by Chris Savage
“Come in, Shane,” Casper called out, even if it was William’s role to say that. This made both of them laugh. Shane hesitated before finally opening the door, meeting Casper at the entrance, preparing to go out.
“Casper,” he greeted on his way out.
“Shane,” Casper replied, laughing as he walked out of the cabin. Shane smiled as he moved into the meeting room to meet William. He stared at William, who had an awkward expression on his face. There was an awkward silence. Shane was ready to extend the silence beyond the normal. William continued to stare at him with a ridiculous expression, waiting for him to speak.
“Well,” Shane said, finally breaking the silence. “Was this where it went down?”
“Shut up, Shane,” William said, as they both burst out in laughter.
“I hear he’s pregnant now. Congratulations William, I’m so happy for both of you.”
“Thank you, Shane,” William said, smiling at his friend. Shane was easily the happiest person apart from the duo. He was like a proud father, watching his son continue his bloodline. He remembered how it felt when William was born, and how he vowed to his father to protect him with his own life.
“Come on Shane, don’t cry on me now, please,” William teased, noticing how emotional Shane was getting. Shane smiled at him.
“Believe me, William, if you knew what I was remembering, you’d be just as emotional,” Shane said. “Anyway,” he continued, “there’s a vital update.”
“What’s the issue?” William asked.
“We have a lead on Damion’s location.”
The news was music as well as a hammer to William’s ears. He had been hoping for an early opportunity to get Damion once and for all, to put an end to the war at its early stages. He was not in favour of the mass bloodshed which was bound to happen if the war was allowed to drag. The Great War had taught him enough.
“How?” he asked Shane, as he was surprised on how soon they got the lead. He was sure the lead was solid, or else Shane would not be interested in chasing it further.
“Remember the member of his pack who we took hostage? At the edge of the woods?”
“Yeah.”
“He gave us useful information on where Damion is most likely to be tonight.”
“How do we know he’s not lying, leading us into a trap? We did kill eleven of his pack members right before his eyes, remember? That’s not an easy thing to forgive.” William was being cautious, he did not want anything close to what happened to Mark, Jasper, and Raymond repeating. Shane gave a mischievous smile at the thought of the question William asked.
“Why do you think I just brought the information to you? Apparently we just became satisfied with his reply. We have been interrogating him for months now, since the night after we captured him,” he confidently said as he explained to William why the lead was most likely not a lie.
“And besides,” he continued, “either way it’s a trap. It’s Damion we’re talking about here. It was never going to be easy. And if it turns out we’re wrong, if it turns out we’re being led into a very dangerous trap, then it’s a good thing I’m going myself. Whichever team is going on the mission is going to be led by me.”
William noticed was Shane was trying to do; by saying he was leading the mission to get Damion, and putting himself in charge while he made it sound like a final decision, William would be forced to allow him go on the mission, as he’d started the whole interrogation process in the first place.
William considered it for a while. He knew that Shane was still bitter from being unable to go into the city during Mark’s mission. He knew that the regret he felt still haunted him, and that he needed to go on this mission o badly. He knew that Shane stayed on the interrogation for so long in order to get a viable lead to pursue. He was ready to allow Shane go on the mission, but was reluctant let his second in command go, especially due to his personal relationship with Shane. He could not bring himself to lose him, so he needed an assurance.
“I’ll go with you, Shane,” he finally said.
“What? What? No, you can’t you need to—”
“I’ve made my decision, Shane. Unless you want me to totally bar you from going. This is as much as I can do. I know you want to avenge what happened to Mark at all costs, but this one is too high, Shane. This is your life. And besides, only an alpha should kill another alpha. If we want this to work, and totally work, I need to be there in case it comes to killing Damion.”
“Fine, but Mark stays.” He was not ready to risk anything this time, and also importantly, he needed to stay focused. No matter how much he trusted Mark in battle, he was never going to stop worrying about him should he be in one. And it was going to be worse if Mark was battling in his presence.
“Mark stays,” William agreed. He needed Mark to hold down the fort, as well as to watch Casper closely, particularly now when the young wolf was already pregnant.
“So what do we do next, do we just inform Mark and take off? Or do we need to add a few more soldiers?”
“No, we can’t go alone, there’s too much risk. Get Mark, Casper, and Gary here. Find out if Jasper is in the city or if he’s here. If he is, get him here too. Let’s have a brief meeting.”
Shane went out at once. He understood how critical the time was for William, considering the fact that he decided to add Casper to the meeting. Casper would obviously not be going for the mission, but William was no longer leaving him in the dark. Casper was with child now, and he was not going to take any decision that would catch him by surprise and cause him any psychological trauma.
In no time, all the men were in the room, including Jasper. William looked at Casper and smiled as he walked into the room. It was quite ironic that moments ago the same room was being used for an entirely different purpose. A meeting as well, but one of just two bodies, rather than six minds. They all sat round the same table where the generals sat earlier that day and William began to address everyone.
