Hey guys, this is the final part of Endangered. I know it's short but I wrote this at a time when I couldn't quite figure out the future. I have a vague idea now and the saga will be finished. At some point. :)
Without further adieu, here's the final chapter.
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After Lucas had entered the church, his werewolves
had followed. They made perfectly sure to growl at us just before they left
their sight. I half considered growling back but then we would have had a
challenge on our hands, and that was something no-one on Lucas's side would
want.
Just as my emotions were
beginning to subside, I thought of something that made my blood run cold. And
that was quite feat considering I was a werewolf.
Arc and Zoe were nowhere
to be seen. The last time I had seen them, they had been standing by the
fountain used for the Holy Communion just before I had run out.
In my adrenaline fuelled
panic, I considered ringing Zoe's phone, but I quickly realised that if they
were in hiding, it would give them away. But I had to let the others know what
was going on. Thankfully Shadow realised our overlook as well. He stared at me
with an expression that could either be interpreted as shock or complete
horror.
But to be honest, both
were appropriate. Zoe may be a witch and Arc may be a shape shifter, but in a
room full of werewolves, I wasn't sure if they would survive.
I just hoped I was
wrong.
Stephen noticed our
faces and frowned.
"What's up with you
two?" he asked.
"Zoe and Arc are
still in the church" I answered.
At my words, Jenna and
Doug stiffened.
"We have to get
them out of there" Doug growled.
"But how? If we go
in, we're dog food, literally" Jenna snapped back.
"We can't just
leave them in there" Shadow yelled.
"I know but we need
to think this through" Jenna yelled back.
"Will you two calm
down" I yelled.
At my words, they both
looked at me with glowing eyes. For a moment, I considered running but before I
could make a choice, they were calm again.
"I'm sorry
guys" I said after a moment.
Jenna sighed.
"No need to
apologise, we shouldn't be fighting each other" she said in the same light
voice.
"So what are we
going to do?" Doug asked.
Before we could decide,
a loud howl and several yips came from the church. And to my great relief, I
saw a cat jump out of the broken window by the front door. By it's markings, it
was clearly Arc. He ran over to us and shifted halfway. I had got so used to seeing
him naked I didn't even blush.
"Thank god you're
ok" I said when he reached us.
"Don't thank him
just yet, Zoe's still in there, and she's trapped" Arc said breathlessly.
I suddenly wondered if a
rescue was necessary. She was a witch after all.
"Can't she just use
a spell to escape?" I asked.
"No, they've got
the place full of nullifying artefacts"
That was bad. Without
magic, Zoe couldn't shape shift and escape. And with no defensive spells, she
was literally trapped. And with at least thirty werewolves in there, she would
need all the help she could get. But seeing as how we had been effectively
banned from the church, going in was suicide as well.
"Seems there's no
way but to go in" Jenna resigned.
Unfortunately, we had to
agree. Zoe was one of our family and we would do whatever it took to rescue
her. But before we could make a plan, the alpha wereleopard walked into our
group.
"There is one way
we can do it with no need for anyone to be harmed" he said.
"What is it?"
I asked.
He shook his head.
"Not here" he
said and gestured over toward the field. When I realised what he meant, it made
sense. Lucas would be able to hear us if we were too close to the church. We
all walked into the field and he whispered the plan to us all.
When he was finished,
Jenna looked slightly afraid.
"Should we really
do that?"
"We have no choice,
they will kill us all" the alpha replied.
Considering, we all
agreed it was for the best. Then after going through it one more time, we set
our plan into motion.
Larry and the alpha
leopard walked to the door with another of the leopards. They knocked three
times on the wooden front door and eventually Lucas opened it and sniffed the
air.
"And just what do
you alley cats want?" he asked.
"We want to call a
truce" The alpha said.
Lucas rubbed his chin.
"I suppose I may as
well have a few uneasy allies" he said and gestured for the three visitors
to go in through the door. After the door closed, we breathed a sigh of relief.
Inside the church, Larry
and the alpha talked to Lucas. The other werewolves were fast asleep on the
floor. The last leopard looked around and finally spotted Zoe lying on the
floor. He got her up onto her feet and she stared at him.
