“You look worried Elle? What’s wrong? We had so much fun last time the other girls well, in comparison they were nothing like you.” Grinning he grabbed the front waist band of her jeans yanking her forward as his hands worked the buttons and zipper of her jeans and yanked.
There went her pants, then her panties and hot tears were already spilling down her cheeks.
“You won’t win this time. You won’t get away with it.” Elle began to scream, blood bubbling up in her throat from the blood curdling screams as she began to yank on the chain that had her suspended, her legs striking out with the full intent of bringing damage to whatever they came in contact with, the very real knowledge that she was about to be raped Elle wasn’t going to go through this without a fight, she was going to make it as difficult for him as she possible could and if at all possible maybe hold him off until someone came for her. Marik and Gallen had to be looking for her, Gallen for sure, he’d been there when Jamal took her.
“Feisty little bitch.” Jamal took a step backward as her legs flailed. “Regular little hell cat is what you are. I’m sure Gaerik would have loved to get his hands on you…to bad I got the drop on him.”
The last thing she saw was his fist striking out before her vision became fragmented, sparklers dancing in front of her eyes as everything seemed to become darker and darker.
“Don’t worry sweetness, I remember how you like it.”
“No,” Elle whispered as her chin met her chest.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The back door of the kitchen was swung open as the large black wolf leapt from the steps and landed in the powdery snow as more crisp flecks fell from the sky, his muzzle rising to the moon as she guided her full bodied glow high into the night sky as a lone howl echoed a cry from his throat. As a wolf, every sense he possessed was stronger, and Gregory had tracked Elle half way across the country. He hadn’t seen or smelled her in over a year. His mind only vaguely aware of the tree and its shattered bark where his body had fallen once, but he had risen stronger than he had ever been in his life. His purpose was to guard and protect until his life cycle came to its peaceful end when he felt that the time was right. The tendon’s in his hind legs sprung forward as his ears flattened against his skull racing through the snow, three werewolves only shortly in pursuit of the black blur of his body moving in the trees.
Rounding up the back of the hunting party Gallen saw his sons moving with a vitality that was true to their nature, even Marik seemed a different being as he streaked through the trees, leaping into their limbs to move from tree to tree matching the wolfs speed.
From beneath the canopy of tree’s the night began to come alive like the thunder of many hearts pounding as one like war drums as an explosion of sound erupted around them. Every beast surrendering to the call of the moon and their brethren’s howl. The pounding of their feet striking the icy snow as not one or two but many wolves of all sizes and colors, packs of wild dogs joined them hungry for blood. Gallen was almost startled to a standstill as an aging bullmastiff nudged his elbow urging him forward, the two old men taking up the rear.
What he saw amazed him and left him in awe, he didn’t know from where they came, but they poured in from all over, an army building in its multitude as not just the four legged searched. Gregory surrendering another long howl that caught Gallen’s attention as the black body moved, a lone owl flying above him. What was this? Catching a glimpse of a small dog all but nearly digging its way through the snow like a Tasmanian devil he realized some of these beasts weren’t just animals at all, they were shifters, other werewolves, spirits and guardians all under the sway of the wolfs call.
Marik couldn’t believe what he saw as his gaze traveled down to his brother, now taking to all fours, his hands gripping into the snow as his legs propelled him further. He was an animal reveling in the company of his kindred. He’d always been more in touch with the beast than Marik felt that he ever truly would be. Only at that moment as they were closing in, he could smell Elle. They were getting closer now, and the warm scent of her almost had a body of its own as he was pulled forward, his blood boiling over as each muscle in his body urged him onward and should he for whatever reason try to stop himself it felt as if he would be ripped apart by his own limbs in their need to get to her.
Smoke curled up into air as they crested the peak of a hillside that dropped off into a valley, shaped like a bowl Marik reached the razor's edge before anyone else, even Gregory who was only a pace behind him as he crouched on his legs, one arm dropped into the snow as his hair fell around his face, vapor pouring from his nostrils in thick plumes.
