Roger ran a hand through his short black hair, running along the scar on the side of his face in the process. Then he laughed. “When they’re born? My dear, those children will never be born.” His eyes took on an evil glint in the moonlight. “Not if I can help it,” he growled darkly.
Chapter Five
He and Ilene shifted at the same time as me and Jax. Roger headed straight for me, but Jax and Darren cut him off, engaging him and leaving me to battle Ilene. I still wasn’t sure if I would have the strength to do it, but I couldn’t wait around for that strength to come to me.
“You’re a traitor,” Ilene snarled at me. “You and that bloodsucking freak!”
“You didn’t think he was such a freak when you wanted him for yourself!”
She lunged at me, and I jumped to the side and turned, biting deep into her shoulder. She yelped, but didn’t back away like I thought she would. Instead, she turned her head sharply and snapped at my throat. She missed by mere inches, and she and I slowly began to circle one another.
“Roger’s been teaching me to fight. I’m as good as you are now, and since you’re weighed down, you won’t stand a chance.”
She slashed at my face, and I ducked under her smaller paws, coming up under them to ram my shoulder into hers again. She toppled head over heels into the dirt and I stood over her, baring my teeth in a loud snarl. “Don’t fight me, Ilene. I have more to fight for than you, and it gives me the advantage. Believe it or not, I don’t want to hurt you.”
She didn’t answer, but I didn’t really expect her to. She saw me as the enemy, as well as anyone that stood with me, and she wouldn’t hesitate to take me out. That would be a problem, because I couldn’t see myself not hesitating. Even after everything she’d done, she was still my baby sister. Instead of begging for her life, she just looked steadily up at me, and snarled.
Then she snapped at my neck, forcing me to jump back and let her up rather than have my throat ripped out. She didn’t need time to plan her next move like I thought she would. Instead, she just lunged in several times, snapping at thin air as I slid out of her way each time. After her fourth near miss, her temper began to show, and she started to get sloppier with her movements.
When I dodged her fifth attempt at a bite, I spun around and threw myself at her. She rose up on her hind legs to meet me, and our forelegs slashed and clawed at one another, and we snapped with our fangs, trying to reach any part of one another. She dug her teeth into my left shoulder, while I ripped open her stomach with my claws.
Ilene backed away to catch her breath, and it gave me a chance to nurse my wounded shoulder. Just as I was starting to regain my breath and composure, a sudden tearing in my stomach had me practically doubled over, gasping for air. The pain that ripped through me was so intense it brought tears to my eyes, and I hacked up a mouthful of blood onto the forest floor.
Ilene watched me with surprise, momentarily forgetting that we were in the middle of a fight. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, sounding slightly smug. She was playing off her surprise and unease well, but I saw through it. She was worried because she didn’t understand if I was somehow faking it, or if I was trying to get her sympathy.
I coughed up another mouthful of blood as a second round of stomach spasms hit me. I was beginning to worry, because I didn’t know what was happening to me. The pain in my stomach was so intense that I couldn’t even defend myself when Ilene lunged at me again.
A larger black wolf with a white star on its chest slammed into her before she reached me, sending her flying across the clearing. She rolled to a stop, colliding with a tree trunk, and Ray looked down at me. “Alanna! Are you alright?” I coughed up a third mouthful of blood, and he whined nervously, before nudging my good shoulder with his head. “Get out of here; it’s not safe.”
Ilene rammed into Ray’s side, but because she was so much smaller, he barely moved. Instead, he turned around and head-butted her, sending her staggering back a few steps. She shook her head to clear it, and regarded Ray with a desperate look in her eyes. She might have stood a chance against me, but she couldn’t beat Ray in a fight. I knew that, he knew that, and she knew it too.
A smart person would have turned around and run home, but she wasn’t exactly smart at the moment. Instead, she rolled her shoulders, and lunged in again, trying for a different spot than she had the first time. Like before, Ray jumped out of the way, and snapped at her hind flank, forcing her to circle around him in a wide path, keeping well out of reach of his fangs.