“As most of you must have heard, we have a credible lead as to Damion’s location.”
“How credible?” Gary asked.
“Very credible, Gary,” Shane replied on William’s behalf.
William continued. “I have decided to go with Shane on this mission, in case it comes to killing Damion. I have to be the one to do it.” Casper was beginning to get scared as William spoke. He had been kept out of the loop for every mission strategy they had so far, and suddenly he was in one where William was talking about going on a suicide mission. Mark noticed his fear and held his hand.
“Mark, you will be staying behind to lead the pack while we’re away,” William continued.
“Is… that why I’m staying behind, or because Shane prefers if I stay behind because he thinks I cannot handle myself?” Mark calmly protested.
“Mark, you know it’s best if you—” Shane said, attempting to explain himself, but he was interrupted by William.
“Mark, I need you here. I need you here. Believe me.” He knew Mark was right, but apart from that he could not trust the safety of the pack, nor that of Casper, with anyone else but Mark.
“Gary, you’d be going with us. Casper’s training is on hold until the baby comes. Jasper, you need to take a few days off from the city and stay here with Mark, keep things orderly. We do not know how much time we will spend over there, or what will happen, but I will not let us down. We will not.”
As they all stood up and left, William stayed in for some minutes, giving Mark some final instructions.
He stood up and prepared himself to leave. He took one final look at Casper, who gave him a reassuring smile and softly said, “I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter 15
William’s natural sense of duty had never been one to be doubted, except that this time he doubted himself. The thought of leaving Casper with his pregnancy continued to prick him as it always had, right from the moment he decided to leave home with Shane and Gary on the mission to find Damion. As it turned out, the
information retrieved from the hostage wolf was not a trap, but was more complicated than they thought it would be.
Shane, despite being William’s second in command, led the mission at first, with William and Gary being the team members. The location given to them by the hostage wolf was a hideout for Damion and members of his pack on occasion. However, based on the fact that Damion and most of his minions were city dwellers with actual human personalities deeply rooted in the human community, amidst humans who knew nothing about werewolves, Damion often met with members of his pack at different locations scattered around the city of Lone Wolf. William, Shane, and Gary, upon getting to the location, caught the scent of different wolf men, which evidenced the fact that they had been there before that time.
“I can’t catch Damion’s scent,” Shane said, looking at William. “Gary, cover the other side of the area.” It was an abandoned warehouse which was totally empty with no single scrap from all the goods that were once stored in the building. William got the hint from the emptiness of the place that it had been cleared out for a specific purpose by a set of people, which could only be Damion and his pack members considering the wolf scents all over the place.
“I can’t recognize Damion’s scent even if I catch it,” Gary said to Shane.
“Oh.” Shane realized that Gary had actually never met Damion before, unlike William and himself, who had even fought against the alpha before.
“But look what I found,” Gary said, pointing at the iron gate at one of the entrances.
“What is it?” William was curious. He moved over to Gary’s location, together with Shane. Engraved on a part of the gate was the inscription Hagen Properties.
“Son of a bitch,” Shane said. “He owns the place.”
“He owns the place? I don’t think he was here, though, do you? I can’t catch his scent from anywhere in the room. You think he masked his scent?” William was beginning to think like an alpha. If he were in Damion’s shoes, he would most probably have masked his scent, so he would not be noticed in case a hunting party came around. Not a lot of wolves would be able to mask their scents, but he was sure that Damion would, being the coward that he was reputed to be most of the time.
The three of them were beginning to get disappointed. Gary had a specialty in tracking as a wolf, even if all wolves could track. He thought of a way to still make the most out of the mission.
“How about we follow the scent of one of the random wolves and track them,” he suggested. William understood the rationale behind that suggestion, but knew it would only waste their time.
“Whoever we trace would rather kill himself than give us Damion’s location, especially after what happened about four months ago. And that will be a total waste of our time. We can’t let that happen again. It took us two months to break the last one we captured and that was why his information has ended up being stale. It is not possible for us to convert two months’ torture into two hours. We can’t do it, Gary. “
Gary understood immediately, it was not worth it. Unless he was sure of Damion’s location, there was no use in chasing a futile lead. He continued to check for scents that were extraordinary when sniffed. It was general knowledge in the wolf community that the alpha of a pack usually had a different scent from the members of the pack. Sometimes the scent of an alpha alone was enough to send chills down the spine of an omega. Gary could not find any scent with such a characteristic, and neither could the rest catch Damion’s scent as well.
Suddenly, the entire party began to hear someone running towards them at an incredible speed, certainly not human. It was coming from outside the warehouse, and they could hear its heart beat amazingly fast. It was scared. But they could not leave anything to chance. They braced themselves for impact, as they all transformed to their human-wolf form, growling and awaiting the arrival of whatever and whoever it was. Suddenly, the running stopped. They heard the heart still beating, so the creature was still close to them, and in fact was coming closer to them.
