by Ebony Olson
Malcolm's eyes burned with fury. "I never agreed to kill her."
"Dale is too strong to take on. If we kill her, it kills him, and I get this pack."
"You're too weak to be Alpha. That's why Jeremy and Bob were higher ranked."
Ear twitching, Malcolm eyed Howard. "You told me you were beta."
Insane bravery taking me over, or it was the knowledge that I would die tonight, I laughed. "He wishes." What was the point in cowering to your death? I didn't want them to rape and torture me first. If I was going to die, I was going to go down swinging.
Growling, Howard smacked me across the face. "Shut up! I'm good enough to be beta."
Despite the sting in my cheek, I kept laughing. After Malcolm's hit, Howard's was a love tap. "I've seen Bob best you. In this room, you're the weak and pathetic one. That's why you hate me. You know you are weaker than me! I survived years of abuse and fought for my freedom. You are a pathetic, jealous asshole who betrayed his own pack. You don't even have loyalty." Taking a breath, I spat in his face, shocking him. "I doubt you could get a woman pregnant. You are probably neutered like a ball-less bull."
"Fucking bitch!" Howard went to hit me.
Blocking his strike, Malcolm threw Howard across the room. "You lied to me. Nothing you told me was the truth. Our deal is off."
Growling, Howard charged Malcolm, shifting as he did. Like liquid flowing over his skin, Malcolm took beast form. Catching Howard around the throat as he came at him, Malcolm threw him across the room. Howard landed with a sickening thud. As Malcolm stomped towards Howard, I got myself upright and to the bedside table. Using my hands to pick up my phone, I ran out of the bedroom.
Pressing the quick-dial for Jeremy, I ran for the back door. Turning to push down on the handle, I whimpered when I found it locked. Shifting my hands to unlock the latch, I dropped the phone. "Jeremy, help!" I yelled when I saw the call connected.
Managing to get the lock open, I was turning the handle when a large hand grabbed my throat. Staring wide-eyed as Malcolm melted back out of beast form to human, I struggled in his hold.
"Where do you think you are going?" Snarling, Malcolm yanked me away from the back door. "You were right about that wolf, Viridia. He was weak, and he was very wrong about you, but that doesn't change a thing. You belong to me.”
Chapter 24
Flying across the room, I hit the wall above the lounge and fell to the sofa with a scream. Pain seared through my body. Fisting my hair, Malcolm pulled me up to standing. Naked after his shift, his excitement was evident.
"You've grown braver in your time away from me, Viridia. You would never have dared speak to any of my wolves like that. I'm impressed."
Fidgeting as he talked, I tried to get out of my restraints. I'd felt the belt loosen when I hit the wall. Fear flooded my system, but instead of it paralyzing me, my brain was racing, thinking of how to get free. Having always been a good runner, I could run. If I could get my hands free, I could run for the main house, and get help. Remembering Jeremy and Dale wasn't there, I sobbed.
Forcing me to my knees, Malcolm pouted. "Come on, Viridia. I was enjoying this new side of you. Don't ruin it with tears."
"Please, Malcolm, don't do this. Let me go. Please?"
Scowling, Malcolm forced me down to lie on the floor and knelt above me. "I can't do that. I love you."
"That's bullshit! You never loved me, never cared for me."
Shaking his head, Malcolm sighed. "You're wrong."
"You don't know what love is. You don't rape a girl because you love her, and you don't beat her out of love. You have spent fourteen years, raping, beating, and humiliating me. That's not love."
"You only remember the bad times. We mostly made love. The beatings only happened when you misbehaved and set the other members of the pack off. I understand now why it got worse over the years, with your pheromones, but it won't be like that anymore. With you mated, we can be together, and love each other without all that hostility."
"I belong to my mate. He loves me and cares for me. Dale has shown me how a real man treats a woman, and the Goddess can damn me before I go back to a life of pain and fear with you."
Malcolm's eyes turned fierce at my comparison with Dale. I swear I lost an entire patch of hair when his fist ripped my head back. My scalp stung, and there was the feel of blood dribbling. "You are mine!"
Hissing in pain, I tried to delay, to hold out long enough for help to arrive. "You're obsessed, and obsession isn't love. If you loved me, you would care how much you are hurting me. Your fixation is about you and how you feel. You are selfish and violent and cruel."
