eyes. I looked out of the window in our office to the front yard, where Rush was chopping a large tree.
“What are you doing out here?” I called as I exited the front door.
Rush paused and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
“It’s getting colder,” he called. “We’re going to need firewood soon. I’d rather do it when it’s not five degrees out.”
I nodded and fixed the baby on my hip.
“Bring me, my son!” Rush called excitedly.
“Oh no,” I shook my head. “I just gave him his bath. You are covered in sweat and dirt.”
“Oh, come on,” he whined.
“No, sir. He is clean, and he smells like baby powder, you are not ruining that!”
“You coddle him too much,” Rush chided.
“And you don’t coddle him enough. He’s ten months old for Pete’s sake, he’s not ten.”
Rush rolled his eyes at my words and grabbed a handkerchief from his back pocket. He wiped his hands and sweaty forehead with the cloth and stuck it back in his pocket.
“That’s better,” he cooed, grabbing the baby from my arms. “Theo loves his daddy, doesn’t he?”
Theo giggled and slammed his chubby hands against Rush’s chest. Rush smiled back at him and held him close to his body. I turned and wandered back inside, knowing Rush was following me. He took a seat on the sofa and allowed Theo to sit on his lap.
As I sat next to him, Theo latched onto my finger and began biting the end of it.
“Are you happy?’ Rush asked.
I looked at him strangely. “Of course, I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“No reason.” His head tilted. “I just know how close you were to those human children, and now they’re gone.”