"Don't worry, I'm
here to help" the wereleopard growled.
Zoe didn't argue.
Together they crept through the sleeping shifters and eventually they got to
the front door. But just as he opened the door, Lucas howled and the wolves
awoke.
"Did you really
think I would fall for that?" he spat.
"It was worth a
try" The alpha wereleopard replied.
In a second, Lucas's
sleeping comrades got to their feet and snarled.
The alpha flung open the
doors, grabbed Larry's arm and pushed him out. Zoe and the other wereleopard
also left. Lucas roared and went to attack the alpha, but he dodged
effortlessly.
Zoe ran over to us and
gave me the biggest hug she could.
After she was done, she
went over to the church doors.
"Get out of
there" she yelled to the alpha.
But the alpha didn't
listen, as futile as it was, he wouldn't let them get to us. Zoe sighed.
She raised her heads and
yelled a loud command into the sky. A huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and
the door slammed shut.
"Zoe, what are you
.." I started to say, but she held up her hand.
When she had finished
signalling em, she began to chant a verse of words that had no meaning, as she
did so, the air grew thick with the energy of her magic and her body left the
ground a few inches.
"Zoe, stop!"
Doug yelled.
But his words fell on
deaf ears. Her chanting got louder and louder until she was almost shouting.
Finally, she said the final word of her spell and flung her arms toward the
church.
The church swirled with
translucent energy and before anyone could move, a loud clicking noise echoed
through the open air.
We all gasped. Jenna
knew what she had done, and thanks to Markus, so did I.
Zoe had done something
we never thought she would ever do. She had locked Lucas, the alpha wereleopard
and the whole werewolf pack in the church. And unless Zoe took the spell away
willingly, they would be trapped. Forever.
Zoe turned back to us.
She looked dishevelled, exhausted and most of all horrified at what she had
done. Jenna walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. As soon as she had,
Zoe thanked her with a single glance, and then fainted.
Arc rushed forward and
took her in his arms.
"I'll take her back
home" he said after a moment.
Without waiting for an
answer, he walked back to the car. As he drove away; part of me wondered how we
were going to get home. But then I remembered. As werewolves, we could run home
in minutes. I mentally face palmed myself for not remembering this. But a
second later, my attention was drawn toward something else.
The leopards were mewing
at the front door, trying to get their alpha back. With a gulp, I remembered we
hadn't told them about locking them in. Only the alpha knew. Eventually, one of
them walked over to us, shifted and finally, he hissed in anger.
"What the hell did
you do?" he roared.
For a second, we were
all silent. But Jenna walked forward to him.
"We had to lock
them in; it was the only way to protect ourselves and the rest of the
world"
"Protect yourselves
you mean" another leopard said from behind.
"That's not what
she meant" Stephen said with the volume of his voice raised.
"Lucas doesn't care
who he hurts, if we would have let him out of the church, he would have gone
into the town and revealed our existence to the world for the worse" Jenna
continued.
The leopard who had
spoken first blanched. He could see the logic in her words.
"But why did our
alpha get locked in as well?" said the other.
"He knew we
wouldn't make it if he didn't" Stephen said sadly.
"I promise we'll
get him back. But till then, you're more than welcome to be with us"
At Jenna's words, the
leopards were mostly calm. I could tell that they weren't exactly happy about
being with a pack of werewolves, but they were grateful for the hospitality. At
that point, the wereleopards decided to leave.
There
was a long silence among all of us. The last half an hour had left us both
physically and emotionally drained and who could blame us. I was just about to
suggest that we should leave when a loud crash echoed through the clearing. We
spun around to see Stephen in wolf form, he was transfixed with anger and
pounding his fists onto one of the church walls.
Doug rushed forward to try and pull him away but
with a single swipe of his paw, he was knocked to the floor.
“Doug!”
I yelled and ran over to my lover.
He looked up at me
unharmed, but he was definitely winded.
Fury rose within me and
I went toward him. He anticipated my approach and tried to do the same to me as
he had to Doug. I swerved out of the way and grabbed his wrist with all the
strength I could.
