Free Story #9 - Guided (Chapter 9)

Sorry about the long delay but I have been stuck with uni work all week!

As a gift and an apology, I am uploading the final two parts of Guided today. Then later on today, I will upload the first part of Foretold, it's sequel.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy it.

-

For a moment, shellshock was prominent in my thoughts. Then, just at the moment subsided; my phone rang. I answered it with a slightly shaking hand.

"Hello?"

"Tay, its Stephen. Doug's been shot"

As soon as the reality of the words kicked in, I started to panic.

"Where?" I said urgently.

"In the alleyway"

Stephen's breath was quick and fast and he was deep in shock.

"I've called Jenna but he's been saying your name"

I dropped the phone in shock and ran out the door without a coat. About half a minute later, I arrived at the alley. There was Doug, covered in his own blood and clutching his arm.

"No!" I yelled and ran over to him.

He was limp and the blood was still flowing from his arm. Only twenty minutes before, he was completely unharmed.

"Who did this?" I asked.

"That would be me" A cold voice said aloud.

I spun on my heels and turned to face a man in his early thirties, he was carrying a small handgun in a hand that was obscured by a leather glove. Judging by this, the man must have been allergic to silver. This made him only one thing. Well one of two but the one was more likely.

Looking back at Doug, I saw his wound had healed. But he still looked drained from the sudden loss of blood. He looked up at me then at the assailant, as soon as he did he gasped. The next word to come out of his mouth was both expected and the last thing I thought I would hear.

"Gregory?"

"That's right Douglas. Been a long time hasn't it?" The man said in the same cold voice as his first sentence had been in.

He laughed slightly and took a few steps closer to his former lover.

Stephen stepped between the two and growled. Gregory didn't move, he only smiled.

"Unless you want to end up in the hospital again mutt, I suggest you back down now"

That was a shocker. I had assumed that Campbell had injured his son, as apparently had Jenna and Doug. Bit since they hadn't made contact as I knew, we had never thought to find out. Stephen whined and backed against the wall. Without thinking, I took his place.

"And you must be the chew toy" Gregory laughed.

"The names Taylor, and I'm no-one's chew toy" I spat.

"Sure, he said that to me decades ago. But he had to go and bite me and turn me into this"

Gregory didn't seem too cut up about it now, but the scarring clearly present on his face indicated it had taken a long time to reach the level of thinking he was on.

Just at that moment, Jenna came round the corner followed by Campbell. It was strange to see them together but they were clearly focused on other things than each other. They both looked amazed at who they saw.

"Well well, here comes the cavalry" Gregory said.

"Gregory? But how?" Jenna gasped.

"Well after your brother bit me, I ran off scared beyond all doubt. But I managed to regain my peace of mind and now I'm back to make sure that he gets his rightful reward for ruining my life"

He pointed the gun towards Doug and everyone in the alley excluding him took a sharp intake of breath. But he didn't shoot. For a minute everyone calmed down but then he spun the gun around and shot Jenna directly in her left leg.

She screamed in agony and fell against Campbell. He held her upright and gently pressed her wound. The bullet had gone straight through and was now lying motionless in a small puddle of rainwater.

"First your sister, then you" Gregory snarled.

He pointed the gun directly at Doug and fired. Without thinking, I leapt into the air in front of him.

The bullet went straight through my chest and I slumped against the nearest wall. Campbell, who had been attending to Jenna turned when he heard the bullet being fired and saw the whole thing.

Campbell was suddenly speechless. A human had saved the life of a werewolf. In all his life, no human had ever shown that kind of selflessness before.

He suddenly realised how jaded he had been and maybe he should have given me and Doug a chance.

But being the strong masculine leader that he was, he realised that it was more important to extinguish the threat first.

A few seconds after I fell to the floor, Doug let out a grief stricken yell.

Before anyone could move, he transformed into his wolf form and howled with sheer rage clearly present in every decibel.