Relaxing his grip, Malcolm snarled at me. "Selfish?"
A strange calm came over me that I'd never experienced. I was goading him, and I wondered if my behavior was suicidal. That subconsciously I decided I'd rather die than go back with him.
"Especially in bed. I've never been able to compare before, but now I know how bad you are at sex."
Rearing back, fist ready and aimed for my head, Malcolm swung. A growl ripped through the night. My back door smashed as something dark-grey came through it and threw Malcolm away from me.
Above me, a massive beast straightened. Covered in dark-grey fur with a white strip down his spine. Goldeyes rimmed in blue checked me over while Malcolm snarled and got to his feet. With a flick of his arms, Malcolm became beast too, but he had nothing on Bob. Bob was over a head taller, and much broader. Bob was stronger.
Malcolm rushed Bob. Swinging his arm, Bob sent Malcolm flying across the room and smashing into my kitchen. Rolling me, Bob slashed his giant claw, sliced the belt restraining me. With my wrists free, he turned his attention to the threatening growl of Malcolm.
Planting his feet, Bob pushed down and pounced. Catching Malcolm, Bob forced him back to the kitchen and away from me. Relief washed over me; Bob was stronger than Malcolm, I could sense it. This should be easy.
But, nothing in my life had ever been easy. As I watched them fight, I learned there was a difference between strength and speed. Malcolm didn't stay Alpha in a hostile pack of madmen because he couldn't fight.
The first time Malcolm got the upper hand on Bob, my heart stopped. As they smashed through the kitchen, my breath stopped, my heart raced, and fear drowned my senses. The fear of someone I cared about getting hurt. Panicking, unable to move, I stared in horror as they fought. The fear paralysis finally kicked in, and I was stuck watching; dreading every hit Bob took to protect me. Fearing for him.
It was all so very new to me. I'd only ever feared other people, never for another. Never had I had to worry about another's safety. Never feared someone dying as a result of trying to help me.
Raking his claws across Bob's chest, Malcolm scored his first real hit. A pressure in my head developed, making me wince. It was like someone yelling in your ears, but it was so loud you actually couldn't hear it. My head hurting under the assault, I didn't know how to relieve the pressure. It didn't matter because, at that moment, Bob stumbled.
Using his speed to grab Bob's throat, Malcolm punched him in the face. Blood spurted from Bob's nose. Without thinking, I caught up a vase and threw it straight at Malcolm's head. As it smashed against the side of his face, he released Bob and turned to me.
Staring down at my hands as Bob renewed his effort, I stood with my mouth hanging open. I'd moved fast. Inhuman-quick. Blood and fur slashed through the air. Following the blur of the beast's battle, I worried I wouldn't see what was happening.
When my eyes itched, I squeezed them shut and rubbed them, taking a second to relieve the itching. When I opened my eyes, the fighting had slowed down, though, it hadn't, I was just able to track it now. The pressure in my head was also gone, the yelling no longer noiseless.
'Run!' Bob yelled at me. 'Vera, run.'
Bob hit the window. It wobbled like jelly from his impact. Rebounding off, Bob fell to the floor, and a millisecond later, the ripples of the glass seized. The glass exploded outwa
rds towards the backyard. Getting to his feet, Bob swayed a little as Malcolm picked up the dining room table like it weighed nothing.
'Bob, watch out!'
Swinging the table like a bat as Bob turned, Malcolm swatted Bob like a fly. Standing helpless, I screamed as Bob flew passed me and smashed into the wall of the lounge room. Unlike me, Bob didn't bounce off. He went through the wall and landed with a sickening crunch against the bathroom sink.
The mirror cracked behind his head, scarlet webs streaming through the reflective surface. Bob blinked at me, my shock and fear staring back at me. 'Vera.' He fell to the floor.
"No!"
A hand grabbed me and threw me to the ground. 'Move, and I will hurt you.'
Whimpering, I shrunk away from the threat. Stopping as my eyes caught his attention, Malcolm grabbed my chin and studied me. 'There is a wolf in there. I thought for sure that worthless mutt had lied about everything.'