Jax and Darren looked to be holding their own, but I noticed that Darren’s forearm was at a funny angle, and Jax was bleeding from gouges to his back, hind leg, and chest. His fur was matted to his body with blood, and he looked slow and out of breath. He wouldn’t be able to go much longer without passing our or getting himself killed.
“Daddy, please don’t!”
I looked at Ray, who was standing over a cowering Ilene. She was on her back with her paws in the air, and he was standing over her, staring into her eyes that were the same shade as his. She was whimpering pitifully, and I could see Ray’s teeth paused just inches away from her throat. Her cries halted his attack, and he hesitated.
Ilene took advantage of that.
The second Ray backed up, she lunged forward like a cobra, sinking her teeth into the soft flesh at the side of Ray’s neck. Blood welled up, gushing from beneath her clamped jaws, spilling onto the damp forest floor. She pulled away from him with her teeth still clamped down tightly around his throat, and she ripped the skin open with a sickening tearing sound. Blood gushed from the wound, quickly soaking his fur in bright red liquid. He staggered back a few steps, almost as if drunk, and then he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
I didn’t even hesitate; I threw myself at Ilene with reckless abandon. I slammed into her side, causing her to yelp and stumble to the ground. I didn’t give her a chance to recover, I just bit down into the flesh of her side, right below her ribcage, and pulled away with a chunk of fur, flesh, and blood caught between my teeth.
She screamed so loud that it caught the attention of everyone in the clearing. Even Roger stopped his assault on Jax and Darren. What they all saw was a naked, human Ilene lying in a pool of her own blood, with a gaping hole in her stomach and left hip. Her entire body was drenched in sticky, warm blood, and I snarled at her.
“He’s our father!”
She just stared at me with wide-eyed fear, but I didn’t care. I wanted to lean forward and finish her off, just rip out her throat like she’d just done to our father. I didn’t care about any moral repercussions, or shame, or anything that I would almost undoubtedly feel later. I just wanted revenge for everything she’d put me and our family through. I wanted to end her life like she had been planning to end mine.
That one thought stopped me though. Ilene was a monster; I wasn’t, and I never would be. I was a good person, and I wasn’t capable of cold-blooded murder. Fighting to the death was one thing, fighting for your family was another, but this was something else entirely. If I did this now, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
There are going to be so many chances to do something bad, something you’ll have to carry with you for a very long time. If you do something bad, I think forever is a long time to live with the guilt of what you’ve done…
I remembered the small speech I’d given to Ilene during one of the last nights we spent together as a family. Those words haunted me now, and I felt immediately ashamed of what I had considered doing. My words were true then, and they were even truer now.
I turned away from her, leaving her naked and bloody on the forest floor, and turned instead to Ray. He’d shifted back, and I kept my eyes above his chest, staring only at his neck. There was a hole there, and it was the size of a wolf’s jaw. Thankfully Ilene had gotten a bit of his shoulder too, but the wound was so bad I wasn’t sure if he could survive. The healing had started kicking in, but it wasn’t doing enough. He was
still losing blood, and he was losing it fast.
“Alanna!” Jax ran over, wearing only a pair of jeans, and he bent down to Ray’s level. “Alanna, what happened?” He didn’t wait for an answer, and used the shirt he’d handed me earlier to try and stop the flow of blood. “Darren! Help me get Ray back home. Maybe Jenna can help him. Alanna, run ahead and warn her.”
I couldn’t move. I was too frozen in place at the sight of my father bleeding to death in front of me. I might lose him. What if I never see his smile or hear his laugh ever again? What if he never holds me or tells me that everything will be alright? I’m not ready to live without him!
“Alanna!” Jax shouted, getting my attention. “Go!”