Beneath them laid a small cabin where smoke rose from the chimney, the golden glow of lights from the inside.
~
She was swaying, upside down, her hair falling around her face as the floor beneath her grew farther and farther away with each ascending step. Her muscles burned like there wasn’t a part of her that hadn’t been touched, particularly her lower half. One eye was swollen shut, as every shift in movement seemed to cause her pain. Whimpering her hands were still cuffed at the wrist, hanging limply in front of her swaying body as her captor carried her up the basement stairs. Shivering Elle flexed her fingers before she grabbed at the back of his jeans, searching for something to gain purchase of when a sharp hand came down on her bare bottom making her body tense again, the action making her muscles sing with fire.
“No more.” Elle whimpered, a tear dripping from her eye and landing god only knew where once it escaped its prison.
“We’re almost done, it’s time for a story. Do you want to hear a story?”
“You aren’t going to get away with this,” Elle whispered, her voice shot. “Marik and Gallen will never let you live after this, they’ll rip you apart.” As he marched up the stairs warm air washed over her.
“I find that terribly frightening, being ripped apart that is.” He laughed as he bent, from her good eye she knew they’d left the basement and were now in the warm comforts of a living room, furniture placed ever so precisely around a roaring fire. As her feet touched the ground, she found that her legs couldn’t hold her own weight, but Jamal was still holding onto her at her waist as he took her arms, lifting her again to tether her from a hook that was screwed into the ceiling.
Blood dripped between her legs, she was torn. She knew that much, and her bottom ached. Sniffling she knew what happened but she hadn’t lived, not fully and perhaps she should have been grateful for small miracles, but the pain was still there leaving her like an empty shell on the inside as she slumped on her toes.
Why was it she didn’t believe him when he said that? Probably because he didn’t know the meaning of true fear he was too crazy to be afraid. If she were him right now, she would have been shitting herself. If that was even a possibility still. Somehow though she wasn’t afraid for herself anymore, all that Elle wanted to do was curl into a ball and disappear from this world and any world that might be waiting for her on the other side. Elle didn’t know if there was a hell or a heaven, but she didn’t think she wanted to see either of them right now. She’d lived through hell, and heaven felt too far away for a woman like her. Whether she’d known it or not shouldn’t something have set off a warning bell inside her that night when she met Jamal for the first time? She wished she’d never left Arkansas and that her grandma was still alive and that could be her heaven. Elle could go up to her old bedroom, slip beneath the covers of her childhood bed, the same bed that hadn’t changed since she was five and stay there forever - until the stars burnt out.
“But you see, I have no intentions of surrendering,” Jamal whispered in her ear before stepping away, all of the life that was in his eyes before was now replaced by a coldness she hadn’t seen. He was in a frenzy. What remained now was just blackness. “When they see what I have done to their precious Red Riding Hood they’ll go crazy.” He laughed. “It will be perfect. It will make them go berserk.”
“It doesn�
�t matter what you’ve done or what you do to me.” Elle murmured, her one good eye staring at him boldly.
“Oh, I think that it does because you see you are as much a part of them as if you were blood and when they see me kill you right in front of them they’ll kill anything in sight. The Council wants them out. I’ll kill you, and then the Council will believe that the entire Chaliceman family was in on it.”
“You’re crazy…they’ll kill you before you ever get the chance.” Struggling, her lungs were having a hard time expanding for breath as she tried to look at him clearly.
“That might be so - but it won’t matter. You haven’t been listening. This? It isn’t all just me. I’m not the only villain here. The Council wants new blood running things, and I have to agree with them, of course, it isn’t my only motive, but they have fit into my plans very well. My grandfather told me stories about how he ripped your mother’s throat out while you father begged for her life to be spared only seconds before his pitiful existence was ended too. The Council wants Gallen to be pushed from his position, and well, I want them all dead. It was all because of them and those parents of yours that this whole Council was brought about. If Lucian Chaliceman had just bowed down to the Alpha of New York you might have had a very different life, we all might have been friends. Now you’re just going to die along with the rest of them.”