Choking anger rose inside me. Howard betrayed his Alpha, betrayed his pack, betrayed my pack. As Malcolm punched handfuls of gyprock so he could climb through the wall, the anger hit me.
Malcolm was going to kill Bob. Bob was going to die for trying to protect me, and I was sitting here doing nothing like the pathetic weak human. He was my pack, they had taken me in, cared for me, shown me not all our kind were assholes. Why couldn't I protect him?
The need to do something burbled up in me like water boiling in my veins. The bubbles of rage and loyalty growing bigger and bigger as the anger burnt away my fear. Lifting my head as Malcolm broke his way through the wall, I focused on Bob lying in human form on the other side. A crumpled heap of flesh and blood and glistening white bits I swear was bone. As Malcolm shifted to human form, my need to protect my pack reached the boiling point.
'Vera!' Dale was somewhere far away, his fear coating my tongue like a mouthful of dough.
Refusing to swallow his fear for me, I let my focus stay on my bathroom, ignoring the itching all over my body. The pack came first. Bob was pack.
As Malcolm readied to break Bob's neck, my instinct exploded from me in a shower of strawberry cream fur. Launching from where I was, through the hole in the wall, my jaws latched on Malcolm's neck.
The animal snarled, gave a sharp turn of its head, reefing Malcolm's head to the side. Then blood, glorious blood was filling my mouth and nose, coating, and washing away the dough of fear. My claws raked at flesh as we tumbled through the bathroom door into the bedroom. With a good grip his throat, I yanked my head to one side and felt everything in my mouth tear away from its restraint. Spitting the flesh and sinew out, I dove back in. Angry claws raked down my back. The stench of fear cloyed my senses as I wrapped my jaws around muscle, cartilage, veins, and nerves. I wrenched again.
The satisfying rip thrilled me, the spray of blood like a geyser showered me with praise. Still, those claws burned, ripping chunks of fur and flesh from my back. I didn't care. I needed to protect my pack, my cub, my life.
Biting down a third time, I jerked away with a sloppy rip, pop, gurgle, and the claws of the beast beneath me fell away. The geysers of victory lost their power and turned into puddles on the floor.
Backing away, checking, making sure. The beast trembled violently. The murky brown fur stained in blood withdrew, leaving the man who abused me looking into the next world.
Awareness flooded my brain, and I backed away faster. In the bathroom, I moved to a rapidly blinking Bob. Sniffing my packmate, I was careful where my paws fell. Crouching low, I shuffled closer, investigating the fading focus of his eyes.
Lifting a hand, Bob patted my neck. He was so weak, I barely felt it. "It's okay, Vera. You are safe now. He can never hurt you again."
Whimpering, I scooched forward nuzzling him.
"It's okay." His hand fell to the floor.
Sitting up, I cried, screaming my pain, baying to the moon to save my packmate.
The front door kicked open, followed by a stampede of feet. Turning towards the new threat, I growled. Jeremy appeared. Taking in the scene, he rushed forward. Backing up into the corner of the bathroom, I tried to get out of his way.
Dale was right behind him, eyes searching for me. When the indigo-gold irises found me, relief flooded my entire being. Trembling, I reached for him. As I did, my muscles tensed and released. My paw elongated and formed into a hand, my arm followed. I stepped out of the wolf as I moved towards Dale. As if a forcefield stood between us, and as I passed through the invisible barrier, I emerged human.
Jeremy was on the phone as he tended Bob's wounds. Taking my hand, Dale moved me out of the way. Guiding me from the room, Dale led me away from the lump of flesh and blood that had once been my tormenter.
From the lounge room, I watched Jeremy assess all of Bob's injuries. After a tense few moments, Jeremy exhaled. "None of them are fatal. Blood transfusion and stitches, and he will heal." Glancing to the corner I'd huddled in, Jeremy frowned. That's when I noticed the blood. "Is she hurt badly?"
"Torn up and will need stitches."
Flinching, I realized that while I worried about Bob, Dale was examining the damage to my back.
"You healed a fair bit when you shifted, Vera. Bob did too."
Shaking off the fog in my head, I took Dale's hand and stared at him with my mouth hanging open.
Reading my expression, a small smile of pride lit up his eyes. "I know, I felt it too," he murmured and rubbed my nose with his.