As I turned out of the clearing, I noticed Roger pick up a naked Ilene and run in the opposite direction. I was so surprised that he hadn’t left her that it broke me out of my confusion. I turned and ran, quickly making my way back home. I couldn’t even take the time to shift back, and instead jumped through the first open window I found. Landing in the living room, I startled Dennis, Haley, and Jenna, who were sitting anxiously around the kitchen table. Quinten was leaning against the kitchen counter, and he hurried to me.
“Alanna, what happened?”
I finally shifted back, breathless, naked, pregnant, and covered in blood that wasn’t all mine. “Roger and Ilene attacked. Ray’s been seriously hurt. There’s so much blood!”
Jenna jumped to her feet and raced for Ray’s bedroom. She came back with her medical bag that had saved countless lives over the years, and the back door burst open. Jax and Darren carried an unconscious Ray into the living room. Jenna ushered them down to his bedroom, and I tried to follow them, only to be stopped by Jenna.
“Alanna, I’m going to do everything I can to help Ray, but I need you to wait out here. You’ll just get in my way. I’m sorry.”
I nodded, and Quinten handed me a pile of clothes. I quickly became painfully aware that I was naked in front of a ton of people, including Maria and Dennis. Dressing quickly, I turned and looked down the hallway in the direction that everyone else had gone. When Jax and Darren came back out and closed Ray’s bedroom door closed behind him, I almost burst into tears.
Darren patted me on the shoulder, and went to sit with Jax on the couch, while I counted time in my head. Every moment that Jenna was closed in Ray’s room felt like an eternity of unbearable torture that I was being forced to suffer through.
One. Two. Three.
What if he dies? What if he never gets to hold his grandchildren? What if he doesn’t get the chance to walk me down the aisle someday after all this fighting is over?
Four. Five. Six.
What if I have to spend the rest of my life without him? How would I go on? He’s been the only person that has ever loved me unconditionally. He’s the only parent I’ve ever really had.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
The door opened, and Jenna came back out. Her hands and shirt were stained red with blood, and she looked pale, exhausted and visibly shaken, but she looked relieved and hopeful. “I’ve managed to stop the bleeding for now, and his healing is taking care of the rest. He should be fine in a day or two.” She put her hands on my shoulders and forced me to look into her eyes.
For a brief second, I was slightly worried of what she would see. Were my eyes manic and crazy? Was I shaking or crying uncontrollably? It was strange, because for the second time in my life, I was truly and completely numb. I felt almost like I had when I thought I’d lost Quinten forever.
“Alanna, your father is going to be fine.” She looked so happy and relieved I couldn’t believe they weren’t together. It was obvious to me, even in my panicked state, and to everyone else in the room, that Jenna was in love with Ray, and she was just as happy as I was that he would recover.
When her words finally sunk in, I burst into tears again and buried my face in Quinten’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer, and he whispered soothingly in my ear, telling me over and over again that everything would be alright, and I believed him.
Ray’s gonna be just fine…
*****
It took two days for Ray to recover to the point where he could get up and begin to walk around, and either Jenna or I was there to help him with each and every step. On the second morning of his recovery, I woke to find him watching some of our old home movies in the living room. The picture quality was terrible, but it was an easy day to remember, and I could picture it clearly in my head.
It was Ilene’s fifth birthday, and Ray had gotten her a giant pink, flowered cake, and she’d hated it. She spent the entire day screaming for mom, which made both Ray and I bite our lips each time, and she didn’t cheer up until Ray put her in his lap and sang to her. Then she started to laugh, and when I sat down next to them, she wrapped her thin, little arms around my shoulders, and told the two of us that she’d love us forever.
“I remember that day,” I said, causing Ray to jump guiltily. He looked at me, and I spoke before he could. “She acted like such a brat, until you started to sing to her. She always liked things to go her way, and she threw a fit when they didn’t. I wish I’d noticed sooner how bad she really was.”
Ray sighed. “I know. I can’t believe the two of us didn’t see it. She was always so…defiant. She didn’t like to listen, she wanted things to go her way or not at all, and she could barely contain her contempt for vampires. I never liked them, but I didn’t think they deserved to be slaughtered, and she did. She was a monster, and I made her that way.”