He ran directly at Gregory and slammed him against a row of dustbins. The gun flew from his hand and landed about five feet from Campbell. However, the gun was the last thing on anyone's mind.

Doug grabbed Gregory by the scruff of the neck. But unlike with Arc, there was no mercy.

"Any last words?" he growled.

Gregory burst into hysterical laughter, well as much as he could with a paw over his voice box.

"You've grown a backbone in a few decades" he finally said.

"And you're not the man I fell in love with" Doug growled in reply.

Before either of them could move, Campbell lay Jenna on the ground gently and transformed into his wolf form.

"Get back" he said to Doug.

But before anyone could move, Gregory kicked Doug in his private area causing him to whine and drop his prisoner. The newly free werewolf ran over to his gun. But instead of pointing it at Campbell or Stephen, he pointed it at himself.

"I may not have killed Doug, but at least I killed his new love" he said and without another word, he shot a bullet directly through his heart.

Gregory fell to the floor, it was clear that he had died instantly from the injury.

The gun fell on top of them and being silver, it melted when it touched his skin.

"Ouch" said Stephen.

This left Campbell and Stephen facing each other for the first time since he had left. At least I thought so. But there were another two matters to deal with at this matter. Me and Jenna.

Doug ran over to me and licked my wound gently. Tears were starting to fall from his wolven eyes and they landed on my rapidly bleeding chest. My breathing wasn't the best either and I coughed up blood more times than I cared to count.

Campbell walked over to me in human form and patted his former beta on the shoulder. Doug was so stricken by grief that he didn't even notice.

The alphas voice seemed to be shaken by an emotion I had never heard before. Was it compassion?

"Maybe I was wrong about humans. At least this one" he said to himself.

Campbell rubbed his hand over Doug's shoulder. The wolf began to gently whine with grief. After a few seconds, a weakened but healed Jenna walked over to our group.

"Thanks for looking after me back there" she said.

Campbell turned to face her. He was obviously blushing but he tried to talk like he wasn't.

"You'd have done the same for me" he said. Jenna smiled and gently punched his arm.

"I mean it Campbell. All these years I never thought you would. And yet you did"

The two looked at each other. Then before anyone could move, Jenna drew closer to him, and embraced in the strongest kiss I had ever seen. Stephen looked completely bemused.

After it was over, the two sighed.

"I thought you'd never do that" Campbell said.

"Consider it a thank you" Jenna smiled.

Stephen walked to Jenna and gave her a hug. After it was over, Campbell walked over and the two shared an awkward silence.

"I'm sorry I left" Stephen said finally.

"It's me that should apologise" his father answered.

"Why, you did nothing wrong" Stephen replied.

"Because if I hadn't had been so pig-headed, you wouldn't have left"

The two were silent for a second, and then shook hands. The family bond was now repaired. But there was something else to be settled.

I coughed and wheezed once more. The attention of the whole group was drawn back to me. Campbell turned to face Doug once more.

"Doug, you can save his life. You know what to do"

He did know what to do. But after what had happened, would he do it? I suddenly realised what he meant.

The only way I could heal from this injury was if Doug bit me and I became a werewolf.

A tense silence followed. My boyfriend finally walked up to me and leaned over toward my ear.

"Taylor, do you want me to do this?" he asked.

I was scared, but I wanted to live. There was so much I wanted to do, things I wanted to see. I didn't care if I lived forever or that I could change into a supernatural creature, all I wanted was my life back.

And I wanted Doug to be in that life, for better and for worse.

I coughed once more and after gaining all the strength I had left, I nodded quickly and with determination. It took a while, but Doug opened his wide wolf mouth. Campbell placed my left arm into the gap between his massive teeth and after another brief pause, his teeth clamped down.

The pain went through me like a muscle spasm but I kept myself together until the worst of it had passed. Doug released his teeth from my arm a second later and it was carefully lifted onto the floor. Then from sheer exhaustion, I exhaled sharply and fainted.