"I felt you, your need to protect Bob. It gave me the courage to find my wolf. I feel you, Dale."
Looking beyond relieved, Dale pulled me into his arms, and I sensed the emotional turmoil inside him. Relief that I didn't deny the bond any longer. Pride for being able to shift to animal form and back without his help. Concern for Bob - we shared that one, but my fear was trumping his because guilt buoyed it up. Anger.
"You're upset with me?"
"I told you to run. I meant out the door, not at him."
Peering over his shoulder, I could see Malcolm's leg, but nothing more. "I needed to protect my pack more than you needed me to be safe. Protecting my chance at being safe, and my chance to be happy meant more to me than anything else in the world."
Dale kissed my forehead. "If I couldn't feel it, Vera, I would be so angry with you right now. But I understand." Taking my face in his hands, Dale forced me to meet his eyes. "I understand.”
Chapter 25
Forty-one stitches in my back and I wasn't allowed to complain about a single one because bob had it worse. I could have complained, but I wouldn't. Those shiny white bits I'd seen on Bob in the bathroom, they were bone. After Jonathan patched us up, Dale forced Bob to shift to full-wolf. After an hour of recovery, he then made Bob come back to human, to help speed the healing process.
Me, no. No more shifting for me for a while. Jonathan declared it too dangerous. Patched up, they took us back to the main house. My cottage swarmed by the pack, all coming to their Alpha's call. There were twice as many as I thought, which was three times the size of Malcolm's. Dale must have called them in case Malcolm hadn't come alone, but he had.
It took Dale wrapping my robe around my shoulders before I even realized I was still naked. Images like a puzzle flashing in my mind telling me that I hadn't been the only one. There weren't many men who could have stayed calm in this situation. Finding their wife naked with three naked guys. Albeit, two of them dead, and the third badly mangled. It was like a macabre orgy.
That night, I slept in Dale's arms, though, sleep may be the wrong word. Tossing and turning, I fought Malcolm off over and over again in my head. The next morning, before breakfast, Dale took me back to the cottage and stood me over Malcolm's body.
"He's dead, Vera. He can never hurt you again. You need to see this, let it sink in." Dale stepped back from me. "Do what you need to do to make it real for you." While Dale giving me space, but he was paying attention and staying close if I needed him.
Tears fell down my cheeks as I stared down at the bo
dy. Years upon years of pain and fear. "He said it wasn't all bad. He said until my pheromones became too much, they were nice to me."
Staring at Malcolm, painful moment after painful moment got washed away to one moment. It all came down to one horrible deed. "He raped a fourteen-year-old virgin and acted like I should be grateful. Every time he touched me, he was raping me all over again, for years, and he convinced me that this is how it is. That this is what it is like for women."
Dale growled, a thread of his fury whipping through the room, but I didn't cringe from it. Dale's anger no longer terrified me, it soothed me. Feeling his rage at my experience, reassured me that it wasn't the typical male mentality.
"I know I'm not the first, and I won't be the last. Human or otherwise. It should never happen. What it does is more than physical. It lasts longer than the act takes for him, and it's more than forcing you against your will."
My fingers were cramping as the pain and torment of that one unforgivable deed called my hate to the surface. With a scream worthy of a horror film, I lunged. Clawing at his face, his chest, gouging out his eyes, ripping his heart and lungs from his chest. Tearing away his sense of self like he did to me.
I wanted my hate to stain his soul. For Malcolm to know how it felt not to be able to breathe around the anguish of you, as a person, not mattering. For him to experience being a body, a piece of flesh for amusement.
There was an unsatisfying lack of blood - since the body exsanguinated the night before. Still, the ruined body, his torn-up face, his sightless eyes, it didn't take it away. Nothing ever was going too.
Closing my eyes, I cried for a minute. My claws cramped, and I stretched them as they returned to human form. Washing my hands and face, I stared at the scarlet veined webbing of my shattered mirror. Bob nearly died protecting me.
"They are not all bad, but they aren't all good." My eyes drifted to the corner where Howard's body was still slumped. "Even amongst the good, there are the rotten." Sucking in a breath, I walked out to find Dale struggling to control his emotions on the back veranda. Tears stained his cheeks, and it made my heart skip a beat that his empathy extended that deep.