“What?”
Elle felt confused like there were pieces of the puzzle that just weren’t fitting together right now. Watching Jamal inhale deeply his smile widened as his finger nails extended into claws, the sharp talons ripping into her sweater and shredding it so that she was left bare save for her arms. Her jeans and panties were gone, still, somewhere in the basement her head spun trying to put it all together.
“Your savior is here. I can smell him outside just waiting to come charging through that door to save you.”
Fear seized her, she wasn’t afraid for herself, but for Marik and Gallen, she knew he would never let him come here all by himself. Yanking her wrists madly, snot ran down from her nostrils as she screamed. “Marik run!”
“Not yet you stupid bitch.” The back of his hand meeting her jaw causing her head to rock back on her neck. Jamal chortled almost as if this were a game they were playing. If he was crazy enough to kill two women and herself as a third. Elle couldn’t imagine living through this, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to either. Her heart felt permanently weakened, she didn’t want to see anyone of the people she’d come to care about so much be killed even if she were the first to die. They were her family, and she’d never even known it.
His hand enveloped her throat, cutting off her oxygen making it impossible for her to make a sound as she struggled.
“Now, I’m going to explain to you how this is going to work. You’re going to scream for your wolves to come and save you and when they do. I’m going to kill you.” Jamal smiled, it looked so pleasant, but behind the eyes, there was an emptiness that spoke of true insanity as he picked up a poker from the fire. The tip glowing red hot as he held it between them, “Go on.” He nodded, a quick dip of his chin up and down summoning her, but her lips clamped shut. Swallowing as her heart quivered inside her chest.
“You’re going to make this difficult aren’t you?” He sighed. “I was afraid of that.” Jamal shook his head as he laid the end of the poker to her rib cage. The smell of burning flesh reached her nostrils quickly as the intensity of the heat scorched her flesh. Her teeth came down on her bottom lip, biting until she tasted blood in her mouth. Elle’s head fell back, a scream ripping through her throat only to be choked by heaving sobs.
“Gallen please don’t come.” She whimpered.
Elle couldn’t be more specific as the path of the poker trailed from her rib cage over her stomach and up the valley between her breasts, burning into her pink flesh. Blood quickly rushing to the surface. The poker was drawn away, and she was left taking in heaping gulps of air, face ashen white as her chin drifted back to her chest once more. The searing path that was destroying her physically forced new tears to fall from her eyes.
“You’ll never get away with this.” Elle cried once more.
“I think I already have,” Jamal smirked bringing the poker to her belly again before thrusting forward.
Gasping her eye widened seeing the sparkle of his own eyes as he watched the poker pierce the skin and sink through the tender flesh like a hot knife through butter. Elle’s lungs quivering around the pain that shot through her like a million volts of electricity, giving up the last earth shattering scream.
Jamal watched as the blood pooled around the wound in her stomach as he pulled the poker free, dripping down her body into a puddle in the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Three
He didn’t know how much more waiting he could stand as the beasts surrounded the cabin as Gallen, Gaerik and he stood atop of the slope of the hill that surrounded the small valley below them. What were they waiting for? Marik knew that Jamal had Elle inside, he was only one werewolf, and the three of them could easily take him. They weren’t the only werewolves here, nomads had come as well - drawn into their spider’s web of trouble by the call of the guardian who led the animals down the valley, circling the cabin.
Her scream sent shivers down his spine, causing every hair on his body to rise in protest of her pain. Elle had quickly become something more to him than just the ticket to finding his brother, she’d saved him from making one of the biggest mistakes of his life simply by slowing him down from his intended target. Marik would never be able to repay her for that - yet at the same time, he knew he was guilty. He was at fault for that scream, and it didn’t matter that he wasn’t the one physically causing it.