A figure suddenly appeared at the entrance of the warehouse, his heartbeat already sounding faint. He was a man, naked and staggering, obviously in need of help. He fell to his knees and stretched out his hand, indicating that he was thirsty. William and the others immediately ran to his aid, helping him up.
“Hey, who are you, Mister, what’s your name?” William asked, but the man was too weak to say a word. William noticed the hair on his chest and sniffed at him again.
“He’s definitely a wolf,” he said, looking at Shane, who nodded in agreement. Gary was instructed to return him to the cabin and have the medic take a look at his injuries, after which he was to gather all possible information he could on him. He was also instructed to detain him immediately if he found him to be of the Hagen Pack. Gary lifted the injured man, dashing into the woods immediately.
“It’s getting worse, Will,” Shane said, concerned.
“Yeah, I noticed the claw marks on his body, they were definitely inflicted by another group of wolves. And I am very surprised at that, Shane. I didn’t see it coming this soon. That can only mean one thing,” William said. His face showed more concern than Shane’s.
“Damion has started wiping out other packs,” Shane completed his statement.
“We can’t leave now, Shane. We can’t go back. Not yet.”
Apart from being exceptionally good at tracking, Gary was a pretty fast wolf as well, but was moving slower due to the unconscious wolf he was carrying. He took his time and started walking at some point, still carrying the injured creature and talking to himself.
“I can still hear your heart beat, man, faint as it is. You better make it stay that way.” Technically, he was talking to the injured wolf he was carrying, knowing fully well that he could not hear him.
“Not like I’m feeling sorry for you, you know, or that I care if you live or die—because I can’t really tell whether or not you belong to the Hagen Pack—but I can’t let the distance I covered so far be for nothing. I have carried you so far and you can’t decide to die now, alright? If you had any intentions of dying, the beginning of the journey would have been the perfect time to tell me. Okay, I better pick up the pace if I really want you to survive.” He began to run again.
He got to the cabin and called in the medic, who in turn took the man to his quarters, seeing that the injuries were being prevented from healing by something he did not understand, but was going to find out.
Six weeks later, William had only come home twice since he’d set out with Shane and Gary. The wolf found at the warehouse eventually did not survive the injuries he sustained in whatever fight he was in, and it was later discovered that he was not a member of the Hagen Pack. He was another victim of Damion’s senselessness. Mark was being as caring as he could to Casper, who had been sad for most of the six weeks due to William’s consistent absence. His pregnancy was obvious already, as his stomach was already protruding and he had been told by some of the others, including the medic, that his baby was going to arrive at any moment.
“You know the amount of responsibility he has on his shoulders, right? This could be the beginning of our extinction. It’s up to him to make sure that does not happen. If we fail, if we begin to get wiped out, nobody will look at me or Shane or Gary or you to blame. Everyone will look to him for their salvation. Every wolf. We’re the only pack that can match the Hagen Pack, even if they greatly outnumber us. That means every other wolf is looking to him for help and for protection from Damion.” Mark was being realistic about the situation. He understood that Casper needed his mate around during such a period, but the pack was also important. The lives of many were in danger, including Casper himself.
“You know, Mark, I’m not saying I don’t recognize the fact that he’s busy saving the pack and all that, but if he knew this was how much he would neglect me he should not have made me his mate in the first place,” Casper said, still feeling downcast.
Mark was pissed off, though, as he felt Casp
er was being unreasonable and was lacking any form of understanding.
“Almost everything is wrong about what you said, Casper. We both know that he made you his mate because he loves you, which I want to assume you do too, even if you keep saying things like these. You also know that this is temporary, and that the war will be brought to an end quite soon. Your failure to be patient, knowing the temporary nature of all this, knowing that he’s thinking about you and that it’s only you he wants to come back to, is very disappointing, Casper, to say the least.”
Casper suddenly screamed the loudest he had ever screamed in his entire life. Mark was initially taken aback, as a scream was a very odd way to reply to all he had just said to Casper. However, he immediately understood what it signified, and dashed out immediately. He returned in minutes with the medic. Casper was having a baby.
Everyone in the room was freaked out, including the medic himself. He was not freaked out because he had no experience, but because it was William’s baby.
He got everything necessary and brought them over to the room. He began the entire exercise and instructed Mark, who was also scared out of his mind, to step backwards. The members of the pack outside the room were more freaked out than the ones inside, because they could only hear screams, so according to them, nothing was going well inside the room.
“Okay, Casper, just breathe, just breathe,” the medic said as he tried to get Casper’s blood pressure and heart rate stable before they continued with the exercise. Casper began to try controlling his irregular breathing, as he continuously breathed through his mouth.
Casper let out another loud scream, and the door burst open immediately. All three of them looked to the door.