“Dad, you did no such thing. The way I see it, Ilene was gonna be who she is with or without your influence. She chose to be the way she is; you didn’t make her into anything. She wanted to be number one, and if she had to become a monster to get it, so be it. She doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as she comes out on top. But this is not your fault. If you wanna blame someone, blame Carmen. If she hadn’t left us thinking she’d been murdered by a vampire, Ilene would have probably grown up much different than she did.”
He shook his head. “I know what you’re saying is true, but I just can’t get myself to believe it. My little girl is a monster, and I almost killed her the other day. What kind of father am I?”
“The greatest father there ever was,” I said, sliding onto the couch beside him. “You’re caring, compassionate, brave, selfless, and so many other things, and you’ve proven it over and over again. Dad, I hate to be the one to say this, because she’s still my little sister and some part of me still loves her, but the only way this has a semi-happy ending is if both Roger and Ilene die,” I said softly.
He nodded miserably. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, and he looked down. “I know, but I can’t do it. I hesitated during that fight, and it cost me. I knew she would have gladly killed you–and she did try to kill me–but in that moment, all I saw was my baby, staring at me with those wide eyes of hers that look so much like my own. I couldn’t do it,” he whispered, as if that was something that he had to be ashamed of.
“I’ll do it,” I said softly, startling him and myself. “When the time comes, I won’t leave you to handle this alone. You keep blaming yourself, but I was around as often as you were, and I didn’t see what she was becoming either. If I have to, I’ll be the one to kill her. Dad, I won’t enjoy it, and it’ll probably haunt me for the rest of my life, but it has to be done.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, and I didn’t push him. What could you say to something like that? Was he supposed to wish me luck or tell me that he was rooting for me? After a few minutes of silent thought, he spoke again.
“So…Jax and Darren, huh?”
They’d come out in the open with their new relationship when Ray first woke up, and everyone had been as surprised as me. “Yeah, Jax and Darren. His stirrings were meant for Darren in the dungeons, not one of the servers. He knew it the second we brought the dhampirs back, and Jax woke up after his attack; he just didn’t wanna believe
it, so he tried to be as mean and uncaring to Darren as he could. Then, when his feelings started to change, he kept up the act so nobody would be suspicious.”
“How did you find out?”
“I stumbled across their little secret tryst.” He chuckled, and I smiled. “Believe me I was shocked; it was not something I thought I’d ever see, especially in the middle of the woods that late at night.”
He looked at me. “What the hell were you even doing out there that late, not to mention alone? You could have been killed, and you almost were! I can’t believe that after everything we’ve all gone through, you could be so careless.”
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter, actually,” I confessed. I hadn’t told anyone about the den aside from Jax and Darren in the woods, and Quinten later that night. Whenever I thought about it, I would get a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, telling me to keep my mouth shut and my den hidden. But Ray was my father, and if I couldn’t trust him, who could I trust?
“Alanna?”
I took a deep breath. “My instincts took over, forcing me to shift, and without any control over it, I dug a den in the middle of the woods. A birthing den of some kind. It’s what a wolf would do during her pregnancy. She’d make it secluded and as safe as possible, and she’d have her pups there when the time came.”
He looked shocked, and a little skeptical. “A den? Alanna, you’re a werewolf, but you’re not a wild animal. I’ve never heard of any other pregnant werewolves doing that.”
“Well, those werewolves weren’t carrying a vampire’s child. But Dad, the den isn’t everything I have to tell you. When I was fighting with Ilene, something strange started happening to me. I talked to Jenna about it, and she agrees with my own conclusion.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I started to get this really painful feeling in my stomach, and then I started coughing up blood, which you noticed. It freaked Ilene out so much she actually stopped her attack to watch me. It wasn’t until later that I figured out what it was. Jenna and I think that the babies were shifting inside of me. I was right. They are already werewolves because of Quinten, and when I shifted last night, they did too.”
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