Vaulting down the hill side, Marik didn’t know what reached the door of the cabin first, his body or his soul. His full weight thrown into the door the wood itself splintered in an explosion that filled the front room as all of the color washed from his face as his light blue eyes fell on the naked body suspended from hand cuffs from the ceiling. Jamal near the fire place, a long rod in his hand which his mind comprehended as a fireplace poker that was smoldering and its end coated thickly in crimson made his heart nearly stop.
Jamal didn’t look surprised to see him at all as if his presence were entirely expected though the pure rage that was clouding the man’s eyes wasn’t recognizable to him. It occurred to him that he’d never truly seen Marik anger. Not like this. Thick black hair covered the lower portion of his face as elongated fangs protruded from beneath this lips.
“What the fuck have you done?” His roar was deafening as he stepped inside of the cabin.
His grip on the fireplace poker tightened as a sickening smile spread across his features, he was seeing the true Marik right now, the beast that he kept at bay all these years, repressed, and afraid of what he really was. “I’ve killed her,” Jamal replied, swinging the poker through the air at Marik who quickly dodged the crude tool. “Well…almost but I don’t think she’ll last much longer. Very good of you to come and watch.” Laughing he swung the poker once more, and it connected, though it wasn’t with Marik and his actions faltered for a second as his gaze traveled up the length of the rod and found the other Chaliceman at the end of it, his fist holding the bloody end of the poker. “You’re not supposed to be here.” Jamal breathed.
“You set me up,” Gaerik growled.
Marik backhanded his fist into his Jamal’s jaw watching him stumble backwards in surprise, falling over the coffee table and onto his back. The assault didn’t stop there as Marik pursued his figure, grabbing him by the throat and hauling him up to his feet before throwing him into the opposing wall.
Before Jamal could regain his footing, Gaerik was there to catch him, spinning him around at the shoulders as his talons slashed his face, a claw slicing through his left eye and brow, blood beginning to pour from the cuts.
“You tried to have me killed.” He hissed stabbing his talons through his gut and slicing
upwards before throwing him backwards watching as he fell over a chair.
~
Stepping through the door with the guardian at his side Gallen hurried to Elle her limp body hanging from the cuffs he picked her up as gently as he laid her down onto the floor as he came out of his coat, wrapping her in it. Crashing all around them as Marik and Gaerik took Jamal out of the cabin into the snow for the waiting beasts which howled for their part of the traitor.
“Elle darling? Can you hear me? It’s Gallen.” He whispered, stroking her hair away from her face.
“He- he wants to kill you all,” She gasped, her face crumpling in pain as her hands moved around her stomach, holding her fingers over the wound.
“Shhh, its ok, it’s not important. I just need you to hold on for me ok?”
“No…I have to tell you.” Elle whimpered, tears streaking the corners of her eyes as she looked up at the face she could barely see through the blur of moister in her eyes, but she knew that tender, kind voice as if she had heard it all her life. “Gallen, the Council. They’re in on this.” Elle struggled to speak, choking as she tasted blood in her mouth. “They want you gone, and they knew about Jamal.”
She had to be delirious, the Council? All of this was a plot to get him off of the Council of Alpha’s? Gallen shook his head as he held her closer. “No darling, Jamal was lying, that can’t possibly be true. Try to stay awake for me, we’re going to get you help soon I promise.”
“Fucking bastard.” Gaerik’s voice sounded from behind his father as he moved around his body to crouch on the floor near them both. He’d never seen Elle up close all he had to know her by were her photographs, and even now he knew that they were no match.
“How is she?” He asked moving one of her hands gently to look at the wound wincing slowly as he turned his eyes away and took his jacket off, rolling it up as he applied it to the wound. The monster had really don’t a number on her, and for that, he did not regret the death that he received, now all that was left were blood pieces of him in the snow.
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