“Let
go of me you bastard!” Stephen roared.
I blanched. Although we
had shared differences of opinion sometimes, he had never been angry at me
directly before. But hurt as I felt, I wasn’t going to let it get to me.
“I’m sorry Ste, but she’s gone”
They were the last words I wanted to say, but they had to be
said. I did feel like a bastard for saying them, but they had to be said. He
growled at me, and if I hadn’t had got his arm, he would have bitten me for
sure.
I looked into his eyes, and they fixed onto mine. His growl
got quieter and quieter until it eventually disappeared. As soon as he did, he
fell to the floor and began to sob.
“I should have saved her. She didn’t deserve this” he
bawled.
Stroking his fur, my eyes began to leak but I was so focused
on keeping Stephen safe I didn’t notice. Everyone else in the clearing all
surrounded us one by one and after a while, he had stopped.
He got to his feet carefully.
“I
think we should go home” Jenna said, choking on her own blocked emotions.
We all nodded in
agreement. Zoe had taken our car so me, Doug and Shadow would have to walk. But
we didn’t mind considering the circumstances. But just as we were about to set
off, Jenna walked over to Doug.
“Would you mind coming with us? I think Stephen
needs the support” she asked him.
“Do you mind?” my boyfriend asked.
I shook my head and Shadow did the same.
“You be with your pack, they need you right now”
Doug gave me both of us an affectionate lick, but there was
a hint of a thank you mixed in with it. He walked over to the car with his
sister and got in the back alongside his grieving pack mate. As they drove
away, it occurred to me that there were another two seats in the car so we
could have had a lift.
“Do you think she did that on purpose?” Shadow
asked.
He had clearly thought
what I had done. After Campbell’s death she had given me a wide berth to say
the least. She was friendly enough, but there was something deeper than that.
My son placed his hand on my shoulder.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
Looking at him, I smiled. Today may have been full of misery
and regrets, but I could try to cheer us up at the very least.
“Last one back gets to wash Arc” I said and shifted whilst
starting to run.
Shadow realised what I had said a second after I had start moving.
“No
fair!” he said with a laugh.
He fell flat to the
ground and changed into his wolf form faster than he had ever done. But then
again, he had an incentive. Using our natural glamouring ability, we were able
to hide ourselves from view as we ran back home.
We may have had been in mourning and our very lives
had been endangered but at that moment, the world seemed to be nothing more
than a peaceful place. When we reached home, I howled in displeasure because
Shadow had beaten me. Taking human form, we went through the front door and
closed it carefully behind us. Sitting on the sofa, was Arc.
“How is she?” I said.
“She’ll be fine, she’s
just asleep. It was a massive spell, not even a sorcerer could have done
without a small after effect”
I could see his point.
But we both knew she’d pull through.
“There’s
some food left in the oven if you want it. I did something for Zoe in case she
woke up but it doesn’t seem like she will for a few hours”
Shaking my head, I
smiled.
“Appreciate the offer Arc, but to honest I just need some
sleep”
“Okay, well I’ll be
here if you need me”
“Thanks”
Walking over to the bedroom door, I noticed Shadow was
behind me.
“Do you mind if I stay with you a while Dad?” he asked.
He had never asked me this before, but given the events of
the day, I didn’t blame him for needing the company.
“Of course not” I answered
When we were both
through the bedroom door, I closed it and turned around to see that Shadow had
laid down on my bed. It wasn’t made but I didn’t care. A little thing like that
was the least of my concerns. Exhaustion had flooded him so quickly, he had
fallen asleep.
I
thought I would feel slightly awkward sleeping on the same bed as my son; I got
dressed quietly and lay down beside him. But to my surprise, I didn’t. I guess
now I was a werewolf, sleeping next to family was instinctual, if not
completely natural.
About
half an hour later, Doug came in and get onto the bed with us. He seemed just
as tired as we were. He got undressed as I had done and held me close with his
perfectly toned arms. Cuddling up to my wonderful boyfriend, I eventually fell
asleep.
Life
was far from perfect, but at that moment with Doug and Shadow, it felt like it
was.
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